June 21, 2018
Bani Malhotra is completing her Master’s in Art Therapy from The George Washington University (GWU) this summer and holds an M.A. in Psychology from University of Delhi, India. She was recently awarded the GWU Art Therapy Kwiatkowska Award for research and clinical practice for her capstone project using puppetry in art therapy. She is currently interning at the AATA National Office and is working on projects related to online community engagement and research.
Ms. Malhotra values her AATA membership for the networking resources and the educational opportunities. She has benefited from the Mentor Match program, and was awarded the 2017 International Student’s Scholarship. Her connection to the AATA community began before she moved to the U.S. “I feel privileged that I was connected to Art Therapists as a mental health professional in India. It helped inspire me to use art in my training with different clients, including burn patients or juvenile offenders and motivated me to seek out supervision and, ultimately, pursue art therapy here.”
While at GWU, she completed two internships, one at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Sibley Memorial Hospital, working with adults at the short-term in-patient psychiatry unit and the other at Kennedy Krieger School, working with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Malhotra is an advocate for diversity and accessibility within the field. She says, “I struggled myself to get access to art therapy education, financially and geographically. I don’t want that for others interested in pursuing art therapy or for those interested in accessing the services.” She is looking forward to co-facilitating the International Shared Interest Group Meeting and presenting during the upcoming AATA Conference at Miami.
“When Words Are Not Enough: art therapist’s third hand and the role of witnessing” by Bani Malhotra. Mixed media on canvas. December, 2016.