Creating Hope: NE Ohio Human Trafficking Symposium

I recently attended the 4th Annual NE Ohio Human Trafficking Symposium organized by the Renee Jones Empowerment Center and hosted on the campus of Notre Dame College here in the Cleveland area. The day was completely full with a variety of informative topics addressing areas in relationship to trafficking & survivor stories, therapeutic services, law enforcement, outreach, and housing.  I wanted to share some of the resources, information, energy, efforts, and examples of hope, recovery, and resilience that filled the room throughout the day, as well as the work being done locally and nationally to bring awareness and help to this issue.

Cleveland’s Renee Jones Empowerment Center

The Renee Jones Empowerment Center is the only NE Ohio agency “committed to providing life coaching and aftercare services to those with the courage to break the human trafficking system…Human Trafficking is code for slavery — involuntary servitude, debt bondage, or peonage.”  Humantrafficking.org is a comprehensive international web resource full of publications, updates, research, and reports to learn more about the advocacy efforts happening around the world.

 During the Symposium’s Treatment & Clinical Services track information was presented about models, strategies, and approaches being used with at-risk youth for prevention & recovery that is grounded in trauma informed theory and attachment treatment.  Some of treatment considerations discussed were:

• Implementing a Positive Peer Culture (PPC) within Group Based Work:
  

  PPC “is a peer-helping model designed to improve social competence and cultivate strengths in troubled and troubling youth. “Care and concern” for others (or “social interest”) is the defining element of PPC. Rather than demanding obedience to authority or peers, PPC demands responsibility, empowering youth to discover their greatness. Caring is made fashionable and any hurting behavior totally unacceptable. PPC assumes that as group members learn to trust, respect, and take responsibility for the actions of others, norms can be established. These norms not only extinguish antisocial conduct, but more importantly reinforce pro-social attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Positive values and behavioral change are achieved through the peer-helping process. Helping others increases self-worth. As one becomes more committed to caring for others, s/he abandons hurtful behaviors.”

 More information about this model can be read here: The Evidence Base for Positive Peer Culture.

• The Sanctuary Model® for Organizations and Programs working with Survivors:

The Sanctuary Model is an evidence-supported template for system change based on the active creation and maintenance of a nonviolent, democratic community in which staff and clients are empowered as key decision-makers to build a socially responsive, emotionally intelligent and just community that is able to transform internal and external conflict, and that fosters growth and change.

More information about this model can be read here: Trauma-Informed Means Changing Organizational Culture

•  Interventions valuable to treatment are client centered, empower survivors with a source of control about their thoughts, feelings, & behavior, as well as utilize structured sensory interventions & experiences that are soothing, repetitive, and build resiliency. (This includes art therapy!)

In my art therapy work at the Renee Jones Empowerment Center throughout this year as part of Ursuline ArtSpace’s Outreach Program, I try to keep the following themes in mind when planning and implementing art interventions for group work:

Jeanne Allert, Founder & Executive Director of The Samaritan Women in Baltimore Maryland also reinforced the power of play as a liberating & therapeutically essential part to the activities and structure of her restorative program for survivors of trauma and trafficking.  Also check out the TSW website for their lists of must see films and books to read to learn more about sex trade, human trafficking, or prostitution.

For me, the most emotionally powerful part of the Symposium’s day was the program’s Keynote Speaker, Dr. Elaine Richardson who performed a one-woman show inspired by her book PHD to Ph.D. It included an amazing performance of music and storytelling about Dr. Richardson’s experience & recovery from addiction and her life in prostitution.

Learn more about Dr. Richardson’s work and story here:

Thank you to the Renee Jones Empowerment Center for bringing us all together to bring awareness, help, and hope to this important issue.

