ART THERAPY &
MENTAL HEALTH...... Your Mental Health is Essential.... Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and the stressors of everyday life are real, and affect the human psyche through a multitude of symptoms and behaviors. Art Therapy, provided in a safe, nurturing environment, can soothe the nervous system, lower the heart rate and regulate breathing. Art Therapy provides a voice where words are not necessary or can provide an avenue for the words through images. Art Therapy provides an action-oriented, physical release of emotions and feelings and fosters empowerment through mastery, by each and every artist.....Art Therapy is this and much more....all in all...ART HEALS....
MENTAL HEALTH...... Your Mental Health is Essential.... Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and the stressors of everyday life are real, and affect the human psyche through a multitude of symptoms and behaviors. Art Therapy, provided in a safe, nurturing environment, can soothe the nervous system, lower the heart rate and regulate breathing. Art Therapy provides a voice where words are not necessary or can provide an avenue for the words through images. Art Therapy provides an action-oriented, physical release of emotions and feelings and fosters empowerment through mastery, by each and every artist.....Art Therapy is this and much more....all in all...ART HEALS....
Bilateral Drawing (and painting)
a body and sensory motor informed art therapy
Bilateral Drawing is a component in most of my sessions, as a means of RELEASE, RELIEF or CALMING and GROUNDING.... Bilateral Drawing is introduced over several sessions, which provides an overview of the "shapes" and "movements" so that the client, can experiment and explore which movements, informed by their body, feels supportive, calming, nurturing, or the converse. This is a form of self- massage through drawing and effective in soothing the nervous system, regulating breathing, and reducing emotional distress. My clients report that utilizing Bilateral drawing at the beginning of the session, helps them to "relax and open-up", and at the end, "releasing, relief, soothing and grounding". Bilateral Drawing, being body-informed, also targets areas in the body which may be asking for love and emotional attention.
The Painting Room
"Everybody is capable like a small child, of devoting him or herself to this play when it occurs in a space designed with that in mind....The panels provide the inner necessity of expression from influences and distractions, without any judgment, but with the stimulating presence of the "practitioner" who is not an "instructor" or "task master"...he or she is a helper and a guide. No subject or theme is imposed.....The results of this play in the studio are not works of art, to be regarded by others and meant to transmit a message, but a paper trace whose emergence, in and of itself, gives complete pleasure to the person who allows it to produce itself...imagine an activity that has the virtues of play and the seriousness of a task on which all of a being's faculties concentrate themselves." Arno Stern
Family Art Therapy workshops, "Nurturing Creativity" .....part of Auroville Retreat "One Family" Retreat weekends...."Cohesion, cohesiveness, collaboration, collectivity, commonality, cooperation, equality, group and individual sensitivity, LOVE, PLAY, trust, oneness, diversity in unity". What a joy to both facilitate and experience.
An Introduction to Art Therapy: Participants from a wide variety of professions, participate in this introductory workshop to experience personal transformation, life enhancing and the healing powers of Art.
These training sessions are designed for teachers, students, professionals in the fields of Education, Psychology, Social Work, Counseling, and in any "helping" profession. They are designed to open the doors and minds to Creativity and creative expression. Creativity cannot be taught but it can be nurtured. These training sessions are experiential, hands on art sessions, with theoretical information, individual and group process, writing and discussion. These sessions/workshops are offered to expand one's professional dimensions, providing alternative methods and vehicles through creativity and specifically, how to nurture Creativity.
This is not a formal nor officially recognized training program. This is an experiential workshop for personal and/or professional development.
In order to become an Art Therapist, one must earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The Graduate (MA) degree is to be specifically in Art Therapy, which includes a specified number of hours of Supervised Internships and work experience. For information concerning becoming a registered Art Therapist (ATR), please contact the Art Therapy Credentials Board www.atcb.org/New_Applicants/Apply_ATR
These training sessions are designed for teachers, students, professionals in the fields of Education, Psychology, Social Work, Counseling, and in any "helping" profession. They are designed to open the doors and minds to Creativity and creative expression. Creativity cannot be taught but it can be nurtured. These training sessions are experiential, hands on art sessions, with theoretical information, individual and group process, writing and discussion. These sessions/workshops are offered to expand one's professional dimensions, providing alternative methods and vehicles through creativity and specifically, how to nurture Creativity.
This is not a formal nor officially recognized training program. This is an experiential workshop for personal and/or professional development.
