Rebecca has recently been involved with a focus group that is looking at how the arts and culture can reduce violent extremism, a project which includes collaborating with some pretty “colorful” characters. For example, in the group is Daryl Davis, an African-American blues singer who has conducted multiple interviews with members of the KKK. Also involved is Arno Michaelis, a …
October 2018 Rebecca’s husband once said “When I was growing up, my mother always told me I could do anything I wanted but she didn’t tell me I couldn’t do everything that I wanted”. It’s a high quality problem when we have lots of opportunities that we are excited about and things that we want to do but at some …
August 2018 Summer is over and so ends our youth series. We thank Tabitha, Gioia’s 18 year old daughter, for reminding us how easy it is to not only take the people that we care about for granted but to sometimes not treat them as well as they deserve. We also thank Annabel, Gioia’s 16 year-old daughter, for revealing her …
March 2018 We often focus on identifying and building on strengths in our newsletters; however, usually it is related to our work with adults. This newsletter will launch our summer series of newsletters on working with children, teens and young adults. This month we’ve asked a youth consultant to review a free assessment of strengths called the Values in Action …
03/18 Shout Out to the VIA Youth Strengths Survey Click to Read Post »
November 2017 Rebecca recently had to get her vehicle registered in Arizona. She’d postponed going to the DMV because of dreaded long lines, complicated forms, burnt-out government employees, and the fear that she would not be able to complete the process despite all of her efforts to have her ducks in a row. When she got there, just as she …
June 2017 Earlier this month, Rebecca’s mother, Lee, visited Miraval, the Arizona resort where Rebecca is an art therapy specialist and wellness counselor. After a day of rest, Lee decided to “stretch” herself by trying out some activities that were outside of her “box”. For the next couple of days, she participated in a ceremony using gently sounding brass Tibetan …
06/17 What Happens When You Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone? Click to Read Post »
August 2016 Peter Drucker, often called the founder of modern business management, was famous for suggesting that when we focus more on strengths, our weaknesses become irrelevant. Robert Biswas-Diener, one of our favorite positive psychologists, has a really great take on this idea. He says that it isn’t that we should ignore our weaknesses, and at times we may actually …
May 2016 Gioia and I are blessed with a very specific signature strength-Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence. One might assume that everyone is endowed with this quality. And yes most people do have visual preferences-evident in the colors they choose to paint their rooms, the way they arrange their living space, the particular flair they have in their style of …
“I reveal myself one mask at a time”Stephen Dunn Rebecca and I have recently been using masks in our work. Although they’re often used in art therapy, we were both conflicted about what they represent. Are they meant to hide or protect some aspect of ourselves? Do they reflect what we show to the world and obscure our “true” selves. …
Gioia and I have adopted the title “Strengths Spotters,” from the work of one of our positive psychology heroes, Robert Biswas-Diener. Not only is it a part of our work and the work of most therapists, but she and I are both blessed to have this quality in our repertoire of strengths, and particularly in the set of strengths that …
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