Today we’d like to introduce you to Carmen Calvert.
Hi Carmen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was in my second semester of college when I sarcastically said out loud, “God, what am I going to do with my life?” I picked a college for it’s location, Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Once I was there, I needed to pick a major to study. I thought I wanted to be an architect, so I tried to switch my major to that. After hitting multiple road blocks, and having a good cry about it, I asked the question. An answer came back! “Art therapy,” a voice said in my head. I remembered my mother mentioning it to me once as something she wanted to do, and she showed me a book she found about it. From there, nothing has felt like a road block. This journey to being an LPC and an ATR has been long, and riddled with set back and challenges, but nothing felt like I was being told to stop. I double majored in Studio Art and Applied Psychology at MSU so that I could get accepted into Marylhurst University in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Once there, I completed the program in two years and received my Master’s Degree in Art Therapy Counseling. I started working with middle schoolers in a school, then teenage boys in a residential substance use program, then suicidal youth in a subacute program, then an outpatient group private practice. I also started teaching at Lewis and Clark College as an Adjunct Professor in 2023. Today, I am working on starting my own private practice and supervision for those seeking their LPC license at Mended Rose Counseling.
I have been in pursuit of this since 2010. Today, I can say I am where I wanted to be all that time ago. But I am not stopping now. My next goals are writing a book and becoming an ATR-BC. This life I am living, is about growth for me, and I intend to keep growing.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Art therapy is still a very new profession. It has only existed since the 1940’s. Very few colleges have a Master’s Degree in it. Marylhurst University, now closed, was one of only a handful of colleges that teaches it. Lewis and Clark College picked up the Art Therapy program after Marylhurst University closed in 2018. Art therapy is also not accepted as a valid form of therapy in most states. Thanks to the hard work and dedication to those in the Art Therapy Department at Lewis and Clark College and other outstanding art therapists, art therapy is now recognized by the State of Oregon as a billable modality!
There have also been personal setbacks for myself. I had a lot to learn about counseling. It was new to me – no one in my family had ever even gone to counseling, coming from a place like Montana, it is not socially accepted. But I had amazing teachers at Marylhurst University, and an outstanding supervisor at Randall Children’s Hospital. Katie Dunn helped me grow so much in such a short time in my practicum, she is a shining star. In this profession you don’t stop growing after you graduate. There are other supervisors that I owe so much of my clinical skills to: Sarah Abramovitz, Sarah Alexander, Christy Vartanian, and Lauren Schmidt have all shaped me into an art therapist and a licensed professional counselor.
Humility is something that I have gotten to learn over and over. I have been yelled at by clients, yelled at by parents, and chastised by bosses and supervisors. I have been fired and I have been layed off. While it is hard to take, I try to make sure that I learn from these mistakes. I hope only to be of the most help I can to people, and often times, making mistakes is a part of learning. If you are reading this, and you feel you have been burned by a therapist or counselor, I want to apologize for them. We are still humans and we still make mistakes. I hope it doesn’t deter you from seeking any help you need.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Today, I meet with people on an individual basis, mostly teenagers and adults, for outpatient therapy at a group private practice while I try to grow my own private practice called Mended Rose Counseling. While I am doing this, I will also teach a college class (or two) at Lewis and Clark College.
I have spent long enough in this field to be formally trained in several of the classic modalities: art therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative therapy, EMDR, Motivational Interviewing, trauma informed care, solution-focused therapy, client-centered approach, Collaborative Problem Solving, and others. But I also love learning about this field, so I have also learned things like Buddhism, social justice model of therapy, how capitalism affects mental health negatively, how patriarchy hurts everyone, how culture affect individuals, and how deep misogyny runs in most people. I keep reading books on therapy, trauma, the brain, and different diagnoses. I like to think that I have the collective wisdom of all the people I have spoken to, and I am known to repeat what one person has learned to another person. This integration of knowledge from everywhere and from anyone sets me apart. Keeping all of this in mind, while also holding the humility that there is still so much to know is one of the things that makes me a pretty decent therapist.
Any big plans?
I am excited to finally be starting my own private practice: Mended Rose Counseling. I am also in the process of becoming a supervisor for other therapists to pursue their license. Meanwhile, I will continue to counsel and teach.
Other, more goals, include writing a book and opening a brick and mortar art therapy counseling studio.
Pricing:
- Individual Sessions $150, but I take insurance
- Supervising Sessions $100, but first 100 hours I preform are free
Contact Info:
