PHOTOVOICE AS A RESILIENCE TOOL FOR HELPING PROFESSIONALS IN COMPLEX TRAUMA WORK

Helping professionals (HPs) working with complex trauma operate in emotionally demanding environments that place them at increased risk of burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue. Resilience has therefore been identified as an important resource for sustaining well-being and effective practice. While photovoice has shown potential as a participatory approach for fostering resilience across diverse populations, its application among HPs engaged in complex trauma work, particularly within Asian contexts, remains limited. This study examined how seven HPs engaged in complex trauma work from a single organization in Singapore experienced and perceived photovoice as a resilience-building tool. The study employed a qualitative design incorporating an art-based research component through photovoice, alongside a complementary quantitative component. Guided by participatory research principles, the photovoice process included photo-taking, reflective writing, focus group discussion, and individual interviews. Qualitative data explored participants’ engagement with photovoice and their understandings of resilience, while descriptive data from the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale were used to triangulate findings and provide an additional interpretive lens. Findings suggested that photovoice supported reflexivity, relational connection, and slowed pacing within demanding work environments. Participants described increased awareness of personal meaning, everyday sources of resilience, supportive relationships, and moments of gratitude embedded in professional contexts. Engagement with the process varied, and participants identified practical and contextual constraints that shaped their experiences. Overall, photovoice appeared to function as a process-oriented method that facilitated reflexive exploration of resilience for the participants in this study, while drawing attention to the influence of individual readiness and organizational conditions on engagement

Mindfulness and Psychedelics: Rethinking the Fifth Precept

The fields of psychedelics and mindfulness have a long history of cross-pollination in the United States that dates to the counterculture movement in the 1960s. As the use of these mind-altering compounds in therapeutic and spiritual contexts has become less stigmatized and more popular in recent years, psychedelic retreats and therapies are once again drawing people who also value contemplative practices. This paper explores the historic and contemporary tension people with overlapping interests in mindfulness and psychedelics have faced as they interpreted the Fifth Precept, the Buddhist guideline that advises people to abstain from intoxicants. Taking stock of the history of the history of these fields and recent research, it argues that mindfulness and psychedelics can not only be compatible but complementary, if they are used with clear intention and adequate safeguards. The paper sets the stage for a podcast that features six interviews with experts who had a range of views about the interplay of mindfulness and mind-altering substances

Conceptualizing Professional Identity Development in Art Therapy Supervision with Post-graduate Art Therapists Who Are Pre-licensed

This study explored how art therapy supervisors conceptualize professional identity development (PID) in supervision with postgraduate art therapists who were pre-licensed. There was limited empirical research on how art therapy supervisors understood and support PID within art therapy supervision, particularly during the transitional period between graduate training and professional licensure. This study addressed the research question: How do art therapy supervisors conceptualize PID in supervision with postgraduate art therapists who are pre-licensed? Fourteen art therapy supervisors participated in the study (86% female; 14% non-binary), ranging in age from 25 to over 65 years old. All participants identified their race or ethnicity as White. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using classical grounded theory. Four primary themes emerged: building self-awareness as a process of change, fostering confidence as a process of change, promoting arts-based practices as a process of change, and processes supporting long-term art therapy PID. Professional identity development is conceptualized as a dynamic ongoing process of change in which supervisees actively engage in an emerging sense of professional self-awareness and cultivate confidence through arts-based practices. The sustainability of the art therapist identity is further supported through strengthened supervision, attention to wellness and well-being, continued arts-based engagement, and ongoing professional development. Together, these processes of change support the integration of the whole self into a coherent and evolving art therapist identity. Implications and future directions highlight the need for clearer conceptual frameworks for PID in art therapy supervision and inform supervisory practices, training programs, and future research

Unveiling Embodied White Supremacy: Therapists’ Experiences and Its Imprint on Therapeutic Relationships in Dance/Movement Therapy

