Visual Arts Center of New Jersey is hiring: Art Therapist in Highland Park

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Director of Education & Community Engagement at The Visual Art Center of New Jersey

ART THERAPIST

LOCATION: Highland Park, NJ

NeighborCorps Re-Entry Services serves formerly incarcerated individuals as they re-enter their communities. Teams of trained volunteer Navigators help Participants navigate the various pillars of successful re-entry into society: finding gainful employment and housing, pursuing personal development including counseling or drug/alcohol treatment, and regaining the trust of others through communication and accountability. The Visual Arts Center of NJ has partnered with NeighborCorps Re-Entry Services to pilot an Arts & Healing Therapy program intended to help formerly incarcerated individuals form a healthy sense of self/identity, establish healthy coping skills, offer emotional support, and secure skills of effective non-verbal communication. We are looking for a dedicated art therapist to work with us in Highland Park, NJ and positively impact the lives of formerly incarcerated individuals.

POSITION SUMMARY: The Art Therapist explores clients’ ability to express themselves through art and/or creative expression. The Art Therapist participates as a member of the care team in planning, providing, and evaluating creative art therapy for formerly incarcerated individuals to enhance the delivery of quality care. The Art Therapist assesses, develops, and plans one-on-one creative art therapy activities for clients appropriate to the multidisciplinary plan of care. The Therapist plans activities at the client's level of functioning and evaluates and documents the client's response to the program. The Therapist integrates activities as part of the plan of care and collaborates with other members of the care team to enhance creative arts activities. This position delivers care in a prompt and professional manner, always maintaining the highest level of confidentiality and respect. The Therapist works as part of the care team to meet the needs of the customer and to support departmental objectives. The Therapist provides quality customer service, participates in performance improvement efforts, and assumes responsibility for professional growth and development. The Therapist will join as an independent contractor.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Facilitate creative art therapy for all interested clients
2. Ability to process creative works with clients, when appropriate, through use of psychodynamic theories
3. Organize potential client art exhibits in-house and at the graduation/celebration ceremony when appropriate and with the agreement of the participants
4. Design individualized treatment interventions to reduce stress, anxiety, and maladaptive behaviors, recover basic motor functioning, reasoning abilities, build confidence, and develop compensatory strategies to master critical life skills necessary to re-enter the community in a productive manner when available.
5. Maintain inventory of art supplies as well as order site-appropriate materials.
6. Coordinate with Program Director to address client-specific issues that have surfaced during art therapy sessions.
7. Maintain an attendance record and sign the appropriate agreements
8. Provide monthly report to on/offsite supervisor
9. Assist in special projects as required/requested
10. Support the goals, objectives, and mission statement set forth by the Board of Directors and the administration of the facility
11. Maintain and institute all infection control protocols
12. Must possess strong written, verbal, interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills
13. Must be comfortable working independently
14. Must attain supervision off site/independently
15. Must be able to exert up to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 20 pounds of force frequently, and/or up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects

QUALIFICATIONS:

1. Master’s Degree in Art Therapy, required
2. Prior experience relevant to the area of clinical practice preferred
3. Minimum of two years’ experience working with currently or formerly incarcerated populations

Job Type:

Contract Duration: Three, one-hour long sessions of art therapy each week for 12 weeks

Education: Master’s degree from an Accredited Institution as per the Art Therapy Credentialing Board and The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) — REQUIRED

License:

Board Certified and Registered Art Therapist and/or working toward hours to attain accreditation (ATR-BC) — REQUIRED

Seniority level

• Entry level

Employment type

• Part-time

Job function

• Health Care Provider
• Museums, Historical Sites, and Zoos