from the film "The Hidden Face of Suicide"
produced and directed by Yehudit Silverman
Yehudit Silverman, MA, R-DMT, RDT
- Department Chair, Creative Arts Therapies
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Sign in to editResearch areas: arts-based learning, masks, drama therapy, suicide, documentary making, trauma, storytelling, myth, fairy tales, drama/performance, movement, ethnocultural diversity, urban futures, community-based, heuristic paradigm, mental health, pedagogy, psychosocial risk, qualitative methods, suicide awareness
Contact information
Biography
Seeds of Hope - an arts based approach to suicide and resiliency
Exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - March 8 - April 2, 2017Under the direction of Yehudit Silverman, in collaboration with theEducation and Community Programs Department of the Montreal Museum of FineArts, this exhibition presents the work of many individuals who have been directly affected by suicide. Using the mask, a form that suggests the stigma that frequently surrounds the issue of suicide, the participants courageously communicated their feelings around issues of suicide through the use of diverse mediums, structures, and creative processes.
Media coverage
http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/27397b2e-068d-4f9d-a2a4-3d4ad4f8eec9%7C_0.html
Award winning documentary filmmaker - SSHRC and FQRSC funded
English with French subtitlesDubbed in Polish
“An outstanding example of how the arts have the power to transform, illuminate, and make connections otherwise not possible”Patricia Leavy, Author, Method Meets Art:Arts-Based Research Practice
Screened at
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,
Cinema du parc
Curzon Cinema, London, UK
Montreal World Film Festival
over 30 Film Festivals, Conferences, Universities worldwide
PBS Interview www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFAOnut9B-I
Website - www.yehuditsilverman.com
rent or purchase online: https://www.reelhouse.org/yehuditsilverman/the-hidden-face-of-suicide
Award winning documentary filmmaker
The Hidden Face of Suicide © 2010
Produced, written, and directed by Yehudit Silverman (58 minutes)
Original music composed by Yehudit Silverman
Dubbed in Polish
The Story Within - myth and fairy tale in therapy © 2004
Produced and Directed by Yehudit Silverman (53 minutes)
English with French subtitles
Awarded a Raschkowan Grant for “Interfaith Arts Dialogue- documentary film project for peace.”
Bringing together young adults from Jewish, Christian, Muslim communities to work together through the arts.Awarded a Curriculum Innovation Fund Grant, for “Introduction to Creative Arts Therapies blended learning course”
Developed an online/classroom learning undergraduate course in Introduction to Creative Arts Therapies course
Research award
2009 - National Association for Drama Therapy (NADT)Teaching activities
Awarded a Curriculum Innovation Fund Grant
For the Development of the first blended and online course in the Department of Creative Arts Therapies
CATS 210 INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE ARTS THERAPIES
CATS 210 INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE ARTS THERAPIES Blended Learning Course
CATS 210 INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE ARTS THERAPIES Blended Classroom and online Learning Course
Offered Fall, 2017
CourseDescription:
Inthis blended learning course students will be introduced to the basic conceptsand practices of creative arts therapies - art therapy, drama therapy, musictherapy, and dance therapy. Studentswill learn general theories and themes common to all of the creative artstherapies related to creative process, creative projection, meaning making,expression, therapeutic space, symbols, and witnessing. These themes will be explored throughintegrating in class discussion and experiential activities, films, videoclips, interviews, readings, podcasts, blogs, and assigned field trips. This course will give students theopportunity to gain an understanding of how the creative arts therapiesfunction, the range of professional practices, and give a wide overview of thefield.
CATS 638 CREATIVE PROCESS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE
CATS 638 CREATIVE PROCESS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE
May/June 2017
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
In this class students willhave the opportunity to experience, document, and learn about the creativeprocess through the use of myth and story. Students will choose a character from a myth or story that reflects theirown personal journey. In class they willexplore this character through the use of masks, movement, art, drama, andmusic. Through readings, discussions andcreative exercises students will learn the documented stages of creativeprocess and how this can be a model for personal and clinical growth.
Research activities
SEEDS OF HOPE - an arts based approach to suicide and resiliency
Exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - March 8 - April 2, 2017Award winning documentary filmmaker - SSHRC and FQRSC funded
English with French subtitlesDubbed in Polish
This film enters the world of survivors, thosewho have lost loved ones to suicide, and reveals their remarkable stories.Looking for the story behind the silence in her own family, Silverman sets outon a journey of understanding and transformation. Using masks, the survivorsfind a unique and creative way to express the unspeakable. Their journey brings to light the danger ofsecrets and the terrible cost of silence
“...goes behind theveil of silence... and concludes that healing demands an end to silence.. JohnGriffin, The Gazette
Screened at
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,
Cinema du parc
Curzon Cinema, London, UK
Montreal World Film Festival
over 30 Film Festivals, Conferences, Universities worldwide
PBS Interview www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFAOnut9B-I
Interfaith Arts Dialogue- funded by University Seed grant - Raschkowan Foundation - private donor
Interfaith Arts Dialogue
http://www.yehuditsilverman.com/yehudits-current-film-project/
“When we have an opportunity to witness heartfelt creative work from those who are different, we can develop empathy and our attitudes can change.When given the chance to work collaboratively through the arts, our perceived differences can disappear.”
