Radical Self-Care Series **InterPlay –

A Weekly Self & Community Care Class

Tuesdays, 11:30am EST/10:30am CST/9:30am MST/8:30am PST

Join us for an hour of playful body wisdom, exformation, and radical self-care tools & techniques taught by two dancing social workers. Learn the five skills of Self-Care – with a deeper dive each week.

As a helping professional could you use:

Practical tools to assist clients in accessing their own creative resources?

Trauma-informed techniques that enable clients, students, and ourselves to lessen anxiety, strengthen self-confidence, and learn to trust the wisdom of our bodies?

Body wisdom practices that encourage deeper, non-verbal connections?

A more playful approach to addressing tough issues in your workplace setting?

Art-based activities to elicit fun and healing laughter while the work is getting done?

More encouragement and support as you carry out the demanding assignments of your helping profession?

Somatic skills to help navigate the work of racial equity & transformation?

Community accountability for self-care while you practice community care?

The InterPlay Life Practice Program for Helping Professionals is an active, creative way to change your life, your work, and your world.

For the full listing check it out here: https://www.interplay.org/index.cfm/go/events:event/happening_id/2853/

Continuing Education Credit
Up to 40 CE credits for various healthcare and allied healthcare professions are available for those practicing throughout the U.S. and for educators only practicing in Illinois. CE pre-registration is required before the start of your event.
Email Jane Siarny at interplaychicago@sbcglobal.net to APPLY for CEUs. There is a charge of $25-$40 per program. CEUs are offered through Continuing Education Institute of Illinois or R. Cassidy Seminars.

Spirit Play – InterPlay + Poetry

Friday, August 28th 10:30am EST/9:30am CST/8:30am MST/7:30am PST

Join Christine Gautreaux (subbing for Jennifer Denning this month) and Dharma poet, Debra Hiers for a morning of restorative connection and play. Come discover the well-being that can be found in creative, embodied online community! The InterPlay forms of movement, story, song and stillness create a space of openness and connection as a springboard for creating poetry. We claim these artforms as joyful expressions of being human that are available to everyone.

Register Here:
Email me at christinegautreauxmsw@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

InterPlay & Q & A
Saturday, August 29th at 11:30AM ET/10:30AM CT/9:30MT/ 8:30 PT

Would you like to find out more about the upcoming Life Practice Program for Helping Professionals starting in September?

Want to meet the program leaders and get questions answered?

Want to discover what it’s like to explore InterPlay online?

Are you a helping professional and just need an hour of InterPlay?

You are welcome to join Sheila K. Collins, Lissa E. & Christine Gautreaux for an inquiry session where we will play with some InterPlay forms to get to know each other and answer your questions.

For more information about the program, you can also check out the full listing at:

https://www.interplay.org/index.cfm/go/events:event/happening_id/2847/

To register for this session:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUuf-2rpj0pHNSm6nGG1MMYo1lAZxB7xOHB

Superb Sunday Silliness

Sunday, September 20th 3pm EST/2pm CST/1pm MST/12am PST

Join us for an hour+ of InterPlay Silliness.  Let’s balance the serious scales with an hour of facilitated play.  Wear a silly hat, onesie &/or costume if you want too!  This is a great class for all ages.

Register Here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpc-Cpqz4sE93BqMc1kVamqyBScw7vyY4u

Secrets of InterPlay Weekend for Helping Professionals
Sept. 24th – 27th. Thursday & Friday 7-9:30 pm;
Saturday 11:30 am-2:30 pm & 7-9:30 pm;
Sunday 11:30 am-2:30 pm  All time Eastern Time Zone.

Hosted By Christine Gautreaux, MSW, Lissa E. & Sheila K. Collins, PhD.

How about…

**Practical tools to assist clients in accessing their own creative resources?

**Trauma-informed techniques that enable clients, students, and ourselves to lessen anxiety, strengthen self-confidence, and learn to trust the wisdom of our bodies?

