Art Therapy Conversations is a regular column in Envisage, created and developped by Rebecca Montgomery. We would like to announce that Rebecca will be taking some time to focus on her studies, and thus will no longer be editing this column in the future. We would like to extend warm and heartfelt gratitude towards Rebecca for her dedication, creativity, and hard work in creating this column, and for spending such valuable time interviewing important folks in the art therapy community, providing a space for them to share their practices, research, artwork, and lives with us. Thank you so much, Rebecca.

In this issue, we sat down with Jessica Woolhiser Stallings, DAT, ATR-BC, LIMHP, LPC, LMHC, an art therapist and mental health clinician at a therapeutic school providing art therapy and counseling. Jessie adjuncts for the Emporia State University Art Therapy, Mount Mary University and University of Nebraska Omaha teaching Counseling and Arts Jessie holds Masters in Art Therapy and Counseling and a Doctorate in Art Therapy, and to her knowledge is the only person with a doctorate in Art Therapy in the state of Nebraska. Jessie has researched use of art therapy with individuals with autism and written on a variety of topics in the field. Jessie serves on the Nebraska art therapy licensure coalition working to add the art therapy to advance practice act through a provision adding art therapy certification. She is a passionate advocate for the expansion of access to art therapy services and education in Nebraska and elsewhere.

Note that Jessica uses person-first and identity-first language interchangeably because there is no current consensus in the autism community as to which is best or most appropriate.

You can check out a review of her latest book, Special Interests in Art Therapy with Autistic People: A Neurodiversity-Positive Approach to Empower and Engage Participants, further long in this issue.

Sarah’s narrative in bold and italics below.

Hi Jessica! Thank you so much for joining me in conversation. It has been quite a warm and sunny spring to far here in Eastern Canada, how has the spring been for you in the Midwest?

Very similar, warm and sunny, particularly now that we are on the cusp of summer it is at times quite hot!

In one word, how are you feeling in this moment?

Focused. 

You have done incredible work in the field of art therapy and with your research and practice of art therapy with individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Can you tell us about what first drew you to the field of art therapy and to working with neurodiverse children and adults? 

When I was in high school I wanted to be an animator for Disney. My high school art teacher, Mrs. Cjecka, suggested I look into art therapy. It was the early days of the internet so I wrote to all the schools I could find addresses for and had them send me information. Pretty much from that point on I was intent on pursuing art therapy.  

When I was in undergraduate, I saw something on television about people with autism communicating through art. Around the same time I took a part-time job as a lay-behavioral therapist providing Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) services. Although I am no longer in support of the traditional application of ABA, having the opportunity to provide it certainly influenced me. After completing my MS in Art Therapy I was the lead clinician for a social skills based program for adolescents and young adults with autism. These early professional experiences led me to want to learn more about neurodiversity based approaches and to apply these principles in art therapy.  

I see that you have also more than fifteen years of experience teaching in art therapy graduate programs, and you’ve played an important role in advocating for a Master’s program for art therapy practitioners in Nebraska. What inspired you to become involved with teaching?

We have not yet instituted a Master’s program in Nebraska but I am hopeful for the future. I currently offer courses on the undergraduate level for Medical Humanities and Arts Majors in Nebraska.

I actually never intended to be a teacher— I was offered a graduate teaching assistantship teaching psychology while completing my art therapy degree, I had terrible anxiety for public speaking prior to that! Fastforward, I was working at a rec therapy program in Nebraska and met my husband online, he lived 5 hours away. We decided we wanted to live in the same place. At the time (2007), I could only find two art therapy positions in the states we were looking at, and I got the teaching position. Despite the sort of accidental path to teaching, I found that I really enjoy teaching and helping to expand art therapy and to help to train the next generations of art therapists.  

Wow! So interesting that you ended up teaching despite your initial anxiety! I also see that along with teaching, a large part of your work involves adovating for licensure for art therapists. Can you share some of your work in bill creation and licensure for access to art therapy services in Nebraska and Kansas?

In approximately 2015 I assisted in initiating a licensure effort in Kansas with Gaelynn Wolf Bordonaro and other colleagues at Emporia State University and Kansas Art Therapy Association. In Kansas, it is currently quite difficult to get licensure when you have an art therapy degree. While in some other states, including Nebraska, you can get licensed in a related field such as counseling, in Kansas that is not the case. This is a laborious process and is still ongoing.

