Second lady Karen Pence said Wednesday she has decided to champion art therapy as her mission while in Washington, saying it's a profession that is "very misunderstood."
"I first found out about art therapy in 2006," she told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "Here, I was someone with a master's degree in art education. I consider myself to dabble as an artist. I had never heard of art therapy."
She said she finds it amazing to see art therapists who "will take, for example, a veteran with PTSD, start them working in clay or masks and their brain is reprogrammed...it's just an amazing profession that's very misunderstood."
Pence has chosen the campus of Florida State University for her initiative, and said she hopes to encourage young people to go into the profession, while making people aware art therapy is an option."
"Florida State University has a nationally acclaimed amazing art therapy program," Pence said. "We're very excited to go down there today to speak to a lot of the students and the professors and see what they do. Kind of praise them for what they're doing. Lift up what these young people are doing, and encourage people going into the profession of art therapy."
Related stories:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.