Workshops & Classes
MindBody Medicine and Creative Therapeutics
What is Mind-Body Medicine?
At its core, Mind Body Medicine is a form of self-care. It focuses on utilizing the conscious mind to influence positive change in the body and mental/emotional states via the Autonomic Nervous System and the powerful ways in which we can help heal and care for ourselves. It also utilizes the latest science in Neurogenesis and Neuroplasticity, meaning we can grow new neural pathways and can consciously choose which ones we want to strengthen. It gives each one of us a sense of agency, that we have some control over our health and wellbeing. It teaches that the mind and body are deeply interconnected as a unified whole in which one aspect can have a profoundly dramatic effect on the other. Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can affect and shape every aspect of our biological functioning. And conversely, how we care for our bodies can affect our minds and spirit. In essence, our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions have the power to stimulate health or disease.
Mind Body Medicine is is well researched and proven to be beneficial for many health issues as stated in the New England Journal of Medicine April 9, 2020 op-ed "New Era for Mind Body Medicine",
"...randomized, controlled trials have suggested improved health outcomes and quality of life in multiple physical and mental health conditions that are related to or exacerbated by stress, including chronic pain, anxiety, depression, cancer related fatigue, tobacco addiction, inflammatory bowel disease, and cardiovascular disease...we believe the future is promising for mind-body medicine."
The workshops and classes I offer below are all rooted in MindBody Medicine and married with Creative Therapeutic processes.
What are MindBody Skills Groups?
Mind Body Skills Groups provide a way for us to learn skills for taking care of ourselves and to practice them with others in a compassionate, supportive environment. We will learn and practice a variety of skills that will help us to change the way we deal with stress, illness, and life. These include various forms of meditation, guided imagery, breathwork, autogenic training (self-hypnosis), biofeedback, writing, and drawing. These groups are highly experiential and designed to assist us in coming to know ourselves better and in learning and using tools that support us on our healing journeys. Through using these techniques, we can experience deeper relaxation, less pain, less fatigue, greater energy, and enhanced immune functioning. They can help us more successfully deal with pain, chronic illness, stress, anxiety, and depression. Over time we can experience greater self-awareness and sense of wellbeing.
Mind-Body Skills Groups offer a powerful and effective combination of researched based healing therapies to help participants deal with life changes, stress, and illness in an intimate and supportive group setting. The groups are small, usually 8-10 people, which allows for a deeper level of connection, sharing, and support. The groups meet at a set day and time for 8 weeks, 2-hours each week, which provided an opportunity for participants to begin to integrate the mind-body skills into their lives, with the support of the group to help them work through any difficulties along the way.
Additional information as well as videos and supporting research can be found at https://cmbm.org
Pricing for the 8 Week Mind Body Skills Groups is on a sliding scale from $160-$260
Shape of Emotions 1, 12 ×12 “ Oil painting by Amy Lynn Couch
What Are Creative Therapeutics?
Creative Therapeutics is a term I developed that encompasses the therapeutic value of all forms of creative expression paired with MindBody Medicine, and married with the intention of focusing on a specific area or issue that is in need of healing and integration.
It is a wholistic approach to healing soul that interweaves creative expression with mindbody medicine techniques, such as guided imagery, Qi Gong, body awareness, and breathing exercises. Attachment style healing methods such as reprogramming core wounds(negative self-beliefs), emotional awareness and regulation, and understanding one's own needs and how to fill them in a healthy way are an integral part of Creative Therapeutics.
This focused work provides opportunities for encounters with your innate creative power. By using mindfulness, creative expression, curiosity, compassion, and play to explore and unlock frozen body parts, stuck emotions, and experiences, we mobilize them into movement so they can be digested and alchemized into life force energy. We invite awareness to the sacredness of our human experience and our immense creative power for healing our interwoven bodies, hearts, and minds and begin the return to a state of flow, joy, and present moment awareness.
I believe in the resiliency and strength of the human spirit and that we are all creative spiritual beings with immense self-healing potential. By tapping into our creative and imaginative superpowers to heal ourselves, envision a world in harmony with Nature, and take inspired action in that direction we begin to consciously manifest that vision moment by moment in ever widening circles and shift seemingly immovable obstacles. Creating Heaven on Earth. First within ourselves, then in our relationships with others, and extending to our communities, as well.
I believe creative expression and art-making-or singing, dancing, making music, and cracking jokes-is an integral part of being human and a way to transform old stagnant energies and paradigms within self and culture.
Taproot into Your Creative Wisdom
Are you a caregiver that forgets to take care of yourself? Or do you find that you are over-worked, stressed out, drained to the bone, and rarely find or make time to give to yourself or your creative life? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this workshop is for you. Give yourself the opportunity to nourish your own body and soul by learning how to access the life sustaining energies of Nature, Spirit, and your own inherent creativity (yes, you are creative whether you believe it or not). Learn how to taproot down into your own personal healing reservoir of images and inner wisdom using Qi Gong guided imagery, art-making, and journaling. Re-ignite your creative life, health, and well-being by connecting deeply to your own Healing Artist Within. Recharge your batteries and rejuvenate your life. No previous art experience necessary-just a sense of child-like wonder. Come share safe and sacred space. No critiquing, interpretation, or analysis will take place here.
This workshop weaves together many of the different creative healing methods I used to help heal my own soul from trauma with the intention that it supports others in a similar way. Qi Gong, guided imagery, art making, and journaling all weave together to create a deepening, a taproot, down into your own creative healing reservoir of images. It is designed to encourage empathy with the subtle energies of the Universe that connect us to each other, Nature, and Spirit.
Empower Your Life & Your Goals
Do you feel stuck or bogged down by old, disempowering beliefs about yourself that stop you from moving forward on your goals, dreams, or desires? Do you have a negative voice inside your head that stops you dead in your tracks when you want to move forward in life? Or do you feel completely disconnected from your body or emotions?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, this workshop is for you. Empower Your Life combines multiple MindBody Medicine techniques such as Qigong, guided imagery, drawing/journaling, and creative movement, along with belief and thought reprogramming techniques to help you break out of the cycle of self-sabotage and negative self-talk that stops you dead in your tracks when you want to move forward on a goal. These are evidenced based techniques to help lessen stress and overwhelm as well as reprogram limiting beliefs that hold you back from living the life you want to live.
Come if you want to learn how to set a powerful and clear intention or goal you want to accomplish, connect and energize yourself and your actions with the energies of Heaven and Earth, and begin to clear out the negative self-talk that gets in the way of achieving that goal. This workshop will help you envision the life you want to live and begin taking the steps necessary to achieve it. It IS possible.