NEW COUNSELING ART THERAPY COMMUNITY TREATMENT CENTER
The University’s new Counseling Art Therapy Community Treatment Center welcomed its first group of clients in November. Cindy Concannon, director of the center, and advanced master’s level student interns in the counseling with art therapy specialization program are offering services to adults in individual and group counseling in a pilot program. Fees are based on a sliding scale, according to what clients can afford.
The center is a teaching clinic where Caldwell graduate students work under faculty supervision, professional and credentialed counselor art therapists and provisional and/or associate licensed clinicians under professional licensed clinical supervision.
One aim of the center is to partner with outside organizations as it did this fall with the Adler Aphasia Center in West Orange and the Talking Book and Braille Center of the New Jersey State Library. While waiting for the University center to be ready, students worked in the field at both nonprofit locations. At the Aphasia Center, they supported people who live with the language disorder that affects
communication and impacts speech and language, causing isolation. Since people with aphasia have few resources for mental health support and treatment, Concannon said the team wanted to help bridge that gap.
For the Talking Book and Braille Center, students conducted a workshop for the blind or visually impaired at the Grounds for Sculpture, a sculpture park and museum in Hamilton, New Jersey.
Caldwell graduate student and counseling art therapy intern Meghan Arminas, a member of the blind and visually impaired community, appreciated experiencing “firsthand how to adapt art therapy while being culturally sensitive in an authentic environment.” She said the exposure will make her and other students more culturally humble and passionate practitioners.
Concannan is incredibly proud of the program’s well-trained, enthusiastic and empathetic interns. “Clients benefit from having the dedicated new professionals in training supported by clinicians with many years of experience.”
Now that the center is open on campus, Concannan and her team plan to increase internship opportunities dramatically for graduate students, increase awareness of the center’s wellness services for the local community, and partner with more organizations to provide professional workshops.
—CL
