The day I tried to access the Children’s Corner: Art Therapy fan page was the same day Facebook and Twitter got hacked— the system was overrun by some kind of program was attempting to login to thousands of accounts at once, causing most of Facebook and Twitter to go down for a few hours. Yet another thing to think about on social networking sites— they are a prime target for hacking since they’re used by so many people.

Thanks for clarifying that the fan page is still up and running.

I suppose my hesitancy about naming names is that on the other discussion boards I’ve read, it seems that everyone knows who we’re talking about without being specific. Peg Dunn Snow is currently the President of AATA, which is an intimidating title to a relatively new art therapist, such as myself. That being said, one’s position does not exempt you from critique. In fact, I would expect that the President of AATA would be the one to set the bar on these issues. In this case the bar has been set far below what many of us would feel comfortable with and possibly below what is legal.

Thank you for stopping by!
- Liz

I found it by Using Google to search for “you tube childrens corner art therapy” which took me to this page of Google:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=you+tube+childrens+corner+art+therapy&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

then in the various listings there (which, by the way, include a link to Judy Rubin’s film), the very TOP listing is titled:
“Art Therapy for Children; Art Therapy and Autism; Art Therapy and …
Art therapy services for children and teens,ages 3 -17. Available for children who are having … Children’s Corner: Art Therapy for Children on Facebook.
http://www.arttherapyforchildren.com/”

THEN, when you click on that link, and get to the “homepage” of that site, if you scroll down to the very bottom (under the contact phone number, etc.), you will see a “widget” titled “Children’s Corner: Art Therapy for Children on Facebook” — along with a link for “become a fan” (I didn’t!) — and it’s a direct link into that page.

If you’re a Facebook member you get into it the page immediately – there’s a bunch tabs across the top of that page and one says “videos”. If you click that tab you get to a page of videos ready for viewing — and I didn’t see any “disclaimer” about disguised identities, or similar — NO TEXT AT ALL — just a bunch of videos to click on (I didn’t…).

As for “who we’re talking about”, one has to look no further than the Board of AATA itself… which truly has me thinking it’s time that training in the ethics of technology was made mandatory in the training of art therapists (and all therapists, actually).

Judy

Hope that helps,

Judy

Originally in response to your question I was going to give you a list of how to search for the fanpage without giving out the actual fan page name. I think at this point its silly to skirt around the issue of who we’re talking about. The easiest way to find the fan page is to search in facebook for “children’s corner art therapy”. It’ll pop right up.

However, I just tried to access the fan page and for some reason I’m having problems.

I’d be interested to know your thoughts after viewing the page itself…if you can get into it.

- Liz

Its encouraging to hear that I’m on the right track in terms of my train of thought. I’m hoping that this discussion is something that not only continues on blogging forums, but also at the AATA conference coming up. I suspect that not enough art therapists are weighing in on the subject since many still don’t seem to have much of an internet presence. I’m doing a half day workshop with Melissa Solorzano (creative therapy sessions podcast) on blogging and podcasting, and I will certainly be bringing up this example during our discussion on ethics and the internet.

Thanks for your feedback!
- Liz

“I certainly agree that acquiring consent for the purpose of advertising one’s practice is overstepping the ethics of our profession. As mental health professionals we must be honest with ourselves, our clients and their families, by not trying to pass off an advertisement as an attempt to educate the lay person about art therapy and its benefits.”