Abstract
More than 20 years after Ireland's 2004 citizenship referendum, young people with non-Irish heritage continue navigating complex questions of identity and belonging in contemporary Ireland. Drawing from expressive arts psychotherapy practice with unaccompanied minors, this paper explores how creative approaches can support adolescents experiencing belonging uncertainty in post-referendum Ireland. Through a composite case study of Maryse, a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor from the Democratic Republic of Congo participating in an expressive arts youth group, the paper demonstrates how therapeutically informed creative activities supported identity exploration using a three-stage trauma-informed framework. Key practice principles emerge including prioritising choice and agency, practising cultural humility and accessing multiple coping channels through embodied approaches that honour diverse cultural traditions.
Keywords
Introduction
More than 20 years after Ireland's 2004 citizenship referendum, young people across the country with non-Irish heritage continue to navigate complex questions of identity and belonging (BouAynaya, 2024; Fanning and Mutwarasibo, 2007). Whilst other contributions to this special edition thoroughly analyse the legal, political and racial dimensions of this constitutional change, less attention has been paid to how we might best support adolescents making sense of questions of Irishness, belonging and citizenship in contemporary Ireland. The referendum's legacy, with its shift from jus soli (birthright) to jus sanguinis (bloodline) citizenship, has fundamentally reshaped the context within which young people must now construct their sense of identity and place (Gilmartin, 2015).
Drawing from my work as an expressive arts psychotherapist, play therapist and researcher, I offer insights that complement the socio-political analyses in this special edition. Although I have not worked directly with individuals affected by the citizenship changes, my therapeutic practice with separated children seeking international protection 1 has informed approaches to supporting young people as they explore questions of belonging, identity and place. The therapeutic principles and expressive arts methods that support refugee youth in identity exploration may offer valuable insights to all those who encounter concerns about legitimacy and acceptance within Irish society. While acknowledging that each context is unique, I share these insights hoping that practitioners and researchers might adapt them to their circumstances and the specific needs of those they support. It is important to note that while these approaches draw from therapeutic practice, their application in educational or community settings constitutes supportive engagement rather than formal therapy.
This paper begins with a discussion of my reflective practice and approach, followed by a brief exploration of the historical context and its impact on adolescent identity formation. The sections which follow establish the theoretical foundation for understanding belonging uncertainty in adolescent development, which Walton and Brady (2017) conceptualise as the psychological state of questioning one's rightful place within a community or society. A composite case study then introduces Maryse, a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor. This case study combines experiences from multiple real cases to protect confidentiality while illustrating key principles which can be therapeutic without being therapy.
Set within an expressive arts youth group that includes both recent arrivals and young people born in Ireland with diverse heritage backgrounds, this case study demonstrates how therapeutically informed expressive arts approaches supported Maryse's identity exploration. The paper concludes by extracting broader practice principles and considering implications for practitioners across clinical, educational and community settings.
Reflective practice and approach
It is firstly important to elaborate on the basis and scope of my contribution to this special issue. My clinical work has been with unaccompanied refugee minors, yet the practice principles and approaches discussed have broader applicability for supporting youth of diverse heritage who may be navigating questions of identity and belonging in contemporary Ireland. This includes young people whose family backgrounds involve migration to Ireland through forced displacement, economic migration, family reunification or other pathways, whilst recognising that each individual's experience is unique and should not be reduced to their heritage or migration history.
Maintaining awareness of my positionality as a white expressive arts psychotherapist involves paying ongoing attention to my assumptions and judgements. This requires me to: remain curious about each young person's individual journey; create space for them to correct my understanding when needed; and seek feedback through clinical supervision and reflective practice. Most importantly, this means listening to the individuals themselves as the primary experts in their own lives (Kienzler and Spence, 2019).
Such awareness has been particularly important both in my psychotherapy with separated children and in providing trauma-informed practice training to those who support them, including social workers, educators, social care workers, youth workers, foster carers and community workers (Hoare, 2022). Working with these practitioners has highlighted how questions of belonging and identity affect not only the adolescents themselves, but also the adults supporting them, many of whom are navigating their own understanding of how to create inclusive, culturally responsive environments.
Alongside this therapeutic practice, as a researcher, I centre the voices of youth themselves through participatory research methods. I approach this therapeutic work, training and research from a place of cultural humility and the understanding that I am continuously learning. Through this work, I recognise that wisdom, strength and resilience are present in all communities and can be activated to support healing and the construction of belonging.
Navigating identity in contemporary Ireland
The 2004 referendum created distinct challenges for young people of diverse heritage in Ireland, especially the fundamental contradiction faced by those born and raised as Irish while potentially lacking legal recognition of that reality. Yet the referendum's significance extends far beyond its immediate legal consequences, fundamentally altering how questions of authentic Irishness are discussed and contested in contemporary Irish society. As White and Gilmartin (2008: 390) argue, the constitutional change from jus soli to jus sanguinis citizenship relied on legally articulated understandings of the relationship between people and place that are particular and restrictive, creating new frameworks for determining who belongs within Irish society. The referendum's legacy has shaped a cultural context in which young people from diverse backgrounds increasingly encounter questions about their belonging and legitimacy as Irish. These legal discourses work to ‘fix the relationship between space and identity through defining who belongs, and who is excluded from, full participation in citizenship’ (White and Gilmartin, 2008: 397).
These conversations create conditions that Ní Mhurchú (2014) describes as ‘ambiguous citizenship’, where people become caught between inclusion and exclusion. Irish identity has become more contested and multifaceted in the post-referendum era, requiring adolescents to navigate between legal, cultural, ethnic and civic definitions that may not align with their lived experiences. Some experience direct questioning of their belonging despite being born or raised in Ireland, while others internalise doubts about their place in society even when their right to belong is not openly contested.
