Abstract
Still a melting pot, the United States continues to draw high rates of immigrants from around the world. Significant attention has been given to those entering via the southern border, many of whom are seeking asylum from various countries where their lives and families are at risk. In one social service agency in East Harlem, New York City, a single art therapist has built a thriving mental health program that serves primarily women and families from Latin American countries. These immigrant women face enormous obstacles, including but not limited to profound trauma histories, limited English language skills, lack of education, poverty, food insecurity, and sometimes a lack of ability to seek legal employment. What they also bring with them is fierce love for their children and families, perseverance, and enormous, if sometimes latent creativity. This chapter documents the process towards self-discovery and empowerment in which these women engage through art therapy.
TopBackground
The immigrant women who comprise the mental health services clientele in East Harlem have suffered extraordinary obstacles. In fact, just holding space for these women to identify their emotional state and share some of the stories that they carry is an overwhelming task; one that commands the therapist to have exceptional self-regulation, personal supports, good supervision, regular therapy, outlets and boundaries, and the ability to make space for burdens without carrying them. The stories of adversity, abuse that is both personal and systemic, and dehumanizing torture are unending.
These clients came to the United States under extremely adverse conditions, often forced from their homes, with limited resources and money. Many have endured family separation, personal and sexual violations, and vocational and financial exploitation both before and after arriving in their new country. Working with clients with extreme abuse histories is intense clinical work. This is a space that challenges even the most courageous and prepared clinicians. In this little agency in East Harlem there has been one consistent professional upholding the mental health services for over eight years. Clinicians come in eager to help and support an underserved, marginalized, devalued community; and in some cases, it is not so long before they start to see the toll it takes on them.
Providing mental health services to a traumatized, immigrant and indigenous population against the backdrop of growing hate speech in America, xenophobia, and extremist nationalist views means treating clients who are regularly degraded and re-traumatized in their daily life. Mental health treatment in this community means constantly vacillating between a state of acute care for mental health first aid and a more reflective post-traumatic stress recovery in psychotherapy. One of the best strategies for working with this population is the use of art therapy, a discipline that inherently cuts across language barriers and transcends embodied trauma, engaging the strength of creativity in helping to re-humanize the client.
Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, Inc. (LSA) is a community-based nonprofit organization, founded in East Harlem, Manhattan in 1958, with a mission to address a holistic model of human services consisting of the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual dimensions of family health. LSA continues to exercise these founding traditions, enhancing them with evidence-based practices derived from medicine, neuroscience, social science and education. LSA helps families meet their most fundamental needs of food, clothing, healthcare, and a safe home through home visits, on site services, support groups and classes. Vulnerable individuals receive the support, instruction, and clinical services needed to allow them to reach and maintain optimal health.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Immigration: Movement of a people or community from one country or territory to another; can happen for a wide variety of reasons including escape from poverty, oppression, and lack of opportunity.
Art Therapy: The use of creativity and artistic expression facilitated by a trained art therapist in the service of meeting health and wellness goals, including, but not limited to, increasing self-awareness, improving self-esteem, learning communication skills, practicing interpersonal strategies, building trust, coping with symptoms, and recovering from trauma.
Mental Health: The state of being that describes psychological wellness or illness within a person.
Healing: The process of improving individual functioning and recovering from one's wounds, whether physical, psychological, or emotional.