The journey of an art therapist turned education technology expert
In March 2011, I posted about an interesting self-authored book by Dan Rhema, who discusses using art making to heal from a traumatic brain injury.
I was pleased to find out that Dr. David Van Nys interviewed Dan, for one of my favorite psychology shows, Wise Counsel. Listen to his story on iTunes, or from mentalhealth.net.
This year’s American Art Therapy Association conference (coming up next week!) places a heavy emphasis on neurological understanding. Each year there is so much new research, information and discoveries, making it hard to keep up with current understanding on this topic. If you’d like to brush up on your understanding of neurological development, mechanisms, anatomy, as well as the impact of new research on philosophical questions, check out this podcast by Ginger Campbell MD.
The podcast is impressively clear- especially if you start from the beginning and continue in consecutive order, since explanations are always provided in the current or previous episodes, preparing the listener for more advanced topics. It does help to have some basic knowledge of the brain before you begin, although I’m sure if you’re willing to look certain things up (ie: a picture of a neuron and its parts) it will make the information easier to understand.
Here are some topics I enjoyed listening to so far (I haven’t gotten through them all): #4- The Great Brain Debate- Nature vs. Nurture, #11- Emotions, #12 Memory, and #13 Unconscious Decisions.
I commute 2 hours a day from the Castro Valley back to San Francisco. Recently, I’ve been getting into listening to podcasts…and it occurred to me…wouldn’t it be awesome if there was an art therapy podcast? Well…there isn’t, as far as I know. But I think I may have found the next best thing. Shrink Rap Radio hosted by Dr. Dave deals with a broad range of topics in relation to psychology. Anything from therapeutic doll making, to gestalt therapy, to American Sign Language for babies. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying, and I encourage anyone wanting a good psyc podcast to check this one out.
Dr. Dave also does another podcast called Wise Counsel, which I’ve also been getting into. He interviews some of psychology’s living greats like Yalom and Barlow. I know I’m probably just a psyc nerd, but I find it really exciting to hear these great thinkers who influenced modern psychology discuss their theories and their works.