Art-Based Family Genogram 

Click the image above to see a full view of this artwork. This is an artistic representation of my family genogram. Each family member is thoughtfully rendered to express parts of their personality. The dark family tree they all rest on is in shadow, two dimensional, and potentially fragile. I have depicted myself as the crow, who is known for his combination of seriousness and playfulness, a trickster as well as a harbinger of change, death, and opportunity. 

"Create an artistic representations of family genogram" is a directive that I will use often both with families and with individual clients who are interested in investigating ancestral trauma and patterns. The subconscious imagery that emerges will make for interesting discussions and self discovery. 

Co-occurrence of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorderand the Intersection of Transgender, Non-Binary and Gender Expansiveness 

Click the link above to read my research paper exploring AuDHD and the intersection of Gender Expansiveness. As I began to think about family work, I was reminded of the families that I met while working at the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) company where I was a behavior tech for children with autism. During and after working there, I began to  hear negative things about ABA therapy, and the research that I conducted for this paper led me to some startling realities about ABA and the negative impact it can have on autistic people. There are already so many societal barriers for disabled people living in a world that is not created for or adapted to them. Why should the primary therapeutic modality for neurodivergence be an attempt at changing their behaviors for the comfort of allistic people? Can allistic people not accept the neurological differences of AuDHD and learn to adapt to their behaviors instead? This paper explores this topic and touches on other strengths based modalities that could be employed, as well as investigating the intersection between AuDHD and gender expansiveness. As an art therapist who works with families and people who are part of families, I want to adapt a strengths based approach to working with AuDHD and other neurodivergent people.  

El Duende Process

Click on the painting above to see the series of paintings from this process. El Duende was the 10 week experiential project my class engaged in for the first half of internship. We were to work on the same canvas each week, spontaneously and intuitively adding to it as we reflected on our work with clients at our new internship sites. It was not until the last week that the raven emerged, the bird that I have often used to represent myself. Below is the work in clay that I created throughout the second half of my internship. I moved to a different medium that I was less familiar with in order to have more spontaneous creativity. The resulting masks are a reflection of my personal work that I have done unmasking in order to be a more authentic version of my self as a therapist and human. Additionally, the art reflects the masks that I see clients wear into session. As trust is built, the masks slowly lower, and then quickly return when difficult material arises. The masks are protector parts and coping tools, shields and barriers.