CREATIVE THERAPIES CENTER
Fall 2025
Semester Schedule
All classes are held on Zoom. Instructor may offer a hybrid in-person option for local students, depending upon enrollment. In order to ensure we receive the correct contact information, you must officially register through the form button below. (Information can be lost/mistakenly altered if passed through email communication.) Thank you so much, and we look forward to seeing you in class!
Core Classes (3 Units)
Principles of Drama Therapy
Dates: Sept. 27, Oct. 4, October 11, 25, Nov. 1, 8, 15, & one TBA date in November
Times: 9:30 to 2:30pm, PDT (After Nov. 2nd it is PST)
TBA 5 Class Film hours
Cost: $899
Instructor: Pam Dunne, Ph.D, RDT,BCT, NT
Participants will explore fundamental drama therapy approaches of Role Theory, Narradrama, Integrative 5 Phase, Transpersonal, DVT, Ethnodramatherapy, and Insight Improvisation. Through experiential exercises, participants will practice the approaches and discover ways to creatively utilize masks, puppets, life size dolls and objects. In addition, participants will explore psychodramatic techniques of role reversal, doubling, interviewing, mirroring and more. Opportunities to apply approaches in working with specific populations and settings will be given.
Group Psychotherapy
Dates: September 14, 21, 28; October 12, 19, 26; November 2, 9, 16; Dec 7, 14
Time: 9 am to 12:30 pm PDT. After Nov. 2nd, it is PST.
Additional Hours: 8 -11 TBA film hours
Instructor: Terhi Korkiakangas, Ph.D, CI. Hyp
Cost: $899
This course provides a thorough introduction to the theory and practice of group psychotherapy. With a strong emphasis on Yalom’s interpersonal and integrative approach, students will explore the core principles, therapeutic factors, and stages of group development. The course presents various theoretical models and approaches, and explains how to leverage the latest insights from a biophysiological perspective on social engagement, while emphasizing the here-and-now interactions and group cohesion. Through a combination of readings, experiential activities, video observations, and films, participants will learn to recognize and work with group dynamics, the reenactment of roles and relationship patterns within the group, leadership and facilitation styles, and the power of the group as an agent of change. Special attention is given to ethical issues and diversity awareness in group therapy, the application of creative interventions in groups, and how group psychotherapy can be adapted for different populations. By the end of the course, students will be able to apply key concepts to the design, leadership, and evaluation of therapeutic groups in a variety of settings.
15 Hour Classes (1 Unit)
Transformational Stories and Pivotal Moments: Empowerment Strategies with Different Populations*
Dates: Sept. 6, 13 and 20
Times: 9:30am to 2:30pm PDT
TBA Hours: Class Article/Film
Cost: $338
Facilitator: Pam Dunne, Ph.D, RDT,BCT, NT
Explore the use of story in Narradrama in a transformational lens through stories such as: unique outcome, identity change, healing relationship, possibility and power. Participants explore through experiential exercises explore ways to expand and develop transformational stories and move from problem- saturated stories to more preferred ones through a re-storying process. Participants will also explore pivotal moments which bring positive entry ways into personal stories for the client which show agency and hope.
Clinical Uses of Narradrama: Narradrama Steps*
Dates: September 7, October 5, November 23
Time: 9 am to 1:45 pm (PDT) - After Nov. 2nd it is PST
Cost: $338
TBA: 2 hours Film/Article
Facilitator: Ksenia Ilinskaya, MA, NF, NT
TBA: 1 hour
Required for Narradrama Concentration
Participants in an embodied way will experience the 9 Narradrama steps and explore action methods of, using creative arts, to assist clients to externalize problems, explore personal agency, and make discoveries about their strengths and abilities. Employing specialized Narradrama techniques such as multi- level narratives, doubly listening, and sensory rich environments, participants will practice exploring and utilizing the steps in working with different clinical populations and settings.
8 Hour Classes (.5 Unit)
Embodying Ethics: Navigating Uncertainty Through Drama Therapy
Date: July 20th
Time: 10 am to 6:30 pm ( PDT)
Cost: $ 169
Facilitator: Kamran Afary, PhD, RDT/BCT, NT, Lynn Baker-Nauman, MA, LMFT, RDT
1 class hour arranged
How do we hold steady when the ground shifts—when clients fear leaving home, loved ones are taken, markets crash, or old certainties collapse? In this workshop, we approach uncertainty not as paralysis, but as a generative ethical space. Drawing on drama therapy’s embodied tools and narrative imagination, we’ll explore how ethics are lived—not prescribed—especially amidst loss, migration, systemic injustice, and fear.
Participants will engage in experiential practices to externalize moral dilemmas, explore power and privilege, and rehearse grounded responses to real-world rupture. Rather than offering fixed answers, this workshop invites presence, play, and collective reflection as we navigate the tensions between responsibility and survival, care and complexity.
Open to drama therapists, students, and helping professionals seeking creative, embodied ways to stay ethically alive in uncertain times.
Therapeutic Improvisation: Knowing What to Play to Enhance the Therapeutic Process
Date: August 24 & 31
Time: 9 am to 12:30 pm ( PDT)
Cost: $ 169
Facilitator: Rachel Brousseau, LMFT, RDT, BCT, NT
1 hour arranged
Participants will experientially learn to adapt the intentional use of improv games and scenes to support clients across multiple settings such as acute inpatient hospitalization, residential treatment, and community mental health. Games will also be applied to educational settings.
Narradrama Approaches to Addiction, Accountability, and the Protector Within*
Date: September 19th
Times: 10:30 am to 6 pm (PDT)
Cost: $169
Instructors: Kamran Afary (PhD, RDT/BCT, NT) and Cassandra Ambe (MA, NF)
TBA 1 hour (video/article)
This experiential workshop explores how Narradrama can open space for clients struggling with addiction to move beyond pathology, into dialogue, creativity, and transformation. Participants will engage in role interviews with addiction, map parallel identities, and explore poetic testimony through sociometry, embodiment, and improvisation. The Transtheoretical Stages of Change will be explored which increase motivation between stages. Using the Window of Tolerance, participants will learn how to use creativity and art making can widening the window. The constraints of managed care will also be considered.
*Class counts Toward Special Population Requirement