Young people from diverse backgrounds in post-referendum Ireland face what can be understood as a form of ‘double burden’, a concept originally developed by Tefferi (2007) to describe adolescent refugees managing both typical identity development and displacement-related challenges. Like displaced adolescents who experience ‘double mourning’ (grieving both their childhood and their homeland simultaneously, as described by Volkan, 2018), young people questioning their place in Irish society may find themselves mourning both their sense of Irish belonging and the potential loss of heritage languages, traditions and cultural connections.
Given what Mullen (in this volume) reveals about Ireland's ‘generational antiblackness’, a persistent structure that frames blackness as ‘incompatible with Irishness’, young people from diverse backgrounds face belonging uncertainty that extends beyond typical adolescent identity challenges. When one's very presence may be constructed as threatening to dominant Irish racial imaginaries (the collective assumptions about who can be ‘truly Irish’ based on race), the complexity of navigating identity requires approaches that can address experiences often beyond the reach of conventional verbal exploration. It is within this context of structural exclusion that expressive arts approaches become particularly valuable, providing embodied pathways for identity navigation that honours both the depth of these challenges and the diverse cultural resources young people bring to constructing their sense of self.
Creative approaches to identity and healing
Expressive arts encompass a wide range of creative modalities including visual art, music, movement, drama, creative writing and mixed media approaches that integrate multiple forms of expression (Knill et al., 2005). These creative approaches emphasise the creative process itself as a means of exploration, communication and meaning-making.
The community-based approaches outlined in this paper align with established trauma-informed care principles for supporting immigrant and refugee youth (Miller et al., 2019), adapted for non-clinical settings where formal therapy is not the intended outcome. This ensures that creative exploration occurs within psychologically safe frameworks whilst remaining within appropriate boundaries for community-based youth work practice.
Young people's experiences of identity and belonging exist within multifaceted social and personal contexts. Some young people navigating questions of identity and belonging may have faced experiences such as displacement, discrimination or family separation that could be experienced as traumatic. Whether such experiences are experienced as traumatic depends largely on individual factors, which include previous life experiences, the meaning they attribute to events, their existing resilience and coping resources and available social support (Van der Kolk, 2014).
Research on trauma and the brain helps explain why embodied creative approaches, which involve the whole person through mind, body and emotions, are particularly effective for young people who have experienced challenging events (Malchiodi, 2020). Van der Kolk's (2014) foundational research reveals that traumatic experiences are often stored as sensory fragments (images, sounds, bodily sensations and emotional states) that may initially resist verbal articulation. During traumatic experiences, brain areas responsible for language become less active, whilst areas processing emotional and sensory information become hyperactivated. While van der Kolk's theoretical framework has attracted ongoing academic critique, most notably regarding the evidence base for some of his proposed treatments (Cox and Codd, 2023), his research demonstrates that creative expression can provide crucial pathways to access and process experiences that remain outside the reach of traditional verbal therapies.
This understanding of processing difficult experiences through creative expression extends well beyond trauma contexts. They are particularly relevant for identity exploration, where experiences may be nuanced and difficult to articulate through words alone. Expressive arts approaches also honour diverse cultural traditions of healing that may be more familiar and accessible to some young people with non-Irish heritage (Bingley et al., 2023).
When young people face challenging questions about identity and belonging in the context of structural racism, as Mullen's analysis exposes, creative modalities become particularly valuable. These approaches enable young people to develop a more integrated sense of self that honours both their heritage and their evolving identity in Ireland. Through this process, they can move beyond binary choices between cultures and construct identities that encompass multiple belongings and ways of being in the world.
Adolescent identity development: the foundation
To better understand the challenges facing young people of non-Irish heritage in contemporary Ireland, we must examine the foundational processes of adolescent identity development. Erik Erikson's seminal work on psychosocial development identified adolescence as the stage of ‘identity versus role confusion’, where young people must successfully integrate their various experiences and social roles into a coherent sense of self (Erikson and Erikson, 1998). Current research builds on Erikson's work to demonstrate that identity formation during adolescence is characterised by both growth and stability, which extends well into young adulthood (Branje, 2022).
This involves what researchers term ‘identity work’, which includes active exploration and commitment across vocational, relational and ideological domains (Meeus, 2011). Luyckx et al. (2006) propose dual-cycle models showing that adolescents navigate two interrelated cycles: an identity formation cycle where they explore alternatives and form commitments, and an identity maintenance cycle that strengthens chosen commitments through in-depth exploration. When this process results in increased uncertainty, they may reconsider commitments and return to the formation cycle. This highlights the dynamic nature of this process.
The adolescent brain undergoes remarkable transformation, with the prefrontal cortex responsible for executive functioning maturing more slowly than regions involved in emotional processing (Siegel, 2014). This pattern of brain development means adolescents often experience emotional intensity, strong peer influence and heightened sensitivity to social acceptance or rejection. These developmental processes occur within nested ecological systems where family, school, peer groups and broader cultural contexts all contribute to identity formation. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory, which evolved into the bioecological model through subsequent work (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006), provides a crucial framework for understanding how multiple environmental layers – from immediate relationships (microsystem) to broader cultural values (macrosystem) – interact to shape adolescent development. Figure 1 provides a visual representation of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory applied to adolescent refugees, illustrating how various factors at different ecological levels interact to influence the adaptation and resilience of young people like Maryse during forced displacement.
Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model applied to refugee adolescent development. Author's own diagram, adapted from Bronfenbrenner (1979) and Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006).
