The Paper Protagonist; On Horizontalising Human-ness
- artoverapathy
- Jun 25
- 12 min read
Updated: Jul 8
Last week, I submitted my primary assignment for Unit 6 of Masters of Therapeutic Arts Practice at The MIECAT Institute, 'Refining Companioning Practice'.
The assignment asked us to "Articulate what you have come to know about your learning edge/s and strengths in your companioning, bracketing in ethical considerations, social location, power and privilege. Describe how you have come to know this and worked reflexively, using in-class examples. Offer at least one specific way you intend to integrate what you have come to know in service of the ongoing refinement of your companioning practice." I focused my work on one particular ABR Inquiry I undertook on Day 4 of Unit 6, and made a video about my experiences.
Find the YouTube Video of "The Paper Protagonist" here; https://youtu.be/bd2QY2CruEE
(You can find the rest of my Unit 6 multi-modal journal here; https://youtu.be/WTNW5iWNS60)
The Transcript of the video is available as a .PDF just below this text.
You can find the web-based transcript of the video below this line!
Let me know your thoughts!
Xx
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TRANSCRIPT ;
“The Paper Protagonist; On Horizontalising Humanness”
Kat Coppock
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Multi-modal Assignment 1
Unit 6 - ‘Refining Companioning Skills’
Jacqui Grace - The MIECAT Institute 2025
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Key Words; Social Location, multimodality, amplify, embodiment, disability, bias, exploration, artmaking, values, ethical complexity.
CONTENT WARNING; This work contains references to removal of bodily limbs, and some coarse language.
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POSITIONALITY AND ABSTRACT;
This document is a transcript for the video work “The Paper Protagonist; On Horizontalising Humanness”. You can find the VIDEO HERE.
This Arts Based Research largely took place within six online classes at the MIECAT Institute while studying Unit 6 of Masters of Therapeutic Arts Practice. We used many activities and modes to generate our data, but I have chosen to focus on those most resonantly connected. These were documented using video, photographs, field notes, journaling, and creating a ‘Trail’ artwork each day (See U6 Multimodal Journal HERE). Communicating my learning experiences multi-modally, this assignment promotes quality research through rigorous self-analysis of personal ethics and social location, exploring relational authenticity, attention to feedback, and reflections on ethical companioning practice.
During this research my co-inquirers were Lisa and Linde, and we were facilitated by Jacqui Grace. Their material in this assignment has been used with consent.
Kat Coppock is an established Visual Artist / Events Manager and emerging Social Worker based in Kaurna Yerta (Adelaide, SA). Through embracing the creative process, facilitating self expression, and guiding crafting skills, Kat aims to support others to consider that creativity is inherent, skills can be learned, and Art can help us heal.
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1. - Dear You (Introduction) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Dear You,
I have been struggling lately with an ethical dilemma. You know, the old ‘how privilege effects ethical relationality’ problem. It happened again in class just the other week, although to be honest I did it on purpose this time…You may know that I am studying Masters of Therapeutic Arts Practice at MIECAT Institute, and right now am creating an assignment for Unit 6, “Refining Companioning Practice”. This Unit encouraged us to explore our Companioning Practice with a lens of ‘Anti-Oppressive Psychology’ (Timothy, R.K and Umana-Garcia, M. 2021, pg.1), which revealed my dilemma.
But first, character development! In case you didn’t know, let me give you some personal context…
2. - Character Development ---------------------------------------------------------------
That’s me! A 90’s child of parents with war trauma (one conscripted to the military and one the child of immigrant refugees), who did not feel safe at home and was bullied at school, the ‘weird’ kid chronically struggling to assimilate.
As an adult I learned that while being born white gives privilege, being biologically female removes a layer, being smart adds a layer but being smart and feminine somehow removes a two layers, realising I’m not actually Woman (TM) but some shifting fluid third thing removes a layer, being ragingly neurodivergent removes a layer, having past trauma removes a layer, having non-English immigrant grandparents removes a layer, being queer removes a layer, but being poor creates a chasm between my quivering existence and the powerful abundance behind the bolted metal doors of Inter-generational Wealth.
3. - World Building ----------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, now we’re back in May 2025, where our class responded to the 2020 article by Timothy, R. K., & Umana Garcia, M. “Anti-oppression psychotherapy: An emancipatory integration of intersectionality into psychotherapy”. The article introduces to us ‘social location’...
