Psychotherapist, writer and thought leader in the emerging field of arts therapy, Cynthia Gustavson is the author of In-Versing Your Life ( 2nd addition: Blooming Twig Books. NY. 2006,) an acclaimed series of writing-directed guidebooks. She authored three other award winning publications, Bully! The Big Book for Bullies and the Bullied (Blooming Twig Books. NY. 2011,) children’s book, Ballad of the Rag Man (2009,) and poetry collection, Please Use This for Children and Not for War and Guns (2010). Gustavson contributed the chapter, “The Use of Poetry Therapy for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse Trauma,” to the textbook Expressive Therapies for Sexual Issues: A Social Work Perspective, (ed. Sana Loue, Springer, NY and Berlin, 2012). Her latest book, Between Tahlequah and Tulsa came out in 2014. Gustavson’s journal articles have been published in The Christian Century, Sojourners, The Journal of Poetry Therapy, and Families in Society.
An international speaker on the use of writing in therapy, Gustavson has taught at Louisiana State University and Northeastern State University graduate schools, as well as addressing the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine grand rounds in psychiatry. Gustavson is on the editorial board of Nimrod International Literary Magazine. She is also on the board of directors (Church Council) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the editorial board of The Lutheran Magazine.
Gustavson is a graduate of Boston University with a Masters degree from Louisiana StateUniversity. She did further graduate work at United Seminary of the Twin Cities, and doctoral work at Oklahoma State University.
