Earn 1.5 New York State LCAT, LCSW, LMHC or LMSW Continuing Education Credits!
From the comfort of your own home on your own schedule!
Course Description:
As the COVID-19 pandemic lingers on, the need for virtual approaches in the school setting has expanded. Whether children are in-school or at home engaged in remote learning, this adjustment has become the biggest challenge for students, teachers, and parents of 2020. And then there are special populations, specifically children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, severe learning and physical disabilities, and those with genetic disorders, who have even more challenges to overcome during this new way of learning in the pandemic. How can we continue to support these special children in this new way of learning?
This workshop will discuss how dance/movement therapy (DMT) can continue to support these populations from afar through telehealth group sessions, both with children in classrooms and at home.
Learning Objectives Include:
- Learn three (3) ways to support student, teachers and parents in maintaining the therapeutic rapport while also navigating the virtual space
- Provide four (4) movement-based and mindfulness activities to facilitate relationship with peers and caregivers/teachers, using lens from attachment theory, during telehealth sessions
- Offer three (3) ways to engage students with special needs in sensory experiences during video group sessions
- Discuss three (3) ways to encourage teachers, paraprofessionals, and/ or parents to serve as co-facilitators in sessions as they are a crucial element towards implementing therapeutic goals and providing clinical support
Hi I'm Jenn!
Jennifer Whitley, M.S., BC-DMT, LCAT, CMA is a board certified Dance/Movement Therapist and Licensed Creative Arts Therapist who received her master’s degree, with honors, in Dance Therapy at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She is trained through the Ways of Seeing program at Dancing Dialogue and Certified as a Laban Movement Analyst from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies. She has been a DMT at Dancing Dialogue since 2014 working with children and families using Dr. Tortora’s Ways of Seeing psychotherapeutic multi-arts approach. Ms. Whitley’s experience also includes medical DMT at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, joining the Integrative Medicine Services team in 2012, with a focus in pediatric oncology alongside Dr. Tortora. Additionally, she works with children who have special needs facilitating group DMT sessions in the public school setting since 2013. She taught as interim instructor in The New School’s Creative Arts Therapy Certification Program, worked as DMT/Choreographer for Angelight Films, and presents workshops locally, nationally, and internationally.