Here are 3 ways you can start to decolonize your creative practice.

1. Make some trauma-informed art.
   

   We need to unlearn rules around making art that has been tying us down. Have you been feeling like your work is not enough? Are you censoring or policing your creativity and the process? As Yumi Sakugawa says, we need to ‘transmute shame to freedom’. Giving ourselves the permission to make ‘imperfect’ or what I would call, trauma-informed art, is core to trauma-healing from a world that gatekeeps what art should be.
   
   

2. Allow for creative accidents.
   

   Creative accidents are things that happen when we are working with art materials that lead to exploration in areas that you may have never thought you would explore.
   Being untrained artistically can actually be an advantage when working with images and intentions because having less training can sometimes mean you have less control over the art medium you are working with. Having less control means that there is more of a chance for something “other” to come through on the page.
   
   

3. Respect what you create.

   
   Our art carries so much life. Our art holds meanings and inner wisdom as well as curiosity, and carry emotions that may not be ready to be seen yet or ever. I hope you get to learn to enjoy and seek beauty in the process

Current thoughts as an art therapist.

Something art therapists see too often is when folks we work with are reluctant and avidly rejecting art making.

There are many ways the art therapy and mental health field gatekeep therapeutic art making as a 'modality'. This makes it harder to debunk the myth that 'art making is a luxury' and a skill that only certain folks who gone through clinical training can practice day to day.

As a newly registered art therapist, I am brainstorming ways to decolonize the field of art therapy. I've been so excited to see some art therapists publicizing art as therapy knowledge in the public eye.

For myself, my role is gravitated towards having conversations and collaborating with folks to make art around art-related trauma or experiences of invalidation around art, art therapy or therapy.

In my work, ‘making art’ doesn't have to be drawing or painting. I find many folks are more familiar and comfortable creating metaphors around their experiences.

I hope you get to heal and practice decolonizing within your creative practice too!

Abled-supremacy is real, and it’s right in front of our faces.

It’s been almost 3 wild years of this unprecedented change in our lives: for many, losses, feelings of isolation and difficulties in emotional/mental/physical health; changes in finances, career, and missing relationships of our loved ones around the world has been extremely painful. The way we relate with one another has become so different and at times, disorienting to our foundations. Abled-supremacy (ableism) is becoming so obvious with part of it being through the effects of the pandemic.

“A cornerstone of being disabled in an ableist world is isolation.“ - Mia Mingus

In August, I caught coronavirus. I am not immunocompromised, yet it took me nearly 2 months to feel like myself again- after losing hearing from my left ear from that duration of time. If you have experienced internalized ableism when being sick, you will know how unkind and unforgiving you can be towards yourself. You may experience washes of shame and rage that can only be ‘replaced’ if you were to coerce yourself to be ‘productive’: by overriding your body’s need to operate on rest to reach some sort of equilibrium.

When we don’t talk about ableism or wear our masks during an ongoing pandemic, we contribute to the erasure of our disabled kin and reject parts of us that aren’t within the ‘norm’.

Although I am someone who has been actively trying to wear my mask and carrying a hand sanitizer in my bag at all times, it has not been easy and many times discouraging when I want to advocate for others around me to do the same or when I’m questioned by others around me whether I am sick when I bring my mask along.

Ever since mandated masks and social distancing has been lifted, many of us returned to blatantly erasing and gaslighting the immunocompromised, sick and disabled community, away from existence. We have lost our way and abandoned our disabled kin.

We have been rejecting ‘disabled deaths for abled life’ and this is a direct commentary towards part of us we reject that aren’t within the norm.

”No institutions exist to help us survive—we survive because of each other” - Leah Lakshimi Piepzna, Samarasinha

I’ve been taking in the words of Mia Mingus, Leah Lakshimi Piepzna, Samarasinha and Talila Lewis and many more disabled justice-oriented activists who have been helping me find ways to create space and center in the wisdom of our SDQTBIPoC (Sick Disabled Queer Trans Black Indigenous People of Colour) community.


For the curious reader:

I hope you can recognize and call out your internalized ableist voice and challenge it.

I hope you get to find a community of folks who can acknowledge abled-supremacy, genuinely respect you including validating your experiences, and accepting all parts of you. Because collective healing and mutual aid can shift difficult and unbearable moments.

I hope you connect to parts of you that had been or has continuously been rejected and erased.

I hope you can be in solidarity and listen to our sick and disabled kin and be led by those who know the most about these systems and how they work - from leadership of those most impacted.

With warmth,

Linda

I often think about the similarities of interweaving in different activism work I am part of.

Below are some thoughts that I've been reflecting on in the world and lens of social justice, environmental justice, animal rights justice, that I adopt and aim to pursue collective liberation for us all:

Disclaimer: below are current self-reflections, learnings from activists and colleagues away from an institution (some days I wish I had to chance to learn from a program in undergrad and other times I’m honoured to learn at my own pace) to work towards transformative justice. FYI, there is no guarantee I will stay with these same ideas in the future: I may shift or grow out of these thoughts and ideas, which is all part of the process! I also don't expect you as the reader to agree with all that I write below. However if you resonate with any of these thoughts, that's awesome! :-)

Punishment and censorship from activism work is totally a thing.

“People get pleasure, validation, and even build community out of punishment.” - Mariame Kaba

I am practicing acknowledging that punishment can be ‘rewarded’ and at times even ‘pleasurable’ in our humanity. And as justice-practicing folks, we are not exempt from this humanness. When someone or something hurts us, we may also want to hurt them back. We are not perfect beings.

Perfectionism and activism don't work well together.

