Ethical Dilemmas: Understanding the World & Our Embodied Role Within

Date & Time:

Saturday, October 16, 2021

1:15- 2:45 PM

Location:

Virtual Lecture.

Course Description

 The social climate that we are experiencing today is calling for our current dance/movement therapy practices to find expansion culturally, and there is a need to understand our place in the therapeutic relationship that is ethical and held to standards that mirror our modern times.  Cultural awareness and a need for understanding, witnessing, and learning from each other is needed now more than ever.

The contents of this conference presentation were influenced by the needs of the ADTA membership, identified via a survey sent in February, 2021.  Of the seven recurrent themes that were identified, members of the Standards and Ethics Committee identified relevant themes and asked members of the cross cultural DMT community to share lived experiences of navigating ethical dilemmas in the areas of touch, social justice, and diversity.  This conversation will be facilitated in a panel discussion composed of representatives from DMT associations around the world.

This conference presentation is being presented with the intention to engage membership over a longer duration of time.

Learning Objectives

1. Support participants in understanding what constitutes an ethical dilemma from multiple cultural lenses.

2. Broaden an understanding of other cultures and how DMT principles are used within these cultures, understanding ethical concerns around areas of touch, social justice, and diversity.

3. Offer information with the potential to create space and opportunity to further self-awareness for participants about ethics and their own personal relationships to this concept, as well as ways to navigate ethical dilemmas within their practices.

About the Instructors

Jennifer Whitley, M.S., BC-DMT, LCAT, CMA, is a board-certified Dance/Movement Therapist (DMT) and Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, graduating from the Pratt Institute in 2012. She is a Ways of Seeing practitioner, Level II Reiki trained, certified as a Laban Movement Analyst from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies and has trained at The NY Center for the Study of Authentic Movement. Ms. Whitley began working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2012 with a focus on medical DMT in pediatric oncology and dance-focused wellness/mindfulness classes and workshops at Integrative Medicine Services for adult patients and MSKCC staff. She also provides group dance therapy sessions for children with special needs and works in private practice at Dancing Dialogue with adults, children and families.

Joan Wittig, MS, BC-DMT, LCAT, is the co-founder and former Director of the Graduate Dance/Movement Therapy Program at Pratt Institute in New York City, and continues to be a full time faculty member there.  She developed and is the Program Director for the first dance/movement therapy training program in China, Inspirees International.  She is the founder and Director of the New York Center for the Study of Authentic Movement.  Joan has contributed to several journals and books, including the first book on creative arts therapy published in Japanese.  She is a subject of a film on dance/movement therapy, “Moving Stories – Portraits of Dance/Movement Therapy”.    She is currently serving as Chairperson of the ADTA Standards and Ethics Committee, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the ADTA Board of Directors.  Joan teaches internationally, and has a private practice in New York City.

Neha Christopher, MS, LCAT, BC-DMT, is a passionate artist and advocate for The Arts in Wellness. As a dance therapist, Neha has worked in, USA, Dominican Republic (intern) , Nepal and India. She is currently pursuing her PhD in DMT and works as a DMT tutor (Methods 1) at The University of Melbourne. Neha serves as a member of the S&E committee of the ADTA and is a founding board member and of The Indian Association of Dance Movement Therapy.

Neha strongly identifies and resonates with the healing elements of dance. She believes in the importance of de-colonizing mental health by acknowledging the indigenous practices that have focused on wellness through the arts for generations before it gained Eurocentric nomenclature. 

Selena Coburn, BC-DMT, LMHC, lives in the Austin, Texas area. She is a descendent of Blackfeet, Klamath, and Pitt River tribes. She earned her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College.  Selena's dance/movement therapy training includes the 92nd Street Y in NYC, and Lesley University. She believes in decolonizing dance as therapy, and culturally inclusive processing. Coburn has presented on Native American perspectives and participated in panel discussions locally, nationally, and internationally. Selena has served on the Texas chapter board for four years and founded the Native American Affinity Group as part of the Multicultural Diversity Committee of the ADTA. Selena received the Leader of Tomorrow Award from the American Dance/Movement Therapy Association in 2020.

Douglas Cornman, MA, BC-DMT, is the Director of Island Outreach for Maine Seacoast Mission in Northeast Harbor, Maine. He is crew aboard the MV Sunbeam V, a 74 ft steel-hulled boat that cruises the coast of Maine providing holistic healthcare services. His work with islanders focuses primarily on emotional and spiritual healthcare, substance abuse, and coping with the challenges associated with living in remote and isolated rural island communities.  

