The Potomac Art Therapy Association Blog: Drawing from Within

Free Lecture on the Importance of Positive Emotions

2011-11-10T13:44:00.000-05:00

Positive Psychology and Art Therapy: The Importance of Positive Emotions @ GWU, Alexandria, VA

When: Saturday, Dec 3, 2011

Where: George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program, 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 ()

Positive Psychology and Art Therapy: The Importance of Positive Emotions Free Lecture

Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC Rebecca Wilkinson, MA-ATR-BC

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 11:00 Am – 12:15 Pm

Sponsored by Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, the Potomac Art Therapy Association, and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program (1.25 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*)

This workshop with include a brief overview of the field of Positive Psychology, the science of happiness. We will focus most in depth on the contributions of Barbara Fredrickson in her work on Positive Emotions and their ability to broaden perception and build resilience. The evolutionary function of negative and positive emotions will be explored. We will examine art therapy’s role in promoting positive emotions. Art Therapy interventions for increasing positive emotions will be explored.

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to list two characteristics of Positive Psychology.

Objective 2) Attendees will be able to describe Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build theory of positive emotions.

Objective 3) Attendees will be able to list three ways that art therapy promotes positive emotions in our clients.

Held at the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program, 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. To register call 202 352 5225. Facilities are handicap accessible. Creative Wellbeing Workshops is co-sponsor of this event with the Potomac Art Therapy Association (NBCC provider #6500) and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program. The Potomac Art Therapy Association may award NBCC approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. Creative Wellbeing Workshops and the Potomac Art Therapy Association and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program maintain responsibility for the content of this event.

11/06/11 Workshop Visual and Experiential DBT

2011-09-29T21:19:00.002-04:00

Registration is now open for our November 6 workshop on Visual and
Experiential Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Martha Dyer, ATR-BC and
Elizabeth McElhinny Hayden, LCSW will be coming up from North Carolina
to present their integrated approach to using DBT. Please click on the
link below for more information on this event and to register to
reserve your spot. We're very excited about this event and hope to see
you there. Please email abechtel@sheppardpratt.org if you have any
questions.

http://tinyurl.com/matanov6

Positive Psychology and Art Therapy: The Importance of Positive Emotions Workshop

2011-09-29T20:09:00.000-04:00

Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA-ATR-BC

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

11:00 Am – 12:15 Pm

Board Meeting Held at 10:00 Am

Sponsored by the Potomac Art Therapy Association, Creative Wellbeing Workshops, and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program

(1.25 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*)

the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program

Held at GW at 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to list two characteristics of Positive Psychology.

Objective 2) Attendees will be able to describe Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden and build theory of positive emotions.

Objective 3) Attendees will be able to list three ways that art therapy promotes positive emotions in our clients.

This event is co-sponsored by the Potomac Art Therapy Association (NBCC provider #6500) Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, and the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program. Potomac Art Therapy Association may award NBCC approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. Creative Wellbeing Workshops and the Potomac Art Therapy Association maintain responsibility for the content of this event.

SoulCollage® and Art Therapy Workshop

2011-09-29T20:07:00.000-04:00

October 22, 2011 11:00 AM-1:00 PM

Karen Baer, MA, ATR-BC

Sponsored by Potomac Art Therapy Association (PATA) and

the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program

Held at GW at 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

(2 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*)

Workshop will be held after the October PATA
Board Meeting held 10:00 -11:00 AM

This workshop will introduce participants in the therapeutic value of using SoulCollage® with their clients. People who are at a crossroads or in transition might find that SoulCollage® offers a welcome combination of opportunities. SoulCollage® is an intuitive collage process that inspires creativity and lets people connect with their own inner guidance. SoulCollage® has intrigued thousands of enthusiastic practitioners who make cards to represent parts of themselves and then use those cards to access their own deep wisdom. Seena B. Frost, founder of SoulCollage®, has a new book coming out November 1, 2010: SoulCollage® Evolving: an Intuitive Collage Process for Self-Discovery and Community. The book describes the simple steps for making SoulCollage® cards and also the many ways they have been used with children, adolescents, elderly people, and adults in many contexts, such as religious groups, addiction recovery, art therapy, and hospice care.

Objective 1. Participants will explore the principles underlying the use of SoulCollage®

cards in art therapy.

Objective 2. Participants will be able to list three strategies for using SoulCollage® as

an art therapy tool for identifying and meeting therapeutic goals.

Objective 3. Participants will make SoulCollage® cards.

Karen Baer is a trained SoulCollage® Facilitator offering workshops in the Silver Spring, MD area. To learn more about Seena Frost and SoulCollage®, visit www.soulcollage.com. For more information call 301 622-4793 or email: kbtapestries@comcast.net. Resource: http://www.soulcollage.com/press

The Potomac Art Therapy Association (PATA) is an approved NBCC provider (#6500) and co-sponsor of this event witht eh George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program. PATA may award NBCC approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. PATA maintains responsibility for the content of this event

Workshop with Liz Goll Lerner

2011-09-22T16:01:00.000-04:00

LIZ GOLL LERNER, LPC, ATR-BC

September 24, 2011
Part One: noon -2:00pm
Part Two: 2:30 - 5:00pm
at The Mindfulness Center

For more information or to register on line
visit: www.themindfulnesscenter.org

Part One OR Two $49.00; Part One AND Two $89.00

There are so many care-giving situations that take us into areas that we are not prepared for. Join Liz in this two-part workshop to learn more about the most effective ways to navigate for yourself and your loved one.

The Mindfulness Center
4963 Elm Street, Suite 100
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-986-1090
TheMindfulnessCenter@gmail.com
PART ONE: “Caregiving”
How to accomplish your role as Caregiver from helping with a meal to advocating in a serious medical situation. Individuals will have the opportunity to share their caregiving situations for feedback.

PART TWO: “Replenishing the Caregiver”
Through discussion, guided imagery and creative expression learn tools to use on a daily basis to have some time just for you; relieve stress and rejuvenate.

Liz has lived her own care-giving experiences and helped many families
successfully do the same. Liz, founder of Inspired Choices, LLC, is an art
psychotherapist, counselor and coach in private practice. She began her DC
area practice in 1987. Some of her areas of specialization are medical illness
counseling and advocacy, mindfulness practices, individualized accelerated
breakthrough and archetypal coaching . Her work ranges from the practical to
the spiritual. She has office hours at The Mindfulness Center, TAVO Total
Health and in her DC office. She has been an adjunct professor at GWU and
consults at various Healing Centers. Liz is trained in Bio Energy and
Reconnective Healing. For appointments or more information please contact her
at liz@yourinspiredchoices.com or 301-229-9408.

Reframing Self-Care: Refilling the Well

2011-09-22T15:45:00.000-04:00

Please join us for our Annual Member Meeting and Potluck! Preceeding the event, we are proud to host Suzanne Fortnum, MA, who will be presenting on self-care practices.

Reframing Self-Care: Refilling the Well
Suzanne Fortnum, MA RYT 200
Saturday, September 24th, 2011, 3:00 – 4:00 PM

Sponsored by Potomac Art Therapy Association (PATA) and
the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program
413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
(2 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*)
202-483-8600

“Caring for the self is not self-indulgent, it is self-preservation” - Audre Lorde

Self-care can often feel like one more thing to check off the ‘to-do’ list. As art therapists we provide best for our clients when our internal wells are replenished and full, yet finding time to refill the well can be a challenge. Many of us work at least an eight-hour day seeing clients, participating in treatment team meetings, staff meetings, writing notes, in addition to attempting to maintain a personal life. In this workshop, we will explore how to integrate self-care into daily practice to continuously fill our wells. While the concept of self-care ‘on-the-go’ may seem contradictory, it has many benefits related to clinical practice. Techniques and resources for self-care ‘on-the-go’ will be discussed and attendees will be provided with the opportunity to create self-care ‘toolkits’.

Attendees are asked to bring a box and tissue paper for art experiential. Shoeboxes work really well!!

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to identify the concept of self-care ‘on-the-go’ and learn five self-care “on-the-go” resources.

Objective 2) Attendees will be able to identify how the benefits of self care ‘on-the-go’ relate to clinical practice. Objective 3) Attendees will be able to build their own self-care “toolkit”.

Contact Potomac Art Therapy Association

To register or for more information call 202-483-8600 or visit

www.potomacarttherapyassociation.com

Held at the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program, 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. Facilities are handicap accessible.

The Potomac Art Therapy Association (PATA) is an approved NBCC provider (#6500) and co-sponsor of this event. PATA may award NBCC approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. PATA maintains responsibility for the content of this event.

Following the event please join us for our annual member meeting and potluck, which will be held following the presentation, from 4pm- 6pm. Come network and catch up with old friends and classmates!

Board Meeting Agenda
1. Call to Order
2. Approval of Agenda
3. Approval of Minutes
4. Scholarships- address student awards (Kim O.H.)
5. AATA conference Chapter report (Crista)
6. Discuss Symposium and upcoming event
7. Update on PATA budget (Philip)
8. Update on PATA board member election
9. Call to Adjourn

We look forward to seeing you at the event!

CREATIVE JOURNALING SERIES

2011-09-06T22:19:00.000-04:00

Crossings: A Center for the Healing Traditions
8505 Fenton Street, Ste 202
Silver Spring MD 20910

301-565-4924

Title: Creative Journaling: Art and Writing to Increase Wellbeing

Where: Crossings, Downtown Silver Spring, near Whole Foods

When: Saturdays, Sept. 17, Oct. 1, Oct. 22, Nov. 13, 2011

Time: 11 AM-12:45 PM

Who: Open to all

Cost in Advance: Pre-register $140 for series/$40 each individual session

At the Door: $50 per session at the door

To Register: Call 202-352-5225 or email rebecca@creativewellbeingworkshops.com

Creative Journaling combines writing with art-making to deepen the exploration and insight that can be gained from the journaling process. These workshops are designed for all ranges of artistic and writing experience—you need not consider yourself an “artist” or “writer” to attend and benefit. Participants will leave with specific and immediately applicable tools for increasing wellbeing. Being a journal you can do art work in. All other materials will be provided.

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC is a Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist with 20 years of clinical experience. She is co-founder of Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, which provides workshops and training on creativity, wellbeing, and happiness. She also facilitates workshops through Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts and serves as adjunct faculty with the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program. She can be reached at rebecca@creativewellbeingworkshops.com or 202 352 5225.

www.creativewellbeingshops.com

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC
Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC
www.creativewellbeingworkshops.com
(202) 352 5225
rebecca@creativewellbeingworkshops.

Temporary job opportunity

2011-09-02T12:58:00.002-04:00

Temporary classroom based art therapy substitute position available with Fairfax County Schools. The substitute would be covering maternity leave for 6-8 weeks starting around October 11 at Cedar Lane School, a high school for ED/LD adolescents. The candidate would have to apply/register online with FCPS for a substitute position. ED experience preferred. This would be a great position for a recent graduate. It’s a great way to get you foot in the door with FCPS. Please contact Nici Finnegan at knfinnegan@fcps.edu for more information. Thank you

Volunteer opportunity

2011-08-23T16:34:00.001-04:00

http://www.idealist.org/view/volop/TgJZZ2PMBxjd/

Do you have a desire to use your talents to serve your community? Do you have a passion for helping others recover from disorder eating? Rock Recovery is seeking professional therapists to lead weekly therapy groups for men and women striving to overcome eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, compulsive eating, and food/exercise addiction.
Job Responsibilities:
Approximately once a month, this volunteer would be responsible for co-leading a small a therapy group (about 10 individuals). This meeting will consist of a meal prepared by a nutritionist and a therapy session. These sessions are held on Sunday evenings between 5 and 8PM in the Arlington Courthouse metro area.
Between meetings, the volunteer will be responsible for reviewing and updating client notes, contacting potential attendees, making suggestions for improvement, attending occasional treatment team meetings, and staying abreast of general communication.
Minimum Qualifications:
-LCSW, LPC, therapist, or clinical psychologist certification
-Graduate degree
-Strong facilitation skills
-At least one year working with individuals suffering from disordered eating
-Ability to support Rock Recovery's faith-based perspective
Preferred Qualifications:
- 4+years working with clients
- Experience in or working within the eating disorder community
- Excellent referrals and high performance reviews in past positions
Key Competencies:
- Communicating Effectively
- Establishing Safety and Trust
Other Desirable Characteristics:
- Commitment to Service
- Integrity
- Emotional Stability & Intelligence

September 2011 workshop

2011-08-22T14:43:00.002-04:00

Reframing Self-Care: Refilling the Well
Suzanne Fortnum, MA RYT 200
Saturday, September 24th, 2011, 3:00 – 4:00 PM
Sponsored by Potomac Art Therapy Institute (PATA) and
the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program
413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
(2 CEC’s available, free for PATA members, $10 administrative fee for non-members*)
202-483-8600

“Caring for the self is not self-indulgent, it is self-preservation”

- Audre Lord

Self-care can often feel like one more thing to check off the ‘to-do’ list. As art therapists we provide best for our clients when our internal wells are replenished and full, yet finding time to refill the well can be a challenge. Many of us work at least an eight-hour day seeing clients, participating in treatment team meetings, staff meetings, writing notes, in addition to attempting to maintain a personal life. In this workshop, we will explore how to integrate self-care into daily practice to continuously fill our wells. While the concept of self-care ‘on-the-go’ may seem contradictory, it has many benefits related to clinical practice. Techniques and resources for self-care ‘on-the-go’ will be discussed and attendees will be provided with the opportunity to create self-care ‘toolkits’.

Attendees are asked to bring a box for art experiential. Shoeboxes work really well!!

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to identify the concept of self-care ‘on-the-go’ and learn five self-care “on-the-go” resources.
Objective 2) Attendees will be able to identify how the benefits of self care ‘on-the-go’ relate to clinical practice.
Objective 3) Attendees will be able to build their own self-care “toolkit”.