In 2018, I moved back to Nebraska, where I grew up, to be closer to family. At that same time Jenelle (Hallaert) Miller had initiated the process for proposing a licensure bill in Nebraska. I agreed to be a co-signer for our sunrise review process and have been involved ever since. This bill would add art therapy as a certification to the uniform credentialling act, making it one of several professions that qualify for the Licensed Mental Health Practitioner license and specific certification in art therapy. The bill has been approved by most levels of the NE state government but has yet to get a floor vote due to COVID and other hold ups in our legislative process, due to anti-abortion and anti-trans legislation. However, I am hopeful we will soon have the law officially passed!

Unfortunately licensing in the United States is very complicated and the process is individualized in every state.

What does a typical day look like for you as an art therapist, professor, and advocate?

I, like many art therapists, typically work more than one job. I currently work as a full time art therapist at a K12 therapeutic school with children with mental and behavioral health diagnoses. I am the first art therapist to work at this school and am currently developing their art therapy program. At that job, I function similar to an art teacher, seeing almost all of our children every day providing art therapy groups. This is a pretty busy day, offering 6 to 8 groups per day focusing on various needs under biopsycosocial, emotional, and sensory umbrellas.

Additionally I serve a few children individually, typically with autism specific diagnosis often with co-occurring trauma. These are one to one art therapy sessions tailored to their specific needs. I also work as part of a multi-disciplinary team including educators, social workers, counselors, art therapists, and paraprofessionals to meet students’ needs. In this work I often apply things I have learned through my research and emphasize neurodiversity-positive therapy. I also have Doodle, my art therapy guinea pig, who spends time with the kids and encourages their self-regulation and participation in services.

On some evenings and at times in summer, I teach either in-person or online. I teach a wide variety of students including undergraduates majors in medical humanities, art, writers workshop, and theater; graduate students, generally in art and other mental health or education fields. The undergraduate courses are introductory in art therapy and other expressive and creative arts therapies. The graduate classes range from electives to core courses in art therapy and mental health practice.

I also provide art therapy supervision for professional art therapists working on licensure and certification. These supervision sessions involve a mix of art making and verbal processing. 

What an incredible amount of work that you do in this field, whether directly with clients, through research and advocacy, or through supporting other current and future clinicians! On that note, what most excites you most about the future of art therapy? 

It has been exciting to watch the increase in availability of art therapy jobs, services, education, and licensure over the course of my career as an art therapist. These were few and far between in the midwest of the U.S. when I started my career in 2005. I am excited to be involved in the next steps of this growth and can’t wait to see where it goes next.

I am also excited to be a pioneer in introducing art therapists to the neurodiversity movement and advocating for inclusion of its principles in our field. It is so important to treat our clientele with autism as individuals and to acknowledge that their autism is often a strength and not a treatment focus but rather a piece to inform how we approach treatment of other issues.

Do you have your own artistic practice? How does your professional practice and teaching affect and inform your creative work?

I do, although I don’t practice as often as I would like. I enjoy acrylic painting and chalk pastels. Often my artwork is focused on my own personal well-being and self-regulation but I also create work reflecting on clients, students and teaching, to help myself better understand challenging and rewarding situations in those interactions.

What is a source of inspiration for you these days?

I find Hannah Gadsby and her comedy inspiring, it's great to have someone so open about their experiences as an autistic adult born assigned female.

I always find clouds inspiring and often include them in my artwork.

What are some ways you prioritize your own mental health and wellness?

I see a therapist once a month, although not an art therapist because there still aren’t very many in my area and I am professionally connected to most of them! I also create my own artwork, make TikTok videos of my dog, and spend time with my family and pets (dog, cats, and guinea pig).

What is coming up next for you? What current projects or upcoming plans might you have? 

I will be adjuncting for University of Nebraska Omaha and Mt Mary University in the fall. I am also working on a revision of my chapter from the Wiley Handbook of Art Therapy about collage and co-authoring a chapter for an upcoming book about art therapy an entrepreneurship focusing on legislative advocacy and expansion of education and therapy services.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us and share some of your experience, Jessica. Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers before we finish for today? 

I encourage folks to look at resources such as the Autism Self-Advocacy Network and the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective to learn more about neurodiversity. Additionally, I encourage everyone to treat their autistic clients as they would any other clients, as partners in the therapy process who know what is best for themselves (which has not been the traditional approach with folks with autism in therapy fields).

You can learn more about Dr. Jessica Woolhiser Stallings on her website, www.arttherapyandneurodiversity.com, or email her at artfulresolutions@gmail.com.