Nurturing Intra-personal Intimacy and Building Resilience through the Arts

IACAET East-West Dialogue Series

Stabilization - Breakthrough - Resilience through the Arts

IACAET 东西对话系列: 稳定与破局 –艺术康复 艺术·身心·生命系列（第六季）

As the world continues to adapt and live with Covid-19, we are entering a post pandemic age. Challenges continue to emerge ever clearer – global conflict/war, inflation, climate change, food and water shortages threaten the entire human race. Each of us must deal with ever increasing uncertainties, instability and changes every moment of every day.

Now more than ever, we need novel and creative ideas and actions to assist us in finding balance and stability. Similar to the Chinese symbols of duality, yin and yang, finding a balance between 'structure of stability' while also longing for 'breakthrough and freedom' become a delicate possibility. In this series, we will explore and foster a 'dialogue in action' between Eastern & Western thought regarding how we can use the arts to create new symbols and dance and transform creatively between the dualities, to stabilize ourselves and find a pathway for breakthrough in these challenging times.

This series is presented by the IACAET China Regional Chapter. Our Chinese colleagues will curate and host the sessions in dialogue with our international speakers. These dialogues will search for common ground between East-West in dealing with our current global challenges, reflecting on how we can be empowered by the arts to heighten our social responsibility as professional educators, therapists, researchers and leaders in related fields.

Nurturing Intra-personal Intimacy and Building Resilience through the Arts

Time: 7-8:30AM New York / 8:00-9:30PM Bejing, December 18, 2022

Looking back at recent 'Covid' years - how often did we find ourselves separated and detached from our community and loved ones? Was our solitude endurable? Who and what did we turn to for comfort? And how did resilience assist us during isolation? These past years, we have come to recognize art's role in the identification and expression of distress, and how the arts help us cope and even thrive through difficult times.

We all have the strengths and coping resources, which can be mobilized in times of stress. As an art therapist and a family psychotherapist, Dr. Lev recognizes the significant contribution art and resilience have to one another and how this can lead to transformation and well-being. A natural element within artmaking is ambiguity, which is essential for building resilience. The challenges that exist in the creative process promote deep inquiry and re-deliberation especially when looking at the finitude of life.

Michal's studies over the past decade demonstrate a positive relationship between artmaking, the creation of intimacy, and resilience. She suggests that intimacy is an intra-personal phenomenon, requiring certain conditions to be invited into one's space.

In this 1.5 hr. interactive seminar, Dr. Michal Lev will discuss findings from her research, and share stories from her clinical experience. Michal will demonstrate elements of artmaking as sources of resilience, offering a sustaining anchor and inviting intimacy in face of threatening contemporary times.

This webinar will be curated by and in dialogue with our Chinese colleagues and consists of lecture, discussion and Q&A.

There is English-Chinese translation for this webinar which will be recorded and accessed by all IACAET members. Click here​ for guidance on how to view translated captions.

Keywords: art-based research, art therapy, expressive arts therapy, personal growth, creativity, intimacy, resilience.