Contact Potomac Art Therapy Association
To register or for more information call 202-483-8600 or visit
www.potomacarttherapyassociation.com

Held at the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program, 413 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. Facilities are handicap accessible.

The Potomac Art Therapy Association (PATA) is an approved NBCC provider (#6500) and co-sponsor of this event. PATA may award NBCC approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. PATA maintains responsibility for the content of this event

Temporary Position at CNMC

2011-04-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

Children’s National Medical Center with Tracy’s Kids on Hematology/Oncology and we will have a job opening for a temporary position this summer starting in mid-June. Here’s the link https://www.healthcaresource.com/cnmc/index.cfm=search.jobDetails&template=dsp_job_details.cfm&cJobId=484798

N Street Village Art Show

2011-04-15T16:56:00.002-04:00

Come to the first ever N Street Village Client Art Show this coming
Thursday, April 21st from 6-8 PM! Please view and rsvp to the invite
below. The show may only be up for a few short days at Fathom
Creative, so be sure to check it out while you can!

http://nstreetvillageartshow.eventbrite.com/

"N Street Village is a community of empowerment and recovery for homeless
and low-income women. With comprehensive services addressing both
emergency and long-term needs, we help women achieve personal stability
and make gains in their housing, income, employment, mental health,
physical health, and addition recovery. For more information visit www.nstreetvillage.org "

PATA to Provide NBCC Continuing Education Workshops

2011-03-11T14:38:00.000-05:00

PATA is excited to announce that PATA has officially been granted provider status with the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC). As a result, PATA will be able to award continuing education credits for trainings and workshops, both as a member benefit and to encourage professionals from the broader mental health field to learn more about art therapy.

PATA has lined up a series of exciting workshops to cap off this new membership benefit.

On April 16, 2011, from 11a-12:15p Geoffrey Edwards, MS, an art therapist trained at the Mount Mary College Art Therapy Program and currently studying to become a Master of Acupuncture at the Tia Sophia Institute, will provide a workshop on integrating mind-body practices with art therapy. The workshop will focus on integrating Five Phase Theory of Chinese Medicine into group and individual art therapy processes.

On October 15, 2011, from 11a-1pm, Karen Baer, MA, ATR-BC, a local art therapist and a trained SoulCollage® Facilitator will provide a workshop on the therapeutic applications of utilizing this intervention. SoulCollage® has intrigued thousands of enthusiastic practitioners who make cards to represent parts of themselves and then use those cards to access their own deep wisdom.

On December 10, 2011, from 11a-12:15 pm, local art therapists Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC and Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC of Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC will present on integrating positive psychology and art therapy. They will focus on Barbara Fredrickson’s work on positive emotions and their ability to broaden perception and build resilience.

Workshops locations will be announced soon. Other continuing education opportunities will be offered—input on topics or suggestions for presenters are welcome.

ATCB Publishes Updated Code of Professional Practice

2011-03-07T12:35:00.000-05:00

The Art Therapy Credentials Board (ATCB) is pleased to announce the publication of the updated ATCB Code of Professional Practice, available on our Web site at www.atcb.org/code_of_professional_practice/.

Over the past two years, ATCB has worked diligently to revise and re-work our Code of Professional Practice to bring it up to date with the current environment of Art Therapy practice. As part of this process, the ATCB first compared its Code with the ethics documents of related organizations including the American Art Therapy Association (AATA), the American Counseling Association (ACA), and the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), as well as the standards set by The Joint Commission (JCAHO), to determine what areas needed updating, revising or addition.

After making these revisions, the revised version of the Code of Professional Practice was posted to the ATCB Web site and feedback from ATRs, ATR-BCs, and other stakeholders, was encouraged. The final document includes revisions made by the ATCB that reflect the feedback received during the public comment period.

The ATCB is pleased to announce that the 2011 edition of the Code of Professional Practice has been approved and is now available online through the ATCB Web site. ATCB will soon publish an article that details the changes to the Code and provides the rationale for these changes.

The ad hoc committee charged with revising the Code and the Board of Directors appreciate the input that many of you provided during our work to update the ATCB Code of Professional Practice.

Please contact ATCB at atcb@nbcc.org if you have questions or concerns.

Diagnostic Drawing Series (DDS) Training — April 9 & 10

2011-03-07T08:11:00.000-05:00

Free Lecture — Friday Evening, April 8, "How Do Normal People Draw?"

Marymount Manhattan College, New York City

This intensive workshop will cover all the essential areas of more than 25 years of DDS research and clinical findings regarding hospitalized and non-hospitalized people ages 13 and older. The workshop will be taught by Barry M. Cohen, primary creator of the DDS, and Anne Mills, Director of the DDS Archive. 13 NBCC continuing education credits are provided at no additional charge to registrants.

Visit www.diagnosticdrawingseries.info for more information on this training and to register.

Co-sponsored by the Art and Psychology Departments of Marymount Manhattan College

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

2011-03-07T08:10:00.000-05:00

EXPRESSIVE THERAPIES SUMMIT: 2011

Art - Drama - Music - Poetry - Psychodrama - Dance - Sandplay

www.expressivetherapiessummit.com

Thursday through Sunday

NOVEMBER 10-13, 2011

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

7 Creative Arts • 100 Faculty • 4 Days

Proposals accepted online only through Sunday, March 27

Add your name to our mailing list

Program and registration available in June

Collaborative Program Provides Soldiers with Art Therapy

2011-03-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

http://www.gazette.com/articles/torres-113752-difficult-walmart.html

HUGH DAVIS

2011-03-01 16:30:47

It is difficult for Isaac Torres to be in a crowd. Walking into Walmart is emotionally excruciating. The fear of being in a group of unknown people gripped Torres during a deployment in Iraq.

“Being on the border of Jordan and Iraq, I was surrounded by Jordanians and Iraqis daily,” Torres said. “I had a paranoid feeling because I didn’t know if I had a suicide bomber next to me, or if I would suddenly be attacked. In a crowd, I felt totally alone.”

During the past year, Torres has captured that feeling on canvas.

On the wall behind him was a painting entitled, “Alone in the Crowd.” There at the bottom, unmistakably, was Torres’ face.

The painting was part of an exhibit by soldiers/artists in the Military Creative Expressions Program, the brainchild of Vic Tise of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center board.

“When I became the education committee chair for the Fine Arts Center, I realized that there was not much of a relationship between the center and the military,” Tise said. So he approached Aspen Pointe (formerly Pikes Peak Mental Health) about doing a cooperative project.

“It was one of those things where we just knew we were going to do it,” Tise said.

In January 2010, he went to a town hall meeting with the Fort Carson’s Warriors Transition Unit and suggested using art therapy to help soldiers deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and traumatic brain injuries. Fifteen soldiers signed up, and six showed up for the first class, held within days of the meeting. About 35 soldiers went through the program in its first year.

The 15-week creative expressions program is designed by Kim Nguyen, who suffered significant trauma as a survivor of wartime Vietnam.

“The main purpose of military creative expressions is not about painting pretty pictures, but teaching them skills so they can express themselves,” Nguyen said.

“With PTSD, the soldiers tend to be paranoid, anxious and hyper vigilant. So, we give them the media and they gain a sense of control. After a while, they begin to surrender to the media,” Nguyen explains.

During the process, Nguyen demonstrates artistic techniques.

“The process of painting takes those intangible feelings and makes them tangible,” Torres said.

At the end of class the soldiers process what they have painted, gaining insights into their thoughts, feelings and memories.

Barbara Tise, a licensed professional counselor, assists during the classes.

The soldiers donate some paintings to be auctioned to raise money to help the soldiers pay for additional art classes, Nguyen said. Later this month, she expects to start an intermediate class.

The paintings have been displayed at the Hillside Community Center and the Colorado Springs Airport.

Torres is a strong advocate of the program.

“This program helped me slow down from the adrenaline rush of deployment,” he said. “It helped bring me back to civilization where everything is moving at a steady pace. I learned patience.

“The images I paint are not from my deployment; they are from inside, they are my emotions.”

CREATIVE JOURNALING SERIES

2011-03-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

Crossings: A Center for the Healing Traditions
8505 Fenton Street, Ste 202
Silver Spring MD 20910
301-565-4924

Where: Crossings, Downtown Silver Spring, near Whole Foods
When: Saturdays, Mar 5 and Mar 26, 2011
Time: 10 AM-11:30 AM
Who: Open to all
Fee: $35 in advance/$40 at the door
To Register: Call 202-352-5225 or email r.wilkinson@creativewellbeingworkshops.com

Sat, Mar. 5, 2011 Resilience
Sat, Mar. 26, 2011 Happiness

Creative Journaling combines journaling with art-making to deepen the exploration and insight that can be gained from the journaling process. Journaling on strengths and positive experiences fosters hope and builds resilience. These workshops are designed for all ranges of artistic experience--previous art training is not needed—you need not consider yourself an “artist” to attend. Each session will have a different focus, you are welcome to attend the whole series or just one.
Be sure to bring a journal to work in. This can be a traditional bound book such as a blank lined journal, a blank drawing book, or a hand made book. Consider that you will be doing artwork in it as well as writing--this may determine the size and type of journal you use. All other materials will be provided.

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC is a Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist with 20 years of clinical experience. She is co-founder of Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, which provides workshops and training on creativity, wellbeing, and happiness. She also facilitates workshops through Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts and serves as adjunct faculty with the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program. She can be reached at r.wilkinson@creativewellbeingworkshops.com or 202 352 5225.
www.creativewellbeingshops.com

TLC Institute: Sensory-Based, Trauma Informed Assessment

2011-02-28T11:41:00.002-05:00

February 23, 2011

by Cathy Malchiodi

In a previous post in September 2010, I discussed some concepts pertaining to “trauma informed art therapy.” Over the past few months, Dr. William Steele and I have been working on a new book called Trauma Informed Practices with Children and Adolescents. How we apply trauma informed principles to assessment and evaluation of children and teens is an important part of this book. Trauma informed practices do not only apply to interventions, relationships, and environments inherent to our work with traumatized young people; we also can apply these principles to how we evaluate individuals, especially those who have experienced chronic abuse, neglect, interpersonal violence, and other challenges during their lives.
There are several excellent trauma informed assessments that evaluate multiple dimensions, including physical and medical status, cognition, psychosocial issues, and the impact of trauma itself. However, how do we capture additional information that may be missed through standardized, paper and pencil assessments or parental, caretaker, or professional observations? Trauma informed assessment also includes evaluation of the sensory experiences of children—in other words, how the mind and body respond to traumatic events and the flight, fight, or freeze responses of the individual. It also includes the recognition that these responses are adaptive coping strategies rather than pathological reactions.
I also believe that trauma informed assessment includes an evaluation of how traumatic events may have impacted neurodevelopment. Neurodevelopment is a term used to describe how the brain develops over the first 20 years or so of the lifespan, from infancy through adolescence into young adulthood. Bruce Perry (2006) and others have presented comprehensive theories about what neurodevelopment and specifically, neurosequential development entail.
In order to fully understand and evaluate sensory responses in young clients, sensory-based methods of assessment are necessary. These can include many types of action-oriented activities, but the most widely applied involve art and play-based protocols, many of which are found in the fields of art therapy and play therapy. Why art and play? Because for children and adolescents who may not be comfortable with standardized, more cognitively-based assessments, they have an opportunity to use materials, media, toys, and props to give us a series of snapshots about their experiences, trauma reactions, and worldview. Because there are identifiable developmental sequences for play and art expression over the first decade of life, applying this knowledge to child clients provides another way to use the senses to engage individuals in treatment. And, as most of you already know, art and play are child-appropriate forms of communication that allow for a wide-range of expression and for many, a way to tell us about their terrors when words are not available.
Finally, in using sensory means to conduct assessments (especially in a trauma informed, culturally sensitive way), isn’t it nice that many children will find a degree of self-soothing in using toys, paint, or props to communicate their perceptions, feelings, and experiences to you? This is one of the core principles of trauma informed work—to create a sense of safety through all interactions and to capitalize on positive relational aspects between helping professionals and young clients as much as possible. Look forward to reading more about this topic as Bill Steele and I finish up the book!
Until next time, be well,
Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPAT, LPCC

Reference
Perry, B.D. (2006) The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics: Applying principles of neuroscience to clinical work with traumatized and maltreated children In: Working with Traumatized Youth in Child Welfare (Ed. Nancy Boyd Webb), The Guilford Press, New York, NY, pp. 27‐52.

http://tlcinstitute.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/sensory-based-trauma-informed-assessment/

9 Dynamic Digital Resumes That Stand Out From the Crowd

2011-02-28T08:30:00.000-05:00

by Sharlyn Lauby

Everyone is looking for a way to make their resume stand out in today’s job market. One way to do that is by giving your resume some visual appeal. Well-designed resumes with color and images can attract attention over those with plain old text.

That’s not to say everyone should add pictures to their resume. A graphical layout might not be for everyone, nor appropriate for every profession and industry. And if you don’t have an artist’s eye (or a favor to call in to a graphic designer), attempting something like this might not work out to your advantage.

But if you know what you’re doing, and need a little inspiration, here are 10 digital resumes with some very cool visuals.

To see the full story click here.

Pioneering Art Therapist Helen B. Landgarten dies at 89

2011-02-28T08:27:00.000-05:00

The L.A. painter established a clinical art therapy program combining art and
counseling at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and graduate departments at two
schools.

