Overview
My passion for incorporating the arts into psychotherapy has roots in my own experience as an artist, and my academic interest in the subject goes back to undergraduate learning. At St. Olaf College, I studied arts-based therapeutic approaches, including an independent study at the Bethel Institute in West Germany, and also studies in doodling as a projective technique, poetry-writing in therapy, dance therapy, experiments in neurological psychology and musical taste, and an internship with an art therapist working with adolescents.
I focused on intermodal expressive arts therapy during my master’s work with Paolo Knill and Shaun McNiff, acquiring experience with adults with mental illness and cognitive impairments at state hospital and community-based settings. Following completion of my master’s thesis on recurring imagery, I taught masters-level students in counseling and art therapy at Lesley University. While completing my doctoral studies in clinical psychology, I focused on arts-based approaches with forensic populations, particularly examining songwriting and human shadow studies. I continued work in correctional settings and also in a K-12 program for children with emotional and behavioral disorders.
My academic interests include: heuristic inquiry grounded in the arts, archetypal psychology, intermodal approaches to art therapy, resonance, consciousness studies, and sexuality.
Please email or call me 312.662.4346 if you have any questions or would like more information about me.