The Expressive Therapies Continuum as a Migratory Journey: A Classroom Experience Through the Lenses of a Teacher, a Special Educator, and Co-Art Therapists

This phenomenologically informed qualitative study gives voice to the experience of a teacher, a special educator, and co-art therapists in art therapy workshops given to first-generation immigrant adolescents in a welcome classroom in Quebec, Canada. This study uses a constructivist-interpretive paradigm, allowing the exploration of individual and interactional dynamics in artmaking. The objective was to explore the experiences and perceptions of a teacher, a special educator, and two art therapists who participated in art-based workshops in a welcome classroom for adolescents, and to understand the meaning these workshops hold for them as well as their perception of the meaning it holds for the young people. Grounded in the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), 17 first-generation immigrant adolescents, their teacher, the special educator, and two art therapists participated in nine art therapy workshops and an art exhibition to foster creativity, openness, and reciprocity. The adolescents had experienced trauma, including wars, violence, and separation, as well as uprooting, and acculturation in the host country. Given the limited research on school-based art therapy workshops in high schools, this study seeks to address that gap by examining how students in a welcome class emerge, unfold, and express themselves through the perspectives of the supporting adults. Reflexive thematic analyses revealed that the art workshops were an emancipatory experience, an existential path to crossing barriers, and a lived space for self-expression. These findings highlight the ETC's potential in helping immigrant adolescents and their classroom community share their stories and they emphasize art therapy's transcultural value.