Art Therapy Personal Statement

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When I was accepted to San Jose State University (SJSU) I intended to pursue a career in art therapy with a focus in child development. I always had an aptitude for art and I wanted to incorporate that into a career that allowed me to help people. I took classes, such as Child Psychology, Psychology of the Adolescent, Chad, Multicultural Art/Children, etc., in order to pursue a career in that field. Additionally, I began working at elementary schools, such as Carden Day School, Monroe Middle School, Sherman Oaks, etc., in order to gain some experience working with youth.
As I progressed in my undergraduate studies I became more and more engrossed with the examination and analysis of different abnormal behaviors. I particularly enjoyed Professor
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This exposure led me to see how different factors such as language, divorce, single parent households, economics, sex role of primary caregivers, immigration, etc., could affect how a child would interact with his or her peers and teachers. I’ve become interested in studying how these factors can affect a child’s family and social life, aggression, and resilience. If I worked with children then I would want to focus on alleviating stressful factors that would impact their ability to interact with others, which might prevent future problems as an adolescent or …show more content…
Knowing how to respond to someone who was going through difficult medical treatments, like chemotherapy, or who had lost someone was difficult. Yet the longer I worked in the hospital the more I started to get the sense that tip toeing around patients and families was unnecessary. It just added to the load of their already emotional journey. This was a good lesson to learn early on because illness, death, and dying is a reality of life that I will most likely come into contact with as a counselor. Moreover, working in a hospital was beneficial because I saw how medical professionals interacted with each other and their clients. These exchanges gave me insight into the structure of the hospital and how I would fit into it as my career

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