September 27, 2018
Martha “Marty” C. Stitt, ATR-BC, LPCC-S, LICDC-CS, is an art therapist, consultant, educator, supervisor, and artist living in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She has worked as an art therapist with psychiatric, chemically dependent, medically ill, and physically disabled people. She spent the last 12 years of her career as the Clinical Program Coordinator at the Art Therapy Studio in Cleveland until she retired in 2011 due to health reasons.
As one of the first graduates of Hahnemann’s Graduate Art Therapy Training Program, Stitt watched as art therapy pioneers, who were her role models for many years to come, formed the AATA. Stitt relates the process to “the formation of the earth-rocks, lava, water and all manner of things swirling forward at great speed, to be gradually shaped into a structure. I feel honored to have been there to experience this creation!” In addition to volunteering through numerous committees, Stitt has served on the AATA Board as well as the Buckeye Art Therapy Association (BATA) Board, including as President. In 1988, BATA awarded her Honorary Life Membership. Her involvement with the AATA “allowed me to find my voice in shaping parts of the profession that I never would have been able to do if I had not been a member.”
Of her current journey, Ms. Stitt shares:
Many years ago one of the places I did art therapy was at University Hospitals of Cleveland on the dialysis and organ transplant units. I gained much understanding from the patients, families, and the staff about how medical problems are layered on top of the struggles of everyday life. You could feel the patient’s frustration, boredom and pain as they adjusted their life to the dialysis routines, or the long wait for an organ to be donated. Layered under everything they had to keep their impending mortality at bay. Ironically, I am now hurtling toward that same dialysis process, and hopefully, a kidney transplant! I have polycystic kidney disease which is destroying my kidneys…currently leaving me with only about 17% of my overall kidney function! And, they are continuing to decline. The prospect of going on dialysis is daunting! So I am trying to find someone to donate a kidney for me, this would allow me to return to the profession I love… doing art therapy, teaching and supervising future art therapists.
“Topsy Turvey”by Martha Stitt. Acrylic paint and mixed media. 2016. Artist’s statement: “It reflects the busy, mysterious and ever changing world we live in.”
Friends and colleagues who have gathered to support Marty have used this art piece to illustrate her current journey and created a Facebook group.