Dear friend,

UCLArts & Healing is offering a free, online series called HOPE (Healing Online for People Everywhere) to enable our global community to build resilience through the arts over the next few months. Please share this remarkable opportunity with those you serve. 

As the grandparent of two young children sheltering with us at home during this time of upheaval, I can imagine what many families are going through. It takes four adults on rotation in our home to take care of two children, feed the family, and enable each adult to work. There are times when it seems as if our granddaughters’ singular goal is to get under one another’s skin. Thankfully, I have found that pushing and shoving can become hugging and loving when making art together for one another.

From balcony singing in Italy and China to my neighbors coalescing in their own driveways to celebrate birthdays on the block with musical instruments and other noisemakers, many of us have learned firsthand—in these past few weeks—just how vital the arts are for connection and resilience. In light of this, we will also be offering inaugural online versions of our popular training in Social Emotional Arts on a Shoestring as well as our popular workshop on Creative Rituals for Processing Grief and Celebrating Life. Stay tuned.


HOPE Series: Free Online Programs for Resilience

Raising Connected, Happy, Successful Kids through Art in Challenging Times
With Erica Curtis, LMFT, ATR-BC & Ping Ho, MA, MPH
Saturday, April 4, 2020
2:30 to 4:00 pm PT

Zumba Meets Social Emotional Arts
With Tessie Herrasti
Meets weekly on Tuesdays through May
First Session: Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Noon to 12:30 pm PT

Pathways to the Heart: Guided Meditation with Live Music
With Stacie Aamon Yeldell, MA, MTBC, AVPT
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Noon to 12:30 pm PT

Grounding Mind and Body to Quiet Anxiety: Guided Meditation with Live Music
With Stacie Aamon Yeldell, MA, MTBC, AVPT
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Noon to 12:30 pm PT

Beat the Odds® Drumming for Resilience
With Ping Ho, MA, MPH
Saturday, April 25, 2020
9:00 to 10:00 am PT

Mindful Movement as Medicine
With Fred Sugerman
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Noon to 12:30 pm PT

Art Games for Real or Virtual Connection
With Courtney Abruzzo & Julie Running
Meets every Thursday during the month of May
First Session: Thursday, May 7, 2020
5:00 to 5:30 pm PT

Rhythm Retreat: A Mother’s Day Celebration
With Diana Lynn Wallace
Friday, May 8, 2020
Noon to 12:30 pm PT

Honoring the Mom in Your Life through Art
With Amber Cromwell, LMFT, ATR-BC
Saturday, May 9, 2020
10:00 to 11:00 am PT

Transcending Stress through Awe & Gratitude
With Bonnie Harnden, MA, RDT
Friday, May 15, 2020
Noon to 1:00 pm PT

Mindfulness Break through Nature-Based Expressive Arts
With Julia Grace Vishnepolsky
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
1:00 to 2:00 pm PT

Helping Kids Manage Stress & Anxiety
With Erica Curtis, LMFT, ATR-BC
Saturday, May 30, 2020
10:00 to 11:30 am PT
__________

I’d like to close with an inspirational poem posted by the Center for Journal Therapy, which offers free weekly writing prompts in a series called Love in the Time of Corona.

Pandemic
By Lynn Ungar, 3/11/20

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times? Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down. 

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch. 

Promise this world your love--
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

For the health and well-being of all,


Ping Ho, MA, MPH
Founder and Director, UCLArts & Healing


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