...how individuals and groups are placed differently within systems of power and dominance based on categories such as race, Indigeneity, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, (dis)abilities, socioeconomic status, age, as well as spirituality/religious affiliations (Hill Collins, 2015). (pg. 3)
To explore this concept, I created a collage inspired by this quote;
These ideologies and practices are key as they constitute systemic vehicles to perpetuate exclusion and violence of large segments of the population based on categorisations that render some as oppressed and excluded, while giving others unearned privilege. Here, the notion of un-earned' is significant as it illustrates that based on systems of power and dominance, some individuals who fit the social construction of whiteness do not have to demonstrate merit in order to be assumed as 'competent', 'trustworthy', or 'good citizens' while others are deemed 'suspect', ‘criminally inclined’, and ‘untrustworthy’... (pg. 3)
4. - The “Unethical ‘whiteness’ of being” ------------------------------------------------------
On Day 3 we used this work to explore social location again. During this activity I was thinking about the overarching ‘whiteness’ within systems of privilege, and how social aesthetics reinforce cultural acceptance of what people in power or oppression look like. (Timothy, R. K. and Umana-Garcia, M. pg. 4)
Borrowing from the title of a famous philosophical fiction novel (Wikipedia, 2025), I used the word ‘whiteness’ to highlight the historical alignment of ‘free will’ with ‘colonialism’ (National Museum Australia, 2025). In Australia, it is a lot easier to ‘live lightly’ when aspects like race or class automatically grant respect, autonomy, education, aid and care, labour and services, finance, and protection from consequence. (Routledge, D. & Subramani, S., 2024).
Later, a co-inquiry with classmates Lisa and Linde explored what wells up when activated by systemic trauma. For me, this is an embodied sensation during ideological conflict I described as a “deep-seated f**k off”, a protective mechanism stemming from familial experiences compounded as an ‘alternative’ adult within a capitalist environment.
If you have known me socially, the thematic statement I wrote to help clarify my current pattern of conflict response may seem familiar to you;
“When I witness systemic oppression, I feel spiky red static from my chest to my stomach (RARGH). Then I wave my arms, lecture, correct, rant. As a result I unethically alienate the other person.”
Obviously, this response is questionable socially, and not acceptable in the therapy space (Anderson, H, 2007, pg 54). There is a conflict between my values of ‘community’, ‘safety’ and ‘respect’ and my fearful actions avoiding ‘the oppressor’. Linde asked me “As Companion, what would you do with that?”
While Companioning, it is important to hold space for myself to read and regulate my internal sensations, ground my emotions, and centre in my values of practice so I can engage ethically (Geller, S. & Greenburg, L. 2012, pg 94). Feedback from my Inquirers suggests that my Companioning style encourages patience and informality, creating a sense of safety and being held.
To resolve the dissonance of my defensiveness under conflict with the importance of respecting the Inquirer, I reflected that practising self-regulating techniques (multi-modality, art making), asking questions, forms of embodiment (gesture, mirroring, parallel play) and informal co-inquiring can help attune me to their pace and experience of the process.
During Day 4’s solo journaling, I was inspired by the quote “Forget being either or, be both and more and moving.” (D’Emilia, D., Andreotti, V., & GTGF, 2020). Expanding the ‘good’/‘evil’ binary in an expression of my personal relationship to ethics, I wrote a list of possible responses to ideological conflict.
The last one, ‘Eat the rich’ is a demonstration of violence towards a minority group. This example has a reciprocal resonance, if ‘the rich’ acted without violence, we wouldn't want to ‘eat’ them. Though I ‘object’ to this particular minority, I also consider generic hatred toward generalised groups unethical. Would we make a sticker saying “Eat the Disabled”?
This is indicative of the messiness of ethics and how our personal ethics are inter-changing depending on the cultural, historical, or social context. (Plotegher, P., 2021, pg 143).
The art work became an invitation to sit with choices made through comparison of ethical extremes.
And here, my friend, lies the start of breaking down my dilemma.
5. - “Eat the rich” --------------------------------------------------
With all this context bubbling away, my Companion Linde and I went into the afternoons inquiry. Exploring the noticeably sharp edge of ‘managing emotions when my body perceives danger from opposing social beliefs or political stance’, we chose ‘Eat the Rich’ as my access point. Encouraged to push boundaries, I chose to pierce deep into my discomfort.
I found THIS advertisement in a magazine. I could feel anger at its content wanting to flush my cheeks, a door I would usually close. However, aware that we are intentionally finding safe places to practice our learning (Timothy R. K., and Umana-Garcia M., pg. 10), I took a breath and THREW the door wide open!
Linde and I explored past experiences of social relationships, discovering shared traumas from attempted assimilation. We spoke of ‘pruning’ or loss of self to fit in, promotion of a ‘more than /less than’ social mindset that governs hierarchical behaviour, and how questioning our social circles lead to smaller social circles and isolation.
