Body-Mapping Groups to Promote Healing: Insights for Social Work Practice

Presenter(s)

Clarice J. Robinson, MSW

Doctoral Student
University of Chicago School of Social Work
Celina Doria, PhD, MSW

Assistant Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Sheila Shankar, LSW (she/her/hers)

PhD Candidate
University of Chicago
GF

Gina Fedock, PhD, MSW

Associate Professor
University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

This interactive workshop will present body mapping as a tool for social work group practice and research to explore embodied experiences of health and disability, as well as to facilitate healing among systemically oppressed and vulnerable populations. Workshop participants will engage in a body mapping exercise to practice this method.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, attendees should be able to:

Participants will be able to explain what body mapping is and how it can be used in teaching, practice, research, and advocacy.
Participants will discuss the ways that body mapping can be employed among disability scholars, advocates, and social workers to center lived experiences and collective coping around themes of trauma, disability, and justice.
Participants will be able to integrate body mapping as a participatory arts research methodology that can be utilized in social work research and practice spaces to help clients collectively process how their bodies carry and hold pain, healing, and joy.