On the Road Again: To the Expressive Therapies Summit!

Here I am, cramping up on a full-to-capacity Peter Pan bus to New York City. It's Friday night, so it's even harder for me to accept the fact that this bus is already an hour behind schedule. The minutes are ticking by ever-so-slowly.

I'll be spending the weekend at James' place in Williamsburg, so I'll be travelling from there to the conference Saturday and Sunday morning. The plan is for me to first volunteer on Saturday from 8 AM-6 PM (8?! ugh, so not a morning person and now I'm getting in even later!), and then I'll get my free admission to the summit Sunday. I'm excited to see the summit from both the angle of a volunteer and as an attendee- I'm sure that will open up some perspectives or opportunities I may have not had just as an attendee. One other awesome colleague in my Master's program cohort, Stephanie, will also be attending the conference on Saturday and Sunday, so I'm hoping to run into her and possibly hang out during or after the conference.

I took a look at the schedule for Sunday because I had to sign up for the workshops/talks I wanted in advance via email through the volunteer coordinator, so I know there are a ton of Lesley faculty members I am well acquainted with who will be presenting/leading workshops (Karen Estrella and Mitchell Kossak, to name a few!). Once again, seeing this kind of stuff in action reminds me how grateful and lucky I am to be in the best Expressive Therapies program in the United States. It's awesome.

I have to volunteer tomorrow, so chances are I won't be sitting in on any workshops or classes, but I'll be sure to post about that experience and who I met, and what my impression of the summit is so far!

As for Sunday: I haven't gotten confirmation on what workshops I am enrolled in yet, but I should be enrolled in some of these:

1. "Integrating EMDR and Art Therapy for Bilateral Transformation of Trauma" workshop from 10-1 PM on Sunday.

OR

"Identifying Defining Moments for Therapists through Meditation and Movement" workshop from 10-11:20 AM, then "Identity and Independence: Poetry and Multimodal Expressive Arts Therapy with Teens"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. "Humor's Impact on Group Process" during the lunch period
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. "Intro to Guided Imagery and Music" workshop from 2:30-5:30 PM

OR

"Enhancing Body Image through Improvisational Tribal Style Belly Dance" from 2:30 to 3:50 PM, then "Exploring Hip-hop Songs by Inner City Adolescents" from 4:10-5:30.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm really looking forward to this. I'm just arriving in the city now, and will be heading off to see James very, very soon. Thinking about that puts my excitement level at about a 10000 right about now.