Adults

Los Angeles Unified School District
California
  • Schools & Universities
  • Schools & Universities
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
I facilitated a monthly staff self-care workshop which consisted of the "Heart and Soul Self-Care Coupons" art workshop. This year has been so stressful at my school because we have many students at our school with severe behavior problems. Several teachers…
Catalyst
California
  • Domestic Violence
  • Domestic Violence
  • Homelessness
  • Substance Abuse Recovery
Leading the workshop "Inspiration Rocks!" to introduce A Window Between Worlds to the group at the domestic violence shelter where I work just made sense. Survivors in shelter have done rock painting for far longer than my tenure at the agency. Those who jo…
South Gate Police Dept. Family Violence Prevention & Education Program
California
  • Domestic Violence
  • Domestic Violence
I have been working with a 45-year old Latina woman, who has one 11-year old child. In 2012, this client was pleased to announce to our support group that she had finally started the divorce process that she had contemplated for many years. Seven months later,…
Norina Murphy-Verduzco & Associates
California
  • Mental Health
  • Mental Health
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
I felt compelled to share this story because the impact was so big for this client that she ended up creating an extension of this workshop on her own that I really liked and wanted to share. My client is a 28-year-old female who currently resides at home w…
Helping Hands Resource Center
California
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Domestic Violence
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
  • Sexual Assault
This powerful "Uplifting Voices: Facilitator Stories" video features Karen Gonzalez, founder of Helping Hands Resource Center in Los Angeles. Karen is a domestic violence and sexual abuse survivor herself and became a Windows Facilitator in 2014. Here she shar…
University of Missouri – Kansas City
Missouri
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Schools & Universities
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
This "Uplifting Voices: Facilitator Stories" video features Arzie Umali, MPA, who is the Senior Assistant Director of the Women's Center at University of Missouri - Kansas City. As students return to school, it is essential to acknowledge the value of self-…
Between Friends
Illinois
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
  • Foster Care
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
I started working with this participant three months ago, and much of our work together has centered on her experience of missing/grieving her child who is currently in DCFS as well as processing her own experience of being in the system. The "Growing Resil…
Los Angeles Unified School District
California
  • Schools & Universities
  • Mental Health
  • Schools & Universities
In the midst of devastating wildfires in LA County, I facilitated an art workshop for staff and students in grades 1-5 to help them explore their emotions through creativity. The fires had left many students and staff grappling with fear, sadness, and uncertai…
Trauma and Healing in Color
California
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
This “Uplifting Voices: Facilitator Stories” video features La Shonda Coleman, LCSW, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at Pepperdine University and Founder of Trauma and Healing in Colour, a program that fuses art, somatic based healing modalities, …
Just Detention International - South Africa
Gauteng Province
  • LGBTQIA+
  • Incarceration
  • LGBTQIA+
  • Sexual Assault
“Therapeutic,” “Educational,” “Healing,” “Phenomenal” and “Spiritual” are some of the words used by participants to describe JDI-SA's three-day trauma-informed art and human sexuality workshop with members of the LGBTIQ+ community, some of whom are survivors o…
Garden Grove Unified School District
California
  • Mental Health
  • Mental Health
  • Schools & Universities
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
At the start of the school year, I facilitated the Journey Markers workshop for a group of mental health specialists as part of a staff development session. I chose this workshop as a way for them to reflect on their paths in the mental health field, especiall…
Indigenous Strategies for HONOR Collective
Arizona
  • Staff & Organizational Development
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
In this video, Melodie Lopez shares how art serves as a powerful tool for healing, connection, and cultural resilience. Through creative workshops, she helps individuals and communities navigate trauma, express their experiences, and build stronger connections…
Sacramento Children's Home
California
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
  • Foster Care
  • Mental Health
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
AWBW art Facilitator, Liz Miller Oliver, is the Training Specialist at Sacramento Children’s Home. The Organization provides crisis support for families residential care for foster youth who have suffered trauma and services for that focus on child abuse preve…
Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
California
  • Substance Abuse Recovery
  • Mental Health
  • Substance Abuse Recovery
I work at a dual diagnosis substance use treatment center and mental health services outpatient facility with adults. Many of our patients are court mandated to treatment and have been previously incarcerated. Most patients have mental health diagnoses along w…
Tides of Change
Oregon
  • Domestic Violence
  • Child Abuse / Neglect
  • Domestic Violence
  • Foster Care
  • Sexual Assault
These photos are of art that a survivor created during the workshop Befriending Your Feelings. This woman, in her fifties, has complex trauma beginning in early childhood and continuing into adulthood. She has shared experiences of neglect and child abuse whil…
A Window Between Worlds
California
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
  • Mental Health
  • Self-Care & Personal Growth
Join Kat, Training and Outreach Coordinator, as she shares about facilitating the "Take a Break, Self Regulate!" art workshop at AWBW's two-day facilitator training. The activity invites participants to reflect on taking breaks and create personalized dice to …
RUTH Facilitation
California
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Facilitator Spotlights
  • Mental Health
This “Wellness in the Workplace” facilitator story is about how art workshops can thrive in unexpected places. AWBW facilitator Andy shares his experience of bringing art workshops into a high-pressure, analytical workplace. Beginning with small team sessions …
YWCA - San Gabriel Valley
California
  • Domestic Violence
  • Domestic Violence
Abuse had been a part of my life since childhood. There was no place in which I could express myself, no person to whom I could reveal what was happening. My family told me that what happens at home stays at home. At 21 I met my husband, a policeman, and I …
