A new cinema series aimed at bridging the parent-child relationship through film will be held at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City once a month into January.
In partnership with Megan Mertaugh-Graber, a clinical mental health therapist and founder of the Leelanau-based private practice “Care-O-Van,” and Tracy Smedes-Hepler, a former Leelanau Children’s Center teacher with a degree in early childhood education and founder of Tearwater T, the goal of the film series is to help both youth and adults understand themselves and each other better, as well as to enhance “a family’s felt sense of connectivity and love.” People who register for any of the film screenings and facilitated workshops will be able to enjoy a movie together and will take home guided mental health resources.
“The hope is to help adults learn how kids use our nervous systems to help themselves regulate, and how critical it is for the adult to build an inward awareness of what feelings are really hard to stick with,” Mertaugh-Graber said. “There’s so many ways in which parents and adults are walking through the world where they weren’t supported or they didn’t learn how to tolerate sadness or anger and that perpetuates in making more hurtful and harmful choices and how we react…” Post screening programming is held in the Janis Community Room and Dutmers Theater, and will give families the chance to analyze the therapeutic themes presented within each film by participating in followup psychoeducational and expressive arts programming. Not only are workshops intended to nurture a child’s self awareness and expression, but it also supports a parent’s reflective capacity of their own experience in order to gain insights into their child’s emotional world.
