Creating Momentum Art Therapy

OFTEN WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH. This concept is not that hard to understand. How often is someone "speachless" or they "don't have the right words to explain how they feel?" How often do you dream as if you are reading words in a book? How often do you dream in images and feeling? Do you remember sentences completely one word at at time or do you recall concepts. When you image your Happy Place, do you read those words in your minds' eye or do you transport yourself to pleasant space identifiable the sensory stimuli?

Often words are not enough to process grief and trauma. Often words are not the best way to process grief and trauma or to make sense of something is causing someone to feel stuck. Often words are getting in the way by censoring out the actual real content that needs to be processed in order to discard it from out lives or shelve it safely on a place where we carry it but we stop tripping over it.

I am bothered that this title says "Expand" when what NY art therapists are asking for is a to "Return NYer's Access to Creative Art Therapy."

In the height of the pandemic Hochul decided to cross off Licensed Creative Art Therapist from the list of psychotherapist mandated to be covered by insurance. Art Therapist have done all the work that is essentially equal to talk therapist (literally studying and tested on talk therapy and traditional therapy techniques while ALSO learning how to use the creative process to improve clients ability to express themselves.

There are many people who had to abruptly stop seeing their therapists because suddenly art therapy was no longer covered. Thank you Hochul.

Commentary: Expand New Yorkers' access to creative arts therapy Insurance, including Medicaid, should cover this important alternative to traditional talk therapy.

Creating Resilience: Food and Mood series.

Zoom-based small rolling admissions group (6-8) art therapy process groups that focus on food and mood.

Three different special interests groups:
(1) emotional eating: find ways to manage stress and improve health by reducing the use of eating behaviors as coping skills

(2) athletes: explore the complex relationship of food and exercise for those who identify as athletes. Find ways to support your performance goals while maintaining a healthy relationship with food.

(3) Type 2 diabetes: adjusting to new relationship with food.

When: Mon/Wed/Fridays. 90 min groups. 11 am and 6pm.

What: Art making prompts will be offered. Art process groups do no focus on art products. They instead offer space to creatively explore challenges and offer opportunities to cope with stress.

Non-clinical level challenges.
Not replacement for personal therapy.

Must have at least 3 to launch new group.

Fee: $140/4 session ($35/session).

Coming soon if enough enough interest. Sign up forms will be generated and posted soon.

Any interest? Message me:
Small group work coming soon: Virtual Art therapy for athletes struggling with disordered eating.

Are you aware of how helpful art therapy is for those struggling with disordered eating?

Waves of distress for some can be surfed and not every impulse needs to end with a maladaptive decision.. if we have alternative effects coping strategies.

By experiencing art making as a replacement strategy to meet the need that emotional eating tends to fill, some people do manage to experience calm grounding.

The added benefit of art therapy is that participants may even end up with artist creations they are proud of. A record of their success. There is something incredibly rewarding about turning a self-destructive impulse into a work of art that not only can’t hurt you but also reminds you that you can create art you are proud of.

Art Therapy for Eating Disorders Art therapy for eating disorders is used in treatment as a way to work through emotional issues and move closer to recovery.

This is insane.

(1) RWJBarnabas wants a Creative Art Therapist.

(2) New Jersey Licenses professional art therapist defining art therapist as psychotherapist who can work independently, have diagnostic privileges, and who use traditional psychotherapy techniques alongside creative expression to provide therapeutic interventions.

(3) The state requires people like me to pay for my LPAT (licensed professional art therapist) license, to complete 40 CEs every two years (30 live) which costs a lot. NJ requires LPATs to have a Masters degree specifically in Art Therapy or equivalent classes that are art therapy focused, then complete 4500 hours of post-masters degree work under licensed mental health providers. Art therapists in training often pay out of pocket for years of supervision. A national board certified exam must be passed. This exam has been accepted by PA as equivalent to the National Counselors exam. Then we pay the art therapy board to maintain our Board Certification and now we pay the state to maintain our state license.

(4) But our state doesn’t mandate insurance companies to recognize LPATs as a covered mental health provider. The only state that does is MD. So there is effectively no reimbursement for mental health care for psychotherapy provided by art therapist.

(5) But social workers who are not licensed as art therapists can provide art therapy? They can get paid $77k per year to perform work they aren’t actually experts in.

This is why I am returning to school. If I want to bill insurance for art therapy, getting a license in art therapy is not the way. I need to be a social worker to bill as an art therapist. 🤦‍♀️

How does this make any sense at all. It doesn’t. It’s a shame. My art therapy Masters degree wasn’t free.

