Silence, Shame and Stigma: Expressive Arts and Suicide Prevention

Description

This course does not offer CE Credits. The same course is available for purchase and offers 1.5 clinical CE hours for behavioral health clinicians.  See "related products" below.

How do we help when words alone are not enough? This powerful course explores the healing potential of expressive arts to reach those facing the despair of suicidal thoughts—illuminating paths forward through creativity, connection, and compassion.

In a field where burnout, helplessness, and clinical limits can leave providers feeling overwhelmed, this course offers a meaningful approach to suicide prevention—one that honors the emotional depth of those in pain while equipping professionals with creative, evidence-informed tools.

Diane Kaufman, MD—poet, artist, retired child psychiatrist, and internationally recognized suicide prevention advocate—brings over 40 years of clinical experience and personal insight as a survivor of both suicide loss and attempt. Her lifelong work centers on transforming trauma and despair into healing through the arts. Dr. Kaufman’s credentials, projects, and collaborations demonstrate a deep understanding of how expressive arts can support both clients and clinicians during the most emotionally vulnerable moments.

In this course, Dr. Kaufman gently guides participants through the emotional terrain of working with suicidal clients using expressive arts as a bridge to connection and recovery. Her approach integrates storytelling, poetry, neuroscience, and clinical reflection to help clinicians respond with empathy and imagination.

Topics explored include defining expressive arts in the context of mental health care, the role of creative expression in suicide prevention, neurobiological and psychosocial benefits of the arts, strategies for applying expressive techniques in practice, and the impact of creative resilience for providers navigating grief, vicarious trauma, or suicide loss.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand expressive arts interventions: Learn how to use creative techniques to address suicidal ideation and emotional pain.

• Apply trauma-informed creativity: Gain specific, adaptable arts-based strategies to use with clients in crisis.

• Support your own well-being: Discover how creative processes can foster healing and resilience in clinicians, especially after patient loss.

Why this course?

• A trusted organization: Telehealth Certification Institute is dedicated to empowering healthcare professionals with high-quality, ethically sound continuing education.

• An unparalleled instructor: Dr. Kaufman’s rare blend of clinical expertise, artistic accomplishment, and lived experience offers unmatched depth and authenticity.

• A meaningful approach: This course provides emotional insight and tangible strategies for the real-world challenges clinicians face when working with suicide risk.

Learning Objectives:

• Define the expressive arts and understand how they can be applied to help prevent suicide.

• Explain bio-psycho-social reasons why the expressive arts are helpful in suicide prevention.

• Apply at least three expressive arts techniques in their therapeutic work.

• Discuss how expressive arts can benefit the mental health provider’s well-being when they are working with depressed and suicidal patients, as well as when patients die by suicide.

This course is an invitation to reimagine how we respond to suicide—not only with protocols, but with presence; not only with clinical tools, but with creative care. Let the power of expressive arts expand your capacity to help others hold on—and to hold yourself with compassion along the way.

Enroll in this course now to gain the skills, insight, and emotional resilience needed to support healing through creativity when your clients need it most.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Instruction consists of 90 minutes of video instruction and a course evaluation.

Important Notice:

This continuing education course is designed for licensed behavioral health professionals and provides training in suicide prevention using expressive arts as an integrative approach. However, this is not a creative arts therapy course and does not provide training in creative arts therapy.

The course focuses on the application of expressive arts within the scope of general behavioral health practice and is not intended to replace formal training in creative arts therapy. Participants are encouraged to practice within their professional scope and ethical guidelines.

Course Details

Availability: 

From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services. This continuing education course is designed for licensed behavioral health professionals and provides training in suicide prevention using expressive arts as an integrative approach. However, this is not a creative arts therapy course and does not provide training in creative arts therapy.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Instructors and Disclosures

Instructors

About Diane Kaufman, MD

Diane Kaufman, MD is a poet, artist, internationally award-winning lyricist, humanism-inmedicine awardee, and retired child psychiatrist with over forty years of clinical experience. In 2019 she received the SUNY-Downstate Medical Center Alumni Association’s Dr. Frank L. Babbott award for her distinguished service to both the medical profession and the general community.

