Expressive Arts Therapy E-News

Enjoy and learn more about expressive arts and trauma-informed practice...

• Two-Day Expressive Arts and Play Therapy with Children and Adolescents at Kansas Association for Play Therapy [Overland Park KS; limited seating!] and Center for Play Therapy [July Dallas TX] [partial completion of Level One Certificate]
• Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Level Two/Advanced Practice, 3-Day Course in Saskatoon Canada [May 2017]
• Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Level Two/Advanced Practice, 3-Day Course in Anchorage Alaska [September 2017]
• "Arts-Based Therapies as Personalized Medicine"-- Art Therapy in Singapore
• "It Didn't Start with You: Inherited Family Trauma"
• "Making Meaning: A Core Trauma-Informed Practice"
• "Mandala Drawing | Healing Circles"
• Current Workshops and Courses
• Continuing Education Updates
• A "Brainy" Film Clip

...and links to latest downloadable resources, events and other trauma-informed expressive arts therapy information.

NOTE: When you are reading our newsletter, please click directly on images to see larger versions-- enjoy!

Expressive Arts and Play Therapy to Enhance Resilience in Children and Adolescents is a two-day workshop sponsored by the Kansas Association for Play Therapy on April 21 & 22, 2017; there is limited seating available for this 12 credit hour event. For more information, visit this link http://www.ksa4pt.org/training/annual-conference/.

6 APT Approved CE hours daily, total of 12 CE hours available for “Expressive Arts and Play Therapy to Enhance Resilience in Children and Adolescents” by Cathy Malchiodi;

2 APT Approved CE hours in Supervion Training for "How do I help them understand what the child is saying? Sometimes I wonder too!” by Dr. Rick Gaskill (4/20/17 evening)

* All hours are APT Approved #02-118

Special offering at the Parktown Hotel in downtown Saskatoon this May! This advanced training can be taken as a stand alone course or as fulfillment for the Level Two Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Certificate.

Click here to register! Join us at the beautiful BP Center in Anchorage Alaska for this three-day course presenting the advanced foundations of trauma-informed practice and the latest research and approaches to expressive arts and play, stress reduction and resilience. Participants will learn art therapy and expressive arts therapy strategies and applications to increase their understanding of trauma-informed approaches, enhance resilience in various client populations and reduce stress responses to trauma and loss and engage in a variety of hands-on arts-based experiences using mind-body, mindfulness, wellness and strength-based best practices grounded in emerging research. The essential practices presented in this course can be applied to individuals of all ages and families, groups and communities from a culturally-responsive, trauma-informed approach.

For those who have completed Level One Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy, this will provide the opportunity for you to complete the Level Two Certificate. If you have not taken Level One, no worries-- you can register for this course and receive a Certificate for Advanced Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy [if you wish you can complete Level One online or at a live presentation at another time and location].

Click her to register! Complete Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Level One Certificate at this special offering at historic Ghost Ranch in New Mexico!

This course presents key trauma-informed arts-based and expressive arts therapy strategies and applications to support self-regulation, enhance resilience and reduce stress responses to trauma and loss. Participants will engage in a variety of hands-on experiences [individual and group] using mind-body, mindfulness, self-regulation, wellness, resilience and strength-based best practices grounded in emerging research. The essential practices presented in this course can be applied to individuals of all ages, but particular emphasis is on families, groups and communities from a culturally-responsive, trauma-informed approach

This is a wonderful two week summer institute in the expressive arts that will introduce you to a variety of approaches in a nurturing setting in the high desert. You can register for the entire institute or take these three days and combine this experience with an online course to complete Level One/Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy. More information coming soon! For Registration, please contact Institute Director Camille Smith at csmith@prescott.edu.

We have a variety of continuing education offerings for learners and participants. But many of you have been asking for more options, so we are exploring continuing education for social workers, psychologists and nurses. If you have a preference or specific need--- please let us know and use our Contact form at this link.

And for our current continuing education offerings, please visit our continuing education page for information.

To date, over 11,000 participants have attended one or more trauma-informed expressive arts therapy workshops and/or taken online courses! Thank you for your support! For more information about these courses, please visit this link. Here are a few of the most popular offerings:

• Trauma-Informed Art Therapy® and Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy©
  
• Resilience, Posttraumatic Growth and Trauma-Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Practice
  
• Art Therapy, Expressive Arts Therapy and Positive Psychology
  
• Expressive Arts Therapy Approaches to Resilience and Stress Reduction

To read more about completing Registration as an Expressive Arts Therapist, please see this link about the REAT.

...please contact the Center for Play Therapy directly at (940)-565-3864 during business hours (US Central Time) or visit www.centerforplaytherapy.com.

A well-documented feature of trauma, one familiar to many, is our inability to articulate what happens to us. We not only lose our words, but something happens with our memory as well. During a traumatic incident, our thought processes become scattered and disorganized in such a way that we no longer recognize the memories as belonging to the original event. Instead, fragments of memory, dispersed as images, body sensations, and words, are stored in our unconscious and can become activated later by anything even remotely reminiscent of the original experience. Once they are triggered, it is as if an invisible rewind button has been pressed, causing us to reenact aspects of the original trauma in our dayto-day lives. Unconsciously, we could find ourselves reacting to certain people, events, or situations in old, familiar ways that echo the past. Read more here...

You can find even more resources, links and articles everyday on Trauma-Informed Practice on Facebook. Click here to go to our page.... 50,000 followers and growing!

Via Psychology Today..."Lamott (1995) in her novel Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, provides a story that I often share with older children, teenagers and adults in expressive art therapy. She tells the story of her brother who at the age of ten years had a report on birds to write and due on the next day. Although he had three months to write it, he left the project until the last minute and understandably became overwhelmed by the magnitude of the report. Lamott’s father put his arm around his son’s shoulder and simply said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird” (p. 18-19). This short story explains how overwhelming any large task can be and how we have to take it on “bird by bird.” Similarly, individuals in the process of recovery from any challenge must be carefully guided into taking small steps that can be safely tolerated rather than stretching one’s limits only to feel worse as a result. Read more here....

We are only beginning to learn how art therapy can be combined with other evidence-based treatments, as a value-added approach with better outcomes compared to physical and/or cognitive behavioral therapies alone.

Translating art therapy to protocols and combining it with best practices in hospital will allow executable and actual bedside application of patient-benefiting art therapy in different areas.

From the sceptical warrior at war with himself, to the heart transplant patient that needed it as a form of communication with her heart to live: Art therapy gives outlet to the words that cannot be spoken and heals by breaking actual health barriers, helping us become unstuck and keep moving forward while in times of illness. Read more here about why art therapy matters in health and well-being!