N/NY-0403 - Unblending the Parts: Integrating Internal Family Systems and Art Therapy

Amanda Bechtel, ATR-BC, LCPC, LCPAT is a board certified registered art therapist, licensed clinical professional counselor and licensed clinical professional art therapist. In addition to eating disorders, she has used art therapy to treat symptoms of depression, anxiety, self-injurious behavior and substance abuse. She holds a certificate in advanced trauma treatment. Amanda regularly presents on art therapy and eating disorders at national conferences and regional symposiums. She is adjunct faculty at St. Mary of the Woods College and currently sits on Maryland's Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists.

Peggy Kolodny, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT, earned her master’s in art therapy from GWU in 1982. Specializing in trauma-focused multimodal art therapy across the lifespan, she is trained in IFS and in EMDR. She is adjunct faculty for GWU and FSU Art Therapy Graduate Programs trauma tracks and is workshop faculty for the Ferentz Institute and Chesapeake Beach Professional Seminars. Currently Peggy is Co-Chair for the EMDR Special Interest Group for the International Society on the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) and recent past Chair of the Creative Art Therapists Special Interest Group. Past positions include Vice-chair of the Maryland Chapter of American Professional Society on Abuse of Children; Chairperson of Central Maryland Sexual Abuse Treatment Task Force; and President of Maryland Art Therapy Association. Past faculties include University of Maryland School of Social Work, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Goucher College.

Peggy recently published several chapters on neurosequential art therapy in Art Therapy in the Treatment of Addictions and Trauma (Quinn, 2021), co-authored (Mazero) a chapter on “The Interweave of IFS, EMDR and Art Therapy” in EMDR and The Creative Arts Therapies (Davis et al, 2023). She has 3 more chapters in press for 2025-2026 including “Active Imagination: Jungian Underpinnings of IFS, EMDR and Art Therapy” in IFS-informed EMDR (Polidi, Dec. 2025); Dissociation & DID in Art Therapy” in Wiley Handbook of Art Therapy (Gussak & Rosal, 2025); and “Create, Destroy, Transform” in From Mourning to Meaning: The Expressive Arts in Grief Therapy (Thompson & Neimeyer, in press).