A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

On This Page

Deborah Ann DelSignore

Associate Professor, Adjunct

Contact

Bio

Education: BA, 1996, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY; MA, 1999, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL. Credentials: Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist. Concurrent Position: In-home, art-based, dementia care services and arts in aging and dementia care consultant and educator, self-employed; art therapist facilitator of Art In the Moment, Art institute of Chicago. Publications: Journal of Museum Education; Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association; The Center for Applied Gerontology; Dimensions: ASA, Newsletter of the Mental Health and Aging Network. Awards: SAIC: Nina Frenkel Award for Faculty Excellence: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Canyon Ranch Institute Healthy World Scholarship: Arts & Health; Illinois Art Therapy Association: Distinguished Service Award; Life Services Network: Shining Star Award.

Deb has over twenty years of experience practicing in eldercare. From positions of direct care as an art therapist as well as administrative positions as director of an Alzheimer’s care community, her research focuses on how the arts and critical discourse in eldercare can inspire and facilitate practices of equity into the daily lives of the people who reside and work in long-term-care settings. She advocates with older adults and eldercare staff, bringing a social justice framework to non-profit settings through documentary film making, large scale multi-year community-based art projects, exhibitions, in-services, and public dialogue. She consulted and served as the art therapist facilitator of the Art in the Moment program at the Art Institute of Chicago for over a decade. Currently, she provides in-home art facilitation with individuals living with a diagnosis of dementia and consults eldercare organizations about best practices related to arts and eldercare. She presents her scholarship on eldercare and wellness models often to local and international, eldercare and art therapy audiences, to promote awareness about intentional use of art making to impact the lives and communities of older adults.

Similar to her professional practice, her pedagogical approach is influenced by feminist, relational, and critical approaches to teaching and supervision.

 

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

In this course the student will explore various forms of assessment including both formal standardized instruments and informal approaches. Particular emphasis will be placed on concepts of individual and group assessment in art therapy as well as neighboring fields of psychology and counseling. The student will develop a greater understanding of the potential an artwork has to reflect artists' developmental, emotional, psychological, cognitive, spiritual, and cultural state at the time it was made. Open to MAAT students only.

Class Number

1258

Credits

3

Description

This course investigates psychological, sociological, cognitive, cultural and neurobiological approaches to human development. Historical and current theories are examined in light of the implications they have for art therapy theory and practice. Course content addresses the role of the cultural production of personal experience in lifelong development, including how issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender, disability and sexual orientation relate to human development.

Class Number

2132

Credits

3

Description

This course provides group supervision to support the internship component of the Master of Arts in Art Therapy and a Counseling program. Internship students participate in a minimum of one hour of weekly individual supervision with a qualified fieldwork site supervisor in addition to 3 hours of weekly group supervision with a faculty supervisor per the MAATC fieldwork supervision agreement. Over the course of the semester, students complete 250 service hours which must include approximately 100 hours of direct service with clients and contribute to the development of basic to intermediate skills for a specialized area of art therapy and counseling practice. This professional practice course builds on the skills acquired in the practicum experience. Students must demonstrate an applied understanding of assessment, treatment approaches, and the therapeutic relationship in art therapy and counseling. Students also become familiar with a variety of professional activities including referral sources, case review, record keeping, preparation, staff meetings, and other administrative functions. Prerequisite: ARTTHER 6001 ¿ Art Therapy Fieldwork II

Class Number

1250

Credits

3

Description

This course provides group supervision to support the internship component of the Master of Arts in Art Therapy and a Counseling program. Internship students participate in a minimum of one hour of weekly individual supervision with a qualified fieldwork site supervisor in addition to 3 hours of weekly group supervision with a faculty supervisor per the MAATC fieldwork supervision agreement. Over the course of the semester, students complete 250 service hours which must include approximately 100 hours of direct service with clients and contribute to the development of basic to intermediate skills for a specialized area of art therapy and counseling practice. This professional practice course builds on the skills acquired in the practicum experience. Students must demonstrate an applied understanding of assessment, treatment approaches, and the therapeutic relationship in art therapy and counseling. Students also become familiar with a variety of professional activities including referral sources, case review, record keeping, preparation, staff meetings, and other administrative functions. Prerequisite: ARTTHER 6001 ¿ Art Therapy Fieldwork II

Class Number

1902

Credits

3