By Claire Noland, Los Angeles Times

February 26 2011

Helen B. Landgarten, a Los Angeles artist and pioneering art therapist who
established a clinical art therapy program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and
graduate departments in art therapy at Immaculate Heart College and Loyola
Marymount University, has died. She was 89.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-helen-landgarten-20110226,0,1745408.story

Canadian Impressions Exhibit

2011-02-22T08:49:00.000-05:00

The Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

announces the opening of the exhibition

Canadian Impressions

February 28 to April 29, 2011

Monday–Friday, 11 AM–6PM

An exhibition honoring Canada and the City of Calgary, in the province of Alberta,

site of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Twelve Canadian artists: Briar Craig, Delio Delgado, René Derouin, Katie Fife,

Joscelyn Gardner, Michel Gautier, Vanessa Hall-Patch, Miriam Rudolph, Tracy L. Templeton,

Todd Tremeer, Oscar Danilo Vargas, and Laura Widmer, selected from an Open Call, present 34 works

in various printmaking techniques, from etching to monotype.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Washington, DC, February 15, 2011

On occasion of the celebration of the 52nd Annual Meeting of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank, in Calgary, Alberta, in March of this year, the IDB Cultural Center pays tribute to Canada with an exhibition in Washington, DC entitled “Canadian Impressions,” which gathers twelve printmakers belonging to different regions in Canada. The multicultural background of the artists selected exemplifies just one aspect of the fascinating cultural spectrum of Canada today.

In the words of IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno: “Artists’ expressions reflect their personal experience and their vision of their surroundings, borrowing from history, tradition, memory and identity to help frame their vision of the future. Society itself is changing at an unprecedented pace, driven by fundamental global economic and technological changes. Personal interaction is reformulated, for example, with new communications tools in a digital age. But age-old questions of religion, migration, security, human rights and many other issues also profoundly affect politics and behavior.

“Artists are particularly aware of, and motivated by, the challenges our civilization faces as part of the ongoing evolution of our way of thinking and new methods imagined to maximize progress. They immerse themselves in the problems posed to survival and existence, striving to respond creatively to highlight the experience of life itself, while celebrating the achievements and joys of being human. It is healthy for others to learn from such an attitude and to put it into practice, day after day. This artistic context is perhaps the most significant aspect of this subtle yet powerful exhibition.”

The curator of the exhibition is Félix Ángel, Director of the IDB Cultural Center. The twelve artists were selected from an open call widely disseminated in Canada last year. According to Ángel, “Change is good when it is for the better, of course, but its paradoxical nature entails many risks. While embracing change is not a guarantee of things getting better, not pursuing it condemns us to perennial doubt about what else can be done to improve our lives. Artists are particularly susceptible to change because of their sensibility, their humanistic view of civilization, their holistic concept of the world, and their tendency to be uncompromising with regard to principles. Increasing levels of anxiety are symptomatic of a pattern pervading society these days that needs to be modified.”

The inner dimension of each of the twelve artists selected for this exhibition is reflected in the number of connections one finds between their particular expressions and the many priority issues of the Inter-American Development Bank, as it continues its efforts to forge a better world.

• Briar Craig appears to be motivated by our uncontrolled impulses to respond to quantities of information regardless of its quality and meaning.

• Delio Delgado continues his investigation in the context of his personal realm, in an attempt to assert himself within a cartographical or architectural space, with references to the Diaspora, migration, and the politics of belonging.

• René Derouin’s “quasi-anachronistic” images project a spirit of openness towards the Americas, sustained in the accelerated intercultural character of the region.

• Katie Fife draws from the documentation of memory to the extreme obliteration of intangible realms.

• Joscelyn Gardner uses artifacts found in museum collections as points of departure to examine social narratives on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Caribbean plantations.

• Michel Gautier’s sculptural prints reformulate nature with “trees” made out of recycled materials and photolithographic techniques that aspire to recapture the spirit of people.

• Vanessa Hall-Patch counterbalances apparent opposites such as permanence and transience.

• Miriam Rudolph focuses on visual diaries that narrate her experiences and perceptions of the different places she has visited, with premeditated consciousness.

• Tracy L. Templeton documents the human presence in places that no longer exist except in memory.

• Todd Tremeer uses allegory to envision parallels between the past and the present, challenging history’s construction.

• Oscar Danilo Vargas’s monotypes embody the fragility of the human being in a fluctuating world. And finally,

• Laura Widmer challenges the digital age, choosing to use a traditional process to create images that are focused on individuals and the standards and practices of our society.

In sum, “Canadian Impressions” is a dense exhibition camouflaged with a deceptive appearance of innocence, lightness, and ingenuity; it is reinforced with a strong, diverse determination to show sides of a world that tires and suffocates us, but where the promise of a better future is not yet lost. That is, at once, the most disturbing and the most outstanding quality of this exhibition.

ANNOUNCING 2011 SPRING ISSTD REGIONAL SEMINARS

2011-02-22T08:48:00.000-05:00

Earn Continuing Education Credit hours both medical and non-medical
sponsored by the Institute for the Advancement of Human Behavior
(IAHB) http://www.iahb.org To register by phone or for further
information call ISSTD Headquarters at 703-610-9037, or email
info@isst-d.org today!

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WASHINGTON, DC ISSTD REGIONAL SEMINAR - Earn up to 12 CE/CME Credits

UPDATE ON CHRONIC COMPLEX TRAUMA AND DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

---A Series of 4 Workshops on 2 Fridays---

--Attend Any or ALL--

Workshop 1: Borderline or Dissociative (and Does it Make a Difference?): The
Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis of Dissociative Disorders
Bethany Brand, Ph.D.
Friday, March 18, 2010, 8:30am - 12:00pm

Workshop 2: Group Psychotherapy for Complex Trauma and Dissociation:
Applying Principles to Individual and Group Therapy
Diane Adelstein, Ph.D.
Friday, March 18, 2010, 1:00pm - 4:00 pm

Workshop 3: Sexual Acting Out as a Symptom of Dissociative Disorders:
Clinical Presentations and Approaches for Management
Richard Chefetz, M.D.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 8:30am - 12:00pm

Workshop 4: Suicidality, Homicidality, and Self-Harm: Who is at Risk and How
can it Be Understood and Managed?
Joan Turkus, M.D.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 1:00pm - 4:00pm

**Download Printable Brochure for Abstracts, Instructor Bios,
Location, Pricing & Faxable Registration Form
http://www.isst-d.org/training/FAXABLE/2011_DC_RS_RegForm.pdf

***ONLINE REGISTRATION - REGISTER Online NOW for DC Regional Seminar -
Choose all 4 Workshops and $ave!!
(https://www.isst-d.org/cvweb_isstd/cgi-bin/Registerdll.dll/RegistrationForm
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Presented with support from the ISSTD Component Group: DC Metro Area
Trauma Forum

Forecasting Aggression: Toward a New Interdisciplinary Understanding of What Makes Some Troubled Youth Turn Violent

2011-02-16T11:27:00.002-05:00

http://dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=30762

By Daniel S. Schechter, M.D.
February 16, 2011

Editor’s note: It takes a series of unfortunate circumstances for an adolescent to turn violent. While early exposure to familial violence can play a role, so too can biological influences such as hormone levels and genetic predispositions. The combination of these factors can be deadly. Although genes and other biological causes are difficult to identify and may be impossible to overcome through known therapeutic methods, medical professionals’ intervention techniques can help minimize aggressive behavior related to environmental factors.

“Scientists have already given us a good idea of the general conditions in which tornadoes form. It is the details that still need to be understood—in particular, the mixture of air pressure, temperature, and air circulation in which tornadic thunderstorms evolve…Why do some severe thunderstorms produce tornadoes while others do not? If scientists could find out the conditions in which [tornadic thunderstorms otherwise known as] supercells arise, there would be fewer instances of tornadoes spinning up without warning...”¹

It is every bit as complicated for a baby to develop into a violent adolescent as it is for a tornado to form on a beautiful spring day in Kansas. In each case, a complex, dynamic system needs to develop from multiple convergent elements, and researchers are only beginning to understand how these elements interact with one another.²

A 25-year longitudinal study of 926 babies in Christchurch, New Zealand, supports the idea that certain variables are good predictors that a child will develop aggressive behavior by adolescence. These predictors include poverty, changes in caregivers (as in foster care situations), childhood exposure to abuse and violence, parental substance abuse, maternal smoking during pregnancy, being male, having a lower IQ, and gravitating to conduct-disordered peers. These predictors might better be considered as associated risk factors that often occur together. But all of them together account for only about 40 percent of the probability that a child will develop a conduct disorder in adolescence.³ What is missing? Researchers conducting epidemiologic studies have recently begun examining the genetic, developmental, and deeper psychological factors—and interactions among them—to see if they can account for the other 60 percent.

Parent-Child Attachment

The study of human attachment, especially between a young child and parent, has led to consistent findings across many populations and cultures. Central to these has been the identification of risk factors for the perpetuation of violence and maltreatment across generations. John Bowlby, the father of attachment theory, began his clinical observations of teenagers with conduct disorders in his paper “Forty-four Juvenile Thieves: Their Characters and their Home-Life.”⁴ The mental representation of these 44 youths’ attachment relationships yielded a concept that Bowlby called “internal working models of attachment.”^5,6 Some children who experience parental abuse go on to become violent; they may retain a working model of what it is like to be in a relationship with an abusive parent who dominates aggressively and a co-parent who is victimized.⁷ Among people who are maltreated or exposed to family violence as children, about one-third will become violent; another third will remain at risk to become violent toward their children or their romantic partner.^8,9 In a prospective study, harsh, excessively punitive and abusive parenting during preschool predicted aggressive behavior by a child toward his or her peers in elementary school more strongly than other child- and family-related variables such as child hyperactivity, family poverty, or teenaged parents.¹⁰

The majority of studies of child-parent attachment are performed when a child is 12 to 24 months old using a simple laboratory procedure called the Strange Situation Paradigm.¹¹ This observational measure helps determine a child’s level and type of attachment to a parent based on the reaction when a parent enters, leaves, and re-enters a room. The child’s reactions are categorized as either secure or insecure, based on the child’s ability to approach and to communicate having missed the returning parent, as well as the ability to accept comfort and to resume play and exploration of toys with the parent. The disorganized/disoriented pattern of insecure attachment is characterized by the child’s paradoxical approach and avoidance of the parent when the parent re-enters the room after separation during this paradigm. This pattern is further characterized by freezing and inconsistent strategy for relating to an attachment figure. A child might, for example, approach his returning mother but with his eyes closed, or he might stay at the door when his mother re-enters the room and then glance fleetingly toward her from a distance. Children who display this disorganized, disoriented pattern of insecure attachment behave more aggressively over time.¹² By ages three to five, many of these children try to act like they are the ones in charge as a way of taking control of relationships with others rather than being at the mercy of others’ unpredictable behavior—they may boss others around or take care of others like a parent would.¹³ What leads some of these children to develop and maintain prominent aggressive, even violent, behavior into adolescence and adulthood?

Children with abusive parents have to maintain the illusion of being safe and protected by separating positive memories of their caretakers from frightening memories and suppressing the latter.¹⁴ An adaptive way for children to do this is to split or dissociate experiences, compartmentalizing memories in order to continue to depend on someone they fear.¹⁵ If they carry this pattern of dissociation to nonthreatening relationships, though, what had been adaptive becomes pathological, rigid, and overly simplified. Over time, people who have had to hide their violent experiences from themselves and others may develop a tendency to be both suddenly explosive and menacing, as well as to choose blindly to be with others who are violent toward them.¹⁶ They cannot form a realistic picture of their disturbed caregivers without the help of an outside perspective. They begin to assume that others with whom they have an important relationship are dangerous and thus either must be attacked or avoided at all cost.

From Generation to Generation

What happens when violence-exposed individuals have children? Is there an environmental risk for the development of aggression in their offspring? In three studies, parents who suffered from violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, were found to have difficulty detecting and responding to their young child’s attempts to connect with them. They especially had trouble putting up with and setting limits on the typical distress, helplessness, and aggression that parents of young children encounter—they had trouble saying no and dealing with tantrums and day-to-day separation.^17,18

My laboratory’s research has a different emphasis: the effects of typical day-to-day toddler distress (i.e., separation anxiety and temper tantrums).^19,20 When we followed up on families who had been in our study, we found that we could predict the severity of poorly regulated child aggression based on the severity of maternal, violence-related PTSD we had seen earlier.²¹ In addition, a pattern of four symptoms in the child—recklessness, hypervigilance, separation anxiety, and reversal of parent-child roles—cluster into a constellation called secure base distortion, in which the child is bossy, controlling, and aggressive.¹³ Violence in the child’s life as well as in the parents’ history may contribute to risk in terms of modeling a specific behavior (or “identifying with the aggressor,” as Anna Freud suggested)²² and via a parent’s neglect of the child’s need for checks on his own aggression, as parents often approach such a child’s behavior from the point of view of a helpless victim rather than an empowered caretaker.

