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Press Release - For Immediate Release
October 2000
Media Contact: Julie Russell, Marketing Mgr.

The Boston Institute for Arts Therapy Appoints New Executive Director


The Board of Trustess of the Boston Institute for Arts Therapy is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Phillip Speiser, Ph.D., LMHC as the agency's new Executive Director. Dr. Speiser brings a wealth of experience to the agency as an expressive arts educator/therapist and family therapist who has been developing and implementing integrated arts programs for nearly two decades.

Founded in 1982, the Boston Institute for Arts Therapy is one of the few community based human service agencies in Boston to provide mental health care through the power of creative expression including art, music, drama and dance. In small group, family or individual sessions, the Institute's staff of master's level counselors and national board certified arts therapists use expressive arts techniques to provide a non-threatening, interactive way to communicate concerns and encourage new effective behavioral responses to emotional distress. With administrative offices in Dorchester, the Institute's quality educational and therapeutic arts programs reach over 2,000 children, adults and families annually in over 46 communities thorughout Eastern Massachusetts.

Dr. Speiser received his doctorate in Psychology and the arts from the Union Institute in Cincinnati. He is an adjunct Professor at Lesley College, Cambridge, MA and has taught at numerous colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad.

Dr. Speiser also brings a strong cross-cultural commitment to the Institute, having lived in Scnadinavia throughout the 1980s. He is the former chairperson of Very Special Arts Sweden and of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association. Before coming to BIAT, Dr. Speiser led an international 'conflict resolution thorugh the arts' project which reached multiethnic groups in South Africa, Israel and Russia.

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Creative Arts Therapy Programs...
Visual Art * Music * Dance * Drama
...That Can Make a World of Difference!

Boston Institute for Arts Therapy

"Drawing out the best in people since 1982"

 

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