Art Therapy and Professional Development Short Courses
2007—2008

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NOTE: Should you be accepted as a classified student, upon formal application, the Short Courses you have completed will be honored as elective credits.

SCHEDULE

COURSE DETAILS

ART THERAPY WITH INFANTS

This workshop will explore theories of relationship and attachment, as well as disorders of infancy and childhood. The role of the parent as partner in infant therapy will be examined. The importance of the tactile experience will be demonstrated through art making, role-playing, and video presentation.

Participants will explore how to:

• Become familiar with an infant mental health approach to therapy with infants and preschool children.
• Review the basic premise underlying attachment theory.
• Learn about the effects of poor attachment on the child as well as the parent.
• Become aware of the need for the dyad's connection with the therapist and of the deeper effect of transference and counter-transference when working at this primitive level.

INSTRUCTOR: Lucille Proulx, M.A., ATR., is a registered art therapist and a consultant with 20 years of clinical art therapy experience in the field, in Canada, the U.S.A. and Thailand. She has taught at the BCSAT for 5 years.

REQUIRED READING: Strengthening Emotional Ties Through Parent- Child-Dyad Therapy, Lucille Proulx

DATES: Sept. 29 & 30, 2007
TIMES: Sat, Sun, 9:00 – 4:30
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $300.00
CREDIT: 0.5 units

INTRODUCTION TO ART THERAPY AS A PROFESSION

This workshop will:

1. Explore the art therapy profession and applications of art therapy in our communities, including the Open Studio and Artist-in-Residence models
2. Introduce the components of the training program and admission requirements for clinical art therapy at the BC School of Art Therapy;
3. Include a creative art therapy studio session;
4. Provide an opportunity to meet with instructors and graduates of the school and consult instructors regarding the application procedure.

DATES: October 20, 2007 & April 12, 2008
TIME: Sat, 10:30 – 2:30
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $150.00 (includes application fee to school if desired)

FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME DISORDER (FASD)/ NEO NATAL ABSTINENCE SYNDROME (NAS) AND ART THERAPY

This workshop will provide a comprehensive presentation about FASD and NAS involving current information from research and case examples of women and children living with FASD and NAS. The need for accurate diagnosis and the availability of diagnostic services will be explored. The workshop will include experiential art and storytelling exercises that have been used with this population.
Elizabeth Miles and Janet Christie presently co-facilitate Moms Mentoring Moms, a weekly support group, which includes art therapy for women struggling with past or present addiction issues and offers parenting and information about raising children with FASD and NAS. They also co-facilitated a group in 2002 that generated informational and promotional material for other high-risk women, which is now used throughout Canada.

INSTRUCTORS: Elizabeth Miles, B.A., Dip. IATE (U.K.) is a graduate of the Institute for Arts in Therapy & Education in London, England. In the U.K., Elizabeth worked within the prison system as a creative arts therapist and counsellor and founded the Arts Counselling Trust. Elizabeth has been a core course instructor for the BC School of Art Therapy and has provided art therapy, client support and facilitation services to VIHA, PEERS, Bridges for Women, Victoria READ Society, FASD Community Circle and at William Head Institution. In 2007, Elizabeth started ARTec, which provides art therapy and counselling services to private clients and not for profit agencies.
Janet Christie is a key worker with the FASD Community Circle providing support to families living with FASD, assisting them with the different systems (education, criminal justice, social services) they may encounter. Janet has first hand experience living with FASD, having raised a son who was diagnosed with FASD as an adult.

