First Art & Therapy Blog

Welcome to my new blog. As you may find out from my Blogger profile, I have two other blogs as well. These two are more my own self exploration through dreams, writing and photography. This blog I hope will be more informative as well as provide a forum for discussion.

Recently, I graduated from Pratt Institute's Art Therapy program and moved back to Seattle (because though I absolutely LOVED New York, Seattle is simply home). Here I seem to have discovered that Seattle seems a bit behind (by ten or twenty years) in accepting Art Therapy as a viable profession in the mental health field. I find this very frustrating (mainly because it makes it difficult for me to find a job) and am determined to enlighten Seattle's medical world as to the benefits of Art Therapy. How do I plan to do this, you ask?

1) I created this blog, where I will write little articles on my personal experiences, summarize relevant points in books or articles that I am reading and try to generate discussion from anyone who is interested.

2) I am working on a research paper which will also serve as a basis for writing an educational grant which I hope will help me get funding and acceptance into the University of Washington's Neurobiology program where I can do some physical research on the effects of art therapy on the brain. Before I do this I'm going to have to try and get a hold of everything I can that is written on this subject so as not to be unnecessarily repetitive (If you know of anything, SEND IT MY WAY!!)

3) I am hoping th research paper will also serve later on (along with whatever research I have been able to do which substantiates my claim) as a basis for a working grant as well so I can establish an Art Therapy program at one of the big hospitals here in Seattle. But this is only the penultimate dream for my vision of Art Therapy in Seattle.

4) My ultimate dream for Art Therapy in Seattle would be to promote it enough to the point where the University of Washington (which is already well established in both Art and Medicine) starts an Art Therapy program. And who knows, maybe I could be a professor some day in that program.

So, you know my plan. I know it is dreaming big, but its my plan and I hope you enjoy following me on my journey :)