Embrace Therapy

On todays episode we speak with Heidi Morrison, Co-Founder of Soearth Projects & Art Psychotherapist; Rory Adams Senior Music Therapist and Clinical Supervisor based in Kildare and Wicklow; Marguerite Collins also a Music Therapist based in Dublin and Kildare and lastly Tracey Costello Dramatherapist and Social Care Worker based in Dublin and Wicklow.

Soearth Projects integrate the use of the arts and nature for mental health and wellness. We are passionate about nature, creativity and its relationship with psychological well being. Soearth Projects believe in valuing the environment and investing in the reciprocal relationship we have with our natural surroundings. We also believe in our inherent ability to be creative and its capacity to nourish and provide emotional and psychological health.

Soearth Projects provide a mental health wellbeing service through the use of the arts and eco activity. Our Creative Arts Therapy service offers individual and group Art Psychotherapy and Music Therapy. This is available for Adults, Children and Adolescents.

Soearth Projects also facilitates arts and ecotherapy wellbeing experiences. Offering a range of internal self care programmes and rental options for community and business groups.

Please do get in touch to let us know what you thought of todays episode via social media @EnrichArtTherapy and email [email protected]

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Katie Fitzpatrick is a Music Therapist based in Limerick, Ireland. She is the Irish representative for the European Music Therapy Confederation. She has been a music therapist under the name Melody Tree since 2018. Katie's main field of work is chronic pain and mental health. She worked at the University of Limerick as a clinical tutor and PhD researcher and as we hear in the podcast she has just started her new job as the Senior Music Therapist with the pain team at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. Katie also mentions her time working in Community Arts as a Facilitato in Reds Centre of Music Limerick

Here are some links on Katie's work in the area of Chronic pain. A paper in Music and Medicine

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Eithne McAdam is an experienced therapist in the area of service development, adult mental health, addiction and homelessness. She is also a qualified clinical supervisor and an accredited member of IACAT. Eithne McAdam is a practicing Art Therapist and one of the senior members of the Creative Therapy Service within First Fortnight.

First Fortnight, provide the highest standard of free Creative Therapies to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homelessness, affected by mental ill health or dual diagnosis. Founded in 2009, First Fortnight staged its first two-week arts festival in 2012.

First Fortnight is a charity that challenges mental health prejudice through arts and cultural action within Ireland.

First Fortnight 

Child and Adolescent Creative Therapy Service

9 Berkeley Street,

Dublin 7

[email protected]

First Fortnight Centre for CreativeHaven House,

Morning Star Ave,

Dublin 7

[email protected]

FYI First Fortnight's Therapeutic Services Manager, Patricia Bourke D'Souza who Eithne mentioned is an accredited Counsellor, Psychotherapist (MIACP, MIAHIP) and Supervisor (MIACP) and accredited Somatic Trauma Therapist, Trainer and Supervisor.

This years festival will be taking place from 6th - 15th January

#FirstFortnight23 The very popular Therapy Sessions will be coming to Dublin, Wexford and Belfast this January.

The renowned poet Stephen James Smith is back to MC and curate the programme. Therapy Sessions is a staple of the First Fortnight Festival, and promises an evening of music, spoken word and positivity. Stephen will be joined by a variety of wonderful artists in a night that is not to be missed!

“Therapy Sessions is a powerful, moving, reciprocal dynamic of connectivity. A very special bond that cannot be emulated online and I am very excited for us all to be able to witness once again, the special moments this event gifts us all.”

Stephen James Smith

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Monica is a qualified and fully registered Dramatherapist from Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Heartwork Studio is her very own wellness service offering workshops to encourage overall wellness, using the arts- visual art, drama, movement, writing, and music. Her workshop topics cover things like relaxation, connection, identity, self esteem, healthy relationships, self care, boundaries, resiliency. Participants will explore these topics (and more!) through artistic and creative activities, with the guidance of a facilitator.

​She specializes in using theatre and roleplay alongside other expressive arts to achieve therapeutic and educational goals. Her past roles include engaging the arts in hospitals, nonprofit organizations, theatres, schools, and most recently on a feature film set. 

Robert Greene's Procession is, a film, created with six men (Dan Laurine, Joe Eldred, Mike Foreman, Tom Viviano, Ed Gavagan, and Michael Sandridge) who were abused by Catholic priests and clergy. It is a collaborative exercise in trauma recovery.

Dramatherapist Monica Phinney defines the role of Dramatherapy in this context as “the intentional use of dramatic theater and role-play for a therapeutic goal” and knew that this process wasn't going to be easy on the survivors who would go onto "produce their own short films reflecting on their abuse, with the goal of reclaiming those memories and offering protection to their inner children" writes reviewer Lovia for the Hollywood Reporter

This November, 26th Soearth Projects will host a screening of Procession and live panel discussion with Robert Greene, Mike Foreman and Monica Phinney followed by a performance (debriefing) by Full Circle Playback Theatre Company. You can log in from anywhere in the world, tickets for the panel discussion and performance can be purchased here.

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Monica provides sliding-scale, expressive arts therapy for individuals, couples, and families of all configurations. Sessions are accessible to all regardless of income or insurance. She works collaboratively and often use creative interventions to process unresolved emotions and experiences.

