La Europa Academy
Salt Lake City, UT

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La Europa
Welcomes New Art Therapist

Malissa Morrell is a nationally registered art therapist and a licensed marriage and family therapist who moved to Utah from Los Angeles. Previously, Malissa was the program director for the Expressive Therapies program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, coordinating art therapy, music therapy, and dance therapy for patients and families.

In her 8 years of experience as an art therapist, she has also worked in school-based, outpatient mental health and private practice settings. Malissa has been on the faculty of Loyola Marymount University's art therapy graduate program and has spent several years supervising and mentoring student and post-graduate art therapists. She has published articles on art therapy, resilience, multicultural issues, and group art therapy techniques, in addition to presenting at the national art therapy conference. Malissa is currently a poetry therapy intern, supervised by the master poetry therapy mentor for the western United States.

Art and poetry therapy, which combine verbal and non-verbal communication, provide an excellent opportunity to communicate and integrate thoughts and feelings. Every week La Europa students will participate in 2 art/poetry therapy groups, with additional individual and family art therapy sessions as requested by the clinical and treatment teams. By utilizing their creativity with a variety of media, then talking about the process, art and poetry therapy provide alternative opportunities for our students to express themselves and work through their core issues in a safe and comprehensive way.

La Europa Academy is a six to nine month clinically intensive program for girls ages 13-17.