Expressive Arts Coaching & Community Building

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.

Preschool teacher Linette Illastron returned to school after a decade and rediscovered her voice, her strength, and her passion for learning at CIIS.

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

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.

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.

How can we cultivate the traits of a vibrant community in our own lives and what would it look like to prioritize caring and acceptance in our interactions with others? How can we, collectively, create a climate of true inclusivity, one where our differences both challenge and strengthen us?

After having meetings with different communities in the United States over the course of two years, psychologist Lisa Kentgen identified some key traits of vibrant, healthy communities that we can all apply to our own lives and networks. She compiled and expanded upon what she learned in her book, The Practice of Belonging: Six Lessons from Vibrant Communities to Combat Loneliness, Foster Diversity, and Cultivate Caring Relationships.

In this episode Dr. Kentgen is joined by CIIS professor in Counseling Psychology, Shoshana Simons, for a conversation about how we can transform our social relationships and build communities that appreciate difference, encourage authentic expression, and foster an environment of belonging and mutual care.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on May 2nd, 2023. A transcript is available below.

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

Healing doesn’t happen in isolation, and one of the best ways to move past individual trauma is through connection and community—healing ourselves and one another.

In this episode, wellness coach and licensed therapist Minaa B. is joined by trauma and racial healing leader Jenée Johnson in an inspiring and practical conversation on the power of collective healing in moving past trauma and adversity.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on September 14th, 2023. A transcript is available below.

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

The planet is burning and flooding, divisions and conflicts between people are on the rise, and we’re are all processing the collective trauma of a global pandemic. Among therapists and healers, burnout is rampant; hopelessness and despair as well. As a healing practitioner, how can you practice good therapy when you feel like the world is ending?

In this episode, psychotherapists Larisa Garski and Justine Mastin are joined in a conversation with CIIS professor Christine Brooks on the difficulties of therapizing in today's world. Informed by narrative, Internal Family Systems, fanfic, and trauma sensitive therapy, Justine and Larisa share insights from their latest book, The Grieving Therapist, and offer a grief-informed framework for taking care of yourself as you take care of others.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on September 28th, 2023. A transcript is below.

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

Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she's always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred.

Her latest book, Falling Back in Love with Being Human, is a transformative collection of intimate and lyrical love letters that offer a path toward compassion, forgiveness, and self-acceptance. Whether prayers or spells or poems—and whether there’s a difference—she writes to affirm the outcasts and runaways she calls her kin.

In this episode, Kai Cheng is joined by qwoc expressive arts therapist and CIIS Counseling Psychology programs professor Jenna Robinson in a conversation about love and what it means to truly embrace the beauty of being human.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 19th, 2023. A transcript is available below.

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

Dr. Lyla June is a renowned Indigenous musician, songwriter, poet, hip-hop artist, human ecologist, and community organizer. Her music and message center around intergenerational and inter-ethnic healing and are poetic articulations of Indigenous philosophies.

Through her vibrant art across mediums and extensive community organizing efforts, Lyla offers pathways forward for Indigenous liberation and creates solidarity for Indigenous communities and their allies.

This episode was recorded live in San Francisco on November 3rd, 2023. Lyla was joined on stage by Preston Vargas, CIIS Director of the Center for Black and Indigenous Praxis, for a powerful evening of song and conversation exploring her life, art, and community organizing. A transcript is available below.

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

The Zapatista movement emerging from Chiapas, Mexico over the past three decades has impacted people all over the world who struggle to liberate themselves from colonial capitalism and Cis-Heteropatiarchy.

Between 2012 and 2019, several delegations of CIIS students, staff, and faculty traveled to Chiapas. There they attended various educational encounters that compose part of what CIIS faculty Charlotte María Sáenz calls “Zapatista Seed Pedagogics,” a way to describe the mutual education between Zapatistas and those outside their autonomous territory.

In this episode Charlotte is joined by fellow CIIS faculty member Zara Zimbardo for a conversation exploring the ways the Zapatista movement bridges different worldviews, politics, and geographies to collectively revision and remake “a world in which many worlds fit,” an oft-repeated Zapatista slogan.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on November 11th, 2023. A transcript is available below.

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

The seasons and cycles of nature have incredible power to affect everything in our lives—including our creativity. Author and poet Jacqueline Suskin’s latest book, A Year in Practice, is a seasonal guide for creative seekers offering holistic practices to find clarity, activate hope, and honor nature all year long.

In this episode, Jacqueline is joined by expressive arts therapist and CIIS Counseling Psychology program professor Jenna Robinson in a conversation about how to explore and fortify your creative practice by accessing guidance provided by the rhythms of nature.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on January 31, 2024. A transcript is available below.

