Ellen G. Levine

Ellen G. Levine is a Professor and Core Faculty member at the European Graduate School (EGS) in Switzerland. In Toronto, she is the co-founder and faculty member of The CREATE Institute, a three-year training program in Expressive Arts Therapy, established in 1991. From 1989 to 2019, she worked at the Gary Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where she taught, supervised, and provided clinical services to children, parents, and families. Currently, she continues to teach at The CREATE Institute and maintains an international online practice of therapy, supervision, and teaching.

Ellen is the author of numerous publications in the field of expressive arts therapy, including:

• Tending the Fire: Studies in Art, Therapy and Creativity (EGS Press)
• Foundations of Expressive Arts Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives (Co-editor, Jessica Kingsley Press)
• Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy: Toward a Therapeutic Aesthetics (Co-author, Jessica Kingsley Press)
• In Praise of Poiesis: The Arts and Human Suffering (Co-editor, EGS Press)
• Art in Action: Expressive Arts Therapy and Social Change (Co-editor, Jessica Kingsley Press)
• Play and Art in Child Psychotherapy: An Expressive Arts Therapy Approach (Jessica Kingsley Press, 2015)
• New Developments in Expressive Arts Therapy: The Play of Poiesis (Co-editor, Jessica Kingsley Press)

Ellen holds a Ph.D. from York University in Toronto in the program of Social and Political Thought. Her interdisciplinary dissertation, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism: The Space Between Self and World, explored the later work of Freud and the Object Relations School (Winnicott and Klein) as a foundation for understanding the role of the arts in therapy.

She is a graduate of the Toronto Art Therapy Institute (D.T.A.T.I.), a Registered Art Therapist (ATR), a member of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (RSW, Canada), and a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT). She is also a graduate of the Canadian Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and a Registered Psychoanalyst (NAAP, New York).

As a visual artist, Ellen has exhibited her paintings in Canada, the United States, and at the European Graduate School. In addition to her visual art practice, she has studied clown and mask work with Richard Pochinko (Toronto), Philippe Gaulier (London), and others. Whenever possible, she performs as part of the clown duo Max and Sadie with her husband, Stephen.