In early October, LMU’s Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic was delighted to play an integral role supporting Crucial Catch, an initiative from the Los Angeles Rams to encourage pre-cancer screenings. LMU is the exclusive higher education partner of the L.A. Rams.
Since 2020, the HBL Clinic, a fundamental feature of the LMU Marital and Family (Art) Therapy Department, has partnered with Cedars Sinai’s Wellness, Resilience, and Survivorship Program by providing monthly art therapy groups for people with a cancer diagnosis, which was the subject of this year’s Crucial Catch focus.
In this year’s video, rookie long snapper Alex Ward was highlighted speaking about his grandmother (and best friend), who died of cancer. In the video, Alex discusses his grandmother’s love of art, and her impact on his life, as he attends one of our clinic’s art therapy groups at Cedars Sinai along with cancer patients and survivors. The group was led by HBL Clinic Director Jessica Bianchi, LMFT, Ph.D and Nicole Sherod LMFT, ATR-BC.
The groups at Cedars are led in-person and virtually by the clinic’s licensed marriage and family (art) therapists and are co-facilitated by LMU art therapy graduate students, an engagement that informs and supports their clinical training while providing an important community service.