Within this ecological context, identity development becomes more complex when individuals face questions about their fundamental belonging within society (Tefferi, 2007). While this process typically relies on supportive relationships with parents and peers, which provide both encouragement for independent self-development and a secure base for exploration, societal questioning of young people's legitimacy or belonging can compromise both individual exploration and supportive relational contexts, potentially leading to prolonged identity uncertainty and associated difficulties. Research with over 7000 immigrant youth across 13 countries demonstrates how young people navigate these challenges through different acculturation patterns – integration, ethnic orientation, national orientation or diffuse patterns characterised by uncertainty about intercultural living (Berry et al., 2022).
The embodied nature of identity formation
Identity development is not purely a cognitive process but a fundamentally embodied experience. Young people come to know themselves not just through thinking but through moving, feeling, creating and interacting with their physical and social environment (Singer, 2014). This embodied dimension becomes particularly significant for young people navigating belonging uncertainty.
The body holds memories and responses that may not be accessible through verbal processing alone. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio's research on somatic markers demonstrates how the body provides crucial information about our environment and relationships that operate below the level of conscious thought (Damasio, 1994). For adolescents navigating complex social dynamics around belonging, their bodies may be registering information about acceptance or rejection before their cognitive minds can process these experiences verbally (Vankerckhoven et al., 2023).
Cultural traditions worldwide recognise the connection between physical expression and identity formation. Traditional healing practices across cultures – from Navajo sandpainting to Aboriginal healing circles (Degges-White, 2017) and African drumming ceremonies (Elendu, 2024) – demonstrate sophisticated understanding of the mind-body connection now being validated by modern neuroscience (Schore, 2012). Rather than requiring adaptation to Western therapeutic models, creative expression can build bridges between traditional healing practices and contemporary support approaches. For young people from diverse heritage backgrounds, these creative modalities offer crucial pathways to maintain connection to cultural traditions and identities that may feel threatened or invisible in their Irish context).
Creative approaches to identity support
Understanding identity development as an embodied process suggests the need for therapeutic approaches that engage the whole person rather than focusing primarily on verbal processing. Creative expression offers ways for young people to explore identity questions that honour both their developmental needs and their cultural backgrounds. For practitioners supporting young people navigating belonging uncertainty in Ireland, this understanding points towards the value of creative, experiential approaches that can complement traditional approaches or provide alternative pathways for expression (Figure 2).
Seven/eleven breathing.
The BASIC Ph model of coping and resiliency (developed by Lahad et al., 2013) provides a valuable framework for understanding how individuals access different channels of coping resources. This integrative model identifies six dimensions that underlie coping: Belief and values, Affect (emotional), Social, Imaginative, Cognitive and Physiological. While conventional talk-based approaches primarily engage cognitive channels, expressive arts approaches can access imaginative, affective and physiological resources that may be more culturally familiar or developmentally accessible to young people from diverse heritage backgrounds.
Importantly, Lahad's research demonstrates that although individuals have preferred modes of coping, most people have access to multiple channels (Lahad et al., 2013). For young people whose typical coping resources may be compromised by belonging uncertainty, creative approaches can help activate dormant or underdeveloped coping channels. Rather than requiring young people to fit their experiences into predetermined therapeutic frameworks, these approaches create space for individuals to explore and express their own understanding of identity and belonging through multiple modalities.
Group approaches to identity exploration
While the principles outlined above can be applied when working with individuals, group settings offer particular advantages for young people navigating questions of multicultural identity and belonging. These contexts provide opportunities for participants to discover that their experiences of navigating between cultures are shared by others, reducing the feelings of isolation and exclusion that can accompany belonging uncertainty. When young people see peers successfully integrating multiple cultural identities, it expands their own sense of what is possible and normalises the complexity of multicultural belonging.
The peer validation available in group settings can be particularly powerful for adolescents, given their developmental sensitivity to peer acceptance and their need to understand how they fit within their social world. Groups also create opportunities for cultural exchange and learning, where participants can share aspects of their heritage with others while learning about different cultural perspectives, ultimately contributing to a richer understanding of contemporary Irish multicultural identity.
From a practical standpoint, group approaches allow practitioners to support multiple young people simultaneously while creating communities of support that extend beyond formal sessions. Participants often continue to support each other's identity exploration journeys through the relationships formed in group settings, creating lasting networks of understanding and belonging (Sakamoto and Couto, 2017).
The following case study demonstrates how these principles translate into practice through a detailed exploration of Maryse's identity exploration journey, showing how different expressive arts activities activated various BASIC Ph channels to support her identity integration process.
Case study: Maryse's journey of identity and belonging
This composite case study introduces Maryse, a 16-year-old unaccompanied minor from the Democratic Republic of Congo. As Duffy (2010) demonstrates, composite cases blend clinical material from multiple real cases into a single representative case, removing the requirement to obtain consent while avoiding the limitations of either over-disguised or under-disguised single cases. This approach allows researchers to convey meaningful therapeutic relationships and individual experiences within ethical boundaries, thereby attaining a depth of relational engagement unlikely to be achieved using other methods (Hoare, 2022). Composite cases capture both common experiences and unique individual elements, ensuring multidimensionality while maintaining complete anonymity. It is important to clarify the composite nature of all the characters presented in this case study.
