Arts, Creativity & Expression

For centuries, Filipino lifeways were presented to outsiders through the distorted lens of colonization—and the oppression, exploitation, and denigration suffered by Filipino ancestors are well-documented. In his work, psychologist and author Carl Lorenz Cervantes draws from Filipino folklore, language, and culture to reorient toward an Indigenous worldview: one that rejects being seen as a passive object in history.  

In this episode Carl and CIIS faculty Niralli D’Costa explore Indigenous Filipino worldviews for embodied well-being. Drawing from his latest book, Sikodiwa, Carl shares how to uplift Indigenized Filipino ways of knowing and offers a timely and inspired path toward collective consciousness, cultural authenticity, and embodied well-being.   

This episode was recorded during a live online event on April 2nd, 2026. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Around the world, practitioners are rediscovering what artists, cultural workers, and community healers have long understood: that creativity and human connection are powerful forces for wellbeing.  

In this episode CIIS faculty Dr. Christine Brooks and Dr. Elizabeth Markle discuss how arts-based practices, dynamic community experiences, and connection-centered programming are reshaping the landscape of health. Together they examine emerging innovations such as social prescribing, a model that reimagines healthcare by formally “prescribing” experiences like movement, art, social connection, and service—elevating these everyday resources as legitimate pathways to wellbeing alongside medical care.  

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 25th 2026. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Film composer Layla Minoui shares how healing from cancer led her to CIIS’ Expressive Arts programs and a new purpose as an emerging coach.

Discover how these approaches differ and why the arts can unlock new pathways for growth and self-discovery.

With rejection and intense commitment being such integral parts of any artist’s life, many struggle to stay with the creative process. Author and CIIS Faculty in the Interdisciplinary Arts program, Cindy Shearer has spent decades helping artists stay with their craft. In her book, Stay with Writing, Cindy encourages writers to understand themselves as artists, and for artists across all mediums to learn about themselves from writing. She offers practices for artists across mediums to help sustain and live a creative life.  

In this episode Cindy is joined by theater artist Emlyn Guiney. Together they dive into the nature of artistic practice, meaning-making, failure, and ways to reconnect with yourself, your art and your process.  

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on March 5th, 2026. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

What happens when art, therapy, and justice meet in one program? Explore how CIIS is shaping the next generation of expressive arts therapists.

Kimberly Koljat ’11 transformed personal loss into groundbreaking research on grief, embodiment, and connection in an increasingly digital world.

After four decades leading CIIS' Drama Therapy Program, professor Renée Emunah reflects on a career spent fusing theatre and healing.

Addam Ledamyen ’26 and Dazié Grego-Sykes ’18 share how CIIS’ M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing creates space for artistic risk, collaboration, and work that refuses to play it safe.

In his latest book, How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories, psychologist Jonathan Lassiter pulls back the curtain on the mental health system and reveals the hurdles that Black psychologists and students are forced to endure in the field.

In this episode, Dr. Lassiter is joined by CIIS Expressive Arts Therapy core faculty Chevon Stewart, for a thought-provoking conversation exploring his experience as a Black gay man working as a psychologist under culturally insensitive supervisors and colleagues in America. They discuss how white ideology has harmed Black patients and how it dominates America’s mental health practices. Drawing from his research, and his own therapy, Dr. Lassiter shares the benefits we can all find when we center culture in our healing practices.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 4th, 2025. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Find your path to an expressive arts coaching career at CIIS.

Professor Phil Weglarz leads CIIS' Expressive Arts Therapy program, preparing students to integrate creative modalities into mental health services and community transformation.

Professor Mimi Savage introduces CIIS' new Expressive Arts Coaching & Community Building master's program, designed for artists and coaches seeking to support transformation through creativity.

Expressive arts coaching uses creativity to foster resilience, connection, and meaningful change.

Discover your fit among CIIS' five counseling psychology concentrations, each offering a unique path to becoming a transformative healer.

Playwright and activist Alex Burger brings his global experience into the CIIS MFA classroom, teaching art as transformation, and crisis as creative fuel.

Chair Christine Brooks spotlights CIIS’ fully online M.A. in Expressive Arts Coaching and Community Building—a transformative program that blends creativity, connection, and empowerment.

CIIS’ new M.A. in Expressive Arts Coaching & Community Building is the first degree of its kind in the U.S.

Transformative Leadership alum Daniel Glenn launched the Podcast Creative Inquiry: Scholarship for the 21st Century

Expressive Arts Therapy alum Suraya Keating directed a production of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" starring male inmates at San Quentin State Prison

A social and emotional art-based research study will be supported

Alum Karin von Daler co-developed the Dialectical Behavior Therapy oriented method for working with people struggling with intense emotional dysregulation