Lucia Capacchione

Lucia Capacchione (formerly Lucia Pearce) (3 November 1937 – 28 November 2022) was an Italian-American psychologist, art therapist, artist, graphic designer and author who has been bestseller of twenty-two books based on child therapy and self-help, including The Creative Journal and Recovery of Your Inner Child (1991). She discovered the use of 'writing and drawing with the non-dominant hand' method in art therapy, which she first mentioned it in her work The Power of Your Other Hand (1988). She was the director of Head Start program during the period of President Johnson's War on Poverty. A long-time member of American Art Therapy Association and International Expressive Arts Therapy Association, she was also a consultant to Walt Disney Imagineering from 1983 till 1993.

In 2024 the Dr. Lucia Capacchione Institute Inc. was formed to celebrate and share the legacy of the late Dr. Capacchione, artist, designer, author, healer, clinician, pioneer and creator of the Creative Journal Expressive Arts suite of therapeutic methods:

Creative Journal Method (1976) Inner Child Reparenting Method (1976) Whole-Brain Two-Handed Method (1976) Body-Mind Healing-Arts Method (1980) Visioning Method (1994)

Early life Dr. Capacchione was born in Los Angeles to a Roman Catholic Italian immigrant family on November 3, 1937, in West Hollywood, California, United States. Her father and grandparents hailed from San Ferdinando di Puglia, Apulia, Italy who moved to Los Angeles County somewhere between 1908 and 1920. She holds a PhD degree in psychology from Summit University of Louisiana in New Orleans, graduating in 1990.

Career Capacchione started-off her internship as a trainer in various programs of American Montessori Society in the 1960s. She was later appointed as a Child Development Supervisor for Catholic Charities (an affiliate of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles) in December 1965 and even got certified through Dr. Thomas Gordon's Parent Effectiveness Training and Teacher Effectiveness Training. She resigned from the Archdiocese in 1967 but remained a consultant to both of the organizations' programs in Pasadena and New Jersey. She also produced two documentaries while being the director of Head Start program, Learning to Learn and I Wanna Be Ready.

In 1973, Lucia fell mysteriously ill and was misdiagnosed by doctors several times. which she first mentioned it in her work The Power of Your Other Hand (1988) and also a method of reparenting which she documented in her book Recovery of Your Inner Child (1991). She was a consultant to Walt Disney Imagineering for ten years from 1983 till 1993 where she worked with designers and builders on various Disney theme parks and stores.