Arts and Culture TAG
Crafting Wellness: The Intersection of Arts and Mental Health

Tuesday, December 5, 2:00 to 4:00 pm, In-Person

The utility of art in mental health and wellness spaces is often overlooked, yet it can be an essential component of growth and healing, providing individuals with an opportunity to express their emotions in a constructive and creative fashion. From painting to hip-hop to spoken word poetry, implementing different artistic mediums in therapy-based settings provides immense benefits to those taking advantage of mental health resources in addition to resource providers. Additionally, adding mental health techniques into arts programming can enhance the self-expression and creativity that comes with artmaking. 

This will be a creative and interactive space with performances, lively discussion, and action items. Join us as we explore how the shades of art in mental health spaces can help your organization connect with its members through creativity and mental wellness! 

Partners for this event include: ZiRu Dance: ZiRu Life, The Art of Yoga, San Mateo County Behavioral Health, OneLife Counseling Center, and Bravemaker. 

Location: Sports Basement Redwood City, 202 Walnut St, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA

Speakers & Performers:

• The Art of Yoga Project will kick off the workshop with an experiential introduction to their latest curriculum, Rhythm and Regulation. Participants will learn simple self-regulating movement and rhythm practices that can soothe the nervous system, help manage stress, and calm the mind and body. These are practices that can be adapted to work with a variety of populations including those with the most acute needs.
  
  
• Bravemaker curates and makes provocative, life-changing media that creates meaningful culture-impacting experiences. They believe in the power of story relayed through films and want to empower others who have these same aspirations. After viewing a short clip from the film by Tony Gapastione, Last Chance Charlene they will share how mental health issues not only impact the individuals going through them but their family, friends, and society too.
  Description of the film: Reeling from her brother's suicide, a writer/actress tries to put her complicated life back together, salvage her marriage, and break into the entertainment industry.
  
  
• ZiRu Dance is a BIPOC nonprofit organization that provides unique community programs that promote healing and improve mental wellness through the art of dance with increased inclusiveness and education opportunities in the Peninsula/Silicon Valley of California. ZiRu Dance will present an excerpt from a new work “Pathways to Recovery”, choreographed by Founder and Artistic Director Philein Wang, which is inspired by the movement created in our free community movement therapy class series entitled “Move and Release”. The class series supports individuals with PTSD looking for new ways of healing through meditation and movement.  
  
  
• Lauren Lin is a senior at Castilleja School, the Burlingame-Hillsborough Youth Poet Laureate, and the San Mateo County Youth Poetry Ambassador. She uses poetry to interpret and express herself and the world, including her struggles with mental health and illness. She's struggled with mental health for several years and is honored to share her original poetry in this space of learning and vulnerability. 
  
  
• Neil Murphy is a visual artist and designer, working from his studio at Art Bias in San Carlos. He believes there's a strong connection between the arts and mental health, and serious mental health challenges are close to him as his family has had to deal with the frustrations and deep sadness that comes along with mental illness. Neil is well-known for his creative maps, and he will lead the group in a map-making activity that might help us imagine a path to the kind of life we want to live.
  
  
• One Life Counseling Center provides low-cost mental health care throughout the community including schools, individual clients, and group settings. They support the community by working beside clients in need to provide Food (Monday Markets), diapers, and parenting & and education classes. Nate Pyzik, a partner of One Life Counseling, is a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor working in private practice in San Carlos. He has also partnered with Ziru Dance Company for the past two years teaching dance and movement therapy classes to the public alongside the Ziru Dancers to spread awareness and educate about how dance and movement can be healing modalities for trauma, mental health, and expressing emotions. 
  
  
• Cindy Donis, LMFT is the program specialist for the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics at Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. The Neurosequential Model was developed by Dr. Bruce Perry and is a framework to support a trauma-informed and developmentally sensitive clinical approach when working with clients who have experienced trauma or neglect throughout their lives. NMT at BHRS also oversees specialized contracts to clients receiving services through the NMT program that work alongside mental health services to support clients’ overall development and relational well-being.