I drew a ‘frame’ to describe ‘perceived value’, and put the advertisement inside.
I could feel a repetition of that familiar reaction; static in torso = my body feels danger = engage defences = fight!
Seeing only ‘Symptoms of Systematic Disease’, I struggled to relate to the figure in the advertisement. I ranted about the hurt ‘people like her and those d***s in the boat’ have caused. Lightning in my diaphragm, cheeks hot, my voice releasing pain of injustice. Dialoguing aided emergence that I don't see ‘those people’ as human because of the way they have treated myself and others. Through violence, dehumanisation had spread both ways.
I cut the figure from the advertisement, isolating it from its systemic environment as an attempt to humanise her. I placed her in pages of other magazines, observing my how my internal eye read each landscape. Changing her environment helped but my opinion was stuck, she seemed either ‘detached’ or ‘conquering’, I still disliked her, we had 3 minutes of session left when Linde jumped in with “CUT OFF HER LEG!” I grabbed my scalpel. There was an un-hinged moment of glee. It felt like justice. It was a turning point in the inquiry as I disabled her, forcing re-conceptualisation. The breakout rooms closed.
I spent a few hurried minutes placing the figure back in the images and observing how my internal narrative of these scenes changed. I experienced a sensation of integration; despite her allegiance to the Flag, there is a very strong chance that the mechanisms that dehumanised or obstructed my differences would now enact the same devaluation onto her, disastrously creating a bridge between us I could walk to find her human-ness.
I looked down, and peeking out of the huge mess of papers on the floor of my studio was a phrase ‘I am Somebody’. I put these words next to the doll. My pulse slowed, shoulders dropped, I sighed. I found a ‘safe’ home environment, and placed the figure in it. Then, with my head bowed, I re-attached her leg, acknowledging as Linde put it; ‘even if I am an a*****e, I am still ‘somebody’.”
6. - Sense-making ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To de-program my internalised biases I must engage with the messy, sticky, greasy, slithery feelings of moral ambiguity. Reynolds, V. said this in 2014;
There are many paths to liberation and no theory or practice is harm-free. The quest is not to find the perfect intervention, but to examine our ethical positioning and hold our practice to enacting these ethics. (pg 3)
So grab your hats, because here it is...
Day 4’s ‘sliding scale of ethics’ reminded me of the Dungeons and Dragons ethical alignment chart (Silverman, R., 2024). On Day 5, we entered ‘data-sorting’, using a process called Clustering to organise meaning. After a day sorting and re-sorting, my final cluster was unintentionally resonant of the D’n’D chart, but adapted to my inquiries. This structured my responses within an ethical frame and helped me to identify my strength of ‘relationality’ and learning edge of ‘transference’ (Cameron, N. 2016, pg 60).
On a micro level, our lived experiences enmesh with the lived experiences of others. On a macro level, these interplay with broader sociopolitical contexts that define power and privilege. (Zhang, T., 2022)
Currently, ‘Capital’ (value) is earned by exponentially selling product that is made through labour.
Maximum labour (value) can’t be achieved if you’re distracted, dispossessed, diseased, declining, disabled, or dead.
Colonialism encourages ‘moral’ appropriation of labour and resources by those who have been socially deemed ‘valuable’ as penance from those who are perceived as ‘immoral’.
Those that cant hide their mortality are deemed ‘value-less’ and become Other-ed; ostracised as ‘a burden on tax-payers’, and therefore deserving of punishment.
The ‘moral value’ of those who extract labour is reliant on the devaluation (‘Othering’) of the people who are exploited. (Timothy, R. K. and Umana-Garcia, M., pg. 3).
Under Capitalism, mortality is equated with morality.
My formative years taught me the predominant system of ‘Value’ is not invested in the inherent worth of ‘Other’, only their assigned lack of value. I internalised this.
You’ve heard me say this before, but VERY few come out of the womb frothing with hate. Ideology gets everywhere, and culture is learned behaviour. We become who we are through interactions with our social, historical, and cultural contexts, often inhabiting more than one context at a time. (Simon, G., 2023, pg. 62).
Plotegher, P. writes “Intersectionality is… a frame work to understand the complexity of our identities, and both the oppression and privilege that come with this complexity.” (pg 145). People within intersecting minority groups are often found in positions of care for each other while also providing for those with systemic privilege. (Zhang, T., 2022). Under capitalism, disabled people suffer disproportionately to abled people but are denied agency under the guise of ‘welfare’ while being expected to conform. (Widhalm, K., Vernoy, K. & S.J. Wise, 2023).
