August 15th, 2026 4-7pm
Join our FREE Community Event hosted by Arts in Counseling and led by Owner, Lindsay Edwards, Licensed Professional Counselor and Dance/movement Therapist
Event Structure: Movement workshop 4pm-6pm. Followed by a community potluck from 6pm-7pm. No need to attend the potluck if you’re joining us for the movement workshop. Also, bringing food for the potluck is not required.
Movement Workshop Description: Through guided and improvised movement, participants are invited to let go of accumulated stress, explore authentic expression, and experience the quiet power of connection that emerges when people move together. Comfortable clothing and barefeet encouraged.
Potluck: Bring something you enjoy making or eating. There’s no expectation to provide a full serving for everyone; the spirit is sharing, sampling, and experiencing one another’s favorite foods. No alcohol please.
Location Information: At Align Barre and Fitness, 2256 Mt Carmel Ave, Glenside, PA 19038. Please note the studio is a 2nd floor walk-up with no elevator.
Arts in Counseling is partnering with artist heather michele riddle on a thoughtfully curated art initiative commemorating the depth and complexity of your reproductive journey.
Participants are invited into a private, guided conversation with heather, during which she gently witnesses and explores a pivotal moment from your experience—whether in pregnancy, birth, loss, fertility, or the postpartum period. This process is designed not only to gather your story, but to hold it with care, reflection, and intention.
Following this session, heather enters a dedicated period of artistic creation, spending several weeks translating the emotional and symbolic essence of your narrative into an original, one-of-a-kind artwork. The resulting piece is a deeply personal interpretation—crafted as a lasting artifact of your story to be kept, honored, and revisited over time.
Artwork will be roughly 6x8 to 8x10 inches on paper and will be framed, ready to hang.
You’re welcome to engage in this project no matter when your story took place.
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As part of this experience you will:
Engage one 60-90 min guided conversation with heather.
After the meeting, heather will create an original two dimensional artwork inspired by your story.
A follow-up 30 minute session will be scheduled 2-3 weeks later when heather will present you with the completed artwork and you’ll engage in a closing conversation.
Should you be unable to meet heather for the follow up session to receive the artwork, the piece will be held at the Arts in Counseling office for you to arrange pick up.
As with any meaningful experience of sharing memories, these sessions may bring up strong emotions and feelings. While we honor and support these feelings, this experience does not constitute clinical or medical care or therapy services.
If you are interested in a therapy referral, heather will provide a warm hand-off for you to our Arts in Counseling clinical director for a therapy consultation.
About heather
heather michel riddle (she/her) is a mother and artist living and working in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter. As an artist parent, her art is influenced and intertwined by the specific - surroundings, family, daily caregiving responsibilities - as well as broader topics including mothering, reproductive justice/infertility, mental health and grief. Often working in series, her practice ranges from painting to mixed-media work. She received her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and her master’s degree in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Note
Images in ad are original pieces created by heather for the Maternal Reflections project.
Book 1:1 Telehealth Mindfulness Coaching with AiC team member, Dr. Kathleen Metzker. Open to anyone, anywhere.
This is not meditation.
Mindfulness is about how you stay present—at work, at home, and in your relationships.
Through a trauma-informed lens, Dr. Metzker helps you gently build awareness without overwhelm—so you can calm your nervous system, quiet mental noise, and respond to life with more clarity (instead of reactivity).
These individualized, therapeutic sessions offer practical, body-based tools to feel more grounded, focused, and steady in your day.
With integration of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy when needed, this work can be especially supportive for grief, chronic pain, medical diagnoses, and learning to live with what is—without losing yourself in it.
Dr. Metzker, EdD, MPH, is trained in mind-brain learning and public health. She brings 20+ years of yoga teaching, along with Reiki and reflexology, into an integrative, mind-body approach to care.
The Expressive Body: Connecting Emotion to Movement is a partnership workshop with Sine Timore Theater Company to offer a journey of self-exploration to high-school and college-age actors and acting students. This workshop trains actors to physically connect to emotion so their performances feel authentic, grounded, and powerful.
Upcoming Date: Times forming. Please email contact@artsincounseling.com if you are interested in this workshop.
Description
A nurturing self-initiated movement group. This group is open to everyone and is especially disability friendly. You do not need to consider yourself a “mover” and you don’t need “rhythm”.
Authentic Movement Group is a simple, formulaic process that you will be taught during each group. Essentially, you have a chance to move naturally and improvisatorially, following your internal impulses and compass while being witnessed by another. You do not need to consider yourself a “mover” and you don’t need “rhythm”. Depending on how you’re feeling in the moment, your movement, emotions and sounds may vary from tiny and subtle to expansive and loud. A verbal exchange is then shared by mover and witness about the experience. Next, you shift roles and witness becomes mover. Authentic Movement continues to evolve as a practice of deep inner listening, reverent witnessing, and embodied remembrance—a bridge between inner truth and collective healing.
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Authentic Movement Roots and Lineage: Authentic Movement, as it is known today, arises from a deep, timeless impulse: the body moving from within, witnessed in silence and presence. Long before it was named or systematized, this practice was alive in Indigenous and ancestral traditions across the globe. From the ritual dances of West African griots to the trance movements of the Kalahari San, from the embodied prayer of Indigenous North and South American ceremonies to the sacred gestural languages of Balinese and Pacific Islander rituals—humans have always turned to spontaneous, intentional movement as a form of healing, expression, and spiritual connection. In the mid-20th century, Mary Starks Whitehouse, trained in modern dance and Jungian analysis, brought these ancient ways into dialogue with Western psychotherapy. She emphasized “movement that arises from the unconscious,” a process she simply called “movement in depth.” Her student, Janet Adler, later gave this practice the name Authentic Movement, shaping it into a relational discipline rooted in non-judgmental witnessing and contemplative presence. Adler brought forth the spiritual and therapeutic dimensions of the work, integrating it with mysticism, somatics, and psychological inquiry. Contemporary practitioners—including Joan Chodorow, Tina Stromsted, and a growing number of BIPOC dance/movement therapists—are now expanding the field by reclaiming and reweaving the threads of its ancestral origins. Today, Authentic Movement continues to evolve as a practice of deep inner listening, reverent witnessing, and embodied remembrance—a bridge between inner truth and collective healing.
Upcoming Date: Cohort forming. Please email contact@artsincounseling.com if you’re interested in this for yourself or your organization.
Location: 67 Byberry Road, Hatboro PA 19040
Provider: Dr. Kathleen Metzker
Description
This immersive experience centers on mindfulness, blending meditation, somatic practices, and dialogue for a day of compassionate reflection and practice.
Participants will explore:
Responding to conflict without reactivity
Compassionate yet boundaried communication
Resilience in discomfort instead of avoidance
Staying connected during tension or uncertainty
Next Cycle: Cohort Forming. Please email contact@artsincounseling.com if you’re interested in this intensive for yourself or your organization.
Providers: Douglas Paulson [artist, educator] and Lindsay Edwards [psychotherapist, dance/movement therapist]
For adults interested in improving relationship skills:
Partners
Individuals
Collaborators
Friends
Triads
etc.
Description
Sustaining relationships requires creativity, flexibility, practice, and reflection. This intensive brings people together to learn, grow, play, support, and reflect to strengthen the skills in the relationships that matter most.
This intensive 2 day workshop develops empathy, relationship-building, and conflict navigation skills through a highly participatory experience.
We will use movement games, improvisation, therapeutic practices, and guided discussion to help participants experiment with new, creative ways of relating to themselves and to others in the room.
Expect:
Games and movement
Laughter and playfulness
Rigor and introspection
Supportive facilitation
Honest connection to others
Shared vulnerability
Community
Intended Outcomes
Greater capacity to navigate conflict, uncertainty, and relational challenges with curiosity and resilience
Deepened empathy and understanding, even during moments of tension
Softened rigid patterns, inviting more internal ease
Improved communication tools for expressing needs and boundaries
Practice staying present, responsive, and connected in real-time interactions
Improved tools for repairing ruptures and strengthening trust across personal and professional relationships
Community and beyond
We center emotional safety, consent, and playful co-creation throughout.
Participants are invited to practice vulnerability at their own pace. While taking relational risks can feel uncomfortable, we consistently see that the growth, connection, and insight gained are worth it.
Consider repeating this workshop. Each new group creates fresh dynamics, offering new opportunities for practice, reflection, and continued skill development.
Upcoming Date: Cohort forming. Please email contact@artsincounseling.com if you’re interested in this for yourself or your organization.
Location: 67 Byberry Road, Hatboro PA 19040
Provider: Dr. Kathleen Metzker
Description
Join us for a nourishing afternoon of gentle movement, stillness, and deep inner listening as we explore what it means to practice radical self-love.
Mindfulness for present-moment awareness & self-connection
Breathwork for nervous system regulation & emotional release
Yoga for awakening in beginning then yoga nidra (guided rest) to support deep restoration and integration
Invitation for quiet reflection/journaling/sharing
Description
Are you a helping professional whose patients could benefit from some arts-based activities/interventions? Learn what and how you can implement them.
A consecutive, four session professional creative wellness training for helping professionals in mental health, education, and community care.
Next Cycle: Cohort forming. Please email contact@artsincounseling.com if you’re interested in this for yourself or your organization.
Location: Telehealth. Link will be sent post-registration.
Providers: Malia Burris [therapist & sound healer] and Sir Dominique Jordan [Hip Hop and Spoken Word Artist, Educator]
Module 1: Sound, Story & the Creative Nervous System
Foundations of sound-based nervous system regulation
Rhythm, breath, and voice as pathways to emotional regulation
How creativity impacts the brain and supports clinical goals
Intro experiential: sound + spoken word blend
Immediate take-home tools for anxious or dysregulated youth/young adults
Module 2: Sound & Expressive Arts for Emotional Regulation
Safe and ethical use of sound in clinical and community settings
Trauma-informed sound facilitation
Sound + visual art: texture, tone, color, vibration
Guided sound experience + reflective integration
Practical applications for teens, young adults, and high-anxiety clients
Module 3: Rhythm, Voice & Story-Based Expression
Rhythm as emotional language
Elements of spoken word + poetic storytelling
Hip-hop informed creative practices
Identity, agency, and narrative in trauma healing
Creative activities clinicians can replicate with youth/young adults
Module 4: Integration, Creative Rituals, & Applied Practice
How to structure creative sessions in clinical/educational settings
Combining sound, rhythm, story, and visual expression
Facilitating beginnings and endings (rituals, openings, closings)
Small group practice + feedback
Building a culturally responsive, imagination-based toolkit
This final session brings everything together and highlights equal partnership.
Training Outcomes
Trauma-informed creative regulation tools
Simple sound practices for session use
Rhythm + voice exercises for emotional expression
Visual expressive arts processes
Narrative + story-based interventions
Culturally responsive creative approaches
A replicable 4-session framework for groups or youth programs
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