Presenters

Pat B. Allen, PhD, ATR, is an author, artist, art therapist, and teacher who connects to the Creative Source through art and writing. Her books – Art Is a Way of Knowing (Shambhala 1995) and Art Is a Spiritual Path (Shambhala 2005) – explore the borders between art, psychology, spirituality, and social action and are considered classics in the field of expressive arts therapy. Her novel Cronation (Blue Jay Press, 2016) offers an inspiring vision of a world infused by the revolutionary creative energy of women. Pat co-founded the Open Studio Project in Chicago and founded Studio Pardes in Oak Park, IL. She is currently Senior Consulting Faculty for the Jewish Studio Project, which was founded by her daughter, Rabbi Adina Allen.

Simone Alter-Muri, EdD ATR-BC, ATCS, LMHC, is a Founder, Director, and Professor of Art Therapy/Counseling and Art Education Programs, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Alter-Muri has published and presented research on the connection between tattoos, art therapy and healing, children’s art, post historical trauma and numerous other topics in the art therapy field. She is known for her work in Art in Times of War and Political Trauma, Border Syndrome, Art of the Holocaust, Children’s Art Development and Post-modernism. Simone has many years of experience teaching multicultural and diversity courses on the graduate and undergraduate level. Simone exhibits her art in galleries locally, regionally, and abroad. Her art includes work on glass reflecting the plight of refugees, installations about barcodes and holocausts, and plein air paintings. Dr. Alter Muri has been awarded grants and awards in the field of art education and art therapy. Most recently she was the first recipient awarded the Outstanding Creative Applied Practice Award by the American Art Therapy Association.

Mylinda Baits, PhD(c) currently works with International Ministries ABC-USA as a Global Consultant for Training using the Restorative Arts. She trains communities of social change agents, global peace builders, faith community leaders and trauma survivors in expressive arts-based, trauma-informed practices for psycho-social and spiritual support and sustainability. She has facilitated collective art-making in communities impacted by tragic loss, to promote expression, peace building, social change empowerment and resilience. Mylinda holds numerous advanced facilitation certifications. BA in Behavioral Science, a Masters of Divinity and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Expressive Arts Therapy from the European Graduate School where she is currently a PhD candidate.

Amber Bliss is a first year graduate student at Loyola Marymount University in the Marital and Family Therapy Department with a Specialization Training in Art Therapy. As a budding clinician, she is focused on informing her practice by both her identity and by the collective needs of her community. Her split household upbringing between the primarily black suburban community of Lancaster, CA and primarily white suburban community of Santa Clarita, CA has greatly informed her identity as a mixed race (African American, Caucasian, Native American), cis-woman. Her experience of systemic injustice, racism, and privilege has made significant meaning for her personally and professionally. During her time serving in the Ethnic and Intercultural Services Office at LMU, she has both deepened her understanding of community service and engaged students in dialogues surrounding interculturalism and advocacy and plans to bridge this into her creative endeavors.

Fredelyn Calla LCPC, ATR-BC identifies as a cisgender, heterosexual Filipino-American female and is currently an art therapist/psychotherapist at a small group practice located on the northside of Chicago, IL, specializing in BIPOC mental health, especially those of Asian-American and Pacific Islander descent and mixed race heritage. Fredelyn also currently leads emotional support groups for adults living with cancer and is an art therapy lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Fredelyn has worked with older adults living with dementia; with couples and families in private practice; with adults in psychiatric units and with mothers and children healing from domestic violence. Besides working as an art therapist, Fredelyn managed volunteers, supervised other creative arts therapists and students, given presentations, led trainings and curated and installed art therapy exhibits locally.

Ling Cheun Bianca Lee LCPC, ATR-BC is an artist, advocate, Board-Certified Registered Art Therapist, and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She is currently in private practice in Hong Kong and the United States. Bianca is a Honorary Lecturer at University of Hong Kong, Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Lecturer at Antioch University Seattle. She was the former president of Hong Kong Association of Art Therapists (2017-2021) and secretary at the Neutral Ground Collective in New Orleans, LA.

Alyssa Griskiewicz, ATR-BC, LMHC, RYT is an educator, art therapist and licensed counselor, supervisor and consultant in private practice. Alyssa integrates tenets of cultural humility, liberation psychology, somatic engagement, and a sense of playfulness in her diverse roles and global experiences. Her work and learning spans from coast to coast in the United States and in communities around the globe. Alyssa serves as Teaching Faculty in the Creative Arts Therapies and Clinical Mental Health Counseling Graduate Programs at Antioch University Seattle. She develops experiential international programming for clinical counseling programs, with a focus on collaboration, cultural humility and attention to indigenous practices that support healing and wellness around the world.

Janice Hoshino, PhD, ATR-BC, LMFT, ATCS is the Chair of the Art Therapy and Drama Therapy specializations at Antioch University Seattle. She has been at Antioch University Seattle since 1998. She is a co-author of Family Art Therapy, and has published and presented widely on couple and family art therapy and multicultural attunement and art therapy. She has been provided art therapy trainings in China recently with an organization serving special needs children throughout China.

Daniele Hunter is a 3rd-year graduate student at Antioch University Seattle studying Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in art therapy. She received a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. As a self-taught artist and advocate, she uses various art materials to create artwork that celebrates and documents African American history; past, present, and future. Daniele hopes to use her education to collaborate with communities to foster collective and individual healing.

 

Shabrae Jackson, MA is an expressive arts facilitator and educator with over 25 years of experience working in diverse communities internationally and in the US. Her work centers around themes of belonging, trauma, healing, group dynamics, and peacebuilding. She has worked extensively with youth and families, community organizing, health, and popular education. Shabrae has in-depth experience implementing community-led projects and lived in Mexico for over 15 years. She is an active member of numerous communities including Geography of Hope, a collective that is mapping hope in diverse contexts, and co-founder of UMBRAL, which is currently providing arts-based psychosocial trauma training support at the Mexican border with migrants and refugees. In addition, Shabrae is a director of training and is currently part of the teaching team for the Global Arts and Health program for the European Graduate School (EGS). She holds certifications from Training for Conflict Transformation, Life Coaching, and Expressive Arts in Transition. Shabrae has a BA in Social Work, a MA in Expressive Arts for conflict-transformation and is in the pre-qualifying process for the doctoral program at EGS.

Vannesa Jimenez, LMFT, ATR-R  is a Spanish and English-speaking Mental Health Clinician who is a part of a Trauma and Recovery Center in the Bay Area. Receiving a degree as a Marriage and Family Therapist, Vannesa is also a registered art therapist. She has been in the field of mental health for the past 5 years. Currently pursuing a Ph. D in Art Therapy, Vannesa continues to perpetuate the message that explores art as a way of healing.

Rhonda Johnson, ATR-BC graduated Wellesley College with a degree in Economics, then pursued a career in corporate marketing. Reprioritizing her love for art, years later she made a mid-course correction to pursue a graduate degree in Creative Art Therapies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. As a board-certified art therapist, and certified Open Studio Process facilitator; she offers art experiences in her home studio as well as at various community spaces. Before the pandemic, Rhonda worked at a behavioral health center in Newark, NJ, creating and running their art therapy program for over 50 children and teens. Rhonda now provides art therapy via telehealth to kids who can benefit from art as a means of self-expression. In her spare time, she indulges in Britcoms, knitting, drawing and reading.

Bobbi Kidder, MA, RDT/BCT, is a drama therapist, facilitator, and teacher. Bobbi joined the Creative Arts Therapy team at Antioch University Seattle in 2011 bringing emphases in story, devised and scripted performance, therapeutic improvisation, and Radical Acceptance. She is also on faculty at Northwest Creative and Expressive Arts Institute, Silver Kite Community Arts, and teaches continuing education courses at Southern Oregon University. Building on the belief that multimodal arts therapies offer the most effective means of growth and change, Bobbi contributes drama therapy’s Action methods to promote healing. She is the author of IMAGINACTION (Cottonwood Press, 1995).

Jonathan Navarro is a first year graduate student at Antioch University Seattle in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with an emphasis in Drama Therapy. I am an ardent storyteller that has focused on building community through their work and personal life. My experiences as an actor, artist, teacher, activist, journalist, and student have influenced my goals as an advocate for marginalized communities. I hope to embolden others to share their stories for personal growth or liberation, as well as continue building my own narrative as a voice for those who are oppressed.

