UCLArts And Healing

UCLArts and Healing says it all in its name. They offer healing arts experiences with the professionalism that you’d expect from the UCLA Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine. See
for information on their background.
I’ve been to two of their workshops now, although I had never heard of the organization until last month (April 2012). This place is a bargain and a *great* find! Each event takes place at a location that is conducive to the activity of that specific workshop. One of the workshops I went to was in Santa Monica; the other was in West LA. Their Web site has the schedule, and the events are affordable and well-​organized.
Both of the workshops I went to were especially good at helping participants let go of social inhibitions and have more fun. There are other kinds of workshops too, which I’m looking forward to checking out later (more about this at the end).
The first workshop I attended was a «special blend» of mindfulness and improvisational exercises. These exercises were easy to enter into for beginners (which was almost everyone in the group), and the results were very effective at helping us loosen up, begin working with the discomforts of noticing our own emotions, being seen by other people, and expressing ourselves. Through doing these exercises we could begin letting down the social masks we tend to hide behind.
The second workshop I went to used improvisation-​like exercises too, but this time the emphasis was on *play*. We began with breathing exercises and recalling childhood memories of experiences we loved. We did spontaneous activities that gradually led us to be more and more expressive, and to share with one another more openly. By the end of the workshop everyone was having soooo much more fun together than we could by ourselves!
What became very clear near the end of both workshops was how healing these experiences were. I heard it in the comments participants made at the end; it was in our attitudes, the discoveries people described, and even the way we looked. The best example I remember is a man whom I saw enter the room quietly with an expression on his face that I’ll call (for lack of a better description) ‘timid.” I was very surprised at the end of the evening to find him going up to people with a huge smile on his face, excited, energetic, and looking for conversations to have with almost anyone at hand; we were his «new friends.»
I’ve also participated in other activities that can help people build confidence in public. For instance, Toastmasters for public speaking. But Toastmasters isn’t really a place for «healing.» What I’ve found in UCLArts and Healing’s workshops is a real appreciation of the healing that can take place through artistic methods and practices. And I haven’t even ventured into the more Eastern-​oriented workshops offered yet (for example, Qigong). I’m looking forward to it!