Maryse is a composite drawn from the experiences of multiple unaccompanied minors with whom the author has worked or encountered in a professional capacity, blending elements from several real individuals to create a representative account whilst ensuring no single person is identifiable. Sarah, the youth worker, is similarly a composite figure, drawing on the practice of several youth workers and practitioners known to the author through training and supervision contexts; her facilitation choices illustrate approaches discussed and observed across multiple settings rather than representing any single individual. The other group participants described throughout the case study, including those born in Ireland to Nigerian, Polish and Somali families, are likewise composite figures representing the range of young people who participate in similar groups in contemporary Ireland. All direct quotations attributed to participants and Sarah are reconstructed from the author's professional notes, clinical supervision records and practice reflections drawn across multiple encounters rather than verbatim transcriptions from any single individual. This approach ensures ethical protection for all involved whilst retaining the richness and authenticity of lived experience.
Theoretical framework: Herman's three-stage model
This case study draws inspiration from Judith Herman's widely recognised three-stage model of trauma recovery, adapting it for community-based identity exploration work, providing a framework for understanding the healing process whilst acknowledging its inherently non-linear nature. Herman's stages of Safety and Stabilisation, Remembrance and Mourning, and Reconnection offer structure for supporting individuals who have experienced trauma, whilst recognising that healing rarely follows a predictable progression (Herman, 1992).
Whilst we cannot assume that all young people navigating questions of identity and belonging have experienced trauma, adopting this trauma-informed framework ensures that the environment remains safe and healing for all participants, regardless of their individual experiences. This approach recognises that questions of belonging and cultural identity can themselves be sources of distress, and that some young people may have experienced various forms of adversity including displacement, discrimination and/or family separation.
As Herman emphasises, these stages are a general outline, rather than a rigid prescription, and individuals may move back and forth between stages or experience elements of multiple stages simultaneously. For young people navigating questions of identity and belonging, this flexibility is particularly important, as the process of cultural integration and identity exploration evolves differently for each person.
The three stages, as adapted for this context, focus on Stage 1: creating safety and developing coping resources, Stage 2: creative identity exploration and cultural sharing (adapted from Herman's ‘remembrance and mourning’ stage), and Stage 3: building connections within the broader community whilst integrating multiple aspects of identity. This framework ensures that foundational safety and stability are established before deeper exploration begins for those who want to, whilst recognising that young people may revisit earlier stages as new challenges or insights emerge.
Background and context
Maryse, a 16-year-old young person from the Democratic Republic of Congo, arrived in Ireland as an unaccompanied minor in early 2024. She lives with a foster family and attends the local secondary school, where she has quickly shown herself to be a highly motivated student. Before leaving the Democratic Republic of Congo, Maryse had lived with her extended family in a close-knit community where she was known for her storytelling and her role as a cultural bridge between her grandmother's generation and younger cousins.
Maryse spoke French and Lingala at home and had been preparing for secondary school examinations when she was forced to flee. Arriving in Ireland without family members or prior knowledge of the country, she has had to rebuild her sense of self and belonging from the ground up. To understand Maryse's experience of navigating identity and belonging, it is helpful to draw on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006), which recognises that adolescent development occurs within nested ecological systems where individual, family, school, peer groups and broader cultural contexts all interact to shape identity formation (see Figure 1).
Sarah, Maryse's youth worker, runs weekly creative expression sessions at the local community centre and has noticed how Maryse often participates quietly in group activities, rarely sharing personal experiences, and seems to carry a quiet uncertainty that becomes particularly evident when discussions turn to questions of home, family or belonging. The youth group includes both young people like Maryse who have recently arrived in Ireland, and others who were born in Ireland but whose families have diverse heritage backgrounds, many of whom face similar questions about identity and belonging in contemporary Irish society. Significantly, several of the Irish-born participants are among those whose citizenship entitlements were affected by the 2004 referendum, meaning that questions of national belonging are not simply a matter of recent arrival but cut across the group in ways that speak directly to the post-referendum context addressed by this special issue.
Maryse's journey to Ireland involved leaving behind not only her family and friends, but also her sense of who she was within her community. In her home country, she had been known as the storyteller among her friends, the one who could make others laugh, the daughter who helped translate between her grandmother's traditional stories and her younger cousins’ present-day challenges. These relationships and roles had provided the foundation for her sense of self and belonging.
Here in Ireland, these aspects of her identity feel disconnected from her daily life. She does well academically but struggles to find her voice in social situations. She understands Irish culture in a cognitive way but feels emotionally distant from it. Most challenging of all, she questions whether she can be both loyal to her heritage and open to becoming Irish, whether belonging here means losing who she was. These struggles resonate with other group members too, including those born in Ireland who sometimes feel caught between their family's cultural heritage and their Irish identity, particularly when facing questions about ‘where they're really from’ or whether they're ‘really Irish’.
As an experienced youth worker who had recently completed trauma-informed practice training, Sarah recognised that many young people in her group were navigating complex questions about identity and belonging in contemporary Ireland. Drawing on her understanding of how creative expression can support young people's development, she decided to design group activities that could help all participants explore these questions through approaches that any supportive adult could facilitate and incorporate into other group settings.
Stage 1: Safety and stabilisation
Sarah understood that before young people could explore complex questions of identity and belonging, they needed to feel safe and valued exactly as they were. This foundation building happened through consistent group practices that communicated cultural respect and personal recognition, whilst ensuring that participants maintained control over their own experience and engagement.
Establishing group ground rules together
Sarah began the first session by inviting all participants to collaboratively establish ground rules that would help everyone feel safe and respected. Rather than imposing predetermined rules, she facilitated a discussion where the group could shape these together based on what they needed to feel comfortable sharing their experiences.
