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FOAT® Faculty
The following faculty offer workshops and trainings with the Focusing and Expressive Arts (FOAT) Institute. Please view our additional lists of Certified Focusing Trainers: Specialization in FOAT®, Certified FOAT® Practitioners, and Certified FOAT® Facilitators who offer services in various parts of the world.
Lead Faculty and Trainer
Laury Rappaport, Ph.D., LMFT, ATR-BC, REAT, pioneered the development of Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy (FOAT®) and Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts (FOAT®) that can be applied to clinical, educational, community, organizational, and other settings. She is the author of Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy: Accessing the Body’s Wisdom and Creative Intelligence, editor/author of Mindfulness and the Arts Therapies: Theory and Practice, and has published numerous book chapters and articles.
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Laury has been on the faculty of the Expressive Therapies Division at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA for 40 years, where she was the Academic Coordinator of their International Expressive Arts Therapies program. Laury has also served as Associate Professor at Notre Dame de Namur University, Faculty at Sonoma State University, as well as adjunct faculty at other universities. Through the Focusing and Expressive Arts Institute, Laury has brought training programs nationally and internationally throughout the world, including at the University of Hong Kong, University of Guatemala, and in Japan.
Laury is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (CA), Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT), Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), and a Certifying Coordinator, Focusing-Oriented Therapist, and Trainer with The International Focusing Institute (TIFI). Laury has extensive clinical experience in a wide variety of settings.
Faculty and Steering Team
Doreen Meister, MA, LMFT, is a Certified Focusing Trainer: Specialization in FOAT® (TIFI), Certified Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts (FOAT®) Practitioner, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist - specializing in creative arts expression, existential contemplative psychotherapy, mindfulness, and developmental trauma. For over 15 years, she has been helping adults connect with their own natural, authentic resources to develop resilience, regulation, self-compassion and authenticity. She has a private practice in Oakland, California working virtually with individuals and groups. Her specialty areas of training include: FOAT®, guided imagery, somatic touch for resilience and regulation, self-inquiry and existential humanistic contemplative psychotherapy. In addition, Doreen has over 20 years mediation experience in non-dual traditions and expresses her creativity through jewelry design. See her FOAT® Directory listing.
Grace Brillantes-Evangelista, Ph.D., RPsy, CSCLP, is a Clinical Psychologist, Professor, Expressive Arts-Based Practitioner, Clinical Supervisor, Consultant, Trainer, and Workshop Facilitator in the Philippines. Grace is a Certified Focusing Trainer: Specialization in FOAT® (TIFI) and Certified Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts (FOAT®) Practitioner (FOAT Institute). Grace has been practicing in the field for 20 years. She is also the Executive Director of the Integrative Lifestyle And Well-being (ILAW) Center and has served as the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Miriam College. Her work and research include arts-based psychosocial interventions for different communities, mindfulness and FOAT interventions, family and human development, mental health and wellbeing, psychological assessment, child abuse, disaster psychology and resilience, internal displacement, street families, and cyberpsychology. Grace is appreciated for cultivating attunement, inner composure, and resilience among her clients.
See her FOAT® Directory listing.
Lynn Pollock, MA, LMHC, REAT, is an Expressive Arts Therapist in private practice in Massachusetts. Her clinical work includes over 14 years of experience working in community-based services with children and their families, and in her private practice she specializes in working with adults who struggle with mood, anxiety, trauma, and adjustment issues. Lynn received her Master’s degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in MA. She is a Certified Focusing Trainer: Specialization in FOAT® (TIFI) and Certified FOAT® Practitioner (FOAT Institute). She is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) and is fascinated by the intersection between EMDR and focusing. She has also recently co-produced a series of training videos, Creative Inspirations from the Field: Staying Engaged with the Arts. See her FOAT® Directory listing.
