Public Workshops
Consultation Groups & Professional Seminars
Academic Courses
Programs

Academic Courses

These classes are offered at CIIS, 1453 Mission St. San Francisco, CA (www.ciis.edu/academicprograms or 415-575-6100, ask for the registrar).

Creative Aging: EXA and the Elderly Fall Semester 2010
Integrative Seminars in Expressive Arts Therapy TBA
The Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy Fall Semester 2010
EXA and Jung: The Symbolic Process

Spring 2011

Introduction to EXA (Deepening Your Practice: The Foundations of Expressive Arts Therapy) Spring Semester 2011

Creative Aging: Expressive arts with Elders

Description

In this course, participants will explore normative and critical issues that arise in aging through a Jungian expressive arts therapy lens. Expressive arts provides an array of creative ways to connect with physical, emotional, existential and spiritual aspects of the self, allowing elderly clients the freedom to convey their deepest thoughts and feelings, even when their neurological, cognitive and verbal centers have deteriorated, to express grief over regrets and losses in a fuller way, and to manage any anxiety and fear they may have about the experience of death. Participants will leave this course with expressive art techniques they can begin to use with aging clients and their families.

Purpose and Benefits of the Course

This course is designed for emerging and practicing therapists who have an introductory and intermediate understanding of Jungian psychology, expressive arts therapy and the issues of aging. For those who are advanced in any of the above areas, this course will present a different approach and application of these ideas to the issues of aging. Participants will deepen their understanding of these clinical areas and learn to apply these processes in their practices.

Additional Information

 

Integrative Seminars in Expressive Arts Therapy

Description

This course is the final class in the EXA masters program and is designed to assist our students in integrating many aspects of their learning in this program: the psychological and EXA theories, experiential learning, personal growth, artistic development, and EXA clinical experience of the practicum. With this integration, students will deepen their understanding of the various EXA approaches and develop their own emerging EXA style or approach.

The various threads of the EXA educational tapestry will be explored through a series of seminars. The first seminar will investigate the needs of different populations with regard to EXA therapy. This seminar will employ personal practicum experiences and current psychological and EXA research in this investigation.

The second Integrative Arts discussion will help students compare and contrast their various approaches to EXA. EXA Faculty will be invited to participate. Students will be asked to probe presenters to help them understand their approach.

The third seminar will be student-directed. Each student will present a cogent exploration of his/her personal journey, philosophical underpinning, current research and how this informed his or her current clinical EXA therapy approach.

The final seminar will be a community arts presentation by the third year students to the larger EXA community of their current artistic experience.

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, students will be able to:

Additional Information


Introduction to EXA (formerly Deepening Your Practice
for non-expressive arts students and Foundations of EXA)

Description

The psyche is revealed not only through words, but through images, symbols and the body. The Expressive Arts reawaken the language of image, movement, sound, metaphor, drama and poetic utterances, revealing the deepest aspects of the self and expressing what often cannot be put into words. Drawing, painting, sculpture, movement, dance, sandplay and ritual provide access to your client’s inner world Weaving art processes into clinical and counseling work greatly expands the capacity to articulate-with fullness and specificity-what lies buried within us, by using each modality as it called for in the unfolding process. As both therapist and client work with these healing multi-arts processes, the creative spirit is aroused and the therapeutic process itself is experienced as art.

Integrating clinical and expressive arts theory, experiential process with the arts and clinical applications, participants will learn about

Additional Information

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The Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy

Description

The Expressive Arts Therapist must have an understanding of creative arts modalities, the creative process, and the idea of multi-modal theories in order to develop a skilled flair for weaving the arts into a healing tapestry. By first introducing the individual creative arts modalities, this course focuses on introducing the Expressive Arts approaches, paradigms, and theoretical concepts that aid in developing multi-modal fluency. Through personal process, discussion, and readings, Expressive Arts approaches will be demonstrated, compared, and contrasted. Additional readings and class presentations will address the key issues cited above.

The experienced EXA therapist must become familiar with the rich world of EXA approaches, theories, and multi-modal paradigms for the weaving of creative arts modalities into a healing process for their clients. In addition, familiarity with the creative process and its links with the therapeutic process and spiritual emergence must be a part of an EXA therapist's repertoire. With this grounding, the new therapist can then develop her own EXA approaches that will address the issues and needs of her clients, cross-culturally with individuals and groups.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Additional Information

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EXA and Jung: The Symbolic Process

Description

A kinship naturally exists between expressive arts therapy and Jungian Psychology. Both are image-based approaches to understanding and healing the psyche and each emphasizes the symbolic process in its own unique fashion. This course weaves together the theory and practice of both these approaches into a Jungian-oriented EXA healing tapestry of images, emotions, understanding and transformation. The class explores the basic concepts of Jungian psychology and compares and contrasts them to EXA theory. Learning will be through experiential process, creative discussions, class reading and experiential and academically based assignments.

(image © ARAS)

Learning Objectives

Participants will: