Our mission is to discover and share creative and artistic ways to communicate with oneself and others. We do this by supporting others in identifying their own inner knowing and by creating a safe container as a means of facilitating their healing process.
Having a crisis? Nothing a little compassionate creativity can’t handle! Creative Crisis Care is committed to choosing life in the midst of the most debilitating hopelessness. In Latin, ‘crisis’ refers to the moment where weakness pushes one to change. “Perhaps the purpose of crisis, if there is one, is not to break us as much as to break us open (Mark Nepo)”. We believe that there is always a way to move from thoughts of suicide and hopeless depression to recognition of a life that is meant to be…that all lives are meant to be. Read More...
Janet Berkowitz is a multi-faceted educator and performer, who has shared her talents for over 40 years up and down the east coast. She has been interested in the arts as a healing tool since following her passion for psychology and drama at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. In 1975 she became a professional pantomime artist and currently uses her mime skills to dramatize the challenges of mental illness and addiction. Having had extensive experience with suicidal ideation, she has created a number of workshops on suicide awareness and prevention using the creative arts and interactive exercises. She also serves on the NJ Adult Suicide Prevention Committee and the Stakeholders 988 Committee (developing a new access crisis number for mental health calls).
Janet is an NJ Certified Peer Specialist and a certified WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) facilitator. She teaches it in the form of scrapbooking, calling it WRAPscrap. She worked for Delaware House (an outpatient day program) for 7 years teaching Trauma Informed Care and Anger Management. Currently she is leading creative arts workshops at wellness centers throughout NJ. She is a member of MHA's Mental Health Players who sponsor a play she has written, produced and stars in on suicide awareness and bullying called 'The Wizard of Iz'. She has completed the ASIST Training (Applies Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and the C.I.T. (Crisis Intervention Training). Populations with which she has worked include autistic children and teens, special ed children, juveniles and AIDS patients. She has worked in prison settings, inpatient and outpatient mental health programs, schools and wellness centers for over 30 years. Janet also attended Mason Gross School of the Arts (for theater) in New Brunswick, NJ and DuCret School of the Arts (for fine arts) in Plainfield, NJ.
Gary Schoenberg, M.Ed., CPRP is a Pennsylvania Licensed psychologist and a certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner. He is the Continuing Care Director at COMHAR, Inc., a non-profit community mental health center in Philadelphia where he oversees recovery based mental health services in a Community Integrated Recovery Center. Gary has been working in the behavioral health field for over 30 years and brings his clinical, administrative, and creative talents to Creative Crisis Care. Gary’s creative talents include writing and narrating plays and skits, drumming, and improvisational performance.
