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First Art Therapist to Receive Marriage and Family Counseling License in California

For over thirty years the art therapy plan at Loyola Marymount has been committed to the didactics and grooming of art psychotherapists in Los Angeles and the greater southern California region. During this fourth dimension, its faculty has maintained a level of excellence that has made the program ane of the finest in the country.

The Early Years

Helen Landgarten was the visionary founder of the Clinical Art Therapy program at Loyola Marymount University. In 1964, as a result of her exploratory work with a geriatric population in a community center and an inpatient unit at U.S.C. County Full general Infirmary, painter Helen Landgarten began to develop a therapeutic and psychologically-oriented arroyo to teaching art.

In 1967 Helen presented her ideas to the Mental Health Division at Cedars Sinai Medical Eye and initiated a six calendar week trial program at that place. The success of this programme resulted in her becoming a regular staff member. Her association with Cedars Sinai/Thalians Community Mental Health Center as coordinator of Art Psychotherapy continued until her retirement. This association provided Helen with clinical training and the opportunity to further develop her theory and techniques of clinical art therapy.

In 1972 Helen was invited by Immaculate Centre College (IHC) to teach two art therapy courses. In the spring semester IHC requested that Helen set a certificate program with a chief's caste being initiated the post-obit yr. The original kinesthesia members at IHC consisted of Helen Landgarten, Leslie Thompson and Maxine Borowsky Junge. The get-go class graduated in 1975.

One of the most important strategies for introducing art therapy to the Los Angeles surface area mental wellness community was the programme'southward practicum system. As students received clinical training, mental health agencies and institutions where they were placed became acquainted with art therapy. Helen initially established the field placements and Maxine Junge before long became the first field placement coordinator. Shirley Riley became field placement coordinator in 1979 at IHC and continued in this role at LMU until her retirement from the position in 1994. Subsequent practicum coordinators were Janise Escobar, Sherry Lyons, Carla Cross, and Linda Petteway. Kathleen Fogel-Richmond became the current practicum coordinator in 2006.

Coming to LMU

Although the program at IHC proved successful, the college experienced serious financial difficulties in 1978-1979. Rather than lower educational standards or raise tuition, Immaculate Heart College chose to close its doors. The art therapy program moved to Loyola Marymount Academy in 1980 and became a dissever department within the Graduate Partition of the university.

Debra Linesch began her art therapy teaching every bit a student at IHC in 1979, moved with the program to LMU, and in 1981 was in the starting time form of fine art therapists to graduate from Loyola Marymount University. Soon after, Debra became an assistant in the group dynamics course. She began formally instruction in the program the post-obit year every bit a role-fourth dimension instructor in the child art therapy course.

In 1979, the American Art Therapy Association had granted the Immaculate Heart College program "Approval" which continued when the program moved to Loyola Marymount University.

In the same year, the State of California recognized the IHC art therapy caste as meeting eligibility requirements towards the Wedlock and Family and Kid Counseling. Every bit a result, other art therapists became licensed MFCC'due south. The license is now called Licensed Marital and Family Therapist (LMFT).

When the program moved to LMU, Helen continued equally director and Shirley Riley as field placement coordinator. Maxine Junge became associate manager and a tenure-track kinesthesia member. The program held a probationary status in the University for ii years, eventually becoming fully established.

Years of Claiming

In 1985, the California country board issuing MFCC licenses began a procedure of changing their regulations which could have excluded art therapists from licensing. The program constitute itself engaged in a political struggle for its graduates to remain eligible for licensing. Faculty, alumni, and students testified earlier the state board for many months, spoke with legislators and at legislative hearings in Sacramento, and helped to craft new, more inclusive legislation. California art therapists banded together with the art therapy educational programs at the center and the struggle was ultimately successful.

While the testing for licensing has grown increasingly more difficult and has changed many times over the years, graduates from the LMU programme take one of the highest pass rates in the state.

Transition, Expansion & Innovation

Maxine Borowsky Junge Helen Landgarten retired in the spring of 1988, and Maxine Junge became the chairperson until January, 1995. In 1988 Debra Linesch was appointed as a visiting assistant professor and associate director, a position that was formally changed to tenure-track in 1989 after a national search. In Jan 1995, Debra Linesch became the chairperson. Debra received tenure from the academy in 1998 and was promoted to total professor in 2003. Maxine retired from the academy in 2000, and Paige Asawa, a 1992 graduate, was hired every bit a member of the kinesthesia.

