Deborah Spragg
Professional Title: Assistant Professor of Expressive Therapies
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
Supervision in Expressive Therapy, therapists’ use of self, mindfulness and awareness practices, somatic countertransference, attunement, group process, psychotic illness and creativity, conflict transformation
Area of Work and Concentration at Lesley: Integrated arts in therapy, theoretical basis for expressive arts therapies, supervision, conflict transformation, groups in expressive therapy, human development
Representative List of Recent Courses Taught:
• Theories in Expressive Therapy
• Orientation to Expressive Therapies
• Expressive Therapy Supervision II and III
• Theory and Practice of Group Work
• Human Development Across the Lifespan
• Expressive Therapies Integrative Seminar
Education: B.A., Antioch College (Ohio), Music/Psychology Int.; M.M. New England Conservatory, Music Composition; M.A. Lesley University, Expressive Therapy/Mental Health Counseling; PhD, Harvard University, Music Composition; L.M.H.C., R.E.A.T.
Representative List of Recent Publications / Exhibitions:
Barrata, E., Bertolami, M., Hubbard, A., MacDonald, M., and Spragg, D. (2001) Peer Supervision in the Development of the New Music and Expressive Therapist. In M. Forinash (ed) Music Therapy Supervision. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona, 181-194
Fun Facts:
Sang with the BSO under Seiji Ozawa (okay, I was in a chorus, but still!). Loves easel painting, improvised song as a journal practice, slam haiku poetry, and meditation as a source of space, clarity, and aspiration.
Deb Spragg has been teaching at Lesley since 2005, when she began as a clinical instructor in supervision. In 2009, she joined the core faculty in the Expressive Therapies Division. Alongside her keen interest in the teaching and supervision of Lesley students, Dr. Spragg’s clinical work focused on those with psychotic disorders. She championed the use of non-verbal and artistic means for facilitating contact with self and connection to others for hospitalized clients. She worked full-time for fifteen years in clinical settings with individuals and groups in hospitals, residential treatment, and private practice. Now that she has joined the Lesley Community on a full-time basis, Deb is looking forward to becoming increasingly involved in research related to the supervision of expressive Therapists in training, the therapeutic action of the arts in therapy, and the role of mindfulness in both the expressive arts therapies and in conflict transformation. Recently, Deb has also been involved in hospice and attending the bereaved. In her teaching as well as in her clinical work, Deb has drawn inspiration from her meditation practice. The role of difference in relationship is a life-long interest, as is a relational view of health and wellness.