December 13, 2018
Rachel Sikorski, ATR-BC, LCAT, runs a private practice in Buffalo, NY, and works with children, adolescents, and adults experiencing challenges associated with trauma. A leader in her community, Sikorski serves on the board of her local chapter, the Western New York Art Therapy Association (WNYATA) and is a founding member of Art Therapy Buffalo, a professional group that advocates for access to art therapy services in the Buffalo-Niagara area. She has valued her AATA membership throughout her career and shares, “AATA conferences, local chapter events and workshops, as well as the recent additions of the Art Therapy Today newsletter and the AATA online community have helped me feel much more connected and in the loop with what’s happening in our field nationally.
Sikorski earned her MS from Nazareth College in Rochester, NY in 2007 and has worked in a range of settings including residential treatment centers, outpatient mental health clinics, and schools, during her ten years of professional practice. She earned her Trauma Certificate and completed trainings in Progressive Counting (PC) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in 2013 through the Trauma Institute/Child Trauma Institute.
In her current practice, she utilizes play, solution-focused therapy, and trauma-informed treatment, integrating EMDR and art therapy. In addition to her clinical work, Sikorski is an instructor and the Art Therapy Minor Program Coordinator at SUNY Buffalo State College, teaching the very course that fueled her interest in art therapy as an undergraduate. For the future of the profession, Sikorski hopes to see greater access to art therapy services for the public and to art therapy education for students.
“Untitled” included in Art Therapy Buffalo’s 2017 exhibition, “Hope and Fear: Using Art Therapy to Cope in Times of Transition” by Rachel Sikorski. 2017. Mixed media collage on canvas.