After years of running groups geared towards recovery, marital and family therapy graduate Anna Pirkl ’11 collected all of her most successful art therapy interventions and instructions for running successful groups and compiled them into an inventive e-book, 12 Creative Experiences for Personal Growth and Recovery.
The guide, which is designed for individuals in recovery as well as clinicians specializing in recovery, offers a series of experiences to expand an understanding and internalization of the “12 steps.” Also included in the guide is a careful protocol for creating safe spaces for the art-making process, which can elicit important but vulnerable material in all, and is a complete guide for harnessing creativity to deepen the healing and recovery process.
Pirkl is a California Licensed Marital and Family Therapist, Licensed Advanced Alcohol and Drug Counselor, and American Art Therapy Association registered art therapist. Her transition from corporate business executive into the field of helping professionals began in 2005 as a volunteer at a battered women’s shelter. She now specializes in recovery from addiction, complex trauma, and anxiety disorders.
Adept in using a variety of therapeutic tools from Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Psycho-Educational, to Psychodynamic, Pirkl has worked with a wide variety of populations from adolescents at Central Juvenile Hall, men in recovery at sober living homes, to elderly and disabled individuals at Beach Cities Health District. She grounds her approach in humanistic philosophy and she considers it a privilege to join her clients on their healing journey.