— YehuditSilverman, professor and chair, Department of Creative Arts Therapies,director, Interfaith Arts Dialogue
— Interfaith Arts Dialogue is a documentary film currently in the early stages of production that explores an innovative arts-based process to building solidarity between people of different groups. So far the initiative has brought together young adults and community leaders from Jewish, Christian and
Muslim communities to take part in collaborative
arts activities that shift their attitudes towards one another in profound ways.
Documentary Film - The Story Within- myth and fairy tale in therapy
The Story Within - myth and fairy tale intherapy-©2004
Produced and Directed by Yehudit Silverman (53 minutes)
In English – translated in French and Turkishsubtitles
Six people embark on journeys of profoundself-discovery by immersing themselves as characters in self-selected andpersonally meaningful myths or fairytales. This film takes us through the stages of an original and dynamicapproach to the Creative Arts Therapies and is a moving testament to thepower of creativity and myth in clinical practice.
“A thought provoking and incredible evocationof the richness to be found within the interplay between the narratives thatare handled between us over generations and the immediacy and power unleashedby exploration of myths and fairy tales for personal exploration...an essentialfilm for anyone interested in the arts, narratives and therapy” Phil Jones, Professor, UniversityCollege London, author, Drama as Therapy
Screened internationally at over 40 conferences, Universities, and on A&E television network show Breakfastwith the arts
participants mask
The Hidden Face of Suicide by Yehudit Silverman
Interfaith Arts Dialogue participants
Publications
Publications- myth and fairy ale in therapy
Silverman, Y. (2004). The story within - myth and fairy tale in therapy. The Arts in Psychotherapy. Vol31/3 pp. 127-135
Silverman, Y. (2005). Drama therapy -theoretical approaches. In Brooke, S. Creative arts therapies modalities a guide to the history, theoretical approaches, assessment, and work with special populations of art, play, dance, music, drama, and poetry therapies New York: Charles C Thomas
Silverman, Y. (2007). Drama therapy with adolescent survivors of sexual abuse: the use of myth, metaphor and fairytale.In Brooke, S. The use of the creative therapies with sexual abuse survivors. New York: Charles C Thomas
Publications - Suicide
Silverman, Y., Smith, F., Burns, M. (2013). Coming Together in Pain and Joy: A Multicultural and Arts-Based Suicide Awareness Project. The Arts in
Psychotherapy. Vol 40 pp. 216 - 223
Silverman, Y. (2013). We need to talk more not less about suicide, Opinion piece, Montreal Gazette,May 7, 2013
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFAOnut9B-I
PBS Television Interview Uploaded by Mountain Lake PBS
enfrançais LaPresse
http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/27397b2e-068d-4f9d-a2a4-3d4ad4f8eec9%7C_0.html
Global News
MAtv billboard
http://matv.ca/montreal/mes-emissions/montreal-billboard/videos/5363003321001
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Documentary films
The Hidden Face of Suicide (2010)Produced, written, and directed by Yehudit Silverman (58 minutes) Original music composed by Yehudit Silverman.
Winner - Award of Excellence in Filmmaking, Canada International Film Festival, Best Documentary North America under 60 minutes, Heart of England International Film Festival, official selection at eight international film festivals including the Montreal World Film Festival, featured at the Curzon Cinema, London, England as part of their Docdays series, Open access- available at 20 Universities and Public Libraries.
The Story Within - myth and fairy tale in therapy (2004)
Produced and Directed by Yehudit Silverman (53 minutes) documentation of Silverman's original approach using myth and fairy tale in therapy
Featured at the Arts and Therapy Seminar, Istanbul, Turkey, presented in Conferences and Universities in Canada, the United States, Japan, the UK, and Australia, Segments shown on A&E television network show Breakfast with the arts, Used in the curriculum of many Creative Arts Therapies programs.
Grants - received a four year federal SSHRC grant, and a four year provincial FQRSC grant, for her studies and documentary film on suicide - received a Concordia Seed Funding Grant, and Concordia CASA Special Projects Grant - for creating the concept and organizing and leading two multi-cultural arts based symposiums on suicide awareness Research Interests- arts based, social issues, myth, masks, film, trauma
Community Projects- Multi-cultural Created two symposiums bringing together members of the Inuit, Mohawk, Jewish, Christian, East Asian, Baha'i, Senior, Adolescents, and LGBTQ communities around the issue of suicide. Community fund HFOS (Hidden Face of Suicide) Donation Fund.