Expressive Arts Institute of Oregon offers an Embodied Expressive Arts 500-hour certificate program through the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association. The program is the vision of of founder Lanie Bergin and is based on movement-based expressive arts education and borrows key principals from early childhood development into adulthood.

The delightful part of the program is that you start with your inner aspirations and heuristic research and then, in Level 2, immediately begin to learn how to apply it in your work.  The program is based on small cohorts in conjunction with master-trainer mentoring – and that’s what really sets the program apart.

This program is a hidden gem in Portland, and I am so thankful I found it! Through this program, I have encountered more of authentic self and opened up more pathways to healing and transformation than I’d ever imagined existed.

Lanie is a first-rate trainer who clearly “knows her stuff.” She’s fun, compassionate and flexible, and has all the theory, knowledge and real-life experience as both an artist and a teacher one would hope for and expect in a program like this.  – Erin Libby, 2019

In the Spring of 2016 we launched a 500-hour Embodied Expressive Arts professional training program in Portland, Oregon.”

Under the auspices of ISMETA  – The International Somatic Movement and Education Therapy Association –  following guidelines used by organizations all over the world, we are offering a program that will provide professional experience/credential and applicable skills for people who are diversifying their skills or making a career change. Somatic/movement-based Expressive Arts attracts people with varied backgrounds including education, healthcare, counseling and coaching.

Program highlights

    • Personal and Professional Development
    • Professional credentialing – Registered Somatic Therapist/Educator with ISMETA
    • Personal arts-based application of Anatomy and Kinesiology (blending theory and personal meaning)
    • Arts-based research skills (heuristic and qualitative)
    • Working with others: Witnessing, observing, reflexive skills, participation and collaboration
    • Professional Application: practice with in-depth supervision
    • Hands-on practice integrating interdisciplinary approaches that inform trauma competencies and personal ethics, attachment theory, peace building and conflict resolution and transforming communities

Pathway to Professional Registry

We are an Approved Training Program of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). Our graduates meet all requirements to become Registered Somatic Movement Educators and Therapists.

Upon completion of our 500-hour training program graduates may apply to The International Somatic Movement and Education Therapy Association to become Registered Somatic Movement Therapists/Educators.  ISMETA requires 150 professional hours within 2 years of graduation.

Some benefits to becoming a Registered Somatic Practitioner are discussed here.

How does this apply to personal/professional development?

We are dedicated to the aliveness and connection of people with a humanistic perspective: We place great emphasis on relationships and the lived experience – in the present moment as well as over time.

In this training while integrating the body-mind connection with the use of expressive arts modalities, you will develop skills that will help you to:

  • Utilize your understanding of how movement affects the dimensions of the mental, physical and emotional being.
  • Access material not easily accessible through conversation alone
  • Recognize, track, report and work creatively with projection of self and other and systemic biases while working together in respectful and experiential ways that enhance curiosity and empathy
  • Integrate: Use your unique gifts while working with and learning from the expressive arts modalities (visual art-making, movement, music, sound/voice, writing, drama)
  • Utilize expressive arts tools to access and transform personal mythologies of the self, others and the world

In this training while using the expressive arts modalities you will learn about:

  • Anatomy and kinesiology: Embodying the science and the art of movement, physically, emotionally, mentally and personally/collectively
  • Interpersonal research: Witnessing, observing, reflecting, participating and collaborating
  • Supervision: Focusing on awareness and integration of personal and collective mythology
  • Non-verbal skills: Tracking non-verbal communication physically, emotionally, mentally
  • Facilitation: Applying expressive arts methods to address safety, self-regulation and relationship skills
  • Discernment: Working with the interplay of the senses, such as seeing, hearing, listening, imagining
  • Accessing the subconscious: Using the body and the expressive arts toolkit to access material for deeper growth and understanding
  • The Art-Cycle: techniques using and working with mixed modalities in Expressive Arts
  • Integrated interdisciplinary approaches for learning and living

Theory, scholarly research and praxis

Theoretical work is studied experientially, working with collective and personal ideas and experiences in order to learn how we may invite others to consider the possible value of embodied education. Some topics include:

    • Attachment styles
    • Trauma Informed-care and ethics
    • Early developmental processes

Learning Environment

  1. Praxis
  2. Peer learning — students work & learn together
  3. Small group work
  4. Independent work
  5. Demonstrations
  6. Arts-based Research activities (documentation qualitative and quantitate approaches)
  7. Outside classroom –  study in the natural world with Guided Reflections in Nature (GRIN)
  8. Faculty and guest speakers – mastery-level professionals from diverse backgrounds which compliment the training curricula

Learning Evidence

  • Subject-Produced Portfolio – collection of artifacts, such as: drawings, journal writings, photos
  • Arts-based supervision project
  • Personal and professional case-study projects
  • EXA Labs – student collaboration; practice lessons in a structured environment
  • Cohort-based learning plus individual mentoring: Students use this time together and in mentoring sessions to assimilate, rearrange, and transform their learning process during these monthly check points.
  • Reading Assignments: A required and suggested reading list is available to students at the start of the program.
  • Monthly Trackers are a requirement: These prepare participants to describe both personal and collective processes that emerge from body-based expressive arts practices. 

