Help An Author

Author Deborah Lott is looking to interview people about the intersection of social media and psychotherapy, specifically women who've felt their therapists' social media presence had some impact on their therapy. She's also looking to interview clinicians who have had issues with their own social media presence and clients or their clients' social media presence.

The interviews are for the second edition of her book  IN SESSION: The Bond Between Women and Their Therapists which she'll be re-issuing as an e-book.

What happens when clients learn too much from their therapists' Facebook pages, and vice versa? Should you google your therapist? Should therapists google their clients? How do therapists preserve a professional relationship with clients if they have personal life information posted on social media?

Contact Deborah

Journal Conference 2016

Journal Conference 2016:

Pioneering the Next 30 Years

May 19-22, 2016

Hendersonville, North Carolina

See full details

Kay Adams is celebrating her 30th year as a pioneer in the field of journal therapy and journal writing. The Journal Conference 2016 will gather with the pioneers of the past, present, and future at the beautiful 1300-acre Kanuga Conference Center, a mountain retreat setting near Asheville, North Carolina. 

This Conference is for YOU, if you are a journal writer of any level of experience, or a therapist, coach, facilitator, or helping professional who uses journals with clients, or as someone who is Interested in the use of journal writing for healing, growth, and change.

War Writers' Campaign: Therapy Through Writing

A newly-formed veteran nonprofit organization called The War Writers' Campaign is hoping to encourage veterans to write about their experiences in war as a powerful therapy tool.

The campaign aims to maintain a long-term platform that facilitates the consolidated efforts of servicemembers and veterans to promote mental therapy through the literary word, all while raising funds for best-in-class veteran organizations and mental-health programs. They are also launching external with a partnership alongside Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, with the hopes of gaining a national audience.

Their first featured work Conquering Mental Fatigues will be available for purchase in the coming weeks. All of all proceeds go to the War Writers' Campaign.

See the video on Colorado's 9 News - KUSA TV.

See submission guidelines

Social Emotional Arts (SEA) Certificate Program

UCLArts and Healing is launching a Social Emotional Arts (SEA) Certificate Program to empower educators and community arts professionals.

Arts educators are often not sure what to do or say when the inevitable "stuff comes up," like when a student comes crying after seeing a performance and says: that happened to me. There can also be unintended consequences of arts experiences, such as self-judgment, anxiety, and inadvertent re-triggering of trauma.

Through eight Saturday training sessions running September 2013 - January 2014, SEA trainees will learn to develop and deliver process-oriented arts education for children and adolescents in school and community settings to improve emotional well-being, the social climate and the learning environment.

In partnership with Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Visual and Performing Arts Department

See full details

Turning Problems Into Mysteries

Turning Problems Into Mysteries

4-day workshop / UCLA Arts and Healing

See full details

Curiosity is a key to looking at life experiences in a new light. This 4-session workshop is designed to open your mind to investigating burdensome issues in your life with creative objectivity. By looking at your challenges from altered perspectives and through a fresh lens, you will have the opportunity to make a shift-to actively shape your stories and create a new reality.

Each session's writing experiences will inform the next. The series will offer creative writing techniques to help us clarify our issues and intentions, express our feelings, access other perspectives, challenge our assumptions, and demystify who we are and what we want.

You will have the opportunity to track your progress over the course of the workshop and, at the end of the series, reflect upon shifts made over the previous weeks.

This program is for writers and non-writers who seek greater well-being through a practice that can have sustained ripple effects.

Instructor: Karin Gutman

Dates & Times:
4 Mondays (April 30, May 14, May 21, and June 4)
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm. 
Please note that there will be no class on the weeks of May 7 and 28.

Location:
Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Room 275
Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus in West Los Angeles
11661 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064

Registration Link 

UCLArts and Healing is a partnership between the Arts and Healing Initiative, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, and the UCLA Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine.
 

Writing and Wellness

Writing for better, physical,
mental, and spiritual health

As a long-time journal writer, I am a firm believer in the power of writing to heal, and so I'm always on the lookout for new resources and ways to approach this work. Recently, I have been introduced to Wellness & Writing Connections, an exciting organization and growing community founded by Dr. John Evans, described as:

"A community of professionals and lay people interested in exploring the connections between overall health and expressive writing as a therapeutic practice"

This October W&WC is hosting their annual conference in Atlanta, October 22-23. This two-day event will bring together a number of powerhouse leaders in the field of writing for health and healing. Breakout sessions include writing and healing in wartime, writing and compassion fatigue, and writing in integrative medicine, in addition to topics in journaling, memoir, psychological journaling, student writings, and more!

If your curiosity is piqued, but you can't make it to the Conference, then you might check out their book Wellness & Writing Connections: Writing for Better Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Health available for purchase through Amazon.

SOS ~ kg