*****

Related Posts:

Advocacy & Empowerment through Art: Social Action and Trauma Informed Care

Finding a Safe Place: Creating Safety for Domestic Violence Survivors through Art

Journey Shoes: Walking In the Cycle of Violence

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In Words & Images: Self Expression and Healing

This past Friday & Saturday, I attended Ohio’s Buckeye Art Therapy Association Annual Symposium, Self Expression and Healing. Since I’ve returned home, I continue to work on art that I started over these two days:

Sacred Chest of Dreams

One is a small wooden chest that was given to our group after the paper, Grace, Creativity and Breakthrough: Saint Hildegard of Bingen, presented by Ursuline College’s Master of Art Therapy Program Founder Sister Kathleen Burke Ph.D, OSU, as a takeaway art-making experience to celebrate awakening moments, our creative gifts, and honor our dreams. I painted and stained my treasure chest with lots of green: a color symbolizing life, growth, and vitality that St. Hildegard defined with the word viriditas. Inside the chest I added tissue paper with a variety of gems, seaglass, and some of my previously created fragments.  We were prompted to write down/about our own dreams and awakenings to also include inside this special chest.

Another art-making experience from the Symposium I am continuing to work on is inspired by Art Therapist and Author Dr. Harriet Wadeson‘s keynote. Dr. Wadeson’s keynote address and workshop focused on using creative self-expression in the face of illness.  Her own personal experience and journey with cancer and described in her book  Journaling Cancer in Words and Images: Caught in the Clutch of the Crab, was the foundation for what she presented over the Symposium’s two days.  It was very powerful to see and learn more about the altered book pages and emotional expression Dr. Wadeson created in response to and cope with her cancer.

During Dr. Wadeson’s workshop, we were prompted to reflect on illness or a major crisis/time in our life and how this experience impacted or perhaps changed our sense of who we are.  The suggested prompt was to create a “before” and “after” self image to represent this reflection.

From my Smashbook

As I worked in my smashbook in response to this art directive, I was humbled by the power of art (again) to help sustain us through difficult and challenging times.  The making of altered books or working within a journal has been a particularly safe space for me to do this, using both written words and images, to provide a container for those emotions, thoughts, and moments hard to put into verbal language.

*****

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” ~Georgia O’Keeffe

*****

Related Posts:

My Beautiful, Altered Brain: Altered Book

MRI Digital Art for My Own Beautiful, but Altered Brain

My Beautiful, but Altered Brain

 

When it’s hot…Make some paper!

Over the last week it has been increasingly hot here…with temperatures heating up to 100 degrees at times.  It’s finally cooled down a little, but on a couple of these hot days I’ve pretty much remained inside when I could, with thankful thoughts for central air conditioning, crossing my fingers for the power to stay on, and using the time to engage in some art-making!

After returning from the GMU Papermaking as Art Therapy for Trauma Intervention workshop, I was inspired and curious to discover how I could set up a DIY papermaking space that would be mobile and easily accessible for papermaking.

I’ve been gathering materials we talked about at GMU that could be used for adapting to this process if you don’t own or have access to a  Hollander Beater:

• Wooden stretcher bars, mosquito netting, window screen for creating DIY mould & deckles
• Blender for re-purposing paper material into pulp
• Specialty pulps to add to the blended paper mix for strengthening

I used a variety of paper material in making this batch of pulp: magazine photo collage,  handwritten content, some extra pulp I saved from this papermaking experience, and added a little bit of specialty pulp: denim, cotton rag, and wool.

 The transformation begins!

Using my handmade mould and deckle (stretcher bars & stapled window screen around the frame), I pull a sheet!

Wet paper in need of drying enjoys the extreme heat on our sunroom windows

Paper!

I’m excited to be teaming up again with Margaret Mahan and Drew Matott for some Peace Paper fun and papermaking inspired activity as part of this year’s Buckeye Art Therapy Association Symposium: Releasing and Reforming: Art Therapy as Social Action, September 6-8, 2012 in Dublin, Ohio.