This qualitative, arts-informed research study explored how White-identifying dance/movement therapists experience and articulate their awareness of embodied White supremacy within therapeutic relationships. Grounded in critical race theory, relational-cultural theory, and embodied critical transformation theory, the study addressed a gap in dance/movement therapy literature concerning how White supremacy is not only cognitively understood, but also somatically felt, relationally enacted, and professionally navigated. The purpose of the study was to understand how White-identifying dance/movement therapists perceive, kinesthetically experience, and make meaning of embodied White supremacy in therapeutic practice, and to explore how these embodied experiences influence therapeutic presence, attunement, and the potential for growth-fostering relationships. Using Sensory Creative Inquiry, an arts-informed qualitative method developed for this research, four White-identifying dance/movement therapists participated in a multi-phase process. Reflexive Thematic Analysis guided the analytic process. Five themes were generated through this analysis: (1) Recognition of Embodied White Supremacy, (2) Internal Conflict and Emotional Responses to Engaging with Embodied White Supremacy, (3) Relational Reorientation in Professional and Interpersonal Contexts, (4) Metaphorical and Visual Representation of Embodied Experience, and (5) Emergent Pathways Toward Change and Action. Findings suggested that embodied White supremacy was experienced as relational, emotional, institutional, and somatic, often expressed through tension, constriction, vigilance, fragmentation, and discomfort, while also prompting accountability, relational awareness, and movement toward change. This study contributes to dance/movement therapy scholarship by making visible the embodied and relational dimensions of White supremacy in clinical practice and by offering an arts-informed approach to critical inquiry, reflection, and transformation

Feasibility of Staff Training in Facilitating Affirmative Moving with Unhoused LGBTQ+ Individuals

Homelessness-service environments require non-clinical frontline staff to manage frequent crises and provide relational support to sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals with extensive trauma and minority stress histories. However, staff training often prioritizes didactic knowledge over embodied skills that support emotional regulation, attunement, and identity-affirming engagement. Grounded in trauma-informed care, minority stress theory, and somatic learning, this mixed-methods study examined the feasibility and preliminary patterns of change associated with an embodied staff training designed to prepare non-clinical workers to facilitate Affirmative Moving (AM), a brief movement-based, LGBTQ+-affirming support group model. The study was conducted between July and September 2025 at community-based organizations in Los Angeles, California. Seven non-clinical staff completed three 3-hour training sessions and facilitated three AM groups with 15 SGM adults experiencing current or prior homelessness. Quantitative data included pre–post assessments using the Brief Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness–2 and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Short Form. Qualitative data were collected through a post-intervention staff focus group. Results indicated significant increases in staff interoceptive awareness and worry about bodily sensations, alongside increased perceived difficulties in emotion regulation, suggesting heightened emotional awareness with perceived regulatory demands during early embodied learning. Client quantitative outcomes showed minimal change over the brief intervention period. Qualitative findings supported feasibility, highlighting practical training content, growing facilitator competence through experiential learning, and structural implementation challenges. Overall, findings suggest that AM is a feasible and contextually relevant training model that may support embodied awareness, emotional attunement, and identity-affirming relational practice among frontline staff

The Role Music Plays in Facilitating Transformation and Self-Actualization in Israeli Music Students Impacted by Trauma

Abstract This qualitative study explores the role music plays in facilitating transformation and self-actualization among Israeli undergraduate and alumni music students who have experienced trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder. Guided by social constructivist and humanistic-existential frameworks, this research employs a narrative methodology to examine how music operates as a medium for meaning-making, resilience, and growth in non-clinical contexts. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observations, and the analysis of musical compositions and artifacts from two singer-songwriters who transformed personal adversity into creative expression. The findings reveal that although trauma leaves lasting psychological and emotional effects, engagement with music enables individuals to reinterpret their experiences, reconstruct identity, and achieve self-actualization. A key theme that emerged includes music as a connector and catalyst for transformation. The study contributes to the existing body of literature on post-traumatic growth by emphasizing music’s transformative power beyond therapeutic or clinical settings. It also underscores the significance of integrating music and the arts within educational and communal frameworks to promote resilience, self-awareness, and emotional well-being, particularly within the sociocultural context of Israel, a nation experiencing and coping with trauma in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre and the ensuing war

Assessing Mindfulness-Based Practices Applications for Use with Incest Survivors with PTSD and CPTSD

Abstract Mindfulness-Based Practices (MBPs) have shown how adverse effects respond in treating symptoms of complex PTSD (CPTSD). There is a lack of research on the impact of (MBPs) upon survivors of incest, a population with an elevated risk of re-traumatization. Professionals must approach MBPs within a multi-modal, trauma-sensitive framework, through psychoeducation, establishment of safety and trust, awareness of Mindfulness-Related Adverse Effects (MRAEs), and developing ways to foster healing. Through a literature review and the current creative project, professionals can use the proposed tool chest to manage MRAEs when treating survivors with CPTSD symptoms. Survivors learn to self-regulate in the face of adverse conditions, which requires finding strength and resilience within MBPs and motivation to heal childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The hope is that, with increased resources, professionals can learn to implement MBP therapeutic interventions in a trauma-informed way, helping survivors become active participants in their own healing by developing clarity, wisdom, and a mind-body connection. More research is needed to understand the neurological effects of CPTSD and trauma in incest survivors, further increasing the advantage of MBPs on this underserved population. Through MBP and daily meditation, one may experience a shift in how one relates to oneself and others