Of course all life is a process of breaking down, but the blows that do the dramatic side of the work—the big sudden blows that come, or seem to come, from outside—the ones you remember and blame things on and, in moments of weakness, tell your friends about, don't show their effect all at once. There is another sort of blow that comes from within—that you don't feel until it's too late to do anything about it, until you realize with finality that in some regard you will never be as good a man again. The first sort of breakage seems to happen quick—the second kind happens almost without your knowing it but is realized suddenly indeed. Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation—the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true. Life was something you dominated if you were any good. Life yielded easily to intelligence and effort, or to what proportion could be mustered of both. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Book: The Crack-Up https://amzn.to/3qzmv5j)

(Art: Photograph by W***y Ronis)

Mandala-making just because it feels good.

Newly Published research:

Brain monitoring suggests common link between electrical tremors and mental health disorders A new review of current literature has found that irregular responses in the brain to challenging tasks and mistakes could be key to understanding common links between abnormal behaviors in a range of mental illness and cognitive disorders.

I got my Booster! This makes me so happy. I have been personally motivated to make sure I got my booster the first chance I could. Today is my day.
We currently have a family friend fighting for his life on a ventilator. It is the most heartbreaking experience to wait and pray daily for a miracle. Almost 700k in our country have died from Covid. The amount of grief and loss we are collectively navigating through is incomprehensible. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to protect myself and anyone that comes in contact with me.

4 lessons from the longest-running study on happiness Essential, data-derived advice for leading a happy, healthy life, shared by psychiatrist Robert Waldinger.

How to support a friend or family member who’s struggling with their mental health Every person’s experience is different, so what’s the best way for you to show up for them? Mental health advocate Sahaj Kaur Kohli provides you with 8 dos and 8 don’ts.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210908180525.htm

What the brain shows: The benefits of virtual reality in creative arts therapies: Measurement of brain function during virtual reality art therapy showed benefits of different tasks Researchers examined the differences in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation between two distinct drawing tasks in virtual reality. Results of the study indicated significant differences between a rote tracing task and a creative self-expression task, with the rote tracing task showing an increase in....

Process Art: I am enamored with Process Art right now. I am offering Process Art groups at the hospital with tremendous positive reception. I am also available to provide Virtual Process Art sessions to individuals and small groups if you are interested in joining me in this journey.

I have been doing this daily and enjoying the time I spend in non-judgmental contemplation.This work leads to growth and insight when I finally make time to just let my mind do what it needs to do.

Unlike meditation, the principles aim to allow participants space for the mind to wander and process whatever is important at the time. Be ok with "not knowing", "listen" to yourself as you work, "respect" whatever arises without judgment or criticism as this is not about the art. Don't complement anyone else's art because that shift the focus to the product. We are not aiming to create good art. We want to be free to "follow our energy" and do what feels natural without concern about the end product. Take risks. Commit to marks on the page. We want to be present in the moment as we create to "deal with the difficulties" that arise in the art. We want to resolve conflicts in the art, solve problems in the art, accept what we created in the art. "Do not interpret" our work. This not art psychoanalysis. We want to recognize true "completion" and what that feels like to complete something because it is done not because we are done dealing with it.

Like meditation, the art making process acts as an anchor into the present moment to ground us as we work, allowing us to let go of thoughts that are not helpful as we process and grow.

If you want to participate in individual or small group process art sessions with me via zoom, please reach out for more information!

Watch this video to understand more about what Process
https://www.processarts.com/videos/

This lecture was excellent.

https://www.processarts.com/our-podcasts/

Podcasts Visit the post for more.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210723105247.htm

How the brain paints the beauty of a landscape Researchers investigate how our brains proceed from merely seeing a landscape to feeling its aesthetic impact.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210723121512.htm

'Feel good' brain messenger can be willfully controlled, new study reveals: Neuroscientists show that mice can learn to manipulate random dopamine impulses for reward Researchers have discovered that spontaneous impulses of dopamine, the neurological messenger known as the brain's 'feel good' chemical, occur in the brain of mice. The study found that mice can willfully manipulate these random dopamine pulses for reward.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210414154941.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmind_brain%2Fbehavior+%28Behavior+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

New study reveals brain basis of psychopathy According to a new study, the structure and function of the brain areas involved in emotions and their regulation are altered in both psychopathic criminal offenders and otherwise well-functioning individuals who have personality traits associated with psychopathy.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210408152250.htm

Altering traumatic memories: Researchers have found that they can indirectly retrieve and weaken fear memories; the discovery has therapeutic implications for treating trauma Scientists could be a step closer to finding a way to reduce the impact of traumatic memories.

Correcting altered brain circuit could tackle coinciding obesity and depression Researchers have identified and characterized a novel neural circuit that mediates the reciprocal control of obesity and depression in mouse models, and a potential therapy.