Helen Landgarten (March 4, 1921 – February 23, 2011) was an American

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

. Alongside

Edith Kramer Edith Kramer (1916–2014) was an Austrian social realist painter, a follower of psychoanalytic theory and an art therapy pioneer. Life and work Kramer was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, in 1916. At age 13 Kramer began art lessons with Fr ...

and

Judith A. Rubin Judith A. Rubin (born 1936) is an American art therapist with 50 years of experience. Life and work Judith A. Rubin was born in New York City in 1936. At age 17, Rubin first experienced art as a way to cope with trauma after the death of her fr ...

, she was one of the leading pioneers of

art therapy Art therapy (not to be confused with ''arts therapy'', which includes other creative therapies such as drama therapy and music therapy) is a distinct discipline that incorporates creative methods of expression through visual art media. Art thera ...

Biography

Helen Barbara Trapper was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, March 4, 1921. She earned a Bachelor's degree at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

(Fine Arts, 1963) and a Master's degree from Goddard College (Marital and family therapy, 1972). She was a professor and director of the Faculty of Clinical Art Therapy at Loyola Marymount University in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She worked as an art psychotherapist in the psychiatric department of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. As an honorary member of the American Professional Association of Art Therapists, she contributed to the spread of art therapy first in the US and increasingly in Europe and around the world. Landgarten led numerous workshops in Germany, Sweden, Russia, Israel, South Africa and Brazil. In addition, she wrote several books, of which two were translated into German. The Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic at Loyola Marymount University was founded in 2007. In her first book, entitled ''Clinical Art Therapy'', Landgarten conveys her wealth of experience gained through decades of practice. This fundamental work shows the full scope of application of the therapy form while working with all age groups in the most diverse settings. In her second book, ''Art Therapy as Family Therapy'', the author deals exclusively with art therapy for families. Case studies of various diagnoses are structured in terms of developmental chronology and show the conclusive combination of both forms of therapy, founded on a common, partnership-based level of argumentation for parents, children and even grandparents. The collaborative work within the framework of family therapy forms the basis for the analysis of unconscious messages and thus the prerequisite for understanding and change. In 1942, she married Nathan Landgarten. They had two children. Landgardten died in Los Angeles, February 23, 2011, after a stroke.

Selected works

* ''Group art therapy format with children of holocaust survivors'', 1981 * ''Clinical art therapy : a comprehensive guide.'', 1981 * ''Ten Year Follow-Up Survey on the Status of Art Therapy in the Greater Los Angeles Area'', 1984 * ''The Artist in Each of Us'', 1985 * ''Family art psychotherapy : a clinical guide and casebook'', 1987 * ''Klinische Kunsttherapie : ein umfassender Leitfaden'', 1990 * ''Adult art psychotherapy : issues and applications'', 1991 * ''Family creative arts therapies: Past and present'', 1991 * ''Magazine Photo Collage as a Multicultural Treatment and Assessment Technique'', 1994 * ''Kunsttherapie als Familientherapie : ein klinischer Leitfaden mit Falldarstellungen'', 2010 * ''Clinical Art Therapy A Comprehensive Guide'', 2013 * ''Adult Art Psychotherapy Issues And Applications'', 2013 * ''Clinical Art Therapy A Comprehensive Guide'', 2014 * ''Magazine Photo Collage : a Multicultural Assessment And Treatment Technique'', 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Landgarten, Helen 1921 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women writers American psychotherapists American non-fiction writers Art therapists Goddard College alumni Loyola Marymount University faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni American women academics