A Little Less Alone: Surviving Sanism in Art Therapy. Issue 2 (2nd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ehlert, Roxie
• Is Part Of: Art therapy. Volume 37:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 99
• Page End: 101
• Publication Date: 2020-04-02
• Subjects: Sanism -- art therapy -- stigma -- anti-oppressive pedagogy -- disability; Art therapy -- Periodicals; Art Therapy -- Periodicals; 615.85156
• DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2020.1756139
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0742-1656

Abstract

Abstract: Sanism is the systematic oppression of people who have experiences often labeled as mental illness . The author, a psychiatrically disabled, queer art therapist, describes her direct experiences of stigma and sanism as a past art therapy student and current art therapy educator. The framework of disability justice, a creative and intersectional response to ableism and sanism, resists pathologizing, medical model approaches to disability and engages art as a means of change-making. Art therapy educators can use a disability justice framework to challenge sanism in the classroom and embrace anti-oppressive pedagogy as a means of dismantling oppressive cultural norms in art therapy.