About the Association for Creativity in Counseling

In 1997, a creative arts conference was organized by Dr. Joyce Kutcher and was held at Texas State. Dr. Thelma Duffey took the reins for organizing the conference the following year and invited colleagues to aid her in hosting the conference. Those conference committee members were Drs. Lesley Jones, John Garcia, Colleen Connolly, Stella Beatriz Kerl-McClain, JoLynne Reynolds, Christopher Brown, and Drema Albin. The name of the conference was changed to honor Dr. Jones in 2001, becoming the Dr. Lesley Jones Creativity in Psychotherapy Conference. ACC's beginning roots were fashioned at these Texas creativity conferences when conversations transpired about creating an affiliate group (and ultimately a division) of ACA where counselors, counseling students, and counselor educators could come together to celebrate both passion for and the use of creativity in counseling for the purpose of making meaning, supporting change, increasing self-awareness, and encouraging relational connection/understanding. Those involved in developing the affiliate group (and later division) were Drs. Thelma Duffey, Stella Beatriz Kerl-McClain, JoLynne Reynolds, Colleen Connolly, Drema Albin, and Christopher Brown.

ACC began as an Organizational Affiliate of ACA in April 2004 and was granted the status of a division on September 10, 2004. Dr. Samuel Gladding was the ACA president at the time and was supportive of the vote to include ACC as an ACA division. Dr. Gladding's writings and leadership in relation to creativity in counseling continued to be a touchstone for ACC after its inception. Once established as a division, the founding board of ACC included Drs. Thelma Duffey, Drema Albin, JoLynne Reynolds, Stella Beatriz Kerl-McClain, Marcheta Evans, Albert Valadez, Dana Comstock, Shane Haberstroh, Simone Lambert, Heather Trepal, and Cathy Malchiodi. Members of ACC were invited to take part in the Texas-based creativity conference upon the division's inception and ACC acted as a co-sponsor of the conference in 2004.

Behind-the-scenes efforts to develop a creativity in counseling journal were taking place when the conferences were happening and as the fledgling steering committee was working to make ACC a reality. Drs. John Garcia and Thelma Duffey negotiated with The Haworth Press, Inc. [now defunct] to bring The Journal of Creativity in Mental Health to life in 2006. Since then, the publisher's holdings were purchased by Taylor and Francis and although the 2006 journal is not affiliated with ACC, it is still being published. ACC is working on the development of a new open-source journal, The International Journal for Innovation and Creativity in Counseling, that will celebrate research and practice related to relational, diverse, and innovative creative practices in the field of counseling. The new journal, in tandem with ACC's annual offerings (conference, World Day of Creativity and Innovation, creative advocacy efforts, and graduate student and professional support and training events) are ways that today's ACC celebrates its roots of offering a space where creativity and counseling meet. Come and join us! We would love to have you.