Please join the Georgia Art Therapy Association as we host the 43rd Annual American Art Therapy Association Conference.

The conference will be held July 9 through the 13th in beautiful Savannah, GA.

To register and learn more, please visit the Art Therapy Conference site.

These quarterly meetings are designed to bring together prospective art therapy students and professionals who have similar questions about how to get trained as an art therapist or to discover if another path besides art therapy might be what they are really seeking. Please visit our FAQ page before attending this meeting. If you want to register for this no-cost Art Therapy Information Meeting,

Click here for more into: www.easel-arttherapy.com

Open Studio Time: 10:00PM - 12:00AM Fridays<

Come take time to create art for yourself for relaxation, self-care, and self-reflection all for personal growth. No art experience is needed and art supplies are furnished for you at the studio. You may come for one hour or stay for two---whatever works for you!

Fee: $15.00 per hour
Please call one week for R.S.V.P. to secure your time

Manifestations & Visual Journaling Circle: 10:00 PM - 12:00 AM Saturdays

Create it and it will come! Explore the use of art making with intentionality to help you focus on possibilities, your goals, and mapping out your dreams. This lively group will use a variety of art media with easy steps to implement--Just bring your imagination! The group will also explore the use of visual journaling to continue the process between and beyond the class gatherings.

Cost $30.00

Art & Spirituality Workshops: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Saturdays

Explore the use of art making used in various cultures and religions as we learn about their origins. Shrines, altars, prayer beads, prayer arrows, prayer flags, sand paintings, mandalas, and retablos are just some of the archetypal religious art forms from around the world to be discussed. After creating your art piece made for your own personal meaning, take it home with you for continued reflections.

Please R.S.V.P. one week prior to your time.
While bringing personal found and sentimental objects is not necessary for the class, it may contribute to making your art more meaningful.
Cost: $30.00

Cyndie Westrich, M.A., LPC, A.T.R.-BC
The E.A.S.E.L., Inc.
3660 Canton Road
Suite 200
Marietta, GA 30066
770.713.4794
www.easel-arttherapy.com

Click here for more info: arttherapyatlanta.com

Art is a Way of Knowing (12 credit class that is great Intro to Art Therapy)
One Day Art Therapy Intensive: Painting to Your Deepest Knowing
On-going Women's Art Therapy Groups
Continuing Ed Classes approved for LPC, LCSW, and Art Therapists

Learning the Enneagram Through Live Panels
with Virginia DuPre, LPC and ATR
743 East College Ave; Suite E; Decatur, GA 30030
July 29, 2011 (7-9:30) and July 30, 2011 (9-4:30)
8 CE's for LPC and LCSW applied for (working on psychologists)

Through lecture, live panels,and discussion, participants will receive an introduction of the Enneagram System including the basic 9 types in the system as well as a general intro of subtypes, stress and security points, as well as wings. They will gain an understanding of the following tenets: energy follows attention; developing an inner observer of our attention; changing focus of our attention, and, therefore, changing the direction of our energy. The opportunity to hear/see live panels of each type is rare. Hearing about type directly from those of the type--as well as observing such things as body language, mannerisms, energy, is a powerful way to learn this system. Even if you know the enneagram, if you have not experienced live panels, this will deepen your understanding of the system. Cost is $100 ($75 if postdated by July 1). Limited to 20 people.

Enneagram as a Resource for Relationships
Taught by: Virginia DuPre, LPC and ATR
August 19 (7-9:30) and August 20 (9-4:30)
Location: 743 East College Ave; Suite E; Decatur, GA 30030
8 CE's for LCSW and LPC applied for (working on Psychologists)

This class is for people who have a basic understanding of the Enneagram system who want to deepen their learning about how the Enneagram can be a resource for growing and strengthening relationships. Participants will be introduced to relationship issues common to each type as well as to issues common to particular pairings (such as 4/9 pairing or 5/1 pairing). Participants will learn of the ways in which each type has it's own way of practicing domination and control when in relationship stress. Participants will learn the ways in which the Enneagram system can be a resource for moving past impasses in relationships as well as growing and strengthening relationship. This is not an introductory course. Participants need to have either taken an intro course on the Enneagram (offered on July 29 and 30th) or have read at least one book on the Enneagram and display a basic understanding of the Enneagram (in a phone convo with Virginia) in order to take this class.

Virginia DuPre is a licensed professional counselor and Registered Art Therapist. She has a private practice in Decatur, GA. She has trained in the Narrative Tradition through the Enneagram Professional Training Program with Helen Palmer, David Daniel, Peter O'Hanrahan, and Terry Saracino, completing the Enneagram Intensive training, the Deepening Spiritual Awareness Training, and the Typing Process training. She uses the Enneagram as a resource in her work with couples, individuals, and groups.

To Sign Up for Either Class: Call Virginia DuPre at 404-272-3890 or and mail your registration check to her at 743 East College Ave; Suite E; Decatur, Ga 30030

A great resource if you would like more information about art therapy.

"Introduction to Art Therapy"
8 weeks, starting January 11,2012, Wednesdays, 7-9:30 pm

"The Artist's Way Plus"
8 weeks, starting April 8th, 2012, Thursdays, 7-9:30 pm

"Urge to Create"
May 6th, 2012, 9:30am - 4:30pm.
A one day workshop.

