I am currently pursuing a doctorate in Expressive Arts at the European Graduate School University in Saas Fee, Switzerland. I have an M.A. in Counseling Psychology and an M.Ed. in Arts in Education. I also have a B.A. in Dance and Poetry. These degrees are a snapshot of an extensive background in working with the expressive arts as both a Grief and Creative Arts Therapist, as a Teaching Artist, and as a Hospice Facilitator and Trainer in how to work with and transform grief through the expressive arts. Since 1979 I have counseled emotionally disturbed and grieving children, youth, and their families through the Visual Arts; Movement Therapy; Therapeutic Storytelling; Creative Writing, and the Theatre Arts. I received advanced bereavement training from the Springfield Medical Center in Springfield, MA and at a conference on Advanced Training in Bereavement in Boston, MA. My colleagues and I developed and presented our creative writing workshop for bereaved parents entitled, From the Heart, at the International Conference on Children and Bereavement in Edinburgh, Scotland and made a documentary film also called From the Heart about our creative writing group in MA. I went onto become a Certified Hospice Volunteer and completed the Peer Support Model: Supporting Individuals Dealing with Change, Grief or Loss and the Peer Support Model: Train the Trainer at the Center for Grieving Children in Portland, Maine. Currently, I am a facilitator and expressive arts trainer in how to work with and transform grief through the expressive arts at Hope’s Place, a bereavement program for children, youth, and families in Waterville, Maine. I’m also a presenter of Expressive Arts Workshops and facilitator of support groups for grieving teens and young children at Camp Ray of Hope in Winthrop, Maine. Presently, I’m collaborating with a team of people involved with various aspects of hospice work to create an Arts and Hospice curriculum for the state of Maine. Our first initiative has been to start a Hospice Singing Group of which I’m a core member.
As a teaching artist I have been a dance teacher, a classroom teacher, and founder/director/teacher of an arts and science based nursery school, and author of home schooling curriculums. Currently, I run a business offering "Bully Prevention thru Expressive Arts Programs/Trainings/Courses” to students, educators, families, and community members concerned about our youth.
 As a teaching artist, I have offered the Bully Prevention thru Expressive Arts Program to the Bath Middle School in Bath, ME. The Bath Middle School Bully Prevention thru Expression Arts Program evolved into a Theatre Troupe which was invited to perform for the Hyde School in Bath, ME and the Readfield Elementary School, in Readfield, ME. The has also been offered to the Lawrence Junior High School, in Fairfield, ME, the Hichborn Middle School in Howland, ME, the Appleton Village School in Appleton, ME, the Lincolnville Central School in Lincolnville, ME,the Hope Elementary School in Hope, ME, the T.C. Hamlin School in Randolph, ME,
and the Albert S. Hall School in Waterville, ME. I also co-facilitated the Interactive Theatre troupe at Maranacook Community High School in Readfield, ME that dealt with teen issues through theatre games for local middle and high schools.
The Bully Prevention thru Expressive Arts Workshop was offered for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers in the Appleton Village, Lincolnville Central, and Hope Elementary Schools and for educators in the whole school system in Howland, ME.
I also offered a presentation for a special education class on Anti-bullying Interventions Through The Arts And Peace Making Techniques at the University of Maine in Augusta. An“Expressive Arts and Grief” course will be sponsored by the Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area in conjunction with Colby College and Inland Hospital in the spring of 2008 in Waterville, Maine. |
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