Milton Markey on wed 25 nov 98
Hi Everyone!
Art Therapy is undergoing changes. I began graduate studies at the College of
Notre Dame, in Belmont, CA back in 1993. When I began taking classes, the talk
of career opportunities and the upswing in popularity for AT was quite
promising for this fledgling grad student. I joined the student division of
the American Art Therapy Association, which now sets standards for graduate
study and offers professional credentials to those who graduate from a
credentialed school.
What I didn't know was that the tide was turning for everybody practicing any
form of alternative therapies in the broad field of psychology. According to
my outdated notes, the non-traditional therapies (including Art Therapy,
Music, Dance, Poetry, Writing and other therapies) which held promise at the
beginning of this decade really took a "hit" when HMO's and Medicare decided
they were superfluous, and denied patients of psychiatric facilities and
priviate practice payment of AT (and other alternative) services.
I was also lured into Art Therapy because I had a really good Art Therapist
myself, who was also a Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor (MFCC), and could
accept the medical insurance I had at the time. My AT suggested that I pursue
Art Therapy After checking the list of grad schools, which the AATA publishes
and revises annually, and receiving brochures from a dozen of the listed
colleges, I chose CND in Belmont, because of the "Art in Therapy" approach
this school offered. The Art Therapy Department there also offered an MFCC
degree, which allows a successful AT grad to bill some insurance companies for
private services offered. Not as important to me, a gay man, but a selling
point for the school: about 95% of the Art Therapists credentialled by the
AATA are women. I was told that men had some advantages in this field!
In order to stay alive as an artist studying Art Therapy, my college counselor
suggested that I take art courses at a community college. I began taking
watercolor classes and ceramics classes at Laney College in Oakland. I fell in
love with clay! I also did quite well in watercolor. I hoped to adapt my
knowledge in both media, to helping patients understand themselves through the
process of making art.
For a year or so, I continued my daily schedule of leaving my apartment near
Berkeley, taking the BART train to Oakland, spending a morning in the ceramics
studio at Laney, then shuttling through the under the bay "tube" to San
Francisco, and commuting by yet another train for afternoon classes in
Belmont. For most of the time, my schooling was a fascinating, learning
experience.
For Art Therapy, the rug was literally pulled out from under those of us
studying for a degree in this field, in 1995. This is when the "great cutback"
of HMO's and other insurance providers took effect. In a very short time,
psychiatric hospitals gave notice to those who practiced non-traditional
therapies. Unless the non-traditionalist also had a secondary degree (MFCC,
PhD, or higher degree) in psychology, the hospitals simply weren't hiring.
Private practice for Art Therapists with no other credentials also took a hit.
The other alternatives for Art Therapists to practice were now quite limited.
School counseling, prisoner rehabilitiation, or working for non-profit
facilities (for low or no pay) became a focus for some. Seeing that the future
had become quite bleak, I had a hard decision to make. I could move ahead
with Art Therapy, and also pursue a secondary degree (requiring me to spend an
additional $$$$$.$$), or I could end my studies in Art Therapy, using the
knowledge I gleaned from nearly two years of Art Therapy education in another
field.
I meditated, I prayed, and I made clay sculpture to find a peaceful solution
to my frustration! After spending a semester taking only clay-related classes
at Laney, I mused over my alternatives. My instructors and fellow students at
Laney provided me with insight.
It dawned on me: I was helping beginning students make hand-built pottery, I
could successfully create experimental glaze formulas, and my gallery shows
were becoming successful. I chose to end the darkness of my life's future. I
chose to pursue a life with clay.
In less than a year after parting from Art Therapy, a friend of mine, who owns
this beautiful desert property in SE California I now call home, invited me to
live here as the caretaker of the property. My one stipulation, which is
written in the contract: the construction of a new ceramic art facility. This
will become reality in a year from now. In the meantime, I make clay sculpture
in the shack behind the house. I found three other ceramicists who want to
become partners for what may become a communal art studio. I live, breathe,
and talk clay, even though the ground I stand on here in the Mojave Desert
contains only trace amounts of the substance!
And so you have it--a brief history of my life with Art Therapy, clay, and the
present, and future for me.
Milton MiltonsLin@AOL.COM
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