Queer Visibility and Shared Authenticity

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores the need for conceptualizing radical approaches to self-disclosure on the part of creative arts therapists working within the LGBTQIA+ community. A literature review explores current practices and theories on self-disclosure from the creative arts therapies literature and related psychotherapeutic disciplines. We address the historical precedents that define self-disclosure as destructive to the therapeutic relationship and question the current contemporary positions against therapist self-disclosure that uphold these historical views within the creative arts therapies. Through autoethnography, we share personal and professional representations of how we experience therapist self-disclosure in our respective lives and work, with a particular focus on therapeutic spaces for queer-identified youth. Broadening the definition of therapist self-disclosure to recognize that it is ever-present, we propose a framework of shared authenticity as a form of therapist self-disclosure that holds space for marginalized service users, embraces intersectionality, reduces harm, and offers the opportunity for meaningful alliance-building. We name freedom of authenticity and queer visibility as potent political acts for both service providers and service users, and moreover, as vital tools for queer liberation.

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