Rachel Brammer-Shlay
LCAT, BC-DMT
Rachel Brammer-Shlay is a Brooklyn based Licensed Creative Arts Therapist and Board-Certified Dance Movement Therapist working in child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric care. She is passionate about the role of the creative arts, mindfulness, meditative, and humor-based practices in supporting youth develop adaptive coping strategies during periods of psychiatric crisis and beyond. Rachel uses a relational approach in their therapeutic, supervising, and teaching style and believes that even the briefest encounters can have an impact on the intrapersonal and interpersonal development of everyone involved. In her personal life, Rachel enjoys spending quality time with loved ones, walking as transportation, and anything that makes them laugh.
Eve Chalom
MA, BC-DMT
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.
Selena Coburn
BC-DMT, LMHC, LCPC
Selena Coburn BC-DMT, LMHC, LCPC is a mental health and dance/movement therapist in Great Falls, Montana. She is a descendant of the Blackfeet, Klamath, and Pitt River tribes. She earned her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase College in Purchase, NY. Selena's dance/movement therapy training includes the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, NY, and Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a board-certified dance/movement therapist, she believes in the importance of decolonizing dance as therapy and culturally inclusive processing as the primary therapeutic principle. Selena has worked with adolescents in the residential treatment center and school setting and experienced the power of incorporating cultural healing elements in helping adolescents navigate social, emotional, physical, and relational developmental changes. Coburn has presented on Blackfeet cultural dances, Native American perspectives, and participated in panel discussions locally, regionally, and internationally. Selena founded the Native American Affinity Group as part of the Multicultural Diversity Committee of the ADTA and received the Leader of Tomorrow Award in 2020. She has previously served on the Texas Chapter board and as the ADTA Standards and Ethics Chair. Selena is a full-time faculty for Social Sciences at Great Falls College Montana State University and an adjunct professor at Lesley University.
Ashley Fargnoli
MA, BC-DMT, LCPC, LPCC
Ashley Fargnoli, MA, BC-DMT, LCPC, LPCC is a dance/movement therapist and psychotherapist specialized in working in conflict affected countries and with populations who have undergone severe trauma. She has worked alongside refugees, immigrants, survivors of intimate partner violence, survivors of human trafficking, LGBTQ+ communities and people with OCD. Ashley is also trained in Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD. She has presented her work internationally in India, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland as well as nationally at the National Refugee and Immigrant conference, the American Dance Therapy Association, the Expressive Arts Therapy Conference, among numerous others. Ashley is an alumna of the Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling program at Columbia College, Chicago, holds a MA in Cultural Project Management from the Institute of Political Studies (France) and a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University. Ashley was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka from October 2019-March 2020.
Susan Imus
LCPC, BC-DMT, GL-CMA
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.
Kristina Fluty
MA, GL-CMA, R-MPA
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.
Kristen Menona
LPC, CEDS, BC-DMT, RYT,
GL-CMA
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.
Ebony Nichols
MA, LCAT, BC-DMT
Ebony is a somatic mental health and wellness practitioner, Board Certified Dance/Movement Psychotherapist, Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, licensed cosmetologist, and entrepreneur. She completed her BA at The College of New Rochelle in psychology and a Master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in Dance/Movement Therapy. She was awarded the presidential scholarship to attend Lesley University's Doctorate program in Counseling and Psychology: Transformative Leadership, Education and Applied Research, where she plans to continue her research and work rooted in cultural/race identity, trauma-informed healing care, centering Black Aesthetics of the African Diaspora through cultural movement narratives, non-verbal communication, and somatic-based healing practices. Ebony joined EEIC as a guest lecturer in 2022. https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-ebony-t-nichols-lcat-bc-dmt-entrepreneur-somatic-mental-health-wellness-practioner/
Melissa Schleicher
LCPC, BC-DMT, CFRC, iRest® Level 2 Teacher
Melissa Schleicher-Park, 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”.
Melissa Walker
MA, R-DMT, LPC, CST
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.
Jessica Young
MA, LCPC, BC-DMT, GL-CMA
Jessica Young, MA, BC-DMT, LCPC, GL-CMA, Associate Professor Columbia College Chicago Dance Center. Recipient of the 2020 American Dance Therapy Association Excellence in Education Award and President’s Award. The arc of her 20-year career includes serving those who are homeless with severe and chronic mental illness, educating graduate students in dance/movement therapy (DMT), and teaching undergraduates how to tend to their own and others’ joyfulness and well-being. She has facilitated over 30 peer reviewed national and international conference presentations in DMT and counseling and regularly publishes on DMT. She maintains a private practice at New Prairie Counseling Center and provides clinical supervision. Jessica joined EEIC guest faculty in 2022.