Moving to Heal is moving forward
1 in 3 women has experienced physical or sexual violence in her life. That number has risen since the emergence of COVID-19.
In response to this global health crisis, BODYART launched Moving to Heal (M2H), an engagement program that offers trauma-informed movement classes to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
In 2020 we spent much of the pandemic developing the M2H curriculum. We received funding from Tulane University to launch a pilot program at Eden House and Hagar’s House in New Orleans to test program validity and measure participant impact. We learned a lot. (We’re still learning.)
We are happy to announce that we have since received additional funding from the Emily Schoenbaum Grants Program at the Newcomb College Institute and the Organizational Grant Program at the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture. This funding will allow BODYART to launch our first full-scale Moving to Heal programs at Eden House (New Orleans) and 1736 Family Crisis Center (Los Angeles).
M2H CURRICULUM
Dance allows the body to express what words cannot. “One of the common problems documented in cases of trauma and PTSD is the disconnection between the mind and body.” Physical arts therapies help trauma victims re-establish the mind-body connection. At BODYART we are learning to be “trauma-informed” so we can better serve our communities and offer support to those recovering from domestic and sexual violence.
A “trauma-informed” dance professional uses their expertise in body mechanics, physical expression, and dance vocabulary to introduce positive dance exploration to transform the survivor’s experience of their body to an ally for discovering creativity, pleasure, and for healing. This impacts the survivor’s sense of agency and builds the courage to express creativity and individuality in other contexts. (Bernstein 2019).
BODYART has collaborated with longtime Dance/Movement Therapist Patricia Earl to design a trauma-informed curriculum that caters to small group settings and can be implemented by trained dance professionals.
M2H Team
Patricia Earl is R.N., L.P.C, and Board-certified Dance Movement Therapist with over 20 years of experience. She currently serves as the resident Dance/Movement Therapist at River Oaks Psychiatric Hospital in New Orleans. Patricia continues to be an invaluable resource to BODYART. She works closely with our Director of Teaching and Education Services, Rachel Abrahams to develop the Moving to Heal curriculum and training modules.
Rachel Abrahams is a movement artist with a BFA in Dance and Choreography from the California Institute of the Arts. She is an MFA candidate in Interdisciplinary Dance Performance at Tulane University. Rachel’s interest in biomechanics and healthy movement practices led to certifications in Yoga, Pilates, Thai Massage, and Reiki. Rachel leads weekly classes and workshops focusing on aligning of mind and body. She also is co-creator of the Moving to Heal curriculum and leads all teacher training initiatives for M2H.
1736 FAMILY CRISIS CENTER
The 1736 FCC mission is to comprehensively help children, women, men, and families through crisis circumstances, including domestic violence, homelessness, abuse, neglect, poverty, substance use, post-traumatic stress disorder, and distress, and to improve their prospects for long-term housing, safety, survival, financial stability, and success. Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of family homelessness with one in three women experiencing domestic violence during their lifetimes. In 2019, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported a homeless population of 58,936 in LA County. Of those, 2,947 were victims fleeing domestic violence, 3,926 were youth, and 3,878 were Veterans. Moving to Heal will launch at 1736FCC this fall, offering bi-weekly classes for the next 2 years.
EDEN HOUSE
Eden House aims to eradicate the trafficking and selling of human beings. They believe in creating systemic change through youth prevention programs, education and legislative advocacy, and recovery and reentry services for victims, including long-term shelter. Founded in 2011, Eden House is the first recovery home for adult victims of human trafficking and commercial exploitation in the Greater New Orleans area.
Eden House offers long-term housing and comprehensive recovery services to survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. According to the 2018 report of human trafficking in New Orleans, sex trafficking accounted for over 94% of all human trafficking crimes.
Moving to Heal will launch this fall, providing bi-weekly classes for survivors of human trafficking for 6 months.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
If you or someone you know is in a dangerous situation please call the Domestic Abuse Hotline (1-800-799-7233) and/or National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888) for help, answers, advocacy, and more.
We can’t do this work without the generous support of people like you. If you’re interested in supporting embodied work in women’s shelters click here to donate to Moving to Heal.
If you would like to implement Moving to Heal at shelter near you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Program Coordinator, Megan Lewicki.
And stay up to date with all that we’ve got going on! We’re always looking for new collaborations.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Artistic Director Leslie Scott was selected for faculty residency at Studio in the Woods to further develop Remnants.
BODYART’s new project, Remnants, is to be featured in Country Roads Magazine.
Community classes (8/18 and 8/21) were canceled due to Covid-19 restrictions. We are working hard to reschedule and will update you with more news as soon as it’s available. We look forward to resuming classes with all of you in the coming days!
BODYART is supported, in part, by:
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture.
The Emily Schoenbaum Grant Program through the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute at Tulane University.