Shaun McNiff is internationally recognized for furthering universal access to artistic expression as a source of well-being and human understanding through his teaching, artistic practice, and writings. Honors include citations from the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives as "Founder and Champion of Expressive Arts Therapy" and the Journal of Applied Arts & Health's Lifetime Achievement Award for developing art-based research, yet McNiff insists that his work studies, and sustains, pre-existing world continuities of the creative process. Currently University Professor Emeritus at Lesley University where in 1974 he established the first graduate program to integrate all forms of artistic expression in therapy and education, he describes how the global community of student experimentation, and art itself, shape his contributions to art healing and art-based research.
Specialties
Depth orientation
McNiff's work in expressive arts therapy draws on depth psychological and archetypal traditions while centering the art process itself: artistic intelligence, creative energy, and an ongoing response to images through further making.