Beat the Odds® Online Training - Spring 2025

Ping Ho, MA, MPH is Founder and Director of Arts & Healing Initiative, an organizational member of the UCLA Integrative Health Collaborative, of which Ping is a steering committee member. She was founding administrator for the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, which led to the privilege of writing for Norman Cousins and co-writing the professional autobiography of George F. Solomon, M.D., founder of the field. She has a BA in psychology with honors from Stanford—where she was appointed to establish the still-thriving Health Improvement Program for faculty and staff, an MA in counseling psychology with specialization in exercise physiology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MPH in community health sciences from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Ping is associate editor for the Creative Arts Therapies section of the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and has been Co-Chair of the annual Expressive Therapies Summit: Los Angeles, which offers 150+ workshops on creativity and the arts in healing. She spearheaded the Certificate Program in Social Emotional Arts (SEA) and the SEA on a Shoestring program of supportive art, movement, music, and writing for individuals or groups in any setting. In addition, she co-developed and served as principal investigator for the evidence-based program, Beat the Odds®: Social and Emotional Skill Building Delivered in a Framework of Drumming. She is co-author, with Erica Curtis, of the 2019 National Parenting Products Award-winning book, The Innovative Parent: Raising Connected, Happy, Successful Kids through Art (Ohio University/Swallow Press, March 2019).

[+ In-Person Sessions Only] Mike DeMenno came across a magazine article in 1993, featuring Mickey Hart and Arthur Hull, about the mission to use drumming for community building and personal well-being. Within a year, Mike began facilitating drum circles for at-risk youth throughout Los Angeles. In 2003, Mike became Manager of the REMO Music Center (RMC)—the first recreational music center of its kind. Under the mentorship of Remo Belli, the RMC developed into an extraordinary place dedicated to bringing rhythm and music to people from all walks of life. This journey not only enabled Mike to work closely with Mickey Hart on several projects over the years, but also brought him ongoing mentorship from Arthur Hull. In 2017, the RMC was relocated to REMO, Inc. headquarters in Valencia, CA, where an elegant, state-of-the-art facility was constructed to enable the continued offering of weekly community drum circles, Saturday drum circles for kids, and workshops dedicated to drumming for wellness. Mike continues to manage the RMC and, in 2020, was given the additional responsibility of managing Recreational Music Activities under a new REMO initiative: Rhythm Wellness and You!®. He maintains his passion for the drum set as well as helping others experience playing music for personal joy.

Prior to the training, you may find it helpful to view the ten minute clip from a documentary film of our work with Beat the Odds®.

For Online Trainings: Please bring something that can serve as a drum if you don’t have one—a pillow, a bucket, a large plastic water jug, a desk, or a large food storage container will do (preferably something that sounds pleasant to you). Please also bring something that can serve as a shaker if you don’t have one—a supplement bottle, a box of mints, a plastic container filled with rice or beans (again, preferably something that sounds pleasant to you).

For In-Person Trainings: Please bring a found sound, or household object, that makes an easily-audible sound. 

Click here to view some additional product alternatives (Note: Instructions for obtaining discount pricing on these products will be made available to our trainees).

Written by the Beat the Odds® program developers, the easy-to-follow print manual contains the scripted curriculum and booster/demo session. Full of pointers, explanations of the purposes of each activity, and guidelines for managing activities, behavior, and logistics, the manual (a series of film clips showing all 26 activities in the program being delivered to a class of fourth graders) is the ideal pair to learn the BTO program at home, or as part of the facilitator training. When registering for this BTO training, you can also purchase the BTO manual for 20% off. See below Promotions & Discounts section for details.

• When registering for the Beat the Odds® (BTO) training, trainees can also purchase the accompanying print or e-book edition of our BTO curriculum for 20% off. After adding the training to your cart, visit our Curriculum Materials Section and add either the BTO Curriculum Print Manual or BTO Curriculum E-book Manual to your cart. When checking out, enter one of the following promo codes to receive 20%-off the manual: BTOPM20 for the print manual or BTODM20 for the e-book version.
• Second-time, repeat participants can take the training for half price by entering BTO50 in the promo-code field during checkout.
• Participants taking the training for the third time (or more) can enroll for a quarter of the price by entering BTO75 in the promo-code field during checkout.

[Note that this does not apply to the in-person 2/21 In-Person BTO-YL offering]

This is a online program through Zoom. A welcome email, which includes the link to join the program, will be sent to you after you register. Please check your inbox and spam folders.

We believe transforming lives through creative expression should be financially accessible. Please reach out to us at info@artsandhealinginitiative.org for scholarship and payment plan information.

By registering, you give Arts & Healing Initiative approval to record this event, still and/or moving images from which may appear in printed materials or digital channels for archival, educational, or promotional purposes.

Note for online trainings: Zoom breakout rooms are not recorded.

In order to keep our programs affordable yet self-sustaining, we regret that we are unable to offer refunds for cancellation; however, we are happy to provide you with credit good for one year from the date of the program toward the next offering of the same program or a different one. Credit applied toward a program with higher registration fees will require payment of the balance. In addition, credit may be applied toward purchase of curriculum materials for any program. Unused fees after one year would then be tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law because no goods or services would have been received for them.

Exceptions to our no-refund policy may be considered in cases of personal emergencies. Please contact us at info@artsandhealinginitiative.org if any questions.