Arts and Healing Resiliency Center

Memorial Day 2016 Dr. Diane Kaufman, the founder of the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center, was busy watching a series of arts & healing training workshops for mental health clinicians as the content was about to disappear. In one of these, the presenter suggested we write a "poetic progress note." The stored memories of her body, mind, and spirit immediately transported her back to November 7, 2014, the day before her teenage patient took her own life. The poem led to the creation of the dramatized "What Makes Us" video which was later renamed "13 Reasons Why Not." Looking back now, all of this foreshadowed what was to become the launch of the 2023 Hold On Su***de Prevention Outreach Campaign. https://youtu.be/byxG8c793t8 ***deprevention

What Makes Us Teen Girl Su***de Reaches 40 Year High (CDC 8/3/17). "What Makes Us" is based on actual events and was written by a child psychiatrist-poet who is herself a ...

"Marble Me Free" wins Best Film on Women and Best Original Score for Short Films at the Goldcrest International Film Festival in India. Congratulations to Starlit Swan whose poem "The Marble Block" inspired the film and is the voice artist, Lucia P. Martinez Rojas animator, and Jean-Marc Yee composer, and Diane Kaufman, MD (founder-director of the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center) as producer/director. See www.marblemefree.com for details on the film and many mental health resources.

Please join our Arts & Healing Resiliency Center's "Wings of Resilience" Team in support of NAMIWalks! Just click on the link below to see our most beautiful donation page. Please show you care by joining our team and making a donation in any amount. Together we can help save lives. Thank you everyone. https://www.namiwalks.org/team/58087. The NAMIWalks Northwest event in Portland is Sunday May 21st at Peninsula Park, 700 N. Rosa Parks Way, Portland. Onsite registration is at 11:00 AM and the walk begins at 1:00 PM. Diane Kaufman, MD (founder-director of the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center will be there displaying the “Just Like This Tree” banner which was created in memory of her friend and mental health colleague nurse practitioner Stacy Hartline who tragically died by su***de in 2019. Dr. Kaufman wrote the text, envisioned the artwork design, and Amanda Meador rendered it visually.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the launch of the "Hold On" Su***de Prevention Outreach Campaign. Please read and share with others. Here's the link to contribute to the campaign, to hear the poem, songs, and to view all the arts & healing resources:
https://linktr.ee/holdoncampaign (when you share include the link in your the post). Thank you singer-songwriters Shan Carballo, Briana Webber, Tim Stuart, Corenia Yoder, Mia Stegner, and composer Raymiah Jackson. Thank you videographer/animator Lucia P. Martinez Rojas. ***deprevention2023

Today Sunday April 30th at 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (PST). "Marble Me Free: Poetry, Arts, & Healing” free online Arts & Healing Resiliency Center special event. “Marble Me Free” is an internationally award-winning animated film inspired by Starlit Swan’s poem, “The Marble Block.” Starlit, who has CRPS (Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome), videographer/animator Lucia Martinez Rojas, and producer/director Diane Kaufman, MD, who is also the founder of the AHRC, will share how serendipity, synchronicity, and the creative process brought them together. John Fox, acclaimed poetic medicine practitioner and founder of The Institute for Poetic Medicine, is an invited guest as are also Zen Writers from APPAMADA in Austin, Texas. The “Marble Me Free" film will be shown and participants will respond in writing and art making. We will celebrate the launch of Starlit’s two books, The Marble Block & The Poems It Inspired and Anything is Possible. Please see www.marblemefree.com for more information on the "Marble Me Free" project, biographies of Starlit, Lucia, and Diane, and to review its comprehensive mental health and healing resources. Register here on evenbrite for the free workshop: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/marble-me-free-poetry-arts-healing-tickets-615768148107

Marble Me Free: Poetry, Arts, & Healing How do we cope when life blocks our way? How do we go on living when feeling crushed by reality? "Marble Me Free" inspires hope and healing.

"Marble Me Free" was awarded Honorable Mention at Global Shorts (Los Angeles, CA) in the category of Best Animated Short. "Marble Me Free" powerfully depicts the "dark night of the soul" journey of physical and emotional pain. Based on "The Marble Block" poem by Starlit Swan who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, animated by Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, music and sound design by Jean-Marc Yee, I was director and producer. For details on the inspired range and depth of this mental health & healing film and project, please see www.marblemefree.com.

