Cultivating Therapeutic Imagination through Mindful Artmaking

This therapeutic arts-based seminar will focus on developing new approaches to self-care for caregiving professionals, as well as introducing new ways for them to help their clients find containment through artmaking. Based on Kelly’s research on the benefits of combining mindfulness-based ritual traditions with art therapy, this seminar will teach practical hands-on artmaking skills to help participants self-regulate, supported by theories in the field of neurobiology. The methods introduced will include ideas taken from her chapter, ‘Cultivating Self-Compassion through Found Materials and Rediscovered Rituals’, in the book Found Objects in Art Therapy: Materials and Process, edited by D. Wong and R. P. M. H. Lay for Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2021.