Creating Wellness: The Power of Art Therapy

May is AAPI Heritage Month x Mental Health Awareness Month!

With rising rates of anti-Asian hate crimes, the emotional toll it has taken on our community, and the fact that AAPIs are still the least likely to seek mental health services+, the need for mental health & self care are more important than ever. The Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) invites you to a ConversAAtion with Megu Kitazawa, certified art therapist and editor of the recently published book, Asian Art Therapists: Navigating Art, Diversity, and Culture.

Kitazawa will lead us in a hands-on and informative workshop about the power of art therapy, the boundaries between artmaking and its therapeutic forms, common issues she has come across in her work treating the Asian American diaspora, and various art therapy techniques you can do at home, ranging from vision boards to experiential drawing.

We hope that you will be able to draw from this workshop to prioritize your own mental health and inspire you to view your own arts practice through a new lens.

This ConversAAtion will be interactive. Please bring pen/pencil, paper, or an ipad!

Please note: this workshop is educational and is not considered professional mental health advice. If you or a loved one is in need of immediate care, we recommend that you/they seek a one-on-one therapeutic relationship with a licensed professional outside of this workshop.

Much care will also be taken to ensure emotional safety. However, if you have a pre-existing mental health condition, you are choosing to participate at your own free will and assuming any undue emotional risk.

+Statistic from Mental Health America

Megu Kitazawa, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT is the editor of the book Asian Art Therapists: Navigating Art, Diversity, and Culture (2020). She worked in various NYC hospitals working with people with mental illnesses for 17 years and is a certified psychoanalytic psychotherapist from Object Relations Institute. Leaving behind her life in NYC, she moved to Berlin, Germany, in 2017 with her family. She currently provides online art therapy services, supervisions with ATR candidates, and group sessions with Asian Art Therapists worldwide.