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Presenters: Dr. Maricel Ocasio-Figueroa, Clinical Psychologist and President of Arte Terapia PR, and Stephanie Soler, MS 

This Zoom meeting will provide educators with a basic context on how trauma is experienced and how to mitigate its impact through the arts. Based on Lowenfeld’s States of Creative Development and the Expressive Therapies Continuum, participants will learn how to work with trauma through a collage project. 

Participants should prepare the following materials prior to the meeting: 

3-5 images (original or found images) that are representative of the participant in some way. 

Scissors, adhesive, and a coloring tool such as: markers, crayons, colored pencils, or paint. 

Bios: 

Dr. Maricel Ocasio-Figueroa, ATR-BC is a practicing art therapist and clinical psychologist licensed in Puerto Rico. After completing her studies in Washington, DC and moving back to the island, she co-founded the Puerto Rico Art Therapy Association (PRATA). She has worked a variety of special projects that incorporate both of her fields of study to impact, among others, families of accidentally burned children, youth through a museum-based SEL program, and students in the public school system. She has a private practice, a mental health startup, consults for PRDE on PBIS and is a proud mama to two amazing boys. 

Ms. Stephanie Soler is an expressive arts therapist, artist and educator. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico, a M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University and a voluntary internship from Harvard University's Cultural Agents Initiative. Soler specializes in trauma and expressive arts therapy. She has worked with children and adolescents with and without functional diversity in Indonesia, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico; as well as victims/survivors of gender-based violence, people without homes and chronic health conditions, veterans, immigrants, older adults, LGBTTQIA+ community, pediatric burn survivors, the Department of Education of Puerto Rico and the Ponce Art Museum. Her work parts from an intersectional and Caribbean perspective within the mental health field and cultural agency.