Register on line SCAD, Community Education or call Maxine at 404-351-8111

PRESENTERS: SUSANNE F. FINCHER AND MARILYN F. CLARK

June 10 -- 15, 2012
Decatur (Atlanta), Georgia

Tuition: $495 ($525 after May 17)*
20 Continuing Education Hours

This MANDALA INTENSIVE gives participants the tools needed to integrate mandalas into their work as helping professionals and to use mandalas for personal growth and spiritual enrichment. The setting for the MANDALA INTENSIVE is Plum Blossom Studio, an airy work space set in a shady, Japanese inspired garden. Using a variety of media, we will create and interpret our own mandalas for each stage of life. Susanne and Marilyn will speak on the history and psychological significance of mandalas and the meaning of color and form in mandalas. Case study presentations will demonstrate the meaning in mandalas.

*To register call or email , 404-290-8773. Find more information at www.creatingmandalas.com

Introduction Seminar to Sandplay Therapy
The Link Counseling Center
348 Mt. Vernon Hwy. NE
Sandy Spring, GA 30328
Second Fridays of January - June, 2012
1-4 pm
$350
404/256-9797
For a more complete description, click here.
Contact her at .

Art and Healing sponsored by Piedmont-Fayette Cancer Wellness Center
Monday 5:30-7:00pm (Check schedule below for which Mondays)
Facilitated by Jenny Welty-Green, Ed.S, ATR-BC
Board Certified Registered Art Therapist
For more info

If you have been diagnosed with cancer presently or in the past, or are a caregiver of someone who has cancer, you are eligible to receive support services at no cost through Piedmont Hospital's Cancer Wellness Centers. All Art and Healing sessions are an open studio format. Participants always have the choice to engage in the structured theme or follow their own ideas for self-expression. No prior art knowledge or talent is required; all are welcome in our non-judgmental atmosphere. Participants are also welcome to continue work on a project from session to session regardless of the theme scheduled for that date.

NEW OFFERING: The Artist's Way (Julia Cameron)
Mondays - January 9, Feb. 13, March 12, 5:30-7 pm

If you want to be more creative, or consider an artistic career, but just can't get started, or if you've already started the Artist's Way, join us for an ongoing support group which will guide you in this process. Practical tools and in-class exercises will help you take this "spiritual" journey which can help you make creativity a way of life. Please purchase (or check out from the library) Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, and read the intro and chapter one prior to the first session. Also register in advance for this session by contacting . (You may still attend even if you have not registered in advance.)

Mandala Making for Wholehearted Living
Monday, January 23, 5:30-7 p.m

Coping with the challenges that cancer brings to our lives can be disheartening. Join us and experience the containment provided in making circular drawings, called mandalas. We will explore our themes in a circular pattern with textures, paints, drawing materials and mixed media. We will learn about the significance of the mandala and of the many circles in our lives. Even if you made a mandala previously, discovering newly emerging themes with each mandala can be enlightening.

Collage/Painting for Self-Expression
Monday February 27, 5:30-7:00 p.m

At times the structure of cutting magazine photos, sorting through beads, trimming textured papers and arranging them into an art piece can be exactly what our psyche needs to order itself. At other times, using the fluid nature of paint is what our soul yearns for as our thoughts and feelings swirl about on the page. Come decide if freedom or structure is what you need to encourage your self-expression.

Altered Books for Altered Lives
Monday March 26, 5:30-7:00 p.m

Take permission to transform an old book into your personal story. We'll be destructing and reconstructing books with mixed media, poems, text, and images to create your own journal. Your story may reflect how your experience with cancer has altered your life path; what cancer has taken and what cancer has given. Books and materials will be provided, but feel free to bring found objects or items such as beads, buttons, shells, fortune cookie fortunes, photos, odds and ends, etc. You can also bring your own discarded book that you are willing to use as your canvas. Books of not more than 200 pages and with sewn bindings work best. Feel free to bring a book you may have previously started.

"Creating Mandalas," a One Day Workshop
February 11, 2012 Greensboro, North Carolina.
For information: www.athinkingchurch.org

"Mandala: The Natural Center," a Lecture
Friday, February 24, 2012, 7:00 pm
Museum of Art, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia

"Creating Mandalas", a Workshop Experience
March 2, 2012, noon - 4:00 pm
April 27, 2012, noon - 4:00 pm
August 24, 2012, noon - 4:00 pm
November 2, 2012, noon - 4:00 pm

$49 each workshop, or $150 for all four, prepaid Plum Blossom Studio, Decatur, Georgia. An introduction to making the circular designs C. G. Jung called "mandalas." Your mandalas connect you to deep inner wisdom, reveal your true nature, and open you to mindful awareness of the present moment. Take this opportunity to enjoy a guided exploration of your potential for wholeness with one of the world's authorities on mandalas for personal growth. Repeat the workshop to allow yourself a continuing dialogue with your inner artist (we all have one!). Art materials provided. No art skill necessary.

For information & registration: 404-290-8773 or