Master of Arts in Art Therapy: Thesis Abstracts
Art Therapy Office
Sharp Building
37 S. Wabash Ave., 7th floor
Phone: 312.899.7481
arttherapy@saic.edu
Randy Vick, Chair, rvick@saic.edu
Angela Lyonsmith, Placement Coordinator, alyons@saic.edu
Savneet Talwar, Placement Coordinator, stalwar@saic.edu
Kathleen McGrath, Administrative Director, kmcgrath@saic.edu
The Master of Arts in Art Therapy program balances the sensibilities and insights of the artist with the skills and training of the clinician. Both clinical and aesthetic understanding play a key role in assisting clients in gaining new insights or reaching higher levels of functioning through the art-making process. Whether in a psychiatric hospital, therapeutic school, residential facility or medical center, the role of the art therapist is to facilitate and nurture a creative engagement with art that is constructive and growth enhancing.
The curriculum combines learning experiences in the classroom, studio, and clinic to prepare graduates for work in a wide range of settings with a variety of clients. In addition to registered art therapists, the faculty includes experts from the fields of fine art, psychiatry, psychology, and counseling. While at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, students combine theoretical and experiential learning in the classrooms and studios with practical application of this learning in their fieldsite placements. The master's thesis is a natural extension of this learning and provides students with the opportunity to research, develop, and document their ideas in a formal, scholarly format.
Each year, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago celebrates the culmination and closure of students' studies at the masters level. In studio areas, the celebration takes place in the form of the thesis exhibitions, while the academic areas complement this with the thesis abstracts publication. This thesis abstract collection gathers and showcases thesis research undertaken in six programs: Master of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy; Master of Arts in Art Education; Master of Arts in Art History, Theory and Criticism; Master of Arts in Art Therapy; Master of Arts in Teaching; and Master of Science in Historic Preservation.
2012 Thesis Abstracts
April Grace Abesamis
Woodcarving as an art therapy treatment for the cognitive and emotional symptoms of sports-related mild traumatic Brain Injury : a preliminary proposal for an empirical research study
Avery Blair-Wilson
Finding strength through shared stories : an autoethnographic exploration of vicarious resilience
Michelle Ettlinger
After the storm : a graphic novel of neurology, trauma, and art therapy
Katrina Ann Funk
Becoming visible, becoming brave : broadening the realm of art therapy practice
Joyce Garside
Art therapists' attitudes toward persons with obesity
GraceAnn Elizabeth Goll
Regaining humanity : an art therapy perspective on current disaster relief work as informed by the Holocaust experience in Terezin
Jae Hoon Kim
Acculturation : a container to understand clients
Charlotte Kimlick
Marks of identity : body art expression in art therapy with adolescent boys in residential treatment
Erendira Lopez
An investigation into the creative process/ artistic creativity
Emily L. MacArthur
Common threads : a case study of a hospice patient with dementia
Cass Magiera
Un-defining art therapy
Katherine A. Pfeiffer
Art therapy as anxiety reduction in pediatric patients preparing for surgery : descriptive report on designing an empirical art therapy research protocol
Hannah R. Shinozaki
Theatre as a therapeutic tool : utilizing an integrated arts approach to help adults with developmental disabilities build interpersonal skills
2011 Thesis Abstracts
Amy Kathleen Cronk
Creating visibility from invisibility : coping with the diagnosis of a chronic illness through book alteration
Theresa Reardon Dewey
Dollmaking with individuals who have advanced stage dementia : finding the person inside
Mónica B. Guzmán
Art and reconstruction : community-based art therapy as a response to natural disasters
Rachel J. Harrison
Creating community : art therapy with adolescents
Katharine Joy Houpt
She saw something different : using art therapy to build intergenerational relationships
Anikka A. Knick
Reading between the illustrations : writing and illustrating a picture book as a form of response art
Ling Cheun Bianca Lee
Mediating the cultural boundaries : a heuristic study of Chinese immigrants in artistic collaboration
Sangeetha Ravichandran
Examining empowerment with survivors of domestic violence in India : an intersectional analysis
Callie Rimmel
Community-based art therapy : art therapist as project manager
Emerald Smith
Hopes and dreams for the future : art therapy with adults living in permanent supportive housing
Jovana Irene Torres
Collaboration of music and art in hospice : a personal narrative on bringing music into art therapy
2010 Thesis Abstracts
Michal Angel
Trauma Enactment: A Link to Thinking of the Liminal Space in Art Therapy
Jackie L. Bousek
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes : revisiting art with adolescents
Rachel Elizabeth Brown
Deconstructing art therapy : seeking and discovering balance through lost polarities
Rawhide Rhie Cruz
Healing through clay : molding a new life
Danielle Eichner
Video diaries, adolescents with cancer, and social connections : a theoretical model
Richard Flynn
Story : tales from the art of critically ill children
Leah R. Gipson
Shoes as therapy : an art-based approach to trauma recovery with adult women survivors of sexual abuse and sexual assault
Anna Jo Gosses
A narrative approach to art therapy supervision : storytelling as artistic inquiry
Lindsey Buccina Hurrle
Integrating art therapy into an animal-assisted therapy program for adolescents
Katharine M. Kiehn
Second chance : an art therapy group using recycled materials as metaphor for transforming personal narratives
Juhee Kim
Action-first approach with Asian immigrants and refugees with mental illness
Sarah M. L'Heureux-Bel
