FEATURED GUESTS: Julia Vering is a performance artist and musician, licensed clinical social worker and Registered Expressive Arts Therapist based in Kansas City. She has integrated the arts into social work for 20 years, centering her practice in joy, humor, imagination and the strengths perspective. Vering began experimenting with video-based drama therapy techniques while working at a nursing facility in 2004, and noticed that residents with dementia had decreased agitation, increased spontaneous communication and increased joy while engaged in this improvisation.
Residents loved watching themselves in the “movies” they starred in. She continued to hone this method, incorporating fill-in-the-blank scripts, green screen technology and live performance participation via video projection. She has received grants from The Charlotte Street Foundation and Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts for her community-based performance work involving collaborations with older adults and people with neurocognitive disorders. Vering tours and releases albums as “Unicorns in the Snow”, a performance art project that integrates interactive projections, stop-motion animation and original music. Vering has worked in hospice and long-term care settings for the last 17 years.
She opened her private practice, Expressive Arts Therapy KC in 2022, serving children through seniors individually, pediatric palliative care patients in their homes, and groups in nursing facilities. Vering's expressive arts groups engage nursing facility residents in reimagining vintage movies and musicals through improvisational play. She became the first Registered Expressive Arts Therapist in the state of Kansas in 2023 and serves as the Kansas State coordinator for the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association. She integrates expressive arts, psychodrama and EMDR into her practice, and is currently creating a workbook and film on performance art interventions for people with neurocognitive disorders.
LISTEN & LEARN:
RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:
SESSIONS AT THE SUMMIT:
In this 3-hour virtual workshop, participants will have an opportunity to explore and experience the joys of incorporating video into clinical work with diverse populations. In particular, we'll highlight a conceptual framework along with the benefits of using creative video creation with older adults and people with neurocognitive disorders. Creative Generativity, which draws from the social work strengths perspective, role theory, narrative therapy, punk ethos, and embodied cognition will be at the core of our process. Learning will be highly experiential as we create our own collective movie-based improvisation as an example of an activity that can be used with virtually any population or setting. Absolutely no video or drama experience is necessary! The only technology you will need is a bright green piece of fabric or paper for a green screen (and ideally, a tripod with smartphone mount. See details below).
Two inexpensive options for a small green screen
Option 1
Option 2
Optional, but helpful: Tripod with smartphone mount
