Pulse

Graduate Spotlight: Art and Education Bring Healing

By

Molly Peet

Growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia, Molly Peet always found joy in creativity and nature. She turned these interests into a career by earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and becoming a high school art teacher. 

But throughout her 14-year teaching career, though it was fulfilling, she felt a deeper calling.  

“I heard about EVMS’ art therapy program while I was in undergrad about 16 or 17 years ago,” she recalled, “but because I had a young child at the time, it wasn’t an option to continue in graduate school.”  

Years later, as her son approached high school graduation, Peet revisited the dream she had put on hold. 

In 2022, she enrolled in the first part-time cohort of the Counseling and Art Therapy (M.S.) program, part of Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences EVMS School of Health Professions at Old Dominion University. The part-time option allows students the flexibility to complete the program’s 61 credit hours in eight semesters instead of five.  

It wasn’t easy balancing full-time work with graduate school — plus an art therapy internship with the Hampton VA Medical Center — but the academic program was accommodating. 

“Because our part-time cohort was pretty small, they took into consideration the timing of our course schedule,” Peet said.  

With the support of faculty and classmates, Peet excelled in the program — even taking on a leadership role as program assistant and helping to facilitate the Bobby Levin Expressions of Cancer Project, a workshop series supporting cancer survivors, patients and care partners through art therapy.  

For her research capstone, Peet conducted a self-study investigating the use of process art and the Internal Family Systems Model — a psychotherapy approach that identifies sub-personalities within an individual — to explore countertransference and how it can inform clinical decision making.  

Now, as she prepares to graduate, Peet looks forward to blending her educational and therapeutic skills to support adolescents. She’d ideally like to work in a recovery high school setting, which is designed for students in recovery from substance use and other disorders.  

"It would be an excellent opportunity to leverage my experience as an educator and my mental health skills to serve a vulnerable population," she said. 

With her resilience, compassion and commitment to using art as a tool for healing, Peet is primed to continue making a difference through creativity and care. 

“I am so grateful for this opportunity,” she said. “It has been personally transformative and beyond what I imagined.” 

Request information about the Counseling & Art Therapy (M.S.) program. 


Pictured at top: Molly Peet with her mixed media artwork titled "Being Rearranged." The piece symbolizes Peet's transition from art educator to mental health practitioner.