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.
 

Valerie joined Lesley as an adjunct faculty in 2011 and as a core faculty in 2018 in the dance/movement therapy specialization.  She teaches in both the on-campus and low-residency programs, and was a part of the design team to create supervision courses for the low residency-curriculum.  She is also a core faculty member in Lesley’s Laban Movement Analysis certification program.

Currently, Valerie is a dance/movement therapist in private practice specializing in work with young children and their families, as well as clinical supervision.  Her clinical experience has centered around work with children with a focus on attachment patterns and sensory integration, particularly 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 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 studies have explored the dance/movement therapy hybrid low residency student’s sense of embodied presence in their core courses.  She has also acted on the American Dance Therapy Association’s committee on approval, collaborating with educators across the United States. 

Valerie grew up in Massachusetts where she now lives with her husband and two children.  She is active in the arts community in Cambridge and dances with the Guardians of Isadora dance group, which carries on the legacy of Isadora Duncan. 

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).