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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The Line

​You know it’s over when they let you enter without first scrubbing your hands. This ends one of two ways. Only one means coming home with the one you love. Safety precautions are no easier in intensive care, just clearer. The ventilator, translucent skin, the unsteady beat of the monitors–all

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What I Wish People Understood About Risk and Contamination

The response to COVID-19 is unlike anything I’ve witnessed in my forty years on this planet. Seeing so many events and yes, even whole sporting seasons being suspended, has me wondering if I’m living in some kind of twilight zone. Or in one of the apocalyptic movies that I love

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Just Notice…

They’re doing it for the attention. It’s a refrain uttered everywhere, as people attempt to explain why troubled adults, adolescents, and children behave the way they do. Overused and indiscriminately applied, doing it for the attention has bothered me since I was a trainee in child psychology. Surely, humans do

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That Trash Week I Almost Died Like Three Times

​In the last two weeks I have suffered three injuries. None of them so terrible that I required major medical intervention, but bad enough to leave me generally pretty bruised and crappy feeling. It was on the heels of some bruised ribs and a fall down the stairs that my

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I Am All The Jedi… What Do You Do?

There’s a running joke in my family: “Jamie, what do you do?” My brother first asked it when I moved back from Europe and worked several part time jobs during graduate school. I gigged in coffeehouses for tips, taught a little guitar, picked up some writing and research work, served

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A Prayer for the Foolish Hearts: One Word 2020

For as long as I can remember, people have labeled me the “smart” kid. Being smart was my identity that earned me a curious combination of respect and bullying from my peers in elementary school. My teachers would marvel, calling me a “walking Encyclopedia,” yet never quite knowing how to

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Merry Christmas, Jason

Dear Jason: I am having a very difficult time getting into the fullness of Christmas spirit this year, still very sad that this will be your first Christmas without us. I’m sitting on the couch right now, smiling so widely as I think about hanging out here on Christmas night

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Dr. Jamie Marich leading a session during an Expressive Arts Therapy training

Let’s Change the Way We Talk: An Open Letter to My Sisters

Speaking truth to power is not easy. I recently spoke out from the depths of my soul to a male public figure whose teaching style is—in my professional viewpoint—far from trauma-informed. I’ve listened to this teacher for quite some time as there has been enough good stuff to keep me

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