In December of 2014 I completed my Masters of Art Therapy degree at St. Mary of the Woods College.
After three years of studies and one year as an art therapist intern at Pasadena Mental Health Facility In Orlando, Florida I am now legally able to practice art therapy in the state of Florida. I am also under professional supervision from a registered art therapist (ATR) until I complete 1000 hours of paid work.
I have also been a professional and teaching artist for many years. I have taught children in after school art education programs as well as adults in painting classes and arts and wellness workshops. I really love what I do.
Art therapists do not interpret your artwork. Art therapists help students, clients and/or patients who to interpret their own artwork. Only the artist can fully express what their art really means. Art therapists are trained in identifying graphic indicators in artwork that can possibly indicate certain issues. The artist is the true revealer of the truth of the issues.
I am presently using my skills combining art and wellness to create a holistic experience with students. I try to create a safe and calming studio space for students to work and play and learn how to simply observe their inner critique but not react to it.
As a teaching artist and art therapist, MAAT, I combine wellness and art by researching both art therapy directives along with mindfulness techniques. I have combined those with various artist’s books on painting intuitively to come up with my last workshop.
And, after three years in grad school for art therapy, I painted in layers intuitively myself after reading about Carl Jung and his active Imagination process. His archetypal images also has influenced my interest in looking for personal symbols, archetypes and metaphors that could help me tell my own story.
Symbols, metaphors and archetypes can work well with intuitive painting processes as layers of paint help us to discover marks that might look like a dragonfly, bird or figure. When the line of an image spontaneously appears while painting abstractly, the artist can look at the line and decide if it has meaning or not. If there is meaning, the image can be enhanced and brought out. It is a very exciting process and I am excited to teach more of these painting process workshops.
The workshop brought students interested in the class for different reasons. Some for the art therapy connection, some because of the intuitive painting and some just to start painting again. It was a wonderful experience and I am hoping to grow as a facilitator of these workshops.
I found out yesterday that one of my students painted for hours last Saturday. I am grateful that she has found a way to express herself creatively!
I have also taught a mixed media art journal for wellness workshop in March.
I am now planning more art and wellness workshops for kids and adults so stay tuned!
So stay tuned. Here is my artist website http://www.lauraknapikbohn.com
After three years of studies and one year as an art therapist intern at Pasadena Mental Health Facility In Orlando, Florida I am now legally able to practice art therapy in the state of Florida. I am also under professional supervision from a registered art therapist (ATR) until I complete 1000 hours of paid work.
I have also been a professional and teaching artist for many years. I have taught children in after school art education programs as well as adults in painting classes and arts and wellness workshops. I really love what I do.
Art therapists do not interpret your artwork. Art therapists help students, clients and/or patients who to interpret their own artwork. Only the artist can fully express what their art really means. Art therapists are trained in identifying graphic indicators in artwork that can possibly indicate certain issues. The artist is the true revealer of the truth of the issues.
I am presently using my skills combining art and wellness to create a holistic experience with students. I try to create a safe and calming studio space for students to work and play and learn how to simply observe their inner critique but not react to it.
As a teaching artist and art therapist, MAAT, I combine wellness and art by researching both art therapy directives along with mindfulness techniques. I have combined those with various artist’s books on painting intuitively to come up with my last workshop.
And, after three years in grad school for art therapy, I painted in layers intuitively myself after reading about Carl Jung and his active Imagination process. His archetypal images also has influenced my interest in looking for personal symbols, archetypes and metaphors that could help me tell my own story.
Symbols, metaphors and archetypes can work well with intuitive painting processes as layers of paint help us to discover marks that might look like a dragonfly, bird or figure. When the line of an image spontaneously appears while painting abstractly, the artist can look at the line and decide if it has meaning or not. If there is meaning, the image can be enhanced and brought out. It is a very exciting process and I am excited to teach more of these painting process workshops.
The workshop brought students interested in the class for different reasons. Some for the art therapy connection, some because of the intuitive painting and some just to start painting again. It was a wonderful experience and I am hoping to grow as a facilitator of these workshops.
I found out yesterday that one of my students painted for hours last Saturday. I am grateful that she has found a way to express herself creatively!
I have also taught a mixed media art journal for wellness workshop in March.
I am now planning more art and wellness workshops for kids and adults so stay tuned!
So stay tuned. Here is my artist website http://www.lauraknapikbohn.com