The Council and its working groups focus on: Administration & Finance, Statutory Registration, Accreditation & Professional Standards, Membership, Complaints, the iacat online Journal and PR & Media Relations. The council ensures that the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics is maintained and adheres to legislation, protocols and guidelines, ensuring safe practice for both clients and members. The Executive Council (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer) also liaises with regional groups.
Ed Kuczaj, Ed Kuczaj is the recently retired Head of Arts in Health and Community Practice at CIT Cork. An Art Therapist, Ed has a background as an Arts and Dramatherapy Manager and Clinician, working in the field of learning disabilities and has previously served as Council member and Vice-Chair of BAAT.
Contact chair@iacat.ie
BA (hons), MSc. Art Psychotherapy, Cert. Creative Arts Therapy Supervision. MIACAT, MNIGAT
Louise has worked with arts in mental health for over 13 years and as an art Psychotherapist for almost 10 years. She has worked with adults and children individually and in groups in community settings, residential and outreach addiction settings, forensic settings, with CAT trainees and in private practice. She is co-founder and Director of Artonomy, a Creative Arts Therapy organisation raising awareness of the Arts Therapies and championing for more CATs in the workplace, in a wider variety of settings, on a national scale.
Contact vicechair@iacat.ie
Maggie Dagge is a Dramatherapist specialising in trauma informed DvT. Unique to this practice is the physical interaction between client and therapist towards a mutual journey to discover the anxieties that influence and impact on a person's life. Maggie works with adults and children in both school/institutional settings together with private practice. She also runs the Irish DvT practice group. Maggie, who has a background in professional theatre and venue management also uses DvT with performers, directors, teachers, therapists, social workers and trainers.
Contact treasurer@iacat.ie
Heidi has experience working in mental health services for almost 10 years. These include Adult HSE/private services, residential addiction services and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Since graduating with an MA in Art Therapy Heidi went on to study a masters in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Trinity College, Dublin. Heidi presently works in private practice at primary care psychotherapy, Co.Kildare (https://www.primarytherapy.ie/heidi-morrison/). Heidi also runs weekly group art therapy sessions for inpatients in HSE mental health services, Lake View, Naas Hospital.
Contact secretary@iacat.ie
Aisling Brennan qualfied with an M.A. in Art Therapy from CIT/Crawford College of Art and Design Cork. She also holds a Bachelor of Education and is currently pursuing an MA in Applied Spirituality. Aisling runs a private practice True Self, True Art in Co. Laois. She primarily works with children, the elderly and those with additional needs.
Contact trueselftrueart@gmail.com
BA Fine Art, BA (hons) Sculpture, MA Dramatherapy. Since 2005, Tracey has used the arts as a vehicle for change, working with children and adults at-risk within community and educational settings. Now as a dramatherapist, Tracey runs her own private practice based in and around Dublin's North East Inner City. She also works as a social care worker in a mainstream residential setting with adolescents.
Contact traceycostellocat@gmail.com
Jessica began her career as a musician studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music performing throughout Ireland and the U.K. with orchestras and ensembles such as the National Symphony and National Concert Orchestras of Ireland. In 2010, she completed her Masters in Music Therapy at UL. Since graduation, she has provided music therapy to clients across a wide range of populations and ages including within St. Michael's House, Autism Initiatives Ireland, Bloomfield Health Services, the Central Remedial Clinic, Lois Bridges and within the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Her approach is person-centred and psychodynamic and she is passionate and committed to providing opportunities for change, hope and joy.
Contact jessruthharris@gmail.com
Ciara O'Sullivan Ciara has worked across Wales and Ireland and has delivered workshops to community centres, schools and clinics and is very passionate in the work she produces with each one being unique and explicitly designed to cater to the groups' needs. Ciara currently works in the Central Remedial Clinic providing workshops to day service users and in a secondary school in South Dublin. Ciara has recently finished her masters in Maynooth University in Dramatherapy and is very excited in her future career as a Dramatherapist.
Contact creativedramaireland@gmail.com
Angie originally qualified as an Architect with a B Arch Sc, Dip Arch(Hons) Degree and has practised as an architect in Ireland, England and Germany as well as being an Architectural Lecturer in Two Universities in the UK where she has also acted as a mentor to students in the University of Suffolk. Angie recently graduated from the MA in Art Therapy, CIT Cork and now practices in Dublin.
Contact: angieobriendesigns@gmail.com
Úna Walsh is a fully qualified art therapist and art practitioner. Since 2014 Úna has provided art therapy at Solas cancer support centre in Waterford. Here she provides one to one and group art therapy for bereaved clients and people who have experienced a cancer diagnosis.
Úna takes referrals through her private practice, Úna Walsh Art Therapy Studios at GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) Lombard Street, Waterford city. In her practice Úna works with adults, adolescences and children. Úna Walsh MA (hons1) Art Therapy.
Contact: una21.mwalsh@gmail.com
With a background in music, dance, arts management and counselling as well as a deep interest and care for people’s embodied stories and lives, it was a natural progression for Noémie to become a Dance Movement Psychotherapist. Having grown up in France and spent her 20s in England, Noémie graduated recently with a Masters from Goldsmiths University London. She settled in the North West of Ireland not long ago to start a family and currently works with children on the autistic spectrum in Derry, Northern Ireland. She is also about to launch her private practice in County Donegal and can be found on her website (https://noemiemovingsouls.wixsite.com/noemiemovingsouls) and on Facebook under the name Moving Souls. Noémie has experience working with a variety of people in a variety of settings and is looking forward to grow her practice in Ireland.
Contact; noemie.moving.souls@gmail.com
Gráinne recently graduated from the MA in Art Therapy from Crawford College of Art. Her clinical placement settings included primary and post-primary education, including with children with additional needs, and acute adult psychiatry services. Her thesis focused on the neurophysiology of trauma and sensori-motor techniques in art therapy and she looks forward to the opportunity to further develop these interests and incorporate them into a professional practice.
Contact: grainne.comerford@gmail.com
For over 15 years Rachel has combined her love of art with her education, voluntary work and career. Her involvement with Creative Connections based in Cork city allowed her to experience community intercultural, integration and performance art. Her studies in UCC and CIT are inclusive of intercultural integration, global education and change making, youth and community work and mental health in the community. Currently she works as a social care worker supporting vulnerable adults with Nua Healthcare. She is also now in the process of completing her MA in Art Therapy at CIT Cork.
Contact 087 992 1746 or info@iacat.ie
Pamela Whitaker is an art therapist and lecturer in the MSc Art Therapy course at Ulster University, Belfast School of Art. She also works under the name of Groundswell, www.groundswell.ie. She was previously editor of the Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal.
Contact journaleditor@iacat.ie
Dr Maggie O’Neill is a researcher in the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of Ireland, Galway. She researches and writes widely on Irish literature, culture and society. She has been co-editor of IACAT Journal since 2013.
Contact journaleditor@iacat.ie