Wonderful News! "Marble Me Free" is a Finalist at Global Shorts (Los Angeles, CA) in the category of Best Animated Short. This is from their website: "If you receive a Finalist Notification, your film is guaranteed to place in the competition, if not for your submitted category(s) then for an Award of Excellence, Merit, Honorable Mention or Special Mention placement." "Marble Me Free" powerfully depicts the "dark night of the soul" journey of physical and emotional pain. Based on "The Marble Block" poem by Starlit Swan who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, animated by Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, music and sound design by Jean-Marc Yee, and Diane Kaufman, MD as director and producer. For details on the inspired range and depth of this mental health & healing film and project, please see

Four children enjoying the magic of the "Bird That Wants to Fly" musical puppet performance. Thank you puppeteer, singer, and RACC grant recipient, Kris Bluett, and Steve Overton, founder of Portland Puppet Museum. Bird and Horse are so very happy!

Thank you so very much to Steve Overton (founder of Portland Puppet Museum) for creating this most beautiful quilt covering for "Beautiful Animal that I Am," who is the magical horse in the musical puppet show, "Bird That Wants to Fly." The art from the heart imagery is based on Olya Kalatsei's illustrations in the book. Horse and Bird are very grateful to you, Steve.

Thank you, Steve Overton & Portland Puppet Museum, for giving a home to "Bird That Wants to Fly" to delight children and adults.

Here's the poster presented by the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center at the Oregon Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Annual Conference held on April 22nd. On display were su***de prevention art cards, free "everyday is su***de prevention day" pins, information on the launch of the "Hold On" Su***de Prevention Outreach Campaign, and Dr. Kaufman's books, "15 Poems to Healing & Recovery," "Missing Mommy," Three Objects Spoke to Me" and its companion coloring book, and "Bird That Wants to Fly."

You are cordially invited to join the Board of Directors
of The Institute for Poetic Medicine for a Free Online Event.

An Act of Human Magic
A Poetry Reading via Zoom
at the close of National Poetry Month
Tuesday, April 25
4 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Central, 7 p.m. Eastern

This is a Free Online Event
Join here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89372828425

Learn more about the books described in the bio section of the flyer below:

Geoff Oelsner’s book, Attunements:
https://www.poeticmedicine.org/post/attunements-for-the-earth

Chuck Joy’s book of poems, Vinyl:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1088071805?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_NQPQQN1VAEMJP0C5TR0D

As part of a donation to IPM, we offer John Fox’s poetry chapbook, The Only Gift to Bring:
https://www.poeticmedicine.org/give

Save the Date! "Marble Me Free: Poetry, Arts, & Healing” online Arts & Healing Resiliency Center special event will be held on Sunday, April 30th from 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (PST). In honor of National Poetry Month (April) and in anticipation of Mental Health Awareness Month (May), please join us! “Marble Me Free” is an internationally award-winning animated film inspired by Starlit Swan’s poem, “The Marble Block.” Starlit, who has CRPS (Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome), videographer/animator Lucia Martinez Rojas, and producer/director Diane Kaufman, MD, who is also the founder of the AHRC, will share how serendipity, synchronicity, and the creative process brought them together. John Fox, acclaimed poetic medicine practitioner and founder of The Institute for Poetic Medicine, is an invited guest as are also Zen Writers from APPAMADA in Austin, Texas. The “Marble Me Free" film will be shown and participants will respond in writing and art making. We will celebrate the launch of Starlit’s two books, The Marble Block & The Poems It Inspired and Anything is Possible. Please see www.marblemefree.com for more information on the "Marble Me Free" project, biographies of Starlit, Lucia, and Diane, and to review its comprehensive mental health and healing resources. Register here on evenbrite for the free workshop: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/marble-me-free-poetry-arts-healing-tickets-615768148107

Marble Me Free: Poetry, Arts, & Healing How do we cope when life blocks our way? How do we go on living when feeling crushed by reality? "Marble Me Free" inspires hope and healing.