The plan began the 2000-2001 academic twelvemonth in its new facilities in University Hall with access to cutting border applied science. In add-on, this move to University Hall has immune the department to enjoy expanded space for students and faculty and an fine art studio.

The Section established its Art Therapy in United mexican states program in 2004. The Mexico program is an optional merely strongly recommended program for LMU students. It is designed to augment their art therapy training by experiencing the arts, language, and culture of Mexico. The program also supports the development of art therapy educational activity for Mexican psychotherapists and Mexican mental wellness agencies. Courses take place in the cities of San Miguel de Allende and Queretaro in central Mexico. The United mexican states program is currently co-directed by Einat Metzl and former faculty fellow member, Ana Laura TreviƱo.

In June 2005, the department formalized its affiliation within LMU's College of Advice and Fine Arts. After 25 years of existing as an independent program, the plan celebrates this integration in a arrangement that embraces the arts, provides it with much appreciated resource, and supports its visibility in the academy. With the support of CFA Dean Barbara Busse, the department hired two new faculty members: Einat Metzl and Anthony Bodlovic. Additionally, our practicum coordinator position was expanded from half-fourth dimension to full-fourth dimension and is currently held by Kathleen Fogel-Richmond.

The Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic was established in 2007 to serve the customs by offer clinical art therapy interventions to underserved children and families who have experienced trauma or are facing very serious obstacles in life. Paige Asawa is the clinic managing director. "Nosotros are not building a building, nosotros are building a community of art therapists" is how Helen Landgarten described the clinic named in her honor at its inauguration. The clinic serves the educational needs of the department's graduate students by providing opportunities to participate in and observe art therapy services. The clinic also provides educational opportunities for alumni, conducts enquiry and offers community outreach.

The art therapy program is committed to date with underserved populations. In 2007, the MFTH section began the Summer Arts Workshop, an interdisciplinary program for children of Dolores Mission School in East Los Angeles. This yearly workshop is designed to heighten the children's self-esteem and broaden their experiences in the visual arts. In addition, during the academic year MFT students have opportunities to engage in other community based learning endeavors at local schools and juvenile facilities.

In 2012, the department created the Art Therapy Research Constitute, a collaboration intended to support and provide resources for the scholarship projects of faculty, students and alumni. It provides opportunities for library access, funding and mentoring and hosts an annual Art Therapy Research Symposium each jump.

The unabridged curriculum is designed to brainwash marriage and family unit therapists using the clinical art therapy modality. In 1989, the name of the degree championship was inverse to Masters of Art in Marital and Family Therapy. In 2008, the programme expanded to 58 units with the addition of Introduction to Mental Wellness, Psychopharmacology, and Aging & Long Term Care courses. Since 2009, two units in Crisis Intervention and Disaster Response have augmented the program to lx units. The program continues to educate toward registration (ATR) past the American Art Therapy Association and licensure (MFT) with the Board of Behavioral Sciences (Bulletin board system) for the Land of California.

The Fashion Forrad

Helen Landgarten passed away in February 2011, just a few days before her 90th birthday. The experience of this loss for the program faculty, students, and alumni has been enormous, and the program continues to dedicate its efforts to her legacy.

Ane way this legacy has been honored was through the inauguration in May 2011 of LMU's Journal of Art Therapy, an online peer-reviewed publication. With kinesthesia member, Einat Metzl as editor, the periodical contributes to the cognition base of operations that supports the practice of fine art therapy inside a systemic context.

In the summer of 2012, the College of Communication and Fine Arts came under the leadership of its new dean, Bryant Alexander. Dean Alexander is currently working with the faculty to guide the program in alignment with the University'southward overall Strategic Plan. This alignment is natural since and so many of the programme's projects fall in line with the Strategic Plan'due south emphases on academic and scholarly excellence, dedication to students, leadership in graduate education, and service to others through a commitment to local and global citizenship.

The program that Helen began and that the faculty has maintained and developed has become one of the premier art therapy programs in the land. The early years coincided with a great menstruum of innovation, and expansion in mental health and art therapy constitute a solid foundation. In later years, as the mental wellness system changed, art therapists take relied on their innate inventiveness and remarkable spirit.

It is ofttimes exhausting and always exhilarating work, simply the vision that Helen Landgarten created even so stands and it continues to develop, expand, and grow.

Edited by Lori Gloyd, Authoritative Coordinator for the Department, 1984 to nowadays

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Source: https://cfa.lmu.edu/programs/mft/overview/historydevelopment/