[Adta] Bringing Dance to Elders - a Six Session Course,Boston area

[Lora Wilson]

Hi everyone.

In further support of marketing our skills to other fields, I just want to point out that I receive brochures and flyers all the time at the psych hospitals I work at (of course, I can't think of the name of the company right now) that offer CEUs to clinical professionals for 1 day or 2 day workshops, that offer training in specialized fields. For example, a workshop on using Art Therapy to Deal with Anxiety just arrived this week. CLEARLY, this workshop is not offered to make anyone an art therapist! But others' curiousities are piqued - they are exposed to the strength and widsom and uniqueness of that field and leave with an idea or two on how to incorporate an art based intervention into their work OR EVEN BETTER, they leave realizing that art therapy is really unique and valuable and wow shouldn't we get an art therapist on our staff?!?!

DMTs should be absolutely offering these same workshops and CEUs and trainings to other fields, taught in a manner that the depth of our knowledge and training is clear to the students, and the VALUE of what we have to offer is experienced on an immediate, embodied level.

Personally, this is a career direction I plan on pursuing with passion and fervor... (and I want to thank Annie Kirschenmann for her brilliant embodied work with marketing that helped inspire me down this route!)

Another example... a last minute opening for a Non Verbal Communication Instructor at a local university came up this past week and intelligently, due no doubt to past dmt's advocacy, the dept wants a DMT to teach the class.  I was curious so I Googled NVC syllabi on the internet to see how this class is normally taught.  How distraught I was to see syllabus after syllabus with reading lists devoid of any reference to DMT or Laban/KMP.  We should be the profession of choice teaching this class everywhere, whether the class is part of a Communication Dept or Psychology or Counseling or Dance. WE should be teaching this!

When someone who has a deep body of knowledge teaches... I think most people will become MORE aware of the depth of our field and MORE aware that they can't do what we do without our indepth training... and thereby deepen their respect for our work (while perhaps learning a basic skill that can enhance their own specialty.)

My two cents,
Lora Wilson, MA,DTR


________________________________
> From: skdmt2 at bellsouth.net
> To: dbluebirds at rcn.com; adta at adta.org
> Subject: RE: [Adta] Bringing Dance to Elders - a Six Session Course, Boston area
> Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:07:52 -0400
> CC:
> 
> Hi Donna
> I think a lot of d/mts are hesitant to offer this type of workshop or others that promote concepts that underlie d/mt. I frequently do also.
> My Spring workshops for The Renfrew Center, were about helping therapist become more embodied & connected to themselves & their clients, & my all day workshop at our conference is being promoted to allied professionals as well as d/mt. Participants take from these experience, whatever they are able to & are usually very grateful & supportive of our skills.
> Last year, because of an in-service for practicum students who were spending the year at the facility I work at, they requested that I work w/ them for the remainder of the year as part of their supervision. So, monthly, we worked together using d/mt & they will, I know, go forward as better psychologists & also as supporters of d/mt.
> I think this is so important for us to use our skills in varied ways & I wonder if others also have examples to share of their own efforts in this regard?
> Susan
> Susan kleinman, MA, ADTR, NCC
> ________________________________
> From: Donna Newman-Bluestein [mailto:dbluebirds at rcn.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 9:21 AM
> To: skdmt2; 'adta'
> Subject: Re: [Adta] Bringing Dance to Elders - a Six Session Course, Boston area
> Susan,
> Thanks for your encouragement.
> I have been very hesitant to offer workshops like this for the very reasons you suggest. However, I have recently decided that there are not enough d/mt's to work with all the elder populations that there are, and there are many who are "dancing" with elders and are not d/mt's. I hope to also do some reaching out to recreation therapists and others who work with elders with Alzheimer's, demonstrating some of our skills, and letting them know about us and our areas of expertise.
> It will be important in doing this work that I elude to the depth of the work we can do, maybe with an example, but I will not be trying to teach others, other than my d/mt students, how to work as a d/mt.
> Donna
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: skdmt2
> To: 'Donna Newman-Bluestein' ; 'adta'
> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 9:02 AM
> Subject: RE: [Adta] Bringing Dance to Elders - a Six Session Course, Boston area
> Donna & everyone,
>  This sounds very exciting & innovative.
> I think it’s really important to use our skills as d/mts to also teach others how to be better at what they do.
> This also promotes us as experts that have something to offer to other professionals to enhance their own skills.
> For those who fear that I am suggesting that we (you) are teaching them d/mt in six sessions, this is not so & this particular program is not being promoted that way- Donna’s message is clear.
> I think it’s important to think outside the box re our skills &  using our d/mt skills as a springboard to enhance the skills of others in reaching varied populations, is a wonderful service.
> Bravo, Donna- Please let us know how it goes.
> Susan
> Susan Kleinman, MA, ADTR, NCC

_________________________________________________________________
See what you’re getting into…before you go there
http://newlivehotmail.com/?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_viral_preview_0507