Carol Lark is a Board Certified Art Therapist and Certified Group Psychotherapist, with additional training in psychodrama, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, dialogue processes, and fine arts. Her private practice has focused on adult therapy issues, particularly those of women. Since 1985 she has served hundreds of women and men through individual art therapy and expressive arts therapy groups at The Art Therapy Center, Craft Alliance, private workshops, and St. John's Mercy Medical Center, where she offered art therapy, psychodrama, and group psychotherapy. She continues to supervise and consult with mental health professionals in their clinical practice and teaches an art therapy learning lab for George Warren Brown School of Social Work.
As an artist and activist, she has developed and coordinated several major public art dialogues in St. Louis, including "Masked Encounters", "MIRA: Artists Respond", "Mother Tongue: A Community Arts Dialogue", and "Panel Discussions: the Subject is St. Louis". She is co-founder of the art-based interracial dialogue program TREC: Talking Race, Engaging Expressively. Her own artwork has been accepted in juried competitions at Art St. Louis, Craft Alliance and St. Louis Artist's Guild. She is Director of The Art Therapy Center, co-Founder of The Visual Dialogues Project, Past-president of Missouri Art Therapy Association, and serves as art therapy consultant to the Open Door Art Studio as a member of its Board of Director. She is on the Board of Directors for the Missouri Group Psychotherapy Society.
Education:
She holds a PhD in Applied Psychology
and Art Therapy, an MA in Counseling psychology with specialization in
Art Therapy, and 30 additional graduate fine arts credits. She received
a BS in Psychology with minors in fine arts and adult education.
She has taught at SIU-Edwardsville, Lindenwood, Webster University, Craft
Alliance, and George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University,
and was Guest Faculty at Mount Mary College in Wisconsin. She is currently
a student of the Toronto Centre for Psychodrama and Sociometry, and a student
of The Painting Process in workshops offered by Stewart Cubley, co-author
of Life, Paint and Passion.
National and Regional and Local Conference Presentations:
She has provided workshops, seminars, and presentations for numerous local, regional and national organizations, including the American Art Therapy Association Annual Conferences (3);The National Women's Studies Association Annual Conference; National Conference on Eating Disorders, OH; University of Missouri-Kansas City and University of Missouri-St. Louis joint Midwest Eating Disorders conference; St. Louis University School of Nursing Annual Conference on Adolescence;The Association for Integrative Medicine conference at Omega Institute in New York, Illinois Art Therapy Association Annual Conference; Music Therapy Association Annual Conference; and "Mother Tongue in the Classroom", a workshop with Mary Bernstein.the MO Group Psychotherapy Training Institute; The St. Louis Art Museum; Alliance for the Mentally Ill; Jewish Family and Children's Services; Catholic Family Services, the Junior College District of St. Louis County, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Webster University; St. Louis Women's Caucus for Art; St. Louis University Department of Nursing; Hyland Center of St. Anthony Medical Center; Jewish Hospital;. Missouri Association for Philanthropy; Washington University; the Women's Crisis Center in Belleville, Illinois; St. Louis area EAP's and Wellness Centers; St. John's Mercy Medical Center Departments of Pastoral Counseling, Education, Marketing and Public Relations; Kids in the Middle; Pro-Woman Therapist Association; Parents Without Partners; LOGOS, an alternative high school; Public Access Cable; Edgewood Chemical Dependency Treatment Center; Women's Studies Association at Webster University; Maryville college; St. Louis Wellness Association; Missouri Art Therapy Association; Steps Alano 12-Step programs.
Conference and workshop topics:
"Talking Race, Engaging Creatively:
Arts-Based Dialogues"
"Re-embodying Art Therapy"
"Psychodrama with Difficult and Vulnerable
Populations"
"Creative and Expressive Arts in
Group Processes"
"Mask and Identity"; "Mask, Woman
and Power"
"Clinical Treatment Issues With Severely
Traumatized Adults"
"The Use Of Art In Community-building
And Social Action"
"The Effect of Early Trauma on Body
Image"
"CorePainting: A Mindful Dialogue
Approach to Deep Imagery"
Seminars and lectures on women's identity formation, self-esteem/self-development, narrative approaches in art therapy; mind-body-spirit issues and art therapy approaches in medical and psychological healing; art therapy with women, adolescents, cancer patients, and 12-step recovery programs; art processes in clinical supervision; the use of art and written journals; the relationship of creativity to wellness; art and image in therapeutic practice; art therapy with sexual abuse issues; impact of incest on borderline personality disorder; art therapy in rehabilitation settings; psychodrama and art with adolescent patients; art and music for stress reduction; and art therapy with incest and eating disorders.
Memberships:
The Visual Dialogues Project, Co-Founder,
Board Member
American Art Therapy Association
Missouri Art Therapy Association,
Past-president
American Society for Group Psychotherapy
and Psychodrama
Midwest Society Group Psychotherapy
and Psychodrama
American Group Psychotherapy Society,
Board Certified
Missouri Group Psychotherapy Society,
Board Member
St. Louis Women's Caucus for Art