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Joe Mageary

Associate Professor and Department Chair, Counseling & Psychology

Headshot of Joseph Mageary

Joe Mageary, PhD, LMHC, CCMHC (he/him) is an Associate Professor in Lesley University’s Department of Counseling and Psychology. As a member of the core faculty, Dr. Mageary has also served as the Director of Field Training for Counseling and Psychology. He is a Massachusetts Licensed School Adjustment Counselor and Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), as well as a nationally certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC) and a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of Connecticut. He has used his LMHC in inpatient, outpatient, and community-based clinical roles and has extensive experience as a clinical supervisor, having worked as the Director of Emergency Services and Jail Diversion for an eighteen-town catchment area as well as serving as a Clinical Director in therapeutic high school settings for nearly a decade prior to joining Lesley’s faculty.

Throughout his career, Dr Mageary’s clinical work has been rooted in trauma-informed efforts to decrease stigma and suffering associated with mental illness through providing creative, community-based, collaborative, and recovery-oriented services. His clinical approach is influenced by tenets of Narrative Therapy, trauma-informed approaches, critical psychology, and brief therapies as well as by transdisciplinary thinkers such as Gregory Bateson and Edgar Morin. He holds a certificate from the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma’s Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery program and is working interdisciplinarily on multiple projects related to supporting people who have been displaced and/or otherwise impacted by war, natural disaster, and other systemic stresses. Specifically, Dr. Mageary has worked with Voces Arts and Healing, a group of expressive therapists, clinicians and advocates supporting asylum seekers and their allies in the Juarez, Mexico/El Paso, Texas metropolitan area. He is also actively partnered with the Lesley University Institute for Trauma Sensitivity (LIFTS) in weekly consultation and support for teachers and child psychologists in the Kirovohradska region of Ukraine.

Dr. Mageary is interested in exploring creative and body-oriented approaches to healing. He led a team that developed the Visual Reflection Team model: an arts-based version of the Reflecting Team technique used in Family Systems- and Narrative therapies.

In addition to having his LMHC, Dr. Joe Mageary is a:

  • Nationally Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC)
  • Licensed School Adjustment Counselor and Special Education Administrator in the state of Massachusetts
  • Level one- and two-trained Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) clinician
  • Member of the American Counseling Association (Massachusetts and Rhode Island Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Division) and the Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association

Scholarship

McLaughlin, S., Klauck, L., Eshel, M., Ramirez, K., Govoni, D., & Mageary, J. (2023). Decolonizing Internal and External Borders: Reflections on Therapeutic Engagements with Asylum Seekers. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2023.102083

Fabianek, A. A., Li, J.Z., Laume, S.E., Mageary, J., Al-Rousan, T., Rosu, C.A., & Alheresh, R. (2023). First Generation Palestinian Refugees in Jordan: Experiences of Occupational Disruption from an Occupational Rights Perspective. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 77(4)https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2023.050139

Hoff, C. (Host) & Mageary, J. (Featured Guest). (2023, May). Episode 111: Punk Rock Therapy w/Joe Mageary [Audio podcast episode]. In The Radical Therapist Podcast.  https://chrishoffmft.podbean.com/e/the-radical-therapist-111-%e2%80%93-punk-rock-therapy-w-joe-magear/

Ibeh, B. (November 2021). Reimagining White Fragility: An Interview with Dr. Joe MagearyNew England Journal of Relational and Systemic Practice, 1(3), 107-115. 

Ramirez, K., Kossak, M. & Mageary, J. (2021). Voces Arts and Healing: Working on the US-Mexico Border with Asylum Seekers. In J. Scarce (Ed.), Art Therapy in Response to Natural Disasters, Mass Violence, and Crises. London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Schreurs, J. (Host) & Mageary, J. (Featured Guest). (2022, July). Episode 51: Joe Mageary of Lesley University on using punk ethos in academia [Audio podcast episode]. In Scream Therapy

Mageary, J. (2020). Zines, the DIY Ethic, and Empowering Marginalized Identities. In L. Leone (Ed.), The Power of Craft in Art Therapy. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Mageary, J. (2018). Now or Never: A Phenomenology of a Political Punk Tour. Interdisciplinary Humanities, 35(3), 71-86.

Mageary, J., Glenn Wixson, J. (2017). The Mile Wide Project: Taking a Stand Against the Invitations of Suicide. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 4, 5.11.

Mageary, J., Glenn Wixson, J., Sivan, V., Roberts, R., Vlahakis, V., Rose, M., Gaffney, D. (2015). Visual Reflections: Taking Outsider Witnessing Beyond Words. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 34(3), 43-58.

Mageary, J. (2012). “Rise Above/We’re Gonna Rise Above”: A Qualitative Inquiry Into the use of Hardcore Punk Culture as Context for the Development of Preferred Identities. (doctoral dissertation). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses #3508086.

Education

PhD, Transformative Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies

MA, Clinical Mental Health Counseling (holistic specialization), Lesley University

BS, Psychology, Fitchburg State University

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