Text

The aim of this master's thesis is to examine, both theoretically and empirically, how art therapists can increase their intersectional sensitivity. The theoretical part discusses various aspects of a focus on social justice. Central conditions are discussed for improving the quality and accessibility of support services for users. These include art therapists developing a deep understanding of social power structures, reflecting on their own social positions and privileges, and exploring their own discriminatory tendencies as well as those found in art therapy knowledge and methods. The empirical part includes a quantitative study based on Krammer et al. (2024). A total of 144 art therapists (in training) in German-speaking countries took part in an online survey. In addition to sociodemographic data, the survey examined the extent to which privilege and discrimination are addressed as factors relevant to therapy in degree courses. The adapted Awareness of Privilege and Oppression Scale-2 was used to assess privilege awareness related to racism, classism, and heterosexism (Krammer et al., 2024). Linear regression, controlled for age, was used to examine whether people belonging to a marginalized group have a higher awareness of privilege. The results show that the topics are not addressed in the majority of degree courses. Only 34.7% of participants confirmed that discrimination was addressed, and significantly fewer said that privilege was addressed. A majority of 64.6% feel rather unprepared up to and including not at all prepared to deal with patients' experiences of discrimination. Awareness of privilege is statistically significantly higher among people who belong to a marginalized group (B = .397, ß = .263, 95%-CI: .160–.634, p = .001). The findings confirm those of the reference study (Krammer, T., Saase, S., Berth, H. & Kilian, C. (2024). Discrimination-Sensitive Psychotherapy: How High Is The Privilege Awareness Among Psychotherapists? Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, medizinische Psychologie, 74(3-04), 120–128. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2244-7468). The theoretical and empirical considerations lead to the conclusion that art therapy degree courses and further training need to focus more on social power relations and their influence on therapeutic processes.