Guest Blog: Anna She's Art Therapy Career

Anna She is a certified Art Therapist who lives in Moscow, Russia. She is a member of the American Art Therapy Association and Director of the SAMO Art Therapy Studio. *

I found my path to becoming an art therapist when I started volunteering with a non-profit organisation teaching theatre skills to teenagers. At the time I was studying at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University and had no formal training in theatre or any psychological preparation for working with vulnerable young people. However, the experience was rewarding and felt very organic.

When it came to graduation, I didn't really understand what I wanted to do career-wise. My volunteer work with the theatre organisation became the basis for my Postgraduate Degree at the Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University. Based on my research papers, my tutor suggested that I may be interested in studying Art Therapy. This was the first time I was even made aware that the field existed! After doing my own research, I found I had a strong desire to learn more about the discipline. It was funny - I had been volunteering in creative therapies for three years but never actually realised I could make a career of it!

I then got a grant to study Art Therapy in America and applied for Fulbright. On top of my formal studies, I continued my volunteer work and self-education. When I returned to Russia three and a half years later, I felt a strong need for Art Therapy in our communities, but the field wasn't that well developed. I realised that I had acquired knowledge and a systemic understanding that I could share with other people. So, I returned to America for four more years, completed my studies, and returned to Russia to build something special.

At that time, the Garage Museum was gaining momentum. I spent six months trying to establish art therapy there but was at first unsuccessful. However, a year later, in 2013, the museum got in touch and invited me back to do art therapy there. From there, I opened SAMO Studio.

My favourite age group to work with is children aged between three and six. This is the sweetest, most magical age where children have a vibrant imagination and engage in conversation. When I started working with this age group, people began to approach me––psychologists, academics and artists––to ask about collaborating on projects. A team was gradually formed, and about two years later, we launched our first educational courses. SAMO Studio became an independent organisation with its own ideas, its own philosophy and its own system.

Many of my stories begin with volunteer projects – and this is also how SAMO Studio came to work with the Moscow Hospice. The first hospice that we worked with was sceptical about art therapy initially. So, we volunteered our time and found that the more time we volunteered, the more appetite for art therapy grew, leading to more paid sessions. It was kind of an idealistic concept that we wanted to try. We had a lot of experience working with orphanages but none in hospices. With the help of ArtSocial Foundation, we were eventually able to build a dedicated art therapy room at The Lighthouse Children's Hospice in Moscow.

It is not enough to just be a professional or an expert in your field. To make a real difference, you still need to give everything time. ArtSocial were so open-minded to fund a six-month pilot for this project - it allowed time for us to understand how the project could operate at its best.

After the pilot project and five months into another grant, we can really see how the funding impacts the people we help. Before receiving more funding to refine the project, we could see how our work impacted participants moods and made them more cheerful. This is good. This is important; joy is a resource, but it is not a resource that one can live on. Now our participants are receiving full resources from us and this is a very logical development of the project.

It is very important to me that we create a reputation and set an example in the profession. I would like to see more art therapy in palliative care. Where people are living with terminal illnesses, I would like to see more art therapy services offering the mental health support that these people and their loved ones need. Now, with the launch of ArtSocial's new project Open Talks, I know that I'm not alone. There are plenty of people attending the lectures who are also interested in continuing this vital work, making a real difference in peoples lives.

Click here to watch the lectures from our Open Talks series.

*Anna’s words have been translated from an interview in Russian and interpreted as a blog post.