Other Biological and External Factors

Biology also can play a role in the development of violence in adolescents. Minor congenital anomalies and obstetrical complications have been associated with violence in adolescence,²³ although obstetrical complications may be a marker of family adversity more than a cause. The neurological consequences of complications, such as mild oxygen deprivation at birth, may interact with family adversity to increase the risk that the child will develop aggressive behavior. What initially appear to be constitutional factors may be secondary effects of social risk factors such as poverty and other family adversity.²⁴

Another popular theory used to explain the development of aggressive behavior in recent decades, particularly in the wake of the killings at Columbine High School, is that violent media adversely affect the developing brain.²⁵ In and of itself, violence in video games and other visual media is not likely to lead to the development of aggressive behavior; rather, it may exacerbate pre-existing difficulties.²⁶ A recent study has shown that mothers 'r way around, as this says. apears page cited—nor on any other that I could fexposed to real-life violence, suffering from PTSD, and living in high-risk, inner-city households tend to gravitate toward such media and expose their young children to it.²⁷

Developmental neurocognitive disturbances that impede verbal communication and go untreated also have been shown to increase the risk for development of violent behavior.²⁸ Disturbances in the parent-child relationship that lead to understimulation can aggravate such deficits.²⁹ These difficulties can interact with the attachment-theory-based notion of the development of mentalization, the ability to consider the thoughts and feelings of oneself and others.³⁰ By fostering mentalization and communication skills among the parents who can then both model and stimulate the development of these skills with their children, we might help diminish the likelihood of aggressive behavior when addressing interpersonal conflict.³¹ In other words, by encouraging parents to be conscious of what they think and feel about their child’s expressions, gestures, play, and words, and then to consider what their child might be thinking and feeling at a given moment at their particular age, parents can improve important features of their relationships with their children.¹⁹

Sex and Genes

Researchers have found that both our sex and our genes are associated with the development of violence. Males commit the vast majority of violent crimes. A recent study of 90 nine-year-old children showed that the next strongest correlation, after male sex, is high androgen levels, which constitutes a biological marker to consider in relation to individual differences in aggressive behavior. Generally, the more testosterone, the more aggression.^32,33 Testosterone is thought both to alter neuronal activity in particular regions of the brain that produce the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin and to affect the reuptake of serotonin. Excessive dopamine and low levels of serotonin in the central nervous system have been associated with increased aggression in primates.³⁴

We are also born with certain intrinsic risks for developing serious psychiatric disorders, researchers believe. Adults with psychotic disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, who may also be dealing with substance abuse and severe personality disorders, are often thought to be at greater risk for violence—and, often, to have been so since childhood or adolescence. If someone has difficulty telling what is real from what is imagined and has an additional condition such as substance abuse that reduces inhibition, the likelihood of carrying out violence is obviously greater.^35,36 Even so, having multiple forms of severe psychopathology alone does not guarantee that a person is violent. Nearly all forms of psychopathology, including post-traumatic stress disorder,³⁷ involve risks related both to genes and to gene-environment interaction during development.

Can genetic variations, or polymorphisms, in key regions of the brain predict the development of aggressive behavior? Polymorphisms reflect differences in DNA sequences among individuals, groups, or populations. Genetic polymorphisms might account for an individual having blue or green eyes, straight or curly hair, or being behaviorally inhibited or impulsive. When a particular environmental condition is thought to exert an influence on a person significantly more often or exclusively when a specific polymorphism is present, a gene-environment interaction is thought to take place. In psychiatry, two of the fundamental gene-environment interactions involve early-childhood stress interacting with a variation of the serotonin transporter gene that is known as the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR. The interaction of this variation with stress from an adverse environment can lead to anxiety and depression in parents and children. It also can increase the risk for child maltreatment. For example, post-traumatic stress as a specific form of anxiety in the parent is associated with increased parental difficulty in reading child social cues. Another gene variation, called the MAO-A low activity allele, is associated with aggressive behavior.^38,39

Both of these polymorphisms center on the metabolism of two monoamine-type neurotransmitters: serotonin and dopamine. And both polymorphisms lead to increased levels of these two neurotransmitters in the brain. The short-allele of the serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR gene is associated with increased levels of serotonin in the brain as compared to the long allele. The low-activity MAO-A fails to break down serotonin and norepinephrine—a dopamine-derived neurotransmitter that is associated with fear conditioning—and leads to elevated levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain. A buildup of these monoamine-type neurotransmitters together can theoretically contribute to impulsivity and specifically to violent behavior. But, incongruously, insufficient serotonin alone in the nervous system is also thought to be a marker of violent behavior. And the short allele of the serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR gene is thought to be associated with increased levels of serotonin in the central nervous system more than the long allele. This incongruity—whether it is too little or too much serotonin available in the nervous system—plus the fact that serotonergic pathways originating in the brain stem involve multiple brain regions and change across human development—make it very hard to forecast the role of the serotonergic system in the development of violent tendencies in a given person across the lifespan.⁴⁰ In addition, people suffering from a variety of head injuries and temporal lobe epilepsy have displayed aggressive behavior, but never in a manner that would allow scientists to define a physical pathway of aggression. Little specific anatomical intervention, therefore, can absolutely and specifically stop aggressive behavior.

Genetic and environmental conditions may interact to produce an aggressive, “tornadic” individual, but the interactions can be surprising. Gene-environment interactions predicting aggression appear to be genetically more complex than first thought in the early 2000s. For example, the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene 5-HTTLPR is most commonly associated with anxiety and depression in the presence of an adverse environment.³⁹ However, an environmental factor may not always be needed. Two studies suggest that aggressive behavior is associated with distinct variations in two different genes: the serotonin transporter gene and the 7-repeat allele of the dopaminergic receptor gene DRDR.^41,42What underlies this association is not well understood and requires further study. This example of clinically significant interactions between genes and environmental conditions leading to aggression in people with particular genetic features and environmental influences is but one of many types of gene-gene and gene-gene-environmental interactions that researchers still must identify.

Other polymorphisms are implicated in the development of aggressive behavior. Among these are catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT), which at low activity fails to degrade noradrenaline, leading to a more likely fight response; and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which at higher levels in the hippocampus may also be associated with aggressive behavior.^43,44 We do not yet understand how genes interact, nor do we understand how different environmental exposures might interact. It remains unknown how abrupt environmental shifts, such as those experienced in immigration, transfer into foster care, or adoption, might interact in the context of development to lead to the expression of certain genetic traits and proneness to certain states associated with violent behavior.⁴⁵

Working to Control the Weather

What forms the tornado in the end? And what makes it mild versus super destructive? Violent behavior emerges in various forms and degrees. That which is reactive to the misreading of others’ intentions differs from that which is self-serving and malevolent, for example. We are desperate to find the causes and antidotes for all forms and degrees of aggressive behavior: We want to identify the bad allele(s) and the negative environmental conditions that interact and contribute to violence. Even labeling this allele or that environment as a prerequisite for violent behavior is not so simple. We have come to understand that certain alleles may promote plasticity, a potentially positive characteristic that enables adaptation to more stressful or less stressful environments. Such an allele can create a beneficial adaptation in good conditions and a detrimental adaptation in adverse conditions. Such adaptations have been compared to a rare and beautiful orchid that blooms under optimal environmental conditions and dies in compromised environments or a common and ordinary dandelion that thrives anywhere.^46,47 In a positive caregiving environment, for example, a person with a short allele of the serotonin transporter gene 5-HTTLPR(found to be associated with depression and anxiety in a context of adversity) can actually adapt better than someone with the long allele, who is missing the same degree of plasticity and sensitivity to the environment.

In our current studies in Geneva, we are trying to understand what causes children of abused mothers to be more likely to show aggressive or conflict-avoidant behaviors over time. We may be promoting a new discipline of “psychiatric meteorology” in the process. While we cannot yet effectively change genes or congenital givens, we can improve evidence-based interventions that result in a change in the caregiving environment at the level of parental mental representations of child and self, the interactive behavior between mother and child, or the child’s individual development. The goal is to create better warning systems in the event that the vulnerable child early in development blows up into a severe storm.

In the end, our tornado analogy goes only so far. We may be in a much better position to effect change in the psychobiological atmosphere than in the Earth’s atmosphere. Multiple parent-infant psychotherapeutic interventions have been shown empirically to change the parent-child relationship at the level of mental representation, behavior, and /or child development so as to decrease risk for violence and increase healthy adaptation, growth, and learning.⁴⁸

Recent research shows that relationship-based interventions, while not altering DNA, might be associated with epigenetic brain changes, such as the addition of methyl groups to the proteins that surround DNA and turn on and off the possibility of generating proteins with important brain functions.^49,50 In Geneva, we are currently studying how a simple, three-session, relationship-based parent intervention called the Clinician Assisted Videofeedback Exposure Sessions, or CAVES, is significantly changing the quality of mothers’ mental representations of their toddlers, such that the representations become more positive and consistent with the child’s actual age.¹⁹ We are working toward understanding how changes in caregiving following this intervention might affect the methylation of several genes that are linked to stress reactivity, fear conditioning, and fight-or-flight behavior in child and mother.

The videofeedback exposure sessions involve asking violence-exposed, traumatized mothers how they think both they and their child were feeling during videotaped play observations. We ask both before and after showing them very short video excerpts of their young child’s “storms,” or distress during separation, frustration, and introduction to novel, sometimes frightening, play stimuli. This intervention models mentalization such that in the calm after the storm, parents can access their own capacity to think about their children’s experience from the children’s point of view as much as possible. In so doing, they can more sensitively read their children’s emotional communication—they might read it as “scared” rather than “angry and controlling,” for example. We are now testing our hypothesis that with an adequate dose and reinforcement of new memories generated by such interventions, future storms will not form such destructive tornadoes.

References

1. Maslin, M. (2002). The coming storm: The true causes of freak weather—and why it’s going to get worse. London: Quarto Publishing.

2. Smith, L. B., & Thelen, E. (2003). Development as a dynamic system. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(8), 343-348.

3.Boden, J. M., Fergusson, D. M., & Horwood, L. J. (2010). Risk factors for conduct disorder and oppositional/defiant disorder: Evidence from a New Zealand birth cohort. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(11), 1125-1133.

4. Bowlby, J. (1944). Forty-four juvenile thieves: Their characters and their home-life. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 25, 107-128.

5. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Basic Books.

6. Bowlby, J. (1980). Loss: Sadness and depression (Vol. 3). London: Hogarth Press.

7. Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. New York, NY: Basic Books.

8. Oliver, J. E. (1993). Intergenerational transmission of child abuse: Rates, research, and clinical implications. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150(9), 1315-1324.

9. Martin, S. L., Moracco, K. E., Garro, J., Tsui, A. O., Kupper, L. L., Chase, J. L., & Campbell, J. C. (2002). Domestic violence across generations: Findings from northern India. International Journal of Epidemiology, 31(3), 560-572.

10. Barker, E. D., Boivin, M., Brendgen, M., Fontaine, N., Arseneault, L., Vitaro, F., … Tremblay, R.E. (2008). Predictive validity and early predictors of peer-victimization trajectories in preschool. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(10), 1185-1192.

11. Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

12. Fearon, R. P., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., van Ijzendoorn, M. H., Lapsley, A. M., & Roisman, G. I. (2010). The significance of insecure attachment and disorganization in the development of children’s externalizing behavior: A meta-analytic study. Child Development, 81(2), 435-456.

13. Moss, E., Cyr, C., & Dubois-Comtois, K. (2004). Attachment at early school age and developmental risk: Examining family contexts and behavior problems of controlling-caregiving, controlling-punitive, and behaviorally disorganized children. Developmental Psychology, 40(4), 519-532.

14. Main, M., & Hesse, E. (1990). Parents’ unresolved traumatic experiences are related to infant disorganized attachment status: Is frightened and/or frightening parental behavior the linking mechanism? In M. T. Greenberg, D. Cichetti, & E. M. Cummings (Ed.), Attachment in the preschool years: Theory, research and intervention (pp. 161-184). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

15. Liotti, G. (1999). Understanding the dissociative processes: The contribution of attachment theory. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 19, 757-783.

16. Ayoub, C. C., Fischer, K. W., & O’Connor, E. E. (2003). Analyzing development of working models for disrupted attachments: The case of hidden family violence. Attachment and Human Development, 5(2), 97-119.

17. Cohen, L. R., Hien, D. A., & Batchelder, S. (2008). The impact of cumulative maternal trauma and diagnosis on parenting behavior. Child Maltreatment, 13(1), 27-38.

18. Schechter, D. S., Coates, S. W., Kaminer, T., Coots, T., Zeanah, C. H., Davies, M., … Myers, M. M. (2008). Distorted maternal mental representations and atypical behavior in a clinical sample of violence-exposed mothers and their toddlers. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 9(2), 123-147.

19. Schechter, D. S., Myers, M., Brunelli, S., Coates, S., Zeanah, C., Davies, M., … Liebowitz, M. R. (2006). Traumatized mothers can change their minds about their toddlers: Understanding how a novel use of videofeedback supports positive change of maternal attributions. Infant Mental Health Journal, 27(5), 429-447.

20. Schechter, D. S., Willheim, E., Hinojosa, C., Scholfield-Kleinman, K., Turner, J. B., McCaw, J., … Myers, M. M. (2010). Subjective and objective measures of parent-child relationship dysfunction, child separation distress, and joint attention. Psychiatry, 73(2), 130-144.

21. Schechter, D. S., Zygmunt, A., Coates, S., Davies, M., Trabka, K., McCaw, J., … Robinson, J. (2007). Caregiver traumatization adversely impacts young children’s mental representations on the MacArthur story stem battery. Attachment and Human Development, 9(3), 187-205.

22. Freud, A. (1937). The ego and the mechanisms of defence. (C. Baines, Trans.). London: Hogarth. (Original work published 1936).

23. Pine, D. S., Wasserman, G. A., Fried, J. E., Parides, M., & Shaffer, D. (1997). Neurological soft signs: One-year stability and relationship to psychiatric symptoms in boys. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(11), 1579-1586.

24. Arseneault, L., Tremblay, R. E., Boulerice, B., & Saucier, J. F. (2002). Obstetrical complications and violent delinquency: Testing two developmental pathways. Child Development, 73(2), 496-508.

25. Bushman, B. J., & Huesmann, L. R. (2006). Short-term and long-term effects of violent media on aggression in children and adults. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 160(4), 348-352.

26. Ferguson, C. J., & Kilburn, J. (2009). The public health risks of media violence: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Pediatrics, 154(5), 759-763.

27. Schechter, D. S., Gross, A., Willheim, E., McCaw, J., Turner, J. B., Myers, M. M., … Gleason, M. M. (2009). Is maternal PTSD associated with greater exposure of very young children to violent media? Journal of Traumatic Stress, 22(6), 658-662.

28. Seguin, J. R., Parent, S., Tremblay, R. E., & Zelazo, P. D. (2009). Different neurocognitive functions regulating physical aggression and hyperactivity in early childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50(6), 679-687.

