Healing Through Art

Rohita Kilachand, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT

Rohita Kilachand is a board-certified art therapist and educator with more than 12 years of experience working in the development sector, in India, and internationally. She has been actively involved in NYU’s Graduate Art Therapy Program as a faculty member and associate research scientist. Rohita is the clinical supervisor for community outreach programs at NYU and her area of expertise includes clinical practice with children and adults, displaced populations and individuals living with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Another area of her work focuses on cross-cultural art therapy initiatives in international settings. She works with the World Bank Group to develop mental health and education-based programming for refugee populations.

Ikuko Acosta, PhD, ATR-BC, LCAT

Director emeritus of the Graduate Art Therapy Program at New York University, Ikuko has been involved in the field of art therapy for the past 38 years as an art therapist and art theory educator. Her clinical expertise is with the adult psychiatric population; she worked with a diagnostic team in the admissions unit in a county psychiatric hospital in New Jersey. Her main research interest is developing an aesthetically based pictorial analysis within a framework of psychodynamic approach. Ikuko has been active in promoting cross-cultural application of art therapy worldwide, and has been presenting and teaching in more than 20 countries over the past 25 years. Her most recent funded research, a collaboration with the Parkinson’s unit at NYU Langone Medical Center, focused on the impact of creative experience on people with Parkinson’s disease

Marygrace Berberian, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT, LCSW, Program Director

Marygrace is a licensed art therapist and clinical social worker. She has established school-based art therapy initiatives throughout New York City for at-risk children and families for over 20 years. In her current position, Marygrace is the director of NYU Art Therapy in the Schools program implementing programs for diverse communities. She has trained clinicians of other disciplines, advocating for the use of the creative arts therapies as a highly effective treatment modality. She formerly developed and directed the creative arts therapy programs at several community-based agencies, working with children and adolescents at risk, formerly homeless and mentally ill adults, and survivors of cancer.