What have I been doing? Expressive Arts Therapy school….

For those of you who have been wondering what in the world has happened to me, in January of 2008 I began to seriously explore what might I want to do with this wonderful life of mine that would serve me and the planet better. I looked into a long-standing invitation to enroll in the Expressive Arts Institute of San Diego(or EAISD) under the directorship of Dr. Judith Greer Essex, PhD EAT, and Wes Chester. I had a very dynamic and successful show, “Now and Here” in their old facility in 2005 and that experience still resonates with me. So after much deliberation, interviewing graduates and several frank meetings with Dr. Essex, familiarly known as Greer, I applied and was accepted into the 3 1/2 year program in their new facility located in the arts-oriented section of Liberty Station on the recycled military base in Point Loma. Concurrently, I also applied and was accepted into the Expressive Arts Master’s Program Therapy Tract at the prestigious European Graduate School (EGS) in Saas Fee, Switzerland to learn from the originators of this modern, well-founded and exciting approach to human health  care which only continues to gain in recognition, status and collaboration with other scientific approaches such as psychotherapy, art therapy and the medical field.

It has been life-altering to say the least. Fears and terrors faced and befriended, feeling exposed and vulnerable and raw, thrown into chaos and new community, provoked and shaped by group process, my world continues to expand. Some days I don’t recognize myself, the layers shift rapidly and slowly. I do miss my hermit artist life something terrible and I’m walking, dancing, slithering between the two. For now, I’m answering a call heard in 2006 on the road back from my first trip to New Mexico to become more visible which, step by step has led me to this life as artist, student, training practioner and peer.

This is a full-time scholastic endeavor based on a self-directed adult learning, circular and experiential model and is undoing all manner of notions about education and more. In my educational requirements are required hours in Expressive Arts Therapy sessions with a recognized teaching professional in the field, required hours of study with an authorized Master Artist in an art form that is not my own as well as required hours of practicum work in the community with assigned supervision in two different locations long-term.  I’ve chosen to work with Mary Reich, a reknowned Dancer/Choreographer and co-founder of Lower Left Dance Collective a graduate of EAISD and Expressive Arts Therapist, first since movement has been key in my life and health in the last 3 years and to help me in relationship to this renewed body I have. I continue to learn what an excellent choice I made as therapist/teacher, what a gift she is. For the Master Artist requirements, I studied with nationally recognized modern Painter, Reed Cardwell, for a period of time before choosing to pursue Performance Art, the most terrifying and the strongest attractor, adhering to the directive “Follow the Attractors” and “How will the study of an unfamiliar art form inform and influence my own art?” In this vein, I am now studying with Kathrin Keune, renowned German singer/performer and a recent EAISD graduate, in Voice Movement. I found my body’s love of singing in school this past year and am currently working on an arts based research project of Laurie Anderson, performance artist supreme, which I will present for my Level One exams.

I am also an active member and player in the Minstrels of Story Playback Theatre group in San Diego under the artistic direction of Taru Rivera. Playback Theatre was developed in 1975 by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas, who still run the School of Playback Theatre. Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which the audience members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted or played back immediately in a safe and supportive environment. Storytelling remains the most ancient of arts, told around campfires and circles for thousands of years.

I attended and successfully completed my first level of three at EGS this past summer and look forward to returning next July. The summer program in condensed, demanding and challenging and the spectacular Swiss Alps provided me with the nature hikes to balance the long hours of daily class work. 23 days in a row, no days off, most days from 9am-10:30 at night. I came home thoroughly exhausted to a point I’ve not experienced in years, if ever. Next year, I will schedule a week off afterwards to recuperate!

My practicum work has consisted of the ALBA school, working with at risk teens in Drama to develop healthy and appropriate social behaviors so they can hopefully return to the schools they were removed from; Expressive Arts Therapy groups (including my evolving Doll Workshops) at an eating disorder treatment facility; Expressive Arts Therapy groups for San Diego Youth and Community Services (SDYCS) which have included art groups with homeless teens at the SDYCS Storefront Shelter and currently with at risk youth ages 5-8 with behavioral and socialization issues.

In the meantime, among the reading and paper writing, I am from time to time practicing the piano, which I took up just before leaving for Switzerland, or writing melodies to accompany the songs I’m creating, or painting or dancing or puppetting or practicing stilt-walking or even once in a while paying attention to some in work dolls who are very, very patient.