Art therapy workshops, trainings, and consultation

Please see events for current public workshops and trainings.

Workshops combine lots of time for making art with group discussion before, to set intentions, and afterwards, to process the experience. Workshops are carefully planned and designed to meet the specific needs of the attendees and host facility, including choosing materials which will limit any impact on the site, and careful cleanup afterwards.

Examples of past art workshops:

• Healthy boundaries: creating shields of protection with adults in recovery (Mandana Community Recovery Center, Oakland)
  
  
• How it feels to fly (part of the Girls Who Fly Summer Camp, Studio 12, Berkeley)
  
  
• Building community through art, with gifted young scholars (Davidson Institute)
  
  
• Artist-in-Residence/workshop for Inner-city youth (ArtSpan, San Francisco).

Art celebrations and rituals are interactive events which may or may not include formal group discussion, but provide an opportunity for creative community building and positive interactions. Eleanor Ruckman provides materials and facilitates a healing art activity which encourages participants to engage in the project and connect with each other.

Examples of past interactive art celebrations and rituals include:

• Art and meditation for release and transformation: Full moon gong ceremony (with Cherie Carson at 7^th Heaven Yoga Studio, Berkeley)
  
  
• Interactive blessings: receive what you give, x3! art project (at Moana Aluli’s Studio Be, Honolulu, Hawaii)
  
  
• Hands on the land guided meditation and healing land ritual (Hale Okua gardens, Maui)

Art therapy trainings and consultation combine presentation of practical guidelines for utilizing art therapy with research-based information and an experiential component. Trainings are typically a minimum of two hours in length, and often include case presentation by attendees. Art therapy training and consultation is available are available to individual professionals as well as agencies, and can be an adjunct to supervision and consultation groups. Eleanor Ruckman provides supervision to marriage and family therapy and social work interns.

Topics have included:

• Implementing art therapy into treatment
• Art therapy for trauma treatment
• Art therapy with children 0-5
• Art Therapy for Young Children and their Families
• Art therapy 101
• Art therapy for adults with persistent and serious mental illness
• Art therapy treatment for a pediatric burn survivor
• Women in business: art therapy entrepreneurship