Contemplative Creativity
Artistic Explorations in Spiritual Companionship
A four-part webinar
series from SDI
Creative expression is our birthright. As children, we naturally engage in creative play, but many of us lose touch with this practice as we grow older. This four-part webinar from SDI will explore how the arts, inherently contemplative and relational, can be powerful tools in spiritual companionship, helping both those we serve and ourselves connect with our inner truth.
This highly experiential series will introduce you to four different creative art modalities that you will get to try out, potentially add to your toolkit, and bring into your own practice in support of others’ spiritual journeys.
Presenters
Lauren Little
M Freeman
Adam Lavitt
Liza Hyatt
Dates
October 7, 14, 21, 28, 2024
1:00-2:30PM PST
4PM-5:30PM EST
Find your local time zone.
Duration
6 hours (total)
Webinar will be recorded.
What to Expect in this Webinar
- Meet Four Contemplative Creatives: Each of our presenters in this series is a spiritual companion and an artist.
- Learn New Creative Practices: Each session will feature a different Creative, who will offer a highly-developed form of art activity, wrought from their experiences and curiosities.
- Highly Experiential: No experience or artistic skill necessary! These sessions will offer accessible, easy-to-try artistic activities, including drawing, painting, film, and more.
- Space for Processing: Through these activities, new insight arises. Through Breakout Groups and Large Group Processing, you will have opportunities for sharing, and having other companions offer their own insights.
- Four Possible Modalities for Your Own Practice: Adapt what you receive in this series for your own practice. Offer your clients creative arts expressions as a modality for telling their spiritual stories, or as contemplative way of being.
- New Ways of Seeing: Learn new ways and language for engaging with art objects and images. Take these with you as "deep listening" tools for engaging with the art of your clients, or on your own into an art gallery or museum.
- Creative Community: Several hundred members on the Find a Spiritual Companion Guide have "Creative Arts" selected as a specialty. We hope this new series invites all those with an artistic side, and those who are curious, to join us for this new offering. Future offerings, including a regular SDI Creative Arts Affinity Group, are possible!
Spiritual companionship is, at its foundation, a contemplative practice. Trained spiritual companions have many contemplative tools (you could call them technologies) which they employ. Among these tools are silent meditation, prayer, poetry reading, chant and singing, journaling, nature immersion, and the creative arts.
A work of art can stir our souls with beauty and wonder. They can also challenge us and inspire us into right action. Artworks can serve as a totem, a landmark, or a waypoint for exploring one’s inner life. Whether encountered in a gallery, a street mural, or a park, artworks invite us into moments of contemplation.
Every artwork is made by an artist—a fellow human expressing their own longings, truths, and challenges. To behold an artwork is an act of spiritual companionship, as we are invited to receive the story of the artist, worked out through solitude, materials, experiences, questions, and ultimately, expression.
Creative expression is not limited to a select few dedicated visual artists. It is the birthright of us all. From childhood, we are invited to creative play—whether with crayons, play-doh, or mud in a field. Somewhere along the way, we might have lost touch with that practice. More and more, we are rediscovering how art can unlock deeper truths, invite us into contemplative quiet and flow, and help us find wonder and joy within ourselves and the things we make. And, it is quite simple to invite others into these creative making experiences!
The arts, at their essence, are contemplative and relational. They are akin to and in partnership with spiritual companionship. This four-part webinar from SDI will explore creative arts as a tool for helping those we serve (and ourselves!) connect with their Inner Truth. Participants will hear from four spiritual companions who are also visual artists, employing a diverse array of contemplative arts tools.
Facilitators
Lauren Shea Little
Lauren Little is a mother, artist, writer, and spiritual director. Her creative practice is in painting, drawing and performative photography. Her work explores overlapping themes of memory, grief, and the natural world as contemplative practice. She holds BA in Art & Visual Technology from George Mason University and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland.
M Freeman
Media artist, writer, and Director Espiritual, M Freeman works at the intersections of reckoning and resiliency, queerness and film, and contemplative, creative and social–art practices. Author of The Illuminated Space: A Personal Theory and Contemplative Practice of Media Art (The 3rd Thing, 2020 y winner of the Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal for Creativity & Innovation), they are creator of Cinema Divina y Contemplative Rest. Freeman’s work has been published in/at Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, TriQuarterly, Blackbird, Rolling Stone, Abbey of the Arts, and their films featured on PBS, in galleries, theaters, spirituality centers, y festivals worldwide. marilynfreeman.com.
Rabbi Adam Lavitt
Rabbi Adam Lavitt is a spiritual companion, educator, and writer dedicated to connecting individuals with their inner and outer sources of wisdom. As the Director of Learning at Jewish Studio Project, he creates transformative experiences that help people recognize and act on what matters most to them. With experience in congregations, college campuses, and healthcare settings, Adam’s work is deeply rooted in spiritual care and social justice. He became a Spiritual Director in 2017, a Board Certified Chaplain (BCC) in 2019, and holds ordination and a Master’s in Jewish Education from Hebrew College. His writings have been widely published, inspiring others through his unique approach to spiritual leadership
Liza Hyatt
Liza Hyatt, ATR-BC, LMHC, ATCS, CCM, RYT-200 is a board certified art therapist and license mental health counselor in Indianapolis with over 30 years of trauma-focused counseling experience. As an art therapist, Liza incorporates all forms of creative expression into therapeutic work, including visual artmaking, creative writing, movement and dance, and music. She is trained to teach Let Your Yoga Dance, and is completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training in March 2019. Liza is also a a certified EMDR therapist and finds trauma focused therapy combining both EMDR and expressive art therapy to be extremely effective in helping trauma survivors shift nervous system arousal and rediscover how to connect and feels safe.
Additional Information
Materials List:
Session One with Lauren Shea Little
- Sheet of paper, letter size
- Pencil
- Eraser
Session Two with M Freeman:
- A favorite pen or pencil
- Journal or notepad
Session Three with Rabbi Adam Lavitt:
- Watercolors
- Ballpoint pen
- Markers
- Crayons
- Colored pencils
- Collage materials
- Highlighters
- Chalk
“Folks should be sure they also have a journal or pen and paper with them specifically for the written reflection portion of the session.”
Session Four with Liza Hyatt:
“We will be exploring a creative flow between multiple modalities including movement, sound, spoken word, visual image/sculpture, and writing.”
- Private space to move, vocalize, and express
- Journaling materials
- A drum or found object percussion instrument (a cardboard box, a jar of beans, a surface you can make rhythm on)
- Basic drawing materials and/or materials you can shape sculpturally – clay, scrap paper and masking tape
- Participants from all spiritual traditions and orientations are welcome in this webinar series as are those with all levels of spiritual experience. You do not need to be an SDI Member to participate.
- Each session will run 90 minutes. We understand that the timing of the seminar will not be convenient in every time zone on the planet. For those who have trouble making this time, a recorded copy of each session will be made available to all those who sign up.
- CEU credits are available for all those who participate. SDI will provide a certificate of completion for self-reporting to agencies. More information can be found here: continuing education units (CEUs).
- Cost: $149 for non-members, with significant discounts for SDI members. Not a member? Become one today and sae on this and other SDI Webinars.
- Scholarships are available for those facing financial hardship. Please apply here.
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