Training Logistics

*Enrollment is underway for the next series of training. You can apply to hold your place.

The 500 hour program in Embodied Expressive Arts is divided into three levels:

  • Level 1: Embodied Personal Development  (250 hours) 
  • Level 2: Embodied Professional Development (250 hours)

All levels are designed to support working adults with a majority of classes held on weekends

  • Level 1: 250-hours – 2-weekends per month and 1:1 mentoring
  • Level 2: 250-hours  -2 weekends per month; 1:1 mentoring, and fieldwork

On completion of the 500-hour program your certificate from Expressive Arts Institute of Oregon allows you to apply to ISMETA – International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association –  to become a Registered Somatic Movement Educator or Therapist.

Upon completion of the 500-hour program the ISMETA registry process begins. See ISMETA.org.

Sign-up for an Intro Workshop here.

Why Study with Lanie Bergin, M.Ed., RSMT/E

Fantastic program and leadership. I highly recommend Expressive Arts Oregon, and Lanie. ~Rodrigo Xavier Caldera

Lanie’s expressive arts works profoundly at the deepest of levels to open you to your own innate healing process. The container Lanie creates for this process to unfold is safe, compassionate and inspiring. ~Mari Saint-Pierre

Comments and stories

I appreciate the thought, detail and clinical process put into facilitating this program, as I am a mental health clinician myself. I feel blessed that I am a part of this rewarding program and recommend it highly.

First and foremost, this program is transformative. There is no way to go through this program without consistent introspection. All of this is done through the process of tuning into the body and moving through very accessible containers hosting different art modalities while in the comfort of a cohort environment. There will be a lot of unknowns. But you will begin to develop and nourish a relationship with the Unknown, and that is an immeasurable gift. Mentorship and community is built into the program, along with lecturers who offer unique approaches and who expand your awareness of what is possible within this field. No one’s experience will be the same, but what I’ve learned and witnessed is that you will get out of this program what you put into it. If you are able to create space for it in your life and commit to your own exploration, you will undoubtedly come out as a more aware, grounded, resilient person and practitioner.

The personal mining experiences are providing me with such profound self insight in a safe, extremely fun and structured way.

I am learning about the heart, mind and physical body connection in a way that all other therapies I’ve committed to, didn’t even touch.

There was a clear merging of the Personal and the Professional which allowed me to first understand myself, and then understand the theory and practice of embodied expressive arts facilitation. This second level of the program has helped me gain a clear understanding of the type of person and practitioner I am and “could be”. The curriculum creates pathways to the future of your own paving, and through your personal work, as a cohort, and through the mentorship you receive, you experience an intimate and supportive journey as you come to your own understanding and acceptance of yourself and the life you truly wish to lead.

The personal mining and harvesting I did in my Level One training at Expressive Arts Oregon enabled me to answer the question I began with. The very first drawing I made, “Where do I fit in?” began a year long exploration of my personal mythology. Through somatic movement explorations, the art cycle, and harvesting and reflecting with my peers and course instructors, I have entered my level two work with a clear idea of where I fit in. This drawing – “Stepping In to the Future” – echoes my first drawing, but serves as an answer to the question. I can see how the many stepping stones in my life are converging in this work. The expressive arts have given me a container to hold all of my experiences, passions, interests and hopes, and is becoming a vehicle in which I am moving forward to the future. It is open wide, and holds many possibilities. I would never have been able to get to the point I am now – writing curriculum and designing my own Embodied Expressive Arts coursework – had I not taken the 500-hour training program. 

Imagine the early years of learning being guided by an education system that encourages teachers to help children grow and express themselves through the expressive arts. Now imagine a program for yourself where you are the beneficiary of such an approach – learning by experiencing the joy of true self-expression  – and at the same time gaining skills applicable to your life and work.

Participants can expect a safe, secure and sometimes intense environment for personal, professional and dynamic group practice. Teaching and practicing Expressive Arts with others is a powerful experience – where diversity is at the center of change, communication and transformation. 

The 500-hour training takes place within an organized structure. Participants will learn about movement-based expressive arts through their bodies –  physically, psychologically, and emotionally  – and they will apply their life experiences and personal mythology to this framework as they discover their particular path.

Each person, using their own history and experience as foundational resource, will discover unique and creative ways of using art to express and transform themselves – this, then, is how art becomes us.

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