Visioning in a Journal

In January I got a new journal and some inspiring books, and posted a spread from the journal called "all good things in 2010." Now my journal is filling up and I can more fully see what's ahead! I've journaled about big decisions like going back to school to get my Ph.D. in Creative Art Therapy http://www.drexel.edu/cnhp/creativearts/Drexel-CAT-Ph.D.brochure.pdf, and little moments of gratitude while on vacation.
I discovered a wonderful book and web site, The Creative Entrepreneur, by Lisa Sonora Beam
http://www.thecreativeentrepreneur.biz/
 http://lisasonorabeam.com/ and have been doing many exercises from there:

In this process, I've been amazed how freinds, helpers and guides have been arriving in my life.  My business partner, Rebecca Wilkinson, kept saying to me, "We have to do the visioning work!" and I didn't get it, until reading the creative entrepreneur book. I was then able to understand "visioning work" is also known as "strategic planning," and Lisa's step by step process was one I could hold on too.   

Rebecca and I are now dedicating time to grow our vision and plan strategically.

Then, I found incredible information and support though Laura Dessauer's "Fill my Pratice Now" system

http://businesssuccessfortherapists.com/

and continued to use my journal as I listened to her wisdom and brillance.  Her ideas came to life as I used the journaling work to en-vision the future.  

Increadably, I also was inspired this week by joining in the advocacy work of Americans for the Arts http://dc.broadwayworld.com/article/Arts_Supporters_Take_to_Washington_for_Arts_Advocacy_Day_20100413

  

with my friends pictured above as well as colleagues at the American Art Therapy Assocation http://arttherapy.org/.  I think that many good things are quickly multipling in 2010!

Altered Books Workshop Saturday May 1, 2010

Altered Books
Exploring Creativity and Identifying Strengths

Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC

and

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC

Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:00 AM-3:00 PM $45

(4.5 CEC's available $15 administrative fee*)

Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts
1632 U Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009

202 483 8600

“All healing can be perceived as a creative transformation of one thing into something else.  Healing and art are a single process.” Shawn McNiff

Come explore the world of altered books, an art form where old books are recycled into new works of art. In altering a book, we might draw or paint on the pages or cover of the book (gasp!), or add magazine images, stamps, or stickers. Using mixed media collage--books can be adorned with fabric, leather, beads, wire or found objects. Techniques such as cutting out niches, making pockets and doors, transfers, texture building can be used. Inspiration may strike when the artist finds a word, letter, or image that becomes an interesting background or focal point that generates a personal artistic response.

Altering books provide a symbolically rich means of exploring reflection and transformation, especially when we make art intentionally for healing and to engage in growth and change. Creative endeavors often increase a sense of engagement, of being in the “Here and Now,” which in turn increases positive emotions—expansiveness, acceptance, and hope. We will use our altered books to record and capture some of these positive emotions as we identify our strengths and participate in a positively life-altering day!

Objectives 1) Attendees will be able to list three ways that altering books can be used to explore therapeutic concerns.

Objectives 2) Attendees will be able to list three strategies for using creative endeavors for identifying strengths and increasing positive emotions.

Objectives 3) Attendees will be able to list the three therapeutic benefits of identifying strengths and increasing positive emotions.

Snacks will be provided. Lunch is available from healthy, reasonably priced restaurants in the neighborhood.

Contact Smith Farm Center

To register or for more information call 202-483-8600 or visit

http://www.smithfarm.com/

 heal@smithfarm.com

1632 U Street NW

Washington DC

20009

Metro accessible

Red & Green Lines

FREE Parking available

NBCC Provider #6327

*Smith Farm is an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider an may offer NBCC approved clock hours for events and programs that meet NBCC requirements. Events and programs for which NBCC approved clock hours will be awarded are identified in the Smith Farm calendar. Smith Farm is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

"What's it like when you feel better.."

Rebecca had some great suggestions for a novice art therapist on a list-serve we are both on, and she's let me share some of her ideas here, too. She talked about how when she does art therapy with people who are in crisis, her goals include helping people understand the connection between mind and body, helping people feel support and connection, and focusing on feeling that their lives are increasingly meaningful and enjoyable.