YWCA - San Gabriel Valley
California
  • Domestic Violence
  • Domestic Violence
Ceirra and Melissa are AWBW facilitators who work in the WINGS (Women in Need Growing Strong) Domestic Violence Program at YWCA San Gabriel Valley. They provide educational support groups in both emergency and transitional shelter settings, as well as through …
Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
California
  • Incarceration
  • Incarceration
  • Substance Abuse Recovery
The Story Trees workshop was the first Windows workshop I facilitated at my new job. The women were recently released from prison and would not enter the art room without permission. But there was a look of sheer glee on their faces peeking into the room. I gu…
Los Angeles Unified School District
California
Los Angeles Unified School District
California
I am a Psychiatric Social Worker for two elementary schools, supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children from Pre-K through 5th grade. My role also extends to the adults on campus—teachers, administrators, and support staff.  The teache…
A Window Between Worlds
California
A Window Between Worlds
California
Join Kat, Training and Outreach Coordinator, as she shares about facilitating the "Take a Break, Self Regulate!" art workshop at AWBW's two-day facilitator training. The activity invites participants to reflect on taking breaks and create personalize…
Indigenous Strategies for HONOR Collective
Arizona
Indigenous Strategies for HONOR Collective
Arizona
In this video, Melodie Lopez shares how art serves as a powerful tool for healing, connection, and cultural resilience. Through creative workshops, she helps individuals and communities navigate trauma, express their experiences, and build stronger c…
Lavender Healing Collective
California
Lavender Healing Collective
California
Tiombe Wallace shares the powerful ways art fosters self and community care, particularly for Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous, and People of Color survivors, advocates, and hotline workers. Through AWBW’s creative workshops, staff and interns find …
A Window Between Worlds
California
A Window Between Worlds
California
I have facilitated the My Traveling Story workshop many times, but one experience truly stands out. I worked for years with a woman who survived domestic violence. Violence from her partner that tragically took the lives of her unborn twin babies. At…
Oregon State University-Cascades
Oregon
Oregon State University-Cascades
Oregon
I facilitated Touchstone Journey for Resident Assistants (RAs) who were navigating the aftermath of a significant conflict within their residence hall and team. This group of students came from a variety of backgrounds but shared the challenge of pro…
Oregon State University-Cascades
Oregon
Oregon State University-Cascades
Oregon
I led an art workshop for a group of graduate program physical therapy students with diverse life experiences. These students often work in high-stress environments, serving a variety of populations, while also balancing the demands of academics and …
Juntos/Lennox School District
California
Juntos/Lennox School District
California
This Wellness in the Workplace video features AWBW facilitator and social worker Emily Cummins Polk, who founded Juntos, a nonprofit bringing trauma-informed wellness to the Lennox School District. Over a decade, art has evolved from a simple tool to…
Center of Life
Pennslyvania
Center of Life
Pennslyvania
In this video, Kiyomi Knox shares how creative practices like Self-Care Safety Plans, Intention Touchstones, and Kintsugi help staff and community members find moments of reflection, healing, and connection. By integrating art into daily routines and…
The Adult Skills Center
California
The Adult Skills Center
California
I facilitated the Touchstone Journey art workshop for a group of four adults, aged 30 to 43, with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The participants’ life experiences included challenges such as the loss of parents through death or divorce…
Just Detention International - South Africa, Gauteng Province
Just Detention International - South Africa, Gauteng Province
We witnessed the adaptability of AWBW’s worksheets during our third workshop with women at Atteridgeville Gender Responsive Centre. We planned to facilitate a “Positive Piggies” workshop, inviting participants to consider and acknowledge their positi…
Los Angeles Unified School District
California
Los Angeles Unified School District
California
In the midst of devastating wildfires in LA County, I facilitated an art workshop for staff and students in grades 1-5 to help them explore their emotions through creativity. The fires had left many students and staff grappling with fear, sadness, an…
Safe Passage
Massachusetts
Safe Passage
Massachusetts
I facilitated the Personal Needs Flowers art workshop for a group of caregivers who are survivors of domestic violence. This art activity was chosen to create a space where the participants could focus on self-care while honoring and prioritizing the…
Garden Grove Unified School District
California
Garden Grove Unified School District
California
At the start of the school year, I facilitated the Journey Markers workshop for a group of mental health specialists as part of a staff development session. I chose this workshop as a way for them to reflect on their paths in the mental health field,…
Safe Passage
MA
Safe Passage
MA
I recently facilitated the "Mask of Survival" art workshop for a group of caregivers at Safe Passage, an organization that supports survivors of domestic violence.  We had five wonderful participants, all of whom shared some common life experiences: …
Women’s & Children’s Crisis Shelter
California
Women’s & Children’s Crisis Shelter
California
I organized a collage activity for the mothers currently residing at our shelter, inviting them to create visual representations of their hopes and dreams for the future. Each of them has faced the challenges of experiencing intimate partner violence…
Para Los Ninos
California
Para Los Ninos
California
Part of my role with Para Los Niños is to train and supervise master's level social work trainees by equipping them to work with our students with social emotional learning. Our student population is primary and secondary students who reside in or ar…
Sacramento Children's Home
California
Sacramento Children's Home
California
AWBW art Facilitator, Liz Miller Oliver, is the Training Specialist at Sacramento Children’s Home. The Organization provides crisis support for families residential care for foster youth who have suffered trauma and services for that focus on child a…
Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
California
Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
California
I work at a substance use disorder and mental health dual diagnosis outpatient facility with adults, most of whom are conditionally released to treatment by courts. Our supplies are limited and I adapted the Affirmation Mandala Shrinky Dink workshop …

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