QTBIPOC Art Therapy Group
Description
This group is an offering to the BIPOC Queer community, creating a place for healing centred around art making and connection.
Trauma and healing are often conceptualised as an individual experience, forgetting they are deeply collective too. Throughout all cultures and times, art making has been an integral part of life that nurtures the body, mind and spirit. Returning to this is where we find our ancestral power towards liberation and healing, for ourselves and each other.
Art therapy can be a profoundly transformative way to somatically express, release or realise the feelings our bodies hold.
Each week we will walk through a series of topics and emotions, building emotional skills towards more expansive and liberatory ways of being.
No formal art skills are required and a range of materials will be provided. Some weeks might be more guided than others but you are welcome to bring a project of your own to work on if you like.
NOTE:
All participants must be over 18y/o.
The venue unfortunately does not have an accessible bathroom at present. See the "access" tab at the following link for further information: https://www.pinkemberstudio.com/about
Participants will receive a confidentiality agreement to sign upon arrival.
General, anonymous notes will be kept. No identified notes will be retained.
All personal information is kept securely and will not be shared without consent.
Racism or derogatory behaviour of any kind will not be tolerated in this space.
This is not a crisis support group, however pathways for appropriate further support will be provided to the best of our ability to ensure your needs outside of the group can be met.
Don't hesitate to get in contact via instagram DM or email if you have any questions or concerns you'd like to talk through.
FAQs
- What is Art Therapy?
Art Therapy, in this case anti-oppressive, ancestral Art Therapy, is a healing and creative practice that recognises how personal and collective distress is shaped by histories of colonisation, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, ableism, and other systems of structural harm. Rather than locating “problems” within individuals, it understands hardships as relational, political, and intergenerational.
This approach centres ancestral knowledge, cultural memory, and embodied ways of knowing that have often been erased or marginalised by Western therapeutic models.
Art-making becomes a way to reconnect with lineage, land, language, spirituality, and community, while grieving losses caused by displacement, violence, and cultural suppression. Creativity is and has been treated as sacred, relational, and political—a form of resistance, remembrance, and reclamation.
Here, healing is understood as both personal and collective, and art is used to support the reclamation of dignity, agency, and belonging. At its core, art therapy is about returning to who we are and where we come from, while creating spaces for repair, imagination, and collective flourishing.
- Will I have to share my deep dark secrets?!
No. You will never be pressured to share anything you are not ready, willing, or comfortable to share.
In this group, your autonomy and consent come first. You get to decide what you share, how you share it, and when—or if—you share it. Some people express themselves mostly through art, some through words, some through silence, and all of these are valid forms of participation. There is no expectation to disclose “deep” or painful experiences in order to belong or to benefit.
Your boundaries are respected, your privacy is honoured, and your presence alone is enough. Healing here is about safety, choice, and collective care—no forced confessions!
- What if I'm "not creative"?
You do not need formal skills to participate here! All cultures throughout time and history have had their own creative practices as parts of day to day life. We are all inherently creative outside of capitalism!
You’re welcome to work with materials in messy, quiet, playful, or experimental ways. You can make marks, move colours around, collage, scribble, build, tear things up, or just sit with what’s offered. There is no “right” outcome and nothing to perform.
This is about process, presence, and connection—not producing something "good". Your way of creating is exactly what needed to happen, whatever it looks like.
- What if I'm not out?
If you're not out, maybe that's with your family or parts of your community, maybe entirely- you're welcome here!
Group members agree to keep the names and anything shared in the group confidential.
This still may feel risky and that's okay. You might prefer to reach out for one on one sessions with Ra or they can provide you with an appropriate referral.
There will be open groups for people of all orientations and cultural backgrounds coming up soon too.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
