Art Therapy > Faculty
Tatjana Jansen, PhD
Executive Director
I came to art therapy with an interest in the creative process, but my original entry point was through my love of language, narrative, and poetry.
VATI gave me the opportunity to explore the visual arts in a way that I never had before, perhaps because I had big assumptions about what it meant to be an artist (and there was already one in my family—were two even allowed?!). To me, the arts are a way of sense-making—for example, in the wake of trauma—and I continue to circle around themes that have had their hold on me for many years, including the nature of individual and collective hauntings, as well as disenfranchised loss. The arts are also a place of reverie, of dream, of beauty, and resource. Corporeality—expressed through artwork, stories, poems, plays, dance, and music—has been central to my role as educator and therapist for the last 35 years, as well as challenging the edges of my own imagination and expanding beyond those edges/limits.
Tatjana has served as executive director for 14 years, a role that has allowed her to grow and learn from students and faculty alike. A graduate of VATI, she also has a PhD in Expressive Arts Therapy: Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding, a Master’s of Counselling with a specialization in art therapy, a graduate diploma in women’s studies (yes, that does indeed date her!), and a Bachelor’s degree in political science and English. Her interests include research, creative collaborations, activism, storytelling, film, community, and curriculum development … to name just a few!
Credentials: BA, DVATI, MC:AT, PhD
Registries and Associations: EMDRIA (Certified EMDR Therapist), RCAT, RCC-ACS
