Today we’d like to introduce you to Meagan Fitzgerald.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Since I can remember, I have always been drawn to the arts and their connection to human psychology. As a child, I couldn’t get enough of the way watching or participating in art making, photography, dancing, singing, or acting allowed emotions to flow through me. These experiences made me feel more in touch with myself and with other people than anything else in the world. I noticed how my own creativity would increase when I was processing emotional content that I did not have the words for and sometimes, through the creative process, the words to describe what was going on inside of me would arrive organically.
When I was in high school, an Art Therapist came to my art class’s Career Day and it felt like my life path clicked into place. Why not combine my two favorite subjects of art and psychology together into a career? It resonated with me so deeply because creating artwork had been my own emotional outlet throughout my entire life.
I have worked as an Art Therapist and Counselor for the last 13 years and it never ceases to amaze me how combining the creative arts with therapy, can help people express their feelings and ground themselves. I believe that all people are artists who just need to find the right material that speaks to them. This work is my deepest passion and I feel honored to give this gift to people when they are in those dark places that often lead to seeking therapy.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Deciding to pursue Art Therapy and Counseling as a career was the easiest decision I have ever made because it felt so intuitively aligned with who I am and what I am passionate about. Embarking on the path of attaining two licenses as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and a Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), tested my resiliency, stamina, and patience. To become licensed in any mental health field requires a significant amount of personal introspection, education, internships, supervision hours, and studying for and taking examinations. It was a challenging road, but I believe that every journey we embark upon comes with its own peaks and valleys. To me, the best story’s of overcoming and accomplishing anything worth while creates just enough friction to polish us into a better version of ourselves. That to me, is what it truly is to become any type of impactful therapist or healer. Now that I am on the other side, I wouldn’t trade the journey for the world because I can truly say I love what I do for work and all of those experiences helped to shape me into the person I am today.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As stated previously, my educational background in providing both Clinical Counseling and Art Therapy interventions provides a unique blend of deep psychotherapy through creative expression. I have also attained a level two certification in providing EMDR therapy, which is a groundbreaking intervention that has shown consistent and deeply effective trauma resolution in both the mind and body, with no pharmacological intervention necessary.
I have also had the opportunity to work with individuals across the lifespan in a wide range of clinical and educational settings, including elementary, middle, and high schools; emergency rooms, inpatient units; and intensive and standard outpatient programs. This work has involved supporting clients experiencing mental health and substance use challenges, often with co-occurring diagnoses, and has strengthened my ability to provide culturally responsive care to people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Most recently, my clinical focus has been on providing therapy to mothers in the peripartum period of life. Through integrating all of the knowledge I have gained from my experiences of providing care to such a broad range of people and populations, I have come to treasure the unique holding space I can provide to women who are in the transformative process of becoming mothers. Helping them to heal generational trauma and prepare them for the unique physical, mental, emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal changes that come along with becoming a parent, can help set them and their families up for a much healthier and happier futures.
Any big plans?
I am starting to make the transition into private practice work through joining the Headway platform. I hope to someday own my own private practice to serve a broad range of clients and their therapeutic needs. I image creating a space that can double as both a standard private practice office that also has an attached studio space for clients who are seeking to engage with more of the Creative Art Therapy services I will provide. I have some exciting ideas on how to create and facilitate unique Art Therapy interventions to specifically treat the peripartum population as well as families and groups, that I am still ironing out the details on. I hope that those who work with me or read this article will stay engaged with what I am working on to see those dreams unfold.
