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Lauren D. Smith, M.P.S., LCAT, ATR-BC, CCLS is a Registered and Board-Certified Art Therapist, Licensed Creative Arts Therapist in the state of New York, and Certified Child Life Specialist. She received a MPS from Pratt Institute in Art Therapy and Creativity Development, and received a B.A. from Skidmore College in English Literature. Currently she oversees the Art Therapy and Child Life program at the Lillian and Benjamin Hertzberg Institute for Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, New York. Previously, Lauren utilized her combined training in the role of KidZone TV Producer at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, where she produced and hosted daily live closed-circuit television content for children and families navigating the stressors of hospitalization and life-limiting illness. Lauren also serves as a member of the core faculty of Pratt Institute’s graduate department of Creative Arts Therapy in Brooklyn, New York.

Lauren’s trauma-informed practice is rooted in an integrative, culturally-reflexive and arts-based relational approach. She draws upon humanistic, psychodynamic and existential frameworks in art therapy, and has published, presented and taught on topics of complicated grief and bereavement, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue for healthcare providers, art therapy assessment, medical art therapy, resilience, post-traumatic growth and the integrated use of video and technology-based intervention in art therapy practice.

Prior to her education and training as an art therapist, Lauren held a career in non-profit leadership for organizations and institutions focused on social justice, healthcare, public policy, technology, education and the arts. She served as the Director of Community Projects for Arts in Bushwick, in Brooklyn, New York – an all-volunteer operated organization committed to sustainable and accessible community arts programming that produced the largest open studios event in the United States.

Lauren maintains a fine arts practice where she explores aspects of clinical work through a variety of expressive media. She also operates a small private practice in New York and offers in-person and video-based clinical supervision to art therapists and others in aligned mental health professions. 

In the classroom, Lauren promotes an experiential learning environment that encourages emerging therapists to cultivate curiosity, creativity and their own personal reflective practice. For more information: laurendanasmith.com and integrativeartspsychotherapy.com