Arts and Healing Resiliency Center

05/29/2023

Memorial Day 2016 Dr. Diane Kaufman, the founder of the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center, was busy watching a series of arts & healing training workshops for mental health clinicians as the content was about to disappear. In one of these, the presenter suggested we write a "poetic progress note." The stored memories of her body, mind, and spirit immediately transported her back to November 7, 2014, the day before her teenage patient took her own life. The poem led to the creation of the dramatized "What Makes Us" video which was later renamed "13 Reasons Why Not." Looking back now, all of this foreshadowed what was to become the launch of the 2023 Hold On Su***de Prevention Outreach Campaign. https://youtu.be/byxG8c793t8 ***deprevention

Teen Girl Su***de Reaches 40 Year High (CDC 8/3/17). "What Makes Us" is based on actual events and was written by a child psychiatrist-poet who is herself a ...

05/14/2023

"Marble Me Free" wins Best Film on Women and Best Original Score for Short Films at the Goldcrest International Film Festival in India. Congratulations to Starlit Swan whose poem "The Marble Block" inspired the film and is the voice artist, Lucia P. Martinez Rojas animator, and Jean-Marc Yee composer, and Diane Kaufman, MD (founder-director of the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center) as producer/director. See www.marblemefree.com for details on the film and many mental health resources.

05/02/2023

Please join our Arts & Healing Resiliency Center's "Wings of Resilience" Team in support of NAMIWalks! Just click on the link below to see our most beautiful donation page. Please show you care by joining our team and making a donation in any amount. Together we can help save lives. Thank you everyone. https://www.namiwalks.org/team/58087. The NAMIWalks Northwest event in Portland is Sunday May 21st at Peninsula Park, 700 N. Rosa Parks Way, Portland. Onsite registration is at 11:00 AM and the walk begins at 1:00 PM. Diane Kaufman, MD (founder-director of the Arts and Healing Resiliency Center will be there displaying the “Just Like This Tree” banner which was created in memory of her friend and mental health colleague nurse practitioner Stacy Hartline who tragically died by su***de in 2019. Dr. Kaufman wrote the text, envisioned the artwork design, and Amanda Meador rendered it visually.

05/01/2023

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the launch of the "Hold On" Su***de Prevention Outreach Campaign. Please read and share with others. Here's the link to contribute to the campaign, to hear the poem, songs, and to view all the arts & healing resources:
https://linktr.ee/holdoncampaign (when you share include the link in your the post). Thank you singer-songwriters Shan Carballo, Briana Webber, Tim Stuart, Corenia Yoder, Mia Stegner, and composer Raymiah Jackson. Thank you videographer/animator Lucia P. Martinez Rojas. ***deprevention2023

04/30/2023

Today Sunday April 30th at 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (PST). "Marble Me Free: Poetry, Arts, & Healing” free online Arts & Healing Resiliency Center special event. “Marble Me Free” is an internationally award-winning animated film inspired by Starlit Swan’s poem, “The Marble Block.” Starlit, who has CRPS (Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome), videographer/animator Lucia Martinez Rojas, and producer/director Diane Kaufman, MD, who is also the founder of the AHRC, will share how serendipity, synchronicity, and the creative process brought them together. John Fox, acclaimed poetic medicine practitioner and founder of The Institute for Poetic Medicine, is an invited guest as are also Zen Writers from APPAMADA in Austin, Texas. The “Marble Me Free" film will be shown and participants will respond in writing and art making. We will celebrate the launch of Starlit’s two books, The Marble Block & The Poems It Inspired and Anything is Possible. Please see www.marblemefree.com for more information on the "Marble Me Free" project, biographies of Starlit, Lucia, and Diane, and to review its comprehensive mental health and healing resources. Register here on evenbrite for the free workshop: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/marble-me-free-poetry-arts-healing-tickets-615768148107

How do we cope when life blocks our way? How do we go on living when feeling crushed by reality? "Marble Me Free" inspires hope and healing.

04/29/2023

"Marble Me Free" was awarded Honorable Mention at Global Shorts (Los Angeles, CA) in the category of Best Animated Short. "Marble Me Free" powerfully depicts the "dark night of the soul" journey of physical and emotional pain. Based on "The Marble Block" poem by Starlit Swan who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, animated by Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, music and sound design by Jean-Marc Yee, I was director and producer. For details on the inspired range and depth of this mental health & healing film and project, please see www.marblemefree.com.

04/27/2023

Wonderful News! "Marble Me Free" is a Finalist at Global Shorts (Los Angeles, CA) in the category of Best Animated Short. This is from their website: "If you receive a Finalist Notification, your film is guaranteed to place in the competition, if not for your submitted category(s) then for an Award of Excellence, Merit, Honorable Mention or Special Mention placement." "Marble Me Free" powerfully depicts the "dark night of the soul" journey of physical and emotional pain. Based on "The Marble Block" poem by Starlit Swan who has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, animated by Lucia P. Martinez Rojas, music and sound design by Jean-Marc Yee, and Diane Kaufman, MD as director and producer. For details on the inspired range and depth of this mental health & healing film and project, please see

04/24/2023

Four children enjoying the magic of the "Bird That Wants to Fly" musical puppet performance. Thank you puppeteer, singer, and RACC grant recipient, Kris Bluett, and Steve Overton, founder of Portland Puppet Museum. Bird and Horse are so very happy!

04/23/2023

Thank you so very much to Steve Overton (founder of Portland Puppet Museum) for creating this most beautiful quilt covering for "Beautiful Animal that I Am," who is the magical horse in the musical puppet show, "Bird That Wants to Fly." The art from the heart imagery is based on Olya Kalatsei's illustrations in the book. Horse and Bird are very grateful to you, Steve.

04/23/2023

Thank you, Steve Overton & Portland Puppet Museum, for giving a home to "Bird That Wants to Fly" to delight children and adults.

04/23/2023

Here's the poster presented by the Arts & Healing Resiliency Center at the Oregon Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Annual Conference held on April 22nd. On display were su***de prevention art cards, free "everyday is su***de prevention day" pins, information on the launch of the "Hold On" Su***de Prevention Outreach Campaign, and Dr. Kaufman's books, "15 Poems to Healing & Recovery," "Missing Mommy," Three Objects Spoke to Me" and its companion coloring book, and "Bird That Wants to Fly."

04/23/2023

You are cordially invited to join the Board of Directors
of The Institute for Poetic Medicine for a Free Online Event.

An Act of Human Magic
A Poetry Reading via Zoom
at the close of National Poetry Month
Tuesday, April 25
4 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Central, 7 p.m. Eastern

This is a Free Online Event
Join here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89372828425

Learn more about the books described in the bio section of the flyer below:

Geoff Oelsner’s book, Attunements:
https://www.poeticmedicine.org/post/attunements-for-the-earth

Chuck Joy’s book of poems, Vinyl:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1088071805?ref_=cm_sw_r_mwn_dp_NQPQQN1VAEMJP0C5TR0D

As part of a donation to IPM, we offer John Fox’s poetry chapbook, The Only Gift to Bring:
https://www.poeticmedicine.org/give