Join us for AATA2025

Oct. 8 – 11, 2025

Portland, Oregon

Making Worlds through the Parable of the Snow Globe (SC123)

This workshop situates the creation of snow globes as an exercise in queer worldmaking—a culturally responsive, experiential practice for surviving contemporary crises. Through personal reflection and collective discussion, participants of all genders and sexualities will explore how world-shaking events necessitate creative responses for stewarding new worlds of justice into being.

Weaving Together: Exploring Metaphors and Structures of Community Weaving (SC243)

Explore the power of community fiber arts through investigating the history, metaphors and structures of weaving. Experience non-traditional looms and their ability to create accessible, inclusive, and affirming space for individuals to connect through expressive intersections of warp and weft.

Nathan-ism: An Outsider Artist’s Visual Narrative (SC176)

Nathan-ism, a 2023 documentary, centers on an outsider artist who spent decades obsessively creating a visual narrative of his experience observing the Nuremberg Trials. After a screening of the documentary, participants will be guided in a discussion and art making response to explore the intersection of art, memory, and expression.

Presenter: Elizabeth Hlavek

Bisa Butler’s Everyday Heroes: Finding and Celebrating the Extraordinary in the Familiar (DEI76)

Workshop participants will be invited to explore Bisa Butler’s exquisite portrait quilts, recognize the extraordinary and the precious in human connection, and create portraits of everyday heroes in their own communities. Rather than sewing, participants will use collage techniques with decorative paper, vibrant fabric, found items, and tiny treasures.

Presenters: Gaelynn Wolf Bordonaro and Laura Cherry

[PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE] Compassion for Your Critic Through an IFS & Polyvagal Lens (PP20)

This arts-based workshop integrates foundational understanding of internal family systems, art therapy, polyvagal theory and experiential learning. Session will use arts-based activities to engage the inner critic, dialogue with parts of self and provides hands on activities that can be utilized with clients to support their understanding of self.

[PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE] Polarity Drawing: A Practice of Self-Touch and Full-Body Mapping (PP109)

In this workshop participants will engage in Polarity Drawing, a full-body art process that draws on principles of Polarity Therapy and body mapping. Self-touch followed by internal body-mapping with chalk and paint on a body-sized paper will promote energetic flows related to the chakras, related elements, and various psychological needs.

[PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE] Creating Mandalas through the Great Round: Deepening into Natural Cycles of Life (PP171)

Experience an engaging, expressive arts journey through history, theory, and strengths-based approaches to creating and understanding mandalas in and out of session. By creating a series of mandalas guided by the Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala, participants will also (re)connect with the cyclical rhythms of nature.

[PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE] Creative Resilience: Empowering Women Veterans with Art Therapy and Mindful Movement (PP258)

The presentation will outline the development of an 8-week Mindful Movement and Art Therapy Group protocol for Women Veterans and its span over 10 cohorts. Participants will also be led through an integrative experiential.

[TRAUMA] Inside the Eye of American Terror: Assessed Clinical Response Post Community Trauma (TR108)

Learn the benefits of immediate needs response, and how to assess/engage a community in the aftermath of sudden devastation. Practice an art therapy trauma series established with supervision from both Linda Chapman and Noah Hass-Cohen, effective bilateral exercises, and trauma protocols to apply for PTSD clients of all ages.

[TRAUMA] Honoring Ancestral Lands, Ambiguous Loss, Acculturation, and Building Community with Asylum Seekers (TR117)

This is an experiential advanced practice on culturally-responsive and trauma-informed eco-art therapy activities with the asylum seeking community. Participants will learn about the socio-historical context of US migration, acculturation stressors, and working with ambiguous loss, while addressing challenges when working with migrants. The format provides an opportunity for reflective practice.

[ETHICS] Contextualizing Multiple Relationships in Small Communities (TR117)

Small communities present unique opportunities for meaningful relationships, and the interplay of professional boundaries, personal visibility, and community dynamics is challenging. By applying ethical frameworks that value relational accountability and community care, therapists can navigate complexities with integrity and practices that benefit their clients and their sense of authenticity.

[PSYCHIATRIC SETTINGS] Clay Therapy for Emotion Regulation: Theory, Techniques, and Practice (PS98)

Through lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on work with clay, workshop participants will learn the theory, techniques, and practice behind Clay Therapy and understand the evidence base that supports it. Participants will embody the therapeutic functions and applications in various stages of Clay Therapy and its alignment with the Expressive Therapies Continuum.

Presenter: Joshua Nan

[GERIATRICS] Rising Above the Diagnosis: Using Creativity to Thrive with Dementia (GE32)

How do you work with someone who may not remember your last session? Join us to learn about our firsthand experiences providing art therapy to people living with dementia. Expect to gain a better understanding of how art can transcend cognitive barriers and improve quality of life.

Presenters: Sivan Perdue and Erica Curcio

Arts-based Research and Clinical Methodologies to Center Marginalized Voices (MP193)

This workshop describes how arts-based methodologies facilitate creative entry points into discussions surrounding healing and harm. The facilitators provide a BIPOC, womanist, interdisciplinary lens from social welfare, art therapy, and drama therapy. This workshop explores how to pull arts-based clinical skills into research methodology (i.e., data collection and analysis).

Create, Teach, and Research with AI (TI191)

Participants will explore AI’s creative, educational, and research potentials, risks, and limitations in art therapy, emphasizing ethical and cultural considerations to foster innovation and inclusivity. This engaging, hands-on course is best suited for art therapy educators and researchers and requires a personal laptop and an open mind.

Digital Analogues: Translating Art Therapy Directives into Digital Formats (TI245)

Have you dabbled in digital art and wondered how to translate these tools to facilitate technology assisted art therapy? This workshop will present strategies that bridge the gap between traditional art therapy materials and scaffolding digital tools to address client needs on exploratory, symbolic, and collaborative levels.