Ruzanna Carter

I was born in Yerevan, Armenia and came to the United States at the age of 12 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that time there was a blockade in my country and we would only have water and electricity for one hour a day, and food was scarce, so my aunt, who lived in Massachusetts petitioned for us to come here. It was a culture shock coming to Massachusetts, but it was another culture shock moving to South Carolina. The main constant in my life through all this was art, which provided an outlet to express everything I was going through and stay connected to my culture through use of symbols in my art. I got my BA in art studio and art history from USC then proceeded to get my MAT in art education and taught middle school art for 6 years in South Carolina and North Carolina. Teaching in a Title 1 school I had a lot of students who were not getting their basic needs met, children with behavior issues and sexual traumas, so teaching art didn’t feel important most days when they just needed to be held and validated with whatever they were going through. After going through my own divorce trauma and becoming a single mother I decided go to back to school and get my MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Art Therapy at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. I did my one year internship at Barnabas Horse Foundation where they provide equine therapy services and continued on to work as an art therapist upon graduation.

As a therapist I have a humanistic and person-centered approach and try to meet my clients where they are. I firmly believe in the therapeutic alliance between a client and their therapist and the work that can come from that. I work with children (10 and older), teens and adults. I have experience in working with anger management, anxiety, career counseling, coping skills, depression, eating disorders, family conflict, grief, life transition, peer relationships, relationship issues, school issues, self-esteem, self-harming, trauma and PTSD. I combine traditional talk therapy with art therapy to give my clients a new way to express, communicate and process whatever it is they are dealing with. I also love giving back to my community through volunteer work and community outreach.