The process of the intensive experience is exceedingly valuable. Below is a tentative operational schedule to give an idea of how the experience is set-up.

However, the clinical process is even more important. In group theory, there are Process Groups. A lot of clinicians describe these groups using the word “process” as a verb, to process through something. In traditional group theory the word “process” is used as a noun. It refers to “the group process”. The group process is seen as an agent of change for the participants.

This concept has to do with the functioning of the group, how the participants engage in group, and what is present in the group, in the moment. These elements turn the group experience itself into an experiential modality. We will talk more about how this works in the opening group.

Tentative Intensive Outline: exact times TBD

Four days, four nights:

Day one:

Morning- arrival, settle in

Afternoon - lunch and opening group ceremony, early evening experiential activity,

Evening - return to houses: assignment work, journal, dinner, socialize

Day two:

Morning - movement, breakfast, morning group

Afternoon - lunch, afternoon group, additional experiential (beach walk, etc.),

Evening - return to houses: assignment work, journal, dinner, socialize

Day three:

Morning - movement, breakfast, morning group

Afternoon - lunch, afternoon group, additional experiential (sound bath, reiki, etc.),

Evening - return to houses, journal, assignment work, dinner, socialize

Day four:

Morning - movement, breakfast, morning group

Afternoon- lunch, afternoon group, return to houses from afternoon to early evening,

Evening - Return to the group for the evening closing ceremony. Houses are available for those who want to stay the night and leave in the morning.

The content of an intensive is equally important as the process. The content of this intensive will span family of origin and early life conditioning, looking for the development of internal core beliefs that may hinder our present lives.

We will look at the relationships we built with others, our work and ourselves throughout our lives due to these beliefs and other conditioning events.

We will look at your creative process and examine the strengths and hinderinces that may be present in your channels of creation.

We will look at the depth and breadth of creativity and how art, in all forms, connects us through time. From the first fireside songs, dances and paintings on the walls of caves to the most current forms of creation in the technological age, we have a thread of artistic creativity that makes us uniquely human.

This intensive will include group process and assignments. The content of these assignments will include opportunities for writing, visual art, performance art and music to work though personal material and aid in healing and growth.

Assignment examples:

Portraits: these are meant to be symbolic and reflect how the creator views/understands the subject. This is not about ability to paint or draw, so much as it’s an opportunity let others in on your unique experience. Portrait assignments can be self, others, family, experiences, concepts, etc.

Letters: they can be in the form of pros, poetry, narrative, haiku, anything that feels right. Written assignments can be to a version of yourself, another person, to your art, to an institution, anything that holds unfinished business or things unsaid.

Music: you can compose pieces of music or play music that helps you work with and through the subject at hand.

Movement: we can use elements of psychodrama, dance and our bodies to move through places we feel stuck, tell a story, or move emotional pain that is unreleased.

There are endless ways to work with and process meaningful content. We will develop assignments that feel right to each person together.

Delray Beach, Florida, is located between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, on the east coast of Florida, about an hour north of Miami, in Palm Beach County.

Delray has gone through a glow-up in the last two decades. In it’s humble roots it was a quiet, artist’s beach town. I was born and raised in Delray and my family has lived in Delray from the 1940s (mom) and 1970s (dad). My father’s side were, and are, a group of artists, including visual arts, musicians, writers, dancers and sculptors who gathered in Delray. My paternal grandparents grew up in Miami and spent time living in the Bahamas creating art, playing music and running a nightclub. They returned to the Delray area to continue creating and raise their family. My mother’s parents came down to Delray in the 1940s after immigrating from southern Italy, and built a house and a gas station, taking root in the community.

The community was eclectic and culturally rich, with island influences as well as Latinx culture from Cuba coming up through Miami. These emerging influences blended with the local early American families who started mass settling down in the swamp state starting in the 1920s.

It’s not surprising that this town gained popularity and grew due to it’s eclectic, bohemian roots and gorgeous weather, beaches, and an international charm.

Perhaps most importantly, 2,000 years ago South Florida was inhabited by Tequesta and Calusa tribes. Later, Apache, Ais, Mayaimi (sound familiar?), and Jaega tribes lived in and around the Everglades.

I will always take time in the beginning and the end of intensives to offer thanks and respect to the indigenous people and nature of the land.