These sound like pretty good goals for the rest of us as well, so I thought I’d pass along her ideas.


Rebecca says that she asks people, "What is it like when you feel "better"….often with a warm up discussion about what it's like when it's "worse"--She asks, "How would you know that things were better, what changes would you experience, what would others observe, has it ever been better and if so what was different in your life, and, if not,  what would it be like?". Then, "If you felt better, what would you be doing, who would you be with, where would you be, what would it look like?”

Something to think about.


Rebecca continued: "What gives your life meaning? We have all had tough times, how have you survived the dark night of the soul? Who are the people that help and support you?"

What are your strengths and how have they helped you survive? (Imagine a friendly person in your life, how would they respond if asked to list a strength of yours…mightn’t they say, "friendly," "funny," "kind," "observant," "helpful to others", etc...).

What are the things for which you are grateful even in these troubling times?

Make some art about what comes to mind…

To address improving the body-mind connection, Rebecca suggests focusing on breathing, and do a sort of mental body scan in which you close your eyes and just note and observe the body starting with feet up through body and head, also attend to  breathing—this is based upon work of Jon Kabat-Zinn—then respond to the process by making art either in a mandala or an outline of the figure. Identify, using color line and shape, the areas where you experienced sensation or not, drawing colors and lines to represent that experience. If there are areas of concern or pain, people can modify the drawing to "make it better".

You could do a drawing like this, in your journal, at home, or even on your lunch hour…I think there might be benefits like Reecca sees at her work.  Because we have found, art can be a door to happiness.  What's been your experience?

Enjoy the spring,

Gioia

Spirit Dolls, Altered Books, and Happiness

Hi everyone- Smith Farm tells me April 10th's Spirit Dolls workshop is sold out! Isn't that great? I'm looking forward to working with the artists who attend, making little dolls to embody strengths they'd like to call into their lives...a neighbor gave me her old bead box a few months back (Thanks, Dawne!) and I'm going to get to offer all these wonderful broken jewelry bits to be recycled into positive intention art. I might have to make a few myself!

We are going to do another of our altered books workshops, which sold out in the fall. Altered Books: Exploring Creativity & Identifying Strengths will take place May 1, from 10AM-3PM, and is $45 at Smith Farm in DC. Come explore an art form where old books are recycled into new works of art. Altering books - with paint, collage, beads, found objects, anything! - provides a rich means of exploration, reflection, growth and change. We will use our altered books to record and capture positive emotions as we acknowledge our strengths and gifts. Materials provided. 4.5 CECs Available* To register, call 202.483.8600 or email darien@smithfarm.com. And you can always take my on-line course for only $25, "Altered Books in Art Therapy" under Art Therapy Theory, Practice and Techniques offered by the American Art Therapy Association here: http://arttherapy.trainingcampus.net/UAS/Modules/TREES/windex.aspx AATA members get a 28% discount! Then, on a Tuesday evening, the 4th of May, Rebecca and I will be giving our lecture The Art of Happiness: Positive Psychology and the Arts for FREE at Art at the Center, 2804 Sherwood Hall Lane Alexandria,Virgina http://www.artatthecenter.org/ from 7:00-9:00 pm. Just be sure to RSVP to http://www.artatthecenter.org/ Come if you'd like to increase life satisfaction, meaning, and engagement for your clients and yourself and discover what makes people of all ages happier, and how to increase personal and professional happiness. Who is happy? Why be happy? Can creative endeavors contribute to happiness, and if so, how? These questions and more will be explored through an introduction to Positive Psychology, the science of happiness. Positive psychology seeks to help us identify and build upon character strengths as tools to increase well being. We will explore the connection between Positive Psychology and the arts and define strategies for using creative endeavors to increase engagement, mastery, and flow.

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to define happiness.
Objective 2) Attendees will be able to list two strategies for implementing Positive Psychology practices to improve life satisfaction.
Objective 3) Attendees will gain experiential knowledge of a creative practice designed to increase engagement, mastery, and flow.

This would be be great lecture for art therapists, counselors, mental health professionals, parents, and really anyone interested in improving happiness in themselves and those around them.