29. Skovgaard, A. M. (2010). Mental health problems and psychopathology in infancy and early childhood. An epidemiological study. Danish Medical Bulletin, 57(10), B4193.

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33. Sanchez-Martin, J. R., Azurmendi, A., Pascual-Sagastizabal, E., Cardas, J., Braza, F., Braza, P., … Muñoz, J. M. (2010). Androgen levels and anger and impulsivity measures as predictors of physical, verbal and indirect aggression in boys and girls. Psychoneuroendocrinology. Retrieved from http://www.elsevier.com/locate/psyneuen

34. Krakowski, M. (2003). Violence and serotonin: Influence of impulse control, affect regulation, and social functioning. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 15(3), 294-305.

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36. Fazel, S., Buxrud, P., Ruchkin, V., & Grann, M. (2010). Homicide in discharged patients with schizophrenia and other psychoses: A national case-control study. Schizophrenia Research, 123(2-3), 263-269.

37. Binder, E. B., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2010). The CRF system, stress, depression and anxiety—insights from human genetic studies. Molecular Psychiatry, 15(6), 574-588.

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41. Schmidt, L. H., Fox, N. A., & Hamer, D. H. (2007). Evidence for a gene-gene interaction in predicting children’s behavior problems: Association of serotonin transporter short and dopamine receptor D4 long genotypes with internalizing and externalizing behaviors in typically developing 7-year-olds. Development and Psychopathology, 19(4), 1105-1116.

42. Hohmann, S., Becker, K., Fellinger, J., Banaschewski, T., Schmidt, M. H., Esser, G., & Laucht, M. (2009). Evidence for epistasis between the 5-HTTLPR and the dopamine D4 receptor polymorphisms in externalizing behavior among 15-year-olds. Journal of Neural Transmission, 116(12), 1621-1629.

43. Perroud, N., Jaussent, I., Guillaume, S., Bellivier, F., Baud, P., Jollant, F., … Courtet, P. (2010). COMT but not serotonin-related genes modulates the influence of childhood abuse on anger traits. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 9(2), 193-202.

44. Monuteaux, M. C., Biederman, J., Doyle, A. E., Mick, E., & Faraone, S. V. (2009). Genetic risk for conduct disorder symptom subtypes in an ADHD sample: Specificity to aggressive symptoms. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48(7), 757-764.

45. Grigorenko, E. L., De Young, C. G., Eastman, M., Getchell, M., Haeffel, G. J., Klinteberg, B., … Yrigollen, C. M. (2010). Aggressive behavior, related conduct problems, and variation in genes affecting dopamine turnover. Aggressive Behavior, 36(3), 158-176.

46. Belsky, J., Jonassaint, C., Pluess, M., Stanton, M., Brummett, B., & Williams, R. (2009). Vulnerability genes or plasticity genes? Molecular Psychiatry, 14(8), 746-754.

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About Daniel S. Schechter, M.D.

Daniel S. Schechter, M.D., is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and clinical researcher with specialization in early childhood mental health and post-traumatic stress. He is director of parent-infant research and the Pediatric Consult-Liaison Unit at the University of Geneva Hospitals and associate professor (privat-docent) in psychiatry at the University of Geneva Faculty of Medicine. Schechter completed his clinical and research training at Columbia University, where he continues to serve as adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry. His most recent book, co-edited with Carol Worthman, Paul Plotsky, and Constance Cummings, is Formative Experiences: The Interaction of Caregiving, Culture, and Developmental Psychobiology (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Austalian Art Therapist Request

2011-02-11T09:43:00.000-05:00

Below is a message from an Australian art therapist who will be visiting the US and is interested in meeting with other art therapist or mental health professionals working with trauma survivors. If you're interested in meeting with her, please contact her at: firesun@bigpond.com Thank you.

I am an Art therapist in Australia applying for a Churchill Fellowship which gives me the opportunity to investigate and research Art therapy and trauma. I was wanting to visit hospitals, clinics, programmes or individuals who work in this area.

I am interested in exploring Art therapy and combat related trauma, also survivors of torture and trauma, and also childhood abuse.

Could you assist me in connecting me with individuals, programs or clinics who are specializing or work in this area?

Thank you so much for your assistance.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Dena Lawrence

Coping Creatively Group

2011-02-08T13:19:00.002-05:00

If you know of anyone who may be interested in art therapy programs for children coping with chronic illness, here is a new opportunity:

Arlington County is launching Coping Creatively, an art therapy group for children and kids of all ages in the greater DC metro area who are coping with chronic illness, like cancer, kidney or heart disease, or diabetes. This dynamic group is for kids who want to have fun and explore new recreational modalities with others who are facing similar challenges.

The expressive art therapy groups are led by Rachel Schreibman, a master's level Art Therapist. The group will engage in visual arts, drumming, cooperative games and more, with the goal of reducing stress, learning new expressive outlets, and connecting kids and families coping with illness.

The group meets at Lee Arts Center located at 5722 Lee Highway in Arlington, VA. The cost per class varies based on the duration of the group, and financial assistance is available. The dates of the program are flexible; currently the group meets Fridays from 4 - 5:30pm, however, the days and times may change based on interested participants' availability. Interested families with kids of all ages should contact Rachel Schreibman at 703-228-1534 or rschreibman@arlingtonva.us to learn more!

Screening of Crooked Beauty Saturday Evening February 12

2011-02-08T08:33:00.000-05:00

The National Capital Area Chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
will present a screening of Crooked Beauty, a film by Ken Paul Rosenthal, on
Saturday evening February 12th at 7:30 PM, in the George Washington University
Hospital Auditorium (basement level).

This program is free and open to the public.The hospital is located at 900 23rd
Street, NW, next to the Foggy Bottom Metro Station.There is a parking garage
at 22rd and I Streets.

The film is a story set to pictures of Jacks Ashley McNamara, a mental illness
advocate, and her experiences of an abused childhood and psychiatric
hospitalization as a young adult, and she explores that blurred line between
brilliance and madness. The film is beautiful, touching, thought-provoking and
prescient.

Ken Paul Rosenthal has been traveling the country presenting screenings of this
film at film festivals and for groups such as DBSA. The screening will be followed
by a lengthy question and answer session with him.

Crooked Beauty Film Synopsis

Crooked Beauty is a 34-minute poetic documentary that chronicles artist-activist Jacks McNamara’s transformative journey from childhood abuse to psych ward patient to pioneering mental health advocacy. She survived trauma from an alcoholic mother and battled her own substance-abuse issues when diagnosed as ‘bipolar’ at age 19 and incarcerated. Destined to overturn the stigmas usually associated with madness and develop authentic healing models for individuals diagnosed ‘mentally ill’, she co-founds The Icarus Project (theicarusproject.net), an international support network and grassroots media project. Jack’s mission becomes an intense personal quest to live with courage and dignity, and a powerful critique of standard psychiatric treatments. Her poignant and revealing testimonials reach beyond the stereotypes of mental health problems to suggest that extreme sadness and sensitivity is not an illness, but a part of human experience to be explored with creativity and compassion.

Crooked Beauty’s lyrical visual style is integral to its subject matter. The film incarnates a new map for thinking about madness by connecting the fissures and fault lines of human nature to the unstable topography and mercurial weather patterns of the San Francisco Bay Area. Montages of urban and natural landscapes convey the fluctuations of mania and depression described in Jack’s narration. Her presence is further embodied through her paintings and collages, and excerpts from her poetry and journals. Thematically progressive and formally beautiful, Crooked Beauty reframes the diagnosis and treatment of madness as a tool of insight and integration for individuals who openly struggle with their mental health, and anyone who might feel ‘crazy’ in today’s chaotic world. www.crookedbeauty.com

Director Bio

Ken Paul Rosenthal is an independent filmmaker, teacher, and a regional coordinator for the Bay Area Icarus Project. His films weave personal and political narratives into natural and urban landscapes. Ken holds an MA in Creative & Interdisciplinary Arts, an MFA in Cinema Production, and has taught film as a means of cultivating personal vision in workshops and universities nationally and internationally. He is a recipient of a Kodak Award for Cinematography. www.kenpaulrosenthal.com

Online Training: Clear Vision 1:The Power of Story to Heal Therapist and Client

2011-02-07T14:26:00.002-05:00

http://www.starrtraining.org/clear-vision

Teacher: Linda Peterson St. Pierre

The Clear Vision online course will guide you through journaling about burnout and compassion fatigue. This course presents simple and profound writing exercises that will help you find the resiliency that resides within. Some exercises just might work with your clients too! Your journal will be in a format that you can easily refer to long after the course is completed. We hope you will find renewable strategies that give you “aha” moments and relief from emotional stress.

You will learn to:

• Apply techniques to prevent compassion fatigue and burnout by viewing therapist and client as both teachers and learners.

• Recognize and describe attitudes, activities, and practices that contribute to your well-being.

• Compare and contrast ways to provide therapy for the client that are also therapeutic for the therapist; the sparkling moments that empower client and therapist.

For those who complete Clear Vision 1 and would like to explore this curriculum further, we will soon offer Clear Vision 2.

Cost of taking this course online is $100 which includes CEUs. Upon successful completion of assignments, tests and evaluation you can download a CE Certificate of Completion. This course provides 6 continuing education contact hours. If you have questions about CEUs email ckuban@tlcinst.org.

2011 PATA Meeting Schedule

2011-01-22T09:30:00.000-05:00

Dear Potomac Art Therapy Association Members,

As we begin a new year, I am happy to tell you that the board meetings are open to all members, and we would be happy to have you attend.

The board meetings are held the third (3^rd) Saturday of every month from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and are conducted either via conference call or in person. Meeting sights have included Eastern Village in Silver Spring, George Washington University Art Therapy facility in Alexandria, VA, AATA Headquarters, Old Town Alexandria, and Teaism in Penn Quarter, Washington , DC. Most venues are metro accessible.

Please “Save the Date” for upcoming meeting dates for 2011. We will provide further details as the date gets closer. Dates for programing events may change slightly, but we will give you plenty of notice so that you can attend.

January 15th              Teaism
February 19th               Conference Call
March 19th                  TBD
April 16^th                     Member/Programing event
May 14^th                      TBD
June 18th                      Conference Call

July 16th TBD

August 20th Conference Call

September 17th TBD

October 15th Member programing event

November 19th TBD

December 17th Member programing event

Please come out and join us, meet the board members, lend an ear and contribute to the growth of our great association. Take advantage of one of the important member benefits that the Potomac Art Therapy Association has to offer.

Regards,

Deborah Bunkley, MA

President – Potomac Art Therapy Association

Call for Artists: HEALING ARTS ADVISORY - DC

2011-01-20T16:17:00.002-05:00

*Deadline: April 6, 2011. The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery is now seeking artists, working in all media, for the development of its Art Advisory. The gallery's mission is to explore the innate connection between art and healing. Individual works will not be selected from the call; rather, we will invite selected artists to be non-exclusively represented by the Advisory. Chosen Advisory artists will work with the gallery to sell existing works or to create commissioned pieces specific to future clients’ needs. Submission processing fee: $25. For submission form, guidelines and prospectus please visit: www.smithfarm.com/gallery <http://www.smithfarm.com/gallery>.

PRN position: MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST

2011-01-20T13:49:00.000-05:00

MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST

City:	FALLS CHURCH	Type:	PRN
Facility:	INOVA FAIRFAX HOSPITAL	Shift:	Day
Department:	110640-Inova Fairfax Hospital-PSYCHIATRY	Schedule:	Days Vary
Job Grade:	N20	Hours Per Pay Period:	0.00
Req #:	11-12553

More information about this job:

Job Description:

Provides individual counseling and develops, implements and conducts daily groups incorporating a variety of therapeutic modalities in order to provide effective treatment interventions to facilitate achievement of individual focused outcomes. Documents assessments, interventions, recommendations and progress in the medical record to provide concise and accurate clinical information. Assess clinical needs of the patients and assist in developing therapeutic interventions in collaboration with the multidisciplinary treatment team to support achievement of individual patient focused outcomes under the supervision of a registered nurse who provides written and/or oral assignments and direction. Demonstrates knowledge, competency and skills necessary to meet the clinical needs of psychiatric patients. Maintains and inventories supplies and safety of the environment in order to support the achievement of individual patient outcomes in a secure environment

Job & Education Requirements:

3-4 years to include practicum placement and paid experience in a mental health setting. Preferred: 5-7 years of experience in practicum setting and paid experience.

Masters Degree in Behavioral Science (i.e. Art Therapy,Psychology, Counseling, Social Work) or Bachelors Degree with at least 8 years of experience.

Apply for this job:

Before applying to a new job please be sure that you have updated your profile with your most up to date resume. To update your profile go back to the welcome page and use the link that reads "Update your resume and/or login details".

· Apply for this job online

· Email this job to a friend

JUNGIAN ART THERAPY GROUP FORMING

2011-01-20T13:48:00.000-05:00

FOR PROFESSIONAL ART THERAPISTS
JUNGIAN ART THERAPY GROUP FORMING

Sandy Geller, Jungian Analyst, Board Certified Art Therapist, LPC, two time GWU graduate, French and Art Therapy, is forming a Women’s Jungian Art Therapy Group. The group will meet twice monthly at Sandy’s Chevy Chase, Maryland studio.LImited to 7 members. Sandy has been leading Art Therapy Groups since 1979 when she was hired as the first Art Therapist at the GWU Counseling Center. The Counseling Center provided low cost art therapy for the students in the Graduate Training Program in AT. Many students over the years have taken advantage of that opportunity. Having one’s personal experience as a client in AT is an essential part of training. Even though Sandy left the Counseling Center in ‘88 to begin Jungian studies, Art Therapy continued to be a Staff Position for the next 25 years. This group is for Professional Art Therapists and students of Jung. Exceptions might be made for graduate AT students if they are willing to make a commitment for two semesters. For further information call 301 657 4472, leave times when you might be reached or email sgeller5@verizon.net.