‘What do you need from this group to feel safe exploring questions about identity and belonging?’ Sarah asked. The participants contributed ideas that reflected their diverse experiences:
Respecting confidentiality – ‘what's shared here, stays here’ Learning to pronounce everyone's names correctly and asking for help when unsure Allowing people to decline sharing without explanation Recognising that everyone's experience of belonging is valid and unique Asking genuine questions about each other's backgrounds with curiosity Creating space for multiple languages and varied comfort levels with cultural sharing
The group agreed that these ground rules could evolve as they got to know each other better. This collaborative approach immediately established that all participants had agency in shaping their experience and that their diverse perspectives were valued from the start.
Choice and agency as a foundational principle
Building on this collaborative foundation, Sarah understood that young people navigating questions of belonging often experience feelings of powerlessness, whether from displacement, discrimination, or uncertainty about their place in society. To counter this, she made choice and agency central to every aspect of the group experience, recognising that healing and identity exploration require participants to feel they have control over their own journey.
This principle manifested practically through:
Flexible participation: Every activity offered multiple engagement options: individual or collaborative creation; whole group or partner sharing; verbal or non-verbal expression, or simply observing. Cultural autonomy: Participants determined how much heritage to share, which cultural elements to explore, and whether to engage with Irish culture, their heritage culture, or both. Self-directed pacing: Rather than following a rigid curriculum, participants controlled the depth and pace of identity exploration without pressure for immediate clarity about belonging.
As one participant reflected, ‘Knowing I could always say “no” made me more willing to say yes’. This emphasis on choice became the foundation that made all subsequent activities feel empowering rather than imposed, ensuring participants could engage authentically whilst maintaining their sense of agency and self-determination.
Building cultural recognition and respect
With the ground rules established by the group, Sarah modelled the cultural respect they had agreed upon. She practised pronouncing everyone's names correctly and encouraged group members to share the meanings or origins of their names if they wished. When participants mentioned cultural traditions, celebrations, or family practices, both Sarah and other group members asked questions that showed genuine interest.
She created space for diverse perspectives in group discussions, incorporating examples from various cultures when exploring themes like family, celebration, or storytelling. This approach worked equally well for participants who had recently arrived in Ireland and those born here but whose families maintained strong cultural connections to other countries.
‘I noticed how the energy in the room shifted when we started sharing different cultural approaches to the same universal themes’, Sarah reflected. ‘Suddenly participants realised their diverse backgrounds were strengths that enriched our discussions rather than differences that set them apart’.
For participants born in Ireland with non-Irish heritage, this validation was particularly powerful. Many had grown up feeling they needed to minimise their cultural backgrounds to fit in, but the group environment celebrated these as valuable contributions to Irish society's multicultural reality.
Creating predictable safety and initial grounding
Understanding the importance of environmental stability for young people who have experienced displacement or uncertainty about belonging, Sarah established consistent group routines whilst introducing foundational grounding techniques. Each session began with a brief check-in where participants could share how they were feeling using whatever language felt most natural, whether that was English, their heritage language or non-verbal expressions like colours, sounds or simple gestures.
Building a digital resilience toolkit
Sarah introduced the concept of personal resilience toolkits early in the group's development, recognising that participants needed reliable coping strategies before engaging in more in-depth identity exploration. Following approaches used successfully with other young people facing similar challenges, she helped the group develop personalised toolkits using the notes apps on their phones. Most participants found this the most accessible format when feeling overwhelmed or needing emotional support.
Sarah shared the rationale behind the toolkit: when we are feeling overwhelmed, our brains can struggle to remember coping strategies, but having them readily available on our phones means we can access help even when our thinking feels scattered. She also explained how images often resonate more strongly than written words when someone is feeling overwhelmed, encouraging participants to photograph meaningful items for their digital toolkit.
Maryse's initial toolkit included:
Breathing technique: A 7/11 breathing exercise infographic (breathing in for 7 counts, out for 11 counts), where she counted in both her heritage language and English, connecting her to both aspects of her identity whilst calming her nervous system. Grounding stone: A small stone from the community centre garden that she decorated with symbols from both cultures and could hold in her pocket. Cultural comfort items: Photos of an inspirational verse from her faith background, traditional patterns and landscapes from both her homeland and Ireland. Emergency contacts: Phone numbers of trusted friends and family, plus helpline numbers, with pre-written text messages she could use when feeling overwhelmed. Calming activities: Reminders to use her journal (writing in her mother tongue felt particularly grounding) and access to traditional music that connected her to her roots.
Other group participants created similar toolkits that honoured their own multicultural experiences. A participant born in Ireland to Nigerian parents included Yoruba breathing techniques her mother had taught her, whilst another incorporated Polish folk songs alongside a song by an Irish band which she liked that helped her feel connected to both her family heritage and her birthplace.
Mandala creation for identity integration and grounding
Sarah introduced mandala colouring as both a grounding technique and a tool for identity exploration. She explained how these sacred circular designs had been used across many cultures for meditation and healing, making them particularly appropriate for young people navigating multicultural identities.
The group created personalised mandalas that reflected their complex identities whilst practising grounding techniques. Maryse designed hers with traditional patterns from her homeland in the centre, surrounded by colours and symbols that felt meaningful to her Irish experience, with all elements blending and flowing together. As she coloured, she practised synchronised breathing to help herself feel calm.
Cultural sanctuary visualisation
Building on the group's comfort with grounding techniques, Sarah guided participants through creating detailed ‘sanctuary visualisations’, which are mental safe spaces they could access during difficult moments. These visualisations became particularly powerful tools for both grounding and identity integration.
Maryse's sanctuary combined elements from both her homeland and Ireland, though this integration did not come easily. In her first attempt at the visualisation, she could only picture her homeland clearly – a familiar garden with the plants and sounds of home. When Sarah gently encouraged her to include something from Ireland, Maryse initially struggled, saying quietly, ‘I don't know what belongs to me here yet’.
