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Roots, Branches, and Wings
FOAT Institute Presentation Series
Pioneers, Master Teachers, and More
Roots
Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts (FOAT®) has its roots in Focusing, developed by Eugene Gendlin and in the field of expressive arts. This series invites presenters from the early days of Focusing who personally knew Gene Gendlin and carry forward a profound understanding of Gene, the person and his work. As the presenters share stories, it helps to carry forward the livingness of the person, Gene– enriching our understanding and applications of Focusing today and for the future.
FOAT is also rooted in the expressive arts invites Pioneers and Master Teachers from the field (including all of the arts modalities) to share about their inspiration from those early days. This is a rare opportunity to bring the seeds of inspiration, carrying those stories and ideas into the present, while embracing the creative response to unfold in new ways.
Branches
Presenters will also share how their understanding and work in Focusing or Expressive Arts has unfolded– creating the branches from their foundation and roots. The branches are the ways Focusing and expressive arts have been developed into newer approaches and methods, responding to the interaction between the presenter and their interests.
Wings
The wings are how Focusing and Expressive Arts have spread into all parts of the world with applications to many fields (e.g. psychotherapy counseling, education, coaching, wellness, spirituality, creativity, self-care, personal growth, research, and more). The wings also represent FOAT– integrating the roots of this embodied knowing with the transformational properties of creativity.
All offerings in this series will be open to all levels of experience in Focusing, Expressive Arts, and FOAT!
2025 Presentations will be announced in the coming months!
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See our previous 2021 - 2024 presentations below!
For those that attended the live presentations for 2021/2022 offerings and want to obtain CEs,
click here to view the CE information and purchase links.
Past Presentation Calendar
Thursday, October 17th, 2024 11:00am - 1:00pm PDT / 2:00pm - 4:00pm EDT / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Friday, October 18th, 2024
René Veugelers
Does it sometimes seem like a challenge to find words to fit your Felt Sense?
Wouldn't it be relaxing to invite your body to express itself in color and/or in movement, instead of words?
Nonverbal communication, bodily expression, creativity, and Focusing seem like four different categories. In René’s work as a Children Focusing Professional and Art Therapist, he combines and connects these four aspects into one integrated approach: Dynamic Expressive Focusing. This approach supports ‘the living forward energy’ to glow– to move and grow.
In this presentation, René will invite you to create your wondering space– an open, unconditional acceptance towards the unfolding felt sense and its expression through colors, images, gestures, sounds, and words. With a sense of surprise, this non-verbal attunement and communication supports your natural process and carries forward a new and unexpected dimension and depth to the Focusing process, accessing your bodily wisdom through interaction. This will be a Seriously Playful Focusing Journey– using Listening in three directions!
René will share examples of Dynamic Expressive Focusing with children and teenagers. Come and see with your eyes, feel with your hands, and create your inner wondering space for fresh discoveries!
About René Veugelers:
René Veugelers is a Focusing Coordinator from the Netherlands, specializing in Children’s Focusing– with an emphasis on nonverbal world. His knowledge and experience as an Art Therapist and psychiatric nurse with children of any age, embraces an expanded richness of expressive modalities and supports a natural unfolding of creative process.
René has been teaching Children’s Focusing internationally for over 15 years, including Israel, Russia, Germany, England, NY, Seattle, Gaza, Ireland, and France. He teaches parents, therapists, teachers, and others how to be with children in a Focusing way; how to (re)connect to their own inner child experiences; and how to integrate creativity and flexibility into their life and work. His specialties include working with children who experience Attention Deficit Disorders (ADHD, ADD), trauma, and attachment disorders. Additionally, René promotes practical skills to day-care centers and in hospice settings. René is an inspiring teacher who brings considerable experience, subtlety, and joy to every person attending his workshops or training. For more information: childrenfocusing.org.
Cost: $25
Registration Deadline:
October 14, 2024
Monday, July 15, 2024 3:00pm - 5:00pm PDT / 6:00pm - 8:00pm EDT / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Friday, July 26, 2024
The Marriage of Expressive Arts and Jungian Psychology
Kate Donohue, Ph.D., REAT
A natural kinship exists between expressive arts and Jungian Psychology. Both are image-based approaches to understanding and healing the psyche, highlighting the symbolic process in their own unique fashion. While the expressive arts emphasize the artmaking process and the phenomena of an image, Jungian Psychology places more emphasis on the symbolic process and meaning of our image.
