26isfam081 10.3205/26isfam081 urn:nbn:de:0183-26isfam0819 Meeting Abstract Luyo Avalo Luyo Avalo Marianne M

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

author Távara Távara Micaela M

Conectadas

author De Jesus Leon Morris De Jesus Leon Morris Franceska F

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Centro de Investigación Interdisciplinaria en Sexualidad, Sida y Sociedad

author Brisson Brisson Julien J

University of Toronto

author Silva-Santisteban Silva-Santisteban Alfonso A

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Centro de Investigación Interdisciplinaria en Sexualidad, Sida y Sociedad

author Perez-Brumer Perez-Brumer Amaya A

University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health

author German Medical Science GMS Publishing House

Düsseldorf

610 20260612 engl This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (Namensnennung). M0652 081 International Society for Arts and Medicine The Healing Arts – Forging Alliances of Arts & Medicine Presentation Abstracts Berlin 20260618 20260620 26isfam081 TextBackground: Peru hosts the second-largest population of Venezuelan migrants, many of whom face settlement and integration challenges, such as labor precarity and xenophobia. For some women, sex work is a crucial economic resource that can also heighten exploitation and violence. Moving beyond damage-centered approaches, this study centers community-developed counter narratives that affirm migrants sex workers’ agency, knowledge, and strength.Objective: To explore how migrant sex workers enact agency and autonomy during settlement, and to co-create counter narratives emphasizing the power of embodied knowledge.Methods: Between May and June 2025, ten migrant women sex workers participated in five creative laboratories (6 hours each), conducted in partnership with a community artists’ collective. Guided by Creative-Relational Inquiry and Victoria Santa Cruz’s theory of rhythm as an embodied organizer of experience, we employed community-driven, performance-based methods including play, theater-based prompts, writing, and group dialogue to facilitate embodied and collective meaning-making.Results: Participants described the laboratories as fostering interpersonal connection, emotional peace, love, and personal empowerment through rhythmic, embodied, and performance-based practices. Our approach emphasized play, experimentation, and collective decision-making, supporting relational attunement and shared meaning-making. Activities enabled participants to stage migration journeys from Venezuela to Peru, explore intersecting identities, collectively process trauma and stigma, and affirm sex work as legitimate labor.Conclusion: Community-developed counter narratives, led by women through arts-based, embodied inquiry, enabled the integration of mind and body in transforming migration experiences into shared meaning. Incorporating community-driven, arts-based approaches is critical for centering women’s knowledge, well-being, and agency in migration and health research. 0 0 0 0