ON THE EDGE OF CHAOS: Finding Flow & Resilience through Creativity & the Arts

Title: ON THE EDGE OF CHAOS: Finding Flow & Resilience  through Creativity & the Arts<br>
Date & Time: Mar 04, 2013 10:00 AM - Apr 07, 2013 5:00 PM
Location: UCLA Schoenberg Hall
445 Charles E Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA

ON THE EDGE OF CHAOS:
Finding Flow & Resilience
through Creativity & the Arts

Sunday April 7, 10 am-5 pm
UCLA Schoenberg Hall
445 Charles E Young Drive East, Los Angeles, CA

register at http://www.uclartsandhealing.net/ViewProgram.aspx?ID=320

featuring:
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD
the father of positive psychology and “flow”

Creativity + Flow Research Panels
the biology of creativity + neurophysiology of flow/dissociation
creative arts applications for autism, mental illness, trauma

Dance + Opera Performances
from California State University, Northridge

Creative Arts Therapy Workshops
in art, music, drama, dance/movement, poetry therapy


FREE Admission
>> Registration for everyone includes lunch <<
(vegan options will be provided)

Focusing on enhancing strengths, rather than fixing deficits, creativity and the arts are uniquely able to facilitate flow, mind-body wellness, and transformation. With the growing cost of healthcare and increasing demand for preventative, patient-centered, and chronic care, it is important for future healthcare professionals and artists to be aware of effective and creative positive psychological approaches for both healing and wellness.

conference features:
Science: Leading experts present and discuss cutting-edge research on flow, creativity, stress, and self-regulation (including psychology, neurobiology, physiological functions, and emotional processes).
 
Performance: The CSUN dance and opera performances will portray key themes of social justice, equity and diversity related topics (autism, political detainees, chronic illness and loss). During the performance a dancer will wear a body suit that records her physiological responses to demonstrate, in real time, dissociation and flow in performing artists.

Application: we’ll witness a dialogue between the ‘North’ and ‘South’ Campus realms of study as scientific researchers and creative arts therapists discuss how the creative arts are uniquely qualified in addressing autism, mental illness, and trauma.

Experience: Experiential breakout creative arts therapy workshops will give the conference participants active opportunities to engage, first hand, in two creative arts therapy workshops of their choice (art therapy, dance and music therapy, poetry therapy, and drama therapy).

conference program schedule:
Introduction
10:00 - 10:15       Ping Ho - Introductory Remarks
                            the creative arts for mind-body well-being
Science
10:15 – 11:15      Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Key Note Presenter
                           “flow”: the creative state of heightened focus & immersion
                            the secret to happiness, creativity, human fulfillment
                             
                            • Q & A (5 min)

11:15 – 12:00       Panel: Creativity & Flow Research
                             • Dr. Robert Bilder (20 min)
                             95% solution to resilience
                             brain functions involved in “flow”
                             personal brain management + creativity
                             
                             • Dr. Victoria Jaque & Dr. Paula Thomson, & Mariko Iwabuchi (20 min)
                             psychophysiology research on flow and stress regulation
                             patterns in performing artists and athletes
                             
                             • Q & A (5 min)

12:00 – 1:00         Lunch

Performance
1:00 – 1:40           Dance Program

1. It Could Be Frankie – Premiered on November 15, 2011 at Plaza Del Sol
    Performance Hall – Colaboratoria: Graduate Student and Faculty Dance Concert

Program Information on It Could Be Frankie:
Choreography: Paula Thomson
Co-creators: Maurice Godin
Music: Philip Glass (Knee Play 5 from Einstein on the Beach
Dancers: Sara Adler, Elissa Brock, Arianna Douglas, Hilary Gereaux, Talia Magleby, Cameron Shim, Jocelyn Zelaya

Choreographer notes: This dance was inspired by the incredible love, loneliness, and vacillating hope and despair of colleagues, students and patients who parent, assist, or live with autistic family members. The complex layers of self-regulation by both a caregiver and an individual with autism are often manifested in an array of non-verbal gestures. When these inner worlds of experience collide they reveal the dreams and fears silently carried in the background of their interactions.


2. Gates of Mercy – Premiered on September 29, 2012 at
    Mirrors of the Mind: The Psychotherapist as Artist

Program Information on Gates of Mercy:
Choreography: Paula Thomson
Music: Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings
Dancers: Elissa Brock & Jocelyn Zelaya

Choreographer notes: Two young women find themselves detained. Although strangers, these prisoners discover solace in their shared terror of the unknown. This dance was inspired by experiences working with victims of violence, creation of theatre of witness, and volunteering as a psychologist for the Asylum Network at the Physicians for Human Rights Organization and for Given an Hour Psychotherapy for Veterans.


