Add your Insight

Without a doubt, the year 2020 was a challenging one as a once-in-a-generation pandemic spread across the globe. In addition to the public health concerns, COVID-19 exposed underlying deficiencies in healthcare, racial and socio-economic health disparities, political divisions, and environmental degradation. In the United States, these conflicts were exemplified by Black Lives Matter protests in response to police brutality, anti-Asian discrimination, and political discord surrounding the 2020 Presidential election. All of these expressions of hardship and suffering also brought forth examples of resilience and transformation as individuals and agencies adapted and found meaning in the current moment.

This special issue aims to recount how art therapists facilitated clients, program participants, and students to document, cope, and manage as a result of the 2020 health and/or racial-social-cultural contexts. We seek theoretical paradigms, case reports, research, and perspectives that indicate how individuals, groups, agencies, institutions, and communities have transformed due to health concerns, racial injustice, environmental challenges, political divisions, and other socio-cultural stressors. Some questions to consider include:

• How have art therapists, clients, educators, and students adapted their work to respond to health protocols, injustice, and other issues?
• How have clients used art therapy to share and make sense of their experiences of pandemic, injustice, political uncertainty, and other socio-cultural stressors?
• What is the role of creativity in supporting resilience and meaning making how can art therapy draw on these ideas?
• What are some lasting changes to art therapy theory and practice that may emerge as a result of the current circumstances?

Submissions should align with the aims and scope Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. Submissions must include a title page that indicates “Special Issue: 2020 Resilience” and marked “Special Issue” in the online submission process.

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