Visual voice project : a social action pilot, involving a cross-cultural art exchange between U.S. and Haitian youth
Erin Owens
Art Therapy Student Interns on the Impact of Response Art and Site Supervision
Robin Sheldon
Working from scribbles : giving form to response drawings made during group facilitation
Jiwon Shin
The effectiveness of art therapy with pregnant women
Kristina E Vogt
Relationships and Resiliency: Art Therapy with Teen Mothers in Home-based Care
Aleksandra Weldon-Linne
The Use of Art Therapy to Strengthen Coping Skills of Refugee Adolescents and their Families: A Method for Negotiating the Process of Acculturation
2009 Thesis Abstracts
Lisa M. D'Innocenzo
Lighting a candle, cursing the darkness : integrating art making and Jewish mourning rituals in the aftermath of pregnancy loss
Shannon N. Kavanagh
Rendering visibility : art therapy and queer theory
Margaret T. Kaounis
By land and by sea : an art therapy intern's exploration of past and present experience through art making
Gina M. Portelli
Gender queer cabaret : how drag performance can be used as a therapeutic tool for social change
Elizabeth Ivy Enterkin
Making room to heal : the collaborative creation of an art therapy program for and with women who have experienced homelessness
Andrea G. Koch
Moving images : video in art therapy with children in residential treatment
Brian R. Rath
From conflict toward an eclectic education : an evaluation of art therapy graduate education
Crystal Smedley
Cognitive art therapy : exploring negative thoughts through image making
2008 Thesis Abstracts
Veronica Isabel Nava
Art therapy and the Latino culture : the shortage of bilingual therapists and its implications on the mental health community and Latinos
Cristiane Mohallem
Brief play and art therapy at in-patient units : helping physically ill patients to cope with emotional and psychological conflicts
Tingting Zhang
Community art therapy as a means of stigma reduction
Christine (Ling) Olaes
Cooking as art therapy with older adults : memories, metaphors, and meanings in the kitchen
Jaimie Peterson
Diner drawings : family, art, veterans, art therapy, coffee, and the Vietnam War
Michelle Kendrick
The impact of creation : an exploration of the value of commerce in the therapeutic "DIY" experience
M. Seeley Cardone
Visual narratives and art therapy : the comic format in adolescent substance abuse treatment
2007 Thesis Abstracts
Sara Bennett-Steele
Altering the environment on an Alzheimer's Special Care Unit : the creation of multi-sensory interactive art installations
Kolleen M. Bentivegna
Gardening the inner landscape : using natural materials and their associated metaphors with homeless and formerly homeless women through individual green house construction
Robert E. Caswell
Creativity + community mental health + art therapy : how we got together and started an art therapy program
Eunhye Chung
The empathic body : cultivating empathy through body awareness practice and art therapy for people with Schizophrenia
Seema Prakash Dhond
Personal narratives : art therapy with sexually abused children
Madelene B. Griffin
Art therapy and the outdoors : in search of a framework for practice
Rebecca Israilevich
The experience of finding my self : the heuristic study of a graduate art therapy student
Maria Lewis
Art therapy and the hospital environment : an ecological perspective
Julie M. Ludwick
Therapeutic riding and art therapy : working with children with special needs
Joseph J. McGrath
Exploring the characters within : the benefits of utilizing metaphor in art making with at-risk youth from a residential facility
Michael Ryan Noble
Don Seiden and the immaterial medium : the relational philosophy of the founder of the Masters of Art Therapy program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Laura Reed
An investigation of the experience of flow in art making for adults with mental illness
Ashley T. Samson
Healing the bleeding heart : Treating self-injury with art therapy
Tori Tinsley
Young refugee females in an art therapy after-school program : stories of transition
Andrea Ines Velazquez Dorgan
Promoting emotional intelligence through art therapy in a population of Latina adolescent mothers
Maia Marie Wheeler
Combining art therapy and Tomatis Listening therapy program : complementary treatment of Autism in school-aged children
Holly M. Wherry
An intern's perspective on international art therapy : a critical examination of the globalization of art therapy
Meg Wolf
Transforming memories : using clothing to create art in a bereavement workshop
Jave Gakumei Yoshimoto
Constructive destruction as art therapy : explaining the therapeutic benefits of breaking shit (objects)
2006 Thesis Abstracts
Cheeyon Cha
How does creativity promote mental health through art therapy
Alexandrea Clark
Something borrowed, something learned : how relational qualities of mentoring can inform the work of art therapists
Clair Daney
Art therapy and the dream : metaphors in motion
Holly A. DeRosa
Autism and affect recognition : connecting faces and feelings with art therapy
Mary Harrison
Help the medicine go down : art therapy with medically nonadherent adolescents
Jill Johnson-Brown
An art therapist's book of living and dying : a heuristic exploration of hospice experience
Alyssa L. Millard
Art and environment as a means to transform the lives of bed-fast and chair-fast elders : mobilizing the immobile
Vickie Morgan
Therapeutic alliance, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and the role of art making : relationship as media and monument
Veronica Isabel Nava
Art therapy and the Latino culture : the shortage of bilingual therapists and its implications on the mental health community and Latinos
Jennifer Radil
Enhancing connection among art therapy students : a mail art exchange
Erin Redmond
Integration of spirituality and art therapy practice : examining therapists' avoidance and perceptions of obstacles
Mary Elizabeth Usdrowski
Hope and art therapy : working in Chicago public schools
Amy Voytilla
Flow states during art making
See also: 2004–05 Thesis Abstracts
