AUS Psychology Students Earn Top National Honors

Four Antioch University Seattle (AUS) Psychology students, Margaret Bovington, Maggie Ritnour, Amber Roy and Coquille Talbert, recently earned top national honors at the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) annual conference in Dallas, Texas, winning the Diagnostic Drawing Series (DDS) Award. All four award winners are 2009 AUS graduates who are entering the work force.

The DDS is an art therapy assessment tool that combines the research orientation of psychology with art therapy's attention to materials, process and individuality. Soft chalk pastels and drawing paper are given to the client on a flat drawing surface. The client is given up to fifteen minutes to complete three drawing directives carefully crafted by the creators of the assessment to elicit information in a single brief session.

The students won the award for the work titled "New frontiers in DDS research: Comparative analysis between adolescent and adult populations: Are There Differences among Diagnostic Drawing Series Done by Adolescent and Adult Populations without DSM-IV Diagnoses?"

The AUS students' research is ground-breaking because no studies have looked at whether adult norms are valid for teens. There is no DDS research that develops a "baseline" for adolescents who are not patients with mental health issues. Their research contributes to the foundation of standardizing healthy adolescent artwork using this assessment tool.

"The two founders and creators of the DDS looked through many submissions and chose ours as the most significant. We competed against everyone in the country doing DDS research so this was gratifying," said Talbert. Ritnour added that previous to their research adolescent drawings would be compared with the drawings of healthy adults. "This just didn't make sense to us," she said.

Ritnour is now employed as a creative arts therapist at Auburn Regional Medical Center where she works with geriatric patients helping them make art. Drawing, painting, sculpture and singing are all activities that Ritnour calls helpful "reality orienting activities" for patients with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. She said the work she does varies with each individual patient's disease process and stage of disease but finds working one-on-one with patients to be gratifying.

"Yesterday, I had a gentleman who said 'I can't make art.' When we were done I used it as an example. I said, 'Look at what you made. It's beautiful.' His anxiety was lowered and people thought 'if he can do it, then maybe I can do it, too.' In this way art therapy can decrease anxiety," she said.

In her last year at AUS, Talbert put her art therapy skills to work at Community Psychiatric Clinic. She is currently employed as a prevention and intervention specialist at a local high school. "I get to utilize my art therapy training on a daily basis with students who are struggling with alcohol/chemical dependency and other issues." All AUS students specializing in art therapy work towards an M.A. degree in Psychology with a dual specialization in art therapy with either a Mental Health Counseling (MHC) concentration or the Couple and Family Therapy (CFT) concentration.

All told 16 AUS students, a record number, had research projects accepted by the conference. The diversity of employment that AUS has prepared the students to engage in professionally was reflected in the variety of subjects the students studied and submitted for the award. Also competing on a national level were students Heidi Hoglan and Olivia Tarr: "Pioneering DDS research: Discovering graphic indicators of PTSD in adolescents;" Carly Ramsey and Sheila Simpson-Creps: "Mother and child reunion: Assessing attachment in victims of domestic violence;" Cherilynn Tilford, Tory Booth and Molly Simkins: "See it my way: Breaking new ground in art therapy with couples;" Judy Yang, Jessica Dale, Victoria Challies and Lilith Halpe: "Women inspiring women; Enhancing self esteem using a resilience-based brief art group;" and Eun-Young Won: "A multi-perspective approach in strengthening multicultural awareness through art experiences."

Booth summed up best what it was like to compete on a national level. "Being surrounded by the work and energy of so many professionals helped me to see what is possible ... for the people that we work with, for myself, my peers and the profession. I never expected that I would get that chance right now. It was then that I started to see more of the truth - that I am really a part of this amazing group of individuals."

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