Presenter: Jamisen Paustian, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

This paper is a qualitative study highlighting neurodiverse lived experience as subjugated knowledge within art therapy and provides an example of a neurodivergent-informed, disability-affirming group program in a therapeutic day school. Historically, therapeutic praxis for neurodivergent people has been created by neurotypical or nondisabled clinicians and contextualized within the medical model of disability. Presently and historically, the knowledge, expertise, and lived experiences of neurodivergent or disabled art therapists are rarely integrated into the design of therapeutic programming, nor is the input of service recipients. This project is informed by disability studies, disability justice, neurodiversity studies, disabled therapist experiences, and identity-affirming care production. As a neurodivergent clinician-in-training, the author conducted research at her fieldwork placement, where she provided art therapy group programming with neurodivergent students for eight weeks in a therapeutic day school in Chicago. This research utilizes qualitative methods to collect narratives and document interactions between students and the researcher during art therapy group sessions. It analyzes the benefits of integrating student feedback and leadership in developing therapeutic approaches alongside the therapist as ‘co-creators’ of their care. Using existing knowledge, lived experience, and student collaboration, the author seeks to demonstrate how neurodivergent therapists can contribute to art therapy praxis.