[Self-Study] Arts & Health Continuum: A New Perspective (PP00)

Through her expressive arts programs, Nadia Paredes helps people connect with their inner creativity and empower their minds and souls. Nadia founded Nadia Paredes - Creative Studio, a bilingual resource for empowering, healing, and artistic inspiration. With expertise and training as an Art Therapist, Intuition Painting Facilitator, and Licensed Martial and Family Therapist, she creates programs for transformation, creativity, and art-making as a mindfulness practice. Nadia also works in corporate wellness as a speaker and workshop facilitator and is an Adjunct Professor and Art Therapy Supervisor at Loyola Marymount University.

Nisha Sajnani, PhD, RDT-BCT is the Director of the Program in Drama Therapy and Theatre & Health Lab at NYU Steinhardt. She is also on faculty at NYU Stern where she teaches improvisation and leadership and with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma where she lectures on the role of the arts in global mental health. She is a co-founding, and co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established as a collaboration between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, NYU Steinhardt, Culturunners, and Community Jameel, with a mission to measurably improve lives through the arts.

Recent publications include a commentary for the National Endowment for the Arts on realizing the potential of the arts in clinical and public health, a co-edited ebook on the psychological and physiological benefits of the arts, a special issue of the Arts in Psychotherapy on intersectionality and the ethics of care, and the first WHO policy brief on the role of the arts in supporting the mental wellbeing of people who are forcibly displaced. Her performance and curatorial practice reflect concerns with memory, placemaking, and migration. Dr. Sajnani leads the Jameel Arts & Health Lab - Lancet Global Series on the health benefits of the arts, in collaboration with the WHO. She is the principal editor of Drama Therapy Review and serves on the editorial boards of The Arts in Psychotherapy and the Journal of Applied Arts & Health.

Marygrace Berberian, MA, MSW, LCAT, ATR-BC, LCSW, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Graduate Art Therapy Program at New York University. Marygrace has established school-based art therapy initiatives throughout New York City for at-risk children and families for almost 20 years. Ms. Berberian is also the Director of NYU Art Therapy in the Schools program. She led a research initiative examining the impact of art therapy on the self-esteem, affect regulation, and impulse control of public school students. She has published work on the use of art therapy for post-disaster recovery and also implications for cross-cultural practice. Marygrace has presented at interdisciplinary conferences nationally and internationally.

Marygrace has trained clinicians of other disciplines advocating for the use of creative arts therapies as a highly efficient treatment modality. She formerly developed and directed the creative arts therapy program at several community-based agencies, working with children and adolescents at risk, formerly homeless and mentally ill adults, and survivors of cancer. Ms. Berberian is also trained as a Sandplay Therapy Practioner and maintains a private practice in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Currently, Marygrace is a student in the PhD Creative Arts Therapies Program at Drexel University examining artwork created by military service members.

Yazmany Arboleda (b. 1981, Colombian-American) is an artist, community organizer, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. He serves as the first People's Artist for New York City at the Civic Engagement Commission and is the Founder of The People's Creative Institute. An architect by training, Yazmany's art practice fosters community connections through expansive public art initiatives. In 2022, as the lead creative producer for Little Amal Walks NYC, he designed 55 events experienced by more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs. He holds the role of Senior Artistic Advisor for the Community Art Network and has been previously commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Yale School of Management, and the United Nations.

> NYC People's Artist for, NYC Civic Engagement Commission
> Senior Artistic Advisor, Community Arts Network
> Founder & Chief Artistic Officer, The People's Creative Institutex