While creating this adaptive, I was thinking of a young man I was working with last year who dealt with dyskinesia in his hands due to anti-psychotics. The tremors made his moderately adversed to making art or even writing, but it was something we worked on throughout our time together. The tremors were confined to his hands and wrists, so I wanted to try to create an apparatus attached to his forearms that he could use to paint.

Being able to grab on to the stick with a few fingers might steady the shaking. It wouldn’t give the same amount of control as life before the dyskinesia, but it could produce some more control than as is presently. Attaching a watercolor brush for fluid marking made sense to me, as the amount of control is already limited. I braided green vines, tied them with twine, and added a long stick to attach a brush to.

Part of the process in making this was being outside and finding natural materials. This may or may not be a good therapeutic part of this tool, but being outside and interacting with nature was beneficial with him. This reminded me of some of Bruce Moon’s processes, where the client first learned how to build, stretch, and prepare a canvas before painting on it. Finding appropriate vines or sticks, and connecting them, themselves or with assistance, could build confidence and pride in this tool before even using it.

The public issue I worked with wasn’t about social justice or systemic racial inequity or navigating a difficult piece of the mental healthcare system, but I feel it is connected to those issues by way of culture assumptions and White privilege. The issue I chose to create a zine around was the culture of dog owning in the United States. Dog ownership in the States seems to come with a set of social assumptions that ignore traumatic experiences others may have had. The culture of dog ownership in the States also tends to ignore non-White cultures’ prevalent ideas about dogs, and perhaps pets in general. Although this was a less direct issue surrounding social justice and advocacy, there was a lot of trepidation for the sole fact that many White people care about advocating for dogs far more than they care about advocating for people who do not present or look like themselves.

When creatively advocating for dog trauma survivors like this, it is both an accessible cause—even if one doesn’t know anyone outside of their culture, they definitely know someone with a dog—and it’s an issue that is taken for granted within the culture, so it challenges people to examine long engrained beliefs. Another strategic reason that I chose this issue, is that it shows someone can love something, like dogs, family, or certain occupations, and still bring a critical eye to something society does not shine a light on. This is similar in many form of achieving social justice, and there are many ways to be an activist and to take a public stance.

Unconscious uses of microaggressions can lead to increased levels of anger, mistrust, and a loss of self-esteem among victims of it. Furthermore it prevents White people from perceiving different racial realities and creates roadblocks to more harmonious race relations and a more positive view of psychotherapy in communities of color.

In the field of therapy, being held accountable (personally and socially) is necessary to hold an open and empathetic mindset when working with clients who are racial, culturally, sexually, or religiously different than the therapist. Beyond this, when ourselves or our peers are not challenged when microaggressions come up, it is detrimental to the entire field. It is no secret or wonder that less Black and Hispanic people do not seek therapy; there are standing cultural and societal reasons for this, but what I hear more often is the experience of an insensitive therapist who was not aware of their microaggressions.

I’ve worked personally with years of Multicultural Perspective classes, but more importantly, fostering awareness when beliefs around a certain ethnic or religious group come up in anyway during session. Holding my intention on them, instead of any thoughts or feelings that come up for me has been partially helpful. After a session when I notice any microaggressive thought come up, I will go through a dialectical process (Byron Katie’s “The Work”) and investigate my beliefs. This has helped expand my self-awareness as well as my focus during session.