CATS 639
Interdisciplinary Topics: Cross-cultural Competence in the Creative Arts Therapies
Winter 2026 · Cross-cultural Competence in Creative Arts Therapies
Topics
- Multicultural counselling and creative arts therapies
- Cultural influences on clinical work
- Power, privilege and oppression
- Cultural comfort and anxiety
- Language in clinical practice
- Effects of oppression on mental health
- Cultural opportunities
- Microaggressions and cultural repair
- Disability language, ableism and neurodiversity
- LGBTQ and queer approaches
- Cultural humility and social-justice practice
Readings
- S. Hadley. Experiencing Race as a Music Therapist: Personal Narratives. Barcelona Publishers, 2015.
- Required, lesson 1 (music therapy): American Music Therapy Association. Professional Competencies, with attention to competencies related to culture. https://www.musictherapy.org/about/competencies/
- Required, lesson 1 (music therapy): Canadian Association of Music Therapists. Professional Competencies, with attention to competencies related to culture. The source links the April 9, 2012 interim standards of practice.
- Required, lesson 1 (art therapy): American Art Therapy Association. Art Therapy Multicultural Diversity Competencies, 2011. https://www.arttherapy.org/upload/multiculturalcompetencies2011.pdf
- Required, lesson 1 (drama therapy): North American Drama Therapy Association. Guidelines on Cultural Response/Ability in Training, Research, Practice, Supervision, Advocacy & Organizational Change.
- Required, lesson 2: G. Tuckwell. “Race and theoretical approaches to counselling and psychotherapy.” In Racial Identity, White Counsellors and Therapists, pp. 63–70. Open University Press, 2002.
- Required, lesson 3: M. Fors. A Grammar of Power in Psychotherapy: Exploring the Dynamics of Privilege, chapter 1. American Psychological Association, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000086-000
- Required, lesson 3: P. McIntosh. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Peace and Freedom, July/August 1989.
- Recommended, lesson 3: S. Hill. “Study shows that bias at work harms women of color and their ability to thrive.” Black Enterprise, 2018.
- Required, lesson 4: C. Babu. “Why I left my white therapist.” VICE, 2017. The outline citation is incomplete after the publication name.
- Required, lesson 5: G. W. Hyatt. “What’s in a word? The evolution of disability language.” SPARC BC News, 2005.
- Required, lesson 5: L. Powers. “Guest blogger Lia writes: Music therapy as an Autistic music therapist.” The Musical Autist, 12 August 2019.
- Required, lesson 5: L. Pellicano. “Watch your language when talking about autism.” The Conversation, 13 July 2015.
- Required video, lesson 5: Portico Network. Psychology and disability: Minimizing ableism in the counselling room, 24 April 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ_a4N1IekQ
- Required, lesson 5: A. Whitehead-Pleaux et al. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning: Best practices in music therapy.” Music Therapy Perspectives 30(2), 158–166, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1093/mtp/30.2.158
- Required, lesson 6: D. W. Sue and D. Sue. “Microaggressions in counseling and psychotherapy, The dynamics and dilemmas of microaggressions.” In Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, pp. 167–173. John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
- Required, lesson 7: C. L. Bain, P. R. Grzanka and B. Crowe. “Toward a queer music therapy: The implications of queer theory for radically inclusive music therapy.” The Arts in Psychotherapy 50(1), 22–33, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2016.03.004
- Required, lesson 7: O. P. Karcher. “Sociopolitical oppression, trauma, and healing: Moving toward a social justice art therapy framework.” Journal of the American Art Therapy Association 34(3), 123–128, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2017.1358024
- Required, lesson 7: J. N. Hook, D. Davis, J. Owen and C. DeBlaere. “Multicultural Orientation.” In Cultural Humility: Engaging Diverse Identities, pp. 30–39. American Psychological Association, 2017. Case Study 1 is specified.
- Background reference cited in the course introduction (not separately assigned): P. Pedersen. “The multicultural perspective as a fourth force in counseling.” Journal of Mental Health Counseling 12(1), 93–95, 1990.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- Syllabus or course outline ↗Winter 2026
- Winter 2026, section A. Readings are transcribed from the lesson-by-lesson required table, with its two explicitly recommended items kept separate. Named chapter readings are not presented as requirements to obtain an entire textbook. Bibliographic wording is preserved where the source is incomplete. Lesson 1 groups professional competencies by therapeutic discipline.