Over several sessions, her sanctuary slowly evolved. At first, she added a small Irish element, the green of the countryside she could see from her foster family's house, but kept it completely separate from her homeland garden, as if they existed in different worlds. ‘I can't see how they fit together’, she explained to the group. ‘It feels like they are two different worlds and that I have to choose one or the other’.
Gradually, through continued exploration and hearing other group members share their own struggles with integration, Maryse began to experiment with bringing the two elements closer. Her final sanctuary visualisation showed a garden where traditional plants from her heritage culture grew alongside Irish wildflowers, not separated into different sections, but intermingled and thriving together. A small house sat at the centre with windows that looked out on both landscapes simultaneously. Inside the house, she placed symbols representing different aspects of her identity: books in multiple languages, traditional crafts alongside Irish school materials, photos of family from home and new connections in Ireland.
This evolution took place over many weeks, with setbacks and moments of doubt about whether such integration was even possible or desirable. Like Maryse, other group members developed their own unique sanctuary visualisations, each reflecting their individual journey of cultural integration. The group practised accessing these sanctuary visualisations during moments of stress, using them as grounding techniques when questions about belonging felt overwhelming. Sarah taught them to combine the visualisation with deep breathing, creating a powerful tool for emotional regulation that also reinforced their integrated, multicultural identities. With safety and trust well established through several weeks of group work, Sarah observed that participants were ready to engage in deeper creative exploration of their cultural identities and experiences of belonging in Ireland.
Stage 2: Creative identity exploration and cultural sharing
While Herman's original Stage 2 focuses on ‘Remembrance and Mourning’ within a therapeutic context, this youth work adaptation emphasises creative exploration and cultural sharing rather than processing traumatic memories, which is the work of trained therapists. The focus shifts to helping young people explore and express their cultural identities, their experiences of belonging in Ireland, and their hopes for the future through structured creative activities. This approach maintains the developmental progression of Herman's model by building on established safety to enable deeper exploration. It remains within appropriate boundaries for community-based youth work practice. Having established a foundation of safety and trust, Sarah felt the group was ready to engage in more creative and personal exploration of their identities and cultural experiences. Building on the safe environment they had created together, she explained that the activities ahead would involve sharing more about themselves, but always within the supportive framework they had established.
The personal manifesto project
‘Today we're going to create personal manifestos’, Sarah explained to the group. ‘A manifesto is a public declaration of beliefs, values and intentions. But instead of political manifestos, we're creating personal ones – visual representations of who you are, what matters to you, and how you want to show up in the world’.
Sarah had chosen this activity because manifestos inherently deal with identity and values whilst feeling age-appropriate and empowering for teenagers. Participants could explore their relationship to their heritage, to Ireland and to their own evolving sense of self through a format that felt both personal and potentially shareable.
Sarah provided diverse materials: large poster boards, magazines for collaging, fabric pieces, paint, markers, photographs and small objects that could be attached. She had researched visual traditions from various cultures, ensuring participants could incorporate authentic cultural elements if they chose.
Maryse approached the materials thoughtfully, initially selecting images and words that spoke to universal themes like ‘hope’ and ‘growth’. Gradually, she began incorporating more specific elements:
Deep blue fabric representing her cultural concept of hope Golden threads woven through to represent her grandmother's wisdom Irish landscape images alongside photos of her homeland's geography Words in both her heritage language and English Symbols that bridged both cultures – water, trees and bridges appearing frequently
Other group members created equally complex manifestos. A participant born in Ireland to Nigerian parents explored themes of belonging to both cultures simultaneously. Another, whose Polish grandparents had immigrated decades earlier, examined how cultural heritage could persist across generations whilst adapting to new contexts.
As participants worked, Maryse found herself glancing around at what others were creating. She noticed how naturally they seemed to be weaving together different cultural elements, and slowly began reaching for some Irish imagery she had initially set aside. When another participant asked her about the golden threads, Maryse found herself explaining her grandmother's wisdom traditions, then pausing to ask about the participant's own cultural symbols.
Through the manifesto-making process, group members began to see how different aspects of identity could coexist and strengthen each other rather than compete. The visual format allowed them to experiment with relationships between heritage and Irish identity without having to verbalise the complex feelings they were still processing.
Understanding support through the Tree of Life
Building on the group's increasing confidence with creative expression, Sarah introduced the ‘Tree of Life’ activity, explaining how it could help participants visualise their support networks, cultural connections and personal growth (Stark et al., 2019). She also mentioned that once everyone had completed their individual trees, they would create a ‘Forest of Life’ together, showing how their individual stories connected to form a supportive community (Ncube and Denborough, 2007).
Sarah explained the tree metaphor: ‘Roots represent where we come from and what grounds us, the trunk shows our strength and growth, branches reach toward our dreams and goals, and leaves represent the people who matter to us. Fruit can show the gifts we offer to others’.
Maryse created her tree using a combination of drawing and collage, carefully considering each element:
Roots: Instead of simply noting her country of origin, Maryse drew intricate root systems representing different aspects of her heritage, including her grandmother's storytelling tradition, the community support she'd known, the resilience passed down through generations of strong women.
Trunk: Maryse discovered she could represent her strengths without minimising her struggles. She drew the trunk with some scars and rough bark, representing difficult experiences, but also showed new growth and solid core strength. ‘I survived the journey here’, she noted. ‘That took strength I didn't know I had’.
Branches: Her dreams surprised her with their diversity. Some branches reached toward academic achievement and potential university study. Others stretched toward maintaining connections with her heritage culture. A few newer branches represented tentative hopes about building friendships and finding community in Ireland.
