Three years at Rikers will change a person. Even if that person is a licensed professional and not one of the prison island’s 15,000 inmates. For Charleston native Katie Hinson Sullivan, it deepened her resolve to enhance physical healing and mental health through the creative arts, especially for the underserved. She ended up at the 400-acre facility after completing a master’s degree in art therapy (with a specialization in addiction) at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
As part of becoming a licensed art therapist, Sullivan completed internships with a school that served children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental delays, a camp for youth grieving the loss of loved ones, and a program for individuals diagnosed with HIV. After taking the national exam to register as a board-certified art therapist, Sullivan gained additional experience working with vulnerable populations who have experienced trauma or who were at risk for child abuse/neglect before treating detainees at Rikers Island through a partnership with New York Health & Hospitals.
“I’ve worked with many underserved groups and individuals, especially in the mental health space,” she said. “My goal is to help communities find ways to make art therapy more accessible.” Unbeknownst to Sullivan, her decade in New York prepared her for the next phase in her career: founding and leading the Arts in Healing program at MUSC. After moving back to the Lowcountry in 2018, she realized there were very few art therapy services in the area. MUSC offered her the chance to build a program from the ground up.
The project began with inpatient services at MUSC hospitals – quickly growing to include six creative arts therapists on staff with Sullivan leading the team as director. Patients and families undergoing care at the MUSC Health Charleston campus have access to art and music therapy – services that can aid in facilitating treatment, managing anxiety, and much more.
When the pandemic arrived in 2020, the Arts in Healing program was transformed again to meet the needs of the community. The top national pediatric organizations were seeing a huge uptick in mental health care demands for this population, and they placed a call for supported services. A gift from a donor enabled the Arts in Healing program to work with MUSC’s Boeing Center for Children’s Wellness to implement an art therapy initiative in schools.
“The Boeing Center already had a presence in schools with a focus on healthy lifestyles, such as proper nutrition,” Sullivan explained. “They were beginning to expand into the behavioral health space, and we were thrilled to partner with them in their efforts.” Then the South Carolina Arts Commission reached out. They heard about the program’s success, and they, too, had an interest in improving the mental health of school-age children through art therapy.
Sullivan’s team wrote a grant proposal and received funding from the SC Arts Commission and The Duke Endowment. In 2021, they brought on Michelle Robinson as program manager for outpatient services. After expanding their services throughout Charleston County, they began responding to requests from school districts throughout the state.
“Our worlds aligned,” Sullivan said of partnering with Robinson, who brings an eclectic background of education, office/financial management, and mental health services to the role. “And together we’ve grown the outpatient program from five schools to more than 50 in six different counties – serving nearly a thousand students. The demand is there; we’re only limited by the speed and capacity of our growth, which we want to proceed with very intentionally.”
In parallel with the school-based services, the outpatient program has begun working with a diverse and enthusiastic group of community organizations. The dozen-plus partners include addiction recovery groups, assisted living/memory care facilities, a children’s group home based in the Midlands, postpartum mothers, the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and MUSC outpatient specialty clinics (such as ASL and sickle cell).
Inpatient services are critical for achieving a variety of goals for those who are receiving medical care in the hospital, such as helping a child manage anxiety or engage in physical therapy. For example, a traumatic brain injury survivor might be able to sing before they can speak, and music therapy helps make this progression possible.
Outpatient therapy mostly works toward longer-term objectives. The addiction recovery group meets every week. We Are Family, a youth support group, convenes twice per month. “Creative arts therapy is an umbrella phrase that includes drama, dance/movement, art and music therapies,” Sullivan said. “Based on the needs of each geographic region and each community group, we hire the appropriate therapists to provide custom services – across the lifespan and according to each population’s specific needs.”
It’s not about learning a new skill in terms of creating art, and it’s not about the outcome, according to Sullivan. It’s about the process. Only approximately half of patients’ time is spent engaged in art, dance, or music. The other half is spent working through what their art means to them and how they can learn from it to continue the healing process.
Another important piece of the puzzle? The group atmosphere. “Many of our therapy sessions meet as closed groups for around 10 weeks so that the same participants can bond with one another and grow throughout the process,” Sullivan said.
A perfect example of this strategic design is the therapy provided for cancer survivors. These individuals come together at a similar point in their journeys and work through what they have experienced and how to move forward – together.
Other groups benefit from open formats. We Are Family is always open to new participants. “You never know when someone might come to the group with real-time struggles that need to be addressed immediately,” Sullivan shared. “Our main focus is to create a safe space that is available at the moment it is needed.”
“As art therapists, we are trained to support conversations that go beyond the art directive to help participants experience their emotions and verbalize them,” she said. “Particularly for a young child, it’s often difficult to put words to feelings. However, even scribbling hard during the art-making process expresses something to an art therapist that we can then build on together.”
Once the Arts in Healing team partners with a school or community organization, the healing can begin. But the collaboration doesn’t end there. After establishing their services, the team works with their partners to develop plans for sustaining these programs. Private donors and temporary grants help launch the services, but long-term planning ensures that art therapy programs remain in place for current and future participants.
“Our growth over the past few years has been possible through our collaborations with groups like the Arts Commission and the various schools and community groups we serve,” Sullivan said. “This has all been a huge learning opportunity for us, and, ideally, we will continue working with coordinators and therapists across the state to expand our programming to smaller, underserved communities.”
To learn more about the Arts in Healing program, including collaboration opportunities, visit their website.
National Creative Arts Therapy Week is celebrated March 17–23, 2025. Find an art therapist near you through the American Art Therapy Association.