Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Dance/Movement Therapy

As a dance/movement therapist, consultant, Certified Movement Analyst, and educator, Dr. Beardall's work has focused on dance, dance therapy and cognitive, social/emotional and relational development using dance/movement and the expressive arts in the public schools with students K-12 of all populations. 

Dr. Beardall has developed numerous curricula for middle and high school students promoting wellness, decision-making skills, healthy relationships and making a difference in the school community. Her community building programs through the arts have involved students, parents and community members. 

Dr. Beardall’s research studies have spanned a range of topics from the influence of creative dance on self-esteem in early adolescence to the effectiveness of bullying prevention and mentoring programs through the arts promoting gender respect and the prevention of sexual harassment and dating abuse. Her school-based programs have received federal, state and local grants.
 

Nancy's areas of expertise and academic focus include: expressive arts therapy and dance movement therapy theory, application, and supervision with populations across the lifespan. At Lesley she teaches, expressive arts therapy studio, arts-based research and performance in expressive therapies, art therapy and expressive therapies internship and seminar I & II, principles of expressive arts therapy arts, healing and community in South Africa, and theories and practice of dance movement therapy.

Nancy holds a BA from the College of Brockport, SUNY; a MEd from Lesley University. She is a current PhD candidate at Lesley University. Nancy is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and a Board Certified Dance Movement Therapist.

Vivien Marcow Speiser has directed and taught in programs across the United States and internationally and has used the arts as a way of communicating across borders and across cultures. She believes in the power of the arts to create the conditions for personal and social change and transformation. Her interests and expertise lie in the areas of working with trauma and cross-cultural conflict resolution through the arts and she has worked extensively with groups in the Middle East and in South Africa. In addition, she is an expert in the creation and performance of rites of passage rituals and in the use of dance and performance in expressive therapy practice.  She is the winner of the 2014 Distinguished Fellows Award from the Global Alliance for Arts and Health, and the 2015 Honorary Fellow Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli Expressive and Creative Arts Therapy Association.

Vivien holds a Ph.D. from Union Institute, and M.Ed. from Lesley University, and a B.A. from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.  She is a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT), a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), National Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT).