Date of Award

Spring 5-19-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Expressive Therapies

Advisor

Elizabeth Kellogg

Abstract

This thesis was originally concerned with the use of expressive arts therapy with Latinx survivors of domestic violence. As the author carried out the review of literature, she began to encounter fundamental issues in the way that the Latinx community is approached in research. Instead of carrying out a traditional review of literature, the author approached the literature through three main questions: "Who is the research about?," "Who is the research by?,” and "Who is the research for?" Reductive generalizations, missing information, and disempowering assumptions were found. These problematic realities are presented as symptomatic of larger systemic issues, which the author connects to her experiences in formal education, as well as to relevant personal and professional experiences. The paper concludes by exhorting mental health counselors and expressive arts therapists to give up the idea of being apolitical because trauma work, especially with those experiencing compounded marginalization, is inherently political.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS
 

Rights

The author owns the copyright to this work.