Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM
by Debbie Schroder
Program Chair for Art Therapy/Counseling Program
It doesn’t really surprise me that as we approach the eighth week of the quarter, I’m finally able to spend a little time putting together an image that contains mandalas created by incoming art therapy students, during orientation. The quarter has been full – of teaching and projects and meetings, and full of beauty and richness.
Each new group of students brings in fresh energy, their own passions and creativity, and new insights into our college’s culture and mission. I appreciate that right now I’m teaching a first year course, and a second year course. Both experiences give evidence of “Transforming Consciousness Through Education” and transformation shows up looking differently at each stage. Rapid transformation is happening on a very conscious level as my second-year students began seeing clients at our Counseling Center. I’m moved every week in supervision, by the bigness of their hearts, and the steadiness of their presence.
This week I was aware of a college-community transformation as I witnessed three first-year students give a presentation in my History of Art Therapy course. We look at not only the official history of the field of art therapy in the United States, but also at the wider, deepest history of art as healing, present in indigenous cultures from all over the world. This week, two out of the three students presenting the Navajo chapter in our book, were Dine’. As our art therapy program receives the gifts present in diversity I can’t help but look to the future when the field of art therapy mirrors the richness of the population. Transformation indeed!
