SC28 - Beneath the Surface: The Role of Art in Creative Arts Therapist Identity (NY)

Dr. Bethany Altschwager is an art therapist, art therapy educator, and art therapy supervisor. She has twelve years of clinical experience in community-based and healthcare settings with people from diverse backgrounds and across the lifespan. She serves as the President Elect and Continuing Education Chair of the New York Art Therapy Association and as an adjunct faculty member at New York University, the School of Visual Arts, and West Liberty University. Her primary areas of interest are trauma, digital media, and fiber arts.

Melissa is mixed race, Chinese American, multidisciplinary artist and licensed and board certified art therapist. She is currently on staff with the Mental Health Services team at Apex for Youth, a non-profit organization serving Asian American youth from low-income and immigrant backgrounds in NYC. Before joining Apex, Melissa worked providing therapeutic support to survivors of torture and asylum seekers, as well as with children and families in various clinical and educational settings. She practices a strengths-based, client-centered, and trauma-informed approach to healing, and as a multi-racial therapist, Melissa values the intersections of identity, culture, and community. She received a B.A. in Design from the University of California at Davis and an M.A. in Art Therapy from New York University. As an artist and art therapist, Melissa values the creative process as a means to discovering narratives of resilience.

Harapan Hope Limansah is a Queens-based art therapist and interdisciplinary artist. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Florida State University and her M.P.S. in Art Therapy from Pratt Institute. She currently works as an art therapist in acute inpatient psychiatry and has past experience working with: families and elementary-aged children in school/ community-based settings, older adult populations & folks with dementia, and individuals with SPMI in supportive housing and shelter settings. Her work as an artist spans a variety of mediums, though she is particularly moved by writing, performance, and all things sculpture. Familiar themes within her artwork include: intersecting identities & the biracial experience, intergenerational trauma & inherited versus chosen paths, living with mental illness, past lives, the unconscious, animism, and perceptions of god.

Mayra Iris Guevara, MPS, ATR-BC, LCAT, is a bilingual licensed Creative Arts Therapist with over 16 years of experience. Mayra has expertise in clinical supervision, program administration, psychotherapy, client treatment, and state/local child welfare systems. She works extensively with various multicultural groups such as LGBTQIA+, refugees, unhoused, undocumented populations of all ages. Mayra is currently enrolled in KINT Institute for the Certificate Training Program in Creative Arts for Trauma. In her creative practice, Mayra creates fiber arts sculptures, mixed media collage, and painting. She currently splits her time between practicing in Texas and her private practice in New York.