Prof. Vivien Speiser

Director of Arts Therapies

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About

Vivien Marcow Speiser, Ph.D. LMHC, REAT, BC-DMT, is a Professor Emerita and Co- Director of the Institute for Arts and Health in The Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lesley University. She is also a Distinguished Research Associate at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa. Prof. Speiser is a licensed mental health counselor, a dance/movement therapist and an expressive arts therapist and educator. She has developed and implemented numerous arts based programs throughout the USA and Israel. As former founder and director of the Arts Institute Project in Israel, she has been influential in the development of Expressive Arts Therapy in that country. She is currently on the Executive Committee of IACAET, The International Association of Creative Arts in Education and Therapy and is a co-editor of the CAET journal. Her contributions to the field have made her an international leader in dance and expressive therapy, and most recently earned her the 2014 Distinguished Fellows Award from the Global Alliance for Arts and Health and a 2015 Honorary Fellow Lifetime Achievement award from the Israeli Expressive and Creative Arts Therapy Association (ICET). In addition, she has received a 2019 JAAH Lifetime Achievement Award in Applied Arts and Health, and is the current 2020 and 2023 recipient of a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award.

Education

Ph.D.

Psychology, Union Institute (1986)

M.Ed.

Expressive and Dance Therapy, Lesley University (1977)

B.A.

University of the Witwatersrand

Teaching Areas

Dance Therapy, Expressive Therapy, Group Process, Arts and Human Development

Research interests

Prof. Speiser has taught throughout the world and believes in the use of the arts as a way of communicating across borders and across cultures. She believes in the power of the arts to create the conditions for personal and social change and transformation. Her interests and expertise lie in the areas of working with communities under duress through an integrated arts approach. Many of her publications are grounded in her work with trauma and cross-cultural conflict resolution through the arts. In addition, she is an expert in the creation and performance of 'rites of passage rituals' and in the use ofperformance in expressive therapy practice. Her current area of research is in working with war displaced Ukranians in therapy and supervision structures, and in convening international conversations on trauma and the arts .