Judy Gantz, MA, CMA - CMER Director & Founder

Judy Gantz is the Founder and Director of CMER. Judy taught and developed curriculum at UCLA (1982 to 2005). Alongside a strong academic career, Judy was the former Fitness Editor for Shape magazine, Co-Editor of Kinesiology for Dance, and she is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst. She is currently on the faculty of Dominican University in the BFA Dance program.

Bonnie Bernstein, M.Ed., MFT, BC-DMT

Ms. Bernstein is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, Registered Expressive Arts Therapist and CAMFT Certified Supervisor. She was mentored by pioneer dance therapist Blanche Evan from 1970-82 and has developed her dance therapy methods for over thirty-five years. She works primarily in in-depth, insight oriented dance/movement therapy for the higher functioning adult and has also worked with other populations including elders, children, psychiatric day patients and adults in physical rehabilitation. She has specialized in dance therapy for survivors of sexual trauma and has published in this area. In the past two years she has traveled to facilitate intensive month-long workshops for survivors of social trauma and sex trafficking in Kolkata, India.

Ms. Bernstein’s lifelong research has been on the therapeutic use of dance in indigenous world cultures. She has extensive experience teaching and supervising and currently teaches dance/movement therapy courses in three graduate programs: The California Institute of Integral Studies, The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and J.F. Kennedy University. Ms. Bernstein has a private practice in Palo Alto, California.

Kayta Bloom , PhD, BC-DMT, CMA, SrDMP-UK

Katya Bloom taught in the Dance Movement Therapy program at the University of Roehampton in London (from its inception in 1985 until 2002), where she also worked as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist, predominantly in private practice. For twenty years, she also taught Laban-based movement at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Katya is author of the book The Embodied Self: movement and psychoanalysis, (2006: Karnac) and co-author, with Rosa Shreeves, of Moves: A Sourcebook of ideas for body awareness and creative movement (1998: Routledge), as well as numerous other publications.

She has taught and presented her work in both psychoanalytic settings and body psychotherapy/somatic psychology trainings in the UK and the US. Her interest in the interrelationships between movement and contemporary psychoanalytic thinking has also been underpinned by her study of Amerta Movement, of which she is a qualified teacher. Katya now lives and practices DMT in Santa Barbara, CA.

Kathy Cass, MA, BC-DMT, NCC, CYT, E-RYT 500

is a board certified dance/movement therapist, nationally certified counselor, and a certified yoga therapist with over 25 years of instructional and clinical experience with a variety of populations. She has expertise as a long-standing director of a non-profit therapeutic dance/yoga organization as well as a movement/yoga consultant for numerous institutions and individuals. Kathy is a member and head of the BC-DMT Certification Committee for the American Dance Therapy Association. She has been a guest lecturer at Scripps College, CMER at Loyola Marymount University and Tiverton House at UCLA.

Kathy is currently a part-time faculty member at Santa Monica College Emeritus Division and an Advisory Board Member for CSUF Extended Education in Expressive Arts Therapies. She also maintains a private practice including group and individual supervision in Santa Monica, CA. She has also been choreographer/movement consultant for local theater and off- Broadway productions.

Karen Clippinger, M.S.P.E.

Karen Clippinger received her masters in Exercise Science from the University of Washington and currently is a professor at California State University, Long Beach. She has worked for over 20 years in the areas of injury prevention and rehabilitation for dance and sports. Ms. Clippinger has worked with hundreds of dancers including members of the Joffrey, Mark Morris, Bill Evans and Alwin Nikolais companies. She has also consulted for the U.S. Weightlifitng Federation, U.S. Race Walking Team, the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and various sports medicine clinics and fitness facilities. Ms. Clippinger is a well published in the areas related to dance and sports kinesiology. She wrote a monthly column for Shape Magazine, was co-editor-in-chief of the Journal for Dance Medicine and Science from 1996-2005, and recently completed her textbook titled Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology.

Suzanne Ecker, LMFT, BC-DMT

is a CMER DMT faculty member, dance/movement therapist and psychotherapist in private practice. She has taught courses at CSULB and Santa Monica College, lectured at the Phillips Graduate Institute, and the Jung Institute of Los Angeles, and provided services to a number of hospitals and agencies. She is currently training to become an analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles.

Forest Franken, BC-DMT, MA, MFA

is a CMER DMT faculty member in northern California. Forest received both her M.A. in dance/movement therapy (1995) and her M.F.A. in choreography (2003) from UCLA. Her work as a dance/movement therapist spans thirteen years in inpatient psychiatric hospitals, intensive outpatient programs, and rehabilitation facilities with adolescents, adults, and seniors.

She moved to the bay area in 1998 to study the discipline of Authentic Movement with Janet Adler whom she mentored with for nine years. From 2001-2008, she worked at UCSF/Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics where, as inpatient supervisor to chaplain interns, she explored the integration of spirituality, dance/movement therapy, and dialectical behavioral therapy, and as facilitator of pain management groups, focused on the applications of dance/movement therapy and Authentic Movement principles with individuals navigating the challenges of living with chronic pain.

