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The Reality of Being a New Mom – Work Life Balance

I’ve been debating about writing this post for months now – wavering back and forth because I wasn’t sure if this was the right forum to open up in this way. After all, I am an art therapist and I’m going to be discussing my personal thoughts and experiences. But, I’ve been getting so many emails from young women wanting to be art therapists, asking about the financial and job prospects, that I want to be honest about something that’s rarely talked about in a professional context: work life balance.

Can you support yourself as an art therapist?

Earning 40K a year in the Bay Area is very possible as a single or coupled woman with a roommate/cohabitation situation in a rented apartment. If rent for a 2 bedroom apartment is $1500, your paying $750 out of your take home pay, which is approx $2800/month. If you have student loan debt, you maybe paying up to $1000 per month on that, leaving you with only 50% of your take home pay for transportation, eating out, doing fun things and even saving some for a rainy day. It’s doable.

But, what happens if you want to buy a home? You and your partner decide to buy a home in Fremont (because there’s no way you’d be able to buy one in SF!) for $400 000 – an extremely reasonable price for a home in the Bay Area. How much of a loan will you need to take out? Do you have 20% to put down? That’s 80K. No? Then you’re going to be taking out a jumbo loan (anything over 400K) for the full amount and paying Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)…maybe $200 a month on top of you mortgage payment. So, that means your monthly expenses for your home will be approx $2350/month, plus property tax (maybe $5000 a year) = $2700/month. Ouch! That’s about 100% of your take home pay! And that’s not even counting what you owe in student loans! Your partner’s salary would have to make up the difference.

Let’s say your partner’s salary can make up the difference, so you buy the house. And, at some point you decide you want a baby. When you bought your home, was your salary a part of the equation? If so, and your family needs your salary in order to pay for the monthly expenses, who is going to care for your child? If you’re lucky enough to have family that you trust nearby, then maybe you have a solution. But, daycare for an infant can easily be $1000/month. What if you’re blessed with twins (like I was) and would be paying $2000 a month for childcare? Maybe it makes no sense for you to work because the cost of childcare is equal or more than you can earn. But, if you’re not working, how can you justify the amount of schooling and student loans you took out in order to become an art therapist?

I’m in a similar predicament. I’ve grown as a person and my needs and my family’s needs have grown, but my art therapy salary has not. My reality is that it’s actually not worth it to work as an art therapist because what I would spend in childcare obliterates my salary. This is one of the major motivating factors that propelled me into learning new skills that not only could help supplement my income, but so that I can eventually make a career shift – from art therapy into the technology sector.

Now, I have no problem with those who choose to stay and home and do so without any reservations. I wish I was one of those people. I love my family and am willing to sacrifice. But I have to ask myself – why did I spend all this money on an education in something that will not grow with me? If I had this realization 8 years ago I would’ve almost certainly chose another path.

But this is the path I’m on, and I’m clearing the brush to create a new, undefined, but nonetheless fulfilling road for myself. I have no clue where I’m going, or where I’ll end up, and I’ll probably continue with art therapy on a low simmer. Thanks for sticking with me through the process! I’d love to hear how others are faring.

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Student Loan Debt vs Following Your Dreams

A question originally posted as a comment:

Hi Liz!

I am considering returning to school for an MA in Art Therapy and have quite a few questions for you. I am 25 years old with a MST in Elementary education, certified in NJ to teach K-5 and students with disabilities. After earning my degree I received a Fulbright to go teach English in Malaysia for a year. I returned about a year ago and have been struggling to find a teaching position, or any job with a salary for that matter. During my time abroad things about my life and my career choice became more clear to me and I have decided I do not wish to pursue a career in education. (Although I think it’s a very admirable profession!)

Art, photography and painting particularly, is something I have always been incredibly passionate about. I’ve come to realize that it’s something that needs to be an integral part of my life. Earlier, I never had enough confidence in myself as an artist to think that I could somehow make a career out of it. I had been interested in the little I knew about art therapy, but never bothered to pursue or study it. I now realize much more how art is more about the creative process than the outcome.

