Summary of Program, Benefits, and Why It’s Unique

• Combines the training and experience of mental health professionals with graduate degrees and decades of experience in the fields of Dance Movement Therapy, Art Therapy, and Creative Expression (See bios of Jenna and Shazia at https://letsartaboutit.com/team)

• Takes online art courses and art lessons online to another level by demonstrating art as a therapy through the use of drawing, movement + light breathing exercise.

• Uses techniques adapted from Expressive Arts Therapy, Dance Therapy, and Art Therapy that can be used as teaching tool(s) and for self help.

• Can be used as a teaching tool to introduce mental health benefits of Dance Movement and Art, tailored towards specific needs, including

  • Emotional regulation

  • Developing emotional intelligence

  • Self discovery

  • Maintaining a sense of control

  • Developing healthy boundaries

  • Increasing mind-body connection

  • Improving body schema

  • Feeling grounded

  • Coping with change and transitions

  • Mind-body connection

  • Empowerment through creative expression

Who can use this teaching tool:

• Individuals Looking for Self Help

• Parents or Guardians of Teens/Children

• Recreational Planners

• Counselors

• Social Workers

• Marriage and Family Therapists

• Psychiatrists

• Psychologists

• Psychotherapists

• Therapists

• Addiction Counselors

• Case Managers

• Teachers

• School Guidance Counselors

• School Administrators

• Educational Paraprofessionals

• Other Helping Professionals that work with teens or adults

summary of objectives, by week

• Week 1: Stress Relief

  • Introduction of this Expressive Arts therapy - based training program as a way of releasing, processing, and transforming overwhelming feelings in order to bring calm, natural stress relief, and clarity

  • Stress and anxiety relief

  • Find pockets of calm within stress through visual art and dance movement

  • Moving from introducing calm to greater calm than stress

• Week 2: Balancing Emotions

  • Try on and embody a variety of movement dynamics 

  • Shift out of habitual movement patterns

  • Visually identify feelings, their opposites, and how they can exist in the same space, such as feeling heavy vs light, and bound vs free

  • Exploring how movement and expression can help to balance the emotions through seeing what they look like when expressed. 

• Week 3: Support

  • Identify base of support

  • Creatively identify a variety of new ways to support the body in space

  • Explore ways to support themselves beyond what they may be used to in order to be healthy, calm, and confident during this challenging time.

• Week 4: Exploring Parts of Self

  • Engage in a warmup by exploring isolated body part movements. 

  • Visually identify and draw various parts or attributes of yourselves that make you who you are.  

  • Explore these parts and their capabilities further through journaling and movement choreography informed by the drawings.

• Week 5: Integrating Inner and Outer Selves.

  • Identify the parts of yourself that you show to the world around and the parts you keep hidden within 

  • Explore the effects of inner and outer forces through movement.

  • Reflect on what from the outside and inside (from both the drawing and movements) resonate with you in the here and now, practicing embodying them on the inside and outside, writing a poem, or drawing a visual of that as well.

• Week 6: Finding Inspiration

  • Embody inspirational figures

  • Create choreography that inspires 

  • Visualize a superhero and the characteristics it embodies 

  • Explore how its powers can be used personally to help self and others

• Week 7: Letting Go  

  • Practice letting go of negativity and bringing in positivity through the use of movement, imagery, and breath-work.

  • Muscle tension release

  • Face, validate, and let go of things “holding you back” from progressing in life through art and a learn a letting go ritual.

• Week 8: Motivation

  • Identify and explore personal issues by being the key to moving with/beyond them

  • Identify motivation to move 

  • Explore how mindset affects movement qualities

  Week 9: Change and Transitions

  • Visually explore changes specific to this current time and how they feel about them.

  • Identify how they would like their life to look like a year into the future.

  • Embody transitions of growth through movement, further exploring their thoughts and feelings about change. 

  • Although not described in the video, you are welcome to go back to the ‘’a year from now’’ part of the first exercise to adjust what they created after the movement experience of they are inspired to do so.

  Week 10: Being Present

  • Practice being present through various movement exercises

  • Focus on their breath through recording it with lines drawn on paper

  • Learn how to alter their breath to achieve a more relaxed state

  Week 11: Inner Landscape

  • Foster mind-body connection through guided sensory meditation

  • Offer space for imaginative expression of movement stories

  • Document stories by writing them.

  • Ground selves through connecting and artistically filling in the boundaries of their body shape.

• Week 12: Exploring Energy

  • Practice energizing breaths

  • Explore uplifting dance movements

  • Identify inner sources of energy through visualizing symbols

• Week 13: Exploring Your Reach

  • Learn about and explore the kinesphere, which is the space around us within reaching possibilities of the limbs without changing one's place.

  • Create patterned choreography to embody the kinesphere.

  • Identify what's within your reach that can help you improve yourselves and the lives of those around them.  

  • Identify what you would like that is currently not within reach, and explore what steps are needed to reach them. 

  Week 14: Exploring Boundaries

  • Check in and arrive into your personal space through movement

  • Identify and explore current boundaries and how they feel

  • Visualize desired boundaries, how they feel, and how they would impact relationships