About me
Marissa
Batya Singer, MA, ATR
MA - Master of Arts - in Creative Arts Therapies: Art Therapy
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
ATR - Registered Art Therapist
American Art Therapy Credentials Board Certification
My love for art and social services was born and raised in Western Massachusetts.
My education and experiences motivated me to help my community and provided me with the tool of creativity as a conduit for expressing and navigating challenging experiences.
I started my education at the Greenfield Center School, that is internationally known for the use and development of a social curriculum.
The essence of social curriculum is based on the importance of using varied learning styles to meet students needs, cultivating and nourishing empathy, compassion, collaboration, creativity and social justice.
The learning was centered on the “Golden Rule”:
“Treat others the way you want to be treated”
However, I prefer:
“Treat others the way THEY want to be treated”
My preferred Golden Rule:
Treat others
the way
THEY want
to be treated
For High School, I went to Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School (PVPA) for Music, but took an array of dance, visual arts and movement classes.
In the end I was left with a deep love and connection for the visual arts in particular, but had a felt experience with each creative practice that inform me to this day.
I pursued Social Work at Temple University in North Philadelphia. My year there was an incredible learning experience for me, but I found that Social Work was not quite the angle that met my passion. I knew that creating art helped me to foster my inner resources and express feelings that word could not.
In a conversation with a stranger,
I was introduced to Art Therapy
and I knew it was the path for me.
I took courses at Greenfield Community College, and then went to the [former] College of Santa Fe, in Santa Fe, New Mexico (for a B.A. in Art + Psychology with a Concentration in: Art Therapy.)
During my time in New Mexico. I was introduced to different art forms, ways of creating, living and working.
The shift in diversity of people, plants, animals, landscapes and land rights were all present and palpable in informing my growth as a person and practitioner.
I worked in an art gallery, the B+W and Color photography dark rooms, and as a teacher for community teens who were looking to bring their graffiti skills from the walls to the canvas.
After graduating early, I moved back to Western Mass and volunteered at the Athol Council on Aging as an art facilitator for a weekly seniors group.
I also ran a therapeutic art group at a the Farren Care Center inpatient facility as I researched ways to develop my skills and practice.
Photo by Marissa Singer © 2012 - Melbourne, Australia
In the name of research and my passion for graffiti, street art, psychology and travel, I flew solo to live and work in Melbourne, Australia for a year. I studied the therapeutic benefits of public art, graffiti and street art on both the artists and their community.
My year in Australia, which expanded to Thailand and Indonesia, was an incredible experience and helped to inform my intercultural competency and my Master’s research.
At Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada I fell in love with the University’s diversity of practice within Art Therapy.
I was able to dive into clinical and community work simultaneously and learn the uses and potentials for both ends of the spectrum
as well as the beauty of a combined practice.
My work with adolescents, individuals with intellectual and physical divergencies and older adult populations informed the connections between them and the idea that the meeting point to promote intergenerational connection could be art.
My master’s research developed an Intergenerational Street Art Therapy Intervention to Foster Place Attachment.
I lived and worked in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) for 7 years as an Art Therapist and a companion.
I moved back the summer of 2021 to work with my home community and I look forward to working with you or your loved one soon!