This presentation weaves together the theory and practice of both approaches, creating a Jungian-oriented expressive arts healing tapestry of images, emotions, understanding, and transformation. We will explore the basic concepts of expressive arts and Jungian Psychology, along with how they compare and contrast. Jungian Theory has an expansive orientation exploring the personal, cultural, and collective unconscious as well as parallel complexes or wounding.
Learning will be through experiential process, creative discussions, and suggested readings.
About Kate Donohue:
Kate Donohue, Ph.D., REAT, is a licensed psychologist and Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT). Kate holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and has maintained an active private practice for 40 years. In addition, Kate has been teaching expressive arts for 40 years at national and international universities, as well as training institutes. She is a co-founder of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA).
Kate’s work as an expressive arts therapist stems from her own deep and abiding passion for the arts. She is involved in visual arts and dance, having spent 25 years studying indigenous and ethnic dance forms, in particular West African and Afro-Cuban Dance. Her visual arts work in painting and drawing has helped her explore an interest in understanding the sacred feminine. Kate has a background in drama and poetics, along with a great appreciation for music. This involvement in the arts and culture has made Kate’s own life richer, by allowing her to map and understand her own inner terrain.
Friday, April 19th, 2024 12:00pm - 2:00pm PDT / 3:00pm - 5:00pm EDT / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Saturday, April 20th, 2024
Introduction to Expressive Arts Focusing (ExAF) Hands-on Methods:
Finding Ground in Experiential Arts
Freda Blob, Ed (Grad), CP (Grad), AT, PCT, FOT-FOAT, GDP
Expressive Arts Focusing (ExAF) is a body-focused approach rooted in the culture of European Focusing, along with Art and Design, using the creative and the expressive arts for facilitation and engagement. This presentation includes: An overview of Expressive Arts Focusing (ExAF) methods and their therapeutic understanding, along with a museum art-based exercise that provides an example of experiential best practice tools of ExAF. In addition, Eugene Gendlin’s concept of ‘the More’ will be introduced and explored through Expressive Arts Focusing (ExAF).
Participants will gain insight in how to find meaning through artmaking from the body sense that is pointing beyond already known concepts of aesthetic impression (perception) and aesthetic expression (action). Stepping into aesthetics beyond social and cultural constructs, participants will find new ground in connecting to the open space of being-and-becoming.
About Freda Blob:
Freda Blob, Ed (Grad), CP (Grad), AT, PCT, FOT-FOAT, GDP, is a Certifying Coordinator and Trainer of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI), and a Certified Focusing-Oriented Therapist and Focusing Professional with Specialization in Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts (FOAT-TIFI). Freda has been teaching Focusing nationally and internationally for more than 20 years. She has 30 years of experience as a Person-centered and Experiential therapist in private practice. Freda is a Registered Art Therapist DFKGT located in Germany. She holds two university degrees in Clinical Psychology and Adult Education, and has a background in design techniques. She is founder and director of FOCUSZART The Focusing Studio. To learn more: expressiveartsfocusing.com.
Costs:
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Freda's only: $25
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Bundle all 3: $65
Registration Deadline:
April 16, 2024
Thursday, October 19th, 2023 12:00pm - 2:00pm PDT / 3:00pm - 5:00pm EDT / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Friday, October 20th, 2023
Revolutionizing Trauma and Addiction Treatment with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™
Jan Winhall, MSW, RSW, FOT
The Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ (FSPM) shifts the current pathologizing paradigm of trauma and addiction to a strengths-based approach– providing a foundational framework that offers a clear and powerful way to integrate embodiment into practice. This model integrates Eugene Gendlin’s Felt Sense with Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, offering an appreciation of trauma and addictive behaviors as adaptive responses to maladaptive environments.
This workshop provides an overview of Jan’s book, Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model (Routledge, 2021). Jan will discuss the creation of the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model™ (FSPM), developed from over 40 years of clinical practice. The presentation includes: a description of the FSPM theoretical framework, an introduction to The Embodied Assessment and Treatment Tool™, and Carnes Three Circle Harm Reduction Practice. Participants will also learn about Gendlin’s Focusing/Felt Sense somatic practice.
Didactic information, experiential exercises, and case examples are included. This workshop will be informative for those new to the field of trauma/addiction as well as seasoned practitioners.