Monica takes a family systems lens, and respects each person's autonomy while also recognizing the dynamic ways family systems, society, and culture shape us. Currently Monica works MY VOICE MUSIC (MVM) as the Outreach Program Coordinator and Program Leader. I run many of the “Music-In-Therapy” (MIT) groups in residential treatment centers, where I work with youth who are recovering from trauma.

Monica uses music as a therapeutic tool to transform difficult emotions and trauma into a positive, empowering experience. Monica is a life-long musician, songwriter, performer, and producer. She's a project oriented person who likes to collaborate and build on creative ideas with others. You can usually find her in the outdoors spending time with her dog and partner, cooking delicious meals, and laughing loudly with family and friends.

More on Forest Veil: 

Forest Veil is the moniker of Portland based producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter, Monica Metzler. Forest Veil makes dynamic music that maps the emotional terrain of humanity and its place in the cosmos. Forest Veil’s music showcases poise and masterful musicality with a distinct psych-folk sound.

Ritual Light (EP) is Metzler’s eight release and fourth with Spirit House Records, the label she co-founded with musician Johanna Warren in 2016. Forest Veil's music has been synched in Coach ads, movies, and TV shows such as NBC’s The Black List. An avid guitarist for over 20 years, Metzler also plays clarinet, piano, synths, and percussion. She currently plays drums in the all femme band, The Pool Boys. 

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Dr. Pat Bracken is a Consultant Psychiatrist who recently retired from his position as Clinical Director of the West Cork Mental Health Service. He has worked in Ireland, Africa and New Zealand. He holds a doctorate in Philosophy and was Professor of Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at the University of Central Lancashire. He is also one of the co-founders of the critical psychiatry network. 

In this episode Dr. Pat Bracken and I discuss Mens Mental Health and the use of Creative Arts Therapies in mens mental health services. I also mention toxic masculinity and the work IDLES are doing as an example of the use of creativity to combat stereotypes and binary thinking.

To learn more about Dr. Pat Bracken you can tune into his interview on The Blindboy Podcast or you can read some of post-psychiatry papers here http://www.criticalpsychiatry.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/docs/patphilresponse.pdf

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Evelyn Horan is an Irish Music therapist and practicioner in guided Imagery and Music. She has a wealth of experience from her years as a national school teacher and her time in Peru. In 1995, she went to New York to train as a Music Therapist. 

In this episode we hear about her experiences from 1998 – 2002, where she worked as a Music Therapist and Spiritual Co-Ordinator in a predominantly Jewish hospital in the Bronx, New York. She shares stories from her work with survivors of 9/11 when the Twin Towers came down in New York.

Evelyn is so grateful for the generosity of Sisters of Mercy who helped her gain her training in Music Therapy. She is now an honorary member of IACAT and she feels her life continues to be enriched by all these experiences.

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Rowena Keaveny is a Registered Level 2 Professional Member Therapist with the Association for Counselling and Therapy Online ACTO

Rowena is also a professionally qualified art therapist based in Offaly, Ireland. She hold a First Class Honours MA in Art Therapy from Crawford College of Art & Design. She uses mixed media in heart therapy room and online. She is also the coeditor of IACAT's online journal Polyphony.

We chat about the various tools, applications and devices she incorporates into her practice.

Rowena mentions Dr. Natalie Carlton in our chat as well as Gretchen M. Miller

Plus here are two book recommended by Rowena, to go alongside this podcast episode Digital Art Therapy and The Handbook of Art Therapy and Digital Technology

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Sarah West, MPA, BA(Hons), DKATI - Sarah is a graduate from The Kutenai Art Therapy Institute.

Environmental Arts Therapy is Sarah's specialization - a modality akin to earth therapy and nature therapy. She is a professional member of the Canadian Art Therapy Association as well as a climate-aware therapist with the Climate Psychology Alliance. 

Environmental arts therapy is an intentionally structured and accompanied process that uses creative methods in relationship with the earth to support our wellbeing.  It can involve many different ways of creating, such as movement, writing, and making art.  This can be done spontaneously, or we’ll offer suggestions for what could be created.

In this process, we connect with our full selves - body, mind, spirit. We set our intentions, we form a question we’d like an answer to. We walk, we move, we watch for the land “speaking back.” We go towards what we’re drawn to. We create with what’s on hand, however feels comfortable. We notice what plants or animals or natural synchronicities might arise. We see what emerges and what it might say to us. We feel the effect of working with traditional, recycled or natural art materials, and in that way, come into a greater sense of knowing the land that surrounds us. 

This creative process can result in what is called earth art or eco artwork. In practice, nature therapy, forest therapy, earth therapy, and ecological art therapy are all closely related. 

You can find out more about Sarah on her website https://www.earthenvision.com

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On the podcast this week is Suzie Cahn

She is an Art Therapist with a focus on nature and ecology. Suzie was chair of IACAT in 2008.

Suzie is the Social Enterprise Officer and Community Educator in the Higher Education team at An Cosán.

She has a deep commitment to community led social change and climate justice through the creation of local livelihoods. Suzie co-founded a social enterprise called Carraig Dulra and has served as informal advisor and formal member for a diverse range of social enterprises and charities. ShuttleKnit Traveller GIY Waterford, VOICE Ireland CREATE (formerly CAFÉ) and WWOOF Ireland. Suzie Cahn runs a Garden and Permaculture Design business and is also a Director of Carraig Dulra teaching farm.

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