Douglas earned his dance therapy degree from Allegheny University (now Drexel University) and his undergraduate degree in Theater Performance from Messiah College in Grantham, PA. He is a former company member of Trapezius Ariel Dance, Philadelphia and The New Haven Ballet. He currently dances with Motion Collective, an improvisational dance company based on Mount Desert Island.   

Hang Yin Candy Lo, MA, BC-DMT, RDT/BCT, CCLS, is a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, a Registered Drama Therapist/Board Certified Trainer and a Certified Child Life Specialist. Currently the President of both Hong Kong Child Life Association and Hong Kong Dance Movement Therapy Association; Candy has been serving at the ADTA’s  Standard and Ethics committee since 2017;  co-leads the Asian and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Affinity Group (AAIPDA) and is member of the BC-DMT Task Force.

After graduating from Antioch University New England, Candy started her private practice; Piece of Sky in Hong Kong. Her passion lies in serving the medical professionals, both paediatric and adult patients in the medical settings. She taught the Medical Humanities program (Performing Arts Module developed by AFTEC) at the School of Medicine at HKU.

Candy has been teaching at the Expressive Arts Therapy program at the University of Hong Kong since 2014 and is an Adjunct Faculty at Lesley University and Antioch University New England.

Nancy Herard-Marshall is an African-centered dance/movement psychotherapist, authentic movement practitioner, Kemetic reiki practitioner, Kukuwa® African dance fitness instructor, wife and mother living in NYC.  As a licensed creative arts therapist, she has clinical experience working with diverse populations such as inpatient acute psychiatric care, outpatient co-occurring addiction and mental health conditions, HIV/AIDS and chronic illness, special needs populations, and behavioral disorders.  She has worked with individuals suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, autism, ADHD, depression, sexual abuse, dementia and Alzheimer’s.  Her approach to psychotherapy blends expressive arts, attachment theory, transpersonal theory, optimal conceptual theory and other African-centered psychologies. Among her areas of expertise are treatment interventions for culturally diverse populations with an emphasis on the African Diaspora.  Nancy has taught Intro to Dance Movement Therapy at The College of New Rochelle, and is a visiting instructor and curriculum consultant in the Creative Arts Therapy Department at Pratt Institute.  

Nancy is empathic, motivated, compassionate, and provides a positive outlook throughout treatment. She believes that each individual possesses self-healing powers and will work to guide you in harnessing yours to optimal capacity in order to create and achieve attainable goals.

Megan Roberts Megz is a entrepreneurial therapist who currently incorporates dance/movement therapy and Reiki energy techniques into their sacred sexuality and spiritual healing private practice. Megz built a power-sharing ethical decision-making model that is used to help therapeutic relationships, companies and communities navigate culturally embedded ethical dilemmas. Their model is currently published in the Journal of Dance Therapy. Megz embodies this ethical model in their own private practice and travels across states educating others on how to incorporate this model in their work.

Brigitta Elsa White, MS, R-DMT, is a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist with the ADTA since 2007.  She graduated from The Pratt Institute in 2007.  She has held a certification in Children's Yoga since 2010.  Brigitta is a Hispanic American who resides in Northern Virginia.  She has held Board positions for the MD-DC-VA ADTA Chapter such as Program Director, PR Chairperson, President, and currently is the Multicultural Diversity Committee Liason.  Brigitta started on the National Kids Yoga Conference Steering Committee in 2020.  She proudly began her term with the ADTA Standards and Ethics Committee in 2021.  Brigitta is a homeschool mom of 3 children under the age of 7.

Registration

https://adta.memberclicks.net/index.php?option=com_mcform&view=ngforms&id=2096250#/

Master Class | The Dancing Dialogue: How our Bodies Tell the Story

Date & Time:

Virtual Lecture

Friday, June 25, 2021

8:30-9:45 (Local Time- Brisbane, Australia)

Thursday, June 24, 2021

6:30- 7:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time)

Location:

Virtual Lecture

Course Description:

TBD

About the Instructors

Suzi Tortora, EdD, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC has a full-time private practice in Cold Spring, New York and NYC, specializing in parent- infant/child and family therapy; trauma; medical illness; and adult chronic pain. She is the International Medical Creative Arts Spokesperson for the Andréa Rizzo Foundation, having created and continuing to be the senior dance/movement therapist for pediatric patients at Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC, since 2003. She received the 2010 Marian Chace Distinguished Dance Therapist award from the ADTA. She teaches in Europe, South America, New Zealand, Israel and Asia; holds faculty positions in the USA, The Netherlands, Chech Republic, Argentina and China; offers the Ways of Seeing International Webinar Training Program for dance/movement therapists and allied professionals; has published numerous papers about her work; and her book, The Dancing Dialogue: Using the communicative power of movement with young children is used extensively in dance/movement therapy training programs internationally.

