November 14, 2025
The American Art Therapy Association represents a diversity of professionals, students, and organizations across the nation. We recognize and celebrate the work of our members at all levels through our Featured Member series.
What excites you most about your job right now?
Running a non-profit that serves the chronic pain, cancer care, and chronic illness population using Art Therapy. Providing many levels of financial access to care including sessions as low as $10 that are philanthropy funded.
Has working with a particular client group shaped your professional focus or specialty? What have you learned from working with these clients?
Working in hospitals and community mental health with clients that have co-occuring mental and physical health issues while also experiencing loss in my maternal line (with my aunt, mom, granny, and uncle all getting genetic ALS and passing away) has deeply informed my work and passion to start the nonprofit that I have. I started interviewing folks in a project called “Artists Living Synergistically” to look at the intersection of folks who are differently abled and artists. This program is in honor of my family members who were all artists and continued making art with their feet or any last moving body part while they lost ability in their body. My aunt was deeply involved in the arts in medicine world in Florida and inspired many with her footwork paintings and dedication to teach others (doctors, Artists in residences) how to continue to adapt when working with art and others. My hope is to continue to carry on the legacy of deeply honoring the healing power of art and art activism–especially for populations that experience discrimination due to ability status.
Tell us about your art therapy journey.
As soon as I began grad school I knew I wanted to create a non-profit for art therapy. I grew up in abject poverty, homeschooled, off the grid, and removed from society. My parents were both artists by trade and we got by with what little they made with their work. I never had the resources that others had and did not have insurance until after I graduated from grad school. I wanted to make sure that the work I did was accessible, not only to those who were insured, but also to those who fall in service care gaps. I also witnessed a lot of ableism in the world with my family as I was a caregiver to family members as they were suffering from ALS. Finding resources and methods for them to continue making art and to live with dignity took community and ingenuity. I want that level of dignity and access to all and continue to work to create the resources I need to support others in their wellness journey because of the impacts I witnessed.
What advice would you give someone interested in pursuing a career in art therapy?
I truly believe that art therapy is a calling. It is an expensive career to get in to and does not pay exceptionally well for this reason I think it is not super inclusive to some populations. I have had to justify art therapy as a profession in nearly every place I have worked. I would encourage art therapists to keep advocating and that the more we do this, the more accepted it will be, and the more accessible training will be as demand continues to rise.
What are your hopes for the future of the art therapy profession?
More grants and scholarships to diverse populations so that we can diversify the field of art therapists. Continued advocacy for the profession so that the powerful work we do is more widely received as a modality. More community efforts and Art Activism. Increased work in access and funding for accessible art materials and adaptive technologies for those differently abled.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Goddess Weaver
Pen and Ink
2023
Artist’s Statement:
Goddess Weaver
I often use my own art to process the work I do with clients. I am ever intrigued by the existential meaning making process and the way in which our realities intersect and become woven into us. From an existential and narrative approach I find myself asking: how can we use these materials of life that flow through us to weave our own sovereignty, and to begin to be participating creators and authors of our existence?
About Katie Kapugi, MA, LMHC, ATR
Katie Kapugi is a nationally registered art therapist and licensed mental health counselor in Washington State with over seven years of experience specializing in chronic pain, medical trauma, complex trauma, nervous system challenges, and navigating adjustment and transition. Katie is a founder, vice president, and clinical director of Dream Big Wellness, where she also serves as a full-time art therapist.
Her expertise lies in mindfulness-based therapies and relaxation strategies, including training in biofeedback, polyvagal theory, breathwork, and autonomic nervous system regulation. Katie integrates trauma-informed care with art therapy, drawing on a deep well of theoretical knowledge, curiosity, and compassion to support those she works with.
Katie has worked extensively in nonprofit settings with people across all stages of life. Her experience includes roles in shelters, long-term care facilities, hospital settings, outpatient community mental health clinics, and school-based mental health programs. Internationally, she has contributed to arts in medicine programs in Rwanda and Guatemala, bringing creative healing to diverse communities.
Katie has provided training in autonomic nervous system regulation and art therapy through Dream Big Wellness retreats for the past three years. Her work focuses on co-occurring medical and mental health challenges, anxiety, panic disorders, CPTSD, grief and loss, relationship dynamics, body-based trauma, identity transitions, and chronic illness and pain.
A lifelong artist, Katie grew up homeschooled by professional artists, which shaped her unique perspective on the transformative power of creativity for healing and self-expression. Her practice is trauma-informed, strengths-based, and deeply supportive, emphasizing the importance of relationships with oneself and others as a cornerstone of healing.