Creative Journaling Series Jan 22, Feb 19, March 5 & 26, 2011

2011-01-18T10:48:00.000-05:00

Crossings: A Center for the Healing Traditions
Where: 8505 Fenton Street, Ste 202
Silver Spring MD 20910, Downtown Silver spring near the Whole Foods
www.crossingshealing.com
To Register: Call 202 352 5225
Who Should Attend: Open to the Public

Creative Journaling: Strengths Sat, Jan. 22, 2011 10:00 – 11:30 AM
Creative Journaling: Gratitude Sat Feb. 19, 2011 10:00 – 11:30 AM
Creative Journaling: Resilience Sat, Mar. 5, 2011 10:00 – 11:30 AM
Creative Journaling: Happiness Sat, Mar. 26, 2011 10:00 – 11:30 AM

$120 for all four session/$35 each individual session in advance/$40 at the door
“An art journal is a space for questions that may no have answers, a place for thoughts that may otherwise not have a home, a safe container for emotions so that they do not have to be loose in the world.” Kelley Brown

Creative Journaling combines journaling with art-making to deepen the exploration and insight that can be gained from the journaling process. Journaling on strengths and positive experiences fosters hope and builds resilience. These workshops are designed for all ranges of artistic experience–previous art training is not needed—you need not consider yourself an “artist” to attend. Each session will have a different focus, you are welcome to attend the whole series or just one.

Be sure to bring a journal to work in. This can be a traditional bound book such as a blank lined journal, a blank drawing book, or a hand made book. Consider that you will be doing artwork in it as well as writing–this may determine the size and type of journal you use. All other materials will be provided.

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC is a Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist with 20 years of clinical experience. She is co-founder of Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, which provides workshops and training on creativity, wellbeing, and happiness. She also facilitates workshops through Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts and serves as adjunct faculty with the George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program. She can be reached at r.wilkinson@creativewellbeingworkshops.com or 202 352 5225.

Webcast: Talking with Children After a Suicide Loss

2011-01-09T11:04:00.002-05:00

The New York State Office of Mental Health Suicide Prevention Initiative will host a web cast: Talking With Children After A Suicide Loss.

The web cast will feature three different segments with offerings specifically for parents, educators and clinicians. The shows feature a panel comprised of   three national experts: Dr. Jack Jordan, Dr. Vanessa McGann and Maureen Underwood who will provide in depth advice on how to talk to kids (ages 10-24) about suicide loss with specific advice for parents, educators and clinicians.

The web casts can be accessed on February 2 & 3 from 3:00-4:30 pm both days athttp://www.omh.ny.gov/omhweb/webcasts.

After the broadcasts of the webcasts, the shows will be archived and available athttp://www.omh.ny.gov/omhweb/suicideprevention or at www.preventsuicideNY.org . Information will be available on how to order no cost DVDS as well.

Please Contact Melanie Puorto at 518-408-2139 if you have any questions.

Cassandra Kahl
Project Coordinator
Suicide Prevention Center of NY P.518.402.1113
F.518.474.6995
www.preventsuicideNY.org

"Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope."
SPCNY: There IS hope. Together, we can save lives.

Volunteer Art Therapy Opportunity

2011-01-09T08:33:00.000-05:00

http://www.idealist.org/view/volop/BB2zD5ch9c2D

Signifying Pain: Poetry of Transformation Workshop

2011-01-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

Dear members of PATA and art therapy community,

I’m emailing to let you know about a workshop that may be of special interest to your members and colleagues. The Writer’s Center is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, now in its 34th year, offering workshops, readings, and more. Our Web site, www.writer.org, more fully describes our programs. Please feel free to forward this to others, and if you have questions or suggestions please email and/or give a call. Thank you.

Signifying Pain: Poetry of Transformation
Workshop Leader: Judith Harris
Participants in this workshop will write original work and also explore the therapeutic uses and effects of writing. We will survey a diverse group of writer s-- Keats, Walcott, Kenyon, Lowell, Plath, and Ai -- who have used their writing to work through and past personal traumas. This workshop will be of interest not only to those interested in psychoanalysis, but also to those with a critical interest in autobiographical or confessional writing more generally.
6 Wednesdays, 10:30 A.M.-1:00 P.M., January 26 through March 2.
Fee: $270 (Members receive a 13% Discount )At The Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, Maryland

Judith Harris, Ph.D., is author of two books of poetry, Atonement and The Bad Secret , and a critical book, Signifying Pain: Constructing and Healing the Self Through Writing , a study of psychoanalytic processes underlying literary perception. Her poetry has appeared recently in The New Republic, Slate, Ploughshares, American Life in Poetry, and the Atlantic.

Best wishes for the New Year.

Sunil Freeman
Assistant Director
The Writer's Center
ARLINGTON | BETHESDA | LEESBURG | MCLEAN | ONLINE
4508 Walsh Street
Bethesda MD 20815
ph 301-654-8664 ext 204
f: 240-223-0458

Dr. Daniel Siegel Article

2011-01-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. and Rebecca Shahmoon-Shanok, LCSW, PhD
December 02, 2010

How can something so soft – a relationship – penetrate so deeply? W hat happens between people when they earnestly communicate over time? How does one understand the process when one person is a learner and the other a nurturer? Between a daughter and her father? Between a supervisee and reflective supervisor?

This article integrates ideas about mindsight with the concepts of reflective supervision and practice in the birth-to-3 field. Mindsight is the ability to have insight and empathy for the mental experience of self and others, along with the ability to sense the patterns of shared communication of energy and information exchange within relationships. The authors explore how the flow of energy and information in the context of nurturing relationships through reflective supervision supports the capacity to develop mindsight. Mindsight also refers to the neural mechanisms beneath mental and relational life. Nurturing a resilient mind within reflective communication is both art and science. The authors propose that openness, objectivity, and observation create the ability to monitor and then modify mental life itself, an internal and interpersonal set of processes that promote healthy self -regulation and emotional balance.

Full article can be found here: "Reflective Communication: Cultivating Mindsight through Nurturing Relationships" http://drdansiegel.com/uploads/Reflective%20Communication.pdf

Museum programs for Alzheimer's patients show the power of art as therapy

2010-12-28T09:27:00.000-05:00

Monday, December 27, 2010

By Pohla Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bob Donaldson / Post-Gazette

Amir Parsa, director of the Museum of Modern Art's Alzheimer's Project, takes volunteers who will lead tours here for persons with that disease or other dementias through the Scaife Gallery at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

One woman told docent Kathe Patrinos she didn't like the painting Ms. Patrinos was leading a discussion about during a tour of the Carnegie Museum of Art by a special group from a senior care facility. The visitor said it was too confusing, and when the docent asked why, she was thrilled to get a response.
Another time, an adult day-care patient from the same group, from Presbyterian SeniorCare's Woodside Place, Oakmont, was so taken by a piece of religious art he had seen that he couldn't stop talking about it at home that night.
"That was my first experience that this was so powerful," said Woodside art therapist Kara Berringer, who first approached the Carnegie about doing the tours.
"This" is the apparent benefits of "In the Moment," a 21/2-year-old, monthly tour program for Woodside patients with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
The program, modeled on programs on art for people with dementia at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has been so successful that the Carnegie is expanding it. This past fall, it started doing tours several times a month with residents from Sunrise Senior Living in Upper St. Clair, and docent program coordinator Mary Ann Perkins also is talking to other groups about doing the same thing with them.
In addition, the Carnegie is going to extend "In the Moment" to individuals and their family member or caregiver beginning in April. Those twosomes will be combined into groups of 12 -- just as they are in MoMA's highly successful "Meet Me at the MoMA" program, which attracts 100 persons a month.
The cost for both Carnegie tours is $10 per twosome, so if a group of six patients and six caregivers or family members comes from a facility or social organization the cost would be $60. Standard admission for seniors is $12.
It's a small price for a big payback.
"Art appreciation and making art hold immense potential to impact quality of life," said Jennifer Lingler, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh who also works as director of education and information core of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center within the medical school's department of psychiatry. Dr. Lingler spoke at a recent workshop the Carnegie held for docents who wanted to train in the expanded program and for the public.
Pitt's center has partnered with the Andy Warhol Museum for smaller programs of art for persons with dementia that have included an artist-in-residence, tours with discussions, and art-making.
The opportunities Dr. Lingler spoke of are numerous, said Amir Parsa, director of MoMA's Alzheimer's Project, a MetLife Foundation-funded program by which the museum is spreading its expertise and encouraging similar programs for patients with Alzheimer's to museums nationally and internationally.
Mr. Parsa, who serves as a lecturer and educator at MoMA as well, also spoke at the Carnegie workshop and during a subsequent interview. He enumerated the specific benefits of both tours and the art-making projects for small groups of patients that MoMA also sponsors. The programs were evaluated by the New York University School of Medicine.
Effects on participants in general, the NYU med school study showed, included caregivers reporting fewer problems during the week following their visit; both caregivers and patients reporting elevated mood; caregivers reporting an increase in social support; and patients reporting elevated self-esteem.
"It's a beautiful experience," said Ms. Perkins. "The caregiver enjoys the art with the loved one. They're outside the care facility ... [the caregivers] are creating a memory of their loved one."
Ms. Berringer said, "I see them making connections with other people. They sit up a little taller. They talk a little louder. I really think their behavior changes when they leave [Woodside] and go out in the community. It happens on other trips, too, but especially the museum.
"Kathe meets them at the door: 'Hey, Bob,' and he says, 'Hey, what are you selling today?' That's what's so different.
"And I also think they make a connection with the artwork. They see part of their life in the artwork. It's a metaphor for them. [They might] comment on past professions, how they lived."
Ms. Patrinos and Mr. Parsa both have experienced patients finding connections in art to their past lives.
Ms. Patrinos was doing a tour on the theme "Hats Off to Art," discussing works that had people wearing hats in them.
She had taken the group to a work by Mary Cassatt showing two women, one seated and wearing a hat and the other standing, without a hat.
"This woman had not said a word [to that point] and we already had seen three or four paintings and all of a sudden she started talking.
"I was floored. She was talking in sentences. Three or four words," Ms. Patrinos said. "After the fact, I found out from Woodside ... she used to be a buyer for Gimbels, so talking about clothes and hats triggered something and had great interest for her."
Mr. Parsa had taken a group to see Marc Chagall's "I and the Village."
"The husband [who was the patient] started, on seeing that, talking about where his mother was buried and talked about the experience, and the wife had never heard that," Mr. Parsa said. "It's a catalyst for conversation that may not occur in other circumstances."
According to Mr. Parsa's workshop presentation, the patients' engagement with art allows:
• An opportunity for personal growth.
• An exchange of ideas without relying on short-term memory.
• Opportunity to access long-term memories.
• New insight into others' ideas and interests.
• A means to make connections between individual experience and the world at large.
• A social setting that allows connection to one's peers.
• A respite, both physically and psychologically.
The tours last between one and 11/2 hours, with the groups looking at four or five works of art for an average of 15 to 20 minutes each.
The discussions are inquiry-based not lecture-centered, and the questions are not based on presumption of prior art knowledge like "Who knows who Picasso is?" Rather, Mr. Parsa demonstrated when he led the prospective docents on a tour of the Carnegie, they are questions that can engage everyone, like "What do you see?" or "What do you think of the colors the artist has used?"
The conversation also is "scaffolded," Mr. Parsa said, which means that the conversation goes through several layers to make it more fruitful. A key component is that it allows connection with artworks and interpretations by participants while they are at ease and feel their participation is legitimate.
Care is taken to look the patients in the eyes and not to direct the conversations on two levels, one with caregivers and one with patients. Everyone in the group is treated as equal.
At some point during the tour, the docent does what is known as a "turn and talk," in which he or she has the group turn and break into subgroups to address certain topics. As an example during the docents' workshop, he told them to imagine who they would put into a painting they were looking at and at what site it would be.
"Then people, shyer people, those who can't project as much [can be encouraged to talk]," Mr. Parsa said. "They don't have to move, they just turn their chairs. It's a cool, social thing. ...
"What's fascinating about that is sometimes they follow directions; sometimes they don't. [But] there's a lot of sharing, laughter."
The lasting effects of these art tours is perhaps best exemplified by one of Ms. Patrinos' experiences with a patient from Woodside.
"I hadn't done the tour the month before," she said. "As he was coming in in his wheelchair, he said, 'I was here last time and you weren't.' We all stood for a moment with our mouths open because it was two months since he'd seen me. I was floored and so were the caretakers from Woodside. It was exciting to know from the consistency of the building he remembered something. That was the first 'aha!' moment for me."
For more information or to register by individual or group for "In the Moment" tours call 412-622-3289.

Pohla Smith: psmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1228.

First published on December 27, 2010 at 12:00 am

Grieving All The Way: 12 Gifts to Cope with Grief during the 12 Days of Christmas

2010-12-14T07:49:00.003-05:00

http://www.parentingtoolbox.com/2010/12/08/grieving-all-the-way-12-ways-to-cope-with-grief-during-the-12-days-of-christmas/

by Ron Huxley on December 8, 2010

“Grieving boys,
Grieving girls,
Grieving in the home.
Oh what terrible pain it is
when you lose someone you love.”
(Loosely sung to the tune of Jingle Bells).

