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Shirley Riley (DOB-September 14, 2004) was a certified art therapist and marriage and family counselor in the state of California. Riley was also an American Art Therapy Association (AATA) Honorary Life Membership recipient. The Honorary Life Membership is the highest honor granted by the AATA and it is given to those who have given major contributions to the field of art therapy. Throughout her career, Riley worked as an art therapist and family therapist in a variety of settings, she taught at the Master’s level for almost 20 years, was an active member of the AATA, regularly wrote articles for the AATA journal, published books, and was an international speaker.

Education
Riley’s journey began at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, California, where she received her Master’s degree and obtained a license in marriage and family therapy. Riley studied under the guidance of Helen Landgarten, a west-coast pioneer and advocate for art therapy. As a student, Riley attended seminars and training programs in Transactional Analysis, and Gestalt art therapy by Janie Rhyne. Riley attended her very first American Art Therapy Association conference in New York in 1974.

Professional Career
Riley’s first practicum was at Culver City Child Guidance Clinic in the Family and Child division. The guidance clinic later merged with nine other community clinics and became known as the Didi Hirsh Community Mental Health Center, where Riley became a staff member and worked for more than 20 years. According to her friend, Bobbi Stoll, Riley’s books contained clinical material from Didi Hirsh Community Mental Health Center. At Didi Hirsh Community Mental Health Center, Riley offered her services to outpatient and after-school programs to adolescents and families. As she reflected back to her beginnings in her outpatient clinic, Riley believed that the problems of teenagers were not as violent and intense as they have become with time. According to Riley, the modern teenager now faces issues with poverty, lack of a paternal figure, substance abuse, gang violence, sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, minority ethnic conflicts and prenatal damage to the adolescent from the parents’ history of substance abuse and neglect. Riley saw challenges in her practice due to these factors, including lack of support from family members or clients having to walk through enemy gang areas just to get to the clinic. Riley admitted having limited experience in residential centers and alternative schools where she mainly did work in supervision and consulting. However, she interviewed a couple of art therapists who work in such facilities in order to provide a well-rounded exploration on working with adolescents for her book Contemporary Art Therapy for Adolescents.

Art Media
Depending on the population, Riley used art materials best suited for the developmental stage and the individual needs of the client. For example, when working with adolescents, she would have markers, especially black and red, oil pastels, paper, glue and scissors, magazine cut-outs and a basket of plasticine balls available because these are the materials that most adolescents prefer. When working with children with behavioral problems, she provided safety scissors and other safe materials. She reminded other art therapists that even the most innocent materials can become a weapon for the client. As for children with autism, she realized that despite their fine motor difficulties, they enjoy drawing. Therefore, she provided them with washable markers and 11” x 14” or bigger paper. For those children who displayed severe motor skill delays, Riley provided them with building blocks or malleable materials such as clay or plasticine. In some special cases, Riley requested clients to bring their own items for art making. No matter the group, Riley believed that modeling proper care for the art materials is important to therapy. The art therapist should model respect through handling the material with care and joy. As the art therapist and the clients use materials adequately, an environment of mutual respect emerges, which clients may not always find in their social environments. According to Riley, some of the benefits of conservation for art materials for children include: materials are most likely to be taken care of, sharing materials creates an interactive environment among group clients, and to create an environment conducive of mutual nurturance and care. She also advised art therapists to share that special experience of opening new supplies with their clients, to experience the vibrant colors, the new smells and the smooth feeling of new materials. This experience can be new to a client who may have never had a new set of crayons or markers, thus conveying possibilities between the client and the materials.

Theoretical Preference
Riley followed a social constructionist philosophy that she viewed as advantageous for her clients due to its solution-focused qualities rather than pathology-focused (p. 284). These views allowed Riley to see her clients separate from the problem and collaborated with them against the problem. Her narrative approach empowered clients to actively reauthor their stories through art as a way to find the solution to their problems. Riley noted that adolescents are highly creative, and suggesting expressive tasks in a respectful manner that has special meaning to the client makes it easier to let the adolescent be creative. In her directives, she encouraged teenagers to express their problems and find solutions. A directive she frequently used with teenagers termed polarity drawings allows the client to explore a problem from different angles, such as by asking the client to draw how they would handle a specific problem if they were in the position of the opposite side, such as a parent. In addition, Riley realized that art therapy journaling is an effective way to encourage teenagers to continue art therapy outside of the sessions, especially because adolescents usually keep diaries; therefore, the art therapy journal becomes a visual complement to the diary when emotions lack words.

Contributions to the Field
Riley shared her views on art therapy practice through a myriad of publications, she passed down her knowledge and information on clinical work with adolescents, women, and families for current and future generations of art therapists. In 1996, Riley expressed her concerns on the future of art therapy and how others see it. Riley embraced the changes that the postmodern era brought to society, and asked other art therapists to face these changes by viewing individual clients through “specialized lenses”, by willingly providing short-term services in a fast-paced world, and by integrating approaches that depathologize clients. Riley also challenged others’ view of the profession as being an adjunctive service; she encouraged art therapists to serve as primary therapists and provide for their clients beyond the therapy sessions. Riley believed that in order to keep the profession alive and growing, the art therapy community had to be willing to face postmodern demands and reexamine how art therapy is practiced today, and how we are educating the future generations of therapists. In addition to her publications, Riley accepted invitations to present across the United States and abroad, including Korea, Japan, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada. She taught and supervised her students at Loyola Marymount University for almost 20 years, and was the Associate Director of the Marital and Family Art Therapy Program at Phillips Graduate Institute. Riley left a legacy for all art therapists in the world through her publications, including her books being published in more than eight languages, as well as through her educational services