Tattooed Truths and Therapeutic Maps: Applying Motif Mapping
By Andrew Horman, Our Lady of the Lake University
Tattooed Truths and Therapeutic Maps: Applying Motif Mapping in Disability-Affirming Clinical Work introduces motif mapping, a disability-informed counseling modality developed through lived experience, clinical training, and systemic advocacy by Andrew Horman. It integrates narrative therapy, trauma-informed care, strengths-based theory, disability justice, and Internal Family Systems to support symbolic healing and narrative sovereignty. Motif mapping invites clients to define and evolve personal motifs—such as tattoos, metaphors, or visual emblems—as anchors for emotional regulation, identity reconstruction, and systemic resistance.
Designed to accommodate expressive barriers, sensory sensitivities, and mobility-related needs, the modality is especially suited for disabled and neurodivergent individuals. It is adaptable across individual therapy, supervision, curriculum design, and telehealth, with ethical integration of AI tools to enhance access without compromising authorship.
This manuscript is currently being refined and prepared for submission to a peer-reviewed journal in the field of counseling and mental health. A link or full-text version will be made available here once publication or public access is permitted.
Supervision as Relational Justice
By Andrew Horman, Our Lady of the Lake University
Supervision as Relational Justice: A Disability-Justice Framework for Clinical Training introduces a disability-informed model that reimagines clinical supervision as a space for emotional truth, narrative integrity, and systemic resistance. Developed through lived experience and trauma-informed ethics, the framework challenges conventional paradigms that pathologize disabled counselors-in-training (CITs) and offers a scaffolded approach rooted in relational pacing, symbolic safety, and identity integration.
This model affirms supervision as a collaborative, justice-centered practice—one that aligns with but expands beyond existing ethical codes (ACA, APA, NBCC, CACREP). It equips supervisors to witness without correction, document without erasure, and co-author supervision as a modality of liberation.
This manuscript is currently in the rough draft stage and being refined. A link or full-text version will be made available here once publication or public access is permitted.
