We are a team of dedicated creative arts therapists who recognize the power of the creative process to provide safety, expression, structure, growth, empowerment, and re-organization to lives that have been fractured by events beyond understanding. Being human is a creative endeavor, and the arts can restore connection to meaning, belonging, society, and one’s self.
Our core team and leading-edge faculty of renowned practitioners have pioneered the use of creative arts therapies in a variety of trauma contexts globally, from interpersonal and domestic to mass trauma. Together, we integrate Art Therapy, Dance Movement Therapy, Drama Therapy, Music Therapy, and Poetry Therapy to provide a training curriculum that combines innovative and evidence-informed practices.
Core Team
Executive Director
Amber Elizabeth Gray, Ph.D., MPH, MA, BC-DMT, LPCC, NCC, is an activist, dancer, and human rights psychotherapist. She has worked internationally since the mid-1980s, and clinically with survivors of human rights abuses such as war, terrorism, torture, and organized violence for 22 years. She is considered a pioneer in the use of Dance Movement Therapy, Somatic Psychology and Continuum for survivors of trauma, especially survivors of interpersonal trauma. She has managed and directed torture treatment and refugee mental health programs in the US and Haiti, and has traveled to over 50 countries to teach, consult, or respond to disaster and complex humanitarian emergencies. She is an expert in staff care systems for humanitarian responders, is the 2010 recipient of the ADTA Outstanding Achievement Award, and has been nominated twice for The Barbara Chester Human Rights Award. She is a peer nominated member of The Tulane University Traumatology Institute’s torture trauma expert panel. She developed and teaches Restorative Movement Psychotherapy, and Polyvagal-informed Soma-Movement Therapies (Dance Movement Therapy, Somatic Psychotherapy, Yoga and Continuum) through collaborations with Dr. Stephen Porges, and the wisdom of whole body, moving intelligence. Her work synthesizes science and spirit, and she is a frequent student of Indigenous medicine teachers and traditions. She is a frequent publisher and keynote speaker on her many areas of expertise. Her non-profit organization, Trauma Resources International, promotes the right to embody, human and animal rights, and a social justice, humanitarian approach to global well-being.
Training Director
Craig Haen, Ph.D., RDT, CGP, LCAT, FAGPA has been working clinically with people impacted by interpersonal, developmental, and familial trauma for over 20 years. He provides acute crisis intervention following acts of violence and atrocity, trains crisis teams and schools in responding to mass trauma events, and has consulted with organizations on the implementation of trauma-informed care. He has a private practice in White Plains, New York where he treats children, adolescents, adults, and families. Dr. Haen is a graduate adjunct faculty member at New York University and Lesley University. He has published widely on both clinical practice and research, and is editor of four books, including Creative Arts-Based Group Therapy with Adolescents: Theory and Practice with Nancy Boyd Webb and Handbook of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy with Seth Aronson. He serves on the Editorial Boards of The International Journal of Group Psychotherapy and The Arts in Psychotherapy, where he has guest edited two Special Issues on the arts and trauma treatment. In addition, he is a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, where he co-chairs the Community Outreach Task Force, a group that provides both frontline and secondary support in response to trauma events in diverse communities.