About Jan Winhall:
Jan Winhall, MSW, RSW, FOT, is an author, teacher, and seasoned trauma and addiction psychotherapist. She is an Educational Partner and Course Developer with the Polyvagal Institute where she teaches a certification course based on her book Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model (Routledge, 2021). She is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto and a Certifying Coordinator with The International Focusing Institute. Jan is Co-Director of the Borden Street Clinic where she supervises graduate students. She enjoys teaching all over the world. You can reach her at janwinhall.com.
Cost:
Jan's only: $25
Bundle offer:
John + Jan: $45
Registration Deadline: October 12
Monday, August 7th, 2023 1:00pm - 3:00pm PDT / 4:00pm - 6:00pm EDT / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Tuesday, August 8th, 2023
John Fox, PPM
John Fox, author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making and other writings, is a pioneer in the Poetry Therapy and Expressive Arts fields, and founder of the Institute for Poetic Medicine. In this presentation, John will share how he found the healing power of words and poem-making early in the 1980's, and developed it into an approach that is now practiced all over the world.
Poetry and the elements of poetry are ways to fine-tune the quality of our listening. The art of listening includes being open to what is happening, paying close attention to our experience, and showing respect for a person. The art of listening is connected to slowing down. Silence and quietness help to make listening a generative activity– where deep listening becomes a creative agent that helps ignite ideas in those who are listened to. Participants will have an opportunity to write and share poems, exploring the many dimensions of listening. Applications to working with others will be included.
About John Fox:
John Fox, Practitioner of Poetic Medicine (PPM), is a poet, educator, and author. His books include Finding What You Didn’t Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity through Poem-Making (1995) and Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making (1997). His work is featured in the 2008 PBS documentary Healing Words: Poetry and Medicine. John taught concurrently for fifteen years as associate adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in Expressive Therapy; seventeen years at Sofia University (formerly The Institute for Transpersonal Psychology); ten years at the Sophia Center for Culture and Spirituality at Holy Names University; twenty years at John F. Kennedy University in the Graduate School of Psychology and then the Department of Arts and Consciousness. He is founder of The Institute for Poetic Medicine (2005), a nonprofit that brings poetry-as-healer to people considered by our culture to live at the margins. IPM supports and funds Poetry Partner Programs that serve a wide-range of populations including people living with Parkinson's Disease, overcoming addiction, living with mental health diagnoses, survivors of abuse and assault, immigrant and refugee youth, the unhoused, and many others. John has been friends with Laury Rappaport for many years. He lives in Mountain View, CA.
Cost:
John's only: $25
Bundle offer:
John + Jan: $45
Registration Deadline:
July 31, 2023
Monday, November 7th, 2022 1:00 - 3:00PM PST / 4:00 - 6:00PM EST / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Tuesday, November 8th, 2022
Rhythmic Attunement in Expressive Arts:
Attachment, Embodied Empathy, and Interpersonal Neurobiology
Mitchell Kossak, Ph.D., LMHC, REAT
Dr. Mitchell Kossak will share about his 1980 meeting of Paolo Knill, Ph.D. (pioneer of intermodal expressive arts)— including reflections about Paolo's profound inspiration in the field worldwide. After, Mitchell will present his research on rhythmic attunement and how engagement in expressive arts can lead to flow states— or what is referred to as unitive experiences, sometimes amounting to a felt sense of union with other people, other life forms, objects, environments, the divine, or the universe itself.
Therapeutic attunement can be viewed as being based on an embodied awareness of rhythmic flow, and on mutual connections that occur when there is an intense process of deep listening, kinesthetic awareness, and deep attention to what is occurring in the moment—which can be thought of as mindfulness attention. This presentation will introduce the basic underlying principles of therapeutic attunement— including concepts of resonance, rhythm, misattunement, embodied empathy, attachment, entrainment, and interpersonal neurobiology that affects us personally and interpersonally. Experiential exercises are included.
About Mitchell Kossak:
Mitchell Kossak, Ph.D., LMHC, REAT, is the author of Attunement in Expressive Arts Therapy: Toward an Understanding of Embodied Empathy and a professor in the Expressive Therapies program at Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Kossak has worked as an expressive arts therapist since 1983 and has been a licensed mental health counselor since 1994. He is the past President/Executive Co-Chair of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) and the Associate Editor of The Journal of Applied Arts and Health. His clinical work combines expressive arts therapy with body-centered approaches with a variety of populations addressing issues such as chronic pain, recovery from trauma, depression, anxiety, life transitions, and relationships. Mitchell is also a professional musician performing for over 35 years in the Boston area.