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

African-centered scholars often point to mindfulness and meditation as important practices for those of African ancestry to tend to their inner landscapes and heal from the harm of systemic and internalized oppression.

For Jenée Johnson, the Founder and Curator of The Right Within Experience, a mindfulness immersion program for people of African ancestry, mindfulness is a tool to cultivate a liberatory lifestyle of joy and well-being. These are the human rights and exalted emotions that are eroded in Black lives through consistent exposure to the trauma of racism.

In this episode, Jenée is joined by filmmaker and activist Shakti Butler for a powerful conversation exploring mindfulness as a tool for Black Americans to reclaim joy, self-love, and well-being.

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on February 2, 2024. A transcript is available below.

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

In the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race, writer Ijeoma Oluo offered a vital guide for how to talk about important issues of race and racism in society. In Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, she discussed the ways in which white male supremacy has had an impact on our systems, our culture, and our lives throughout American history.

But now that we better understand these systems of oppression, what can we do about them? In her latest book, Be A Revolution: How Everyday People are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too, Ijeoma aims to show how people across America are working to create real positive change within our structures.

In this episode, Ijeoma is joined by Preston Vargas, the Director of the CIIS Center for Black & Indigenous Praxis, for an inspiring conversation encouraging all of us to engage with our communities and examine how we can start creating positive systemic change.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 20, 2024. A transcript is available below.

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

The American Dream as it has been defined for more than a century is about the well-paying job, the nuclear family, and upward mobility. But what both clouds and defines that dream is the distance between us, our neighbors, and that we, our communities, are defined by the dichotomy of winners and losers. What has been lost in many people’s day to day and in the larger American Dream is the key element that helped many of us to succeed in the first place—community.

In this episode, author and activist Mia Birdsong is joined by Rachel Bryant for a conversation on reclaiming family, friendship, and communities. Sharing insights from her book, How We Show Up, Mia highlights how we can return to our inherent connectedness to find strength, safety, and support in vulnerability and generosity, in asking for help, and in being accountable.

This episode contains some explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on April 22, 2021. A transcript is available below.

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

The term Two-Spirit is translated from a Northern Algonquin word and is used by some Native peoples of North America to signify variations of gender and sexual orientation. The term gained popularity in the 1990s as a counterpoint to colonial terminology used by anthropologists and academics alike to signify practices of nonbinary gender and sexual orientation among the Native peoples of North America.

Despite over five centuries of ongoing colonial terminology and ideology, Two-Spirit people have survived. Now, they are coming together and returning to values and traditions that existed prior to the invasion of the land we now call North America. But what does Two-Spirit and the transition from surviving to thriving mean to Two-Spirit peoples?

In this episode, Chickasaw Two-Spirit activist, drag queen, and community organizer Landa Lakes is joined by Poarch Creek Two-Spirit artist, activist, and educator Roger Kuhn for an inspiring conversation on Native American ideas on gender, cultural expression, and art as a platform for—and a pathway to—activism.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on November 10th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

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

In this episode, Boots Riley, the writer and director of Sorry To Bother You, and lead singer of The Coup discusses creativity and activism with local writer Chinaka Hodge.

This episode was recorded during an event on September 7, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City, and on years of reporting around the world, author and journalist Suketu Mehta tackles this issue head-on.

In this conversation with multicultural counseling expert Jyoti Rao, Suketu talks about his latest book This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto and his belief that immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 8, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

As one of the country’s leading organizers, Principal at Black Futures Lab, and a co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter, Alicia Garza's work has helped shape the discourse on movements and empowerment for more than a decade.

In this episode, performer, social worker, and activist Honey Mahogany talks with Alicia about her life, her work, and her latest book, The Purpose of Power.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 20th, 2021. A transcript is available below.

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

Five years ago, author and journalist Lauren Martin had a good job in New York, an apartment in Brooklyn, and a boyfriend she loved, but she was wrestling with feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and irritability.

She began to figure out why she was having these negative emotions and how to control them by posting her thoughts and questions online, a project which soon became the popular online platform Words of Women, a space for women to share their experiences and advice. Ultimately Lauren discovered how to take all her moods, the highs and lows, and regain control. Her research into these negative emotions culminated in her latest book, The Book of Moods.

In this episode CIIS faculty Christine Brooks talks with Lauren about learning to move through negative emotions and embrace all moods, good and bad.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 8, 2020. A transcript is available below.

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

Empaths not only sense other people’s emotions, but also absorb them—sometimes to their disadvantage, often leading to overwhelming sensory overload and feelings of confusion or low self-esteem. Their willingness to help and please others might make them prey to opportunists or cause them to give away more energy than they can afford.

