BVU Grad Seeks to Open Children’s Alternative Therapy Center

With her collegiate soccer career cut short due to an injury, Abbie Tillman put her focus into academics where she found her passion in art therapy.

Abbie Tillman envisioned herself playing soccer and majoring in both art and psychology when she chose to attend Buena Vista University, all the way from Durand, Mich., in 2016.

“I signed to play soccer, but then I hurt my knee as a senior in high school,” Tillman says.

She served as BVU soccer team manager for two years. She also found pre-art therapy as her major, her calling. She’s found a passion in using art for people who have trouble talking about trauma, especially children.

“It’s a great alternative therapy for people who have trouble describing trauma in words,” she says.

“After graduate school, I plan to become licensed and hope to start an alternative art therapy center for children.”

Abbie Tillman

Tillman, whose twin sister, Brittany, also attended BVU, began as an art and psychology double-major. She eventually focused on pre-art therapy, which became a BVU major the spring of her freshman year. Abbie Tillman plans to earn a master’s degree in the field at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan., where she’s headed this fall.

An internship Tillman spent with Madison Musson, an art therapist in Des Moines helped convince her this was her destiny.

“After graduate school, I plan to become licensed and hope to start an alternative art therapy center for children,” she says.

Tillman served other BVU students during her time on campus. She was, after all, a founder of BVU’s Out of State Student Union and worked to help raise funds for out-of-state students who often stay on campus during breaks in the academic year. Oftentimes, these are student-athletes who still practice while much of the rest of the study body has driven home. Funds raised help offset additional food costs.

“Dr. Swasti Bhattacharyya was the advisor for the Out of State Student Union,” says Tillman, who was president. “Swasti is originally from a long way from Storm Lake. She understands the adjustment out-of-state students make.”

Tillman lauds Bhattacharyya, Professor Philosophy and Religion, and Mary Mello-Nee, Professor of Art, in challenging and nurturing her during her BVU stay.

“I loved Swasti’s classes as she pushes you to challenge other ideas in the most respectful ways possible,” Tillman says. “Mary was always telling me that I could do better.”

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