September 6 will include a pre-conference course: Papermaking as Art Therapy for Trauma Intervention that will provide attendees with an understanding about how the papermaking process can be beneficial with populations as a form of social action and therapeutic transformation in trauma and loss intervention.  During this course, participants will be provided with a closer look at the papermaking process as they create handmade sheets of paper from pulp (with a portable Hollander Beater) collected along Peace Paper’s travels, explore concepts related to art as transformation and how this media can be implemented further with various art therapy settings.

On the evening of September 7 there will be a presentation highlighting lecture and visual content related to utilizing papermaking and creative expression as a cathartic process to give meaning, create transformation, and provide empowerment through releasing and reforming fibers into new stories and new beginnings.

Saturday morning September 8 will include an artmaking workshop inspired by concepts and intentions dedicated to social action, peacemaking, and using papermaking as a transformative media for self-expression and making Peace Paper Flags to explore reflections, intentions, and expressions for peace and change using handmade paper created from Peace Paper’s recent travels.

Check out the all the inspiring presentations and offerings at this year’s Symposium here.  Registration is now open!

We hope to see you there if you can make it!

BATA Silent Art Auction to Benefit SB 205 | Legislation to License Ohio Art Therapists

I just finished a mini painting to be donated for the Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Silent Art Auction during the organization’s 30th Annual Symposium,  Resiliency & Empathy: The Art of Healing Trauma being held this week on September 30th and October 1, 2011.

All proceeds from this fundraiser will benefit BATA’s Legislative Fund and efforts associated with Senate Bill 205, legislation to license art therapists and the practice of art therapy in the State of Ohio.   Check out this article to learn more about the bill and how to help here.

I can’t wait to see what other art is donated this year for this important event!  If you are attending, don’t forget to bring something to help out the cause!

When the world says, “Give up,”  Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”  ~Author Unknown

Resilience and Empathy: The Art of Healing Trauma

The 2011 Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Symposium, Resiliency & Empathy: The Art of Healing Trauma is being held September 30 and October 1 in Dublin, Ohio.  This year’s keynote sponsored by BATA and the Michigan Association of Art Therapy features Cathy Malchiodi who will be presenting an evening lecture and morning workshop on the impact of  resiliency, gratitude, and empathy in relationship to trauma intervention and recovery.  A pre-conference course with Cathy focused on Trauma Informed Art Therapy is also being offered in addition to the Symposium.

This year’s BATA Symposium Program includes additional presentation offerings and workshops on the application and use of art therapy with grief and loss, traumatic brain injury, adolescents,  as well as supervision, social media & ethics, and self-care.  I am especially looking forward to Elizabeth Sanders Martin and Emily Johnson’s workshop on Celebrating Life in Traditions of  the Day of the Dead. 

On Friday afternoon during the Symposium I’ll be presenting Art as a Voice: Art Therapy with Survivors of Domestic Violence which will provide an overview of art therapy with survivors of domestic violence and address trauma informed considerations, common treatment goals, and art interventions to consider when working with battered women in a shelter setting.  Content will be presented on the impact of domestic violence, how art therapy can provide a voice and facilitate support around key issues such as safety, the cycle of violence, and crisis intervention.

For more information about the program, lodging accomodations, and registration download BATA’s printable PDF brochure here.

Fall Twenty Eleven Creative Collabs and Happenings

With all the hot temperatures and heat, my mind has been wandering to cooler times ahead this fall, including some of the events and happenings on my radar screen that I’ll be involved with or looking forward to attending:

21 SECRETS– This on-line art journaling workshop is still going strong with hundreds participating from all over the world to learn new techniques and approaches to art journaling from a group of (now) 22 instructors!  There’s been a bonus secret added!  Beginning August 1, Andrea Schroeder of ABCcreativity will be joining the art journal playground with her creative magic and class Dream Spark.  If you’re interested in learning more, check out all the 21 SECRETS classes, including my workshop ready for revolution and how to register at: http://bit.ly/gY9WFs.  Registration will be open until October 1.

