It was a joy to get to know clinical social worker and training program alumna, Jessica Johnson. She shared how she has been applying her learning experiences in the Professional Expressive Arts Therapy Training Program in her work as a therapist, and in her own life.
Suzan: So when did you graduate from the training program?
Jess: Last Spring.
Suzan: Great! Congratulations.
Jess: Thank you.
Suzan: So, I’d just like to get a little bit about your background; where you live, who you work with and your relationship with the arts and creative practice.
Jess: I live in Kaiser, Oregon, and I work at Chemawa Indian Health Center which is a clinic for native folks. We’re adjacent to one of the oldest continuously operating boarding schools in the country. I work with the students who go to school there and we have a real focus on experiential therapies. I’ve been a licensed social worker for twenty-something years. I’ve been working in the mental health field for a long time and when I came to Chemawa, they were using all kinds of experiential approaches, including art and music therapy. But there was a government shutdown a few years ago and that abruptly stopped. I worked as an individual therapist and I had all these clients who wanted to do art therapy. And I was like, uh…” So, I picked up a paintbrush and started painting with my clients. They said, “We need this,” and I thought, okay, I guess I’ll figure it out, and just started doing that. I knew the therapist who had been working with them. We worked really closely together, and I saw how much art therapy and expressive arts brought teenagers, in particular, out of their shells. It’s been my experience working with teenagers, you don’t just sit and chat with them. You don’t do in-depth, process-oriented talk therapy.
I noticed immediately how much more open and connected students were when I used the expressive arts.
Suzan: Yes.
Jess: So, I was so excited when NWCEAI had to go online. I’m a mom with two kids and I could’ve traveled to Seattle and was looking into it for a couple of years. I always wanted to be an Expressive Arts Therapist because I personally found such relief from music. I never fancied myself a painter or a drawer. Through junior high and high school, I sang and played the piano and that was my therapy. It was always the place where I was the most spontaneous and vulnerable with my thoughts and emotions. So, for me, it was always a place where I could connect. It just felt like a natural fit.
Suzan: So, over a couple of years, when you recognized the value of it in your own work already, you thought about pursuing this in a more official way?
Jess: Yeah.
Suzan: What made this program stand out for you?
Jess: Well, in a lot of art therapy programs I investigated, you had to have an art degree already.
Suzan: Right.
Jess: And I’m not going to go back and get an art degree. They’re pretty exclusive. I had my master’s. I already had my license. I was already way down the career path. I also liked that this one felt more flexible. It encompassed many types of art.
Suzan: Yes. I heard that same sentiment from another person I interviewed. It seems like an attraction of the program.
Jess: Yes. When I first talked to Sibel she asked, “Do you know the difference between expressive therapy and art therapy?” And I was like, “Not exactly.” It’s kind of like counselors vs. social workers. There are all these little differences.
Suzan: So, how would you define that? What is your understanding of the difference?
Jess: Well, just that. It gives me the opportunity to explore whatever medium that a person is most drawn to, to express themselves. And it gives me the entire gamut to work with: writing, music, painting. It’s not just the visual arts. Whereas credentialed art therapists I work really focus on the visual arts.
Suzan: So, as a therapist, you can use your background and intuition to know what the person might need at that moment. And then, you’re building on your resources to be able to provide that. As opposed to, I would think, someone who just specializes in visual art therapy and nothing else.
Jess: Yeah. And there are so many people who have a real block about just doing visual arts.
Suzan: If there was one word you could use to describe your experience in the training program, what would it be and why? And if one word is too little, that’s ok.
Jess: Expansive. In one of my favorite exercises Sibel did early on, she asked us to do some movement, to try on different feelings in different ways, and asked us to expand them. That was a big moment for me. I didn’t have to stay in this one spot: physically, mentally, artistically. In the first 5 or 6 weeks, faculty would always ask, “How do you identify yourself as an artist?”, and I would always think, “I’m not an artist? Why do they keep asking me that?” I mean, there were photographers, dancers, and painters in the class, and I’m just someone who has dabbled in a little of everything. Now, I would be more courageous and call myself an artist. But then, I was like, no. And I think that’s what the program did for me, just expand my perception of what that means, to be expressive. To be an expressive arts provider and expand my skills, tools, empathy, and understanding.
Suzan: Yeah, I mean, your ability to be present with another person and have the skills to draw out what they need creatively at that moment doesn’t mean you have to have had decades of training in a particular art form. You’re an empath and skilled in your field and this is bringing it to another level. So, could go into a little detail about how your work has been impacted between your graduation last Spring and now?
Jess: I totally re-did my office.
Jess turns her camera around to reveal shelves decorated with well-organized, inviting art supplies.
Jess: We’ve got paints, brushes, masks, boxes, towers of paper to choose from, and sparkly things…
Suzan: Would you say you do more expressive arts therapy than talk therapy, at this point? What’s the balance like?
Jess: It’s a combination. I would say we are engaging with art materials in every session now. Maybe not always doing specific prompts or processing through art, but at least, it’s a way to warm up.
Suzan: Beautiful! Do you ever get feedback from people? I mean, maybe it’s just in the work. But how can you tell if they’re having a therapeutic moment, or that something’s transpiring for them?
Jess: Sometimes it’s something as small as the change of colors. For example, I have one student who just comes in and paints color on paper.
Jess shows one paper that is painted black and then a more recent one that is painted red. Then blue, purple, yellow, green…
So, I watch as the art changes. Sometimes they’re just not talking much at all, and as they’re drawing or coloring suddenly, they’re more comfortable, and then they can start talking.
Suzan: Was there any unexpected benefit you received from the training, something that surprised you, maybe?
Jess: The supervision we got was awesome. We started out during Covid. I made some great connections. I also personally felt like I grew a lot. What I loved about the program is they asked me to participate and “do the experiences,” of what we would do with our client. So, for me, having the experience of what it was like to go through it really shifted my perspective and gave me some humility. Because, often, therapists have higher expectations of our clients than we do of ourselves. Like some people never go to therapy and do the work they’re asking others to do.
Suzan: What would you tell someone who was considering this program?
Jess: If you have an interest in learning how to help people express themselves in creative ways, connect with, and integrate their experiences through the expressive arts, then this is an excellent program. I have a lot of experience with trauma. We talk about getting out of your head and into your body, or out of your body, into your head. And this was amazing for me in learning how to bridge all of that in a way that felt natural and human. Sometimes in our master’s degree world, we can get really clinical or rigid and I think this really allows people to be people. And I like that.
Suzan: Now, I leave it to you, if there’s anything else you want to add about your training, or how it carries into your practice.
Jess: Well, it also gave me a chance to really experiment and try new things. They created a safe place for that, and a lovely learning environment that I looked forward to. I really miss it.
Suzan: So nice to meet you here on Zoom! I’m so thankful for your time.
Jess: Thank you. Great meeting you.
Suzan Alparslan, MFA, has been a bodywork practitioner for nearly three decades in New York and Los Angeles. She holds a BA in Dance Choreography from Bard College and an MFA in Poetry from Antioch University, LA. She has published poems in several literary journals and is currently working on a collection of poems. She was a mentor for many years with LA-based writegirl.org. Suzan spends time painting, drawing, and living with her fiancé, his 13-year-old daughter, two cats, and a dog. She also happens to be the life-long, proud little sister of NW Creative & Expressive Arts Therapy founder, Sibel Alparslan Golden.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