Registration:

https://waimh2020.org/

The Psyche-Soma Connection: Helping Medically Ill Babies Tell Their Story through Their Nonverbal “Bodily-Felt” Experience and Expression

Date & Time:

June 24, 2021.

Location:

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

Cnr Merivale & Glenelg Streets
Southbank, Brisbane
Queensland Australia

Course Description:

TBD

About the Instructors

Suzi Tortora, EdD, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC has a full-time private practice in Cold Spring, New York and NYC, specializing in parent- infant/child and family therapy; trauma; medical illness; and adult chronic pain. She is the International Medical Creative Arts Spokesperson for the Andréa Rizzo Foundation, having created and continuing to be the senior dance/movement therapist for pediatric patients at Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC, since 2003. She received the 2010 Marian Chace Distinguished Dance Therapist award from the ADTA. She teaches in Europe, South America, New Zealand, Israel and Asia; holds faculty positions in the USA, The Netherlands, Chech Republic, Argentina and China; offers the Ways of Seeing International Webinar Training Program for dance/movement therapists and allied professionals; has published numerous papers about her work; and her book, The Dancing Dialogue: Using the communicative power of movement with young children is used extensively in dance/movement therapy training programs internationally.

Dr. Miri Keren, MD Affiliations: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Tel-aviv University Sackler Medical School, and Community Infant Mental Health Unit affiliated with Geha Psychiatric Hospital, Petah, Tiqwa

Registration:

http://waimh2020.org/preview/registration.php

Families in Motion: Understanding the role of embodied experience in the early caregiver- infant relationship during the time of COVID-19

Date and Time:

Friday, May 28, 2021

1- 3 PM EST

Location:

Conducted Virtually Online

Description:

The global pandemic has brought to light the need for family connection now more than ever. The need for social distancing and limited contact has required us to especially rely on interpreting nonverbal expressions and our embodied experience. This webinar focuses on the key elements of nonverbal expression that support the development of a secure caregiver - infant relationship and how to support this relationship during these stressful times. This is discussed within the context of understanding how to work with the dance/movement therapists’ own embodied countertransference experience to provide a secure holding environment for the whole family.

Instructor:

Suzi Tortora, EdD, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC Dr. Tortora is a board certified dance movement therapist, Laban Nonverbal Movement Analyst, and specialist in the field of infancy mental health and development. Her expertise in early childhood development and the importance of early relationships inform her psychotherapeutic work across the life span. Dr. Tortora has a private dance movement psychotherapy practice, in New York City and Cold Spring-on-the-Hudson, New York. Dr. Tortora offers training programs and lectures about her dance therapy and nonverbal video analysis work with infants, children and families, at national and international professional meetings and universities.

She is on the board of the New York Zero-to-Three Network.

Dr Tortora has been featured on “Good Morning America” and Eyewitness Five-O’Clock News, WABC –TV; Women’s Day magazine; highlighted in Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article and book titled What the Dog Saw and other adventures; has published numerous papers about her therapeutic and nonverbal communication analysis work with children, parent-infant dyads, and Autism Spectrum Disorders; has twice been guest editor of the Zero to Three Journal; and has a book with Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company titled The Dancing Dialogue: Using the Communicative Power of Movement with Young Children.

Dr. Tortora graduated with honors from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development Tufts University specializing in child development, education and psychology; received her dance movement therapy masters degree at New York University; and her doctorate with a specialization in infancy/early childhood development, psychology and education from Teachers College, Columbia University. 

She has done extensive study and training in the field of infancy and early childhood research, development, education, communication and intervention through the Zero to Three Institute and Dr. Stanley Greenspan. She has studied Authentic Movement with Janet Adler & Body-Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Dr Tortora is also a certified Laban Movement Analyst, and Kestenberg Movement Profiler.

