This was a very quick course that I took in the summer of 2024. It was offered as a six-day class which was great, but it also fell on one of the same days as another family wedding. Having exhausted all of my options, I made the painful choice to miss my brother-in-law’s wedding to attend this class. Not surprisingly, my memories of the course itself are not great, being overshadowed by a lot of painful feelings that week!
Technology came through which allowed me to watch some of the wedding on the plane ride home from their destination in Vegas, but I was still very hurt that an accommodation couldn’t have been made. That being said, I did enjoy learning more about trauma and the healing processes that could be offered through Expressive Arts Therapy.
Marsha Harris was a very kind professor who you could immediately tell loved her job and loved the expressive arts. We learned a few of them through practicing in class and I learned that for myself, playing music is the closest form of mindfulness that I have experienced to date. Having been diagnosed with ADHD as a 39-year-old woman only a few months earlier, I was grateful to have found something that finally worked for my brain. Getting lost in the quick notes left my mind no room to wander, which was a great feeling.
I took note of as many expressive arts as I could throughout the course, knowing that any one of them could be the one that worked for my students. I dove deep into Sand-Tray Therapy, which I had been interested in learning more about for a while by this point. I also made a mental note for myself to teach these expressive art forms to all of my students through whole-class instruction, giving them all the opportunity to see which art form could work best for them as well.
Check out the full course outline here, along with some of my favorite resources from the class below!
Favorite Resources:
This was one of the assignments that we completed in preparation for our final group presentation. It gives you some of the background information and research highlights that led to the creation of Sand-Tray Therapy, followed by some examples of how to use it in different contexts. There are lots of great articles on the topic that are listed under the “References” at the end as well!
Here are some social emotional assessments that I found during part of my research for our group project. They are ready to use and I also find them helpful as starting points that I can tailor to the age that I am using them for. It’s always helpful to have some sort of measuring tool with students, especially for them to use themselves as a meta-cognitive tool.
Micki Banks
Latest posts by Micki Banks (see all)
- Masters Portfolio - October 15, 2024
- Graduate Summative - October 15, 2024
- Expressive Therapies - October 15, 2024