Cost:
Mitchell only: $25
Bundle offer:
Ann + Mitchell: $45
Registration Deadline:
Bundle: July 29th
Mitchell only: November 4th
Monday, August 1st, 2022 3:00PM - 5:00PM PDT / 6:00PM - 8:00PM EDT / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022
Carrying Focusing Forward is a Creative Process
Ann Weiser Cornell, Ph.D.
Ann will tell the story of meeting and learning Focusing from Gene Gendlin 50 years ago, when she was 22— and how Gene encouraged her to develop her own ideas about teaching Focusing, saying “Keep going!” It’s a part of Gene’s philosophy that the only way to be true to an idea or a method is to bring it through your own body and make it your own. After, Ann will share about the development of Inner Relationship Focusing, and how it grew from seeds planted while she was assisting Gene with his first Focusing workshops.
Inner Relationship Focusing (IRF) is an approach to Focusing based on cultivating an inner state of calm, curious acceptance toward all aspects of the self, including stressful and judgmental thoughts and all sorts of emotions and body sensations. An important principle is the “radical acceptance of everything,” the assumption that there are no enemies inside, and everything in us deserves and needs compassion for how it is trying to help us. Ann will present the main highlights of Inner Relationship Focusing along with an experiential exercise.
About Ann Weiser Cornell:
Ann Weiser Cornell, Ph.D., is an internationally known author and psychology educator who has been teaching Focusing in twenty countries around the world for over thirty-five years. She is the founder and President of Focusing Resources, providing training and a wealth of written, audio, and video materials. Ann is the co-creator, with Barbara McGavin, of Inner Relationship Focusing and Untangling®, an application of Focusing to tough life issues. Her books include: The Power of Focusing; The Radical Acceptance of Everything; Presence: A Guide to Transforming Your Most Challenging Emotions; and Focusing in Clinical Practice: The Essence of Change.
Cost:
Ann only: $25
Bundle offer:
Ann + Mitchell: $45
Registration Deadline (Ann only + Bundle): July 29th, 2022
Monday, June 6th, 2022 1:00PM - 3:00PM PDT / 4:00PM - 6:00PM EDT / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
Natalie Rogers, a Mentor and Friend:
Person-Centered Expressive Arts and Its Applications
Anin Utigaard, MA, MFT, REAT
Anin Utigaard, MA, MFT, REAT, met Natalie Rogers, Ph.D., pioneer of Person-Centered Expressive Arts in 1988. Natalie Rogers was the founder of the Person-Centered Expressive Therapy Institute (PCETI), and the daughter of Carl Rogers— a humanistic psychologist who developed the Person-Centered (and Client-Centered) approach to counseling and psychotherapy. Anin will share highlights of what she learned from Natalie through her experiences in many roles (i.e. student, co-facilitator, mentee, colleague, and friend)— and from the legacy that Natalie left to the field and global community.
After, Anin will present the philosophy and foundation with the Person-Centered Expressive Arts Approach and how it can be applied to working with clients, groups, couples, families, and children. She will discuss how the Person-Centered methods assisted her in working with adolescents in a treatment center and private practice. Additionally, Anin will illustrate how the expressive arts helps teens to move through resistances while providing a safe place to express and process their inner life. The presentation includes a Person-Centered experiential exercise, along with opportunities for sharing, reflections, and Q&A.
About Anin Utigaard:
Nina “Anin”' Utigaard is a licensed Marriage Family Therapist (MFT) and Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT). She works with individuals and groups of all ages and cultures. She was a founding Executive Co-Chair for the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association and continues to be on the Advisory Council for the organization. Anin was a faculty member with Natalie Rogers’ Person-Centered Expressive Therapy Institute for over ten years, and uses the Person-Centered approach in her work with clients. She has presented her work nationally and internationally since 1992. Her work with trauma, addiction, and adolescents began in 1991 at ThunderRoad in Oakland, California, where she used the PCEXA therapy with teens. Anin has a fine arts and professional music background, which she combined with psychology and the humanistic approach in psychotherapy. She believes that the arts are a transformative power that can change the world we live in.