We are excited to share a wonderful event at the Portland Puppet Museum SE Portland. "Bird That Wants to Fly" is a community outreach social-emotional project to help address the crisis in youth mental health. The story that inspired an opera and now a musical puppet performance was written by Diane Kaufman, MD who is the founder-director of the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center.
Performances are on April 8, 15 & 22. For more information and to purchase tickets visit, https://wwwpuppetmuseumstore.contentshelf.com/shop

A free international "Healing Arts Symposium" was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You might enjoy it, too. Here's more information from the website: "This symposium is presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and World Health Organization (WHO) Arts and Health Program in partnership with the Creative Arts Therapies Consortium at NYU Steinhardt, the NeuroArts Blueprint, an initiative of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the Health, Medicine, and Society Program at The Aspen Institute, and the Open Mind Project." https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-speaks/free-lectures/healing-arts-symposium?fbclid=IwAR3eq6dxVog7AQnNvT_MwgL1mgln-nwYmZ5VhDU6UZzxRnN9c-Dg5qz-I8I

www3.metmuseum.org

Can a song embodying compassion and love help save lives? I pray it can. When I read of the su***de death of Stephen Boss aka tWitch, I gasped. As a child psychiatrist, poet, and su***de attempt/loss survivor, I was inspired to write the poem, "Heartbreak Times Infinity." Singer-songwriter Shan has transformed that poem into song with heartfelt sensitivity and power. If you are having suicidal thoughts, please do not hesitate to reach out to a caring family member, a friend, therapist, psychiatrist, and/or call the 988 su***de and crisis lifeline. Your heartbreak does not have to kill you. Your broken heart can heal. Life can get better. Problems can be solved. With love, Diane Kaufman, MD (founder-director of the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center. ***deprevention ***depreventionsong

Heartbreak Times Infinity Can a song embodying compassion and love help save lives? I pray it can. When I read of the su***de death of Stephen Boss aka tWitch, I gasped. As a child ps...

Here's the registration posting for the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center's "Follow Your Arts Heart" December Special Event featuring poet and collage artist Zohra Hussain. The "Phoenix Bird Rising" painting is by AHRC founder-director, Diane Kaufman, MD.

The After Party: Collage Arts Workshop After the "party" when alone and in the dark, what emotions, glitter, and refections are there? Writing prompts and collage will guide us.

"Marble Me Free" is a Semi-Finalist at the Brussels World Film Festival for the month of October in the category of "Best Animated Short." Final judging takes place by October 30th. "Marble Me Free" powerfully depicts the "dark night of the soul" journey of physical and emotional pain. Based on "The Marble Block" poem by Starlit Swan who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, animated by Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, music and sound design by Jean-Marc Yee, I was director and producer. For details on the inspired range and depth of this mental health & healing film and project, please see www.marblemefree.com.

Please join us at the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center free online "Follow Your Arts Heart" Special Event on Sunday October 23rd at 1:00 PM. Our guest facilitator is Jennifer Brinkman, LICSW, LCSW, who will be presenting the "Tree of Life Project: Exploring Our Inner Stories Through Art & Writing."

Tree of Life Project: Exploring Our Inner Stories Through Art & Writing Using the tree as a metaphor, we will tell stories of our lives.

Listen NOW & Connect with Artists — Women of Substance Radio Podcast

Wonderful Online Creativity Conference! The AHRC founder-director Dr. Diane Kaufman has presented at the Creativity & Madness Conferences, and highly recommends Women of Resilience. Please check out the speaker page, and register for the zoom online offering.

Women Of Resilience Goes To Charleston, SC — Creativity and Madness 1:00pm Complimentary Lunch and Brain Storming Women of Resilience, where do we go from here? Group discussion with Jacqueline, BA, MA & Barry Panter, MD, Ph.D.

This Arts and Healing Resiliency Center - "Follow Your Arts Heart" Special Event is powerful. It is dedicated to Amelia Coffman, an expert on resilience. The presentation brings forth in stark honesty what is rarely spoken aloud but so needs to be heard. This presentation will deepen your humanity.

Nurturing Poetic Narrative for Post Traumatic Growth This "Follow Your Arts Heart" September Special Event for the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center is dedicated to Amelia Dawn Coffman. Our human "Way of Life" e...

