About

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Lizzie McAdam, MA, RDT, LCAT (she/her/hers) is a licensed creative arts therapist, educational consultant and adjunct faculty member at New York University. She is currently the Assistant Director of Counseling at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York City, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ youth services agency. Prior to that she was the Associate Director of the ALIVE Program at the Post Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven, CT, providing trauma-centered drama therapy services in both clinical and public school settings. She has worked in a variety of settings, including schools, colleges, inpatient psychiatry, and outpatient treatment, and holds master’s degrees in both drama therapy (New York University) and special education (Bank Street College). She is a member of the Critical Pedagogy in the Arts Therapies think tank, a member of the board of directors of the Drama Therapy Review, and a graduate of the Institute for Arts in Psychotherapy. In 2012 she was awarded the German Chancellor Fellowship for Prospective Leaders to research the development of trauma treatment within creative arts therapy practices in Germany, Israel and the United States. Her clinical work and research focuses on the impact of trauma and systemic oppression on young people’s lives in public schools and using drama therapy to promote transformation and healing, young adult identity development, and LGBTQ identity work. As a former educator-turned-drama therapist, she works with students to connect their lived experience to their learning process.

Areas of Treatment

  • Life transitions

  • Young adults

  • Adolescent development

  • Traumatic experiences and PTSD

  • Depression

  • LGBTQIA+

  • Clinical supervision

  • Training therapy in Developmental Transformations

Publications

McAdam, E. & Davis, C. (in press.) Confronting power, privilege and oppression in trauma-informed school-based work: Framing the ALIVE model within critical race theory. Drama Therapy Review.

Sajnani, N., Mayor, C., Burch, D., Davis, C., Feldman, D., Kelly, J., Landis, H., McAdam, E. (in press). Collaborative discourse analysis on the use of drama therapy to  treat trauma in schools. Drama Therapy Review.

McAdam, E. & Johnson, D.R. (2018). Reducing depressive symptoms in adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder using drama therapy. In A. Zubala & V. Karkou (Eds.), Arts Therapies in the Treatment of Depression (pp. 48-67). New York: Routledge.

McAdam, E. (2018). Play in family therapy: Engaging the whole family system. Drama Therapy Review, 4(1), pp. 135-138.

Photo by Marielle Solan Photography