It’s the end of the week. You’re exhausted and stressed, and just need a place to vent. What to do? Well, this university program might just be the answer. Every Friday afternoon this semester, from 3 to 4:30 pm, an “Art Therapy Studio” is being offered on the third floor of the 80 Fifth Ave building. The drop-in studio, free to all New School students, is meant to promote “uninhibited, nonjudgmental, and self-directed art for fun, relaxation, and bliss,” according to the New School Student Health Services webpage. Students have the opportunity to paint, draw, and sculpt with the guidance of the New School’s art therapist in residence, Kate McIntosh. All art materials are provided and no commitment is required.

The innovative art studio is run by licensed creative arts therapist,  McIntosh, who joined The New School in August 2013. A graduate of  Pratt Institute, McIntosh is now a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, CA. She is teaching art therapy at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as advising the New School’s Creative Arts and Health Program.

“It’s been really exciting for me as an art therapist to be at the New School and have an opportunity to engage with such a diverse community and I’ve really enjoyed it,” McIntosh told The Free Press. “New York is a very difficult city to live in. It’s very fast paced and although there is a lot of initiative for connection and community, people express this feeling of fragmentation, so the creative arts can be a powerful way to connect in a community.”

The Art Therapy Studio is an opportunity for students to create art and engage in open discussion with other students and with a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist. It can be “a bit of a distraction from issues,” added Christine Wilk, a graduate student at the College of New Rochelle studying Art Therapy and interning for McIntosh. “It is not confronting as much as talk therapy.”

In addition to the Drop-In Art Studio, McIntosh organized an Open Art Studio on Friday, November 7 in the Social Justice Hub at the University Center. The event featured a number of stations where different aspects of art therapy such as imaginative play, interactive poetry, dance, music, acupressure, tea, yoga, mindful meditation and a nap corner were available throughout the day.

McIntosh is now accepting requests from students who want to join the Spring 2014 closed art therapy group. Students interested can contact McIntosh at mcintosm@newschool.edu.

To get more information on Student Health Services events and other resources available for students, visit “The New School Student Health Services” Facebook page.