After years of chaos, I found my late ADHD (etc) diagnosis helpful, but not every person would have the same experience.
The more intersections you reside within, the less agency you have.
In working with a representation of those who had ‘Other-ed’ my chaos, I intentionally created a challenging dissonant scenario. Utilizing multi-modality in structuring safety, I explored power disparities within dis/ability and care. The tactility of collage viscerally connected to the old wounds causing unwillingness to relate and gave flexibility to change context. Exploring my emotions in this place helped integrate how cognitive bias was flattening and reducing the paper protagonist to a story of my hurt.
The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. … It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasises how we are different rather than how we are similar.(Adiche, C. N., 2009)
7. - Dear You (conclusion) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Humanising a demographic that has traumatised you is difficult, but I found a bridge in empathy, nuance and recognising our shared mortality and struggles. (Geller, S. & Greenburg, L., pg 102).
Feedback within the companioning process fosters accountability and trust. Expanding intersections and blurring defined roles opens room for vulnerability and collaborative emergence, relationality can help navigate complex experiences to sensitively find clarity.
Through forming a scenario outside the given narrative, I came to a deeper understanding of the complexity of individual experience and the fragility of circumstance; horizontalising human-ness.
Moving forward, I commit to ethical practice through grounding responses in my values, and centering collaborative authenticity. Imagination and adaptability can help build new environments that suit each persons varying needs. Together, we open a door to a place where we can come to ask YOU- Dear You! “What are we growing today?”.
I hope to see you soon!
Yours in creative emergence,
Kat.
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REFERENCES;
COPPOCK, K. (2025) “The Paper Protagonist; on Horizontalising Humanness.” [Video] YouTube https://youtu.be/bd2QY2CruEE
COPPOCK, K. (2025) “Unit 6 Multi-modal Journal [Video] YouTube” https://youtu.be/WTNW5iWNS60
Adiche, C, N. (2009). “The danger of a single story.” [Video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg Transcript; https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/danger-single-story
Anderson, H. (2007) “The heart and spirit of collaborative therapy: the philosophical stance - 'a way of being' in relationship and conversation.” In H. Anderson & D. Gehart (Eds.), Collaborative Therapy. Relationships and conversations that make a difference (pp. 43 59). Routledge.
Cameron, N. (2016). “Picking up the thread with Mary, Book 2.” In Excuse me your grief is showing. [Published Doctoral Dissertation]. The MIECAT Institute. https://www.nonacameron.com/
D’Emilia, D., Andreotti, V., & GTGF Collective. (2020). “Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness.” [audio file]. https://decolonialfutures.net/rt-recording/
Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). “Therapeutic Presence.” American Psychological Association.
National Museum Australia (6 March 2025) “Defining Moments- White Australia Policy. 1901; White Australia Policy enshrined in law.” National Museum Australia https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/white-australia-policy
Plotegher, P. (2021). “Queer therapy, queering therapy: desire in struggle.” DAT Journal, 6(2), pp. 137–150.
Reynolds, V. (2014) “Centering Ethics in Group Supervision: Fostering Cultures of Critique and Structing Safety” The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community work , 1. Dulwich Centre Publications.
Routledge, D. & Subramani, S. (2024). “Health care ethics: otherness and belonging.” The Philosopher’s Zone ABC. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/philosopherszone/health-care-ethics-otherness and-belonging/104453436
Silverman, R. (Dec 10, 2024) “Breaking Down Alignment in D&D” DnDBeyond
Simon, G. (2023) “Reflexivity 3. Breaking out the Reflexive Loop to Decolonise Practice.” Murmurations: Journal of Transformative Systemic Practice, 6(2), 53–71. https://doi.org/10.28963/6.2.4
Timothy, R. K., & Umana Garcia, M. (2020) “Anti-oppression psychotherapy: An emancipatory integration of intersectionality into psychotherapy”. Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.59158/001c.71085
Widhalm, K., & Vernoy, K. (hosts), Wise, SJ (2023) “Are You Actually Neurodivergent Affirming? An Interview with Sonny Jane Wise” [audio podcast episode]. In The Modem Therapists' Survival Guide, Therapy Reimagined. https://therapyreimagined.com/modern-therapist podcast/are-you-actually-neurodivergent-affirming-an-interview-with-sonny-jane wise/#Episode-transcript
Wikipedia (1 June 2025) “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unbearable_Lightness_of_Being
Zhang, T. (2022) “A manifesto for radical care or how to be a human in the arts.” Sydney Review of Books. https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/essay/a-manifesto-for-radical-care-or-how-to be-a-human-in-the-arts.
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