Professional Development
Click to open/download the Professional brochure (.pdf format).
Experienced art therapist, counsellor and educator Darci Adam provides professional development workshops and courses as well as individual and group supervision for therapists and school counsellors wishing to integrate the arts in their therapeutic work and/or comprehensive school counselling program.
Professional development sessions may range from a half day to 2 full days depending on the needs and location. Supervision, as a follow-up to training, may take place in person, by phone or in a combination of both. A monthly supervision group consisting of therapists and school counsellors currently meets every third Monday of the month at the St. Norbert Arts Centre.
Darci has taught and counselled in remote and rural areas and is aware of the potential for feeling isolated, particularly during times of crisis. For this reason, professional development training sessions are ideally attached to ongoing phone supervision. This can be done individually or in groups. Group supervision is a wonderful way to connect individuals in different communities working with similar populations to one consistent support group.
Professional supervision is important for school counsellors and therapists and is not currently available in many divisions and agencies. Training linked to supervision is an ideal combination.
Darci can help you develop a positive effective, solution-oriented, narrative-based therapy approach using the arts. She is available for travel to rural and remote locations.
See Darci’s Bio for additional influences, or contact her directly for a copy of her CV at express-yourself@shaw.ca. See the Supervision Page for additional resources.
Workshops Offered
The Creative Arts in TherapyCertificate Program
A series of five 4-week sessions September – June.
Mondays 7:00pm – 9:00pm. $295/4-week session.
An exploration of the therapeutic use of the arts.
Art as Medicine
Using Expressive Arts to Work with Mind, Body, Emotions by Mark Pearson & Helen Wilson
Art with Adolescents
Evocative Strategies in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy by David Crenshaw
Storytelling
Body Eloquence: The Power of Myth and Story to Awaken the Body's Energies
by Nancy Mellon
Art with Children
Windows to our Children by Violet Oaklander
Movement
Sweat Your Prayers: Movement as Spiritual Practice by Gabrielle Roth
Workshops held at the St. Norbert Arts Centre.
Darci Adam MA, MEd, RCAT, CCC
204-293-3869
express-yourself@shaw.ca
Theory and Practice
An Experiential Approach to Your Comprehensive Guidance & Counselling Program: Individual, Group & School-Wide Interventions
Theory, Space, Assessment, Resources, An Experiential Child-Centered Approach Tailored to your Population
Experiential School or Agency-based Therapy Groups for Children & Adolescents
Group Process, Types of Groups, Arts-based Activities, Commercial Therapeutic Games
Art Therapy Techniques in the School Setting: Speaking The Child’s Language
Overview, Assessment, Supplies, Space, Approach, Activities
Supervision
Individual and Group Supervision available. Please refer to the Supervision page for more information.
Darci’s Beliefs
- Solution-Oriented, Narrative-Based, Experiential Therapy Works with Children and Adolescents
- Therapy is fun!
- The therapist must be positive and playful, oriented towards solutions, and deeply grateful for the expression of the shadow through the safe container of the arts.
- The expressive arts and play are critical communication tools for children and youth.
- Language shapes experience. Dialogue through the arts teaches children a language of gentle self-support and acceptance.
- Breath is key to optimum well-being.
- Imaginative expression provides answers the thinking mind cannot discover or fully comprehend.
- Success must be celebrated.
Key Concepts in Expressive Arts
- Art is medicine
- Art externalizes invasive thoughts and feelings making them easier to understand and transform
- Supported art-making reduces anxiety and fosters connection with the therapist and potentially peers
- Art is an extension of the self in the world. Being seen and accepted builds confidence.
- Art expresses the fundamental polarities of balance and chaos in life, leading to a sense of mastery.
Registration or More Info
Please refer to the Calendar page for upcoming groups and events. For more information about individual or group counselling, groups, classes or other sessions or to register for any event, please contact Darci by phone at (204) 293-3869, or send her an email at express-yourself@shaw.ca.
- Additional Resources
- Shaun McNiff
- Cathy Malchiodi
- Liana Lowenstein
- Laura Simms
- Bruce L. Moon publications
- Judith A. Rubin publications
The Path to Wholeness
- All people have an innate ability to be creative.
- The creative process is healing. The expressive product supplies important messages to the individual. However, it is the process of creation that is profoundly transformative.
- Personal growth and higher states of consciousness are achieved through self-awareness, self-understanding, and insight.
- Self-awareness, self-understanding, and insight are achieved by delving into our emotions. The feelings of grief, anger, pain, fear, joy and ecstasy are the tunnel through which we must pass to get to the other side: to self awareness, understanding and wholeness.
- Our feelings and emotions are an energy source. That energy can be chanelled into the expressive arts to be released and transformed.
- The expressive arts - including movement, art, writing, sound, music, meditation, and imagery, lead us into the unconscious. This often allows us to express previously unknown facets of ourselves, thus bringing to light new information and awareness.
- Art modes interrelate in what I call the “creative connection.” When we move, it affects how we write or paint. When we write or paint, it affects how we feel and think. During the creative connection process, one art form stimulates and nurtures the other, bringing us to an inner core or essence, which is our life energy.
- A connection exists between our life force - our inner core, or soul - and the essence of all beings. Therefore, as we journey inward to discover our essence or wholeness, we rediscover our relatedness to the outer world. Inner and outer become one.