**Body wisdom practices that encourage deeper, non-verbal connections?

**A more playful approach to addressing tough issues in your workplace setting?

**Art-based activities to elicit fun and healing laughter while the work is getting done?

**More encouragement and support as you carry out the demanding assignments of your helping profession?

**Somatic skills to help navigate the work of racial equity & transformation?

**Community accountability for self-care while you practice community care?

Register here:
https://www.interplay.org/index.cfm/go/events:event/happening_id/2847/returnEvent/byLocation/rht/7/rv/0/

On Camera Confidence for Virtual Meetings
Thursday, Sept. 15th  
1pm EST/12pm CST/11am MST/10am PST

Hosted By
Christine Gautreaux, MSW, Shannon Ivey, MFA, AEA

Avoid humiliation online, communicate clearly, and learn some pro-tips and tricks to show up as your best self while having fun virtually.

Join professional actor and performance coach Shannon Ivey, MFA, AEA and InterPlay Leader and career coach, Christine Gautreaux, MSW for an hour of pro tips and tricks to show up as your best self while having fun on virtual platforms. Participants will receive a reusable checklist to help improve their virtual set-up, performance and satisfaction in this new working world.

Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-camera-confidence-for-virtual-meetings-tickets-117832800077

On Camera Confidence for Virtual Meetings
Thursday, Aug. 6th  2 times available
1pm EST/12pm CST/11am MST/10am PST
6pm EST/5pm CST/4pm MST/3pm PST

Hosted By
Christine Gautreaux, MSW, Shannon Ivey, MFA, AEA

Avoid humiliation online, communicate clearly, and learn some pro-tips and tricks to show up as your best self while having fun virtually.

Join professional actor and performance coach Shannon Ivey, MFA, AEA and InterPlay Leader and career coach, Christine Gautreaux, MSW for an hour of pro tips and tricks to show up as your best self while having fun on virtual platforms. Participants will receive a reusable checklist to help improve their virtual set-up, performance and satisfaction in this new working world.

Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-camera-confidence-for-virtual-meetings-tickets-114170908260?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

Radical Self-Care Series **InterPlay –

ReImagine Life, Love & Loss Festival
Tuesdays, 11:30am EST/10:30am CST/9:30am MST/8:30am PST

Join us for an hour of playful body wisdom, exformation, and radical self-care tools & techniques taught by two dancing social workers. Learn the five skills of Self-Care – with a deeper dive into one each week through August 25th.  Join us for one class, several or all.

See all of the ReImagine Events & Register here:
https://letsreimagine.org/organizations/christine-gautreaux-msw

Spirit Play – InterPlay + Poetry

Friday, July 24th 10:30am EST/9:30am CST/8:30am MST/7:30am PST

Join Christine Gautreaux (subbing for Jennifer Denning this month) and Dharma poet, Debra Hiers for a morning of restorative connection and play. Come discover the well-being that can be found in creative, embodied online community! The InterPlay forms of movement, story, song and stillness create a space of openness and connection as a springboard for creating poetry. We claim these artforms as joyful expressions of being human that are available to everyone.

Register Here:
Email me at christinegautreauxmsw@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

Getting Unstuck- Harnessing the power of your InnerAlly – WorldWide ReImagine Festival

Wednesday, August 12th 4pm EST/3pm CST/2pm MST/1pm PST

Hosted By Christine Gautreaux, MSW & Dr. Cynthia Phelps, InnerAlly Inc.

Are you feeling stuck, frustrated, unable to get going on projects? In this interactive workshop, you will learn tools for the mind and body to help you get unstuck and move forward.

Register here:  https://letsreimagine.org/3780/getting-unstuck-harnessing-the-power-of-your-innerally

On Camera Confidence for Virtual Facilitation 
Wednesday,  Sept. 16th  
1pm EST/12pm CST/11am MST/10am PST

Avoid humiliation and painful group meetings with our pro-tips and best practices.

