IACAET East-West Dialogue Series 

Stabilization – Breakthrough – Resilience through the Arts

IACAET 东西对话系列: 稳定与破局 –艺术康复 艺术·身心·生命系列（第六季）

As the world continues to adapt and live with Covid-19, we are entering a post pandemic age. Challenges continue to emerge ever clearer – global conflict/war, inflation, climate change, food and water shortages threaten the entire human race. Each of us must deal with ever increasing uncertainties, instability and changes every moment of every day.

Now more than ever, we need novel and creative ideas and actions to assist us in finding balance and stability. Similar to the Chinese symbols of duality, yin and yang, finding a balance between ‘structure of stability’ while also longing for ‘breakthrough and freedom’ become a delicate possibility. In this series, we will explore and foster a ‘dialogue in action’ between Eastern & Western thought regarding how we can use the arts to create new symbols and dance and transform creatively between the dualities, to stabilize ourselves and find a pathway for breakthrough in these challenging times.

This series is presented by the IACAET China Regional Chapter. Our Chinese colleagues will curate and host the sessions in dialogue with our international speakers. These dialogues will search for common ground between East-West in dealing with our current global challenges, reflecting on how we can be empowered by the arts to heighten our social responsibility as professional educators, therapists, researchers and leaders in related fields.

Nurturing Intra-personal Intimacy and Building Resilience through the Arts

Time: 7-8:30AM New York / 8:00-9:30PM Bejing, December 18, 2022

Looking back at recent ‘Covid’ years – how often did we find ourselves separated and detached from our community and loved ones? Was our solitude endurable? Who and what did we turn to for comfort? And how did resilience assist us during isolation? These past years, we have come to recognize art’s role in the identification and expression of distress, and how the arts help us cope and even thrive through difficult times.

We all have the strengths and coping resources, which can be mobilized in times of stress. As an art therapist and a family psychotherapist, Dr. Lev recognizes the significant contribution art and resilience have to one another and how this can lead to transformation and well-being. A natural element within artmaking is ambiguity, which is essential for building resilience. The challenges that exist in the creative process promote deep inquiry and re-deliberation especially when looking at the finitude of life.

Michal’s studies over the past decade demonstrate a positive relationship between artmaking, the creation of intimacy, and resilience. She suggests that intimacy is an intra-personal phenomenon, requiring certain conditions to be invited into one’s space.

In this 1.5 hr. interactive seminar, Dr. Michal Lev will discuss findings from her research, and share stories from her clinical experience. Michal will demonstrate elements of artmaking as sources of resilience, offering a sustaining anchor and inviting intimacy in face of threatening contemporary times.

This webinar will be curated by and in dialogue with our Chinese colleagues and consists of lecture, discussion and Q&A.

There is English-Chinese translation for this webinar which will be recorded and accessed by all IACAET members.

Keywords: art-based research, art therapy, expressive arts therapy, personal growth, creativity, intimacy, resilience.

Speakers

Tingting Chen

Tingting Chen, MS, LMHC, ATR. Licensed Mental Health Counselor from the state of Massachusetts, U.S.A. Registered Art Therapist with American Art Therapy Credentials Board. Master of Science in Art Therapy/Counseling from Springfield College. Board member of IACAET. She has rich experience in providing art therapy and mental health counselling services to individuals and families in both China and the U.S.

Michal Lev

Dr. Michal Lev is a board-certified art therapist, supervisor, and a certified family psychotherapist working in Israel. Her clinical practice includes inpatient and outpatient treatments for adults with mental health issues. In her private practice for couples and families Michal incorporates expressive therapies to deal with intimacy issues and promote wellbeing. Michal is a faculty lecturer at the graduate art therapy program at Ono Academic College–ASA in Israel, advising students in their seminar thesis and promoting art-based pedagogy and research. Her published research and presentations focus on intimacy, resilience, art-based research, and creative process-oriented pedagogy. Dr. Lev is a board member in the international organization IACAET, and a co-editor-in-chief in the academic journal CAET. As a social activist, artist, and entrepreneur, she maintains artmaking for innovation, inquiry, and knowledge within business environments.

Wei Xu

Art writer and independent curator. She is the author of the Nirvana of the Art, an anthology of art critique, and has long written pieces on her personal public art website, Art as Therapy .She has always been interested in the connection between contemporary art and the soul of the times. In public education, she obtains solutions to psychological problems by encouraging people to gain insight into the nature of art.

Hosts

Katee Shen

Certified Movement Analyst, Certified Mental Health Counselor, Professional interpreter in the field of somatics education and DMT, Trained as a DMT through the American Dance Therapy Association, Program Manager with Inspirees, Co-Creator of BodyMind Union, Regional Director of China for IACAET. As one of the pioneers and practitioners of Dance/Movement Therapy and Laban/Bartenieff Movement System in China, Katee Shen integrates creative arts into courses and activities emphasizing embodied experiences for different populations.

Yunyuan Shi

Yunyuan Shi is an artist and designer, a teacher of art therapy in the School of Design, Central Academy of Fine Arts, and a member of the American Art Therapy Association. She currently focuses on the research of innovative models and the deinstitutionalization of art therapy. She has worked in the United States Immigration and Refugee Service Center, nursing home, community school, planned and carried out more than 10 art healing practice projects. Her work haa been exhibited and collected in Chicago, New York, Florence, Beijing, Shanghai and other places.