EDGY Conference

Dana Wyss
Dana Wyss
Ph.D, LMFT, ATR-BC
Stars Behavioral Health Group
Dana Wyss
Dana Wyss, PhD, LMFT, ATR-BC is a licensed marriage and family therapist, board certified clinical art therapist, and is coauthor of The Invisible String Workbook. Her doctorate in expressive therapies has led her to create programs integrating art, music, poetry, dance and animal assisted therapy in the healing process for clients and the self-care of staff. For the last 20 years, Dr. Wyss has worked in psychiatric hospitals, group homes, and nonpublic school settings to manage crisis, conduct trainings, coach staff, and support children and families. Dr. Wyss is currently a Corporate Clinical Training Specialist and Clinical/Art therapy supervisor at Stars Behavioral Health Group a company specializing in the treatment of complex developmental trauma. Dr. Wyss is a national trainer and consultant with the Center for Trauma Training and national trainer to raise awareness of commercial sexual exploitation of children. She uses her creativity for her own healing as well as to support others. Dr. Wyss is an artist specializing in photography, mixed media, and oil painting. Over the last twenty years she has learned to use her creativity to support her healing and progression through several difficult and wonderful life experiences. Originally working in photography and mixed media Dr. Wyss spent the first part of her art career exploring multiple types of media and honing her photographic eye. Photographing what is all around to capture beautiful moments that often go unseen. In the last 5 years she has studied under the Master Artist Rino Gonzales refining her skills, building confidence in her artistic voice, blending her love of the unusual with the realistic style of her mentor, and creating art for personal healing.

SESSION OVERVIEW

Unlocking Potential: Building Alliances Inside and Outside of the Community
An experiential workshop that provides a space for participants to increase personal and communal safety through responsible consideration, sharing, and leveraging of power and privilege. This exploratory activity encourages participants to contemplate and dialogue about the connection between structural privilege and personal/community safety with a focus on increasing intentionality in approaches towards LGBTQ+ allyship, activism, and camaraderie. Each participant will be provided with an opportunity to create a keepsake that serves as mindful evidence of our individual commitments to nurturing safety and acceptance for ourselves and others in solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities. During this workshop Facilitators will also provide a background on: -Viewpoints that impact safety of members and allies in LGBTQ+ communities -Leveraging privilege where possible to call-in and increase zones of safety and allyship - Recognizing the difference between a call-in, call-out, and get-out situation -How to adapt this activity for use with clients, families, fellow allies, and our communities to support the growth of safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community and our communities at large