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Laury Rappaport FOT 2023

Laury Rappaport

Laury Rappaport - Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts Therapy (FOAT®): Overview and Demonstration

Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts (FOAT®) Therapy integrates Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing with the expressive arts. Laury will present a brief overview of Focusing-Oriented Expressive Arts Therapy, along with a demonstration of a FOAT Check-in with a “volunteer client.” The FOAT Check-in is a core method in Focusing-Oriented Therapy (FOT) that offers the Focuser an option of using simple art materials (crayons, markers, string, stones, etc.), gesture, movement, or sound (as well as words) to express the felt sense. The demonstration will include a user-friendly approach of teaching the Focuser how simple art materials can be used by anyone. 

Note: The primary focus of the presentation is the demonstration. There will be a brief time for arts expression for those who are interested. Please have simple materials, such as markers or crayons. You can also use a pencil or pen too. 

Laury Rappaport, Ph.D., MFT, ATR-BC, REAT  is the Founder/Director of the Focusing and Expressive Arts Institute and author of Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy: Accessing the Body’s Wisdom and Creative Intelligence, editor/author of Mindfulness and the Arts Therapies: Theory and Practice.  She is on the faculty at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA where she has taught for over 40 years, and has also been on faculties of other graduate programs. 

Laury is a Board-Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (CA), and Certifying Focusing Coordinator.  Laury has extensive clinical experience in a wide variety of settings.