DATES: Nov. 3 & 4, 2007
TIMES: Sat, Sun, 9:00 - 4:00
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $300.00
CREDIT: 0.5 units

ART THERAPY AND EATING DISORDERS

Art therapy is used in eating disorder clinics as part of a multi-faceted approach. Art therapy provides an opportunity for self-awareness that comes directly from the individual, accessing unconscious feelings and thoughts and integrating them cognitively into the conscious world. Art therapy has proven to be a successful technique to support individuals to increase body awareness and examine self-perceptions.
In this workshop participants will explore a variety of art exercises that can provide opportunities to explore attitudes toward the body. The course will also include material on eating disorders, a short film and slides that illustrate several clients' art, done at an eating disorder center. There will be opportunities to create with magazines, paint, paper, clay and found materials.

INSTRUCTOR: Judy Baker, B.A. Dip. ATh., has worked with seniors groups, mentally challenged adults and children's groups. She has experience working with women, individually and in groups, at an eating disorder center program. Currently, she has a private practice and works at the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Center.

DATES: April 5 & 6, 2008
TIMES: Sat, Sun, 9:00 - 4:30
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $300.00
CREDIT: 0.5 units

EXPLORING JUNG'S FOUR FUNCTIONS OF THE PSYCHE THROUGH ART

This workshop offers a creative and intellectually stimulating opportunity to explore Carl Jung's investigation of the four functions of the psyche: thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. Participants will have the opportunity to discover experientially how and when these functions are operating in the creative process, separately and in combination with each other, as well as the role and relevance of each function's contribution in the path of individuation. This experiential aspect is framed with a theoretical overview of the four functions and how they tie into Jung's notion of the quaternity and its inherent relationship to wholeness.
Through art making, writing, poetry and fairy tales, participants will discover how the different functions operate in our psyches and personalities, and help us perform the many tasks in life. The therapeutic value of raising awareness of the interactions of the four functions will be explored, as well as how this awareness leads to the integration of what Jung termed the inferior function. This workshop offers a unique combination of theoretical and experiential learning that activates both left and right hemispheres of the brain, a combination that creates a balance between synthesis and analysis, creativity and practicality, imagination and reality.

INSTRUCTOR: Susanna Ruebasaat holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts and a Master's degree in Education, as well as having completed one year of doctoral work in psychology. She is a qualified and experienced art therapist and a certified teacher. She has extensive additional training in creativity development, communication skills, group dynamics, conflict resolution, gender issues and workshop facilitation. Susanna has specific skills in the areas of using art as a vehicle to access levels of communication that lie beneath cognitive and verbal levels of communication. She has worked for the past several years designing and teaching workshops that address a range of needs, with a particular emphasis on enhancing self-awareness through examining beliefs and values. Susanna has taught in the public school system, through Community Education programs, in the non-profit sector, as well as presented her research findings at conferences, professional organizations and societies.

DATES: May 17 & 18, 2008
TIMES: Sat, Sun, 9:00 – 4:30
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $300.00 CREDIT: 0.5 units

THE MANDALA

The mandala has been used for thousands of years in Asia, and specifically in Tibetan Buddhism, as a tool for meditation and a pathway to enlightenment. Carl Jung brought the mandala to the consciousness of Westerners and believed it to be the archetypal symbol of wholeness. Working with the mandala is a very powerful way of centering and provides a potent tool for self- awareness and individuation. This workshop will explore the therapeutic use of the mandala for both therapist self-care and client assessment, intervention and treatment. Participants will produce a ritual mandala made within a meditative setting ready for framing.
Students are required to bring a journaling notebook and a small paintbrush (.00 or .01).
INSTRUCTOR: Lucille Proulx, M.A., ATR., is a registered art therapist and a consultant with 20 years of clinical art therapy experience in the field, in Canada, the U.S.A. and Thailand. She has taught at the BCSAT for 5 years.
DATES: Oct. 17, 18, 19 2008
TIMES: Fri. 6:00- 9:00, Sat. & Sun. 10:00 – 4:00
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $300.00
CREDIT: 0.5 units

BEING IN PLACE

Each of us is born, lives and dies in place. It is the taken for granted sounds, smells, movements and sights of places we call "home" that embody and make concrete the abstract concepts of time, space and identity. The importance of place shows itself most readily when we are faced with displacement. This course will explore the themes that emerge as people go about the daily task of building and living in their places. The outcome of displacement will also be explored.
Students will have frequent opportunities to discuss and express artistically their experiences of place and related material. This course will provide a deepening awareness of the importance of place.