Cost:
Anin only: $25
Bundle offers:
Anin + Ann: $45
Anin + Ann + Mitchell: $65
Registration Deadline
(For Anin only + All Bundles):
June 3rd, 2022
Monday, April 4th, 2022 1:00PM - 3:00PM PST / 4:00PM - 6:00PM EST / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Tuesday, April 5th, 2022
A Focusing Approach to Positivity:
Focusing on What You Love and What Matters Most
Joan Klagsbrun, Ph.D.
Joan Klagsbrun met Eugene Gendlin in 1976 and maintained a close connection with him through his life, as well as with his wife Mary Hendricks-Gendlin. After Joan shares stories that illuminate what was inspiring about Gene and his teachings, she will present how to integrate Focusing with Positive Psychology.
Focusing, developed by Eugene Gendlin, is an evidence-based approach and an intrinsically optimistic method. It can help us to discover and savor the positive aspects of our Iives. By Focusing on our good experiences, we not only get to the essence of what was so pleasurable or so meaningful, but we deepen our sense of wellbeing and invite it to grow.
Research affirms this wisdom of placing attention on positive experiences and feelings. Positive emotions build inner resources to help us become more resilient. People who have a higher ratio of ‘positivity’ to ‘negativity’ also have more energy, more creativity, and better health. Most of us reflexively dwell on our problems and concerns. When we are able to feel gratitude, contentment, or enjoyment, for example, we can actually elevate our mood and think more effectively.
Joan’s presentation will also include an experiential component that includes time to Focus on some pathways to happiness that can strengthen a sense of wellbeing and enrich our lives.
About Joan Klagsbrun:
Joan Klagsbrun, Ph.D. is a psychologist, a Certifying Coordinator in Focusing, and a Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy Trainer who has been practicing for the past 40 years. Joan also is an Adjunct Professor at Lesley University, where she has taught Focusing and integrates her long-standing interest in the intersection of spirituality and psychology. She also taught for several years at the Focusing Summer School.
Joan has been teaching Focusing to the public and to health care and mental health professionals nationally and internationally for over three decades across six continents. For fourteen years, she served on the Board of the Focusing Institute. Her publications include articles in professional journals and chapters in several books. Her most recent chapter, co-written with Julian Miller, is Acknowledging the Dark and Embracing the Light in the Time of Covid-19, published in Senses of Focusing Volume I in 2021.
Cost:
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Joan's only: $25
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Judy and Joan
Bundle: $45
Registration Deadline:
April 1, 2022
Monday, February 7th, 2022 1:00PM - 3:00PM PST / 4:00PM - 6:00PM EST / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Tuesday, February 8th, 2022
Growing Up with Art Therapy:
A Glorious Adventure for Almost 6 Decades!
Judy A. Rubin, Ph.D., ATR-BC, HLM
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Judy Rubin is a pioneer art therapist who began her work in 1963, when the profession itself was in the process of being born. In the first part of this presentation, Judy will share stories from the early days of the development of art therapy in the United States. Making it up as she went along, Judy had the good fortune to meet some generous visionaries whose guidance was critical— including Erik Erikson, Margaret Naumburg, Edith Kramer, and Irene Jakab.
Next, Judy will show videos from different periods in the growth of art and all the expressive arts therapies, where you will meet others who helped to invent these professions. Judy will also talk about what she learned as the “Art Lady” on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and its effect on all of her later work.
Additionally, Judy will discuss her hopes and vision for the future, including her dream of providing a streaming library where people can view classic and contemporary films— and can learn by watching master clinicians conducting thoughtful and sensitive therapy using all of the expressive arts.
About Judy Rubin:
Judy A. Rubin, Ph.D., ATR-BC, HLM is a licensed psychologist, child and adult psychoanalyst, and board-certified art therapist. A past President and Honorary Life Member of the American Art Therapy Association, she has written six books and created thirteen films. For three years in the 1960’s she was the Art Lady on the PBS children’s program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Now retired from clinical practice and regular teaching, she served for forty years on the faculties of the Psychiatry Department at the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center. She also presented and taught at many universities and conferences in the U.S. and abroad. President and co-founder of Expressive Media, she has recently launched an online Training Film Library in the expressive therapies.