Registration:

http://taomi.tilda.ws/#contacts

Relationships: Facets Involving Interrelatedness in Dance/ Movement Therapy on Multiple Levels

Date and Time:

Thursday, April 29, 2021

8- 9 AM EST

Location:

Conducted Virtually Online in collaboration with

Codarts University of the Arts

Kruisplein 26

3012 CC Rotterdam

Netherlands

Description:

How do we as dance/movement psychotherapists maintain a fresh and balanced presence during these stressful times that are affecting each of us worldwide? As we are navigating an international coronavirus pandemic, political strife and social injustices the arts have become more relevant than ever for self-expression and renewal. As we move within online platforms to do our work, dance/movement psychotherapists have to be even more resourceful to continue to nourish ourselves and stay active and attuned to our bodies. In this experiential workshop you will explore a meditation Dr. Tortora created from her Embodied Lyrical Mindfulness series called Embodied Listening Embodied Sensing. You can use this activity for yourself as well as a therapeutic intervention to help center, ground and support deeper attunement and discovery along the healing journey.

Instructor:

Suzi Tortora, EdD, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC Dr. Tortora is a board certified dance movement therapist, Laban Nonverbal Movement Analyst, and specialist in the field of infancy mental health and development. Her expertise in early childhood development and the importance of early relationships inform her psychotherapeutic work across the life span. Dr. Tortora has a private dance movement psychotherapy practice, in New York City and Cold Spring-on-the-Hudson, New York. Dr. Tortora offers training programs and lectures about her dance therapy and nonverbal video analysis work with infants, children and families, at national and international professional meetings and universities.

She is on the board of the New York Zero-to-Three Network.

Dr Tortora has been featured on “Good Morning America” and Eyewitness Five-O’Clock News, WABC –TV; Women’s Day magazine; highlighted in Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker article and book titled What the Dog Saw and other adventures; has published numerous papers about her therapeutic and nonverbal communication analysis work with children, parent-infant dyads, and Autism Spectrum Disorders; has twice been guest editor of the Zero to Three Journal; and has a book with Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company titled The Dancing Dialogue: Using the Communicative Power of Movement with Young Children.

Dr. Tortora graduated with honors from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development Tufts University specializing in child development, education and psychology; received her dance movement therapy masters degree at New York University; and her doctorate with a specialization in infancy/early childhood development, psychology and education from Teachers College, Columbia University. 

She has done extensive study and training in the field of infancy and early childhood research, development, education, communication and intervention through the Zero to Three Institute and Dr. Stanley Greenspan. She has studied Authentic Movement with Janet Adler & Body-Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Dr Tortora is also a certified Laban Movement Analyst, and Kestenberg Movement Profiler.

Registration:

https://www.codarts.nl/en/events/25-years-dance-therapy-online-conference/

An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Therapeutic Power of Symbolic Play

Date & Time:

Sunday, March 14, 2021

12- 3 PM

Location:

Virtual Lecture Available online.

Course Description

Symbolic Play offers a safe pathway to re-enact, regulate and master emotional ideas and experiences. The child’s impetus to create a fantasy has many sources from wish fulfillment, to claiming power, defending against anxiety, or repairing intolerable frustrations and trauma. With its many facets and meanings, symbolic play is a powerful therapeutic modality for parents, teachers and therapists of all disciplines. This session will begin with a shared case study to set the stage for small group, case-based, breakout sessions to examine the development, meaning and complexity of symbolic play, the impact of neuro-biological differences across trauma, emotional difficulties and autism, and the methods and effectiveness of intervention. Participants may discuss questions related to their use of symbolic play and learn from the perspectives of other disciplines to deepen their understanding of the therapeutic process and outcomes. Profectum’s distinguished Faculty of psychologists, social workers, physicians, educators, and speech and language, occupational and creative arts therapists will facilitate themed groups, including groups for parents. Each themed group will have three facilitators and participants will be surveyed as to their group preference following registration. As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to: ● Describe the underlying complexity of symbolic capacity related to neurobiology, psychodynamics, and developmental readiness. ● Describe how different disciplines contribute to deeper understanding, enriched intervention and better outcomes. ● Explain how the therapists’ feelings help understand what is happening in the child’s symbolic play

About the Instructors

Gilbert Foley, EdD (Moderator)

Serena Wieder, PhD (Moderator)

Mona Delahooke, PhD (Moderator)

Connie Lillas, RN, MFT, PhD (Moderator)

Suzi Tortora, EdD, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC (Group Facilitator for Breakout Sessions) his the founder and director of Dancing Dialogue, a creative arts psychotherapy practice in Cold Spring, NY and NYC, specializing in parent- infant/child and family therapy; trauma; medical illness; and adult chronic pain. She is the International Medical Creative Arts Spokesperson for the Andréa Rizzo Foundation, having created and continuing to be the senior dance/movement therapist for pediatric patients at Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC, since 2003. She received the 2010 Marian Chace Distinguished Dance Therapist award from the ADTA. She teaches in Europe, South America, New Zealand, Israel and Asia; holds faculty positions in the USA, The Netherlands, Chech Republic, Argentina and China; offers the Ways of Seeing International Webinar Training Program for dance/movement therapists and allied professionals; has published numerous papers about her work; and her book, The Dancing Dialogue: Using the communicative power of movement with young children is used extensively in dance/movement therapy training programs internationally.

