Polyphonic bricolage and cultural humility: A framework for reimagining art therapy practice in the Afro-Caribbean context
Main Article Content
Keywords
Polyphonic bricolage, art therapy, Afro-Caribbean, cultural humility, cultural sensitivity, culturally responsive practice, therapeutic alliance
Abstract
This article proposes polyphonic bricolage, a concept introduced by Schmidt (2006), that embraces the dynamic blending of diverse cultural influences as a tool for addressing the psychosocial needs of Afro-Caribbean clients in art therapy. Eurocentric art therapy models often fail to account for the cultural complexities of these communities, resulting in marginalisation and inequitable practices. Polyphonic bricolage offers a lens for understanding the shifting cultural identities of Afro-Caribbean clients, emphasising their fluidity, agency, and identity formation. When integrated with cultural humility, it highlights the art therapist’s role in fostering therapeutic alliances and ensuring equitable practice. By cultivating self-reflexivity and flexibility, art therapists can recognise biases and create spaces that honour clients’ lived experiences. This integrated framework encourages culturally responsive interventions that build trust, empower clients, and lead to meaningful therapeutic outcomes. A brief supervision vignette demonstrates how a lack of cultural understanding can cause harm and illustrates the importance of culturally attuned practice. Ultimately, combining polyphonic bricolage with cultural humility provides a pathway for art therapists to engage Afro-Caribbean communities in a more responsive, fair, and empowering way.
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References
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Kapitan, L. (2023). Transforming power through cultural humility in the intercultural contact zone of art therapy. Art Therapy, 40(2), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2022.2131355
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Moodley, R., & West, W. (2005). Integrating traditional healing practices into counseling and psychotherapy. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452231648
Nakhid-Chatoor, M. (2022). Cultural affirmation through meaning reconstruction of rituals and practices within the Caribbean. In C. Nakhid, M. Nakhid-Chatoor, A. Fernández Santana, & S. Wilson-Scott (Eds.), Affirming methodologies: Research and education in the Caribbean. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003196969
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Nettleford, R. (2000). The Caribbean artist’s presence and education for the third millennium. Caribbean Quarterly, 46(3), 82-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/00086495.2000.11672126
Nettleford, R. (2004). Migration, transmission and maintenance of intangible heritage. Museum International, 56(1–2), 78–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1350-0775.2004.00460.x
Nicolas, G., & Wheatley, A. (2013). Historical and socio-political perspectives on mental health in the Caribbean region. Revista Interamericana de Psicología, 47(2), 167–176. https://doi.org/10.30849/rip/ijp.v47i2.212
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Campinha-Bacote, J. (2002). The process of cultural competence in the delivery of healthcare services: A model of care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 181–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/10459602013003003
Chilisa, B. (2020). Indigenous research methodologies (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Crawford-Brown, C. (1999). Who will save our children? The plight of the Jamaican child in the 1990s. Canoe Press.
Donald, K. (2025). Where healing meets method: Community art therapy in the Caribbean. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 24. 1-9 https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069251350313
Donald, K., & Brock, L. (2023). Caribbean family resilience: A mixed methods arts-informed research. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 15(1), 2–23. https://doi.org/10.29034/ijmra.v15n1a1
Donald, K., Durrant, L., South, S., & Holmes, T. (2024). Multigenerational resilience and self-esteem among Caribbean families. The Family Journal, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/10664807241257484
Fadiman, A. (2012). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.32047617.53
Falicov, C. J. (2003). Culture, society, and gender in depression. Journal of Family Therapy, 25(4), 371–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6427.00256
Farmer, P. (2004). Sidney W. Mintz Lecture for 2001: An anthropology of structural violence. Current Anthropology, 45(3), 305–325. https://doi.org/10.1086/382250
Fletchman-Smith, B. (2011). Transcending the legacies of slavery: A psychoanalytic view. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429484193
Forde, M. (2022). Afro-Atlantic healing practices. In P. E. Klassen, D. Lüddeckens, & P. Hetmanczyk (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of religion, medicine, and health (pp. 13-26). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315207964
Foronda, C. (2020). A theory of cultural humility. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 31(1), 7–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659619875184
Foronda, C., Baptiste, D. L., Reinholdt, M. M., & Ousman, K. (2016). Cultural humility: A concept analysis. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 27(3), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659615592677
Gallimore, J.-B., Gonzalez Diaz, K., Gunasinghe, C., Thornicroft, G., Taylor Salisbury, T., & Gronholm, P. C. (2023). Impact of mental health stigma on help-seeking in the Caribbean: Systematic review. PLoS One, 18(9), e0291307. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291307
