Denise (Deni) Brancheau

Deni Brancheau, MA, Ed.S, ATR-BC, LCPAT

Deni is a registered, board certified, licensed art therapist (MD) with extensive clinical experience in the fields of mental health and special education.  She also holds a special education license in Virginia.

Deni has been active in the fields of mental health and special education since 1989.  During her professional career, Deni has worked as an art therapist, art therapy educator, supervisor, school administrator, and special education program director.  During that time, she developed a wide range of school programming, staff trainings and facilitated curriculum development and instructional differentiation for middle and high school students with special needs. For many years, Deni served adolescents with emotional problems, undiagnosed mental illness, substance abuse, and children and adolescents on the autism spectrum.  As an Art Therapist, Deni has worked in residential/inpatient and outpatient mental health facilities, public and non-public school settings and as a field supervisor.  Deni believes that the transformational qualities in the expressive arts naturally lend themselves to working with individuals struggling with addiction, trauma and emotional issues.  Deni’s trauma informed approach to therapeutic work utilizes the expressive arts therapies to guide the client in finding their creative selves and regaining access to their potential for healing. Deni has been an adjunct professor at the GWU Graduate Art Therapy Program since 1995.  She has offered many workshops and presentations in art therapy locally and nationally and authored a book chapter on art therapy and autism and was a contributing author on the “Safe Place Collage Protocol,” published in the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation.   Deni is currently in private practice and specializes in work with children and adolescents, adult self-growth work and ATR supervision. Deni has displayed her artwork in several exhibitions and engages in her own art making as often as possible.