This blog post is long overdue, but you know what they say…better late than never! Quite a lot has happened in the past 9 months, but I’ll post below a quick timeline of events to get you up to speed:

• Jan 2019: Submitted my application to the Art Therapy/Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s program at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.
• Early Feb 2019: Interviewed at Lesley University
• Mid Feb 2019: Officially accepted into Grad School!
• May-July 2019: Took two online additional psychology courses to fulfill the pre-requisites for my program.
• July 8-July 26, 2019: Spent three weeks attending orientation & classes in Cambridge, MA for my first summer residency; spent a lot of quality time with my art therapy cohort as well as the entire expressive therapies graduate class. Had intensive face-to-face class time for two of my classes that are now continuing online this fall.
• Sept 2, 2019: My first semester of online classes begins!

There’s so much more I could say about all of that, but I’ll leave it there for now. It’s been incredibly empowering, inspiring, challenging and exhausting being back in school – balancing home life, work life and school life – but I wouldn’t change a thing! Every day I feel incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to learn and experience the healing power of the arts and how art can give a voice and expression when words are hard to find. I’ve come to realize more and more how making art is an inherently natural part of being human, and that is why the very act of creating is therapeutic. Many adults lose touch with this innate part of their being as they grow older, but it is always still there, ready to be brought out for a fuller dimension of creative expression.

One of the best things about being in an art therapy program is that we are constantly making art! While I do spend hours and hours reading and writing, analyzing and thinking, I also get to express myself by creating reflective art to share with my cohort and professors. I’ll share a few of my recent pieces below.

While my grad school journey is just beginning, I feel like I’ve already learned and grown so much. It’s going to be a deep dive into peeling back the layers to reveal more about myself as an individual, artist and eventually, therapist.