Embark on an Artistic Path with JourneyWorks Collaborative
Expressive arts therapy is a very effective modality for individuals, families, and groups. At JourneyWorks Collaborative in New Bedford, MA, we use the arts to enable you to find a safe place to engage with the numinous, build resources and resiliency, and remember the light that shines within you.
Expressive Arts Therapy includes drumming, movement, drama (including Psychodrama and Playback Theatre), vocal sounding, drawing and painting, creating sculpture, and making poetry or other creative writing.
Come Into Our Studio!
Work with your whole life experience!
The arts will help you create more harmony, balance, and joy.
Creating art helps support a deep sense of emotional stability and encourages healthy, happy relationships.
- Use dramatic techniques to understand the diversity of roles you play in your inner and outer lives.
- Paint, write, or journal about the experience.
- Move!
Exploring life through the arts helps clarify issues, work with a current or past life situation, and develop a sense of community.
Both theatre and the visual arts utilize movement, gesture, and expression to facilitate positive change in ourselves and in the groups in which we work and live. They can also increase physical, spiritual, and emotional health while fostering the development of new skills.
In entering therapy, you are investing in yourself and your future. The expressive arts can help you see things about yourself that might be missed in simple conversation. I will support you as you develop insight into your artistic creations and aid you in finding and giving voice to your true self.
I also partner with my husband and colleague, Michael Watson, LCMHC, to offer shamanic sessions for individuals, couples, and families; short-term groups; workshops; and seasonal ceremonies.
*The arts and theatre can also be applied successfully to support organizations and work teams. Please get in touch with Jennie for more information on this.
Why Expressive Arts Therapy?
Often, more than words are needed. Increasingly, research proves that engaging with the arts supports a deeper understanding of self and improved communication with others.
Explore Our Expressive Arts Class Offerings
Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy
Integrating multiple art forms including, but not limited to, image/art making, drama, movement, music, and poetry.
Listening Hour
Join us in Listening Hour Circle!
The Listening Hour Circle is a way to pause and take a breath and a way to connect with others through sharing stories.
These days when we talk about stories, we are usually talking about a newspaper story or a literary short story. But here we mean something different—a true story that comes from our own experience. We remember moments that are meaningful to us, whether they are about hard times or good. If we can really be open to what comes up for us to share at the moment, sometimes we are really surprised in a positive way, and what we have to say is often interesting and memorable for others as well.
The experience is designed to be enjoyable and often allows us a way to pause in our day.
What is in your heart that you would like to share? Listening Hour Circles are intentionally done in small groups. Some circles have themes, and others do not, the stories are threads. Listening Hour Circles are held monthly both online and in person. Open to all ages.
Expressive Arts Grief Group
Winter, and particularly the holiday season can be a time of intensified grief. Grief may grow, even in the rush and celebration of the season. The deep slumber of the natural world may further intensify grief. This group will support participants in addressing grief while finding meaning and even comfort in the season and the many holidays that fill it. Preregistration Required. $20 per session, $80 for the series.
Opening to Winter: A Group for Writers and Artists
Co-led with Michael Watson
Winter is the "turning inside time." Yet it is also the time to tell sacred stories. In this group we will journey into winter together, opening to the healing possibilities of turning within, exploring the many nuances of this sacred dark time, and sharing our art, writing, or music. Preregistration required. Monthly group. January-March: 4th Tuesday of each month beginning January 23rd, 10-12 pm $60 for series.
Guided Expressive Arts Journeys
Supporting meaning-making within varied artistic techniques and tools in workshops every season. Offered individually, couples, and families. Contact Jennie Kristel for more information.
Playback Theatre
Playback Theatre is a unique form of improvisational theatre, a community-building process taking personal stories and spontaneously bringing these stories to life on stage. Playback is used internationally for open performances, rituals, social action, therapy, and disaster relief. Playback Theatre is available to EVERYONE..
Expressive Arts Open Studio
A place and time to play and create; however, the heart is moved in the company of others. See calendar for registration.
You can count on us for quality expressive arts supervision. Call now at 774 328-7044.