What originally attracted me to teaching was the thought that I would be helping people. That ultimately, I would be making a difference in the lives of others. I really enjoy making art, I enjoy working one-on-one with children and adults, and I am incredibly patient. At the end of the day I want to have been able to employ all of these things in order to impact others positively, which is why I feel Art Therapy is the right career for me.

I feel like I am finally in the direction of the right path but there are a lot of important factors to consider. I have about $60,000 in existing student loan debt. I am working full-time as a nanny and continuing to apply to full-time teaching and entry-level salary positions in order to pay off this debt. Therefore it is very important to me that I plan this next step in my life carefully before taking out even MORE loans and accruing MORE debt. I am in the process of scheduling information interviews with university programs that have been approved by the AATA in NY, NJ and PA (Drexel’s program looks fantastic) in order to choose the program that is best for my needs. I would like to set up some sort of internship or shadowing experience with an art therapist who works in a nearby facility or organization so that I can confirm that this is the direction I want to go in. (I did work at a children’s hospital in the Bronx for 5 months before Malaysia where I worked alongside an art therapist and liked it.) I am also trying to find out more about what the job market is like for an art therapist. I have read the job prospects are excellent, yet when I do job searches nothing really comes up. I know therapists average about $35-45,000 a year and while making $ is not important to me I do need to make sure I can support myself and pay off my loans upon finishing my MA program.

So I am hoping you can help with answering the following questions:
– Can you recommend an organization or a resource to contact for an internship/shadowing experience in the tri-state area? I tried emailing the AATA weeks ago but no one has responded.
– To your knowledge, what is the job market like for art therapy? Is there a certain area of the country where that field is in higher demand? I am not at all opposed to relocation.
– Are there any other alternative routes to the end goal I have in sight?

Really anything and everything you can share with me would be so GREATLY appreciated. I wouldn’t mind your personal opinion either! What would you do in my shoes?

I’ve found your blog incredibly insightful and empowering – so thank you! And my apologies for the life story, I just thought you might be better able to assist me if I provided you with a bit of a background.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks!
Nina

Hi Nina,

I’m sorry I didn’t reply sooner to your email and post. I feel torn about how to guide you because I know how powerful the need to follow your dreams can be, and how art therapy can feel so right. But the reality of Art Therapy is that you should expect to earn approx 35-40K out of school. The potential of bringing in a bigger paycheck may grow (private practice, working for the gov’t in some capacity), but it will take years and many people don’t earn very much more than 50K. Your area – NJ, PA, NY are hubs for art therapy. If you’re not seeing art therapy jobs advertised, I would take that as a bad sign. And, as someone who learned new skills (graphic design and web design) after graduating school so that I can supplement my income, and possibly even change career paths, I gotta tell you that making 40-50K a year doesn’t cut it in CA (and probably where you live as well)…even if your partner makes 2-3x more than you. Not if you want a family.

My advise is not to take on more debt to get an art therapy degree. You’ll have a hell of a time paying off your first student loan on an art therapist’s budget. Plus, an art therapy MA can easily be 60K-70K after tuition, living expenses, etc… I recently read in the Wall Street Journal how young people are delaying things like buying a car, a house, getting married or having children because of their 4-digit student loan debt repayments. I think my grandfather had some excellent words of wisdom for me (and all of us) when he said, “the most money I ever made was never paying interest”.

So, if I were in your shoes, knowing what I know now, I would get an MA in a field that would yield a much higher return on invenstment. There are so many ways of helping people that doesn’t involve drowning in debt. If you like healthcare, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, etc… are rewarding, much higher paying and are in high demand. Even working in a business setting can offer you lots of opportunity to help people. For example, I’ve been interested in working at start-ups within the education field. That could be a good choice for you too, given your background. A revolution beginning to take hold in the education sector, democratizing education.

