TR20 - Embodying Safety - Being an Art Therapist in Shared Traumatic Reality (N)
Recorded On: 10/25/2025
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Description:
The experience of shared trauma reality of the therapist and the group of
refugees at the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian war is laid out following
the therapist's own embodied trauma response based on polyvagal theory- and
somatic practices-based art therapy, parallel to therapeutic states of
containment, holding, nurturing, and self-care.
Learning Objectives:
- Participants will be able to identify the body’s threat responses based on polyvagal theory, including the three vagal states—fight/flight, freeze, and social engagement—and recognize how these states show up in their own physiological and emotional experiences.
- Particapants will identify 2 art therapy experientials capable of approaching specific body states connected to trauma.
- Participants will identify 2 art therapy skills required in the experience of shared trauma reality.
Session is worth 1 CE Credit
Mia Janković Shentser
MA
Assist. Prof. Mia Janković Shentser, univ. spec. art. therap. is the co-founder and president of the Croatian Art Therapy Association (HART) and a lecturer in the Art Therapy Program at the Osijek Academy of Art and Culture, Croatia. She holds an MA in Sculpture and Art Education from the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, and an MA in Art Therapy in the postgraduate specialisation Art Therapy Program at the University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek.
Mia is an artist, art educator, art therapist, and certified supervisor with advanced training in trauma-informed approaches, including Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Polyvagal Theory, and the Instinctual Trauma Response method. She has extensive experience working with trauma survivors and a wide range of mental health challenges, including work with Holocaust survivors and the elderly, immigrants, and refugees. Since 2023, she has been involved with trauma and resilience work with war-affected persons.
Her integrative, humanistic, client-centred practice emphasises the mind–body connection and resilience building. She has published articles and research in Croatian and international journals. Mia established and serves as editor-in-chief of the scientific art therapy journal Transfer (www.harterapija.com/transferjournal).
Mia has presented at numerous national and international conferences, including the Conference of the American Art Therapy Association (2018), the Conference of the European Federation of Art Therapy, EFAT (2023, 2025), the Conference of all-Ukrainian Art therapy organisations (2023), and academic institutions such as George Washington University (2018), the Expressive Art Therapy program at Ljubljana University, Slovenia (2023/24), and the Art Therapy Program at the University of J. J. Strossmayer, Croatia (since 2021).
She is a member of HART, EFAT, HDLU, and HZSU.
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