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Judith A. Rubin has contributed to the field of art therapy for over 40 years, with continued work into the present. Her contributions include serving in a number of professional positions as well as writing numerous articles, books, lectures and films about the therapeutic value of the arts.
Life and Work
After completing her bachelor’s in art from Wellesley College in 1957 (Rubin, 2010a), Rubin pursued a Masters degree in education from Harvard University. While attending graduate school at Harvard University, Rubin recalled a seminar in Human Development where she did a research presentation on “The Psychology of Children’s Art.” It was while working on this research that she discovered some of Margaret Naumburg’s early papers (Rubin, 2006). Naumburg’s papers sparked Rubin’s interest in art therapy, but that interest was not pursued for many years to come. In 1959, Rubin graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with her master’s in Art Education. She recalled that as she loved working with children, she expected to love teaching art.
Once she began teaching, Rubin found that while she did love working with children, she did not fit in well with her teacher colleagues. As a teacher, she was charged with disruption of the classroom with too much singing, rearranging furniture without consent, declining the offer to use stencils for art, and failing to write detailed lesson plans in lieu of showing slides of artwork that were not in the curriculum. Although she could see that children benefited from making art, she expressed that her teaching experiences were less satisfying than she had hoped (Rubin, 2006).
Rubin got her first taste of art therapy in the field after learning about a study of children’s art at a local nursery. Upon hearing of the study, Rubin called the Director and volunteered her services. Although she had no clinical background, Rubin began doing “art therapy” with children with schizophrenia in 1963 under the direction of Dr. Margaret McFarland. Rubin found doing art therapy to be immensely gratifying and wanted advice about becoming a “real” art therapist. She then pursued the guidance of art therapists Margaret Naumburg and Edith Kramer (Rubin, 2006).
Rubin (2006) recalled Naumburg and Kramer both contributed greatly to her professional development. She recalled that while both had very different ideas about art therapy, both had offered her the same advice. Each advised that she learn about herself through personal therapy and then learn how to be a therapist through supervised work under an experienced clinician. Soon after, Rubin met with Professor Erik Erikson at Harvard University. Much to her surprise, Erikson opposed any further clinical training in psychology. He suggested that it might interfere with, or even ruin, the intuitive approach she had been following. With that advice, she postponed any further clinical study for many more years (Rubin, 2006).
In 1966, she met Fred Rogers through Dr. McFarland. Rogers invited Rubin to be on his new Public-access television program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”. Rubin appeared as the “art lady” and used her ad-libbed section to communicate the therapeutic value of art to parents and children. Her experience with film media while working on the television show had a lasting impact which inspired her to teach others about the therapeutic qualtities of art(Rubin, 2010b).
Eventually, Rubin felt it was time for further clinical training. Rather than pursue a traditional Ph.D., she sought psychoanalytic training under the guidance of Dr. Marvin Shapiro. She used the combined credit from her master’s degree with the credit earned from the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute towards completing her Ph. D. in counseling. She met the dissertation requirement by writing her book “Child Art Therapy” (Rubin, 2006). She completed her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976 and earned her licensure as a psychologist in 1979. She completed post-doctoral work at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute in 1983 (Rubin, 2010a).
Judith Rubin has contributed to the field of art therapy by serving in a number of professional positions as well as writing numerous articles, books, lectures and films. Rubin became a Registered Art Therapist (ATR) in 1970 and a Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC) in 1994 (Rubin, 2010a). Rubin served on the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) board from 1973 to 1979, serving as president from 1977 to 1979. In 1981, she received the award for AATA Honorary Lifetime Member (American Art Therapy Association, 2010).
In addition to her writing, Rubin has worked in private practice as well as a number of teaching positions. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburg were she has worked since 1974 and also has served as faculty-by-invitation at the Pittsburg Psychoanalytic Institute since 1983. She is also a cofounder and currently serving as president of a nonprofit media group called Expressive Media Inc. (Rubin, 2010a).
Rubin’s other books include, “The Art of Art Therapy” (1984), “Approaches to Art Therapy” (1987), “Art Therapy: An Introduction” (1998), “Artful Therapy” (2005), and “Introduction to Art Therapy: Sources and Resources” (2009).
Films
Having started in the film industry in late sixties with “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”, Rubin has been making films since the early seventies. She stated that film aided in teaching about art therapy, when words were often not completely adequate to do so. Her first film in 1972, “We’ll Show You What We’re Gonna Do,” documented doing artwork with children who were blind. Shortly after, she created “Children and the Arts” which highlighted the therapeutic value of the arts when working with children who were at-risk for problem behavior. As she had less time for painting than before, she shared that filmmaking satisfied her need to create (Rubin, 2006).
Rubin’s current efforts with Expressive Media Inc. exemplify her extensive involvement with film as an artistic media. The mission of Expressive Media Inc., represents many of Rubin’s core philosophies as an art therapist.
References
- American Art Therapy Association. (2010) National Conference Program. Sacramento, CA.
- Expressive Media Inc. . Retrieved from (http://www.expressivemedia.org/ emi.html) on October 22, 2010.
- Rubin, J. A. (2005). Child art therapy (rev. ed.). New York, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
- Rubin, J. A. (2006). Judith A. rubin: An ugly duckling finds the swans or how I fell in love with art therapy. In M. B. Junge, & H. Wadeson (Eds.), Architects of art therapy: Memoirs and life stories. (pp. 105-121). Springfield, IL, US: Charles C. Thomas Publisher.
- Rubin, J.A. (2010a). . http://www.expressivemedia.org/pdfs/judycv.pdf
- Rubin, J. A. (2010b). Introduction to art therapy: Sources & resources (rev. ed.). New York, New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
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