By Rose Bialk
Art therapy is a widely misunderstood discipline. It is a unique practice made up of diverse forms of mediums that art therapists use to inspire patients to communicate, confront and overcome their trauma in ways that traditional talk therapy may not engender.
Lewis & Clark’s graduate school offers an art therapy program that is co-directed by Mary Andrus and Missy Satterberg. Mary Andrus completed her undergraduate degree at the State University of New York, Fredonia, and received her Master’s degree in art therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has worked as a faculty member at Marylhurst University, which later experienced an abrupt closure in 2018.
“I moved the intact program, the interested students and the faculty to Lewis & Clark, where I continued growing the program and shaping it to what it is today,” Andrus said. “The students were a big part of that. The provost wanted the students to transfer to schools in other states, and their collective voice made it clear that they did not want to break up. They fought for the program to stay intact. It was a collective effort.”
Within her first year at Marylhurst, Andrus was promoted to the position of program director of their art therapy track, a title she maintains at LC. Art therapy is an important part of Andrus’ life, and she has dedicated years of effort to both teaching it to and collaborating with graduate students.
“Not everyone can talk about their problems, or their experiences, or their lived feelings. Sometimes art is a safer way to express and release and have distance from what you’re feeling,” Andrus said. “I’ve specialized in treating people with trauma. When trauma happens, the Broca’s area, the part of the brain that gives you words to describe what happened, turns off, so, in making art, you’re able to release the felt sense in your body, from a somatic perspective. Then you’re able to create the synapses in your brain that help you to put words to what you experienced, which helps you to make sense of what happened.”
Only a handful of art therapy graduate students received their undergraduate degree at LC — about half of the program’s students come from out-of-state, with the other half coming from other schools within Oregon. The uniqueness of the program is a draw.
“We really center social justice at the core of our work, and really work to integrate that throughout all of the classes, and help students see things not only from an individual basis but a systemic lens of societal injustices, and how to work within systems to advocate for change and addressing societal inequities,” Andrus said.
The track places special emphasis on community involvement, while also teaching technical artistic skills.
“It’s like clinical treatment and this other lens. We also are fortunate enough to have a community counseling center in Portland with a brand new art therapy studio and treatment rooms.”
As the year comes to a close, graduating art therapy students are in the process of finalizing their capstone projects, which include an oral presentation and an art project. The collection of pieces is entitled “Metamorphic,” and explores how art therapy can serve a wide range of communities, from veterans to those experiencing domestic violence and sexual assault to people dealing with social estrangement and grief. The art is available for viewing online, and mediums span from traditional sketches to 3-D fiber pieces.
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