Season 2 Episode 14 | Zachary Van Den Berg | On Being a Social Change Agent at any Stage of Your Career

Reina Lombardi • May 24, 2023

FEATURED GUESTS: Zachary D. Van Den Berg, MA, LPC-A, ATR-P (he/they) is a recent graduate of Adler University, in Chicago, IL with a Master of Arts in Counseling: Art Therapy, and received his BFA at the School of the Art Institute (SAIC). He is Past-President of the Adler Art Therapy Student Association, founder of the international online forums Art Therapy Students Associated and Coalition for Queer Creative Arts Therapies, the in-coming Chairperson of the American Art Therapy Association’s Multicultural Committee, and a member on the Membership Committee, and Creative Director of Expressive Media’s Film Library. He is currently working at Community Arts, LLCand is supervised under Wanda Montemayor, LPC-S ATCS ATR-BC RPT-S (she/her) in Austin, TX. Clinically, he utilizes queer, social justice, anti-oppressive approaches to art therapy, working primarily with adults in kink, queer and trans communities in Central Texas.

RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

LISTEN & LEARN:

How and why Zack began contributing to the profession while still in graduate training.
The value of coming together as a collective in order to create visibility.
The inspiration and path for Zack to create the Coalition for Queer Creative Arts Therapies and the Expressing Pride Symposia events.
How he is working on decentralizing the Coalition and the Pride event to other members within the community.
The importance of creating opportunities for other ways of knowing to be accessible in the research, literature and media within the professional fields.
Benefits of using our position of privilege to disseminate information that is of value to the community.
The ORCA stance, which stands for Openness, Respect, Curiosity & Accountability, as a framework for dancing with others through humility.
How visibility becomes a model for others to take healthy risks professionally.
How the theme of Emergence is currently central in the shared pursuit of liberation within the Coalition for Queer Creative Arts Therapies and the Expressing Pride Symposium.
"Trans-affirming care is trauma informed care and is life supporting care," Zachary Van Den Berg.
The importance of being attuned to the limits of our own capacity.
There are multiple ways of protest and advocacy.