Student Survey: Why did you choose art therapy as a profession?

"I really feel like art therapy chose me.  I have always had an affinity for helping people, counseling others, and empathic listening.  As I moved into my college career I began to explore my own love for art and creativity and I decided that it was important for me to use my passion for art in a way that builds community and fosters social change.  Art therapy made sense to me, and through a series of detours and happenstance I keep finding my way back on this path."

"I still ask myself that. I like art and kids, but didn't want to be an art teacher. So I came to this. Which is really funny because now I'm an ...art teacher. I think the Universe has a big hand in this one. "

"Even when I was a bio/pre-med student I was majoring in art classes just so that I could get into them (my school didn't have room for non majors to take art classes past the introductory level). When I switched from biology to psychology I found art therapy. It was the perfect blend between my love of art and my love of science. And so I doubled in psychology and studio art. It just made sense for me. I'm not sure I can really explain it, other than going "YES! this is exactly what I want to do" once I found out about what art therapy was."

"I have been in an art school since I was 11 years old. I have always wanted to be an artist but I have felt a calling to represent something deeper and essentially to help others. I bounced back and forth and I was fascinated by anything that had to do with psychology. The day (when I was 13) I found that an interdisciplinary career like art therapy existed; I knew that this was what I was supposed to do. There are thousands of languages all over the world; however, there is one universal language that unifies us all and that it through a realm of images. Some of the most profound conversations that I have ever had with others were about the emotions that an image brought to us. Sometimes images leave us dumbfounded and speechless. The justification for using the image as a healing agent is prevalent throughout history, and of course it would make sense for a career in the 21^st century."

Please leave us your comments and let us know why you're interested in art therapy!

Student Testimonial:Taylor

For my practicum I co-facilitated a multi-generational group of women, with classmate Chelsea O'Neil, who strove to empower themselves against the debilitating effects of mass media advertising. This unique peer-based initiative was unique in its use of art to increase positive body image, self- awareness, self-confidence, and relational bonds. Every week about seventeen women met in a community based studio setting to engage in arts-based directives, thoughtful discussion, and deconstruction of truths espoused by the media. 

While I knew that looking at magazines often left me feeling badly about myself, it wasn’t until I began co-facilitating this group that I realized I carried a degree of responsibility for allowing media content to decrease my self-esteem. Through leading this group I gained a more expansive awareness, which served to lessen the media’s impact on on my self-sense. I began to notice the subtle tricks used by advertisers to manipulate my self-doubt. I found myself browsing through magazines in check-out lines having “Aha!” moments. I wanted to tell the woman in line next to me why women are held to an impossible ideal of beauty – but of course, it makes us want to buy everything! The time to share these “Aha!” moments was in the studio. 

We laughed, cried, got angry, made art, sang, danced, posed, and made fools of ourselves. Slowly we began to reclaim the tools that would strengthen us, the very tools that the media went to great lengths to obscure – our connections to one another and more importantly, our connections to ourselves.

- Taylor Siemon, Class of 2011

To learn more about the artwork created at this practicum site and 

the experiences shared in the Naropa Community Art Studio, visit:

http://projectgirlboulder.blogspot.com