Studio for Expressive Arts LA (SFEALA) invites you to attend events where we host special guest speakers and performances by our resident Readers Theatre Company: Women Survivors of Skid Row. SFEALA is a viable resource of the expressive arts and drama therapy happenings in Southern California due partly to its director/founder's active membership and leadership in the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA). It is also home to the SoCal Drama Therapy Center..
Through our SoCal Drama Therapy Center, drama therapists are trained, professional development for educators and clinical practitioners is available, drama therapy and creativity workshops are facilitated, and individual personal growth coaching is offered! Professional development courses for creative art therapists, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, child life specialists, nurses, teaching artists, artists, and educators who want to learn how expressive therapy and drama therapy are holistically and culturally appropriate ways of working with various populations are listed on our curriculum page. Courses are geared toward individuals and groups who want to develop drama therapy techniques for their personal and professional growth. This may also include classes toward drama therapy certification (RDT) if desired. We now offer a novel projective techniques of drama therapy certificate course to professional clinicians and educators for instance.
Drama therapy courses for students working toward their Registered Drama Therapy (RDT) credential are available through our Alternative Track (AT) program. We are unique as a training school in the western region because we offer some of our curriculum on-line or as hybrid courses, so we can instruct you wherever you reside. See requirements for AT study program on our SoCal Drama Therapy Center course page or request a class for professional development!
Stephanie Wichmann
Dr. Myriam Savage RDT #435-BCT#111
Myriam Savage (Mimi) PhD, MA, RDT/BCT is on faculty teaching at SoCal Drama Therapy Centre. She is the founder of Studio for Expressive Arts LA, a venue supporting social justice and creative arts education as well as the director of professional development and drama therapy courses for individuals and the community at SoCal Drama Therapy Centre, where she is a board certified trainer (BCT) of drama therapy. Dr. Savage is narrative-trained and her expertise with clients and in research has been on self-identity, foster care, female adolescence, adoption, inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation, special needs, homelessness, intergenerational trauma, and multiculturalism. She supervises AT, drama therapy students nationally and internationally, coaches artists, facilitates individuals, families and groups as well as leads groups in corporate and educational settings. As a member of the UCLArts and Healing, Social Emotional Arts (SEA) program faculty, she contributes curriculum and instruction in theatre arts and professional development. She is the first Southern California chapter president of the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) and is on the NADTA board as the Western Region representative. Dr. Savage presents at national conferences, publishes on drama therapy and maintains her SAG/AFTRA AEA membership. Alma maters are: Princeton University (AB in Comparative Lit.) & (Certificate in Theatre and Dance); California State University LA (MA in Theatre Arts); Lesley University (PhD in Expressive Therapies); The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Acting NY(Conservatory Graduate); The Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles (Graduate). She is a recipient of the 2014 Drama Therapy Fund Professional Research grant as well as the 2015 Lesley University new pilot grant for Expressive Therapies.
Welcome to information about the documentary Game Girls (release date TBD 2017), a film by director, Alina Skrzeszewska, which I facilitated for two years as a drama therapist in LA's skid row for and with homeless women of all ages using drama therapy and expressive arts.
Daniel Doyle, RDT, LMFT, LPCC, Certified EMDR Therapist is in private practice in Southern California and is on the teaching staff at the SoCal Drama Therapy Centre. A graduate of the Drama Therapy Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, Daniel has been a clinical therapist using drama therapy since 1995. He has worked in acute psychiatric units using expressive therapies and supervised dance,
drama, art and recreation therapists in day treatment programs for emotionally disturbed youth. Daniel has facilitated veterans with drama therapy at the V.A. Hospital as well as clients recovering from serious addictions. Currently, he uses EMDR in conjunction with drama and expressive arts therapy to assist clients with healing from trauma and teaches methods of using drama therapy with such clinical practices at the SoCal Drama Therapy Centre. Dan presents at the NADTA conference and the Expressive Therapy Summit, NYC.
FACULTY
Stephanie Wichmann, MSW, LICSW, RDT is on the teaching staff at SoCal Drama Therapy Centre teaching Special Populations with Drama Therapy courses. Stephanie was a NADTA alternative training (AT) drama therapy student, receiving her RDT certification in 2014. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 12 years experience utilizing her professional theater and comedy background as a means of individual/community engagement and therapy. She has worked across the age spectrum: children, teens, adult and older adults. Primary practice settings include hospitals, community organizations. Areas of specialization include: working with those affected by chronic illness, eating disorders, adjustment disorders, and learning disabilities. Stephanie is a consultant, speaker, and trainer on improvisation for change, humor and healing, creativity in the workplace, and cultivating resiliency through the dramatic arts.
FACULTY
Founder/DIrector/FACULTY
Dan Doyle
Studio for Expressive Arts LA & The SoCal Drama Therapy Center
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