Knoxville Art Therapists
Patricia Kennedy,
ATR-BC
Patricia graduated from Mount Mary University in 2012, and has gone on to obtain her ATR-BC. She currently works for Helen Ross McNabb Center and works with adolescents with trauma, depression, anxiety, and ADHD.
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Kara Johnson,
Art Therapy student
Kara is a current Art Therapy master's student at St. Mary of the Woods College.
Mary Nelle Osborne,
Ed.D, ATR
A native of McMinn County in East TN, Mary Nelle Osborne, Ed.D., MA, ATR lives in Knoxville, TN and has worked in non-profit, mental health for 26 years. Mary Nelle received her Masters from the University of Louisville in 1990 where she studied with Marcia Rosal, Phd and Vija Lusebrink, PhD. She moved to TN in 1999 to pursue a doctorate in Educational Psychology, Collaborative Learning and completed that in 2003.
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Initially hired as an art therapist, Mary Nelle worked in the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program and soon became the Manager of that program and the Peer Support Programs with Peninsula Behavioral Health, a Division of Covenant Health. For the past 12 years, Mary Nelle has been Manager of Recovery Services supervising therapists in the Intensive Outpatient Adult and Adolescent Programs as well as the Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Peer Programs. Three years ago she became clinic manager for the Sevier County outpatient Clinic and started an Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program at a Level 2 Residential Treatment Facility in Sevier County. Mary Nelle has worked with adolescents and adults and now is thinking about what retirement will look like! She hopes to attain credentials over the next year to provide supervision to clinical art therapists.
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Upon moving to Knoxville, Mary Nelle was disappointed to learn that art therapists were not credentialed in Tennessee. She was very involved in the licensure of art therapists in Kentucky way back when and was among the first to pass testing for Credentialing. She is very grateful that art therapy licensure has ‘come to pass’ in Tennessee and is grateful for everyone who worked to make that happen.
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Mary Nelle lives with her dog Beulah and they hike - a lot – at least 3 -5 miles a day! Mary Nelle enjoys kayaking in lakes and the ocean, gardening and playing with a multitude of ‘god kids’! Mary Nelle is a member of Knoxville Choral Society and St. James Episcopal Church. She is also a beekeeper and just ‘split’ her hive which was getting very crowded with healthy bees!
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