Leaves: Maryse included family members from home, but also began adding some Irish connections – her foster family, Sarah herself, a few classmates she was beginning to know better. Significantly, she drew some leaves in traditional patterns from her homeland and others in distinctly Irish green, showing how her support network was becoming culturally diverse.
Fruit: Maryse drew fruits that represented what she could offer others: her storytelling abilities, her skill in helping others navigate between cultures, her multilingual capabilities. Recognising that identity exploration gains power when shared within a supportive community, Sarah introduced the next phase of the activity, explaining how their individual trees would come together to create something larger than the sum of their parts.
A participant born in Ireland to Somali parents created a tree with roots that included both Somali cultural traditions and Irish influences from her childhood, showing how heritage could be complex and layered even for those born in Ireland. Her fruit included her ability to help bridge different communities and her plans to study medicine to serve diverse populations.
As participants worked on their trees over several sessions, they became tools for understanding how belonging could be complex and multidirectional. ‘I used to think belonging meant having one clear place where you fit perfectly’, reflected one group member. ‘But maybe it's more about having strong roots that can help growth in any direction’.
When all the individual trees were complete, Sarah helped the group arrange them together to create their collective ‘Forest of Life’. They drew connections between trees where participants had supported each other, shared resources, or found common ground. The forest visualisation showed how individual identity work contributed to a thriving, diverse community where different types of trees could grow together and support each other.
Stage 3: Reconnection and integration
As the confidence of the group members grew through individual and small group creative exploration, Sarah began creating opportunities for them to share aspects of their heritage with each other and the broader community, recognising that belonging often deepens when we can offer something valuable to others.
Storytelling as cultural bridge
Drawing on the diverse storytelling traditions represented in the group, Sarah organised cultural storytelling exchanges, creating space for them to share stories, traditions or perspectives that felt meaningful to them personally.
Maryse chose to share a traditional story about a young woman who had to leave her village during a drought, ultimately discovering a new water source that saved both her original community and the new place where she settled. As she told the story, Maryse reconnected with an aspect of her identity that had felt lost.
Other participants shared stories that reflected their own multicultural experiences: a participant with Polish heritage shared how she was cooking her grandmother's recipes in their Irish kitchen; another told contemporary stories about navigating between cultures that resonated with immigrant and Irish-born participants alike.
These exchanges helped participants see that their diverse backgrounds created bridges to deeper understanding rather than barriers to belonging. They also demonstrated how contemporary Irish culture was being actively shaped by all their contributions.
Creating resilience resources
Recognising that exploration of identity and belonging sometimes brought up difficult emotions, Sarah helped the group develop collective resilience resources that participants could access during challenging moments.
Working together, they created what they called a ‘resilience toolkit’, a collection of strategies that drew on all their cultural backgrounds:
Breathing techniques from different meditation traditions Grounding exercises that connected them to specific places (Ireland, heritage countries or imagined safe spaces) Music playlists that celebrated their multicultural identities Affirmations in multiple languages Visual reminders of their manifesto values they could keep on their phones
This collaborative approach ensured that strategies felt authentic to all participants whilst building on their diverse cultural wisdom about coping and resilience.
Building community through creative expression
Sarah supported the group in organising a ‘Multicultural Ireland’ showcase for the broader community centre, where participants could share creative work that celebrated the complexity of contemporary Irish identity. Rather than presenting themselves as representatives of their heritage cultures, participants shared work that explored their own unique positions as multicultural Irish young people.
Maryse contributed both a traditional craft technique she had learned from her grandmother and a piece of creative writing that wove together Irish and traditional imagery, showing how she was creating something new from her multiple cultural influences.
Seeing their work displayed alongside pieces from participants with different heritage backgrounds (some recent immigrants, others whose families had been in Ireland for generations), helped all participants understand that multicultural identity was a normal part of contemporary Irish experience rather than something exceptional or problematic.
For many participants born in Ireland, seeing their work alongside others was validating. One mentioned quietly to Sarah afterwards that it felt good to see their family's background represented as part of Irish experience rather than separate from it.
Conclusion: Practice principles and broader implications
Maryse's story illustrates how creative approaches can support all young people from diverse heritage backgrounds as they navigate questions of identity and belonging in contemporary Ireland. Through her participation in Sarah's group, Maryse began to understand that belonging does not require choosing between different aspects of her identity, but rather involves finding ways to integrate these various elements into a coherent and authentic sense of self, or in her words, ‘I can be Irish and Congolese and it's not weird or anything it's just who I am’. However, it is essential to hold this individual progress alongside the structural analysis offered elsewhere in this special issue. As Mullen (in this volume) demonstrates, young people like Maryse navigate their identity not in a neutral space but within a context of what he terms ‘generational antiblackness’ – a persistent structural racism that frames Blackness as incompatible with Irishness.
The expressive arts approaches described in this paper can support young people to develop resilience and a more integrated sense of self, but they cannot in themselves dismantle the structural barriers they face. Practitioners must therefore hold both dimensions simultaneously: offering individual and group support for identity exploration whilst remaining alert to, and willing to name, the structural racism that shapes the conditions in which these young people live. Therapeutic and community-based approaches risk becoming individualising if they focus solely on the young person's psychological adaptation without also advocating for structural change. The goal must ultimately be a more just society in which young people of all heritages can claim their Irishness without having to negotiate with a racialised gatekeeping of national belonging.
This approach drew on Herman's (1992) three-stage model but adapted it specifically for community-based identity exploration work. The activities the group engaged in following the stages of safety and stabilisation, creative identity exploration and cultural sharing, and reconnection provided participants with tools for ongoing identity exploration rather than discrete interventions.
