Faculty
The Martial and Family Therapy Graduate program is strengthened by its distinguished faculty who are clinicians and prolific contributors to the field's scholarship.
Debra Linesch, PhD, MFT, ATR-BC
Dr. Linesch has been the department chair and program director for many years. She is the author of numerous articles and four books, including Adolescent Art Therapy, Art Therapy with Families in Crisis, Celebrating Family Milestones through Art Making and Facing Genesis: Visual Midrash. She developed and currently oversees the Art Therapy in Mexico collaboration with Universidad Iberoamericana, an intercultural training, research and service endeavor. She is currently establishing a research institute within the department.
Paige Asawa, PhD, MFT, ATR-BC
Dr. Asawa, a faculty member since 1998, is the director of the Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic. Her current scholarship focuses on the use of art therapy in trauma treatment, as a result of providing trauma treatment for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and other disasters. She developed a comprehensive trauma training and response program and is expanding community outreach programs for the art therapy clinic. Since 1992 she has been in private practice utilizing art therapy with families, individuals and couples.
Einat Metzl, PhD, MFT, ATR-BC
Einat Metzl is committed to understanding art therapy services within the context of social action, intercultural dialogue, and research. Einat has worked with diverse clinical populations in psychiatric hospitals, residential facilities, special education schools, an early intervention center, and an elderly adult facility. Her published work focuses on resiliency and creativity, art therapy research methodology, perceptions of mental health services, narratives of second generation Holocaust survivors, and a photo book depicting life in South East Nepal through the eyes of the children.
Anthony Bodlović, MA, IMFT, ATR
Anthony Bodlović has been a faculty member since 2008. He is currently working on his PhD in Culture and Performance Studies at UCLA. His research focuses on the role of art and storytelling in healing. In addition to teaching at LMU, he also works in a private practice utilizing art therapy and mindfulness techniques with children and adults.
Kathleen Fogel-Richmond, M.A., MFT, ATR
Practicum Coordinator
Ms. Fogel –Richmond has extensive experience providing services for abused children and adults living with persistent mental illness and co-occurring disorders. Her specialty is working with older adults around issues of aging and loss, and also assisting adult caretakers of aging parents with long-term care planning. In her role as the department’s practicum coordinator, she develops and supervises clinical placements, teaches practicum training coursework, and also provides professional development support for students and alumni.
Ana Laura Treviño, M.A.
Director, LMU Art Therapy in Mexico Summer Program
Ms. Treviño, former Visiting Professor in the program, is currently directing LMU’s Art Therapy in Mexico program in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Part-Time Instructors
Jessica Bianchi, M.A., ATR
Jessica Bianchi, a 2008 graduate from the Master's program in Marital and Family Therapy, co-teaches Child Art Therapy with Debra Linesch. Ms. Bianchi is the Director of the department's Summer Arts Workshop and is currently working on her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership in Social Justice through LMU's School of Education.
Carla Jean Cross, M.A., MFT, ATR-BC
Carla Cross graduated in 1993 with a Master’s Degree in Marital and Family Therapy (Clinical Art Therapy) from Loyola Marymount University. She has provided art therapy services in a variety of hospital and agency settings with expertise in ADHD, families in high conflict, trauma and child abuse. Prof. Cross has been involved in training and supervising art therapists for many years in her past positions as Practicum Coordinator for Loyola's graduate program and Coordinator of the Art Therapy Fellowship Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She has participated in the past as a lecturer in the Clinical Studies, Legal and Ethical Issues, and Issues and Application Courses. She is currently the instructor for the Psychopharmacology course with Dr. Syed Naqvi. In addition to her teaching and supervision activities Prof. Cross currently directs the training programs for the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department and continues to maintain her private practice in Santa Clarita, CA.