Leaders are being called to facilitate meetings online. This takes a different set of skills than in-person facilitation.

Register here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/117832398877

Join professional actor and performance coach Shannon Ivey, MFA, AEA and InterPlay Leader and career coach, Christine Gautreaux, MSW for an hour of pro tips and tricks to show up as your best self while having fun on virtual platforms. Participants will receive a reusable checklist to help improve their virtual set-up, performance and satisfaction in this new working world.

On Camera Confidence for Virtual Facilitation 
Thursday, Aug. 13th  2 times available
1pm EST/12pm CST/11am MST/10am PST
6pm EST/5pm CST/4pm MST/3pm PST

Avoid humiliation and painful group meetings with our pro-tips and best practices.

Leaders are being called to facilitate meetings online. This takes a different set of skills than in-person facilitation.

Register here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-camera-confidence-for-virtual-facilitation-tickets-114172761804?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

Join professional actor and performance coach Shannon Ivey, MFA, AEA and InterPlay Leader and career coach, Christine Gautreaux, MSW for an hour of pro tips and tricks to show up as your best self while having fun on virtual platforms. Participants will receive a reusable checklist to help improve their virtual set-up, performance and satisfaction in this new working world.

Anchoring During The Storm
August, 26th – 27th

Preventing Burnout:  The Helping Professionals Self-Care Playbook

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Office of Children, Young Adults, and Families and the Georgia Interagency Directors Team is excited about the opportunity to offer a new, online experience in 2020.

I’ll be presenting both days an hour of applied Interplay – email me for the registration link if you’re interested.

Radical Self-Care Concert & InterPlay –
Worldwide ReImagine Festival

Sunday, August 30th 3pm EST/2pm CST/1pm MST/12pm PST

Hosted By Christine Gautreaux, MSW & Karen Drucker

An hour of music, movement, storytelling and voice.   Join us for this lively, interactive workshop where we will practice radical self-care tools and techniques and bring joy to ourselves and others.

Register here:  https://letsreimagine.org/3780/radical-self-care-with-interplay-karen-drucker-1

Roots Week

I’ll be participating in Alternate Roots’ Week 2020 Virtual Event this year.  This is one of my favorite organizations where art and activism meet.  Check it out and join us if you can.

Friday, September 18-Sunday, October 4, 2020

     “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Artwork above:  The Urgency of Now by Karla Rosas and Fernando Lopez, created for ROOTS Week 2020, featuring C. Gypsi Lewis.

Registration is open soon.  More details can be found at www.alternateroots.org and you can register here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roots-week-annual-meeting-artists-retreat-tickets-116654505767?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-source=cp&utm-term=destsearch

The Secrets weekend is followed by the

Life Practice Program for Helping Professionals

Saturdays beginning
October 24, 2020
December 5, 2020
January 23, 2021
February 27, 2021
March 27, 2021
April 24, 2021
We will have two virtual sessions 11:30 am – 2:30 pm & 7-9:30 pm Eastern Time

You can sign up at the same time that you sign up for Secrets or wait until you take Secrets and then decide if you want to continue.

CEU’s are available for both programs

Register here:

Please contact the InterPlay main office at (510/465-2797) or info@interplay.org

It is so tempting to compare our grief with others, and discount it by saying “I’m fine, there are so many other people who are suffering, have it worse than me, or are even dying.” While this might true, your suffering is real, and your physiology responds to a threat (or perceived threat) in the same way. Difficult feelings arise, you feel the body sensations of stress. If left unattended, your grief and suffering can put you in a place of heightened anxiety where you can get stuck.

In this workshop you will learn how to recognize the emotions of grief and suffering, and how to bring compassion to yourself during this difficult time. We will be using a combination of exploration, meditation and movement to help you respect and own your grief and suffering, help you navigate through it, and move it out of your body. An InterPlay ® & InnerAlly® inspired event.