Key practice principles
From Maryse's journey and Sarah's facilitation, several core trauma-informed principles emerge for supporting young people navigating multicultural identity and belonging in contemporary Ireland.
Prioritising choice and agency
Ensuring participants retain choice and exercise agency over their level of engagement, cultural sharing and pace of exploration proved fundamental to creating psychological safety. This principle directly addresses the powerlessness that many young people experience when facing questions about their legitimacy or belonging in Irish society. By consistently offering multiple participation options and respecting participants’ boundaries, practitioners can create environments where exploration happens from strength rather than vulnerability.
Cultural humility and responsiveness
Practitioners must approach this work from a position of learning, recognising young people as experts on their own cultural experiences whilst creating space for correction and feedback. This involves actively challenging assumptions about cultural practices, remaining curious about individual experiences rather than making generalisations, and acknowledging the evolving nature of multicultural Irish identity. Such humility becomes particularly important given the structural inequalities that shape belonging experiences in post-referendum Ireland.
Developmental appropriateness
Activities must be adapted to adolescent developmental needs, recognising their heightened sensitivity to peer acceptance and their ongoing identity formation processes. The group setting proved particularly powerful for normalising the complexity of multicultural belonging, allowing participants to see peers successfully integrating multiple cultural identities whilst providing opportunities for mutual support and validation.
Trauma-informed foundations
Even when not explicitly addressing trauma, establishing safety and stability before deeper exploration protects all participants and creates conditions for authentic engagement. This approach recognises that questions of belonging and cultural identity can themselves be sources of distress, particularly in contexts where young people face discrimination or exclusion based on their heritage.
Creative and embodied approaches
Visual, sensory and creative modalities can access aspects of identity and belonging that may be difficult to express verbally, particularly important for experiences of exclusion or belonging uncertainty. These approaches also honour diverse cultural traditions of healing and expression, creating bridges between traditional practices and contemporary support approaches rather than requiring adaptation to Western therapeutic models.
Accessing multiple coping channels
Following Lahad's BASIC Ph model, practitioners should recognise that individuals access different channels of coping resources (Belief, Affect, Social, Imaginative, Cognitive and Physiological). While conventional approaches primarily engage cognitive channels, creative approaches can activate imaginative, affective and physiological resources that may be more culturally familiar or developmentally accessible to young people from diverse heritage backgrounds. For young people whose typical coping resources may be compromised by belonging uncertainty, these approaches can help activate dormant or underdeveloped coping channels.
Implications for different professional contexts
The approaches Sarah used in this youth group setting can be adapted across various contexts and populations while maintaining core principles. The key elements of creating safety, honouring cultural complexity and supporting active identity construction and reconnection remain constant across different settings. However, the specific activities can be modified based on participants’ ages, group size, available time and cultural contexts, always maintaining the emphasis on choice, respect and celebration of multicultural belonging.
Educational settings: Teachers and school counsellors can adapt these approaches for classroom discussions about literature, history or citizenship education, creating opportunities for students to explore multicultural Irish identity through creative projects. The emphasis on choice and cultural respect can inform how schools approach diversity celebration, moving beyond tokenistic multicultural events towards ongoing recognition of Ireland's evolving cultural landscape. Schools might incorporate identity exploration activities into transition year programmes or use creative approaches to address belonging questions that arise in classroom discussions about Irish history or contemporary society.
Community and youth work: Youth workers can implement similar group approaches, using the three-stage framework to structure identity exploration programmes whilst maintaining appropriate professional boundaries. The emphasis on peer validation and community building makes these approaches particularly suitable for community centre programmes, youth clubs and community development initiatives. Youth workers might adapt these activities for intergenerational programmes that bring together young people and community elders from diverse backgrounds, creating opportunities for cultural exchange and mutual learning.
Social work practice: Social workers supporting families from diverse backgrounds can use these principles to create more culturally responsive interventions, particularly when working with young people experiencing family conflict around cultural identity or integration. The framework can inform family work where parents and children are navigating different relationships to Irish culture, helping families find ways to maintain cultural connections whilst building belonging in Ireland. Social workers might also use these approaches in group work with care-experienced young people from diverse backgrounds who face particular challenges around belonging and identity.
Clinical practice: Therapists working with young people facing belonging uncertainty can draw on these creative approaches whilst maintaining their therapeutic framework and scope of practice. The three-stage model provides structure for therapeutic work that addresses identity concerns, whilst the emphasis on choice and cultural responsiveness can inform therapeutic relationships with clients from diverse backgrounds. Clinicians might integrate creative modalities into individual therapy or develop therapeutic groups specifically for young people navigating multicultural identity questions.
Research and policy implications: This work highlights the need for research that centres young people's own experiences of navigating multicultural identity in contemporary Ireland. Future research might explore how these approaches work across different age groups, cultural backgrounds and geographic contexts within Ireland. Policymakers might consider how educational curricula, youth services and integration supports can better reflect the reality of Ireland's multicultural society whilst addressing the ongoing impacts of the 2004 referendum on young people's sense of belonging.
For supportive adults working with young people from diverse backgrounds, this group's journey suggests that the most important elements are cultural humility, creative flexibility and patience with the complex process of identity integration. Rather than rushing toward predetermined outcomes, effective support involves creating spaces where young people can explore their questions about identity and belonging at their own pace, ultimately finding ways to honour their heritage whilst building meaningful connections within their Irish communities.
Most importantly, this work demonstrates that questions of multicultural belonging are not problems to be solved but ongoing creative processes to be supported, celebrated and recognised as vital contributions to Ireland's evolving cultural landscape.
Footnotes
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.