Erica Curtis, M.A., MFT, ATR-BC
Erica Curtis has a therapy practice in Santa Monica, supervises interns, and serves on the board of directors of the American Art Therapy Association. She has presented widely for universities and organizations including USC, Kaiser Permanente, and Mom’s Club International. Erica has been quoted as an expert source in media outlets including Cookie Magazine, EHow Family, She Knows Parenting, and Women’s World Magazine to name a few. Erica and is a regular freelance writer for an online parenting resource and co-editor for an online health and wellbeing website focusing on the arts and art therapy.
Gail Goldstein, MA, ATR, MFT
Ms.
Goldstein received her Masters Degree from Loyola Marymount University’s Marital & Family Therapy/Clinical Art Therapy Program in 1990. She worked for a number of years at a therapeutic school, specializing in the treatment of children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbances. She has also worked in both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric hospital settings. She has supervised practicum students and Art Therapy/MFT interns since 1993. Currently Ms. Goldstein is the Director of Outpatient Psychiatric Services at Sherman Oaks Hospital. In addition, she has a private practice in Encino specializing in work with trauma victims and is a part-time faculty member at LMU teaching Group Dynamics.
Joellen Lapidus, Psy. D., MFT
Prof. Joellen Lapidus specializes in the treatment of alcholism, drug addiction, anxiety, depression and marital conflict. She is in private practice in Westwood and brings an eclectic background in inpatient and outpatient treatment; experiential therapies such as gestalt therapy, voice dialogue and hypnotherapy; and contemporary psychoanalysis to her classroom and clinical work. She received her Master's in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles and her PsyD from the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies. Prof. Lapidus teaches the drug and alcohol treatment course at LMU.
Philip Levin, Ph. D.
Prof. Levin is a clinical neuropsychologist with long-standing interests in neurocogitive development, the effect of neuropsychological impairments on functional developmental issues, and the development of language and its impact on the development of reading. He is interested in the providing training on report writing and feedback for families utilizing neuropsychological assessments in community mental health settings. Prof. Levin received his doctoral degree from the California School of Professional Psychology and is the program director and a supervisor for The H.E.L.P. Group. He teaches Psychological Testing in the LMU art therapy program.
Mimi Lind, MSW, LCSW
A licensed clinical social worker, Ms. Lind is currently the Director of Mental Health Services at Venice Family Clinic. She teaches Assessment, Detection and Treatment of Spousal Abuse for the LMU MFT program.
Syed Naqvi, M.D.
Dr. Naqvi is the director of the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Clinic in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Board certified in both adult and child psychiatry, he provides state-of-the-art psychopharmacological treatment to children with autism, mental retardation with psychiatric issues, Asperger's disorder, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Tourettes disorder. Dr. Naqvi has been the recipient of the Beatrix Hamburg Award for Best Research Poster in 1998, the Judd Marmor Award in 1997 and the Golden Apple Award for Best Teacher in Child Psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai in 2001, 2004 and 2006. He also serves as Examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in adult and child psychiatry. He currently teaches the course in Psychopharmacology with Carla Cross.
Beth Rosenblatt, M.A., ATR, MFT
Beth Rosenblatt has a Master of Arts in Marital and Family Therapy from LMU. Formerly the department's Director of the Art Therapy in Mexico Summer program, Ms. Rosenblatt currently co-teaches Multiculturalism with Dr. Metzl. She is an art psychotherapist at the Venice Family Clinic as well has maintaining a private practice.
Former Department Chairs
Helen B. Landgarten, M.A., LMFT, ATR, HLM
Professor Landgarten was the founder and former chair of the department and the author of Clinical Art Therapy, Family Art Psychotherapy, Adult Art Psychotherapy and Magazine Photo Collage: A Multicultural Assessment and Treatment Technique. The Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic, a community outreach endeavor of the department, commemorates her legacy after her 2011 passing.
Maxine Borowsky Junge, Ph.D. LCSW, ATR, HLM
Dr. Junge is former Chair of the department. She is the author of The Modern History of Art Therapy as well as many other books and articles.