April 12, 2018
Deborah Bunkley MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT works as a Clinical Services Supervisor managing the clinical team of therapists and social workers on the Behavioral Health Unit of Washington Adventist Hospital. She also continues her therapeutic work at the hospital and teaches as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University art therapy program and served on the board and as Chair of the CREATE Arts Center in Silver Spring, MD. She is passionate about working to help grow the field of art therapy as a vital service to the mental health community. “My hopes are to see the art therapy profession continue to be accepted as an evidence-based practice,” Bunkley elaborates, “And that art therapists become more widely viewed as a viable resource who can contribute valuable information to treatment teams, whether in a clinical, school or community setting.”
She has served as President of the Potomac Art Therapy Association (2010-12) and as Local Arrangement Committee Chair for the National Art Therapy Association’s 2011 conference held in Washington, DC. Recalling her first conference as an attendee, she notes, “I attended my first AATA conference during
my 1st year of graduate school and the experience really enhanced what I was learning. The opportunity to meet first hand and attend workshops being taught by the leaders and founders of our field was very inspiring.”
Regarding the future of the profession, Bunkley encourages a focus on accessibility “to be able to provide more services to those in need which also ties into insurance reimbursement.” Furthermore, she emphasizes the importance of diversity for both clinicians and clients, describing it as “a topic that needs to be continuously addressed, from finding ways to attract a more diverse student body to want to become art therapists, to making sure that the schools are providing the proper curriculum to address how to provide services to such a wide array of cultures present in our clients.”
Deborah Bunkley making art with participants of a Children’s Mental Health Day event.