Have you ever been asked to design a box to represent yourself? In one of my classes for art therapy for clinical social work, we were asked to do so. This is the fifth post in the art therapy** series. The outside of the box was to be decorated (painted, glued, drawn on etc) in […]
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Acceptance and Change
Marsha Linehan had a wonderful half-day training on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) “Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going.” Below are some key take-aways: * Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a treatment that was developed by Marsha Linehan in order to help people with high suicide risk and multiple suicide attempts […]
Drama Therapy in Action
Would you like to learn a little about drama therapy? As you may recall, Noel McDermott was very kind in providing us with an introduction to Drama Therapy – Healing Through Role Playing/Storytelling last year. This post will provide you with a taste of drama therapy based upon a graduate class with a drama therapist as a […]
Music Therapy: Healing Through Music
Music Therapy: A Powerful Method of Healing and Communication Have you wondered what is music therapy all about? As you may recall, Linda Grobman provided us with a lovely introduction to Music Therapy last year. Thanks to having had a music therapist as a guest lecturer in class, this post will provide you with some additional introductory […]
The Power of Meditation
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend Dr. Dan Siegel’s seminar “How Psychotherapy Works.” It was a fascinating day in which you learned about the intersection of psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness meditation in mental health. Below are the key take-aways from Dan Siegel’s talk: Mindsight = the special kind of attention that allows you to […]
The “Ugly” in Art Therapy
Have you had concerns about making “ugly” artwork when engaging in art therapy? This is the fourth post of the art therapy** series, based upon the graduate class I’m taking in art therapy for clinical social work, and it will be addressing this very topic. This post will illustrate that being worried about making something […]
11 Tips for Employing Art Therapy Techniques
Would you like to employ some art therapy** techniques with some of your clients? This third post of the art therapy series will be providing you with 11 key learnings on engaging clients with art therapy. These posts are based upon the 14 week graduate class I took in art therapy. 11 Tips About Conducting Art Therapy** […]
Meditation and Stress Management
Is there a part of you that is seeking more balance in your life? Would you like to experience more joy? If yes, you may want to consider meditation… And if you’ve never done it, that’s fine 🙂 As Sharon Salzberg states in her book “Real Happiness,” “if you can breathe, you can meditate.” Meditation […]
Continuing Education: Optional or Obligatory?
Do you find the whole continuing education maze a bit confusing? Are you wondering whether you need to need to fulfill continuing education requirements to maintain your LMSW or LCSW license? Figuring out your continuing education (CE) requirements can be a bit puzzling, particularly because the answer varies according to your jurisdiction. Association of Social […]
Children’s Growth Through Art
Did you know there is a huge connection between the development of a child’s artistic abilities and his/her cognitive development? In fact, a child’s art work is indicative of his/her developing abilities in motor skills, perception, language, symbol formation, sensory awareness and spatial orientation (Malchiodi, 1998). As you may remember from Art Therapy and Social […]