This song is not meant to be disrespectful. It is meant to demonstrate how disrespectful society can be to children who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Christmas is supposed to be a magical time of the year. Children, who have lost someone they love to death or divorce, shouldn’t have the wintertime blues, should they? They should be dreaming of a white Christmas, not having their dreams shattered, right? The true story of Christmas is that many children are grieving the loss of loved ones during this season, causing Christmas morning to turn into Christmas mourning. Parents can help their children by giving them twelve gifts, for the twelve days of Christmas, to help them cope during this painful time:

Gift # 1: Educate yourself about grief. Parents can unwittingly pass on their anxieties and fears to their children. Even the best actors will give themselves away. Children are tuned into adult’s nonverbal signals. Trying to hide painful feelings or awkward emotions will only increase children’s anxieties. They will assume they are “bad” or “responsible” for the absence of the loved one. Instead of hiding your emotions, learn about the stages of grief by reading books on the subject, attending support groups for families of loss, or working with a qualified family therapist. The better you care for yourself, the better you can care for your child.

Gift # 2: Let children teach you about grief. Children respond to loss in different ways. No way is the right way. Let children teach you how they think, feel and respond to the loss. Walk along side the child in his or her personal journey. Notice the path and scenery as well as the direction you are headed. If children are taking a destructive route (suicide or self-harm) steer them in a different direction. Don’t wait till you are stepping over the edge. Be on the look out early in the journey for upcoming dangers. Talk to qualified educators and therapists about the warning signs of suicide, chronic depression, unrealistic fears and other self-destructive behaviors if you are concerned.

Gift # 3: Wrap your child in relationship. Just as you would wrap a Christmas present in beautiful wrapping, with string and ribbons, you can wrap your child in relationship. Healing comes in connection with healthy people. It doesn’t make up for the loss, but it does provide children with a safe environment to heal. This requires that parents spend quality time with children and permit free expression of thoughts and feelings about the loss. If a child doesn’t want to spend time with a parent or healthy adult, give him or her some space but remain available to them. Occasionally ask them how they are feeling about the loss and stay involved, physically and emotionally.

Gift # 4: Talk openly and honestly about the loss. Many cultures avoid the topic of grief. Because the person is gone we want the painful feelings to be gone too. This isn’t how grief works. Grief has its own time and space to do the work of healing in children’s lives. Children need to be able to talk openly and honestly about the loss. They may have questions that can’t be answered easily. Don’t avoid them. If you don’t know the answer to the question be honest and say so. Never tell children silly stories or lies, by saying, “Grandpa went away on a trip.”

Gift # 5: Don’t wait for the big talk. Use little, everyday experiences to talk to children about loss. If you find a bird has died in your yard or the gold fish dies in the fish tank, use that time to talk about your child’s thoughts and feelings around their loss. When your child’s friends move away and go to another school talk about how that feels in relation to mom and dad’s divorce. Treat loss as a “serious curiosity.” Children are naturally curious and talking about your thoughts, feelings, and ideas about loss can be an equally natural experience.

Gift # 6: Respect children’s responses, however negative they may be. Some of children’s responses to loss might be unpleasant (grumpy, rude, oppositional), unattractive (poor hygiene, messy room, poor grades) or even frightening (inconsolable crying, insomnia, and refusal to eat). Take the necessary steps to respond to their responses. Don’t judge them or shame them. Respect their responses as one of many ways to cope with a difficult, overwhelming situation. Of course, not all responses are constructive. Stop destructive ones, but do it in a sensitive manner. In addition, children should not be allowed to set their own limits by avoiding responsibilities and rules. Continue to set limits while being flexible and understanding.

Gift # 7: Expect and understand that your child may have bodily reactions to loss. When children’s hearts hurt, so do their bodies. They may experience some somatic problems such as stomach aches or headaches. This can be perfectly normal and if not due to a physical problem, will go away with time and support. Always check these bodily reactions out with a physician to be sure. If conditions persist without any known physical causes consult with a child or family therapist.

Gift # 8: If someone has died allow the child to attend the funeral. Although children are young they need to participate in a ceremony designed to say goodbye to a loved one and find some emotional closure. Although you should never force a child to go to a funeral, don’t exclude them either. Let them set the pace for each part of the ceremony. At each step of the way, ask them if they wish to participate. They may be comfortable attending a service but not viewing an open casket. Respect their wishes. Have someone who can take them home or wait outside with them if you wish to continue and they do not.

Gift # 9: If the loss does not involve a death or a funeral, create a ceremony to perform with the child. Rituals, traditions and ceremonies are important physical markers of our emotional territory. They create a solid boundary for starting and stopping an activity or relationship. In the case of a divorce, no ceremony exists for a child to gain closure. Make a special dinner and eat it in memory of the person who has left. Find rituals to mark the goings and coming of children from mom’s house to dad’s house. During the Christmas holiday, find special ways to celebrate that are uniquely different from the past such as caroling, doing volunteer work, baking breads, hanging a special ornament, reciting a spiritual message, etc.

Gift # 10: Give children permission to feel relief without it being interpreted as a lack of love. In some circumstances the loss of a loved one may bring relief. For example, a family member may have suffered from a chronic illness that produced great physically pain for the victim as well as emotional pain for the family. A divorce may result in the reduction of abuse (verbal, emotional, or physical) that occurred in the home prior to one parent leaving. Children may interpret this relief as a lack of love for the loved one. Explain the differences and give them permission to feel relief that the pain has stopped, not their love.
Gift # 11: Focus on the spiritual. Use times of loss as motivations to learn more about your religious beliefs and elements of your culture. Great comfort can be found in this neglected aspect of us. Turn to your religious and cultural leaders for support. Read age appropriate materials with your child on religious and cultural thoughts. Attend religious and cultural functions. Don’t worry that you won’t have all the spiritual answers to loss. That really isn’t the point. Although you will find some answers, the greatest benefit is recapturing or nurturing your spiritual self.

Gift # 12: Prepare for hard work. Grieving is complicated. Fortunately, it is also natural. If you trust the process the work will not be as hard as when you resist it. If you or your child have not been comfortable expressing your feelings, in the past, grieving may be harder. But it will not be impossible. In fact, grieving is inevitable. Let it do its work in you so that you and your child can do the work of grieving and in so doing, have a merrier Christmas!

Share your thoughts on this article by clicking the comments link below or going to our Facebook Group Page (click here).

GW Seeking Child Art Therapy Professor

2010-12-09T18:57:00.002-05:00

Due to recent life events, we are currently seeking professors to teach the Child Art Therapy course which is scheduled for Spring 2011 semester.

This is a 2cr. course and there are 2 sections of the course with 15 students each.
It is currently scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday from 6-7:30pm.
There is already a developed syllabus that could be used as is, or tweaked to reflect your individual expertise. Each course allows for 3 invited local lecturers who can bring in additional expertise and knowledge.
Requirements include:
-- currently working with children or extensive recent history and case examples
-- ability to teach Lowenfeld's stages and the Kramer assessment
-- ideally, experience with teaching or presenting

The semester begins January 10th, therefore, unfortunately, we are in a bit of a rush to find suitable professors and to allow for time to prepare for the course. One professor could teach both sections, or two professors could be hired each to teach a section.
If you are interested, please email a cover letter with your intent and philosophy of teaching (please include whether you are interested in one or both sections) and your CV/resume' to artx@gwu.edu
In the subject life, type "Child Course."

I look forward to hearing from you. If you have questions, email me at hbardot@gwu.edu

Please feel free to pass this along to other interested professionals.

Heidi Bardot

Tracy's Kids' upcoming show at Carroll Square Gallery

2010-12-01T09:09:00.003-05:00

Opening Reception: Friday, December 3
6 pm – 8 pm

Carroll Square Gallery
975 F Street NW
Washington DC 20004
www.carrollsquare.com

Gallery Open During Business Hours
Monday through Friday, 8 am – 6 pm

Tracy's Kids Art Therapy Program helps young cancer patients and their families cope with the emotional stress and trauma of cancer and its treatment. Our mission is to ensure that the children and families we serve are emotionally equipped to fight cancer as actively as possible—and prepared for the time when they are cancer free.

Tracy's Kids uses art therapy to engage with young patients, their siblings and parents so that they can express feelings and reflect on their treatment experiences. The program—which began at the Lombardi Cancer Center in 1991 and is based on the model developed there—employs Master's trained, Board Certified art therapists to address the multi-faceted needs of children with cancer through art and play therapy. The Art Therapists work directly with physicians, nurses and other medical personnel and are integrated as members of each child's treatment team.

Today, well over 70% of children diagnosed with cancer will beat the disease and live the overwhelming majority of their lives cancer free. Tracy's Kids is dedicated to helping to ensure that the children we serve are ready to live full, happy and healthy lives.

The program—which is offered at no charge to the patient and his or her siblings—works in hospitals, freestanding clinics and other appropriate settings. Our goal is to provide a child-centered, open studio approach for inpatients and outpatients and to interact with the children while they are receiving infusions and other treatments. We welcome the chance to work with siblings and parents because we know that the entire family is affected when a child has cancer.

Our program locations are: Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Children’s Medical Center, Children’s National Medical Center, Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders of Northern Virginia, and Inova Fairfax Hospital’s Life with Cancer Center. To learn more about us, visit us at www.tracyskids.org or email tracy@tracyskids.org.

Identifying Learning Problems in Adopted Children

2010-11-30T11:16:00.002-05:00

When adopted kids struggle in school, clues from their past and present can help pinpoint the cause.

By Annie Stuart

When you made the choice to adopt a child, you took a leap of faith at least one bound beyond that taken by other parents. And, if your child is challenged by learning or attention problems, your parenting path may now seem strewn with "speed bumps" caused by these overlapping issues.

Learning disabilities (LD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) are certainly not unique to adopted children. But as an overlay to adoption, they present unique challenges - and questions. For example, where does your child's pre-adoption history fit into the mix, along with genetics and her current environment? And how can you begin to interpret her personality or learning style when so much of her history is missing or incomplete?

Still, remember this: as the care-giving parent, you know your child best. Many highly capable adoptive parents who encounter LD and/or AD/HD for the first time often doubt their own parenting abilities until they understand the complexities of these disorders. Combine your intimate knowledge of your child with the information that follows. This may help you better identify, understand, and manage any learning difficulties your child has.

High Rates of AD/HD and LD Among Adopted Children

The Barker Foundation, the nation's first cooperative adoption agency, conducted a 1996 survey with the parents of 500 adopted children. Thirty percent of these children had some type of learning or attention problem. A 1991 New Jersey study by Brodzinsky and Steiger also looked at the high numbers of adoptees in special education. Adopted children made up about 5 to 7 percent of the children studied with neurological, perceptual, or emotional problems. Yet, they represented only 1 to 2 percent of the general population of children.

Could these kinds of numbers partly reflect a hawk-like vigilance common to caring adoptive parents, who are likely to follow up on any apparent problem? Possibly. Another reason may be that adopted children tend to have "externalized," or more visible, types of psychological problems. These might show up, for example, in the hyperactive and impulsive behavior often seen in AD/HD. Because parents find such behaviors more challenging, they often seek professional help sooner.

Potential Contributors to Learning Problems in Adoptees

Studies like those cited above have led researchers to further speculate about the causes of learning and emotional challenges in adopted children. Any of the following factors may contribute:

Your child's pre-adoption history:

Poor prenatal care, including drug or alcohol exposure
Complications at birth
Malnutrition, neglect, abuse, or time spent in foster care or an orphanage
Genetics

Your child's post-adoption history:

Trouble learning a second language if adopted as an older child from a different country or culture
Anxiety caused by dealing with having been adopted and the concept of birth parents having "given her away"
Insecurity due to being a different race or simply having a different physical appearance than her adoptive parents
Attachment problems, which are believed to result from a lack of reliable protection and nurturance early in life. This condition, which may disproportionately affect adopted children, interferes with a child's ability to form secure emotional bonds with her adoptive parents.

Early experiences that can lead to attachment disorder may also have a profound impact on a child's learning. That's because the brain pathways responsible for social perceptions, emotion, and empathy are the same ones that regulate communication and organization of memory. Higher levels of certain brain chemicals caused by chronic stress or trauma can damage a part of the brain called the hippocampus, making it hard to create and retain memories needed for learning.

Of course there are several factors other than adoption that may contribute to learning problems. Genetics may play a crucial role, particularly when it comes to AD/HD; there is a five-fold increase in the incidence of AD/HD among first-degree relatives. And don't overlook a broad range of other potential factors, including your child's current school situation, home, or social life.

Sorting Through the Complexity of Adoption Issues

It may be a challenge to sort out how all of these things affect your child's learning and development. You may want to start with some basic questions, such as these:

Your child's pre-adoption history:

Do you know the birth parents'histories? If so, try to find out if there is a history of alcohol or drug abuse.
Do you know if anyone in the child's birth family has a learning disability or AD/HD?
Do you know if anyone in the child's birth family has a significant mental health disorder?
What else can you learn about your child's pre-adoption history?

Your child's post-adoption history:

Does your child seem plagued by anxiety? Does she have physical tics or obsessions? Does she talk about adoption in an anxious way or refuse to talk about it at all?
Is your child very fearful, intolerant of physical closeness, or lacking in empathy? These can be signs of attachment problems.
Was your child adopted at an older age and required to learn a second language in her adoptive home and country? Has this posed a problem for her?
Is there a discrepancy between your child's apparent intellect and effort and her academic performance? If so, it's possible the core problem is a learning disability. If no specific learning disability is found, it's possible the core problem may be AD/HD (hyperactivity is not always present).

Answering these questions may help you begin to identify your child's main challenge and provide helpful information if you go ahead with a professional assessment. From time to time, also try to determine which issue - adoption or learning - is having a greater impact on your child. But remember that dealing with adoption may be the burning issue for your child, even when it remains a quiet, internal process. Following are some other approaches that may help you both.

Helping your Child Cope With Anxiety

Fears about the future are not uncommon in adopted children, particularly in those who were older when they were adopted. For this and other reasons, an adopted child may find times of transition trying. That's because the routines and structures that provide a sense of security are suspended. Fear can emerge around major changes like adjusting to a new teacher, or smaller ones like moving from one activity to another during the day.

