Drawing Time: Art Therapy in Prisons and Other Correctional Settings

by David Gussak (Editor), Evelyn Virshup (Editor)

Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

David Gussak, Ph.D., ATR-BC, is Professor for the Florida State University’s Graduate Art Therapy Program and the Project Coordinator for the FSU/Florida Department of Corrections Art Therapy in Prisons program. Prior to his teaching for The Florida State University, Dr. Gussak was the director of the Graduate Art Therapy Program in the Department of Psychology and Special Education at Emporia State University in Kansas. He has also been an adjunct and visiting professor for many art therapy programs across the United States.

Dr. Gussak has presented extensively internationally, nationally and regionally on: forensic art therapy, art therapy in forensic settings, working with aggressive and violent clients, working with clients who have substance abuse issues, the work of the art therapist, and supervision for art therapists. He has published extensively on various topics, but most significantly on art therapy within the forensic milieu. He is the author of Art on Trial: Art Therapy for Capital Murder Cases (Columbia University press, 2013), Art and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned: Re-Creating Identity (Routledge, 2019) and The Frenzied Dance of Art and Violence (Oxford University Press, 2022). Dr. Gussak is the co-editor and contributing author for the books Drawing Time: Art Therapy in Prisons and Other Correctional Settings with Dr. Evelyn Virshup (Magnolia Street Publishers, 1997), and Art and Social Justice with Dr. Tom Anderson, Kara Hallmark and Alison Paul (National Art Education Association, 2010). He was also the author of the Psychology Today blog, Art on Trial: Confessions of a Serial Art Therapist.

Dr. Gussak has served the art therapy field in many capacities, including Director-at-Large on the Board of Directors for the American Art Therapy Association and Treasurer for the Art Therapy Credentials Board. He is currently on the editorial board for Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association and The Arts in Psychotherapy. He is also guest editor for several other journals, including The International Journal of Offender Treatment and Criminology. After all this time, he still loves what he does, and still can't believe that he gets to get paid to do it.