The ICM Blog
Redefine Therapy

Our work and our mission is to redefine therapy and our conversations are about the art and practice of healing. This blog was launched in May 2018 by Dr. Jamie Marich, affiliates, and friends.

  Originally published on the Dancing Mindfulness Expressive Arts Therapy Blog, 5/4/2017 If you’ve followed Dancing Mindfulness and other projects connected to my Institute for Creative Mindfulness work, you’ve likely encountered the hashtag #redefinetherapy. What started as a book chapter and a hashtag is quickly turning into a movement that you

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Am I In A Therapy Cult?

Lately, more therapists in my circles who are critical of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) approach to therapy are calling the culture around this method, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, a cult, or at very least describing it as cultish. As someone who dislikes most aspects of the approach myself,

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Contributions from the Writer’s Retreat (March 2023)

Intention by Julie H. Richards My intention: I can be open to what wants to be expressed through me.  Open receptivity To be willing To be present To create To express To go slow To savor To linger To bring more of myself to the world, to my family, to me

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Intimacy and Disability 

Disability is defined in several different ways. Depending on which definition you align with, whether you are disabled or not, and how your disability impacts you, can all shape your perception. In reality, disability is a spectrum, even within the context of a specific form of disability. Things look very

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To My Fellow Plural Therapists—We See You and Honor You

“In her interview for this project [Dissociation Made Simple], I asked her [my therapist Elizabeth Davis] if she had any concerns about me coming out with my diagnosis, or if any concerns have surfaced for her since. She honestly answered no, but then turned the question around on me to

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Community Contributions from Life: The Path of Meditation

Dr. Jamie Marich and Irene Rodriguez facilitated eighteen clinicians through our annual Life: The Path of Meditation expressive arts online retreat on January 8, 2023. We are grateful that several of our participants chose to share their poems and other expressions with us to share with you here on our

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The Dissociation Made Simple Playlist

The process of making playlists is a great joy for me and an important aspect of living life in expressive arts process. These songs emerged, in one way or another, as meaningful to me during the flow of writing and editing Dissociation Made Simple. Their collection may not make a

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Understanding Dissociation: A Journey of Discovering Us

What is dissociation? Apparently, it’s when you have the urge to say something, have a thought, or experience a feeling followed by the overwhelming sense that you don’t dare say, think, feel it, or otherwise show the external world because there will be TROUBLE! Or is it? In early summer

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Getting Through The Holidays

The holidays are a time of enhanced emotional experiences for most people. The lights, anticipation of family togetherness, music, and nostalgia can create feelings of happiness and excitement for some. For trauma survivors, the holidays often bring emotions of sadness, loneliness, and pain. For family trauma survivors, the holidays are

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Pal, This is Not a Holy War

As I slowly moved down another painful declining portion on my second day walking the Camino de Santiago, my already injured knee rolled in and loudly popped. Intuitively, I knew that I was done for the day on these legs that already walked 12 miles plus 14 ½ the day

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