Profiles

Dr. Mary Roberts is the Program Director of the Counseling & Art Therapy program at Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences, EVMS School of Health Professions at Old Dominion University, formerly Eastern Virginia Medical School (July 1, 2024). Dr. Mary Roberts began her appointment to the Graduate Art Therapy and Counseling Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) as Program Director and Assistant Professor on June 17, 2013; she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 and to Professor in 2023. She is a graduate of Eastern Virginia Medical School, with a Master of Science degree in Art Therapy in 1997 and from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Art in 1995, after completing studio art foundations and sculpture work at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1991-1993. In May 2013, Dr. Roberts completed her Education Specialist degree from the Curry School at the University of Virginia. She earned her doctoral degree in Counselor Education at Old Dominion University in 2018.

Dr. Roberts has over 28 years of experience as counselor and an art therapist. She has 15 years of experience as a counselor and art therapist educator. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (2000), Approved Clinical Supervisor (2015), and Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Provider (2025). Dr. Roberts was EMDR Level II, fully trained in 2004. Dr. Roberts is a Registered and Board-Certified Art Therapist (1999) and Art Therapy Clinical Supervisor (2015). She is a practicing artist in mixed media painting. In the counseling and art therapy program, she teaches Assessment, Trauma Informed & Neuroscience Informed Counseling, Advanced Trauma Informed and Advanced Cultural Sensitivity content, and advanced counseling skills along with Processes & Materials in Art Psychotherapy. She provides individual clinical site supervision and served as the Clinical Internship Coordinator for 12 years. Dr. Roberts has taught Adolescent Psychotherapy Skills and Group Supervision, Cultural Competency, and chaired student thesis and capstone research. Dr. Roberts was appointed to the faculty in 2010 and served as Part-Time Faculty. Dr. Roberts previously served as the Vice President of the Virginia Art Therapy Association.

Dr. Roberts in 2013, led efforts to integrate cultural humility and multicultural counseling competencies in the counseling and art therapy curriculum by directly applying learning from her doctoral studies in Counselor Education and Supervision. Dr. Roberts enacted her passions for counseling education integrated with art therapy education through significant revisions of the counseling and art therapy program curriculum. Dr. Roberts created targeted and measured counseling skills curricula to include direct teaching and practice of basic and advanced counseling skills, counseling assessment through intake interviews, risk assessment, and using common measures, evaluations of didactic and practical experiences through development of skills rubrics for practicum and internships, developed Standardized Patient Experiences for learning, and evaluation of students’ counseling skills. Dr. Roberts ensured that core counseling content through integrating knowledge, awareness, and skills for counseling education and clinical mental health counseling were consistently met in courses, documented on syllabi, and integrated with counseling texts and literature. Dr. Roberts created program evaluation plans that include measuring student learning outcomes for counseling content and education standards.

Dr. Roberts has engaged in a variety of research endeavors. She completed her dissertation: Exploring the Variant Experiences Through which of Racial/Ethnic Minorities Select Art Therapy as a Career, which is a qualitative study based on post intentional phenomenological theory and career counseling theories. She has actively mentored students for thesis and capstone research. Dr. Roberts has conducted research and program evaluation to understand and analyze cohort education, counseling and art therapy education, and effectiveness of teaching core counseling and clinical mental health content, which resulted in curriculum, policy, and procedural changes for the counseling and art therapy program. Dr. Roberts has consulted with Armed Services Arts Partnership (2015-2017) and the Virginia Stage Company (2019) for program evaluation. Dr. Roberts’s research agenda includes mental health services with veterans for processing and coping with post-traumatic stress, facilitating military to civilian reintegration, and improving quality of life, counseling for individuals with dementia and care partners of individuals with dementia, program evaluations, and intersections of counseling, art therapy, biomarkers, neuroscience, and creativity. Currently, Dr. Roberts completed a 2-year grant working with veterans, completed a grant to help survivors and individuals directly and indirectly impacted by the mass shooting in Virginia Beach, VA on May 31, 2019 and community violence in January 2021, has a current grant working with individuals with dementia, and was recently awarded a grant from Virginia Humanities and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation for work with Beneath the Surface: Visual Conversations About Race (with Dr. Douglas). Dr. Roberts has actively supported student led research and partnerships with faculty to write and manage grants and make time for research and special projects. In addition, by securing a variety of grants for students, research for mental health and women’s infertility, mental health for veterans, and therapy for individuals with dementia, Dr. Roberts was able to develop the Arts for Optimal Health Program which visions and supports community integrated counseling and arts therapies for clinical services, research, education, and program evaluation based in creativity and mental health practices.

Dr. Roberts was invited to teach in the Art Therapy program in the Academy of Arts and Culture, J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia for spring and summer 2019. Dr. Roberts taught content in art therapy history and approaches, psychotherapy theories and approaches, and trauma informed art psychotherapy with specialized content in military trauma, combat trauma, integration of neuroscience and trauma, and multiple intersections of minority experiences, childhood traumas, neglect, abuse, and sexual trauma. Through this partnership, Dr. Roberts was able to develop a study abroad experience for EVMS Art Therapy and Counseling, MS students.

Before coming to EVMS, Dr. Roberts worked as a counselor and art therapist with adolescents in a detention facility. Dr. Roberts served the State Operated Programs with the Virginia Department of Education to train creative mental health therapists in best practice, ethics, and therapeutic boundaries in residential settings and education programs served by the state. She served as a mentor to new creative mental health therapists employed in State Operated Programs. Dr. Roberts has propelled the fields of counseling and art therapy for creativity and mental health by encouraging the hiring of expressive therapists in education programs in detention facilities, pioneering and founding seven sustaining creative mental health therapist positions in her career, documenting standards of practice in writing, contributing articles to newsletters, and developing standards and curriculum for creative mental health therapists in education programs as a part of the regular school schedule as opposed to IEP related services. Throughout her career, Dr. Roberts has worked as a counselor and art therapist in residential, in home, community mental health, transitional services, and private practice settings with a focus on the treatment of trauma. Recently, Dr. Roberts designed and facilitated the Bobby Levin Expressions of Cancer Project: Group Therapy for Patients, Survivors, and Care Partners. Dr. Roberts facilitated the group for Care Partners and a colleague facilitated the group for cancer patients and survivors. The services culminated in an art show supporting the American Cancer Society Network annual meeting. In addition, Dr. Roberts regular facilitates groups for veterans and care partners.

Dr. Roberts has integrated growth mindset and educational best practices into the curriculum and teaching in the Graduate Art Therapy and Counseling Program at EVMS, now the Counseling and Art Therapy program in the Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences (VHS) in the EVMS School of Health Professions at Old Dominion University (July 1, 2024). Her goals continue to be focused on continued reflection and re-evaluation for program growth and improvement. Currently, she mentors faculty in pursuing counselor education accreditation. She successfully documented the program’s effective delivery of art therapy education leading to CAAHEP accreditation. The program was fully accredited in September 2019 for 10 years. Collaboratively with the faculty, she continues to lead the program to enhanced curriculum with integrated twenty-first learning skills and technology that are best practices and data driven to measure student growth. Dr. Roberts has a commitment to partnering with the community to further the fields of counseling and art therapy and the mission of VHS at ODU.