[Self-Study] Generative AI Art, Identities, and Attunement in Art Therapy

Marie Julie Deschamps PhD, LPC-A, ATR-P (she-her) is an art psychotherapist, researcher, and artist whose work bridges expressive arts, innovation, and healthcare. She is a visiting scholar at The New School University in New York and serves on the leadership committee of Expressive Arts Without Borders. Originally from France and Germany and now based in Houston, Texas, Marie has collaborated internationally across Europe, Latin America, and the United States. She recently earned her PhD in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University, where her dissertation introduced Icanfeel, a digital art-based platform designed to amplify patient voices in oncology and pain medicine. This innovation explores how metaphors, images, and voice recordings can become meaningful health data, opening new pathways for empathy, symptom detection, and patient-centered care. Marie has shared her work at global forums, including the Latin American Pediatric Oncology Conference in Mexico, the EU4Health Conference in Romania, and MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Collective Soul Symposium. A graduate of the MIT–Harvard Innovation in Healthcare Bootcamp, she is passionate about the ethical use of AI to support healing, resilience, and dignity."

Jedediah Walls (they/them), PhD, is a therapist practicing in a private clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, they hold a PhD in Media Psychology from Fielding Graduate University, and a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy and Clinical Mental Health from Edinboro University. In collaboration with the SexTech lab at New School University (NY, USA), they research the use of AI generative art to foster therapeutic attunement. Jedediah’s central passion lies in the seamless integration of media psychology and art therapy, with a particular emphasis on supporting the liberation and self-actualization of queer and neurodivergent individuals. They are actively involved in Media Psychology, a distinct field within the American Psychological Association (APA) under Division 46, dedicated to unraveling the intricate ways in which media and technology impact cognition, culture, and psychology. They contributed to “The Handbook of Art Therapy and Digital Technology” alongside Dr. Cathy Malchiodi, where they examined the application of virtual reality in therapy.