About The Presenters:
 
Jon Ehinger, MA is a recent graduate from Pratt Institute whose thesis research on video green screening is getting a lot of attention.  Jon’s has a BFA in Film/Video and an extensive background in electronic arts and video. He currently teaches at a new media school in Williamsburg, and worked at CNN Headline News in Atlanta before embarking on his journey to become an art therapist. Jon eclectically integrates such therapeutic modalities as art, movement and drama in his regular groups at Woodhull.
 
Inga Benson, MA, R-DMT, RYT is a Dance Therapist and a Yoga Therapist.  She has had the opportunity to share both of these practices as a consultant in a wide range settings including Odyssey House, Beth Israel Hospital, Mt. Sinai Hospital, and was recently invited to Bronx Lebanon Hospital to present two in-service trainings on how to utilize Yoga in Psychiatric and Substance Abuse treatment settings.  She is one of the primary trainers for others becoming Yoga Teachers in the Integral Yoga teacher training program in NYC.  She finds the blend of Yoga and Dance Therapy to be especially useful in Substance Treatment settings — helping others build the ability to focus inwards; being able to find strength, inspiration, courage and wisdom.  She is honored to be a part of the Creative Arts Therapy Team at Woodhull Hospital working on the Detox Unit.
 
Nir Sadovnik, MA, MT-BC, LCAT is a full time music therapist on an inpatient adult psychiatric unit at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn, NY. Nir's musical background is in composition/jazz piano and he has worked with numerous musical theater groups in Seattle as a composer/musical director. Nir is a faculty member in the graduate music therapy program at New York University, where he teaches piano improvisation, 'Key Concepts in Music Therapy,' and supervises students in the program. He has presented at a number of conferences on the use of rap and recording technology in music therapy, including a shared Palestinian/Israeli Creative Arts Therapy conference in Tel-Aviv, Israel.  In addition to his full time job, Nir works privately with a number of children with learning, social, and developmental disabilities.

Meghan Dempsey, MS, ADTR, LCAT, CMA is a Dance/Movement Therapist on an inpatient psychiatric unit at Woodhull Hospital.  After receiving her BA from UCLA in World Arts and Cultures, she moved to New York to attend Pratt Institute’s Master’s program in Dance/Movement Therapy.  She furthered her study of movement at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies.  Ms. Dempsey most recently received her LCAT.  Ms. Dempsey is currently in the process of publishing a chapter on using dance/movement therapy as an effective tool to decrease anxiety in substance dependent persons. 

Barbara Bethea, MA, PTR, LCAT is a the first African American Registered Poetry Therapist certified through the National Association for Poetry Therapy and licensed by New York State.  Ms. Bethea is the current President of the National Association for Poetry Therapy. She is also known as The Afrikana Madonna, poetess and has published a cd of poetry entitled Like Manna for the Soul and co-authored a book entitled Writing Away the Demons, edited by Dr. Sherry Reiter.