Marise Lariviere, LMFT, ATR, TCF, received her Master’s degree in Art Therapy and Marriage and Family Therapy from Notre Dame de Namur University in California. She is a Certified Focusing Trainer: Specialization in FOAT® (TIFI), a Certified Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts (FOAT®) Practitioner (FOAT Institute), and a Registered Art Therapist with the the American Art Therapy Association. Marise’s passion for the visual arts inspired her to acquire artistic skills in a variety of media and to experience the profound value of art for self-expression. She now uses the expressive arts to help others access their own inner knowing for positive growth and healing through a wide range of mindful creative experiences. Marise is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California and Quebec, Canada.
See her FOAT® Directory listing.
International Faculty
Hong Kong
Grace Wing Yee Chan, BFA, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT, graduated from New York University with a Master's Degree in Art Therapy. She is a Board-Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC) with ATCB in the U.S. and a Certified Focusing-Oriented Therapist: Specialization in FOAT® with the International Focusing Institute (TIFI). Grace previously worked as a creative arts therapist in the psychiatric unit of New York City Hospital. After returning to Hong Kong, she works full-time at NGO’s rehabilitation service. She serves in individual and group settings for a wide scope of population, including people with mental and physical challenges, elderly with dementia, children with special needs (SEN), as well as their family and caregivers.
See her FOAT® Directory listing.
Katherine Kwok, MMus, MMusThy, RMT, FOT, MIFA, is a Certified Focusing-Oriented Therapist: Specialization in FOAT® (TIFI), Certified Children Focusing Trainer, registered music therapist, and registered aromatherapist. She has her Master's Degree in Music and Music Therapy. Her specialty is combining music, images, sound, and other bodily senses for wellness, emotion expression, regulation, and release. Katherine offers workshops and programs for hospitals, different organizations for people with mental illness, cancer patients, elderly (dementia), students (SEN, emotional problem, anxiety), young mothers, young adults with anxiety, women with postpartum depression, parent-child groups, etc. She also offers trainings for teachers, helping professionals, and therapists. See her FOAT® Directory listing.
Guatemala
Lic. Evelyn Ammon is a Certified Focusing Oriented Therapist with The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) and has trained in Children’s Focusing with René Veugelers and Harriet Teeuw in the Netherlands. She graduated from Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala with a BA degree in Clinical Psychology. Evelyn was an Organizing Member of the Symposium “Weaving the Americas,” sponsored by the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA). Evelyn has been training in FOAT® with Dr. Laury Rappaport and is working towards Certification as a FOAT® Practitioner and Certified Focusing Trainer: Specialization in FOAT®.
Evelyn also worked for 18 years as a volunteer psychologist in a home for at risk girls using art therapy techniques that she learned in various workshops and symposia abroad with Maria Gonzalez Blue and Graciela Bottini - trained by Dr. Natalie Rogers in Person Centered Expressive Arts. She also incorporates EMDR and Neurolinguistics in her clinical work. Evelyn works in private practice and is a facilitator of workshops teaching the Open Studio Process.
Lic. Frances Ingouville is a Certified Focusing Trainer with The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) and graduated from the Person-Centered Expressive Therapy Institute (PCETI) in Argentina. She received her degree in Psychology from The Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG). Frances has taken on leadership roles to help bring the Expressive Arts Therapies to Guatemala including the following: being a organizing member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy (IEATA) symposium in Guatemala, Regional Coordinator for the IEATA Guatemala’s symposium “Weaving the Americas”. She has also been involved in assisting and teaching in the Post-Graduate Program in Expressive Arts Therapy at UVG, as well as offering workshops in their Continuing Education Program. Frances has been the translator for Dr. Laury Rappaport’s teaching FOAT® at UVG and will be an Assistant Faculty for the Levels 1 and 2 courses in May 2021. At present, she is working to complete her training as a Certified FOAT® Practitioner (FOAT Institute) and Certification as a Focusing Trainer: Specialization in FOAT® - with the intent of teaching FOAT® in the Spanish speaking world.
