CIIS Expressive Arts Therapy Program

Shama Farhana and I are facilitating a fun narrative collective expressive arts session at this amazing free international World Mental Health event on Saturday 6am PDT so if you’re an early bird or can’t sleep are in a later time zone or just want to connect through an arts activity register in the google doc below! https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSe2yVfmwR76n.../viewform

World Mental Health Fest is live now! It's so good to be part of a truly global event, promoting mental health through creativity in our complex, multicultural, multinational world that is going through so much pain.

We join in mourning the passing of Paolo Knill earlier this week. He was a seminal figure in the emergence of expressive arts therapy as a new discipline; a teacher, friend and colleague to so many around the world; and an energetic, playful artist-scholar-practitioner. At a distance, Paolo's work is most accessible through his abundant writing. I continue to share his chapter on "Soul Nourishment, or the Intermodal Language of the Imagination" (Levine & Levine, 1999) immedi...ately with new EXA students at CIIS. The more recent book, New Developments in Expressive Arts Therapy: The Play of Poiesis (Levine & Levine, 2017) includes not only Paolo's own words but many other authors' discussions of ideas he championed throughout his career, such as: aesthetic responsibility, decentering and harvesting, low-skill/high-sensitivity, beauty, oeuvre orientation, intermodal transfer, work-orientation. I also feel fortunate to have participated in several workshops led by Paolo, beginning with a Fall Symposium in Bisbee, AZ (2006) and then at the closing ritual for the IEATA conference at Lesley (2009). Up-close, in-person, and immersed into the musical-dramatic-mercurial processes Paolo conjured, I fell in even more deeply in love with expressive art therapy's potential to transport, transfigure, and trangress. Dear Paolo, you will be missed, and know that your legacy lives on in the bodies, minds and imaginations of all those who you touched. May you rest in peace. Our deepest sympathy and condolences to all who grieve at Paolo's passing, most especially his spouse, Margo Fuchs Knill, as well as his dear colleagues at EGS & Lesley. - Phil Weglarz, MA, MFT, REAT, CIIS-EXA core faculty

I am really humbled to be part of the working group on Global Leadership for the United Nations, focusing on the role of expressive arts in addressing traumatic... stress. This short film [also at https://youtu.be/fKLijf0WNXc] is my 10 minute speech to the assembled delegates from around the world, but it's a pretty good introduction to the key foundations found in expressive arts therapy based on research and cultural phenomena within the context of trauma and crises. See more

ATTENTION CURRENT AND ALUMNI CIIS STUDENTS I am pleased to announce the BPP@CIIS - Black Psychology Program at CIIS. This exciting new program is both an Africa...n-centered workshop series for the entire community, and a leadership development program specifically for Black/ African-ancestry students. This academic-year long program is led by Adeeba Deterville, PhDc, Adjunct Faculty (SUS) and Doctoral Candidate in the Transformative Studies program, and La Tronda Lumpkins, MSW, MBA and current PhD student in the Transpersonal Psychology program. BPP@CIIS is brought to you in collaboration with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Student Affairs. More details will be provided at the upcoming Information Session on Thursday, September 17 (see flyer below). Please RSVP at [email protected] All are invited to participate. This session will be recorded.