Exploring Culturally-Responsive, Expressive Arts Modalities to Promote a Healing In Survivors of Domestic Violence

Background/ Purpose

Domestic violence (DV) survivors, particularly those from immigrant and culturally diverse communities, often face structural, cultural, and linguistic barriers to accessing traditional mental health services. These barriers limit opportunities for self-expression, agency, and participation in healing processes, which are central to social inclusion and democratic well-being. This study examines how culturally-responsive, community-based interventions can expand equitable access to healing spaces. Specifically, this study explores how textile-based expressive arts support emotional healing, self-expression, and empowerment among DV survivors. Inspired by the philosophy of kintsugi, the approach conceptualizes repairing and reconstructing fabric as a symbolic process through which survivors reclaim identity, restore agency, and integrate traumatic experiences.

Methods

This study employs a qualitative narrative inquiry approach to center participants’ lived experiences and meaning-making processes. Participants included 10 female South Asian (SA) DV survivors who voluntarily attended the Threads of Healing, a trauma-informed, textile-based expressive arts session involving fabric painting, stitching, and patchwork. The workshop included guided reflection, art-making, and optional sharing, fostering individual meaning-making and collective engagement within a culturally-responsive environment.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observational field notes, and consensual, survivor-centered analysis of participant-created textile artwork. Interviews provided space for participants to describe experiences and the meanings they attributed to their artwork. Observations captured engagement with materials, emotional expression, and group interactions. Artwork was treated as narrative data, with interpretation grounded in participants’ explanations to ensure co-construction of meaning. Data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to identify patterns across narratives.

Findings

Analysis revealed three overarching themes. First, textile art as narrative expression, where participants used fabric, stitching, color, and composition to communicate experiences of trauma, emotion, and healing beyond verbal language. Second, fabric as a site of control and reclamation, highlighting how clothing was tied to experiences of regulation, identity control, and violence, and how engaging with these materials supported reclaiming agency. Third, culturally-grounded, collective healing, where participants, SA and immigrant survivors, connected textile practices to cultural memory and experienced the workshop as a shared space that fostered belonging and mutual support. Across themes, participants described shifts in self-perception, increased agency, and stronger connections with others.

Discussion/ Implications

Findings suggest that textile-based expressive arts offer a culturally-responsive, non-verbal pathway for trauma processing and narrative reconstruction, particularly for survivors facing barriers to traditional therapy. By transforming materials historically associated with control into tools for self-expression, participants engaged in reclaiming identity and redefining their experiences. The process of tearing, stitching, and reconstructing fabric functioned as a symbolic enactment of trauma integration, while artistic choices such as texture, color, and arrangement reflected complex emotional narratives. The use of culturally familiar practices further supported engagement and meaning-making, especially for participants for whom textile work is embedded in cultural memory. Additionally, the modality fostered a collective healing environment aligned with mutual aid and collectivism, contributing to participants’ sense of connection, self-worth, and belonging. These findings highlight potential of low-cost, community-based, culturally grounded interventions to expand equitable access to healing spaces, advancing social work’s role in promoting inclusion, participation, and the common good.