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 About Me
Location:
Salt Lake City, UT 84117
Hours: by appointment
My Philosophy
I believe that at the core of dysfunction and mental illness is a loss or interruption of the ability to play. Play is a learned skill (Winnicott, 1974). It allows us to explore options, create our own rules, and gain mastery over challenges. When we can play with something in life, we have mastery over it. When trauma occurs, it can be intimidating and the traumatic experience can mask our self, gaining control over our actions and without even knowing it, we've turned over our ability to play with the difficult emotions and memories of what happened. The act of creating something about that significant experience begins to externalize it and slowly creates the transitional object or, in the case of art, a healing image. It becomes our action figure. Through metaphor we can now play with the original traumatic event and the experience that masked our self becomes transformed into simply an experience: something we learn and gain meaning from and move on. I believe art to be an effective component to healing, understanding and creating meaning in the psychotherapeutic experience. I know its power to transform individuals, families and communities to a greater functioning before the art.
Education:
- Albion College, Albion, MI- BFA, fine arts and psychology, 1995
- Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY- MPS (Master of Professional Studies), Art Therapy and Creativity Development, 1998
Experience:
My training and personal interest have focused on early childhood
development, parenting and the family constellation. Through this
foundation I have found that it provides a broad understanding for any
population I have had the opportunity to work with. My passion lies
in working with parents to appreciate the magic of their child's
development and gain understanding to be the best, most intentional
parents they can be, creating their own vision for themselves in this
endeavor. I have long-term experience working with acute mental
illness, including eating disorders, medical illness and aiding
professionals to unlock their creative process to move forward in their
careers and personal lives. I works as an art therapist at the
University of Utah's Neuropsychiatric Institute and in private practice. I am a nationally registered and board certified art therapist. Most recently, I have been the lab coordinator for the Fogel Lab in the Developmental Psychology department at the university of Utah. I am working on the mother-infant dyad under Dr. Fogel.
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