Counseling, Research, Special Education and Rehabilitation: Creative Arts Therapy

Master of Arts in Creative Arts Therapy

Student and Alumni Profiles

Current Student Profiles

"My name is Michelle Salerno; I am a first year student in the Creative Arts Therapy Masters Program at Hofstra University. I waited a year to come to graduate school after I graduated the College of New Jersey with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Art. During the year before graduate school I worked as a residential counselor in a group home with mentally ill teenagers. In this setting there was no room in their schedules for art and while I enjoyed the counseling aspect, I knew I had more to provide. I am excited to be taking classes and to be on the road to becoming an Art Therapist. I enjoy not just art, but music and nature."

"My name is Katie Salerno and I am about to enter my second year in the Creative Arts Therapy Masters Program at Hofstra. I obtained my Bachelors in Special and Elementary Education as well as Psychology and after working in the schools as a teaching assistant for a year I felt as though there were other ways I could help children and I have found it in Art Therapy. I will be interning in the fall at a school for emotionally disturbed children and am looking forward to it. Other than my school life, my favorite color is red and I enjoy smiling and coordinating my outfits."

Alumni Profiles

"As an artist looking for a way to make my living in the arts, I did everything and anything for many years: set design, graphic arts, restaurant work...finally opening my own café in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After 5 years of work that took me farther and farther away from what I truly love to do, I looked into graduate Art Therapy programs. I felt it would be the perfect way to stay connected to the arts, while interacting with other people. I enrolled in the Hofstra Program and began my internship in the Art Access program at the Queens Museum of Art. I was hired as the assistant to the Program Coordinator and served in that role for two years. This is my third year as Program Coordinator and I couldn't be happier. It's good to know I won't be working at a restaurant any time soon."

Kit Shapiro
Art Access Coordinator
Queens Museum of Art
(718) 592-9700 x138
kshapiro@queensmuseum.org

"I graduated from Hofstra after being a part-time student for a number of years. At Hofstra, I learned about process and product, theory and practice, myself and others. The Art Therapy Program at Hofstra, with its many fine educators and Art Therapists, prepared me well for "the working world". Currently, I am an Art Therapist at Behavioral Health Services at North Shore University Hospital at Glen Cove. At my workplace, I conduct individual and group art therapy sessions, have helped to develop and expand art therapy services, and am part of a treatment team that values Art Therapy and views it as an integral part of the treatment. I am currently Membership Chair for the New York Art Therapy Association (NYATA) and enjoy the unity and enrichment it provides. I experience my art therapy work as challenging, creative, interesting, and satisfying!"

Kathleen Keilly-Ruel, MA, ATR-BC

Deborah Adler, MA, ATR-B.C: a Hofstra Alumni graduate of the Creative Arts Therapy Program of '94. She assisted in the establishment of CATCH when she held the position of Vice President. She has been practicing Art Therapy for seven years with inpatient and outpatient pediatric and adult clients. At Blythedale Children's Hospital of Valhalla, NY, she co-developed an Art Therapy-Child Life Program designed to treat patients with diabetes and burn injuries. She regularly supervised Art Therapy interns and staff members. As a disability awareness consultant for BOCES of Southern Westchester, she provides hand-on training to elementary kids using video, story-telling, & puppetry. Currently, she is the Corresponding Secretary of the New York Art Therapy Association (NYATA) and is taking time off from practicing Art Therapy to be a stay at home mom.