Art therapy is a human service profession through which the client is offered an opportunity to explore personal problems and develop emotional, physical, or learning skills through therapeutic art experiences. Central to art therapy is the use of the creative process within any person as a means for reconciling emotional conflicts, and for fostering self-awareness and personal growth. Art processes, forms, content and symbolic associations are recognized as reflections of a person's development, abilities, and concerns.

Art therapists work with individuals and groups of people of all ages in a broad range of counseling and related settings. Art therapy can be used in primary treatment, or may be part of a milieu of treatment modalities offered in a particular agency. Art therapists work in a variety of settings including

psychiatric centers clinics community centers nursing homes drug and alcohol treatment clinics schools institutions half-way houses prisons developmental centers residential treatment centers general hospitals hospices shelters other clinical, educational and rehabilitative settings

Program Objectives: Through participation in graduate level art therapy study students will:

• Develop a sophisticated professional identity as compassionate artist therapists
• Engage in on-going personal artistic activity and growth
• Integrate aesthetic, academic, and clinical studies with professional practice
• Demonstrate the ability to formulate questions, develop hypotheses, assemble and evaluate information, and present new ideas with clarity
• Gain clinical expertise in the delivery of art therapy services to a range of client populations
• Develop ethical leadership skills and a deep appreciation for the diversity, creativity and dignity of all human beings and the artworks they create

Open Admission: Mount Mary accepts approximately 25 qualified candidates as applications are submitted. There is no application deadline, however, candidates are advised to complete the application process well in advance of the desired entry date in order to assure acceptance.

Art Therapy News:

Curb magazine: Hand-Crafted Healing: Art Therapists Create Change

Spring Art Therapy Symposium:

"Art Therapy and Social Justice: Advocacy, Activism, and Altruism"
Date: Friday, April 18, 2008
Location: Helfaer Hall in Caroline Hall, Mount Mary College
Click Here to register

Honorary Life Member Award Recipient:

Bruce Moon has received the Honorary Life Member Award from the American Art Therapy Association. Read the story here. (pdf)

Art Therapist Among 10 Hot Jobs for 2007: CareerBuilder.com, one of the nation's leading recruitment resources in print and web media, has identified Art Therapist as one of the top 10 "hot jobs" for 2007. This bodes well for Mount Mary College graduates. Mount Mary's master of science degree in art therapy is the only fully accredited graduate degree in Wisconsin approved by the American Art Therapy Association.

Art Therapy Shows Promise with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Research efforts with combat Veterans who have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and children and adolescents who have been sexually abused are highlighted in the most recent issue of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association (Volume 23, No. 4). According to journal editor, Lynn Kapitan, PhD, ATR-BC, the field of art therapy "is launching an effort to lay groundwork for clinical studies that identify art therapy treatment outcomes for posttraumatic stress disorder and related concerns." Read the press release.

NOTE: Lynn Kapitan is not only the AATA Journal Editor, she is also a professor of Art Therapy and Chairperson of the Arts and Design Division at Mount Mary College.

* From its inception, Mount Mary College has been a women's college. Male students are welcome to enroll in our undergraduate nursing, post-baccalaureate certificate, and all graduate programs.