3. Vocalise – Premiered November 2009 at Plaza Del Sol Performance Hall

Program Information on Vocalise:
Choreography: Paula Thomson
Co-creators: Maurice Godin, Lilia Kibarska
Music: Rachmaninoff – Vocalise Op. 34 No.14
Soprano: Nan Cui
Dancer: Lilia Kibarska
Pianist: Kanae Matsumoto
                                
Choreographer notes: The dancer, opera singer and pianist are aspects of one Self, a self that is longing to fulfill that which never happened and to heal that which disintegrated the self. Vocalise reflects the steady movement forward in time, while we struggle to reconcile the past and seek the future. Special thanks to OperaWorks.

                        
4. All the Mornings – Premiered on November 13, 2012 at Plaza Del Sol Performance
    Hall – Colaboratoria: Graduate Student and Faculty Dance Concert

Program Information on All the Mornings:
Choreography: Paula Thomson
Co-creators: Maurice Godin and Dancers
Music: Marin Marais
Dancers: Sara Adler, Elissa Brock, Arianna Douglas, Hilary Gereaux, Darrell Hardaway, Bebe Liang,Talia Magleby, Jesse Ricaldi, Tharini Shanmugarajah, Cheyenne Spencer, Ilana Torres, Christian Vidaure, Aliyah Zelaya, Jocelyn Zelaya

Choreographer notes: This dance was inspired by the perceptual sensations experienced during the early morning after the loss of a loved one. It portrays a community integrating loss and hope.


1:40 – 1:50     Q & A

Application
1:50 – 2:50     Panel: Research & Creative Arts Therapy Applications
                           
                       Research Panelists:
                       •  Dr. Robert Bilder (Mental Illness) – 9 min
                       •  TBA (Autism) – 9 min
                       •  Dr. Patricia Lester (Stress and Trauma) – 9 m
                       
                       Creative Arts Therapies Panelists:
                       •  Erica Curtis (Art Therapy) – 9 min
                       •  Lora Wilson Mau (Dance/Movement Therapy) – 9 min
                       •  Dr. Pam Dunne (Drama Therapy) – 9 min

                       Q & A (5 min)

Reflection
2:50 – 3:00     Brief Wrap-Up, Thanks, introduce Experientials
                       •  Distribute and collect evaluation surveys of conference
                       •  Q & A (brief comments, questions, and answers on conference as a whole)


3:00 – 3:10     Break

Experience
3:10 – 4:00     Trauma + Self-Regulation Experiential Workshops
                       •  Drama therapy (w/ Dr. Pam Dunne)
                       •  Poetry therapy (w/ Dr. Robert Carroll)

4:00 – 4:10     Transition Break

4:10 - 5:00      Search for Self Experiential Workshops
                       •  Art therapy (w/ Erica Curtis)
                       •  D/MT + Music therapy (w/ Lora Wilson Mau and Summer Mencher)

Keynote Presenter – Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology. He is noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic. According to Csikszentmihalyi, people are most fulfilled when they are in a state of flow, the creative moment when a person is "completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

Other Notable Presenters:
Dr. Robert Bilder, PhD, ABPP-CN – Chief of UCLA Neuropsychology and Director of the Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA

Robert Carroll, MD – Past Vice President, National Association for Poetry Therapy and Program Chair of the Southern California region; UCLA clinical faculty member. Family psychiatrist and poet.

Erica Curtis, LMFT, ATR-BC – Past President of the Southern California Art Therapy Association, Past Board Member of the American Art Therapy Association, Instructor at Loyola Marymount University, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist; Board Certified Art Therapist.

Pamela Dunne, PhD, RDT/BCT– Past President of the National Association for Drama Therapy (NADT); founding board member of the Board of Examiners for the NADT; Founding Director, Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles and Creative Therapies Center of Los Angeles. Professor Emeritus of the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance at California State University, Los Angeles. Clinical Psychologist, Author, and Registered Drama Therapist, Board Certified Trainer.

Ping Ho, MA, MPH – Founding Director of UCLArts and Healing, which facilitates the use of the arts for mind-body wellness and healing as a vehicle for empowerment and transformation (uclartsandhealing.org).

Summer Mencher, MT-BC – Board Certified Music Therapist; obtained her degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2008; experienced working with children with special needs and has practiced in schools, hospitals (both medical and psychiatric) hospice, shelters, daycares, and treatment centers.

Lora Wilson Mau, MA, BC-DMT – Public Relations Chairperson, American Dance Therapy Association; Past President of the California Chapter of the American Dance Therapy Association; Lecturer at California State University, Long Beach, Department of Dance. Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist.

CEU's available.