This Fall, AFL is offering group Music Therapy sessions for the Teaching Artists on the AFL Roster and to AFL Administrators. Each session is led by liscened music therapist, Leah Whitmire. We are starting this new inititiave based on feedback that the way that we work together could be better informed by understanding the trauma that we each carry, by increasing our collective empathy, and by holding more shared time and space for thereputic togetherness. We also understand that working within the school system is an environment where we receive both vicarious trauma, from working empathetically with students and teachers, and personal trauma, from navigating a space that is not always embracing of artists.
Along with group and personal therepuetic outcomes, we intend through these sesions to collectively craft new trauma-informed policies for working together, acknowledging that the experience of teaching artists and staff are different within our organization, and wanting to build a more meaningful and collaborative work environment. To continue to ensure that AFL continues its commitment to Equity, we need to strive always to adapt, to build up resilience within a changing world.
We hope that these group therapy sessions provide everyone at Arts for Learning a sense of safety. We hope to increase a sense of belonging to the organization. We hope that, with staff and teaching artists going through similar sessions, and some shared sessions, we will build empathy and shared language to navigate stress in the future. We hope that this increases our collective sense of community.
To ensure a meaningful therepuetic experience, seats are limited, and we ask for full participation in one of two series of sessions. This is a first-come, first served opportunity. Payment for attending each 90 session is $75, based on our planning rate. Please note the first session is more of a workshop on understanding vicarious trauma in the workplace, then we break off for the next sessions into smaller groups, then come back together at the end for a drafting of new trauma-informed processes. Please sign up for either an "A" group or "B" group track, which have some different dates. All sessions are from 10a-11:30a.
"A" group sessions: October 4th, October 10th, October 25th, October 31st, November 8th
"B" group sessions: October 4th, October 11th, October 25th, November 1st, November 8th