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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.

3 Years

Approved by the American Art Therapy Association, the Transpersonal Art Therapy concentration, offered as part of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s degree, is a 62-credit-hour, three-year program that provides theoretical grounding in transpersonal psychology, contemplative studies, and art therapy along with rigorous clinical training.  Naropa University’s graduate art therapy program seeks to prepare competent, entry-level art therapists in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

 

As a graduate student in Naropa University’s Transpersonal Art Therapy program—a concentration offered as part of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s degree—you will have the opportunity to explore the role of art and creativity in your own life—and how to skillfully use art in the therapeutic relationship.

Naropa University’s Transpersonal Art Therapy program is unique in that you will combine transpersonal psychology with contemplative studies, clinical field work, and civic engagement. The goal is to become a skilled, self-aware, and socially engaged counselor, artist, and art therapist.

Graduates from Naropa’s Transpersonal Art Therapy program have gone on to become art therapists, counselors in private practice, addiction counselors, school counselors, grief counselors, and more.

Watch our other informational videos in this series to learn more About the Program and How to Apply.

Naropa Community Art Studio

Complete a practicum during the first year in Naropa’s Community Art Studio where you will learn how to design, create, and finance a studio space to serve diverse groups of people desiring the opportunity to create art in community.

Naropa Community Counseling Center

Work as an art therapy intern during your third year of graduate study. One of many possible sites is the Naropa Community Counseling Center. Offering contemplative and mindfulness healing services, the center makes provides leading-edge psychotherapy to low- and middle-income community members on a sliding fee basis. 

 

 Featured Art Therapy Classes

  • Foundations of Art Therapy: Studio and Practicum 
  • History and Theory of Art Therapy
  • Psychology of Meditation I: Mindfulness Training
  • Transpersonal Psychology I
  • Jungian Psychology: Transpersonal Foundations and Central Concepts
  • Counseling for Adult Populations (for Art Therapy students)   

See more classes 

 

Program Learning Outcomes

  • Students demonstrate knowledge of core counseling curriculum.
  • Students demonstrate proficiency in clinical counseling skills.
  • Students demonstrate professional competence in counseling.
  • Students will demonstrate an ability to utilize subjective investigation with objective research methods.
  • Students will demonstrate applied art therapy and counseling knowledge as it pertains to case conceptualization skills.
  • Students will demonstrate applied knowledge of diversity awareness and social engagement within art therapy and counseling practice.
  • Students will demonstrate the clinical application of a transpersonal approach to art therapy.
Michael Franklin

Faculty Spotlight

"The living image that results from the art process is the true teacher of this path, guiding us to unify body-mind-spirit fragmentation, to joyfully work with compassion for self and other, and to stoke the desire to serve communities and larger social systems."

— Michael A. Franklin, PhD, ATR-BC
Chair, Graduate Transpersonal Art Therapy

 

 

Other Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master Degree Program Concentrations