Source: © 2107 Collection of Cathy Malchiodi, PhD

By temperament and my family heritage, I have certainly been a disruptor of sorts. Raised in a union family, I learned the values of disruption by watching my father create change in the local United Steelworkers, going on strike when necessary so that others could get fair wages and benefits. So it comes as no surprise to my colleagues that I am often a disruptor when it comes to vocalizing and acting on my beliefs about the course my professional field takes, including the quality of research, publications, , and collegiality.

When it is effective, itself as an approach is also an act of disruption; in some ways it will inevitably disrupt the individual in treatment within the window of tolerance and projected psychotherapeutic . Sometimes the therapist challenges clients to take risks in self-expression in service of exploring the “hard stuff” that may not be possible with words for various reasons. And various forms of can help individuals anchor themselves when dysregulation or hyperactivation takes hold of the body’s response to or . Additionally, it has the potential to energize clients whose or create a tailspin into hypo-arousal and freeze responses. All art-based strategies should, in fact, be specifically designed and directed to strengthen individual functioning by disrupting “what is getting in the way” of quality of life and moving the client toward wellness and experiences of wholeness.

But today I am also thinking about art therapists as socially active disruptors during this particularly challenging, politically-charged time period that often recapitulates the lyrics of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” on a daily basis. Since January 2017, I am proud to have been and continue to be a part of the activism and human rights advocacy of a prosocial, intersectional, and visionary group, Art Therapists for Human Rights (AT4HR). The group emerged via social media when many of us felt a collective unease with not only the of the White House, but also our own national art organization.

Last February, I explained how the profession of art therapy gained a national spotlight from an unlikely source—a member of the current White House Administration Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence. According to her White House webpage at the time, Mrs. Pence hoped to “bring to issues facing children and families by shining a spotlight on the mental health profession of art therapy” via her very visible national role. She unveiled her art therapy initiative called “Healing with HeART” to an invited audience on October 18, 2017 at Florida State University, much to the surprise of the U.S. art therapy community. In brief, for many art therapists, these developments not only brought up questions about how Mrs. Pence came to become a national spokesperson for an entire professional field, but a good deal about the of such an association with a specific mental health profession.

It seems, however, that AT4HR and other groups of art therapists/activists may have managed to “disrupt” an alliance between our national organization and a member of the current White House Administration. In fact, the last official online sighting of the Pence art therapy initiative in the US took place three months ago, noted on Whitehouse.gov [https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/visit-upstate-golisano-childrens-hospital-syracuse-new-york/]. So I will also ask this question: Where is Karen Pence’s Healing with HeART these days? While it is impossible to accurately assess the impact that AT4HR or other groups have had in disrupting the perceived hijacking of the art therapy profession by a member of the White House, it is possible that collective efforts have had some effect on redirecting the narrative, at least for the moment.

To my art therapy colleagues throughout the world and especially the core team at AT4HR, I am to you for inviting me into this journey over the past two years. It has brought about only good things in my opinion. It certainly has caused me to reflect on the role of disruption in my psychotherapeutic work and how it may even be an important strategy in manifesting health-driven change in clients. But most of all, witnessing how art therapists can respectfully and ethically use peaceful, collective disruption with the context of social activism and human rights…well, that has given me a whole lot of hope.