AATA Conference

I almost don't know where to start. The AATA conference was so amazing and an experience I will not be able to duplicate. I guess the best way to do it is go through day by day.

Wednesday
We got an early start and were on the road at 6:30. It was cold, but we were armed with our coffee and knitting needles. The trip up was filled with dance parties in the car, a spectacle of towed object and knitting—lots of knitting. We had a blast a documented the trip with pictures. Kristen picked an amazing restaurant [Yats] to eat at in Indy, and gave us the rundown on her city.

We finally arrived in Cleveland at about 5:30, an hour and a half before pre-check-in at the conference closed so we walked the mile from our hotel to the conference hotel. Along the way, we saw theater square, a window full of toys and trolls AND a Christmas Story themed storefront window. It was a cold brisk walk, but we were so excited to finally be there, we didn't complain [too much anyway]. When we got there to pick up our conference materials, we got these amazing bags decorated with wheelchair art, later I would find a buckeye inside [we were in Ohio] and it made me tear up thinking of my Pappy who used to give us buckeyes to keep with us for good luck.

We were all hungry so we headed out to try to find some food. We ran into a public safety officer [Albert] on our way to find food and he recommended the Hairy Buffalo which was amazing, and gave us the opportunity to have a drink and relax a bit. And then we walked back to our hotel and planned our next day.

Thursday
I got up bright and early to attend a supervision on boundaries. It was nice to hear other professionals and how they approached boundary violations in the therapeutic environment. We did a visualization exercise where we envisioned our boundaries. I envisioned a large velvet blanket type cloak with an opening. I could open it up when needed, and ivite loved ones in it with me, but keep others out if needed.

I then departed the group for my off-site workshop—a trolley art tour of the city along with an afternoon at Zygote Press making monoprints. It was a very invigorating session—the creative energy was so thick in the room, you could fill it emanating from each of us involved. Not only was the creativity high, but the facility was involved in so many inspiring community arts programs—they even have a press on wheels that they take out to the community. I was awe-struck and full of ideas of my own, not to mention inspired in how to integrate printmaking into art therapy techniques.

I met up with the rest of the crew at the student only session by Harriet Wadeson. From there we went on to an Art Therapy gallery opening.

Friday
Debbie and I got up bright and early to make it to the Dream Matrix in the morning. It was a powerful experience of sharing nighttime dreams, the images were vivid and full of emotion. Then off to the opening session, where 1,070 fellow art therapists gathered this year. Bruce Perry gave a validating and inspiring talk about childhood trauma and the neuroscience involved in attachment.

Then off to see Shaun McNiff's student session. He is so energetic it is hard not to feel energized and excited about art therapy after his session. Followed by a session with Harriet Wadeson on creative writing and art therapy. We wrote a small segment about a client of ours and got feedback from peers.

She resisted the process. I began to think I wasn't doing my job. I needed to challenge her—to do ART THERAPY—not make doodles. And so I did. And she responded, but not the response I had hoped for. She shut down completely. I had become what she was so resistant against.

It was so interesting to look at a client this way, and really helped to put my feelings about the situation in place.

At lunch Rosemary and I took a short walk over to the Old Stone Church. It was beautiful, and had the most amazing pipe organ and 4 Tiffany windows.

In the afternoon I proctored a session called Restless Creativity. It was about the emerging therapist identity. After a short presentation, we embarked on a journey of creativity and self-exploration. We created a collage:

and then we brain stormed 5 words from the image:

1. introspective
2. containment
3. nurture
4. warmth
5. robotic

and then we created a poem using the words:
Introspective
As I begin my journey
I struggle with the amount of
nurturance
containment
boundaries
I struggle to remain warm and human
And not to become robotic in the world around me
It's a constant balance

We then changed images with someone and they brainstormed words for our images. These are what my partner included: old things, goodbye, sort, protected, gone, radiance, radiative energy, logic, orderliness, dream, painfulness and growth, cold, metallic, protective.

It was such a great experience that I would like to include in my journal.

I spent the evening at the artist market with Natalie, and then the SIUe party followed by a night out on the town.

Saturday
I actually slept in a little and missed a bit of the first session, but was able to see the amazing film SideCars.And then I participated in a round table discussion about using art with countertransferencial issues with clients. It was most beneficial because I was able to meet people who might help my thesis.

We spent the rest of the evening on the town visiting museums. We saw a thought-provoking exhibit called Race at the history museum. My favorite part of the exhibit was part of an artists project looking at multi-racial individuals called The Hapa Project. Displayed are picture of the people along with their handwritten definition of what they are. My favorites were the children's explanations. One said that he didn't tell people he was Danish because they thought he was a pastry. Another drew a drawing of a girl with a bubble that simply said "I'm a person."

Then me and Debbie headed to the art museum and saw the exhibit Artistic Luxury about Tiffany, Fabergé and Lalique. It was beautiful and breathtaking. Their were pieces on loan from the Queen, Joan and Melissa Rivers, and many other socialites/royalty. It was a once in a lifetiem experience as these three designers have not been exhibited together since the 1900 World's Fair in Paris.

We met up with the group and had an amazing Mediterranean dinner at Falafel and then back to the hotel to transform ourselves into rockstars for the dance. After the makeup and the hairspray we crowded into a car, and were off. We entered in true rockstar form as an entourage. We enjoyed dancing the night away with our professors [and my supervisor was there too!] Mama G (as Gussie was affectionately nicknamed on the trip) enjoyed finding the authors of our textbooks s that we could take advantage of the Kodak moment. It was truly a night to remember. Again the pictures are here.

Sunday
After a tremendously fun weekend we checked out of the hotel, and got back on the road, returning to our everyday routines back in St Louis. I still have a week vacation to enjoy [if you can call writing papers, journals and a treatment notebook that] at home with the fam.