"Our doctorate seeks nothing less than to transform the art therapy profession through the values of social action, leadership, and practice-based research."

--Dr. Lynn Kapitan, Ph.D, ATR-BC
Professor of Graduate Art Therapy and Doctoral Program Director

Professional Doctorate of Art Therapy
open to women and men*

Mount Mary College is proud to offer the first degree of its kind in the United States. The Doctor of Art Therapy is a practitioner-oriented advanced degree that prepares already credentialed art therapists with competencies over and above those of master's level professionals. With the Professional Doctorate you will become a creative leader who can --

• Excel in a complex world as an advanced practitioner or art therapy educator in the rapidly changing teaching, research, and health care systems of the 21st century.
  
• Advance reflexive, practitioner-generated research that arises from a community of concern and contributes to new knowledge construction and practice realities.
  
• Transform professional practice and shape the next generation of art therapy ideas, theories, and practitioners.
  
• Integrate artistic, scientific, and social activist identities in the world view of the practitioner.
  
• Become a change agent with innovative skills to impact the societal, organizational, and nontraditional environments where art therapists work.
  
• Acquire critical and ethical competencies needed to deal with society's increasingly complex roles and challenges.

The Professional Doctorate difference:

The Doctor of Art Therapy is a three-year, practitioner-focused terminal degree that capitalizes on the workplace proficiencies of practicing professionals by offering a balanced learning community of structured, hands-on and online coursework with clinical and teaching experience, artistic endeavors, and applied research.

The cohort-based, low residency delivery format is designed to validate and acquire professional competencies that practitioners cannot obtain from a traditional research degree alone. Doctoral students attend an annual 10-day summer colloquium for intensive study that is enhanced by an interactive virtual learning environment to provide ongoing reflexive critique, information management, and peer and faculty support.

The Professional Doctorate will enhance your professional knowledge with organizational, supervisory, administrative, and consulting skills needed to advance your career as a leader and trendsetter in diverse mental health, non-profit organizations, arts, and community settings.

At Mount Mary College you will:

• Collaborate with some of the most active and pioneering minds in the field of art therapy who have a track record of excellence in teaching, scholarship, and innovative practice.
  
• Benefit from a rigorous, integrated curriculum that reinforces artistic identity along with applied social advocacy, community-based and critical research.
  
• Find a rare balance between independent learning at the doctoral level with community-based support, collaboration, and personal attention.
  
• Enjoy access to abundant natural, recreational, and cultural activities of southeastern Wisconsin while in residence.

* From its inception, Mount Mary College has been a women's college. Male students are welcome to enroll in our post-baccalaureate certificate and graduate programs.