Queering our pedagogy: Advancing the training of creative arts therapists

Abstract

The curriculum design within creative arts therapy courses is often strongly linked to accreditation. Accountability for reference to marginalised and outsider populations can be pushed to one side in favour of a focus on knowledge of diseases and disorders; avoiding attention to the secondary problems that arise for people when the burden of disease of diagnosis of a disorder bring the additional challenge of having to live in a society that is designed for the able bodied. Similarly without attention to the challenges of outsider status in society which include greater burden of mental distress, and decreased quality of life, therapists in training are ill-prepared for the complexity of practice (Bain et al., 2016; Talwar, 2010). Queering the curriculum is one way to ensure students have access to information and self-reflection that allow them the readiness and openness to work with people from all walks of life; engaging through queer identity or the position of ally (Baines & Pereira, In press).