Deborah Brass, M.S., A.T.R.-B.C., L.C.A.T.

Professor Brass entered the field of art therapy/counseling after establishing herself as a program manager while working with adults with developmental disabilities in the Greater Boston area for seven years. In her clinical work she worked with youth and families her entire career, including through OMH programs and adolescents diagnoses with major mental illness, creating two after-school-based art therapy programs with middle school aged youth. Currently, she serves as an art therapist and supervisor, running a school-based art therapy program in a Harlem public elementary school.

The major themes she sees in her work are trauma, the impact of poverty, family dynamics, and fostering resilience in youth. As a trauma-informed clinical, she has also been a clinical consultant to the Children’s Health Fund for the past four years. She has been helping them to integrate clinical vision and best practices within their school-based Healthy-and-Ready-to- Learn (HRL) program.

As an adjunct professor, she teaches both undergraduate- and graduate-level art therapy courses and supervises graduate art therapy interns. Courses she has taught include areas of passion and professional interest, such as human development, theories of mental health counseling, psychopathology, art therapy with groups, and principles and practices of art therapy.