Beth Lykins

Personal Statement

1) My professional and academic interests and goals:

I was drawn to the SWC program because of the holistic nature of the curriculum. It mirrors the approach that I would like to take in my professional life. The connection between mind, body, and spirit is a triad that is often overlooked in our society, especially in academia, so finding a school centered in all of these principles is a dream come true for me. When I visited the campus in January I knew with every fiber of my being that this is the right path for me and that New Mexico is where I need to live. It was like coming home and having the dinner table already laid out for me to join in the feast. To be able to incorporate my earth-centered approach to life and spirituality into my studies in art therapy without the need to add it on my own is the exact path I wish to take. In my one semester of the MAAT program at Saint Mary of the Woods, I knew I was on the right path, but it was not quite a perfect fit; something was missing. I found myself craving the face-to-face interaction of a traditional classroom setting instead of the online structure I had. I longed for an immersive experience where I could incorporate my own philosophical and spiritual beliefs and nurture those as much as my mind. It was close, but just not quite right, although I learned a lot about the field and myself, along the way, so I do not regret the experience. For example, I was tasked with identifying my philosophical approach to therapy and discovered that I have very strong existential, Gestalt, and contemplative leanings. That has been extremely helpful to me as I plan my future in this profession. My long-term professional goals are to enter into private practice where I help guide people to explore and enhance their quality of life through a mixture of art, therapy, spiritual practice, creative exploration, herbalism, sustainable living in partnership with Mother Earth, and self awareness. Since I am still a relative newcomer to the discipline of art therapy I am not quite certain how this might unfold, but my first experiences in art therapy, both as a client and as a student, have proven that this is an organic, natural progression of the path I have already been treading for quite some time. In my years of teaching college I have naturally gravitated in this direction as evidenced by the course I created called Seeing Sideways. Students regularly refer to that course as a safe place where they can explore creativity, challenge and examine their thoughts and beliefs, and discuss issues relevant to their lives. More than one student has told me that the class is part philosophy, part kindergarten (in a good way,) part group therapy session, and part art class, and many have told me that the course actually changed their lives for the better. It has been an incredible honor to know that something I created has helped so many people lead better, more meaningful lives. It is a natural progression from this to art therapy. Part of what makes this so genuine and certain to me is that I came to art therapy so organically. Prior to about two years ago I had never even heard of art therapy, but I am discovering that I have been practicing a form of it for years. Embracing it as my profession is a natural fit for the person I am becoming.

2) My personal qualities, including strengths and weaknesses:

With my experiences in higher education and the successful creation, and co-creation, of several undergraduate courses, I feel confident in stating that I am a conscientious, goal oriented, and self-motivated person who is able to tackle complex situations and organize them into easily understandable chunks that can be understood and successfully completed by a diverse population. I am also pretty good at working with Photoshop and other digital media, probably because of my attention to detail, keen eye, and penchant for perfectionism. I try to approach everything I do with a sense of adventure, wonder, respect, appropriate humor, and rigor, while still keeping it fresh and original for all involved. Or at least that is the goal. Sometimes I tend to get caught up in details and have to remind myself that perfectionism can be the biggest stumbling block to progress. I help students examine this same issue in their own creative lives in my courses and we discuss it as one of the biggest roadblocks to creativity. Unfortunately, I sometimes tend to forget to take my own advice in this matter, but I try to be aware of when that is happening and take steps to correct it. Over the years, I have become better at balancing my unbridled passion for exploring possibilities and diverse approaches to problems with the more mundane aspects of completing projects and setting appropriate boundaries. For example, I used to answer student emails at all times of the day and make special appointments to accommodate students who found my office hours to be inconvenient. I had trouble setting boundaries and as a result I found myself being exhausted, over burdened, and constantly trying to please everyone. Finally, I realized that my own time was just as valuable as that of the students and I set boundaries. I kept strict office hours, restricted my email to a workday schedule, and generally set stricter boundaries between school and my personal life. The result was that I became more efficient, students respected my time more, I felt more fulfilled, and my personal life expanded. I found time for self-care, spirituality, creative outlets outside of the curriculum I taught, and personal relationships. By imposing boundaries and redefining my tendency toward perfectionism, I began to bring balance into my life, and it was one of the best things I ever did. Granted, this is something I still have to consciously work to maintain, and it is sometimes tempting to go back to my old habits, but if I want to help others achieve these sorts of things in their own lives, I must first achieve it for myself.

3) My life experience that led to my pursuit of a degree in counseling or art therapy/counseling:

I have experienced a tremendous amount of grief and loss in my lifetime and this has led me to develop an interest in helping others deal with grief, loss, and trauma. My father and brother died of unrelated illnesses when I was three. Six months later, my only surviving grandparent died. My mother and I, not surprisingly, developed a very codependent relationship as a result, characterized by depression and over-protection on her part, as well as dependency and abandonment issues on my part. I had bouts of undiagnosed depression as a child, often with suicidal ideation, but my mother would never admit that there were any problems so I never had any help as a child or teenager. When I was in my mid-twenties, my mother stopped speaking to me and when she died six years later, we were still not speaking, at her request. My life-partner of six years died in 2009, at which time I once again became very depressed and experienced suicidal ideation. At that time I entered into therapy for two years, where I learned many coping skills that helped me conquer my depression and in turn helped me when working with students who were facing difficult situations that impacted their classroom performance. It increased my empathy and also opened the way to my spiritual development. I have been broken down to my core and arose a more humane human being because of my experiences. My husband has also come from a life of turmoil and watching him deal with PTSD and paranoia has also been influential in my decision to enter into the world of art therapy and counseling. His first wife was a murder victim and watching as he was shuffled through victim services and managed mental health care has made me want to lend my hand toward making mental health care part of a holistic approach to wellness. I have no desire to be part of a system that throws pills at everything and ignores underlying issues. I want to be part of a world that values the whole person and places integrated human wellness above sickness and labels, not part of the bandage slapped on by a broken and over-burdened system intent upon diagnosing disease.

4) A brief account of how I have provided service to others:

Service to others is a huge part of my life. By creating courses such as Seeing Sideways, I have tried to help not only educate, but enrich the lives of my students. I have also tried to instill in my students a sense of civic engagement by integrating service-learning into several of my courses, as can be seen in my curriculum vitae. One of my students won the Plater Medallion, which is an award given by the university for outstanding achievements in civic engagement. I have also mentored student service-learning assistants, independent studies, and senior capstones that were based in civic engagement and community service. I was a founding member of a team that received a grant to promote the integration of service-learning and civic engagement across the curriculum in the School of Informatics and Computing. Besides these academic commitments to service I have maintained a personal and professional record of service. I have done several pro bono website and design projects for community organizations, served on the board of the Indiana Art Therapy Association as webmaster, volunteered as a tutor for dyslexic people at the library in Richmond, Indiana throughout my twenties, and volunteered as a transporter for the Virginia Siamese Cat Rescue throughout my thirties. My forties have been dedicated to cultivating Seeing Sideways and I plan to develop this into a community engagement opportunity in the years to come. Ideally, I would like to create a non-profit section of my private practice (or something) where people of all ages and socioeconomic classes can explore creativity and art centered around recycling and renewable resources, but that remains to be developed.

5) My experience with the therapeutic process:

I have been a traditional therapy client as well as an art therapy client. I have experienced both individual and group art therapy sessions. I have networked with several art therapists in Indiana and interviewed quite a few while a student in the MAAT program and as webmaster for INDIATA. I have conducted a mock therapy session that was video recorded and transcribed for a homework assignment in my Theories and Techniques of Counseling course at SMWC, and I received a score of 97.6% on the project.