A message from founder-director Diane Kaufman, MD: Award winning song "Lift You Up" is raising funds for Backline, a not for profit organization offering mental health services and resources for musicians and their families. "Lift You Up" was inspired by the su***de death of beloved country music singer Naomi Judd, so I thought it only right that the song be used on behalf of muscicians' well-being. There's s a 1:1 match for Backline donations made now through World Mental Health Day, October 10th. Please donate. Thank you. "Here's Lift You Up" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XtWQtkawoI

"Lift You Up" can help Backline bring free mental health and wellness resources to the music industry Together we can help prevent su***de. Please give today. Won't you lend a helping hand? Let me tell you why I care. I am a poet, artist, child psychiatrist, and humanism in medicine awardee. I also have Bipolar II Disorder. When I was in medical school, I attempted su***de. I am forever grateful I s...

Art inspired by the AHRC's Special Event, "The Garden of your HeART: A Resiliency Tool for Growth & Transformation" facilitated by Karen Corona, LCSW and held online August 14, 2022.Â

Jennifer Brinkman, Therapist & Expressive Artist:
"Art and particularly expressive arts has contributed to my overall well-being and self-care. I find photography and painting to be healing & both help me stay centered. Having practiced art forms since a young child, I feel naturally drawn to creating, either on paper, sculpture or in my garden.

Working in the mental health field for the past ten years it felt natural to bring expressive arts into my sessions with clients and encourage art and creativity with all the children, adolescents and families I have worked with. I continue to spread the joy of creativity as a healing modality.

My artwork was inspired in the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center’s The Garden of your HeART" special event workshop. The collage blends chalk pastels, oil pastels, water color and photography to create my inner garden of peace. In the workshop, journal prompts about resilience and self-care led me to contemplate how much my actual garden, nature & wilderness, tie deeply to positive mental health and fill me up when depleted.

The physicality of gardening/using my body-helps me stay in the moment. Hiking in the forests and breathing in the mountainous air does the same.

Gardening, hiking/walking in the forest, and drinking healing tea help me cultivate the mindfulness that is important for my day to day wellness.

For this piece I centered on key elements of nature- picking out images that speak to my natural surroundings including water, the forest, garden and tea, a part of morning mindfulness practice.

I enjoy using multimedia in my collage, blending various mediums with imagery to create a depth of texture and color that speak to my inner core.

Moving from night into day, with water flowing into the forest, and calming tea contrasts with the chaotic energy in the lower forest area of my collage. Some of the forest comes across as kelp which is reminiscent of the ocean that I am drawn to on both coasts.

Including the bird and butterfly speaks to how drawn I am to life within nature and how interdependent we are on each other to survive in this world."

Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing your process, reflections, and inspiring art! What is your inner garden and how can you help it flourish? Manifesting art can help our inner world be drawn into a healing present and future."

We did it! "Lift You Up" is an Award Winner for "Best Original Song" at the Portland (Oregon) New Alternative Voices Award which is an international contest. Congratulations to the "Lift You Up" co-creative team: Corenia Yoder, Tim Stuart, Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, and yours truly for poem/lyric. Here's the "Lift You Up" lyric video: https://youtu.be/wRsLsEYUSmw

"Marble Me Free" is awarded Special (Honorable) Mention for "Best Women's Short" at the Gold Star Movie Awards in New Jersey. "Marble Me Free" powerfully depicts the "dark night of the soul" journey of physical and emotional pain. Based on the poem "The Marble Block" by Starlit Swan who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, animated by Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, with music by Jean-Marc Yee, the director and producer was Diane Kaufman, MD who is the founder-director of the Art & Healing Resiliency Center. For details on the inspired range and depth of this mental health & healing film and project, please see www.marbelmefree.com

If you are interested in purchasing the "Create Resilience" Poster please write a comment below with your contact information.

"Marble Me Free" is an Official Selection for "Best Women's Short" at the Gold Star Movie Awards in New Jersey. "Marble Me Free" powerfully depicts the "dark night of the soul" journey of physical and emotional pain. Based on the poem "The Marble Block" by Starlit Swan who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, animated by Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, with music by Jean-Marc Yee, I served as director and producer. For details on the inspired range and depth of this mental health & healing film and project, please see www.marblemefree.com.