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Name change reflectsart therapist’s role as counselorPencil, paper, paintbrushes and modeling claycan be powerful tools for helping people of allages overcome the limitations of their mental andphysical conditions.For decades the Eastern Virginia Medical SchoolGraduate Art Therapy and Counseling Programhas prepared students to do just that.“We teach people to use art materials — any andall type — with their clients,” said program directorAbby Calisch, PsyD, AT. Clients can include anyonefrom children to older adults, with problemsfrom psychological to medical to behavioral tocommunication disorders.Started in 1973, the EVMS program recentlyamended its name to more properly reflect whatit does. With the possible exception of a longerletterhead, the change from Art Therapy to ArtTherapy and Counseling won’t mean a lot ofadjustments. Adding the word “counseling” wasmainly a housekeeping change, Dr. Calisch says,since the program already prepared students to gettheir professional therapist license.“There’s a movement in the profession ofaligning coursework for students to becomelicensed professional therapists, and not havingthe word counseling in the title was an issue insome states,” she says.What hasn’t changed is the program’s missionto prepare students to help their clients throughart. For example, a therapist might work with adepressed person by using a variety of art materialsto stimulate different parts of the brain.“The person on their ownmay choose dark, restrictivematerial, such as using darkpencils in small areas, and thetherapist might work withthem to increase activity andmovement with bright colorsor larger media,” Dr. Calischsays. “On the opposite endof the spectrum, for a childwith Attention DeficitHyperactivity Disorder, thetherapist might help themfocus by containing themwith boundaries and limits.”Like t heir medic a lcolleagues, therapists use awide palette of options to helpclients.“Different art materials,like medications, can work ondifferent parts of the brain. The materials have theirown personalities,” Dr. Calisch says. “We’re just nowbecoming able to show, through high-resolutionbrain scans, that this works. It’s not merely fluff.”The two-year program was the first non-medicalgraduate program at the school. It takes in amaximum of 20 new students per year, usually withpsychology and fine arts undergraduate degrees.The students come from diverse backgrounds, fromthe technology sector to landscape design, and rangein age from recent graduates to mid-life.Program director, Abby Calisch, PsyD, ATR-BC, greets new and returningart therapy and counseling students at the fall student orientation.“You don’t need artistic talent to do this, but itdoes require a working knowledge of the creativeprocess, as well as art materials and psychology,”Dr. Calisch said. “It integrates all of that.”Graduates of the program have gone on tocareers at hospitals, schools and private practices,among others.“It’s such a personal journey for the students, forthemselves as well as working with clients,” she says.“You see a big change in the students during theirtime here.”New crop of medical and health professionalscontinued from page 10kick-off the new school year. The family-friendly event on the lawn ofSmith-Rogers Hall featured games, camaraderie and great food.On Friday, family, friends and faculty packed McCombs Auditoriumto support the 118-student strong MD Class of 2013 as they donned theirwhite coats, a universal symbol of medicine, and recited for the first time theOath of Hippocrates. The ceremony marks the students’ entrance as juniorcolleagues into the field of medicine, and reciting the oath is an essentialpart of that process, ensuring they will act ethically and in their patients’best interest from the very earliest days of their careers.Before the ceremony, State Sen. Ralph S. Northam, MD, an EVMSgraduate and assistant professor of pediatrics, delivered the second annualH. Lee Kanter Lecture. Sen. Northam explained to the new medicalstudents that health care stands on three legs: quality, access and cost. “It isdifficult to get all three in one package,” he said. “We do a good job onquality, but we need to work on the other two.” In order to effect change,he encouraged the students to get involved in policy making.See photos of the orientation week activities online at www.evms.edu/magazine.12 FALL 2009 www.eVMS.EDUaround campus