In order to become an Art Therapist, one must earn both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The Graduate (MA) degree is to be specifically in Art Therapy, which includes a specified number of hours of Supervised Internships and work experience. For information concerning becoming a registered Art Therapist (ATR), please contact the Art Therapy Credentials Board www.atcb.org/New_Applicants/Apply_ATR
Art Therapy and Emotional Rehabilitation with Domestic Violence and Burn Victims by self immolation. (PCVC)Crime Prevention and Victim Care.......Unmasking Domestic Violence......Utilized both non-verbal and verbal aspects of Art Therapy in working with victims of domestic violence and burn victims during their rehabilitation process... an incredibly effective mode of therapy; physically, emotional, socially and intra and interpersonally. What is essential, is providing a supportive and nurturing environment in which participants feel SAFE and free to express themselves. Safety and security is of the utmost concern for both themselves and their children. Healing the wounds of domestic violence are multifaceted.....they are both physical and emotional, especially with burn victims whose hands usually sustain the greatest injury and are in need of extensive healing to regain their fine and gross motor skills. Along with their hands, are their hearts, which also sustain enormous injury emotionally..... so together, Art Therapy provides the capacity to heal both heart and hands, in addition to regaining a sense of trust and self worth, aspirations and hope for the future and personal and creative empowerment.
JOURNALING......
There are three layers or stages to my Art Therapy Retreats and Workshops and my overall work. There is the art making aspect, the pure, creative expression. Then, there is the writing or journaling aspect. The writing component takes the art making process deeper. You , the artist are the interpreter of your art. You ask yourself and your art questions and if you listen, your art talks to you. You write about your feelings, thoughts, emotions, the experience, the materials used, the participants in the group or your individual experience. I strongly encourage art journaling and writing on a regular basis. Words are incredibly powerful, and they enhance the message of the image...."What we receive depends upon our diligent use of two simple but central methods that bracket the art making experience: our intention in which we state our inquiry as an active desire to receive something, which then guides our art making; and our witness, a writing practice through which we engage with and integrate what has appeared in our artwork."
....from "Art is a Spiritual Path" By Pat B. Allen
Inside Me/Outside Me
Collage Journals
Exploring the outside, public persona and the inside, more personal, private persona through collage and journaling. A wonderfully expressive exercise that can be facilitated on both an individual and group level.
Chakra Journey. We are exploring the world of Chakras, the colored balls of subtle yet powerful energy that begin at the root, the base of the spine and continue up the spine to the crown or top of the head. There are so many meanings, beliefs, rituals, exercises to balance, foods to eat and not to eat, gem stones, oils, emotional associations with each chakra, it is endless.....we will explore through meditation, chakra specific Yoga asanas, creating ART in silence through paint, paper, drawing, and collage, the journey of the Chakras.
Scrolls
Scrolls are a very old form of ceremony, ritual, religious and spiritual. They serve as a means of communication both sacred and massively public, as in being read by the Ye Old Town Cryer and more ancient the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Torah. We created scrolls as reflections of ourselves through the use of color and word...the inside, being our more private inside me and the external, being the more public, external me.
Destruction Construction A celebration of the Shiva in all. Half man, half woman, the destroyer, transformer, creator. The group was asked to focus their tearing, channeling negative feelings such as fear, anger, frustration, etc. directly on and through the materials and the tearing process and with specific intention and focus on the person, place, event, situation that has stirred up negative emotions. After the tearing (destruction), came the transformation of materials....then the creating. The group participants were instructed to then create with the materials they had just destroyed........this experience was on both an individual and group level, followed by journaling and discussion. Construction Destruction is a profoundly active, multi- sensory experience which provides a supportive, therapeutic avenue for expressing negative emotions, fostering EMPOWERMENT and MASTERY over ones emotions and actively TRANSFORMING the TRAUMA narrative.
Doll making and Storytelling ...
Making puppets and dolls are an art form as old as culture itself. Creating dolls out of recycled/natural materials such as plastic bottles, sand, sticks, newspaper, scraps of materials, discarded beads, button, broken bangles and jewelry pieces is an incredibly creative and nurturing experience for any age. Both children and adults alike loose themselves in the process of creating or re-creating playful childhood experiences, as one nurtures and receives nurturing. Expanding this experience by giving their puppets/dolls names, creating characters and stories, expands the experience into new realms of communication and creative expression... Art Therapy provides a voice where one may or may not exist.
Making puppets and dolls are an art form as old as culture itself. Creating dolls out of recycled/natural materials such as plastic bottles, sand, sticks, newspaper, scraps of materials, discarded beads, button, broken bangles and jewelry pieces is an incredibly creative and nurturing experience for any age. Both children and adults alike loose themselves in the process of creating or re-creating playful childhood experiences, as one nurtures and receives nurturing. Expanding this experience by giving their puppets/dolls names, creating characters and stories, expands the experience into new realms of communication and creative expression... Art Therapy provides a voice where one may or may not exist.
Body Mapping..... provides the opportunity to integrate the emotional, physical and visual body into one image. Body Mapping combines sensory and somatic experience with creative expression. Beginning with a mindfulness meditation specifically focused on a full body scan, participants then create visually, what they have experienced in their body during their meditation. The Body Map can be full sized or what I often use is a smaller, human figure template. Within the image you are encouraged to use colors, design, symbols, words, visually expressing what is sensory and somatically felt. Body Mapping is a powerful experience that explores body image, disease, life experience and more. The creative experience is then followed by self reflection, journaling and discussion of their created image.
