After helping her husband start his medical practice, making sure their 3 daughters, ages 10, 8 and 7 years were settled in elementary school, Myra went to Moore College of Art and graduated in 1962 with a BFA. Accepted To Bryn Mawr for an MA in History of Art, she spontaneously answered an ad and was hired to be an art therapist in the first open psychiatric unit in Phila.,PA. at Albert Einstein Medical Center. In 1966 the Director of this unit was hired by Hahnemann Hospital and Medical College and took Myra and a few nurses with him. At Hahnemann,Myra started the first graduate program in art therapy; became one of the five Founders of the American Art Therapy Association and the first president (1969-71).
Her education included a BFA Moore College of Art, MEd in Psychology, Temple University and a PhD, Bryn Mawr College. She has published 4 books on Art Therapy (the last translated in South Korea); over 30 articles in National and International Journals and chapters in many books.
During the 20 years she was at Hahnemann, she earned an MEd in Adolescent Psychology (1967, Temple U}; a PhD in Education and Child Development(1982, Bryn Mawr College); completed 200 hours supervision in Family Therapy; received an NIMH grant to direct and coordinate graduate programs under an umbrella degree-(MS in Creative Arts Therapies--art, dance/movement & music Therapy, 1973); was made a full professor in the Department of Psychiatry (1976). In 1980 she was granted permission to work In the clinic directed by Anna Freud in Hampstead, England for 5 weeks. Under her supervision, I worked with the children as the “art lady” and attended all staff meetings to review child development. This served as a basis for my dissertation, published in 1983 as a text book in Art Therapy. In 1986 her husband, Leonard, an Onconologist, and Myra retired to Boca Raton. She established the South Florida Art Psychotherapy Institute offering consultation, supervision and lectures; worked as a part time art therapist with recovering substance abusers (Wellness Resource Center), survivors of incest (Fair Oaks Hospital) and Altzheimers patients (JCC program for this population). She taught Psychology and child development courses for 4 years at the New York institute of Technology on the Lynn Campus, Boca Raton and served on the Board of Donna Klein Jewish Academy for 10 years and is currently on the advisory board of that school.
When she retired in 1986, she was a tenured professor in the Dept. of Psychiatry, Hahnemann Medical College & Hospital, Phila., Pa. (now Drexel University)Her dear husband of 68 years passed away 4 years ago and Myra now resides in an Independent living Community in Deerfield Beach.