Sometimes talk therapy just isn’t enough, especially for trauma clients. Learn to work with your clients in a more total and holistic manner that doesn’t rely on words alone and includes creative solutions to realizing treatment goals. In this workshop, you’ll be oriented to the fundamentals of the expressive arts therapies, so you can start implementing new, creative skills into your practice. You’ll learn how to facilitate an expressive arts process to teach clients concepts of grounding, mindfulness, and distress tolerance—all vital skills in trauma-focused therapy. You’ll also discover the role of creativity and the practice of making art as mechanisms of action in processing traumatic experiences and promoting post-traumatic growth. Leave with new skills to foster client creativity for traumatic healing and learn how to incorporate these creative skills with other fundamental therapy modalities you already use. You’ll explore how to: 

• Leverage the experiential nature of expressive arts therapy to process traumatic experiences and promote post-traumatic growth 
• Use mindful drawing, breath practices with creative movement, and mindful listening to teach and practice mindfulness skills  
• Use movement, creative writing, and music to engage in trauma-focused care, including distress tolerance 
• Teach clients how to use expressive arts skills for between-session affect management

Jamie Marich, PhD, LPCC-S, LICDC-CS, REAT, is a clinical trauma specialist in private practice, expressive artist, writer, yogini, filmmaker, Reiki master, and TEDx speaker, as well the founder of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness. She’s the author of several books, including Trauma and the Twelve Steps, Creative Mindfulness, Trauma Made Simple, and Dancing Mindfulness.

*This workshop will replace the Nutrition and Integrative Methods for Trauma with Leslie Korn