Transpersonal Art Therapy
The foundation of Naropa's Transpersonal Art Therapy program is mindfulness meditation training, studio art, community-based service, and an integration of transpersonal theory with clinical approaches to counseling.
Approved by the American Art Therapy Association, our clinically focused master's in transpersonal art therapy provides a foundation in world wisdom traditions, mindfulness meditation training, and studio art practices.
Alumni of our art therapy master's program become art therapists or mental health clinicians who treat the whole person through a transpersonal, social justice lens. Build a fulfilling career that weaves your passion for studio art with your desire to help others.
Quick Facts |
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COURSES YOU COULD TAKE
in Transpersonal Art Therapy
Learn how to be a transpersonal art therapist from nationally recognized faculty. Our graduate courses emphasize academic rigor, emotional and imaginal intelligence, and spiritual values. Throughout the Naropa transpersonal art therapy program, graduate students will also complete 190 direct art contact hours of studio-based work. Master’s in transpersonal art therapy courses include:
- History and Theory of Art Therapy
- Group Counseling: Transpersonal Art Therapy
- Psychology of Meditation I: Mindfulness Training
- Art Therapy Studio: Process and Materials
Other Concentrations in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s Degree Program
Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling
Extend your study of mind and body to an exploration of heart and soul in a master's degree program that puts mindfulness at the center of your future counseling practice.
Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology
Learn to guide others with humility and compassion in a master's degree program grounded in the Buddhist contemplative wisdom tradition.
Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy
Discover the transformative power of nature in a graduate degree program that prepares you to practice as a psychotherapist in both the great outdoors and within clinical mental health settings.
Somatic Counseling: Body Psychotherapy
In one of the first master's degree programs of its kind, learn powerful somatic techniques that combine body psychotherapy and clinical mental health theory to heal both body and mind.
Somatic Counseling: Dance/Movement Therapy
Design a career around your love for dance in a master's degree program that provides you with the clinical skills to use movement as a tool for healing.
THE NAROPA DIFFERENCE |
Naropa’s transpersonal art therapy concentration in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling degree program integrates transpersonal theory with clinical approaches to counseling. Our graduate degree program helps you — and your future clients — find healing through art. |
Community Engagement
The Naropa Community Art Studio (NCAS) and the Naropa Community Counseling Center offer deep engagement for burgeoning art therapists.
Through the NCAS, transpersonal art therapy concentration students learn to design, create, and finance a community studio space to serve diverse groups of people.
The Community Counseling Center, an internship location for third-year art therapy graduate students, offers contemplative and mindfulness healing services to low- and middle-income community members on a sliding fee basis.
Through these and other opportunities, Naropa’s graduate program in transpersonal art therapy is dedicated to developing socially engaged art therapists.
Social Justice Focus
Being a therapist no longer means sitting across from another person without an understanding of their larger social context. Naropa’s transpersonal art therapy master's program requires art therapists to take courses with a social justice and multicultural approach.
Our Social and Multicultural Foundations graduate course explores cultural awareness and the nature of biases as they relate to the role of counselor. The Civic Engagement Studio Practicum, a fifty-hour community-based placement for transpersonal art therapy graduate students, stresses civic responsibility, service-learning values, and cultural/social interventions for art therapists.
Expert Faculty
Naropa's award-winning transpersonal art therapy faculty are published authors, accomplished artists, and community innovators with extensive clinical experience in transpersonal art therapy. The faculty approach to educating graduate students in transpersonal art therapy integrates the insights, attitudes, and practices of world wisdom traditions with modern psychological approaches.
In accordance with the tenets of the transpersonal art therapy concentration, each of the program’s faculty value mindfulness, creative communication, and civic engagement in their course development and interaction with graduate students.
STUDENTS, TRANSFORMED
| “[A transpersonal art therapy perspective] takes all information into account, even the data that we can’t define, even the things we don’t have words for, even the things that seem to only exist in felt sense, even the things that seem impossible; and that type of approach allows for healing that goes deeper than some approaches have ever dared to brave.” |
| Elise Colley, MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Transpersonal Art Therapy, 2019 |
STUDENTS, TRANSFORMED
“[A transpersonal art therapy perspective] takes all information into account, even the data that we can’t define, even the things we don’t have words for, even the things that seem to only exist in felt sense, even the things that seem impossible; and that type of approach allows for healing that goes deeper than some approaches have ever dared to brave.”
Elise Colley, MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Transpersonal Art Therapy, 2019
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Readiness for a Fulfilling Career
Find your calling as a licensed professional counselor or registered art therapist.
Mindfulness
Develop moment-to-moment awareness for yourself and your future clients.
Community Involvement
Leverage the power of art therapy to meet the needs of diverse communities.
Diversity Awareness
Learn a respectful, justice-oriented approach to your role as counselor.
Foundation in Studio Art Therapy
Explore the benefits of art therapy in a studio setting.
RELATED PROGRAMS |
MINDFULNESS-BASED TRANSPERSONAL COUNSELING |
CONTEMPLATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY AND BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY |