Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Dance/Movement Therapy

As a dance/movement therapist, consultant, Certified Movement Analyst, and educator, Dr. Nancy Beardall's work focuses 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. 

Nancy 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. 

Nancy'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.
 

Valerie Blanc PhD, LMHC, BC-DMT, CMA has been a part of the Lesley dance/movement therapy specialization faculty since 2011 and as a core faculty since 2018. She is currently the Coordinator of the Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) specialization working with a vibrant team of innovative educators. She teaches in both the on campus and hybrid low-residency distance learning programs and was a part of the design team to create the low-residency curriculum. Her teaching work includes the DMT Theories courses, Clinical Applications and Supervision, and the span of Body Movement Observation courses. She has been an integral part of curricular redesign in these courses, with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion within the dance/movement therapy pedagogy both at Lesley and nationally.  

Currently, Valerie is a dance/movement therapist in private practice specializing in work with young children and their families as well as and clinical supervision. Her clinical experience has centered around work with children with a focus on work with attachment patterns and sensory integration work- especially with the deaf population. She has extensive experience in inpatient psychiatric work with children and adolescents as well as community mental health support. She worked for 13 years with the Boston Children’s Foundation implementing the Rainbowdance and CBI programs in acute trauma response and resiliency building utilizing the expressive therapies. She acted as a lead trainer in the Rainbowdance and CBI programs, traveling to Taiwan, Mississippi, and New Jersey in response to acute natural disasters in these areas.  

Valerie’s research interests center around the pedagogical practices of dance/movement therapy and building pedagogical theory in the field. Her recent research studies have explored the dance/movement therapy hybrid low-residency student’s sense of embodied presence in their core courses as well as pedagogical practices of dance/movement therapy educators in ADTA approved programs. She was also part of the planning committee for the 2020 international Pathways to Practice: Conversations in Arts Therapies Education conference, as well as co-leading ongoing departmental workshops exploring pedagogical themes in the expressive therapies at Lesley. In collaboration with music therapy colleague she has also explored a critical perspective of the histories of dance/movement therapy and music therapy through a duo-ethnographic and arts based lens.  

With national and local leadership in professional organizations, she has acted on the American Dance Therapy Association’s Committee on Approval, collaborating with educators across the United States to assure educational standards for DMT education. She is also an active member of the ADTA Education Committee where she currently asks on several task forces addressing educational standards revision, critical examination of movement observation lenses in DMT, and revision of the application process for board certification in the field.  

Valerie grew up in Massachusetts where she now lives with her husband, two children, and pug. She is active in the arts community in Cambridge and dances with the Guardians of Isadora dance group who perform the repertoire of Isadora Duncan.   

Stefanie D. Belnavis, BC-DMT, LMHC (she/her) is a differently abled Jamaican-American visual storyteller, kinesthetic creative, photographer + therapist based in Boston, Massachusetts. She wears many hats as a Board-Certified Dance Movement Therapist, a Perinatal Mental Health Clinician, a Disability Advocate, a Professor + a multidisciplinary portrait, dance + perinatal Photographer. 

An immigrant herself, Stefanie's work is charged by creating sustainable, inclusive + cross-cultural spaces that can propel intersectional + decolonizing dialogues around multicultural perinatal mental health experiences alongside creative forms of healing, namely dance movement therapy, visual storytelling, photography + journaling.

As the Founder of A Bucket For The Well, LLC, an embodied healing collaborative centering body liberation + storytelling through creative, perinatal, kinesthetic + conscious wellness for birthing families of color. Stefanie has cultivated a healing + creative wellness community that centers on early attachment/relationships within communities of color, intergenerational perinatal mental health legacies, trauma + healing + perinatal/birth justice + racial equity. This collaborative offers a culturally affirming, trauma-informed, somatic + therapeutic support for the lived experiences + stories of BIPOC birthing families of color + their community partners within the US + the Caribbean Diaspora.

Stefanie has been teaching as an Adjunct Professor at Lesley University in the dance therapy program since 2019 and more recently transitioned to Temporary Core Faculty. She also teaches at the dance therapy program at Antioch University as a Guest Instructor since 2021. Stefanie holds membership with the National Black Doula Association, Postpartum Support International, and the American Dance Therapy Association where she currently serves as a member of the Multicultural Diversity Committee and is the newly appointed President of the New England Dance Therapy Association.  

Dr. Jacelyn Biondo, BC-DMT, LPC, loves exploring the psyche/soma connection, the relationship between dance/movement therapy and schizophrenia, the concept of seeing and being seen, and the role of community within each of these areas. Her research, clinical work, and life experiences have piqued her interest in the concepts of community, intimacy, and belonging, particularly as they relate to communities that are often underrepresented and dehumanized.

Jacelyn sits on the National Board of the American Dance Therapy Association as Treasurer, and on the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Dance Therapy Association as President.

She graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts with a dual major in dance and photography, her Master of Arts from Drexel University in Dance/Movement Therapy, and her PhD in Creative Arts in Therapy at Drexel University. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University and a temporary core faculty at Lesley University. 

Jacelyn has presented nationally and internationally on dance therapy and schizophrenia, de-escalation and violence prevention, artistic inquiry, and arts-based research practice. She joins a team of colleagues in the Arts-Based Research Global Consortium.

Her future will most certainly include dancing with people with schizophrenia, conducting research, traveling, learning, eating delicious food, and advocating for art, arts therapies, equality, and a kinder humanity.