Dr. Kaufman is a suicide attempt and suicide loss survivor with Bipolar II Disorder and is dedicated to transforming trauma and despair into life affirming creativity. She is the founder/director of the Hold On Campaign for Suicide Prevention that uses the power of art to educate, connect, express, and heal. (www.holdoncampaign.org).

Dr. Kaufman’s story, “Bird That Wants to Fly” inspired an opera and is narrated by actor, Danny Glover. The internationally award-winning songs, “Don’t Give Up,” “Hold On,” “Lift You Up,” “Holding The Heart When It Breaks” and “For You My Lovely,” were all inspired by her lyrics and help prevent suicide. Dr. Kaufman has extensive training and experience in the therapeutic use of poetry and story, and is also a certified Expressive Arts Educational Facilitator (Salve Regina University, Newport, RI). She presents internationally on Creativity and Suicide Prevention. Dr. Kaufman loves to collaborate with kindred spirits. She has just launched with South African DJ. music producer/entrepreneur, and independent artists’ mental health advocate, Kino Isaac, “Talking Back 2 Suicide” which is a podcast to share lessons learned from invited guests’ lived mental health experiences that led to suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, and the interventions that helped them, and expertise from healthcare providers. Dr. Kaufman can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About Lucia Martinez Rojas

Proudly born in Colombia in 1987, Lucia Martinez Rojas holds a Bachelors in Industrial Design from the University of the Andes in Bogota, where she co-founded a design studio called Dos de Pica and has worked as a freelance designer. She also has a Masters Degree in Media Art and Design from the Bauhaus University of Weimar in Germany. Now she dedicates her time to work on projects that have a deep purpose and is in pursuit of becoming a prolific videographer, illustrator, designer, and human being.

About Starlit Swan

14 years ago, Starlit Swan, aka S. Swan, had a surgery that triggered the onset of the rare illness Causalgia that ravaged her life. Little did she know, it was a new beginning. It made her an atypical expert on how to get up when life knocks you down.

S. Swan is a Lived Experience Expert of Causalgia, also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome type II (CRPS II), considered the most painful illness in the world. It is one of the illnesses nicknamed Suicide Disease because the pain can drive a person to suicide. It is a priority for her to bring to the forefront the lack of protocols to prevent and address suicide in patients with CRPS and other severe pain illnesses, as is bringing awareness about CRPS to healthcare professionals and lay people alike. Another priority for Starlit is to find a cure for this terrible illness and to bring awareness to possible palliative treatments that could be beneficial.

Starlit Swan writes poems, short stories and is writing her first novel. She is an illustrator and a narrator too. She uses writing to create wondrous worlds to escape the pain from CRPS II. She uses poetry to work through the difficult emotions from a past of abuse and a present of pain. The award winning animation “Marble Me Free” based on her poem “The Marble Block” is an example of the latter. For more information you can visit marblemefree.com

Starlit is trying to take away the stigma of talking about pain - physical and emotional - through her candid writing. The brain doesn’t differentiate between physical and emotional pain. For the brain, both are equally real. Physical pain can be the source of emotional pain as emotional pain the source of physical pain. A person in pain should not be dismissed, ignored, nor made to feel weak for acknowledging they are in pain. In fact, to live in pain is a testament of strength. It is not pretty, it is not easy, and it takes courage as Starlit has experienced by breaking through her marble block and allowing her golden flower to bloom. The Marble Block & The Poems It Inspired anthology encourages others to grow their own golden flower.

S. Swan has written and illustrated two other poetry books: the Christmas illustrated book How Reindeer Learn How to Fly, and the illustrated poem Anything Is Possible—also available as a journal and coloring book. For more information you can visit her website starlitswan.com.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

This course does not offer CE credits, just great content.

The same course is available for purchase and offers 1.5 CE hours for behavioral health clinicians. See "related products" below.

This course is a non-interactive, online self-study.

Participants may request a printed version of their certificate of completion to be delivered by mail. A shipping/handling fee of $6.95 will be charged per request. Shipping internationally may require an additional charge.

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement