Following their Lead: Medical Dance Therapy for Infants, Children and Their Families
Sunday May 5, 2019, 10:30 am- 11:30am
Location:
Dancing Dialogue LCAT LMHC PLLC
26 Main Street
Cold Spring, NY 10516
Course Description:
A pediatric medical diagnosis affects the whole family. As the medical team attends to the treatment finding emotional support for the patient and family members is challenging. Using the creative arts as a means of expression creates a safe environment where the patient and family can share their emotional responses and experience ways to enjoy childhood. A multi-sensory approach developed by one of the presenters that helps families and even the youngest children cope with treatments that has painful side effects is presented. This workshop demonstrates the use of dance/movement therapy, highlighting its role during medical procedures, pain management, and coping with emotional themes that arise.
Course Objectives
Learn the core elements needed to develop a DMT program in a pediatric hospital.
Learn 3 elements of a multisensory DMT –based treatment to support emotional expression and painful medical procedures.
Learn specific early childhood developmental stages to support when working young hospitalized medically ill children
About the Instructors
Suzi Tortora Ed.D, BC-DMT, LCAT, LMHCholds a doctorate from Columbia University and serves as consultant to the “Mothers, Infants and Young Children of September 11, 2001: A Primary Prevention Project” in the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University under Dr. Beatrice Beebe. Dr Tortora has a dance/movement psychotherapy practice, in New York City and Cold Spring, New York. She is the manager of the Integrative Medicine Services Dréas Dream dance/movement therapy program for pediatric patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center since its inception in 2003. Dr. Tortora has published numerous papers about her therapeutic and nonverbal communication analysis work and her book, The Dancing Dialogue: Using the communicative power of movement with young children is used extensively in dance/movement therapy training programs. She has been featured on “Good Morning America”, “Eyewitness News” ABC –TV and Malcolm Gladwell’s book, What the Dog Saw. Dr.Tortora received the 2010 Marian Chace Distinguished Dance Therapist award from the National Dance Therapy Association. She holds a board position at NY Zero-to-Three Network. Dr. Tortora has international training programs in Europe, South America and Asia including faculty positions in The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Argentina and China; lectures; and offers international webinar-based training programs for dance/movement therapists and allied professionals.
Jennifer Whitley, M.S., BC-DMT, LCAT, CMA received her M.S. degree in Dance Therapy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, is a Ways of Seeing practitioner, Level II Reiki trained, and a Certified Laban Movement Analyst. She has been at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in NYC since May 2012, working with the pediatric oncology population as a dance/movement therapist and with hospital staff as a fitness/dance instructor with Integrative Medicine Services. Ms. Whitley’s DMT experience also includes working with children diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, eating issues, family issues, and attachment disorders, both in the therapeutic school setting, and privately at Dr. Tortora’s Dancing Dialogue in Cold Spring, NY. Ms. Whitley has taught as interim instructor at The New School and presented workshops locally, nationally, and internationally.
Registration:
https://www.suzitortora.com/shop/following-their-lead-dance-therapy-totora-may-5