But international speaker, cancer survivor, and author Anita Moorjani argues that it’s possible to turn this onslaught of emotional burden into a powerful tool. In a time when traits like sensitivity, kindness, and compassion are sorely undervalued, Anita helps empaths navigate obstacles they may face and identify what makes them unique.

In this episode, May Elawar, CIIS Professor in Women’s Spirituality, talks with Anita about her latest book, Sensitive Is the New Strong, as well as her life and work teaching others to harness and foster their empathic gifts in today’s difficult, fear-based world.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 17, 2021. A transcript is available below.

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

As the effects of aggressive policing and mass incarceration harm historically marginalized communities and tear families apart, how do we define safety? In a time when the most powerful institutions in the United States are embracing repressive and racist systems that keep many communities struggling and in fear, we need to reimagine what safety means.

In this episode, community leader and lawyer Zach Norris is joined in a conversation with CIIS professor and restorative justice expert sonya shah about how we can shift our mindset and embrace a new vision for public safety that overturns more than 200 years of fear-based discrimination, othering, and punishment.

This episode contains mentions of violence and death by suicide. This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 23, 2021. A transcript is available below.

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

Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, viewing art is a creative act that can be a catalyst for inquiries into our world.

In this episode, writer, artist, and curator Cindy Shearer explains how viewing artworks from the vantage point of its makers allows us to experience art-making from the inside out—drawing from what undergirds art in all forms as information and inspiration.

This episode was recorded live in person in the Desai | Matta Gallery at CIIS on November 15, 2018.

As social distancing becomes a new way of life, connecting with friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors can be difficult and stressful. Suddenly we find ourselves in a new social landscape at a time when we need our communities most. Many are experiencing feelings of isolation and depression. All over the world, from balcony sing-alongs to Zoom graduation parties, people are finding new ways to connect to each other. What does this new normal mean for our mental health? How can we cultivate, maintain, and grow our relationships in these difficult times?

In this episode, Professor of Expressive Arts Therapy and Expressive Arts Coaching and Community Building and therapist Christine Brooks and author of Millenneagram Hannah Paasch explore human connection in COVID-19 and beyond. They talk about connection at this time, drawing upon knowledge of the enneagram and other tools for understanding yourself and those around you.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on June 11, 2020. You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Elizabeth Markle is a clinical psychologist turned radical community health innovator who brings decades of intentional community experience to her re-visioning of healthcare.

In this episode, health coach Susanna Merlo talks with Dr. Markle about her journey launching her community and “behavioral pharmacy”, Open Source Wellness, and her vision for the transformation of our nation’s clinical and social systems.

This episode was recorded during an event on February 27, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Mari Andrew is an author and illustrator who shares her work daily on Instagram with over 1 million devoted fans around the world. Her first book, Am I There Yet? debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list.

In this episode, Mari is joined by fellow author and illustrator Nicole J. Georges for a conversation about finding personal healing by creating work that shines a light on feelings we all have, but don’t always reveal.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 31, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

This episode features Bay Area performers and writers including a BART train operator, a recent Pride Parade Grand Marshall, and more. Presented in collaboration with San Francisco’s Porchlight storytelling series and The Contemporary Jewish Museum, each storyteller explores their understanding of self and the fluidity of identity.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 22, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this conversation, psychologist Christine Brooks talks with author and social critic Erica Williams Simon about how she got “story smart” to challenge the narratives about fear, work, identity, success, love, and life that we have all been taught.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 15, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

Professor and activist Jennifer Wells talks with author and community organizer Trebbe Johnson about her lifelong dedication to finding and making beauty in the Earth’s broken places.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 27, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this episode, therapist Ivy Tiegel talks with cartoonist Rachel Lindsay about Rx, her graphic memoir, and her experiences working as an artist with bipolar disorder.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 20, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this conversation with psychologist Jyoti Rao, poet Jessica Semaan discusses her latest work, Child of the Moon, and how creating poetry has helped her heal from her traumatic childhood during the Lebanese Civil War.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 12, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this episode, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of nine books, including the blockbuster Eat, Pray, Love, is in conversation with author and illustrator Lisa Congdon, about creativity, magic, fear, and grief.

This episode was recorded during an event on December 1, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

CIIS faculty member and Expressive Arts Therapist Danielle Drake examines how communities who engage in creative processes can inspire social change. This talk was part of the Big Ideas at CIIS series.

This episode was recorded during an event on April 5, 2017 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, CIIS faculty Christine Brooks examines how nurturing our social networks increases our health and wellbeing. This talk was part of the Big Ideas at CIIS series.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 7, 2017 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.