Buckeye Art Therapy Association Symposium–  On September 30 and October 1 I will be attending Ohio’s Buckeye Art Therapy Association Symposium, Resiliency & Empathy: The Art of Healing Trauma in Dublin, OH and offering a paper presentation on Art as a Voice: Art Therapy with Survivors of Domestic Violence on Friday afternoon.  This paper will present an overview of art therapy with survivors of domestic violence and address trauma informed considerations, common treatment goals, and art interventions to consider when working with this population.

Canadian & Ontario Art Therapy Association Conference– On November 3, I’ll be presenting my work about the global postcard art collaboration I organized last fall for Art Therapy Without Borders‘ International Postcard Art Exchange with a paper at the joint Canadian and Ontario Art Therapy Association Conference November 3-6 in Niagara Falls.  This presentation will present the project, its impact, and the role of art and social networking to connect the art therapy community worldwide.

Handbook of Art Therapy- Second Edition– I am looking forward to the November release of the Handbook of Art Therapy- Second Edition, edited by Cathy Malchiodi and published by Guilford Press.  It is an honor to be included in this new edition with a chapter on Adolescent Art Therapy and co-authoring another chapter with Cathy on Art Therapy & Domestic Violence.  As described on the publisher’s website, the second edition includes an update about current art therapy methods and approaches, and new chapters about materials & media, art therapy & the military, art therapy with grieving children, as well as more information to existing content related to research, ethics, and more.

And…after much visioning and inspiration, I am very excited that I’ll be launching another interactive & art-making collaboration from The Art Therapy Alliance this fall. I have wanted to create, organize, and offer an opportunity like this for quite some time.  I can’t wait to share this news soon– look for an announcement about this new project coming later this week!

Lots to look forward to!

Ready for Calm, Transition, Change

The BATA Symposium is quickly approaching!  The registration for The Making of Mindfulness through Art has received a strong response, with over 140 art therapists, art therapy students, and interested professionals coming from not only across Ohio, but also several states and Canada.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Columbus next week!

As I work on my final to-dos and  tie up loose ends for this year’s event, this mixed media piece I created to donate to the Symposium’s Silent Art Auction has extra special meaning to me:

Ready

The Making of Mindfulness through Art

It’s planning and preparation time again for this year’s Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Symposium to be held September 24-25, 2010 in Dublin, Ohio.   This year’s theme, The Making of Mindfulness through Art, will include two days of workshops and presentation offerings highlighting the use of art therapy in the practice of mindfulness, meditation, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).  The Symposium Program will also be premiering  ART IS LIFE IS ART: The Life and Work of Don Jones, a documentary by Bruce L. Moon that examines of the extraordinary life and work of BATA and AATA Founder Don Jones.

BATA’s Symposium keynote will be Michael Franklin, Ph.D., ATR-BC, who directed the undergraduate art therapy program at Bowling Green State University from 1986 to 1997 and introduced the field to me as my first art therapy professor.  Dr. Franklin is currently a core faculty for Naropa University’s Transpersonal Counseling Psychology Department and Director of Naropa’s Graduate Art Therapy Program in Boulder, Colorado.

There’s still time to get your registration in if you would like to attend this year’s Symposium and enjoy a little mindfulness and art therapy!  The mail in registration deadline is September 7, 2010.

On Day 2 of the Symposium, Cathy Malchiodi and I will be teaming up again to present Papermaking as Self Reclamation and Transformation: Deconstruction to Reconstruction. This presentation will provide an overview about how papermaking can be a transformative, mindful, and reparative process that facilitates and enhances exploration of personal meaning.  The basics of papermaking as an art therapy approach through practical applications and first person experiences will be explored, as well as highlighting The Combat Paper Project and suggestions for art therapy’s role with returning military.

In connection with this presentation, I have been working on my own handmade book  that chronicles some significant experiences and crossroads in my professional life over the last few years.  The paper that was made to create the pages of this book came from unwanted personal material and content that was shredded, pulped, re-transformed into new sheets of paper, and then liberated into new life and meaning for this project.

I’m really looking forward to sharing some of my personal experience and the art created for this book!

My Book: Papermaking as Self Reclamation and Transformation