INSTRUCTOR: This course is taught by Kathleen Collis, Ph.D., ATR, BCATR, and Patty Patching, MFA, BCATR. Kathleen Collis is the founder of the BC School of Art Therapy, and a pioneer of art therapy in BC and Canada. Both Patty and Kathleen have worked in mental health programs and are core course instructors at the BC School of Art Therapy. This course is mandatory for full-time students of the school.

DATES: May 23, 24, 25 & 26, 2008
TIMES: 9:00 – 4:00 each day
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $600.00
CREDIT: 1 unit

FANNING THE INNER FLAME

Fire was the element around which our earliest ancestors gathered for light, warmth and sustenance to survive and flourish. Some of the earliest expressions of creativity and community developed as people gathered around a fire, drawing on cave walls, dancing, making music, acting out stories, singing and storytelling. Fire has symbolized power, strength, protection, visibility, passion, transformation, purification, manifestation of the soul, inspiration and enlightenment (Cooper, 1987, p. 66).
Throughout this weekend workshop, a theme of building and gathering around a symbolic place of fire provides structure for a person-centered group art therapy approach. Based on the belief that each individual has an innate tendency and wisdom to move towards healing and growth, this model provides an opportunity for individuals to learn how to access inner strength. Self-nurturing, letting go, and self-honoring are some of the issues that will be addressed.

INSTRUCTOR: Christine Phibbs-Barr, B.A., Dip. ATh. is an art therapist, counselor and artist who recently graduated from the BC School of Art Therapy. She received her BA in Psychology at Queen's University in 1981 and her Diploma in Graphic Design at St. Lawrence College in 1985, in Kingston, Ont. Her counselling work has primarily focused on violence against women at various women's shelters in Ontario and BC, and at Victoria Women's Sexual Assault Center. Up until her recent re-location back to Victoria, she was working as an art therapist and women's advocate at Chrysalis House, a women's shelter in Kanata, and maintained a private art therapy practice and art & craft business in Ottawa, Ont.

DATES: June 20, 21, 22, 2008
TIMES: Fri. 6:00 – 9:00 & Sat & Sun 9:00 - 3:30
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $300.00
CREDIT: 0.5 units

COUNSELLING SKILL TRAINING

This course is designed to develop counselling skills and to refine the ability to listen to and communicate with clients in a therapeutic setting. Basic communication skills, such as attending, active listening, observing, communicating, understanding, empathetic listening, probing for clarity and combining empathy and probes, will be reviewed. Although this is a course designed for counselors, there will be a tendency towards the use of expressive art techniques in conjunction with conventional verbal skills. Participants will explore how to:

• make client assessments within the therapeutic relationship
• address boundaries, the therapeutic role, transference and counter-transference issues
• identify, focus and clarify problem situations
• help clients tell their stories, address blind spots, develop perspectives and move into the action stage by developing new scenarios
• help clients set goals and put them into action

This is an intense experiential course, designed for post-graduate students as a prerequisite or elective. Participants will be expected to role-play scenarios and actively use specific skills. There will be two written exercises in which participants will be asked to explore problem scenarios, reflecting back to the Ôclient', thus demonstrating an understanding and establishing the main steps of an action plan.

INSTRUCTOR: Linda McLagan, MA, RDT, is experienced in working with both children and adults in the field of mental health in private practice, the Eating Disorders Program, and the Ministry for Children and Families.

DATES: Jan. 15 – April 16, 2009
TIMES: Thursdays, 1:00 – 4:00
LOCATION: 1941 Lee Ave., Victoria
FEE: $900.00
CREDIT: 1.5 units