About Us

Eve Chalom came to dance movement therapy from the worlds of competitive figure skating, figure skating performing, and modern dance performing.  Once she found out that movement could be so much more than just aesthetic or acrobatic, there was no turning back.  After undergraduate degrees in English and Philosophy from the University of Michigan, she received her M.S. in Dance Movement Therapy from Pratt Institute.  Since then, she also became a certified brain injury specialist, a registered yoga teacher, a master rated figure skating coach, and received her board certification as a dance movement therapist.  She has worked in outpatient addiction programs, inpatient detox, inpatient psych, and at a day program for adults with chronic mental illness, and has volunteered as a dance movement therapist with children and senior citizens.  She currently has a private practice and sees clients both in person and over telehealth.  She also works with several clients on the ice, using skating as therapy.  She has taught creative movement, figure skating, yoga, meditation, and psychoeducation about emotions, trauma resolution, the nervous system, and cognitive and dialectical strategies. She uses mindfulness and meditation techniques both as a part of her work and for self care, as well as yoga, qigong, and improvisation.  For more information about her private practice, please see www.healingthroughmovement.squarespace.com.

Bria Campbell, a proud Chicago native, is an alumna of the illustrious North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Columbia College Chicago. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (R-DMT) with over seven years of experience in school-based mental health, private practice, and crisis work with adults in Atlanta, Georgia.

Within the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA), Bria has made a significant impact. She published an article in the American Dance Therapy Journal (ADTJ) and has received multiple honors, including the 2020 Marian Chace Journalism Award and recognition as a 2021 Leader of Tomorrow. She also co-founded and co-led Black MAGIC, the ADTA’s Black affinity group, which has since grown into the Black MAGIC Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Bria has held several leadership roles within ADTA, serving as Vice President and President of the Southern Chapter (2021–2024), and as the first African American Central Region Member-at-Large on the ADTA Board of Directors (2021–2023).

She is the founder and CEO of S.P.E.A.K. (Supporting People Emotionally and Kinesthetically) LLC, a platform through which she provides individual, family, and couples counseling, while also training educators in trauma-informed, social-emotional practices for schools.

Currently, Bria is pursuing a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership at Adler University, further deepening her commitment to empowering communities through leadership, education, and holistic mental health.

Melissa Schleicher, LCPC, BC-DMT, CFRC, iRest® Level 2 Teacher, is owner of Metta Counseling Chicago, LLC. Since graduating from Columbia College Chicago in 2011, she has worked in community mental health centers throughout Chicago providing counsel, education in trauma-informed care and support in recovery from the effects of chronic and severe mental illness.

In 2021, Melissa joined a group of wellness professionals at Chicago’s Swedish Hospital to develop a wellness program devoted to providing mental health support, wellness education and workplace stress management for healthcare professionals hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through generous support from the Swedish Hospital Foundation, Melissa has become a facilitator of Mental Health First Aid, is trained in Critical Incident Response through ICISF and in 2022 completed certification as a Certified First Responder Counselor (CFRC). She is passionate about educating anyone who will talk to her about the role mental health plays in every person’s wellbeing, quality of life and ability to form meaningful connections throughout this wild ride we call “life”.

Jessica holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Iowa and an MA in Dance/Movement Therapy from Columbia College Chicago. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), a Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT), and a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (GL-CMA), with additional training in Harm Reduction, Motivational Interviewing, and Trauma-Informed Care. Jessica is an Associate Professor Emerita in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling at Columbia College Chicago, where she taught for 18 years.

Over her 25-year career, Jessica’s work has spanned clinical practice, education, and leadership. She has served adults experiencing homelessness and living with severe and chronic mental illness, educated graduate students in DMT, and taught undergraduates how to cultivate joyfulness and well-being for themselves and others. She also taught in the Arts in Health and Dance programs.

Jessica served on the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) Board of Directors for eight years, chairing both the Committee on Approval and the Education Committee. She received the 2020 ADTA Excellence in Education Award and the ADTA President’s Award.

She presents nationally and internationally and has published on topics including the therapeutic movement relationship, strengths-based approaches in DMT, intersections of DMT and drama therapy, and DMT theory and education. Jessica currently practices at New Prairie Counseling Center, offers clinical supervision, and has been a guest faculty member with EEIC since 2022.

Kristina Fluty, MA, GL-CMA, R-MPA, Associate Professor at The Theatre School at DePaul University (Head of Movement, Co-Head of Graduate Acting). Kristina has called Chicago dance company Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak her artistic home since 2003. She is one of the inaugural certified teachers of Shanahan’s Spiral Body Techniques® and works with Shanahan to develop the framework and disseminate the teachings. The Feldenkrais Method® and Contact Improvisation (more than 25 years of personal practice) are also largely influential in her creative work and pedagogy.