In these challenging times, as we take care of others, it’s particularly important to take especially good care of ourselves. Whether you are a professional or family caregiver, or both, it’s critical that, for you, social distancing doesn’t turn into social isolation.

How about some movement? Creative storytelling? Community play?

Join authors and dancing social workers Sheila K Collins, PhD and Christine Gautreaux, MSW as they share wisdom from their book Stillpoint: A Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease, Time to Breathe and Reclaim Joy. The duo use art-based tools from the system of InterPlay – an active, improvisational, creative approach to unlocking the wisdom of the body.

A social movement, InterPlay is dedicated to enabling ease and balance in human relationships across cultures and between people of different generations and backgrounds.

Event participants will learn the five skills of self-care, connect with one another through snippets of their own life stories, share creative wisdom and inspiration, and collaborate on behalf of who and what they love. Each session we will do a deeper dive into each one of the five skills – this session sorting and separating – what is ours and what is theirs.

You are welcome to join us.

Do you want to contribute to the community with more clarity and love as we address and heal from racism?

Do you seek more embodied practices, wisdom and support for support for yourself and as an ally to people of color?

If so, you are invited to join InterPlay leaders, Jennifer Denning and Christine Gautreaux, MSW for Waking Up White. We will explore and research our ability to play and stretch through discomfort by using InterPlay forms to tell our stories as we uncover ways to dance with the challenges of racism and privilege.

You will be able to both enter into the practice AND see how we use InterPlay to deal with our own socialized systemic racism.

This class is based on the book, Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debbie Irving.

Six Wednesday afternoons beginning in February

Six Wednesday afternoons beginning in February
Feb. 5th & 19th
March 4th & 18th
April 15th & 29th

1:30 – 3:00 P.M.

Waldorf School of Atlanta
827 Kirk Rd.
Decatur 30030

For questions and to register email atlantainterplay@gmail.com, christinegautreauxmsw@gmail.com
or Christine Gautreaux, 770-256-9191

$100 for the 6 week series – please schedule to attend all 6 classes for group cohesiveness and understanding

Christine is a member of and will be performing with the InterPlay Atlanta’s SoulPrint Players.

Join the Fulton County Remembrance Coalition to connect with the untold stories that have been preserved in the soil. Throughout April, FCRC and the community collected 35 jars of soil in commemoration of the 35 victims of racial terror lynching in Fulton County. Each jar is now displayed in an exhibit inspired by the Equal Justice Initiative at the Auburn Avenue Research Library.

Using movement, story-telling and song, Soulprint Players with guest performers from Trinity House, will explore the history of racial terror lynchings in Fulton County, how racial terror manifests today, and how to access hope and resilience together as we work for change.

The grand opening event starts at 2:30 p.m. and will include local art work, performances, and opportunities to engage and connect with the work of creating racial equity. Soulprint Players perform from 3:30-4:15 p.m.

For more information check out www.InterplayAtlanta.org

Christine will be co-facilitating:

InterPlay Atlanta invites you to celebrate 30 years of InterPlay with us! Join us for lunch and an offering from the SoulPrint Players. Find out what InterPlay has been up to locally, nationally and internationally! Meet some of our community collaborators and help us honor this year’s “Spirit of Interplay” Awardee Jennifer Denning, the founder of InterPlay Atlanta and director of SoulPrint Players.

We will gather at 12:00 p.m. for lunch and the program will start at 12:30 p.m.

In building on InterPlay’s commitment to 2019 marking the 400 years since Enslaved Africans from Angola were forcibly brought to the British colony of Virginia in August 1619, the multicultural feast will focus on African foods throughout the Diaspora. Vegan and Gluten Free options will be included.

For more information check out www.InterplayAtlanta.org

Christine will be speaking at the GA NASW annual state conference with the session:

The Art of Self-Care Finding and Living in the Still Point 

Caring for others is a hazardous occupation. Research in health care professions continually documents the symptoms of compassion fatigue, burnout, PTSD, depression, and other mental and physical health symptoms. These hazards impact the quality of care that social workers are able to provide and their health and longevity in their chosen fields. Using InterPlay, an interactive somatic body practice to help participants access their mind, body, and spirit, participants will be focusing on the issue of self-care and the actual skills of self-care.

It will be an interactive, fun session based on the book

Christine will be speaking at the Duluth Fine Arts League’s monthly meeting giving their Artist’s talk.

Join us at 6:30 for meet & greet

7:00pm meeting/program starts

Christine will be co-leading a session with her friend and colleague Glenda Taylor from Oneandallwisdom.com

They will be guiding participants through a workshop entitled Everyday Ceremonies & Rituals.

For Conference participants – find out more info here:

https://www.parliamentofreligions.org/

https://www.parliamentofreligions.org/parliament/2018-toronto-0

With Love, In Inclusion – The 7th Parliament of the World’s Religions

November 1, 2018, marked the opening of the seventh global convening of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto. More than 8300 people of faith and conscience gathered at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre with love for each other and in inclusive dialogue for a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.

Christine will be speaking on a panel entitled “Women As Survivors of Conflict” at the UN Commision on the Status of women.

She will be speaking about best practices when working with women survivors and building community using the InterPlay modality.

Learn how you can use the tools and ideas of the 30 year-old system known across the world as InterPlay! Experience your own creativity as it is sparked in a connecting, affirming community. This multi-day event will give you direct experience of many aspects of the InterPlay system, especially ways to unlock and trust the wisdom of your body.

Jennifer Denning, Christine Gautreaux, and Carolyn Renée leading.

This workshop/playshop is an important element of the InterPlay Life Practice Program being offered in Atlanta beginning in August.

This weekend
Starts at 7:00pm on Friday.

We will be meeting at a beautiful lakeside retreat home in AL.

Cost: $350 (included in Life Practice tuition); You can participate without doing Life Practice; nominal space rental fee will apply

CEs
15 CE credits for RNs, MSWs, LPCs, MFTs are available upon request if registered two weeks before event.

Registration/Information: Contact Body Wisdom’s office at 510/465-2797, local contact, Jennifer Denning at 404/272-0848 or atlantainterplay@gmail.com

Learn how you can use the tools and ideas of the 30 year-old system known across the world as InterPlay! Experience your own creativity as it is sparked in a connecting, affirming community. This multi-day event will give you direct experience of many aspects of the InterPlay system, especially ways to unlock and trust the wisdom of your body.

Jennifer Denning and Christine Gautreaux leading with Carolyn Renée and Ruth Schowalter assisting.

This workshop/playshop is an important element of the InterPlay Life Practice Program being offered beginning in October in Atlanta.
Friday, September 28th – Sunday, September 30th.
Starts at 7:00pm

We will be meeting at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

Cost: $350 (included in Life Practice tuition); You can participate without doing Life Practice; nominal space rental fee will apply

CEs
15 CE credits for RNs, MSWs, LPCs, MFTs are available upon request if registered two weeks before event.

Join us on Saturday, July 14th at 11:30am for a
FREE information session to learn about the upcoming Life Practice Program led by Jennifer Denning & Christine Gautreaux MSW,
assisted by Carolyn Renee

Registration/Information: Contact Body Wisdom’s office at 510/465-2797, local contact, Jennifer Denning at 404/272-0848 or atlantainterplay@gmail.com

Join authors and dancing social workers
Christine Gautreaux and Sheila K. Collins

at Fort Works Art Gallery

2100 Montgomery Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76107

Thursday, October 11th
6:00 – 7:30pm

as they celebrate and perform excerpts
from their recently released Amazon best-selling book,

Stillpoint: A Self-Care Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease, Time to Breathe, and Reclaim Joy. 

Joined by local improv artists they are honored to be sharing space with the images of Reisha Perlmutter whose works are charged with the role femininity plays in our society and the undercurrents that exist within this content and conversation.