Rebecca and I have been asking for feedback from people who've attend our lectures, and GW student Kelly Heartland told us our teaching was“incredibly empowering and even life-changing. What a gift for me! What a tool to share with others! It truly expands one's perspective.” Wow, Kelly! I am so glad. And when we last did this lecture at Smith Farm, Cynthia Hart wrote me after to say it was, “one of best lectures I've attended in a long time, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.” Us, too! We are proud of the work we are doing as registered and board certified art therapists, and it's so exciting to have taken next steps and co-authored Positive Art Therapy: Envisioning the Intersection of Art Therapy and Positive Psychology, which was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art Therapy last October. It's so fun to get to share the best of this information with you, so I hope you can make it to some of these Spring 2010 events!
Warmly,
Gioia

One way (there are many!) to create Spirit Figures…

Here's a bit of a start in case you can't make it to the workshop... Find yourself a wire and a bead that the wire fits through. The bead will be the little figure's head, so slide it to the midpoint of the wire. Twist wire a few times to hold the bead in place & make the neck. Loop & twist wire into arms and legs. Wrap any extra wire around the torso. At this point, some folks like to put a unique bead, bell, shell or rock inside, or write a poem or intention on a special scrap of paper to tuck inside. You could really tuck any object that means something to you within the torso. Select some fabric and a fine gauge wire. Use the fine gauge wire to wrap around the fabric to hold it in place, and cover body and arms and legs if you want with more wire wrapped fabric. Add details like hair, and decorate to suit yourself!

This little figure could use some more embelishment I think! But she's sure got some wonderful hair, created by a puff of unspun wool stuck on her head. Perhaps some more face would be nice, I'll have to see...

...what will your spirit figure look like?

Only a few spots left open in our Spirit Dolls for Strength Workshop!

Spirit Dolls for Strength

Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC and Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC

Saturday, April 10, 2010 10:00 AM-3:00 PM $45 (4.5 CEC's available $15 administrative fee*)Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts

1632 U Street, NW

Washington, DC 20009

202 483 8600

“If you want to transform a situation or a relationship, focusing on strengths is often more effective than focusing on problems”

Fialkov & Haddad, 2009

In this art-based workshop, we will create small spirit figures to identify and celebrate a quality or virtue that we would like to increase in our lives. Using simple doll making techniques, we will wrap shiny wire and sparking beads with unique fabrics and found objects to embody qualities or virtues that we value--appreciation, gratitude, joy, hope, optimism; freedom from anxiety and depression; health, and humor.

“When well-being comes from engaging our strengths and virtues, our lives are imbued with authenticity.” (Seligman, 2002a).

Together we will explore our sense of play, delight our senses, and create spirit dolls which invite our strengths and virtues to come to life.

Objective 1) Attendees will be able to identify and list strengths using Peterson and Seligmans’s Character Strengths and Virtues. Objective 2) Attendees will be able be able to list three ways that making spirit dolls can be used to identify and examine strengths. Objective 3) Attendees will learn wire wrapping, simple doll making technique, as evidenced by constructing one or more doll.

Snacks will be provided. Bring a box lunch. Lunch can also be gotten form healthy, reasonably priced restaurants in the neighborhood. Contact Smith Farm CenterTo register or for more information call 202-483-8600 or visit

www.SmithFarm.com

1632 U Street NW Washington DC 20009Metro accessible Red & Green Lines FREE Parking availableNBCC Provider #6327*Smith Farm is an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider an may offer NBCC approved clock hours for events and programs that meet NBCC requirements. Events and programs for which NBCC approved clock hours will be awarded are identified in the Smith Farm calendar. Smith Farm is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

Joyful Fused Collage Artist's Books

Cover

Inside Pages

Cover
Inside Pages


This book ties closed with shiny ribbon, and says, "hope more' when opened.





These photos are not as luminous as the scans but show the pages better-books are a challenge for me to photograph. I wish you could hold them, and turn the pages yourself. There are very soft fabrics right next to the hard crunch of the fused dyed paper towels-I like that. Again many thanks to Traci Bautista for the inspiration-these books are sort of the opposite of her "Book of Ruins" (page 106 of Collage Unleashed, published by Northlight.) Hey, Northlight, come publish me!-I am getting ready, with more hope, more joy and more discoveries.