 

Naarah Macklin, MS, LMHC, is a graduate of Springfield College’s Art Therapy program and current Counselor at Western New England University, in Western Massachusetts. They are a current registered Art Therapy candidate, currently utilizing art therapy with students to help heal trauma that they may be processing. They also have a past history of working with latency aged children at a residential program utilizing art therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help them cope with every day stressors and traumas. Naarah has a past history of working in Residence Life as a Resident Director and building community, cohesiveness, and appreciation of diversity amongst students. Naarah is currently collaborating with departments at WNE to facilitate diversity conversations and workshops for the BIPOC population, as well as holding art therapy groups for students to help them better manage the stress, anxiety, depression they may be experiencing.

Einat Metzl, PHD, LMFT, ATR-BC is a licensed marital and family therapist and a registered art therapist, currently directing the graduate art therapy program at Bar Ilan University in Israel. For over a decade and a half, she worked as professor at Loyola Marymount University’s graduate Marital Family Therapy / Art Therapy program in Los Angeles, where she and Ana Laura Trevino co-directed the Joint Mexico-US summer program in San Miguel de Allende. Einat is an active therapist in private practice and committed to expanding art therapy research and practice, through bridging our current paradigms of art therapy with related disciplines; weaving our collective knowledge of wellness in ways that benefit the diversity layers between and within each of us.

Leticia Nieto PsyD, LMFT, TEP is a psychotherapist and educator specializing in cross-cultural communication, motivation and creativity. Her 2010 book, Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment: A Developmental Strategy to Liberate Everyone, is an accessible analysis of the dynamics of oppression and supremacy that offers readers ways to develop skills to promote social justice. Leticia uses a narrative experiential approach in training and facilitation, drawing on expressive techniques to involve participants deeply and create opportunities for insight and change. Since 1980 she has successfully offered her work to higher education and other learning communities, to service providers in helping agencies, to workplace teams, and many community groups. In addition to degrees in clinical psychology and human development, she is skilled in Action Methods, including Psychodrama, Playback Theater and Theater of the Oppressed.

Maru Serricchio-Joiner, PhD, LMFT, ATR-BC is an active clinical art psychotherapist, marital and family therapist, and full time professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and growing up in Mexico City, Maru has a diverse background and multi- systemic lens. Maru recently completed her PhD in International Psychology, with a concentration in Organization and Systems, at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, were she researched bereavement support in Mexican workplaces. Maru is very interested in helping organizations creatively lead and function with intention and awareness, in order to create an environment for the BIPOC population, and for all employees, to be acknowledged and valued.

 

Liv Siulagi is a third year student intern in Lewis & Clark’s Art Therapy program. Liv grounds her practice in Liberation Psychology, basing her work on the belief that humans naturally strive for health and connection, but that we live in an oppressive society that limits our ability to heal from trauma, build lasting communities, and forge full, meaningful lives. As a mixed race (Samoan, filipina, and white), cis-woman raised in the primarily white city of Portland, her lived experience of oppression and the privileged aspects of my identity have inspired her to examine her own role as an ally and advocate. In her final year at Lewis & Clark, this interest has led to a year-long research project focused on improving white allyship and avoiding performative activism in the field of art therapy.

Ruth Yeo-Peterman, MA was born in Singapore and raised in South Africa. As a mental health therapist trained in expressive arts therapies, Ruth loves the performing arts and believes in the power of the arts in all forms - for expression and reflection, inspiring hope and healing, building connection, and creating possibilities for growth and change. Over the past 15 years, Ruth has been responsible for projects in a wide variety of fields and in various capacities; these include youth development, diversion and rehabilitation, reintegration and restorative justice, inter-generational programming, prevention and psychoeducation, hospice and assisted living communities, people living with disabilities, street children, and incarcerated youth. Ruth moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2009, and worked as a community based mental health clinician with immigrant and refugee families. She also piloted a dating violence prevention program with middle and high school youth in the Seattle area. Ruth is the regional trainer for the Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute based out of Canada, is a community arts consultant with Silver Kite Community Arts Consulting, and performs as a playback theater artist in the Pacific Northwest. Ruth holds a BA in Communication Science from University of South Africa and an MA in Expressive Arts Therapy and Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University.