Hancock Center: For Dance/Movement Therapy

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IN THIS ISSUE
Telehealth Services
Comings & Goings On the Board
Black Lives Matter
Movements
Interim Executive Director
A Departure
COVID & Short-Term Telehealth Services
For adults and young adults

During Public Health of Madison & Dane County's Emergency orders  Hancock Center for Dance/Movement Therapy is offering telehealth sessions for adults and young adults. 

This opportunity is for temporary, short term psychotherapy specific to an individual's mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic with therapists Ann Wingate, MA, BC-DMT, DTRL and Jeanine Kiss, MA, BC-DMT, DTRL.

If you are interested in this psychotherapy opportunity for yourself, or to make a referral, please contact Hancock Center intake coordinator, Jeanine Kiss,  jeanine@hancockcenter.net,  
(608) 251-0908, ext. 11

Board of Directors
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More Comings & Goings
This winter we said goodbye with much appreciation to long time Board members Alan Irgang and Heather Good. Their work, along with Carol Murphy's and Sharon Chaiklin's, has been immeasurable!

In 2019 we welcomed Renee Lauber and the new Marian Chace Foundation representative, Jane Wilson Cathcart, to lead and support the center's mission as new members to the board of directors. While Sharon Chaiklin retired from her post with the MCF, we are fortunate that she continues her membership on the HC board. This March, long-time HC friend, Amy Bennett,  joined the ranks. We are very excited to look to this wonderful team of leaders to guide the center into the future.  Read more here. 

Hancock Center continues to search for representation from our communities to join our board. Contact us if you or someone you know is the perfect fit!  Learn More

 

BLACK LIVES MATTER
Hancock Center's staff affirms that Black Lives Matter. We commit to and prioritize the important work of educating ourselves, being accountable, and keeping an open dialogue about systemic racism affecting the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities locally and beyond.
Movements
To Our Friends, 

Change is constant. Sometimes change happens quickly and all at the same time. The current global and national crises have demanded innovations and correction in the ways we live our lives and think about our relationships.  This past year our center experienced several shifts. Like other organizations, Hancock Center has recently had to adjust the ways we conduct our business, service, and now more than ever, the ways we address the injustice of systemic racism and our personal biases.  
 
In dance/movement therapy, we understand movement. Movement is life. We wish you well for your own transformations and hope that together we can find healing, strength and improved community.
 
Read on to learn about some of our current changes. 

Thank you for your partnerships, connection and support!

Warmly,

From Laura Rogers and all of us at the Hancock Center
New Interim Executive Director
Hello!  My name is Amanda Werhane, and I'm honored to be the new Interim Executive Director for Hancock Center!  I'm grateful for the opportunity to provide leadership and support for non-profit mental health and wellness services in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.  A gigantic thank you to Laura Rogers, who has returned to the title of Administrative Associate after 18 months, yet with much new knowledge that we're grateful she'll continue to contribute as part of the Hancock Center family.
 
I hold a B.S. in Biological Aspects of Conservation and an M.A. in Library and Information Studies from the UW-Madison.  I've also obtained training in both non-profit management and information technology.  My non-profit experience includes having served on the boards of Madison Community Cooperative and the North American Students of Cooperation, and managed the Environmental Justice Fund in Oakland, California.  I started at Hancock Center in February 2019 as Operations Manager, and immediately fell in love with the mission and culture.  In my spare time, I sing in a choir and a band, serve on a local Board of Trustees, write poetry, play with my cat, and enjoy getting out and listening to live music - of course, some of these activities have been modified due to the current pandemic.

A Departure
After 27 years at the Hancock Center, dance/movement therapist Robyn Lending Halsten has moved on from Madison to start her next life phase in St. Paul, MN. Robyn has a small private practice there in addition to providing clinical consultation to therapists. She is maintaining her Wisconsin license (LPC) and will additionally pursue licensure in Minnesota. Robyn maintains her role with HC by providing clinical supervision and consultation to the HC therapy staff and attending the Board meetings to provide insight and consultation.

Robyn has been a wonderful force in the center's functioning and spirit, in her colleagues' work, her clients' personal therapy work, and in HC's relationships within our local community and the larger DMT community. She has been generous with her personal support, love for the center, and authenticity. We are very sad to to say goodbye and will miss her tremendously.

Robyn is a dynamic and compassionate clinician who worked with many populations, indiviudally and in groups, as well as providing small group therapy. She brings her breadth of experience in psychotherapy practice to the fore in her DMT work with clientele, particularly working with trauma survivors.  She has insight and moves forward with integrity, setting the standard and tone for the whole Hancock Center staff. It was a fitting development that she would become the center's first Clinical Director. In this role she also drew from her instincts and professionalism to oversee correct messaging and presentation about HC services and DMT theory, practice and efficacy. She assured correct compliance and procedure in administrative operations that dealt with client and clinical issues, and demonstarted sensitivity to client issues throughout the Center's operations.

Robyn avidly pursues her continued development as a professional and responsible service provider. Besides her training and credentialing in DMT, she received training in Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. She received certification as an IFS therapist and gained state licensure as a professional counselor.

Over the years, Robyn developed and implemented a variety of programming in collaboration with other therapists for the center.  She is a natural networker and HC benefitted from her advocacy of the center and the dance therapy field. She provided many outreach trainings, in-services, lectures and panels to professional commuinties and the public both nationally and internationally. Robyn served three terms  on the credentialing committee of the American Dance Therapy Association and presented at the national conferences. She co-authored a chapter on dance/movement therapy and trauma included in a published series on the Creative Arts Therapies. Robyn continues to co-present on the the combined use of IFS and DMT models.

We wish Robyn all the best as she forges into new waters. We trust that she will continue to bring love, creativity, good humor and healing to her new community in the same way she has with all of us over the past few decades. With Love and Gratitude.