Fulltime Diploma Graduates

2001 – sacramento, ca

My path as an art therapist has been deeply professionally and personally satisfying, meaningful, and challenging. I began working as a crisis counsellor in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in my second year of the program at VATI, creating art-based life skills groups for women in a drug and alcohol harm reduction program.

After graduating from VATI I began working as an art therapist on a Mental Health Team with a First Nations Band on Vancouver Island. Through this exciting and challenging work, I decided to specialize in child and family practice, and completing a Masters Degree in Child and Youth Care from the University of Victoria. I was particularily curious about therapist resilience in work with trauma survivors. Upon completion of this degree, I accepted employment with the Ministry of Children and Family Development, in Pemberton and Whistler, BC, as a Child and Youth Mental Health Clinician, using art and play therapy with children, youth and families.

I moved to Northern California to marry a lovely man at the beginning of November 2006 and became a stepmother to his 12 year old son. This move has shifted my identity and career tremendously. I am currently in the process of recreating my life in America.

Finding work as a therapist in California, with my credentials, has proved very challenging: neither of my graduate degrees are recognized by the state certifying board. In order to gain licensure as a therapist here, I need to seek further training. I have decided to view this challenge as an opportunity to pursue a Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology, specializing in play therapy and ecosystematic child and family practice. I look forward to starting this degree in September 2007.

In recent years I have been exploring a growing curiosity in Expressive Arts and Movement Therapy Practices. To follow this this curiosity I have begun a course studies in Movement-Based Expressive Arts Education and Therapy at Anna and Daria Halprin's Tamalpa Institute in San Francisco.

I recently accepted employment with River Oak Centre for Children in Sacramento County, working as a Program Services Clinician. In this position, I provide support and counseling for children and youth aged 3 -18 and their families, as well as clinical case management services. In this ecosystemic approach to treatment, I coordinate a multi-disciplinary team of professionals and work with families in community settings (home and school for example) rather than in a clinical office environment.

– Katrina Jenmorri Curry, MA DVATI

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