February 25, 2025 | By Michael Galarraga, LPC, ATR-BC, CSAC, CSOTP, AATA Mentor Match Ambassador and AATA Board Secretary
Considering joining AATA’s Mentor Match Program and still wondering what to expect? You have landed in the right spot! Thank you for embarking on this journey and taking time to understand how you can benefit from AATA’s Mentor Match program… and create a mentorship experience that fits your needs!
Mentorship can take on different definitions. To start you off, mentorship can be defined as the guidance provided by an experienced art therapist to help you develop your art therapist identity in the field. Now, that does not mean that you must be a student or a new professional to be a mentee, you can be a mentee at any given point in your art therapist career. We are here to learn from one another and grow our skillsets!
Tips for Becoming a Mentor
If you are considering being a mentor for AATA’s Mentor Match Program and not quite sure if this is the best fit for you, ask yourself, WHO can be an art therapy mentor? A mentor might be a person who is experienced in a particular sector of art therapy. Consider the places you have worked as an art therapist, trainings that you have taken [and expanded upon], and where you want to continue growing your professional community. Some examples are provided below:
- Work placements: academia, hospital settings, schools, private practice, community organizations (i.e. non-profits, open studios, museums, etc.).
- Theoretical orientations: gestalt, human centered, feminism, CBT, etc.
- Trainings/specializations: Expressive Therapy Continuum (ETC), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), yoga therapy, etc.
- Community connections: AATA Special Interest Groups, locality (i.e. city, state, grad school attended, etc.), identity affinity (i.e. race, gender, sexual orientation), and populations served.
Once you have narrowed down some of your professional categories, consider what you wanted to learn early in the field or questions you had walking away from your training experiences. This could help narrow down how you viewed the need for mentorship early on in your introduction to that category. It could be helpful to write a comprehensive list of what you have learned since then and how you can share these insights with others.
Mentees are often looking to learn from their mentors’ experiences and what to expect when developing their professional identity. You have been able to do that in different ways and through this process, you may learn more about yourself as a mentor!
Tips for Becoming a Mentee
If you are considering being a mentor for AATA’s Mentor Match Program, ask yourself, WHO is an art therapy mentee? A mentee might be a person who is looking to understand more about art therapy or connect with an art therapist who can guide them through their professional development. Consider the places you have thought about working as an art therapist, trainings that you have are considering, and how you want to connect with your art therapy community. Some examples are provided below:
- Work placements: academia, hospital settings, schools, private practice, community organizations (i.e. non-profits, open studios, museums, etc.).
- Theoretical orientations: gestalt, human centered, feminism, CBT, etc.
- Trainings/specializations: Expressive Therapy Continuum (ETC), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), yoga therapy, etc.
- Community connections: AATA Special Interest Groups, locality (i.e. city, state, grad school attended, etc.), identity affinity (i.e. race, gender, sexual orientation), and populations served.
Once you have narrowed down some of your professional interest categories, consider what you want to learn as you develop your art therapist identity. This could help you define your goals for your mentoring relationship. It could be helpful to write a comprehensive list of what you have learned so far in the field and where you want to expand your knowledge of art therapy.
Mentees are often looking to expand their professional identity: It is important to share what you have learned about yourself as an art therapist [in the making] so far and how those strengths can be applied in this mentorship relationship. This mentorship experience can be a helpful place to also learn more about yourself!
10 Tips to Support a Positive AATA Mentor Match Experience
Below are 10 tips to help you create a positive mentorship experience:
1. Mentorship Definition and Contract
Once you have connected with a mentor/mentee through the AATA Mentor Match program, remember to consider what you want from this mentorship experience. Also, remember what you can offer through this mentorship experience. Define the mentoring relationship with expectations and create a contract to meet at least once per month (virtually, in-person, at the conference, at an art offering, etc.).
2. Attend events hosted by AATA and collaborate with other cohort members.
AATA will host monthly mentor match calls for you to attend. While these offerings are not mandatory, they are strongly encouraged for you to connect with other mentors/mentees in the AATA community. This also helps to find a common time to meet 1:1 with your mentor or mentee at least once per month!
3. Teach each other what you can.
Each mentor and mentee is filled with lived experience knowledge in different areas of art therapy. Remember that you can learn from one another in many different ways by sharing about your strengths, limitations, and growth opportunities.
4. Be curious.
Remember to lean into your curiosity and ask questions, there is always more to learn. These questions may come from a place of wanting to learn more, and inspire important dialogue and deepen your mentoring relationships!
5. Hold space for one another.
We are all learning through this process and might face difficulties at any given point. While your mentor/mentee is not your art therapist, you can hold space to hear each other out and hopefully provide some recommendations to feed their curiosity.
6. Respect time.
Make sure to commit to your mentorship relationship. Have an honest conversation about your capacity to meet and hold each other accountable.
7. Authenticity.
Show up as yourself and know that you are allowed to take up space in your mentorship relationship.
8. Offer constructive feedback.
Remember that each of you [mentor and mentee] can learn from the feedback loops in your mentoring relationships. Even if challenging conversations arise, there can be solutions to work towards.
9. Celebrate accomplishments.
Validation is a human need and celebrating accomplishments is a way to acknowledge that you are each on the right track! Our accomplishments may come from our mentoring conversations that sparked the flame to present at conference, ask for that raise at work, nominate yourself for a position, etc.
10. Challenge and empower one another.
Encourage each other to step outside your comfort zones and take on new responsibilities, adventures, and develop your strengths!
You might be ready to create your AATA Mentor Match Program profile and join the next cohort! If so, be sure to watch this informational video we created for your next steps!
Feel free to use this blog post as a reference point in the future—and share with your colleagues and peers who may benefit from being a mentor or mentee.