Actually, that’s another reason why I wouldn’t get into student loan debt right now. There are so many places online to self-educate, that once you have a good basis, why not learn on your own and do something that isn’t bogged down by licensing and bureaucracy to help people? That’s the thing I like about working in the business world – if you have the skills to pay the bills, then you’ll move forward and have the potential to do much more with your career than if you stayed in a blue model job.

That being said, it does sadden me deeply that I’m encouraging you to look elsewhere for your career. I wish art therapy was evolving with the times, but it’s not (AATA not responding to your question is an indicator…) And it’s not 2004, a year before I started grad school, when art therapy was declared a “Hot Job”. The recession combined with the changing nature of work in general is transforming the needs of the work force in unprecedented ways. If there is any way to merge your interests in goals with technology, I encourage you to do so.

—Lecture Ended—

To answer your other questions:

I don’t know any organizations that help connect those who want internships/volunteer work in art therapy prior to entering the field. But, I have a few suggestions:

  1. Try the Art Therapy Alliance message board on LinkedIn
  2. Email local organizations with art therapists, asking if they are open to an intern
  3. Email art therapy schools in your area to see if they have any ideas

A side route to art therapy is to get your MA in Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy or other MA’s in the psych field, and then get an art therapy post-MA certificate. This is a good option because it may help you be more mobile (if you ever need to move to another state) and it may open up more jobs to you.

I hope this answer helps!

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Catvertising

Check out this video on the biggest trend in online advertising – How can your small business capitalize on this phenomenon? LOL!

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Announcement from Find Art Directives Users Group

Via LinkedIn’s Find Art Directives Users Group:

Greetings members. I have run a new set of statistics on the www.findartdirectives.com web database:

746 ————-> Number of users.
714 (96%) –> Number of users with AT training.
75 ————-> Number of Public Directives (directives that you
have created and shared with others)
15 (2%) ——> Number of users contributing Public Directives.

Sadly,a mere 2% — 15 out of 746 people have contributed directives to the database. I am truly disappointed in this! The database has been up for almost 2 years, and so many people are obviously interested in it, considering how many have signed up. But it appears that everyone is just looking and not contributing.

The database CANNOT grow by itself! I maintain this database for free on my own time. I approve users and review directives and add directives. I maintain this group as well. I have personally added 32 directives. That is nearly half the total directives!

Bottom line: IF there is not a significant increase in contributions to the directives in the database, I will shut down the www.findartdirectives.com site and this discussion group.

IF USERS (that means you!) DO NOT ADD AT LEAST 100 NEW DIRECTIVES TO www.findartdirectives.com BY AUGUST 2012, I will close the site.

I consider it impractical to supply a resource that is not being used!

Posted By Carol McCullough-Dieter

Have you been on the Find Art Directives website? It’s pretty much unusable. Is that why only 2% of 746 people have added to the list? My guess is yes. If the goal of your website is to encourage people to add information or look up information, but it’s hard to do so, then you can’t expect people to interact with your website in the way you want them to. This is not the pre-CSS, UI/UX internet. Even if you’re an excellent programmer, you cannot code your website without paying attention to it’s design and the way people interact with your product.

To the tech-savvy art therapy community – please! Let’s up our game, even if it’s a volunteer project…think of it as building out your portfolio/resume. If you’re willing to put in X amount of time into building something useful for our community, spend the extra hours working on the user experience. It’s a shame to have to close down a webpage simply because this feature was overlooked.

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Art, Music and Dance Therapy Jobs Available in Camden, NJ

Tricia was my first art therapy supervisor when I was studying at Drexel in Philadelphia. She’s a fantastic person to work with and CCHSC has an excellent Creative Arts Therapy department. Check out her job listing below:

PART TIME & FULL TIME TEMPORARY JOBS AVAILABLE

Camden County Health Services is now hiring for part time & full time temporary positions within the Adjunctive Therapy Department.

Positions range from one to five days per week. The most immediate position could start in May; however, we have other positions starting in June, and in the fall. Experience working with adult mental health issues is required. Inpatient experience is preferred. All modalities are welcome to apply.