Glazier, S. D. (1985). Syncretism and separation: Ritual change in an Afro-Caribbean faith. The Journal of American Folklore, 98(387), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/540876
Greene-Moton, E., & Minkler, M. (2020). Cultural competence or cultural humility? Moving beyond the debate. Health Promotion Practice, 21(1), 142–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839919884912
Hocoy, D. (2002). Cross-cultural issues in art therapy. Art Therapy, 19(4), 141–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2002.10129683
Hope, M. O., Taggart, T., Galbraith-Gyan, K. V., & Nyhan, K. (2020). Black Caribbean emerging adults: A systematic review of religion and health. Journal of Religion and Health, 59(1), 431–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00932-5
Hickling, F. W., & Hutchinson, G. (1999). Roast breadfruit psychosis: Disturbed racial identification in African-Caribbeans. Psychiatric Bulletin, 23, 132-134. https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.23.3.132
Jackson, L., & Tervalon, M. (2020). Cultural humility in art therapy: Applications for practice, research, social justice, self-care, and pedagogy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Kaimal, G., & Arslanbek, A. (2020). Indigenous and traditional visual artistic practices: Implications for art therapy clinical practice and research. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 540968. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01320
Kapitan, L. (2023). Transforming power through cultural humility in the intercultural contact zone of art therapy. Art Therapy, 40(2), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2022.2131355
Kleinman, A., & Benson, P. (2006). Anthropology in the clinic: The problem of cultural competency and how to fix it. PLoS Medicine, 3(10), 1673–1676. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030294
McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., & Petry, S. S. (2008). Genograms: Assessment and intervention (3rd ed.). W.W. Norton & Co.
McLean, C., Campbell, C., & Cornish, F. (2003). African-Caribbean interactions with mental health services in the UK: Experiences and expectations of exclusion as (re)productive of health inequalities. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 56(3), 657–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(02)00063-1
McNeal, K. E. (2011). Trance and modernity in the southern Caribbean: African and Hindu popular religions in Trinidad and Tobago. University Press of Florida. https://doi.org/10.5744/florida/9780813037363.001.0001
Metzl, J. M., & Hansen, H. (2014). Structural competency: Theorizing a new medical engagement with stigma and inequality. Social Science & Medicine, 103, 126–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.06.032
Meyer, A. (2025). Faith, rituals, and the preservation of cultural heritage in Tobago. Caribbean Studies, 53(1), 163–187. https://doi.org/10.1353/crb.2025.a968415
Moodley, R., & West, W. (2005). Integrating traditional healing practices into counseling and psychotherapy. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452231648
Nakhid-Chatoor, M. (2022). Cultural affirmation through meaning reconstruction of rituals and practices within the Caribbean. In C. Nakhid, M. Nakhid-Chatoor, A. Fernández Santana, & S. Wilson-Scott (Eds.), Affirming methodologies: Research and education in the Caribbean. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003196969
Napoli, M. (2019). Ethical contemporary art therapy: Honouring an American Indian perspective. Art Therapy, 36(4), 175–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2019.1648916
Nettleford, R. (2000). The Caribbean artist’s presence and education for the third millennium. Caribbean Quarterly, 46(3), 82-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/00086495.2000.11672126
Nettleford, R. (2004). Migration, transmission and maintenance of intangible heritage. Museum International, 56(1–2), 78–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1350-0775.2004.00460.x
Nicolas, G., & Wheatley, A. (2013). Historical and socio-political perspectives on mental health in the Caribbean region. Revista Interamericana de Psicología, 47(2), 167–176. https://doi.org/10.30849/rip/ijp.v47i2.212
Noel, M. (2017, December 27). Jamaica’s ‘barrel children’ often come up empty with a parent abroad: A look into the complexities of parental migration from the Caribbean, ‘barrel children’ and the affect separation can have on children throughout their lives. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/jamaica-s-barrel-children-often-come-empty-parent-abroad-n830636
Olmos, M. F., & Paravisini-Gebert, L. (2001). Healing cultures: Art and religion as curative practices in the Caribbean and its diaspora. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-07647-2
Oluwapelumi, A. A. (2022). Quest for identity and cultural reclamation and realignment in Earl Lovelace’s oeuvre. International Journal Online of Humanities, 8(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.24113/ijohmn.v8i1.243
Park, S., & Ramirez, K. A. (2021). Globalization in art therapy education: Multicultural training in South Korean context. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 72, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2020.101742
Powerful, S. A. (2021). Rona Cyah cancel embodied Black joy: An emancipatory inquiry and experience design exploration of positive health and well-being; pleasure, healing, and liberation; and equitable change in Carnival in the Caribbean. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
Prince, A. (2001). How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? Constructing the divine in Caribbean contexts. In P. Taylor (Eds.), Nation dance religion, identity, and cultural difference in the Caribbean (pp. 25-31). Indiana University Press.
