I am in the Young Professionals Leadership Group at NYC’s Art Therapy Project and over the course of this past year we saw an endless need to create, relax, and take a break from everyday challenges. Creative expression has become even more important with the ongoing stressors from the pandemic, as well as the increasingly visible political and social unrest both on and offline.
After a year of collaborating with artists from around the world who have donated their time and talent to create this one of a kind book, I am pleased to announce the launch of the Art Therapy Project’s Self-Care Art Activity Book.
100% of the proceeds from this book will go to supporting The Art Therapy Project’s Youth Programs.
I am truly grateful to every artist who worked on this project and helped turn my idea into a reality.
The book has changed a lot through multiple rounds of edits and reviews with certified Art Therapists, but I love the final product.
The book provides 60 pages of creative, hands-on activities designed to offer you moments of clarity in addition to developing a healthy foundation of creative expression. All of the activities throughout this book have been vetted by certified art therapists and are interspersed with language to help you define how these self-care exercises differ from Art Therapy.
Why an Art Therapy book?
I have always been intrigued with Art Therapy and I first discovered the therapeutic practice while volunteering at Camp Joy in Zirconia, NC. I found myself spending a majority of my time in the art studio at camp and I loved watching the guests open up and share their stories over simple arts and crafts projects. After being drawn to the concept of expressing yourself through art, I decided to follow my interest in Art Therapy and study Studio Art and Psychology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
During all four years of college I led self care art activities around Chapel Hill through UNC’s Art Therapy Club. Our goal was to help spread the power of art making for self care and the clubs name was Art Heels (like Tar Heels). We organized events at local elementary schools, UNC’s children’s hospital, after school groups for teens and with students on campus.
Once I graduated from UNC I moved to NYC and got a job in consulting. I loved my job, my roommates, my city and everything about my post college life, but something felt like it was missing. After a year of settling into New York, it finally hit me, I was missing art. Sure, I went to art museums all the time and doodled in my journal, but I was missing the same connection to the community that I got through art in college and high school. I decided to go back to my roots and did a quick Google search to find the Art Therapy Project, a nonprofit mental health organization providing free group art therapy to adults and youth affected by trauma. I immediately fell in love with the nonprofit’s mission and reached out to see how I could get involved. A few weeks after emailing the group I was able to join the Art Therapy Young Professionals Board and jump back in to the world of Art Therapy.
After a year of working on the Young Professionals board I decided to concentrate my time on helping to grow the youth programs offered by the Art Therapy Project. In doing so I found myself struck by the idea to write an educational activity book that would continue my goal from college, teach people about the power of art making for self care.
Now, it has been one year since I had the idea to write a book about Art Therapy and I never would have imagined how much could change in just one year. I started the book in a pre-pandemic world, sitting on my couch, not knowing what an m95 mask even was. I spent the year virtually collaborating with artists from around the world who donated their time and talent during a global pandemic to turn my idea into a reality. Then, after one wild year, I sent the book to print while sitting on the same blue velvet couch where it all began.
It’s surreal to me to think that my interest in art for self care at age 16 would later lead to the publication of my first ever book! It’s now been 10 years since I first Google searched “Art Therapy” and I have loved all of the experiences that have followed. I’m excited to see what the next 10 years hold for me and my passion for Art Therapy. Maybe I’ll get certified to be an art therapist… maybe I’ll start a nonprofit of my own… Who knows? Stay tuned to find out 🙂
