ABOUT
Handcrafted Programs
Our team of creative arts specialists design programs specifically to meet the needs and personal interests of those being served:
- We facilitate healing and change in a safe and caring environment.
- We offer tools to “ARM” our clients as they learn life skills for both the easy and difficult days.
- We inspire others to take ownership of their bodies and responsibility for their self care and their well-being.
- We witness our clients having their own personal insights which is the crux of their recovery.
Pastels in hand and an inviting blank piece of paper can literally “draw” a person closer to themselves. A newly designed purse made from old blue jeans reminds the young girl who made it that she, too, can be made new. Without the client often knowing what the final product will look like, the art work will give information about their feeling and thoughts. They may also know how they are feeling before doing an art project and the project serves to help them express it in a way that they might not have been able to before, or completely change their feeling. This processing of emotions is the same as the digestive process is to eating. When they see, hold, touch, use something that they made, they get to know themselves and their style. It helps them accept, enjoy, and appreciate the unique work of art that they are.
RECREATION
What is it that interests you? What do you like to do for fun? What makes you feel warm, nourished, cozy, alive? What brings you a sense of adventure? What peaks your curiosity? We ask our clients these questions and seek to help them find the answer. When they discover what they like, it helps them to know who they were created to be. A person’s personal hobbies and recreation pursuits serve to help a person feel alive. It awakens their senses, changes their moods, and gives them purpose. It can be listening to music from the 1950’s and wearing polka dots, to making muffins on a rainy afternoon, to hiking at their favorite spot at sunset. We seek to help them recapture enjoyment and play and fun as so many of them missed out on what childhood was meant to be. The goal is Re-Creation.
Movement and Somatic Work focuses on seeing the body as a sound whole. When a body gets healing, it has a positive impact on the rest of the person – their mind and their spirit. We help our clients to notice what is happening inside of their bodies and allow them to connect with what they feel through body awareness and movement exercises. What lies deeper in the body has a chance to present itself when they can identify it and give expression to it. Trauma can make a person feel disjointed or maligned. Damaged, destroyed, dead, dry, dark, oppressed, depressed, and suppressed are all words used to describe their experiences. These physical experiences can be addressed and changed. They learn ways of undoing and releasing the ways their bodies were violated, impacted, and imprinted from the abuse. Because the body is where we all live, it is important to know what is going on inside to take care of it. A belly ache may be healed by moving like a gentle wave. A tight shoulder might be relaxed by moving the arm, neck, hips, or another body part in certain ways. The body has the power to rejuvenate and regenerate, making whole what has felt disconnected.
