Workshop for social workers, counselors and psychologists:

Art from the Heart: A Therapeutic Activity for Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents in Group

    This workshop teaches a creative intervention for middle school students to build relational intelligence through making art together in a therapeutic group.

Art from the Heart addresses:
    * The relational crisis of early adolescence
    * Need for authentic connection in an anti-relational school
      environment
    * Exclusion and bullying
    * At-risk girls' need for resilience-building connection
    * Learning to recognize a growth-fostering relationship
      before adolescence begins
    * Schools' construction of arts activities as competition
    * Individualistic shortcomings of typical art therapy groups

The interactive nature of creating communal art projects provides a context in which students can explore and understand interpersonal connections and disconnections. The students begin to build bonds in this group both through verbal communication and by making artwork. The workshop is grounded in a relational-cultural approach, and the group is suitable for school or therapeutic settings. The Art from the Heart workshop will teach the skills necessary to lead these relationship-fostering groups using art therapy techniques. The workshop will include a small activity similar to what the students will work on in Art from the Heart groups, and will provide a free, detailed activity guide. Artistic talent not required.

*

Workshops taking place in May 2010.

For more information, please call the workshop facilitator,

Dr. Sassen, at (978) 456-7366 or email info@brikontheweb.org.

Process curriculum provided to workshop attendees.
Cost: sliding scale $10-$80
Presenter: Georgia Sassen, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist
2 PDP's for school-based social workers and counselors; 2 CEU's for social workers applied for

*Photos from an Art from the Heart workshop that took place on 2/10/10 with the girls from Cambridge Community Services' Creative Action Project (CAP)