Emotionality & the Self
If your feelings could paint, what would they say? Exploring Sex, Culture and Race in the Art Therapy Room
Oil on Canvas
Collage on Photopaper
Oil on canvas
Proudly exhibited at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, this collection embodies the embodied, somatic, and psycho-spiritual layers central to Neha’s work as a bicultural trauma-informed sex and depth psychotherapist, in relation to gender-based objectification, racial stereotypes and intra-community factors of pain.
This series of mixed media paintings created with oil, watercolor ink, charcoal, and colored pencil delves into the complex intersections of sex, culture, and race within therapeutic spaces.
Each piece invites viewers to witness the emotional landscape of healing and identity, reflecting the unspoken nuances often experienced in therapy, and in life, especially when the the therapist and the client stem from diverse cultural contexts.
Acrylic on Canvas
amorphous layers of her psyche unfold each time she writes
Japanese ink on handmade paper
Reception and Impact of Emotionality and the Self
The paintings served as both mirror and guide, encouraging therapists and clients to hold complexity without judgment, witness suffering without reduction, and engage with trauma as part of a broader, dynamic healing journey.
Viewers responded deeply to the raw, layered textures and vivid emotional expression that captured the complex intersections of sex, culture, race, and trauma within therapeutic contexts.
The artwork went beyond traditional visual representation to embody the lived experience of therapy where body, psyche, and culture intersect. By shedding light on the often invisible dynamics of race and cultural identity in healing, the series challenged dominant victim-perpetrator narratives, inviting a more nuanced understanding of resilience, multiplicity, and transformation.
In a society where victimhood narratives can sometimes confine survivors to roles of helplessness, Neha’s work offered an alternative perspective: therapy as a sacred, embodied process of reclaiming agency and vitality.
By integrating art and psychotherapy, Emotionality and the Self enhanced therapeutic practice by fostering creative exploration, somatic awareness, and cultural sensitivity.
The series underscored that healing is neither linear nor tidy but is a profoundly human process marked by contradictions, wounds, and courage.