Registration

https://profectum.org/2021-conference-spectrum-play/

Somatic Movement and Health Panel

Date & Time:

Sunday, March 7, 2021

10:20- 11:20 AM

Location:

Virtual Lecture Available online through the ISMETA Engaging Embodiment Conference

Course Description

TBA

About the Instructor

Suzi Tortora, EdD, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC his the founder and director of Dancing Dialogue, a creative arts psychotherapy practice in Cold Spring, NY and NYC, specializing in parent- infant/child and family therapy; trauma; medical illness; and adult chronic pain. She is the International Medical Creative Arts Spokesperson for the Andréa Rizzo Foundation, having created and continuing to be the senior dance/movement therapist for pediatric patients at Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC, since 2003. She received the 2010 Marian Chace Distinguished Dance Therapist award from the ADTA. She teaches in Europe, South America, New Zealand, Israel and Asia; holds faculty positions in the USA, The Netherlands, Chech Republic, Argentina and China; offers the Ways of Seeing International Webinar Training Program for dance/movement therapists and allied professionals; has published numerous papers about her work; and her book, The Dancing Dialogue: Using the communicative power of movement with young children is used extensively in dance/movement therapy training programs internationally.

Registration

https://ismeta.org/engaging-embodiment-conference-2#1580762166283-f2f01349-07e2

Focusing on the Dance in Dance/Movement Psychotherapy: The Role of the Dancing Body in Embodied Healing

Date & Time:

Sunday, March 7, 2021

9- 10 AM

Location:

Virtual Lecture Available online through the ISMETA Engaging Embodiment Conference

Course Description

Dance/movement therapists and somatic movement educators work from the premise that our bodies are a map holding and expressing our experiences. From the beginning of life, our bodies speak to us and we speak to others through our actions. Through body sensations and actions, we learn about the world and connect to others. These experiences influence our nonverbal movement signatures. Specific events that especially impact our live become imbedding into our movement signatures as movement metaphors. Movement metaphors exist on an implicit level in our psyche, out of our conscious awareness, as nonverbal responses to these events. These nonverbal responses are associated with events that may be unresolved, creating traumatic triggers, or resolutions that have been created to soothe and organize ourselves. How we develop these movement patterns throughout our lives is a fascination that Dr. Tortora has studied throughout her over 35 years of clinical practice with people along the whole life span. She believes true healing occurs when one is fully embodied. Full embodiment occurs at the intersection of the body—mind—emotion connection. Dr. Tortora has specifically examined how and what differentiates movement and dance activities in the healing process. Through experiential learning participants will explore different methods of somatic inquiry, gaining insight into how multisensory imagery, sensing and dance each singularly contribute to the healing journey and self-discovery.

Learning Objectives

1.Understanding about how imagery, multisensory sensing and dancing are used in dance/movement psychotherapy practice to support healing

2.Add dancing activities to somatic practice

3.Understanding of the four essential needs we all have to support a secure sense of self and self in relationship to others, that goes beyond age, race, color and ethnicity.

About the Instructor

Suzi Tortora, EdD, BC-DMT, CMA, LCAT, LMHC his the founder and director of Dancing Dialogue, a creative arts psychotherapy practice in Cold Spring, NY and NYC, specializing in parent- infant/child and family therapy; trauma; medical illness; and adult chronic pain. She is the International Medical Creative Arts Spokesperson for the Andréa Rizzo Foundation, having created and continuing to be the senior dance/movement therapist for pediatric patients at Integrative Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NYC, since 2003. She received the 2010 Marian Chace Distinguished Dance Therapist award from the ADTA. She teaches in Europe, South America, New Zealand, Israel and Asia; holds faculty positions in the USA, The Netherlands, Chech Republic, Argentina and China; offers the Ways of Seeing International Webinar Training Program for dance/movement therapists and allied professionals; has published numerous papers about her work; and her book, The Dancing Dialogue: Using the communicative power of movement with young children is used extensively in dance/movement therapy training programs internationally.

Registration

https://ismeta.org/engaging-embodiment-conference-2#1580762166283-f2f01349-07e2