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Heather Denning, MA, LPAT, ATR-BC, ATCS, LSW received a B.S. in Art Therapy from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio and Master of Arts in Art Therapy at Vermont College of Norwich University. She has over 25 years’ experience working in mental health settings primarily facilitating and directing group therapy programs for adults with severe mental illnesses and dual diagnoses. She provided art therapy services to adolescents and adults individually and adolescents in group settings in residential, intensive outpatient, and partial hospitalization programs. In community mental health, Heather supervised graduate art therapy students on site completing their internships in an Adult Partial Hospitalization Program. She served as the agency’s Adult Partial Hospitalization Program Director and Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement Director.

Heather has been an art therapy educator since 1995 teaching both at the undergraduate and graduate level. She is currently directing an undergraduate pre-art therapy program and serving as the department chair. Her main teaching interests are group work and media and materials. She provides supervision to art therapists pursuing their ATR credentials.

Heather has presented at many professional conferences including the Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Symposiums, the American Art Therapy Association’s Annual Conferences, the International Art Therapy Practice/Research Conference cohosted by British Art Therapy Association and the American Art Therapy Association, and The Association of Specialists in Group Work Biennial Conference.  Her presentation topics focus on group art therapy, collaborative art, eco art therapy, service-learning, and art therapy education. Heather has published articles on the topics of undergraduate art therapy education in Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association and several book chapters on the topics of group work.

Heather served as the past chair and co-chair of the Undergraduate Education Sub-Committee of the American Art Therapy Association and is the current Secretary of the Buckeye Art Therapy Association.

Her passion in art therapy is group work and service-learning in art therapy education.  She has accompanied students in service-learning trips to the Cheyenne River Youth Project for the RedCan Graffiti Jam in Eagle Butte, South Dakota and abroad in Nepal, Italy, and South Africa.  Her art in mixed media and digital photography has been shown in regional juried art shows and reflects themes of service, humanity, and nature.

Witnessing how creating art in clinical, community, and educational settings builds relationships and empowers people continues to inspire Heather as an art therapist and educator.