Susan Imus is a professor emerita from Columbia College Chicago where she served as chair of the Department of Creative Arts Therapy for 18 years. She developed 6 programs during her tenure including a MA program in Dance Movement Therapy & Counseling, the Graduate Laban certificate in Movement and the Arts in Health minor. Her clinical expertise is in psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine, prevention and wellness spanning 40 plus years. Imus is published in numerous publications and is currently on the Advisory Board for Healing Arts Chicago and is the primary investigator in a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant called Dance for Health in partnership with the Department of Family and Support Services and RUSH University Medical College. Imus has been a visiting scholar in South Korea, Singapore, Kenya, Australia, Denmark, and the Netherlands. She will be spending next year teaching in Heidelberg.

Melissa is a licensed Somatic Psychotherapist and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist who specializes in sex and relationship therapy for couples and individuals. A graduate of Naropa University in 2009, Melissa weaves together her Masters level training with additional training in Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy for Couples (PET-C), Sex Therapy, Psychodrama, and Authentic Movement. She is also certified in Somatic Archaeology and is a SomaSource LifeCycle Practitioner. Melissa is former adjunct faculty at Naropa University where she taught Counseling Ethics & Professional Orientation for 4 years.

Through study and work, Melissa has crafted the Somatic-Concentric Sex Therapy (S-CST) model for working with clients. S-CST is a confluence of somatic, dance/movement therapy, contemplative, social-justice, and sexology theories. This model harnesses the client’s actualizing tendency, a tendency towards growth and complexity, toward a fully embodied experience and expression of the sexual self. This model includes the practice of Erotic Bodyfulness, full-body arousal anatomy with a whole-person approach to the human sexual response, and embodied expressivity toward one’s personal erotic potential and healthy relational sexuality.

Her book, Whole-Body Sex: Somatic Sex Therapy and the Lost Language of the Erotic Body was published in January 2021. Whole-Body Sex supports the somatic dismantling of the shame and performance-centric model of sexuality to craft a personally meaningful and sexuality-affirming embodiment of self.

Kristen Mennona is the owner of Nurture Family Counseling LLC, a counseling practice designed to treat pediatric eating disorders, OCD and anxiety within the context of the family. In 2022, Kristen was a contributing writer for a book on pediatric anxiety with Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. She presented at the 2022 International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals on the intersection of body image distress the use of expressive arts. She also hosts an Instagram account called, “The_Body_As” to inspire more people to work on their body image acceptance and to pass that acceptance on to the next generation. She has presented nationally on the topics of self-acceptance, eating disorders/body image distress and reconnecting to the body. Kristen is a licensed professional counselor, a board-certified dance/movement therapist, a certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS), a registered yoga instructor (RYT 200) and a BTTI trained clinician for pediatric OCD. Kristen combines best clinical practices with ancient, embodied experiences for her clients. She believes in the inherent wisdom of the body to bring forth that which needs healing.

Alexa Palmer was born and raised in New Jersey/New York and is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist and Board-Certified Dance/Movement Therapist currently working at Health & Hospitals: North Central Bronx Hospital’s Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP). She graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2014 and completed her Graduate Laban Certified Movement Analyst certification in 2015, when she first started working with inpatient psychiatric patients. In 2017 she was hired by New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital to co-create their inpatient creative arts therapy program. Over her decade-long career, she has presented several psychiatry grand rounds and psychology didactics on dance/movement therapy and psychiatry. She enjoys supporting new students and new clinicians entering into the field. She is a supervisor to first- and second-year Dance/Movement Therapy students as well as supervises those seeking board certification in dance/movement therapy within her newly opened private practice. Alexa is a passionate writer both personally and professionally. Alexa has been published in the American Journal of Dance Therapy (AJDT) for which she received the Journalism Award awarded by Marian Chace Foundation (2015). She also authored a chapter in the book entitled “Creative Arts Therapy Careers: Succeeding as a Creative Professional” (2022). She has served as Secretary and President of the New York State Chapter (NYSADTA) of the national American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA). In 2021, Alexa became a teaching assistant at Embodied Education Institute of Chicago (EEIC) where she has assisted in teaching over 5 courses. In 2022, she became a marketing assistant for EEIC.

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Dr. Amber Elizabeth L. Gray is a Dance/Movement Therapist, Somatic & Human Rights Psychotherapist, and long-time yoga and Continuum teacher. She works with survivors of war, torture, human rights abuses and historical trauma and oppression, in the US and in active and post conflict zones, refugee camps, and disasters.

Equally activist, artist, advocate, author, mystic and therapist, her clinical, healing, educational and organizational work endeavors to promote reciprocity and empowerment and incite meaningful change. She brings her Polyvagal, Heart & Spirit-informed Right-to-Embody somatic human rights framework and Body of Change eco-somatic regenerative retreats to communities of therapists, artists, global citizens and change makers world-wide. Amber co-originated Polyvagal-informed Somatic & Dance/Movement Therapy through 26 years of immersive mentoring and exploration of Polyvagal Theory. This work is a survivor-centered, multi-cultural & social justice framework that reflects many years of co-inquiry with her clients to understand how Polyvagal Theory promotes restoration and healing for survivors of egregious human rights violations. She has been teaching this work globally since 2003 and is the inaugural member of The Polyvagal Institute’s Editorial Board.