I have been unlearning the harmful effects of perfectionism the long and hard way through first dipping into 'white veganism' when I turned vegan half a decade ago. I was experiencing constant shame and guilt from this space: like judgements if you aren't vegan for the ‘right reasons’ etc. (don't even get me started!).

'Cancel culture’ in the social justice space is something I witness often too. Spending our precious efforts and time judging and hating on others can be exhausting and unsettling.

This work is a WIP. People are all in different stages and come from very different spaces. It usually takes group improvisation and nurturing, not isolating and cornering. If you are hoping to steer away from ‘cancel culture’, check out what transformative justice is all about.

Transformative justice gives us opportunity to “transform” through learning, growing, which can help us even in healing through discussions. I aim to sprinkle in transformative justice praxis in different spaces I enter. Join me if you're up for this challenge too!

Failures helps us grow! Failures provide movement!

It’s not always your role to educate those who aren't in the collective.

You don’t have to care about opinions from voices that are not in the collective. I experience exhaustion and insecurity around spaces dominated by white fragility, folks who shame and punish others for making mistakes and the like. Give yourself the permission to distance and disengage so you can spend your energy in spaces that make you feel empowered and sustained.

Deepa Iyer’s work on The Social Change Ecosystem Map helped me find that I don’t have to do and be everything; that I can take on roles for social change that sustains my energy while doing important, charged work.

Where does your passion lie?

My activism work is currently leaning towards healing justice work, connecting with folks who are hearing about these ideas for the first time (in their ‘awakening’ stage or contemplating on pursuing this kind of practice). I imagine adopting play, creativity, art into spaces I enter. I hope to create digestible content for those who are thinking of coming closer and maybe joining this community!

"Hope is a discipline” - Mariame Kaba

Hope in this context is not an emotion or something we hold onto. Hope is something we do. Hope sustains us in this work. Your role no matter how ‘small’ it seems is valuable. Instead of narrowing in on the dread of the current system and the state of the world, I am practicing on choosing to commit to something else that is possible.

Accountability in community.

There is deep yearning for a space that gets me and these values I care about. That provides me with a vision of where we can go. I have been reading and reaching to books, articles, podcasts by transformative justice advocates and learning from the roots, from BIPOC folks, from stories, from family, searching for communal care that have been passed down and ideas on liberation.

I am currently helping out on a really exciting project with a fellow therapist friend. ROJ will be an offering for justice-oriented practitioners (students, therapists, coaches, social workers, HR or DEI workers, SJ activists etc.) or those who are curious in adopting justice into their practice. If you are in need of an accountability community when pursuing collective liberation and would like to unlearn together, ROJ may be the community for you!

PS. I will be posting on @reflectingonjustice on IG, you are welcome to follow us if you are interested!

I don't know about you, but I've been searching and dreaming for a space like this for quite awhile now. I can’t wait to share the launch with you folks in the near future!

Healing and activism work is and will always be interwoven.

The symbiotic relationship of stories, emotions, feels that oscillate in and out of the humans we get the chance to witness and connect with. Collective healing and mutual aid can shift difficult and unbearable moments.

During my clinical practicum in grad school, I was working with folks who were concerned about their relationship towards their bodies and food. I started to research the compounding effects of diet culture, the history of fatphobia, how industries uphold this discriminatory practice - like how invasive it can be in healthcare - and all the intersections in between.

It can be exhausting healing from something that's been with you for so long.

Healing from disordered eating and body image issues requires stepping outside of the mainstream diet culture that tells us we need to be thinner, prettier, and perfect. It may take winding down similar roads, witnessing yourself straddle with diet culture-y behaviours that are both comforting and unsupportive.

Let’s get vulnerable and transparent. Because I also struggle with my body image, with food and self-esteem (it's been a love-hate relationship) so I really relate to folks I have been working with. I feel a sense of mission to advocate for inclusivity (aka real human care) in the healthcare field where Health at Every Size and intuitive eating is the BASELINE for respect when we are working within this area.

I see a huge gap in searching for a POC therapist working in this perspective. I also wish to find a HAES therapist who could understand and help me find a spot for care in my intersection of practicing intuitive eating, veganism and environmentalism after I made an ethical decision to adopt this lifestyle years ago. (the only account I have seen talking about this intersection is @greengirlleah - bless you!)

I believe there are MANY more intersections that folks like myself haven’t been able to find help and who don’t share this concern publicly— because of potentially receiving shame-infused reactions and assumptions.

Here are my favourite picks on books and podcasts that I recommend for anybody wanting to start reflecting on their own relationship with their body and food. I think that we all can use some more acceptance, compassion and embodiment in the body and the world we live in.

Books

1. Befriending Your Body written by Ann Saffi Biasetti

2. 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating written by Evenlyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

3. The Body is Not an Apology written by Sonya Renee Taylor

4. The Art of Body Acceptance written by Ashlee Bennett

5. Bodyfulness written by Christine Calwell

Podcasts

1. Food Psychology hosted by Christy Harrison

2. Body Kindness hosted by Rebecca Scritchfield

3. The Body Grievers Club by Bri

What other resources have you found helpful on your journey to body acceptance? Let us know in the comments below!

So there you go: my favourite resources I always go back to when I need it. Your relationship with your food and body will always be a journey and not a destination.

If you're ready to embark on this journey, we'd love to come along with you! Working with an anti-oppressive, HAES (health at every size) therapist can help you notice when you are self-policing, work through alongside you and these learnt behaviours of taking up less space. Maryam and I (Linda) from the team offers support, resources, and community for those healing from disordered eating and body image issues.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder or body image issues, please reach out for help. You are not alone. Help is available.