Her current focus involves the teaching of Authentic Movement with attention to the discipline as a vehicle for creative work and for containing and expressing life changes/losses related to the body.

Gabrielle Kaufman, MA, BC-DMT, NCC

is a CMER faculty member, dance/movement therapist and counselor with close to twenty years experience in the helping profession. She has taught creative movement to preschoolers and elementary school students, has used DMT with the elderly, Holocaust survivors, adults with mental illness, individuals with eating disorders and body image
issues, with teens at high risk and other individuals suffering from anxiety and depression.

Currently, she is the coordinator of the New Moms Connect Program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. She has run several programs for high risk children and teens in both English and Spanish languages, taught classes to parents of newborns and toddlers, and runs support groups for single parents, women with eating disorders and women with perinatal mood disorders. She has served as the national credentialing chair for the American Dance Therapy Association, and is a coordinator with Postpartum Support International and has a private practice in Los Angeles.

Berti Klein, MA, MCAT, MSS, NCC, BC-DMT

has spent over 35 years studying and facilitating many aspects of Dance, Movement, Dance/Movement Therapy, Authentic Movement, Somatic Psychology, Counseling, Bodywork, Meditation, and the Body-Mind-Emotion-Spirit relationship. She holds five Masters degrees and will receive a Doctorate in Spiritual Science in June, 2011. Additionally, she has a background in Nurturing Touch having studied and presently practicing CranioSacral, Polarity, Oriental Medicine, Shiatsu, Jin Shin, and Chi Gong. These are lovely additions to her DMT work.

Berti has facilitated Dance/Movement Therapy in many types of health and healing centers, businesses, and other organizations, with children, adults and geriatric populations. She also has worked in elementary schools with children, teachers, staff and parents. Berti has supervised many students in various fields and currently consults and has a private practice in Santa Monica, California, including working with terminally ill clients and their caretakers.

Her teaching career has included courses at Yale University, University of Santa Monica, Hahnemann Medical University (now a part of Drexel University), and the National University of Mexico. She also facilitates workshops, trainings, classes, and seminars throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America.

Susan Loman, M.A., BC-DMT, NCC, KMP Analyst

is currently Director of the MA Program in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling and is Associate Chair of the Department of Applied Psychology at Antioch University New England, Keene New Hampshire. Considered an expert on the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP), she worked with Judith Kestenberg for eight years and teaches the KMP at Antioch, other educational settings in the US and abroad. She was former Chair of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) Education Committee and serves on the Editorial Board of The Arts in Psychotherapy.

She co-authored, The Meaning of Movement: Developmental and Clinical Perspectives of the Kestenberg Movement Profile and co-edited The Body Mind Connection in Human Movement Analysis and The Kestenberg Movement Profile: Its Past, Present Applications and Future Directions. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on dance/movement therapy and KMP.

Dawn Lyon, MA, BC-DMT

Dawn Lyon is a CMER DMT faculty member, and has over twenty-five years of experience working as a dance/movement therapist with adults in in-patient psychiatric, day treatment and residential facilities and with children, adolescents, and seniors in in-patient settings. She developed the dance/movement therapy internship training program at Metropolitan State Hospital where she is currently on staff.

Janice Meaden, MA, CLMA, RSMT

Janice Meaden is a CMER faculty member, and the Director, and faculty of the Integrated Movement Studies Certificate Program in Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies at the University of Utah where she holds the position of Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Dance. She is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and a Body-Mind Centering Practitioner.

Shira Musicant, LMFT, BC-DMT, SEP

Shira Musicant is a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and body centered psychotherapist. She has been licensed as a marriage and family therapist since 1985. With over twenty-five years of clinical experience, she has taught, led workshops, and published in the fields of dance/movement therapy and Authentic Movement. Shira has extensive hospital and agency experience with a range of psychiatric and medical patients, and is currently in private practice, working with people recovering from both developmental and acute trauma..

Paula Perlman, BC-DMT, LMFT, CLMA

Paula Perlman, is a CMER faculty member, a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT), a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) and a Certified Laban Movement Analyst (CLMA). Paula is a member of American Dance Therapy Association, Dance and the Child International (daCi) and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (CAMFT). She has been practicing Dance/Movement Therapy for the past 25 years and has been in movement education for 16 years.

Paula has worked as a facilitator of a Dance Therapy group for seniors and has taught Creative Movement with inner city children at a downtown Los Angeles art center since 2002 and has taught Creative Movement at a child-initiated private school since 1993, pre K-5th. She expanded her studies of choreography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and dance/movement improvisation, “Logomotion,” with Simone Forti for six years. Additionally, she has twelve years experience as a participant in an Authentic Movement group.

Paula has co-created a Professional Development program titled, “How to Use Movement in the Classroom to teach Art and the Curriculum K-5th.” She is planning on teaching her skills as a Dance/Movement Therapist and Creative Movement teacher in Peru to teachers and students. As an integration of her movement work she presently leads retreats for adults focusing on Creative Process, Creative Movement and Authentic Movement..