Today, AuthorHouse is pleased to welcome self-published writer Myra F. Levick, PhD, ATR-BC, to The Author’s Digest. That second set of credentials stands for “Art Therapist, Board Certified;” in addition, Myra is the director of the South Florida Art Psychotherapy Institute, and the author of Levick Emotional and Cognitive Art Therapy Assessment.
In the first of a three-part blog post, Myra discusses her education and how she entered the fascinating field of art therapy.
When A Picture Really Means More Than A Thousand Words (Part One)
This old, well-known clichérings very true in the field of art therapy. I am an art psychotherapist and suspect that many readers have never heard of art therapy and if per chance they have, know very little about it. So I take this opportunity to share information about this unique therapeutic process and the book that culminated years of practice and research.
In 1963, I had never heard of art therapy either. After a 17 year hiatus from school to marry and have 3 daughters, I was finally graduating from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. I had been accepted in the graduate art history program at Bryn Mawr College and considered my future as an educator all set.
Then, serendipitously, fate intervened. I saw a note on the senior bulletin board from a psychiatrist inviting graduating artists to apply for a position as an “art therapist,” working with mentally ill patients in an open unit. I was intrigued, applied and got the job.
The director of the 29-bed unit, the late Morris Goldman, was a young, creative, ambitious psychoanalyst. He shared with me his knowledge of the importance of art-making with the mentally ill; he had read of how successful this therapeutic intervention had been in European institutions for many years and how there were approximately 100 artists working in hospitals with the mentally ill in the United States. They were known as art therapists. That is what he wanted on his unit.
(To be continued)
Thank you very much, Myra!
AuthorHouse Author’s Digest hopes this has been informative to our readers. Click here to read the second part of Myra’s guest blog. Also, check out Levick Emotional and Cognitive Art Therapy Assessment at the AuthorHouse Bookstore!
Read more about AuthorHouse author Dr. Myra F. Levick and her research at the links below:
Children at Risk – the homepage of Myra F. Levick, Phd, ATR-BC
The Boca Raton branch of the National League of American Pen Women
Myra’s Facebook page
Myra on LinkedIn
