Catherine Rubin, MS, ATR-BC
- Education:MPS, Creative Arts Therapy, Pratt Institute; BA, English Literature, American University
- Location: Inova Children’s Hospital, VA
- Joined Tracy’s Kids:May 2008
- What I like most about working at Tracy’s Kids:Giving children the chance to express themselves and just be regular kids.
- Three words to describe me:Fun, colorful, and creative.
- An artist I really like is:Cai Guo-Qiang – he uses gunpowder explosions to make artwork.
- A reflection of my work with Tracy’s Kids:I once went in to work with a little girl who was very anxious and having difficulty coping with all of the changes that her diagnosis had brought about. I brought a wooden box for the girl to paint and as she decorated the box she told me that she was going to be discharged from the hospital that day. I expressed excitement but realized from the look on her face that she had reservations about leaving — she was afraid that something would happen to her when she was home, not at the hospital where doctors and nurses could help her. I asked her if there was something that we could make to put in her box that she might find comforting to look at when she felt anxious. After some discussion, the girl decided that she would like the art therapist to make a “nurse” for her out of Model Magic and she named this clay nurse, “Nurse Sarah.” When I saw the girl in clinic a few days later she told me that she had been taking good care of Nurse Sarah and Nurse Sarah was taking good care of her.
- A highlight or accomplishment this year:Aidan Doran Horner, born January 17, 2012 to Catherine Rubin and James Horner!