Using stories, poems, music and movement, the Stillpoint program addresses the need for self-care, and the power of art to help the 45 million people, most of them women, who care for others in our society.

The $25 event fee includes a signed copy of the book, refreshments and the interactive performance in the presence of the art.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Gallery of Dreams.

Get tickets at Eventbrite:

www.eventbrite.com/artofselfcarefortworthtx

For more information about Stillpoint check out www.stillpointselfcareplaybook.com

Join authors and dancing social workers
Christine Gautreaux and Sheila K. Collins as they celebrate and perform excerpts from their recently released Amazon best-selling book, Stillpoint: A Self-Care Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease, Time to Breathe, and Reclaim Joy. They are delighted to be sharing space with the images of the artist, Nancy Lemberger. Using stories, poems, music and movement, the Stillpoint program addresses the need for self-care, and the power of art to help the 45 million people, most of them women, who care for others in our society.

The $25 event fee includes a signed copy of the book, refreshments and the interactive performance in the presence of the art.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Make-A-Wish Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana.

Get tickets at Eventbrite:

https://stillpointperformancenacogdoches.eventbrite.com

For more information about Stillpoint check out www.stillpointselfcareplaybook.com

Join authors and dancing social workers

Christine Gautreaux and Sheila K. Collins as they celebrate and perform excerpts from their recently released Amazon best-selling book, Stillpoint: A Self-Care Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease, Time to Breathe, and Reclaim Joy.  Using stories, poems, music and movement, the Stillpoint program addresses the need for self-care, and the power of art to help the 45 million people, most of them women, who care for others in our society.

A portion of the proceeds supports Northwood’s SEE Justice Committee & Minister’s Discretion Fund

Get tickets at Eventbrite:

https://stillpointperformancethewoodlands.eventbrite.com

For more information about Stillpoint check out www.stillpointselfcareplaybook.com

I’ll be Speaking at The 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions with my friend and mentor Glenda Taylor (Fellowship of Comparative Religions/ oneandallwisdom.com). For its 2018 theme, the Parliament draws from movements of goodwill and cross-cultural respect that are embodied in the spirit of the interfaith movement:

The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love:
Pursuing Global Understanding, Reconciliation, and Change

Canada – in its distinction as home of the world’s most diverse city, will showcase its unique values, achievements, and aspirations as the 7th host of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Our Session is:

Creating Meaningful Personal Rituals, Ceremonies, and Rites of Passage
Sunday November 4 2018
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Room 104C

Are you passionate about your community and collective well-being? Are you feeling overwhelmed and confused by these rapidly changing times? Do you wish you could connect with others and find creative ways to express all you are feeling, thinking and noticing?

Then come join us for a week of connection, play and creation with Interplay. This week-long program for people of all ages and diversities who are community activists, artists, practitioners, healers, social justice-lovin’, creative souls and beyond. We will co-create space together for our stories and collective wisdom to be shared. Through the philosophy and practice of Interplay, we will tap into our birthrights of movement, sound, song, story, dance and stillness – connecting to the wisdom of the body and what it has to tell us about navigating these challenging times with grace, ease, love and creativity. 

Immerse yourself in the magic of  “Being River.” Let us: 
Activate hope
Strengthen resilience
Create shared stories of real and mythic times
Experience the solidarity of being children of the earth and river.

Join in an expressive arts weekend of playful, sacred reconnection to the hearts & souls of each other and the Earth.
The River is calling You.

Sharing the earth wisdom and ancestral gifts arising in and through you, we will move, sing, tell stories and poems under the oaks and redwoods in beautiful Mendocino County, Northern CA.

I’ll be Speaking at The Summit, I hope you can make it to this fabulous event. The Summit is a Women’s Hiking and Backpacking Conference designed to bring experienced outdoors women, novices, and armchair dreamers together to celebrate the trails and our place on them. This year, The Summit will take place at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, on July 13-15, 2018.