Friday, November 6th

8:30 – 9:00 AM:  

Registration/Check-In/Welcome

Location: Main Entrance

Light refreshments: pastries, water, coffee

9:00 – 10:00 AM:  

Keynote Speech

Location: Ballroom

" Creative Expression & the Art of Being Human "

Dr. Krystal Demaine, PhD, REAT, MT-BC, RYT 

Creative expression is an essential human practice through which we imagine, communicate, make meaning, and create connection. This keynote explores creativity as a fundamental human capacity that extends beyond artistic production and therapeutic intervention into education, healing, wellness, innovation, and everyday life. Through stories, reflection, and creative engagement, participants will consider how we can amplify the expressive arts as pathways to belonging, resilience, imagination, and transformation. Together, we will explore what it means to amplify creative expression as a vital part of being human.

10:00 – 10:15 AM:  

Break & Book Signing

Location: Gathering Room

10:15 AM – 12:15 PM:  

Keynote Workshop

Location: Ballroom

" Following the Creative Impulse: Finding Your Creative Compass"

Dr. Krystal Demaine, PhD, REAT, MT-BC, RYT 

How do we recognize the creative impulses that move within us and what happens when we learn to listen to them? This experiential workshop invites participants to explore the core elements of expressive arts through curiosity, play, imagination, and creative expression as guides for living and working. Through movement, sound, music, image, writing, play, and witnessing, participants will follow their own creative impulses across modalities, exploring what draws them, what inspires them, and what wants to emerge. Together, we will consider how the expressive arts can become a creative compass for navigating change, relationships, learning, work, and everyday life.

12:15 – 1:15 PM:  

Lunch

Boxed lunch and drinks will be provided.

1:30 – 3:00 PM: 

Workshops*

*Workshops do not require pre-registration this year, but may be limited to a first come, first serve based on supplies and room capacities.

• ·       “Exploring the music of Noah Kahan: Music, Mental Health and Making Change”

Location: Ballroom (limited to TBD people)

Presenter: Diane Fleisch Hughes LPAT, ATR-BC, LPCC-S

This mental health workshop utilizes Noah Kahan’s lyrics to help participants analyze emotional data, manage burnout, and establish healthy boundaries. Listening to Kahan’s songs, examining lyrics and engaging in blackout poetry art, participants will understand The Busyhead Project, destigmatization resources, and expressive arts to address stagnation, codependency, lifestyle transitions, and relationship anxiety for personal and client healing.

• ·       “When the Rock Leads: The Line Tells the Story An Experiential Creative Process for Exploring Emotion, Control, and Somatic Awareness”

Location: Farmhouse East Wing (limited to TBD people)

Presenter:  Stacy M. Blecher, LPAT, ATR-BC®, CMP

When the Rock Leads: The Line Tells the Story is an experiential workshop exploring emotion, control, uncertainty, and agency through rock-guided mark-making. Participants identify a manageable present-moment emotion and engage in a structured rock-guided drawing process while maintaining mindful attention to their internal emotional and somatic experience as the line unfolds. They observe their somatic and emotional responses, then respond to the emerging marks through intentional image-making. The workshop concludes with consideration of how this creative process may be adapted to support emotional awareness, flexibility, and embodied exploration across a range of presenting concerns.

• ·       “Kusama to Dali: Group Art Therapy with Children utilizing the Expressive Therapies Continuum”   

Location: Farmhouse West Wing (limited to TBD people)

Presenters: Katherine Jackson, Ph.D., LPAT, ATR-BC, RYT, Heather Denning, MA, LPAT, LSW, ATR-BC, Melissa Hladek, MA, LPAT, LPCC-s, & Shayna Mell, MA, LPAT, LPCC

This art therapy group for children utilized fine artists’ works to spark curiosity and wonder in a mindfulness format. Children worked through levels of the expressive therapies continuum as they engaged in exploring thoughts and feelings related to anxiety, anger and sadness.

3:00 – 3:15 PM:  

Break     

Light refreshments: snacks, water, coffee

3:15 – 5:15 PM:  

Workshops*

*Workshops do not require pre-registration this year, but may be limited to a first come, first serve based on supplies and room capacities.

• ·       “Expressive Arts Therapy Solutions in Trauma-Focused Care: The Gift of Multi-Modal Engagement” 

Location: Ballroom (limited to TBD people)

Presenter: Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, REAT

This course is an ideal primer to the principles of helping art therapists better understand formal expressive arts therapy as its own modality, specifically as a method for working with trauma in an experiential manner. Please come to this workshop prepared to engage in your own expressive arts therapy process and to learn through that experience.

• ·        “The Body’s Compass: Grounding, Orienting, and Somatic Signals” 

Location: Farmhouse East Wing (limited to TBD people)

Presenters: Areka Foster, PhD, LPCC-S, LPAT, ATR-BC, SEP & Fawn Gordon, PhD, LPCC

This workshop explores how stress and trauma show up in the body and how somatic awareness can support nervous system regulation. Participants will learn to recognize physiological indicators of stress and use grounding and orienting to increase safety, presence, emotional regulation, and resilience. Using techniques from Focusing and experiential practices incorporating sensory awareness, movement, breath, body scanning, and creative strategies, participants will develop practical tools for themselves and their clients. The presentation emphasizes curiosity, choice, experimentation, attunement, and embodied approaches to trauma-informed care.

·       “Creating Community and Connection Through Murals” 

Location: Farmhouse West Wing (limited to TBD people)

Presenters: Michelle Chavez, MA, LPAT, ATR-BC & Ceara Murphy, MA, LPAT, LPC, ATR-BC

This experiential workshop examines temporary community murals as a collaborative expressive arts intervention.  Participants will engage in the mural-making process while exploring its applications in promoting a shared sense of space and identity.  Practical facilitation strategies and adaptations for a range of artistic skill levels will be presented.  

5:15 – 5:30 PM:  

Networking

• Visit to BATA’s 2026 Horticultural Therapy Make & Take project
• Presenters check spaces for tomorrow

Evening Options:  

Opening Art Reception & Musical Performance

6:00 – 8:30 PM

Mount Vernon Estate

1041 US HWY 250 N, Ashland, OH 44805

Refreshments (pizza, salad, & drinks) provided by BATA!

Art Exhibit & Lecture (1 CE)

6:00 – 7:00 PM

Come see, and hear about, the new art exhibit from Encompass Adoptees, a program serving individuals and families with experiences adoption, foster care, and kinship care.

Co-Founder, Director, & Therapist at Encompass Adoptees

Heather Gonzales, MA, LPC

Interactive Songwriting Performance

7:00 – 8:30 PM

Join us for an exciting and interactive songwriting performance session with:

Founder and CEO of the Institute for Creative Mindfulness

Jamie Marich, Ph.D., LPCC-S, REAT

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