March 21, 2019
Kimberly McGhee, MAAT, graduated from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in December of 2018, is employed as an outpatient art therapist at TrueNorth Wellness Services in Gettysburg and Hanover, PA, and is working towards her ATR and LPC. After graduating with a BFA from Kutztown University in 1992, McGhee began a 20-year career in publishing and real estate in Arizona and Virginia. Recently, she decided to “go back to school to pursue a life-long dream of becoming a therapist, and move back to my home-state to begin my new career.”
During the last year of her master’s, she interned at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in the Child & Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program and worked with Developmentally Disabled Adults at ServiceSource in Fairfax County, VA. She is grateful for these experiences that prepared her to work with people with a wide-range of diagnoses. Now as a recent graduate, she especially values her AATA membership for the networking opportunities: “Being able to connect with local members and professionals in my field has been an invaluable experience.”
“As a painter/artist, I feel incredibly blessed that I have been able to make a career out of combining my passion for art, and my desire to help others, in a meaningful way,” says McGhee. “There is nothing more exciting than getting to see the progress my clients are making each week.” For the future of the profession, she hopes to see art therapy fully integrated into our education system. “I hope that art therapy can help our young people rebuild their emotional vocabulary so they can better relate to their peers, their superiors, and their ever-changing world.”
“Family Portraits” by Kimberly McGhee. Acrylic on canvas. 2018. Visit her website for more artwork.