Arika VanBrunt, LPC, ATR-BC, ACS, BC-TMH

Professor VanBrunt has been a passionate advocate for mental health outreach and access to care in community and clinical settings throughout her career. With a decade of experience in the Alexandria Community Services Board, she is a child welfare advocate and has been awarded the Center for Alexandria’s Children 2013 Outstanding Dedication to Children Award. Seeing the mental needs of clients in the community, she has supported efforts for care coordination and joined insurance panels to provide affordable services to clients in the DC area.  Professor VanBrunt's dedication has continued as she brings her passion for client advocacy and community programming based on current needs to the GW Art Therapy Program.  She supervises the GW Art Therapy Clinic that the Alexandria campus, which provides both virtual and in-person sliding scale outpatient therapy services to over 30 clients each year, over 50 workshops in the local community, and groups focused on the needs identified by clients.  She has taught graduate courses on Ethics & Professionalism, Assessment Procedures, Marital & Family Therapy, and Advanced Clinical Art Therapy Externship, as well as served on the the Board of Global Alliance for Africa to spearhead their Therapeutic Arts Program.

Session Title: 

Cultivating Creative Care - Break Out Space for Art Based Regulation Strategies

The quote you return to when thinking about community, culture & inclusion:

"Artworks in general are increasingly regarded as seeds- seeds for processes that need a viewer's (or a whole culture's) active mond in which to develop.  And what is possible in art becomes thinkable in life.  We imagine other ways of thinking about our world and its future." -Brian Eno