Re: Need LCAT hours? Volunteer with Goodwill PROS Rebound

[Guest guest]

I thought there was a restriction on volunteering for LCAT hours.  This was a recent discussion on this listserve or the NYATA.   If not this is a wonderful opportunity, but you might want to check to be sure - perhaps someone knows the answer.

 

 

Goodwill PROS Rebound located in Astoria, NY is seeking creative arts therapists (all modalities) willing to volunteer their services in exchange for LCAT supervision and hours needed toward licensure. Prospective volunteers will have the opportunity to work alongside licensed art, music and dance/movement therapists as part of a comprehensive treatment team. Population is adults with severe and persistent mental illness and dual diagnosis. Please email resume to kpark@...

-- Mia de Bethune

[Guest guest]

The discussion on the NYATA listserv was about the fact that, as of Sept 1 2010, you need to do two volunteer hours for every one professional experience hour for the ATR (not for the LCAT, although that might affect someone's LCAT application because the ATCB exam is the exam for the LCAT for art therapists).

 

I thought there was a restriction on volunteering for LCAT hours.  This was a recent discussion on this listserve or the NYATA.   If not this is a wonderful opportunity, but you might want to check to be sure - perhaps someone knows the answer.

 

 

Goodwill PROS Rebound located in Astoria, NY is seeking creative arts therapists (all modalities) willing to volunteer their services in exchange for LCAT supervision and hours needed toward licensure. Prospective volunteers will have the opportunity to work alongside licensed art, music and dance/movement therapists as part of a comprehensive treatment team. Population is adults with severe and persistent mental illness and dual diagnosis. Please email resume to kpark@...

-- Mia de Bethune

[Guest guest]

There is nothing in the LCAT requirements that specifically says that this is

not allowed, but it is more than a little unsettling to me. No one ever suggests

that social workers, psychologists or psychiatrists should volunteer. If

organizations start using " volunteer " creative arts therapists why would they

ever pay for one? I understand that it is difficult for people fresh out of

graduate school to find jobs, but devaluing our field is not going to make it

any easier. My creative arts therapy co-workers and I fight everyday to defend

the importance and validity of our work to our mental health colleagues. It is

distressing to have to defend it to a fellow LCAT. I urge you to think about the

larger implications that this will have on the creative arts therapy profession.

We should not be working for free. People in all other professions value their

work and their time enough to charge for their services, creative arts

therapists should be no different.

>

> Goodwill PROS Rebound located in Astoria, NY is seeking creative arts

therapists (all modalities) willing to volunteer their services in exchange for

LCAT supervision and hours needed toward licensure. Prospective volunteers will

have the opportunity to work alongside licensed art, music and dance/movement

therapists as part of a comprehensive treatment team. Population is adults with

severe and persistent mental illness and dual diagnosis. Please email resume to

kpark@...

>

[Guest guest]

I couldn't agree with you more .

I find this request devaluing and terribly insulting to the field and to those

who have spent a lot of money on a graduate degree and may have acquired

enormous student loan debt to pay off as a result of getting a degree.

While I realize that a career in social services is not lucrative, why should

one even pay for this degree if we can now volunteer to gain the experience we

need to get ahead?

A hospital would not ask a doctor to volunteer their time in order to work

through their residency and acquire their medical license nor would any other

licensed professions ask this of professionals.

I also feel it is irresponsible to ask a clinician to volunteer their services

because oftentimes if one does not feel valued by their place of work, this

could impact morale and work with clients.

It is one thing to be an intern still in school and volunteer ones time because

one is in training but once one has graduated, it is only fair that one should

be compensated, at least something, for all the hard work they have put in

towards earning a degree.

And the fact that one has to acquire a limited permit for a $70 fee should at

least amount to something as well.

I am not one to use this listserve to rant about our profession but this request

has really crossed the line as far as I'm concerned.

I truly hope that Goodwill, one of the largest non-profits in the world, can

reassess their budget and can find some way of compensating their professionals

working towards their LCAT.

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

I feel moved to contribute to this discussion as well, especially as

one who recently asked the listserve for tips on volunteer

opportunities to help accrue LCAT hours. As Robin stated, the ratio of

art therapy jobs in NYC--especially those that are approved by OMH or

another mental health care overseers with an LCAT who can provide

supervision--is completely disproportionate to the influx of new grads

looking for work in the field. I, too, have been very active in the art therapy

job

search for almost a year but have had to support myself with two part-time

teaching gigs in the meantime. I am now starting to volunteer on weekends in

order to obtain a limited permit and begin to accrue hours. This has been a

very humbling process so far, and does seem like a double bind--or stalemate, as

Key called it--since most employers won't hire without a limited permit but one

already needs to be working in some capacity at an approved site with an

approved supervisor in order to get this permit in the first place.

I find myself caught in a very small box (ironically--since art therapists and

artists

aren't ones to fit themselves into such narrow categories!) and feel

that I've had to be extremely resourceful in response to

the current economic climate and licensing restrictions. It seems to

me that Goodwill (and other organizations that recruit volunteers to provide

them with additional training and supervision in exchange for work) is simply

responding to a very real need from many new unlicensed professionals.

I hope that seeking out volunteer opportunities in order to work toward one's

license does not continue to be seen as depreciation of the field, but rather a

sign of 'thinking outside of the box' in order to do whatever it takes to access

the field.

Sharon Itkoff, MPS

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> >> > Goodwill PROS Rebound located in Astoria, NY is seeking creative

> >> arts therapists (all modalities) willing to volunteer their

> >> services in exchange for LCAT supervision and hours needed toward

> >> licensure. Prospective volunteers will have the opportunity to work

> >> alongside licensed art, music and dance/movement therapists as part

> >> of a comprehensive treatment team. Population is adults with severe

> >> and persistent mental illness and dual diagnosis. Please email

> >> resume to kpark@

> >> >

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