Beat the Odds® - Winter 2027

Ping Ho, MA, MPH is Founder and Director of Arts & Healing Initiative, which transforms lives through the innate power of the arts, guided by mental health practices, to foster healing, connection, and resilience for all. Ping spearheaded the development of the Certificate Program in Social Emotional Arts (SEA) and the SEA Toolkit: Supportive Art, Movement, Music & 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. Ping is associate editor for the Creative Arts Therapies section of the Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine, and she is co-author of the 2019 National Parenting Products Award-winning book, The Innovative Parent: Raising Connected, Happy, Successful Kids through Art (Ohio University/Swallow Press). Ping was founding administrator of the UCLA Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine (now the UCLA Integrative Medicine Collaborative) and 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 initiate 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.

Elizabeth Gallo, LEP, MS, NCSP is a licensed educational psychologist with over twenty years of experience designing and delivering counseling programs for individuals in special education. She facilitates individual and group interventions within schools and community settings. Her clinical approach bridges evidence-based practice with somatic interventions, utilizing therapeutic drumming to help children regulate their nervous systems, transform overwhelm into calm, and build resilient communities. As a facilitator of Arts & Healing Initiative’s Beat the Odds® program, Elizabeth extends this healing-centered engagement beyond public schools into spaces that include community agencies, adults, and families throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Her background in rhythmic frameworks includes training in Health RHYTHMS and Village Music Circles. Her authentic enthusiasm and expertise draw her colleagues to seek support from her. Elizabeth shares expertise with grant writing and implementing programs that foster healing through rhythm in our local schools and community agencies. Guided by the belief that joy, culture, and connection are our greatest interventions, Elizabeth uses the drum to create intentional, transformative spaces where individual voices can safely emerge. Learn more about Elizabeth and her work by following her on Instagram at @unityandrhythm.

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, we also offer an easy-to-follow comprehensive, scripted curriculum manual. Including simple adaptations for delivery by age and ability, additional applications for the classroom and year-long continuation, four-session versions for students and families, plus guidelines for supporting engagement and positive behavior, facilitating administrative buy-in, and managing activities and logistics. The BTO manual is available in both print and PDF formats. Click here for more information, and to purchase.  

When registering for our 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 PDF edition of our BTO curriculum for 20% off. After adding the training to your cart, visit our Curriculum Materials Section to purchase your preferred BTO manual edition, then enter the following promo code during check out to receive 20%-off the manual: BTOM20.

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.

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 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.

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.