For consideration, please send resumes/cover letter, and the days/times you are able to work to:

Tricia Angilletta

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VOTE for Arts Funding at Children’s Hospital of Oakland

The Artist-in-Residence and Art Therapies at Children’s Oakland applied for funding from LIVESTRONG to implement a program proven to support those fighting cancer. And their application has been selected to advance to the final stage (!!!) – a vote by the broader community.

The organizations receiving the most votes within their regions will be awarded funds, materials and training to implement a new program for Oakland Children’s Hospital – The Creative Center’s Hospital Artists in-Residence Program! This program will be offered free of charge to enhance quality of life for cancer patients.

> Vote now!

The deadline to vote is March 23rd at 5pm CST

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Group Art Therapy Not Found to Be Helpful in Schizophrenia

An example of how headlines can be misleading, because as it turns out the results of a study published in the British Journal of Medicine show that no intervention improved the outcomes of the subjects who suffered from Schizophrenia. Those who received standard care, standard care + weekly group art therapy or standard care + activity groups had the same outcomes.

People offered a place in an art therapy group were more likely to attend sessions than those offered a place in an activity group, but levels of attendance at both types of group were low.

Well…I would like to know what the results are for the people who did attend the weekly art therapy sessions vs those who weren’t assigned to art therapy or those who were assigned but simply didn’t come. Maybe art therapy does have a positive effect for those who are organized enough to make it there. Perhaps group attendance (and therefore outcomes) would have been more successful if members had extra support to show up to their out-patient groups.

Many groups had only one or two regular attendees, with an average of two or three people attending art therapy groups. Although this meant that therapists may have been able to pay greater attention to each participant than would have been possible in a larger group, opportunities for group members to interact with each other were more limited.

If many groups have only one or two people, it doesn’t sound like this study successfully evaluated group art therapy and its effects on socialization. And, if it’s so difficult to get a community-based group together that’s comprised of more than 2 people, it maybe worthwhile to refer (and study) those diagnosed with Schizophrenia to a group with a variety of diagnoses.

It’s also worth mentioning that art therapy is more than just an activity. Even if no increases in social functioning or mental health was detected, art therapists also are trained to monitor their clients. Oftentimes signs that a client maybe relapsing show up in the artwork first. Art therapy has more value than simply improving mental health functioning – it’s a first line defense to encourage a client to seek help from a Psychiatrist, for example, before things get out of control. Or perhaps, the art therapist may find out that a client stopped taking his medication all together. Either way, as a part of an overall out-patient treatment team, the art therapist can provide essential information to other mental health practitioners and social workers re: what is going on with the client before things fall apart.

Put that in your research and study it! Seriously. I’d love to see the outcomes.

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Human Sculpture

Check out this interesting way of sculpting the human form using video. Made by an artist named Jefta in Belgium.

Jefta writes:

Jefta, student on digital art, has developed a processing program that allows, from a flux video, to break it down into a set of images and sew them together.
This technique allows to visualize the body on movement from different angles but summarizing it into one single image.

The final depiction is closer to sculpture thanks to the reducing complexity of the different movements carried out.

The HumanSculpture project is a research on the human body motion capture, a study about the trail left by the path on a living body. Human body is always changing.

In between body restrictions and movements urge the body is used as a brush, using itself as a way of managing complex shapes.

The moving objects are multiplied. Filling the space with images between the emptiness and the fullness, the human sculpture takes more and more space.

The repetition of the different people that intertwine and overlap allows to perceive the path of the fix movements in the space.

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Apple Talk and Fort Mason Talk Complete!

Liz Beck

Liz Beck at Union Square Apple Store
Thank you to all who attended both presentations this week and last. It was a success all around! And for those of you who could not attend, I am in the process of editing a recorded version of my 2.5 hour seminar discussing the online presence and potential for new technology in the art therapy field. It may take a few weeks, but once it becomes available I will be posting it up here.

Also, stay tuned for some highlights form the Apple store talk. Fun stuff!!

Now to rest up for my next round of planning…