Ramkissoon, M., Gopaul-McNicol, S. A., Davidson, B., Matthies, B., & Brown Earle, O. (2008). In F. W. Hickling (Eds.), Perspectives in Caribbean psychology. Caribbean Institute of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (CARIMENSA).
Robinson, J. N., Lambert, M. A., & Allwood, M. A. (2021). Barriers to addressing mental health challenges across Caribbean nations. Caribbean Journal of Psychology, 13(1), 7–31. https://doi.org/10.37234/CJP.2021.1301.A001
Schmidt, B. E. (2006). The creation of Afro-Caribbean religions and their incorporation of Christian elements: A critique against syncretism. Transformation, 23(4), 236–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/026537880602300407
Schmidt, B. E. (2008). Caribbean diaspora in the USA: Diversity of Caribbean religions in New York City. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315260877
Sharpe, J., & Shafe, S. (2016). Mental health in the Caribbean. In J. Roopnarine & D. Chadee (Eds.), Caribbean psychology: Indigenous contributions to a global discipline (pp. 305–325). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14753-013
Soo Hon, S. (2021). Participatory ethnography to explore the relevance of cultural arts practices to the psychosocial well-being of adolescents affected by violence in Trinidad and Tobago. In U. Herrmann (Ed.), Arts therapies, and the mental health of children and young people (1st ed., pp. 76–86). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003024668-5
Stepney, S. (2023). Multicultural orientation: Self-portraiture to promote cultural humility in art therapy. Art Therapy, 40(2), 68-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2023.2206356
Sutherland, M. E. (2011). Toward a Caribbean psychology: An African-centered approach. Journal of Black Studies, 42(8), 1175–1194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934711410547
Sutherland, P., Moodley, R., & Chevannes, B. (2013). Caribbean healing traditions: Implications for health and mental health. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203844502
Talwar, S., Iyer, J., & Doby-Copeland, C. (2004). The invisible veil: Changing paradigms in the art therapy profession. Art Therapy, 21(1), 44–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2004.10129325
Talwar, S. (2010). An intersectional framework for race, class, gender, and sexuality in art therapy. Art Therapy, 27(1), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2010.10129567
Taylor, P. (2001). Nation dance religion, identity, and cultural difference in the Caribbean. Indiana University Press. https://doi.org/10.2979/2439.0
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Feb 3, 2026
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Polyphonic bricolage and cultural humility: A framework for reimagining art therapy practice in the Afro-Caribbean context. (2026). South African Journal of Arts Therapies, 3(2), 125-148. https://doi.org/10.36615/0frgez05
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Author Biography
Kim Valldejuli, Drexel University
Kim is a board-certified registered Art therapist, and PhD candidate in Drexel University’s PhD in Creative Arts Therapies program. She is a research fellow in Dr. Girija Kaimal’s Health, Arts, Learning and Evaluation Lab at Drexel University. Kim is President of the Art Therapy Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Associate Editor and Culturally Responsive Practice Advisor for the International Journal of Art Therapy. Her research explores traditional healing practices in the Caribbean diaspora and implications for art therapy practice and pedagogy.
How to Cite
Polyphonic bricolage and cultural humility: A framework for reimagining art therapy practice in the Afro-Caribbean context. (2026). South African Journal of Arts Therapies, 3(2), 125-148. https://doi.org/10.36615/0frgez05