An adopted child with a learning disability may worry that her birth parents placed her for adoption because she's "stupid." Intensifying things even more, children often become aware of these two differences - adoption and learning problems - at about the same time, at around age 6 or 7. Anxiety about all of this can further interfere with learning. As one first-grader put it, "The worry takes up too much of my brain, and then I can't think."

Here are a few ways you can help reduce your child's anxiety:

Ease transitions, such as the beginning of the school year, by taking your child to tour her new classroom and meet her new teacher.
Focus less on academics early in the school year and more on your child building relationships with her teacher and peers.
Alert the teacher to times and places that might trigger painful memories in your child. Provide information about patterns observed at home. Share bits of your child's history (from before and after adoption) that you think the teacher may find helpful.
Encourage your child to succeed, and show satisfaction with her progress. Balance this with realism so she doesn't get the message that perfection is a prerequisite for being allowed to stay with her "forever family." You may have invested a lot to create this family. Don't let that overburden you or your child with unreasonably high expectations.
Let your child know that you understand learning isn't easy, but that you value and love her for who she is; tell her specific things you appreciate about her often.
Celebrate small achievements and redefine success as "doing your best," rather than getting the highest grade.

Helping a Child with Attention Problems

If your child struggles with attention problems, you can try a few management strategies that will help you both a great deal. Establishing solid, clear communication with your child early on will help her both at school and at home.

Seeking Educational Evaluations

How will you know if your child needs extra help in school? First of all, trust your instincts. If you feel something isn't quite right, it won't hurt to seek advice. Early intervention is best. And having the problem identified may help you to stop taking things personally, while helping your child to become less frustrated. The first step may involve a pre-referral process through your public school. If additional assessment is needed, you can request either a school or private assessment. You may find referrals to private resources through community adoption support networks, your adoption agency, or a local mental health agency. If possible, find a trusted person who is knowledgeable about both assessment and adoption.

Keep Your Chin Up

By now, you know that the parenting path isn't always easy. Yours may have a few more twists and turns than most. And you may find it frustrating that usual sources of support - family and friends - lack sensitivity or understanding about adoption and LD or AD/HD. But a wealth of resources awaits you, including support groups for adoptive parents or for parents of kids with learning problems. Once your child has received a diagnosis, you can make progress in obtaining the support she needs, whether that's special education services or accommodations, tutoring, medical care, counseling, or a combination of these interventions. Even though there are some "speed bumps" in your path, just knowing where they are will allow you and your child to develop skills to navigate them safely. Just slow down, keep your destination in mind, and enjoy the journey.

References

When Adoption and Learning-Attention Difficulties Overlap: The Impact on the Adoptive Family.
Allen, R. Barker Foundation, 1996.
ADHD and Conduct Disorder in Adopted Children
by Barbara D. Ingersoll, PhD, ADHD Report/Russell A. Barkley & Associates (August 1998)
Assessment "Blues" and Adoption
by Janina Nadaner

http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/LD-ADHD/identifying-learning-problems-in-adopted-children.gs?content=822&page=1

Press Release for Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC

2010-11-29T09:01:00.000-05:00

November 2010

Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC and Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC have just launched
their new business, Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC. Creative Wellbeing
Workshops provides interactive training and workshops that blend the cutting
edge research of positive psychology, the "science of well-being," with the
benefits of art therapy.

Gioia and Rebecca started this work several years ago, after being introduced to
Positive Psychology by Lani Gerity. Rebecca and Gioia were struck by the
relevance of positive psychology to art therapy and the complimentary potential
of the two fields.

Positive psychology is the study of positive emotions, positive character, and
the positive institutions and communities that facilitate their development.
Positive psychologists suggest that the prevailing model of psychology, with its
focus on illness and symptoms, does not reflect a balanced view of human
potential and that focusing on strengths, increasing positive emotions, and
identifying meaning and hope may be more effective in increasing wellbeing.
These principles fit naturally with art therapy which has long been valued for
its ability to showcase and develop clients' strengths and to improve quality of
life.

Gioia and Rebecca have suggested a new term, "Positive Art Therapy" which
combines the healing potential of art therapy with the empowering focus of
positive psychology. Positive art therapy utilizes the creative process to
enhance positive emotions, identify and develop positive character and
strengths, and foster positive communities. They are looking to partner with
other art therapists, artists, mental health practitioners, positive
psychologists, community organizations, educational and governmental
institutions, who are interested in promoting the connection between creativity
and wellbeing.

Creative Wellbeing Workshops works with individuals seeking to feel happier,
more engaged, more creative, in their personal and professional lives; with
organizations and employers wishing to foster greater job satisfaction and
higher productivity in their employees; and with mental health practitioners who
wish re-energize their practice by incorporating state of the art research on
well-being and creativity into their practice.

Gioia and Rebecca, who have been friends since attending GW in the early 90's,
are enjoying the new direction their work is taking them. "We love doing this
work and our participants can tell. They really enjoy the fun we have
together—and it's really fabulous seeing the transformation that people undergo
as they explore these new concepts." Visit Gioia and Rebecca's website at
http://www.creativewellbeingworkshops.com/
, or contact them directly at either r.wilkinson@creativewellbeingworkshops.com
or g.chilton@creativewellbeingworkshops.com. or 202 352 5225.

References:

Chilton, G. & Wilkinson, R.A. (2009). Positive art therapy: Envisioning the
intersection of art therapy and positive psychology. Australia and New Zealand
Journal of Art Therapy, 4(1), 27-35.

Gerity, L. (2007). The Artist's Happiness Challenge Condensed Version.
Available from:
http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/happiness-challenge-condensed-version/2990086

Mental Introspection Increases as Brain Areas Begin to Act in Sync

2010-11-24T10:11:00.000-05:00

ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2010) — Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center can now show, using functional MRI images, why it is that behavior in children and young adolescents veers toward the egocentric rather than the introspective.

In findings presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego on Nov. 14, the researchers say that the five scattered regions in the brain that make up the default-mode network (DMN) have not started working in concert in youngsters aged six to nine. These areas light up in an fMRI scan, but not simultaneously.

The DMN is only active when the mind is at rest and allowed to wander or daydream. This network is believed to be key in how a person introspectively understands themselves and others, and forms beliefs, intentions, and desires through autobiographical memory.

By ages 10 to 12, the researchers found that these diffuse regions start functioning together as a unit, and at ages 13 to19, they acted in concert, just like they do in adults.

"These results suggest that children develop introspection over time as their brains develop," says the study's first author, neuroscientist Stuart Washington, Ph.D., who will be presenting the results. "Before then they are somewhat egocentric, which is not to mean that they are negatively self-centered, but they think that everyone views the world in the same way they do. They lack perspective in that way."

In this study, the researchers sought to understand if connectivity between distant regions in the brain increases with age. They chose the DMN to study in part because it consists of a widespread system of neuronal nodes that work together, but are linked in a way that is not yet well understood. (These discrete nodes could be physically connected by neuronal synapses or they could fire together and not be connected.)
Previous research has suggested that the DMN is not well synchronized in many autistic individuals, and this may explain the perceptions many of these individuals express in testing -- a viewpoint that is also seen in younger children who do not have autism, Washington says.

An example that illustrates the difference between an egocentric and an introspective view is the simple puzzle, Washington says: "Jane" walks into a room, and puts a marble in a closet, and then "Bill" comes in and takes the marble out of the closet and puts it into a box. Jane comes back in and looks for the marble and she has not spoken to Bill. Where does she look for the marble?

The right answer, of course, is that she looks in the closet. But many autistic individuals say Jane looks in the box, "because they know that the marble is in the box and they think that everyone else knows that," Washington says. The ability to see the world from the perspective of others is called "Theory of Mind" (ToM) and certain nodes of the DMN have been associated with it. The failure to develop ToM seen in many autistics individuals and younger children may lie in asynchronous firing of the DMN, Washington says.
In this study, the research team enrolled 42 participants: 10 individuals which were aged six to 9; 12 were aged 10 to 12; 9 individuals which were aged 13 to19, and 10 were aged 22 to 27 years. The scientists' goal was to study the development of functional connectivity between the anterior and posterior nodes of DMN across the four age groups.

They gave the participants a task to perform, but the scientists were actually interested in recording brain activity that took place after the task was over, when the patients were told to rest.
In the group of children ages six to nine, the researchers saw the same kind of lack of synchronicity seen in older autistic children, Washington says.

The older participants in this study were, the more in sync the DMN functioned, reaching a plateau in adulthood, he says. Significant differences were noted between children and adolescents, and children and adults, he adds. "These increases in functional connectivity coincide with introspective mental activity that has been shown to emerge during adolescence."

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101114190819.htm

MANDALA Life Cycle Level 2 Course

2010-11-19T08:02:00.000-05:00

MANDALAS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Integrating color and form A Life Cycle Level 2 Advanced Intensive
A 20 hour course with a certificate of completion and CEU’s available

DATE: February 11-13, 2011

Friday-1:00 - 5:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday (9:00 - 5:00 pm)

PLACE: Round Oaks Creative Center, 1443 Glenside Green, Charlottesville, VA 22901

434-973-7543 pframe79@aol.com

COST: $325

INSTRUCTORS:

PHYLLIS FRAME, M.A., ATR is the founder and director of the Round Oaks Creative Center, offering expressive therapies, especially work with mandalas and sand tray to professionals. She has taught Mandala courses and presented nationally, publishing widely on the mandala theory and research. Phyllis studied with Joan Kellogg and has contributed significantly to the development and use of mandala theory.

CAROLE MCNAMEE, PhD, LMFT, is the founder and director of Willowbank Creative Center in Blacksburg, VA, offering traditional and expressive therapies. She has been leading mandala groups since 2004 and has presented regionally and nationally on the expressive arts and healing.

DESCRIPTION OF Intensive

This advanced intensive is intended for those with previous training in the Life Cycle theory and is meant to deepen

understanding of this material. There will be an emphasis on color and form in mandala expressions throughout the Life cycle. The intensive will include a review of the Life cycle theory, theory associated with color and form found in mandala drawings, relationship of mandala theory to the chakra system, current research and ethics. Learning opportunities will include didactic presentation, experiential activities, small group work. In addition, opportunities for personal sharing and supervision will be provided. Please be sure that you have obtained releases for any client work that you bring for supervision.

Please send your non-refundable deposit of $95 to Phyllis Frame, 1443 Glenside Green, Charlottesville, VA 22901. Call 434-974-7543 or e-mail pframe79@aol.com for questions or further information. Housing, and directions with a map will be sent upon receipt of your deposit. Please register as early as possible. Bring your workbook from previous courses (you may purchase a Round Oaks workbook if needed),

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

REGISTRATION: Mandalas and the Development of Consciousness Feb. 11-13, 2011

NAME…………………………………………………………PHONE..…………….………...

ADDRESS…………………………………………………………………………………………

DEPOSIT…………………..E-Mail………………………………………………………………

The Potomac Art Therapy Association Blog: Drawing from Within

Free Lecture on the Importance of Positive Emotions

11/06/11 Workshop Visual and Experiential DBT

Positive Psychology and Art Therapy: The Importance of Positive Emotions Workshop

SoulCollage® and Art Therapy Workshop

Workshop with Liz Goll Lerner

Reframing Self-Care: Refilling the Well

CREATIVE JOURNALING SERIES

Temporary job opportunity

Volunteer opportunity

September 2011 workshop

Temporary Position at CNMC

N Street Village Art Show

PATA to Provide NBCC Continuing Education Workshops

ATCB Publishes Updated Code of Professional Practice

Diagnostic Drawing Series (DDS) Training — April 9 & 10

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

Collaborative Program Provides Soldiers with Art Therapy

CREATIVE JOURNALING SERIES

TLC Institute: Sensory-Based, Trauma Informed Assessment

9 Dynamic Digital Resumes That Stand Out From the Crowd

Pioneering Art Therapist Helen B. Landgarten dies at 89

Canadian Impressions Exhibit

ANNOUNCING 2011 SPRING ISSTD REGIONAL SEMINARS

Forecasting Aggression: Toward a New Interdisciplinary Understanding of What Makes Some Troubled Youth Turn Violent

http://dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=30762

References

Austalian Art Therapist Request

Coping Creatively Group

Screening of Crooked Beauty Saturday Evening February 12

Online Training: Clear Vision 1:The Power of Story to Heal Therapist and Client

2011 PATA Meeting Schedule

Call for Artists: HEALING ARTS ADVISORY - DC

PRN position: MENTAL HEALTH THERAPIST

JUNGIAN ART THERAPY GROUP FORMING

Creative Journaling Series Jan 22, Feb 19, March 5 & 26, 2011

Webcast: Talking with Children After a Suicide Loss

Volunteer Art Therapy Opportunity

Signifying Pain: Poetry of Transformation Workshop

Dr. Daniel Siegel Article

Museum programs for Alzheimer's patients show the power of art as therapy

Grieving All The Way: 12 Gifts to Cope with Grief during the 12 Days of Christmas

GW Seeking Child Art Therapy Professor

Tracy's Kids' upcoming show at Carroll Square Gallery

Identifying Learning Problems in Adopted Children

High Rates of AD/HD and LD Among Adopted Children

Potential Contributors to Learning Problems in Adoptees

Sorting Through the Complexity of Adoption Issues

Helping your Child Cope With Anxiety

Helping a Child with Attention Problems

Seeking Educational Evaluations

Keep Your Chin Up

References

Press Release for Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC

Mental Introspection Increases as Brain Areas Begin to Act in Sync

MANDALA Life Cycle Level 2 Course

MANDALAS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESSIntegrating color and form A Life Cycle Level 2 Advanced IntensiveA 20 hour course with a certificate of completion and CEU’s available

COST: $325

MANDALAS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Integrating color and form A Life Cycle Level 2 Advanced Intensive
A 20 hour course with a certificate of completion and CEU’s available