Re-connecting in person over the past couple of weeks has been amazing, and the First Congregational United Church of Christ has been such a welcoming and serene setting.  First a 4-day intensive, then Open Studio, and a new EMERGE workshop have brought us to a place of open-hearted gratitude. There will be morein-person events to come, and, at the same time, we are continuing and developing our online offerings. Like the theme of our new developing workshop series, we are emerging into yet another new form that will, we hope, support you in your own unfolding.

In the coming week we will be announcing the next date for our in-person Open Studio and workshop. 

Live Online Offerings

Expressive Writing begins tomorrow 

There is just one spot left in this powerful series with Anne Hofland. 

5 Mondays

Online via Zoom

Limited to 8 participants

The desire to tell our stories has been part of the human experience since the beginning of time, in all cultures around the world. Writing can offer us a vehicle to better understand ourselves and each other, can empower us to find our voice, and can provide a transformative and healing experience. It is also an art form, and another medium to express ourselves creatively. Everyone is inherently a writer, and everyone can use words to create art.

ART as a HEALING PRACTICE Workshops

Centering with the Mandala

with Kathleen Horne, MA, LMHC, REACE, REAT

Monday, November 7

6-9 pm EDT

Online via Zoom

Discover the gentle power of creating a personal mandala to invoke centering  and integration.

Creating within a circle invokes a sense of wholeness and invites us to connect with our essence.

“The self-care of an Expressive Arts workshop with Kathleen becomes care for the world by some beautiful alchemy that brings the benefits of the session beyond the personal to the global. Mend and heal the self. Mend and heal the world.”  A recent Art as a Healing Practice workshop participant

Coming Up: Ecological Self on 11-21 and Synthesis on 12-5

 SoulCollage® Workshops

Exploring the SoulCollage® Companion Suit: Discover one of your Animal Guides

with Diane Lampitt, M.Ed. SoulCollage® Facilitator

Thursday, November 17

6-9 pm

Online via Zoom

This workshop is for those who have taken an Introduction to SoulCollage® workshop. It is an invitation to take a deep dive into the process to learn about and explore the Companion suit. It includes a guided meditation designed to help you discover your own animal companions who inhabit each of our body’s Seven main Chakras, or energy centers. Card making and reading will be a part of honoring our time together.

Coming Up: SoulCollage®: Receiving Counsel from the Council Suit on 12-8

Online Open Studio

1st + 3rd Thursdays 

Nov. 1 and Nov. 15

1-4 pm ET

with Kathleen

Come join us for some art making. We will begin with a guided meditation, then open art-making time in creative community. You can drop in, stay for an hour or the whole time.

There is no charge for Open Studio. Donations are always welcome and never required.

Expressive Arts Discovery

Monday Nov. 14, 7-8:30 pm

Online via Zoom

Learn about Expressive Arts by engaging in it!

Make Art. Tune in. Be aware of the images that are waiting to emerge. Explore creating those images with simple art materials. Let the images speak – in words, in movement, perhaps. Be amazed. Find your way.

Share the gifts that your images bring. Connect with community..

Witness yourself and each other. Just witness. There is nothing that needs to be said or done.

Professional Development

Your Storylines:

Exploring Points of Inflection in Racial Awareness, an Open Studio Process Experience

with Pat B. Allen & Rhonda Johnson

New Date: Friday December 2

1-3:30 pm ET

Online via Zoom

Transforming our racial awareness is an inside job.  Using Open Studio Process (OSP) we will identify points in personal history that make up our racial understanding.  We invite you to join us in an exploration of the strengths and vulnerabilities in our personal and collective stories.

Certificate Training Program 

• The focus of this course is on Intermodal Expressive Arts as a holistic field, effecting change in all aspects of human experience: body, mind and spirit. The course will explore ways in which the different arts modalities bring growth and change, and how they work together as a holistic model. A variety of individual and group experiential processes will be introduced which focus on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual experience.  

See the times and details for each of these courses here.

Our full 2023 Schedule will be published soon. 

All core courses will be offered online, except EAFI 130 and 210, which will be offered in-person. 

We are continuing to align our training with IEATA's REACE and REAT requirements. 

Expressive Arts Therapy with Tamara Teeter Knapp, MA, NCC, MHC Intern

Expressive arts therapy is a multimodal approach to counseling that is holistic and acknowledges the complexity of being human. Grounded in humanistic principles, it is assumed that each person has what they need to heal and grow into the best version of themselves. Using different art forms, clients discover inner resources, build new coping strategies, develop their strengths, and come to know themselves more fully. The therapist serves as a guide and a companion on the client’s healing journey by providing invitations to express feelings and thoughts through creative exploration. This type of counseling considers the whole person, which includes the imagination and new possibilities while honoring the present or current issues that the client is struggling with. Expressive arts therapy incorporates mindfulness skills, somatic awareness, and is trauma sensitive as it enables clients to express what is held in their bodies through more than just words. It is a gentle and supportive process that is guided by the therapist but led by the client.