Cost:
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Judy's only: $25
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Judy and Joan
Bundle: $45
Registration Deadline:
February 4, 2022
Wednesday, November 10th, 2021 4:00PM - 6:00PM PST / 7:00PM - 9:00PM EST / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Thursday, November 11th, 2021
Exploring the Fundamentals of Focusing: Experiencing and Crossing
Akira Ikemi, Ph.D.
Dr. Akira Ikemi first met Gene Gendlin in 1979, then became a graduate student at the University of Chicago where Gene was a professor. The first part of this workshop will begin with Akira Ikemi’s personal reflections about what was inspiring about Gene. Listening to stories like these helps to illuminate and carry forward deeper understandings of the living roots of Focusing and its philosophy— which continues to unfold in new ways today.
Akira Ikemi will then share about the influences of Wilhelm Dilthey’s hermeneutics on Focusing, a method which Gendlin developed. After, Akira Ikemi will lead a Focusing exercise that he created— Crossing with Animals— which helps to teach two concepts of Gene’s philosophy, Experiencing and Crossing. Participants will then learn to apply the principles of Experiencing and Crossing to art images or expressions. This will also enrich the understanding and practice of Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts.
About Akira Ikemi:
Akira Ikemi, Ph.D. studied with Professor Eugene Gendlin at the University of Chicago around the time the book Focusing was published. He has taught full time at universities in Japan, and is currently professor at Kansai University Graduate School of Psychology. Akira is a Certifying Coordinator of The International Focusing Institute (TIFI) and has served as a board member of that institute, as well as of other academic organizations, including the World Association for Person Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counseling, and the Japanese Association for Humanistic Psychology. He is one of the founders and past-presidents of the Japan Focusing Association. Dr. Ikemi has written many articles and books in Japanese and in English, and teaches internationally online. He was named a “Living Luminary” by the Journal of Humanistic Counseling (USA) and he is the fifteenth person to receive the prestigious Japanese Association of Humanistic Psychology Award.
Cost:
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Akira's only: $25
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2021 Bundle (Akira's plus Shaun McNiff): $40
Registration Deadline:
November 7, 2021
Monday, December 6th, 2021 1:00PM - 2:30PM PST / 4:00PM - 5:30PM EST / Click here for your time zone
For Asia: Tuesday, December 7th, 2021
How Art Heals: Whole Art Expression and Going with the Grain of Nature
Shaun McNiff
Shaun McNiff created the first graduate program in expressive arts in the world, pioneering a vision of “Whole Art Expression”— that “art” includes all forms of the arts— movement, music, drama, writing, etc. Today, the expressive arts are practiced all over the world— in counseling, psychotherapy, education, health and wellness, research, creativity, and more.
This is a rare opportunity to listen first-hand to stories, practices and ideas spanning Shaun McNiff’s 50 years of developing and refining his original vision. The presentation will be interactive— a community feeling— with time for questions and reflections in response to Shaun’s presentation on various topic, such as:
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How Art heals by infusing persons and communities with creative energy and by transforming difficulties into affirmations of life.
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The creation in the 1970’s of an innovative expressive arts training program at a prestigious art gallery with patients who were still living in a State psychiatric hospital, some for 25-50 years.
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How the most elemental and simple gestures and organic actions access the depths of artistic expression
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Methods of engagement: such as the movement basis of expression, art as a force of nature as accessible as breath, the significance of simplicity and authenticity in quality expression, creating with objects from nature, and the use of digital media
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How resistances, inhibitions, and doubts can be channeled into creative and healing expressions
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How to create environments and communities that support the creative expression of others.
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And more
About Shaun McNiff:
Shaun McNiff is author of Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression; Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go; Art as Medicine; Art Heals; Depth Psychology of Art; Integrating the Arts in Therapy; and other books. His writings have been widely influential and translated into many languages; he has lectured and taught throughout the world.
Shaun McNiff is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health for his leadership in advancing art as research, and an Honorary Life Member Award from the American Art Therapy Association. He established the integrated arts in therapy and education graduate training programs at Lesley University from which the field of expressive arts therapy emerged— and in 2002 Lesley appointed him as its first University Professor. His lifework is committed to furthering universal access to artistic expression as a source of individual community well-being and understanding.
Cost:
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Shauns's only: $20
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2021 Bundle (Shaun's plus Akira Ikemi): $40
Registration Deadline:
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2021 Bundle: Nov. 7
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Shauns's only: Dec. 3
If you have any questions, please contact us.