CIRI shareholder Lucas Rowley is excited to be doing art therapy in Alaska. He is interning as an art therapist at The Pathway Home, Southcentral Foundation's facility for at-risk youth ages 13 to 18, which offers an emphasis on Alaska Native culture. He is working towards his master's degree in art therapy from Southwestern College, in Santa Fe, N.M.

Rowley, who has a background in fine arts and hadhad worked at The Pathway Home as a clinical associate staff member a few years ago, became interested in the mental health field and also wanted to help Alaska Natives. Art therapy is a recent addition to mental health services in Alaska; it is a form of counseling that utilizes art to facilitate therapy by using specific psychological techniques.

Rowley feels this type of therapy is particularly effective for Alaska Natives. "Since art is such a big part of Alaska Native culture, I think that art therapy is especially effective and beneficial with Alaska Natives," said Rowley. "A lot of Alaska Natives don't talk a lot. This is a nonverbal way for them to participate in therapy." Rowley works on many art therapy projects with the teens at The Pathway Home. One such project is Native American calendar sticks. According to Rowley, every indigenous culture in North and South America used some form of these sticks.

His offsite art therapy supervisor, Cheryl Simpson, a behavioral health therapist with Chugachmiut, is the only registered and certified art therapist currently in Alaska. Rowley, who will be interning at The Pathway Home until October, hopes to eventually find employment with Southcentral Foundation's Behavioral Health Services as a clinician.

Rowley is Inupiaq originally from Homer, Alaska. His grandmother was from Kiana, in Northwest Alaska, and homesteaded in Homer. He is married to Bonnie Parker and has a 10-month-old son, Aiden. His mother is CIRI shareholder Virginia Rowley and his father is Ray Dawson. In his spare time he enjoys creating artwork, writing, snowboarding and playing video games.