Saturday, September 30, 2023

9:00 - 10:30 am | Plenary

Insights into Self-Care: A Sound-Based Journey with Christine Stevens, MSW, MA, MT-BC

Experience the innate power of sound and rhythm, and learn about the science behind it, in this inspiring, experiential plenary with internationally acclaimed author, social worker, and music therapist, Christine Stevens. In addition to offering a novel sound-healing experience she developed during COVID for deep relaxation and inspiration, Christine will share five keys to using arts-based practices for self-care. This session is intended to evoke deep relaxation, spark insights, and galvanize connection with ourselves and our greater community. 

“Christine’s masterful use of voice, music, and rhythm has brought me the most profoundly deep and immediate relaxation I have ever experienced—in an online setting no less.”  — Ping Ho, Founder and Director, UCLArts & Healing

 

10:40 am - 1:10 pm | Morning Sessions (Choose One from the Below Offerings)

Session #1 | Art Journaling for Well-Being with Nadia Fernanda Paredes Guapo, MA, LMFT, ATR

Examining our emotions
is essential to both our mental and physical health, particularly when we are feeling stressed or overwhelmed. In this exploratory workshop, we’ll learn an introspective art journaling practice that can help us actively relax, contain and process our emotions, and fortify our emotional resilience. We’ll tap into our own inner artist, through an art-making process that utilizes a variety of different materials in combination with simple color and movement exercises, and come away with a new, integral tool for our emotional well-being. No previous art experience necessary.

 

Session #2 | (Re)Discovering Your Personal Power with Tara Maazel, LCSW

How do we define personal power? And how does it connect to our sense of self and self-worth? In this multimodal session, we’ll learn about the five building blocks of self-esteem, and how it can dictate our perception of personal empowerment. Through a guided-movement activity, art making, and expressive writing, we’ll explore inner sensations associated with different states of mind, and come away with new insights and a deeper understanding of how we relate to ourselves and the world at large.

 

Session #3 | Awe, Gratitude & a Resilient Nervous System: Cultivating Sustainability from the Inside Out with Bonnie Harnden, MA, RDT

Would you like to fall in love with being alive? Stress and trauma can take us out of the present moment and make us feel outside the stream of our life. Feelings of awe and gratitude can bring us back. The sensation of awe can also reduce inflammation, improve immune function, and combat depression. Similarly, gratitude can promote feelings of well-being, serve as an antidote to trauma, and strengthen relationships. In this workshop, we’ll learn the latest research on awe and gratitude, and through embodiment and experiential activities, we’ll gain specific tools for enhancing everyday life as well as for preventing and recovering from burnout.

 

Session #4 | Self-Care as a Life Practice with Charné Furcron, EdD, LPC, BC-DMT, NCC, BCC, ACS, MAC, CPCS

Join us in elucidating and embodying your health and wellness. This dynamic session is centered around the Self-Care Wheel, a positive-psychology tool used to identify and nourish areas where we are struggling, surviving, and thriving. We’ll use gentle movement and interactive dialogue for internal awareness related to all the domains of the wheel, to help us understand and gain insight into our current layers of well-being. This introspective process can be used at any time to establish a consistent self-care practice.

 

Lunch Break | 1:10 - 2:00

 

Lunch Session | 1:30 - 2:00 

The Girl & the Sunbird: An African Folktale with Wakanyi Hoffman, MA

Listen as you lunch to the African folktale, “The Girl & The Sunbird,” a story about finding your inner voice and the song in your heart in the face of adversity. Told and sung by storyteller and scholar, Wakanyi Hoffman, who will also share the Ubuntu philosophy of human oneness and how it applies to African oral storytelling as a worldview.

 

2:00 pm - 4:30 pm | Afternoon Sessions (Choose One from the Below Offerings)

Session #1 | The Bigger Picture: Bi-Lateral Tapping for Stress Relief with Kathryn Snell-Ryan, LPC, ATR

Most of us experience stress on a daily basis. And oftentimes, our stressors can signify larger beliefs or fears we hold about ourselves and our lives. In this session, through an abstract art activity followed by a simple bi-lateral tapping technique (using our hands to tap back and forth between our left and right legs), we’ll learn how we can ground ourselves, gain perspective, and hone into what’s important in our lives. 

Session Note: In this workshop, the focus on smaller, day-to-day stressors versus larger traumas is intended to maximize safety; however, this bi-lateral stimulation (BLS) techniques can be helpful for relief and grounding under any circumstance when thoughts are spinning or stuck.

 

Session #2 | The Art of Self-Care with Michelle Holdt

We often associate self-care with a massage or an evening out with friends. Instead, what if we were to think of it as a moment-by-moment decision on how to think, feel, and act? As educators, parents, and community leaders, so much of our energy and creativity goes to our job, to those we serve, and to our loved ones—often to the point where we neglect to take care of ourselves. In this restorative and innovative session, we’ll return to the inspiration in our own heart to reboot, and examine redefining self-care for ourselves through the integration of mindfulness, simple art making, and expressive writing.

 

Session #3 | Cultivating Healthy Boundaries with Sound & Imagery with Stacie Aamon Yeldell, MA, MT-BC, AVPT

How do we engage in our healing work, joyfully, without absorbing the energy of others? How do we immerse ourselves open heartedly in relationships without sacrificing our life force and personal power? In this fun and interactive workshop, we’ll discover how our current patterns—both conscious and subconscious—can prevent us from cultivating healthy boundaries and engaging more fully in life. Through the use of sound, imagery, and mindfulness, we’ll learn how to heighten self-awareness and to dismantle patterns, thereby steering us towards healing and joy.

 

Session #4 | Prescribing Creativity for Health: Insights from Integrative Medicine with Mary Hardy, MD

A newly emerging paradigm of integrative medicine, which incorporates complementary healing practices, shines a spotlight on the integral role of the creative arts in health and healing. These modalities—which include visual arts, poetry, journaling, music, drumming, and dance—can invite our inner voice to speak, help us understand our lives in new ways, and support the physical healing of our bodies. In this session, we’ll take a deeper look at the health benefits of the arts by way of a series of simple mark-making and drawing exercises. We’ll discover not only how we can create and observe without judgment—we’ll also learn the process by which we can apply these principles to questions and choices we all face in health and self-care.