Happy New Year! from Sibel Golden
The need and desire for the arts to take a vital role in individual and collective wellness throughout all aspects of society is clear. NWCEAI applied this mandate to everything we achieved in 2022, and will continue to do so going forward.
All our workshops, training, and outreach are based on the core beliefs that the arts are not supplemental; that creativity is a fundamental human need; engaging in creative expression is a liberatory practice; the healing potential inherent in engaging in the Creative & Expressive Arts has the power to reach and enrich individuals, communities, and our planet. Part of our mission is to share these beliefs with others while helping to make the Creative & Expressive Arts accessible to all.
Highlights from 2022
NWCEAI graduated the largest cohort of our Expressive Arts Therapy Professional Training Program in June and we welcomed our equally large 6th cohort into the program in September! Our amazing graduates and students are bringing the Expressive Arts into the world in a variety of settings, and we are SO proud of them!
As an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider, we continued to offer our ever-popular flagship workshop, Ethics of Self-Care: an Art Based Approach to dozens of clinicians seeking a more meaningful and valuable experience to procure their ethics CEs.
We also offered many well-loved workshops, such as Narrative & Expressive Arts Therapy and Cultivating Radical Acceptance Through Artmaking, Improvisation and Storytelling. There were also many exciting new opportunities: Clay & Story (our first in-person since the pandemic!), Breathe. Create. Repeat., Personal Myths, and Humor & Healing. Look for these again in 2023!
Above from top left: Our Drama Therapist, Bobbi Kidder, Training Program Alumni at our Seattle Art Museum event, new Faculty, Dr. Kellie Kirksey with Sibel Golden, participant at SAM event.
We are very fortunate to have incredibly talented and dedicated faculty!
Welcome to our newest Professional Training Program Faculty: Dr. Cleopatra Bertelsen, Dr. Kellie Kirsey, Dr. Martha McCaughy, and Dr. Kat McKiver! We were also thrilled to bring Claudia Colón on board as our Professional Training Program Assistant!
NWCEAI is grateful to have engaged with the local community by providing individually curated programs to:
- Seattle Art Museum
- Chemawa Indian School Behavioral Health
- Union Gospel Mission
- Temple Beth Am
- Zia Laron’s Ray of Light Foundation
We were also a proud sponsor of Lady Brion, Day 2 keynote speaker at the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) Annual Conference in Baltimore, MD.
We are so excited to share our plans for 2023!
Unique workshops are coming your way, including a revised Ethics of Self-Care: an Art Based Approach, Considering Climate and Creativity, an all-new professional certificate in NarrARTive Expressive Arts Coaching, free monthly Art & Meditation, and more are in the works. Back by popular demand is Cultivating Radical Acceptance Through Artmaking, Improvisation, and Storytelling. We will launch our first Soul Collage® collage workshop, specifically for clinicians this spring. Stay Tuned!
The application process for the Expressive Arts Therapy Professional Training Program will begin in early Spring. Watch the website for program details and scholarship information. If you are not on our mailing list, this is a good time to sign up.
Offering our programming online has been a valuable and significant way to widen our community over the past 3 years. While we will continue to provide workshops and events online, we are currently looking for a space in the north Puget Sound area that we can call home. We can’t wait to begin offering workshops in person again!
We enter this new year with tremendous gratitude for all of you who have been part of our growing community. If you have taken a workshop with us, joined our Art & Meditation Fridays, are a current student or alumni of our Training Program, or follow us on social media, we thank you! You have helped us learn and grow and we look forward to having you as a part of our community in 2023!
Everyone at Northwest Creative wishes you a bright New Year filled with peace, much love, and an enduring creative spark!
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” – Mary Lou Cook
As always, if you have any ideas or questions for us, please reach out at: info@seattlearttherapy.org.
Art is Healing. We hope to share our work with you, and the individuals, groups, and organizations that you work with.
~Sibel
