Eileen McCourt awarded lifetime achievement award
We’re delighted to present Eileen McCourt with our Lifetime Achievement Award. Eileen is an inspiring art therapist who has made a significant and widely-recognised contribution to the advancement of the profession over a career spanning nearly 40-years.
Eileen has served, supported, and inspired several generations of art therapists through sharing her practice, supervising and teaching, and through her work raising awareness of the profession in Northern Ireland. She has played a pivotal role for the art therapy community in Northern Ireland and the UK through the nurturing of colleagues, advocacy for the profession, and professional leadership.
Eileen’s career
Eileen McCourt trained as an art therapist at the University of Hertfordshire in 1987, seconded by The Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) – where she had worked since 1979 as a probation officer. She introduced art therapy into the probation service and into prisons in Northern Ireland, and she worked as an art therapist in prisons supporting prisoners during the Troubles.
In the early 1990s, she set up a small group of volunteers who were interested in using the arts therapeutically. Some went on to train and become qualified art therapists. Eileen later became a guest tutor on the MSc Art Therapy course at Queen’s University, Belfast when it started in 2002 and also served as a clinical supervisor on the course. She worked as a practice educator and clinical supervisor for art therapy students on placement with Probation Board for Northern Ireland. She also worked on the MSc Art Psychotherapy at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
Eileen was Chair of the Northern Ireland Group for Art as Therapy (NIGAT), —founded in 1976 by Rita Simon—for many years and is now its President. Rita was one of the founding members of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) in 1964 and Rita’s theoretical approach and her belief in an inherent creativity have been Eileen’s guiding principles in her professional practice.
Eileen has also made significant contributions through the British Association of Art Therapists. She coordinated one of our member groups for many years and supported this work in numerous ways. While serving as a coordinator, her and the team played a national role – attending meetings, responding to numerous consultations, and contributing to reports for the Northern Ireland Government Departments (Education, Health). This work was undertaken entirely on a voluntary basis.
Eileen remains interested and involved in the development of art therapy services. She is currently on the committee of the Northern Ireland Regional Group, and she represents the profession on the Allied Health Professions Federation Northern Ireland.
We would like to wish Eileen our warmest congratulations and gratitude for her hard work and dedication to the profession.
We look forward to celebrating Eileen’s achievements at our Annual General Meeting on 21 June 2025, which is open to all our members.