Thoughts From the Pit: Can Raving Change the World? A Literature Review Exploring Rave Culture as Expressive Arts Healing

This literature review examines the structural and philosophical commonalities between expressive arts therapy (EXA) and rave culture. Drawing on scholarship from anthropology, cultural studies, health sciences, transpersonal psychology, neuroscience, and expressive arts therapy, this review identifies five core principles shared between the two fields: transformational experiences, multimodality, entrainment and flow, containment and ritual, and community and social action values. Across each principle, the literature reveals not surface-level similarity but deep convergence — two fields that have, independently and through different lineages, arrived at the same understanding of what human beings need in order to heal, grow, and connect. To the author\u27s knowledge, no prior academic literature has brought these two worlds into conversation, and this review argues that the absence of that dialogue reflects a broader tendency within Western therapeutic discourse to render some community-born healing spaces invisible. The implications for EXA clinical practice are clear: recognizing the rave as a legitimate site of transformational experience is not a departure from EXA\u27s values but a natural extension of its existing decolonial commitments. This review concludes by calling for future research that is participatory, embodied, and developed in genuine collaboration with rave communities themselves

Sociolooking: A Theory of Looking Together and Choreographing Looking Experiences

Abstract This dissertation addresses gaps in understandings of looking in research and practice by creating and defining sociolooking. Sociolooking is a theory of looking together and choreographing looking experiences. Researchers, educators, and practitioners across many fields value close looking and have offered step-by-step strategies for facilitating looking. While these strategies and related research are instrumental in understanding discrete aspects of looking and learning to look, they do not fully acknowledge or explore the underlying social and dynamic ways people engage in looking in everyday situations. This leads to the creation of one-dimensional, potentially inaccessible, or ineffective experiences. On the contrary, sociolooking offers a holistic framework to understand and practice looking together. Sociolooking posits that looking is interconnected with our human social way of being, our inherent desire to connect, to share, and to learn with and from one another, and that individuals actively engage in looking with others, consciously and subconsciously. To conceptualize sociolooking, the researcher developed an integrated dynamic research approach and adopted writing as a method of inquiry. The researcher brought together insights from published literature in multiple fields to identify building blocks of sociolooking and describe how the interplay of these building blocks shapes sociolooking experiences. The researcher then examined sociolooking in real life situations to demonstrate and further refine the theory of sociolooking in an iterative exploratory process. This process yielded the central finding of this dissertation, the natural patterns of sociolooking, which explain how individuals interact with each other, objects, and their physical surroundings on their own accord and, often, unconsciously. Drawing from the natural patterns, the researcher proposed a set of guiding principles for practitioners to embrace the whole experience of sociolooking and to adopt the fluidity of choreography rather than the rigid and product-focused nature of planning and design. This dissertation offers new ways of looking at looking by embracing what individuals intuitively know and do, paying attention to the real-time interactions associated with looking and other factors that shape looking together, and offering a family of terms that conveys how we should conceive, research, and apply looking and looking together

Improving the Well-Being of Mothers of Infants and Toddlers through Mindfulness and Creativity

U.S. mothers of infants and toddlers report experiencing feelings of confusion surrounding their identity in early motherhood. Research also shows emotion dysregulation, cognitive overwhelm, attention issues, high stress and isolation as common challenges mothers of toddlers and infants experience in their daily lives. These challenges can directly impact a mother’s well-being as well as her child’s well-being and the entire family unit. Mindfulness practice and creative expression are two ways of being that relate directly to each other and have been shown to improve well-being. Through repeated exercising of mindfulness and creativity, one can regulate their emotions and reduce stress while cultivating presence, compassion, a sense of purpose and feelings of connection. This thesis proposes a novel collection of tools for weaving mindfulness and creativity practices into the fabric of the daily lives of mothers of infants and toddlers to improve their well-being. The creative project is a self-help style book titled Unfold: A path to thriving in early motherhood through mindfulness and creativity, which incorporates anecdotal examples of mindfulness and creativity integrated into early motherhood as well as practices, meditations and other tools for mothers of infants and toddlers to integrate mindfulness and creativity into their daily lives