Date of Award
Spring 5-1-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA - Master of Arts
Department
Expressive Therapies
Advisor
Dr. Elizabeth Kellogg
Abstract
Counseling psychology and the expressive therapies are majority-white, majority-female professions, and whiteness is the unnamed, normative center of expressive therapies and drama therapy education. As a middle-class white woman, I posit that by failing to examine this center we risk perpetuating the same systems that exacerbate our own and our clients' suffering. I review the available literature and investigate the socio-historical, cultural, and political significance of whiteness and the historical role of white women in maintaining oppressive systems. I then explore the identity reconstruction process for white people seeking to divest from whiteness, specifically looking at the key emotions of guilt and shame. I review how whiteness asserts itself in therapeutic encounters and discuss the need for further research. Finally, I advocate for increased support for therapists-in-training taking on this process.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Reed, Kelly J., "Middle-Class / White / Woman: The Unexamined Center in Expressive Therapies Education" (2018). Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses. 38.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/38
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