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Faculty member helps art therapy support group publish book

The Arts and Peer Support Group, co-facilitated by Clinical Assistant Professor Laurie Selz Campbell and expressive therapists Hillary Rubesin and Courtney Powers, has self-published a book, Out of Line: Fearless Reflection, Fearless Expression. The full-color, 48-page book showcases visual art, photography and poetry created by the group members and facilitators.

The group is an expressive arts therapy program run by the NC Art Therapy Institute in Carrboro. Their book was inspired by a creative process called “public narrative,” which empowered group members to express the complex emotions surrounding mental health recovery, and to combat the societal stigma often associated with mental illness.

In addition to co-facilitating the activities that led to the art, Selz Campbell fostered the narrative process that helped the group to organize the work and decide how to tell their story. She also wrote the book’s introduction.

The group not only created the book’s content, they also did the digital layout in-house. This was made possible by a grant from Chapel Hill charitable foundation Strowd Roses, Inc. to purchase a computer and software, and to work with Blurb.com to print the books.

Hardcover books are available to purchase for $45 from Selz Campbell (lauriesc@unc.edu) or from the NC Art Therapy Institute. They can also can be ordered online at Blurb, including a softcover edition for $39. All of the proceeds go toward continued funding of the Arts and Peer Support Group.

Related story: Finding hope and recovery through art