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Discover a playful, deeply creative framework for navigating both grief and non-death related loss. This experiential approach guides clients in crafting a 'prescriptive memory' that often takes the form of a physical or digital collage. By taking the painful reality of what actually happened and creatively 'editing' the mental image into a new visual narrative, clients can safely update the experience — making it tangibly less distressing to hold in both the mind and body.

This training requires no artistic background, and is applicable to all licensed mental health providers: LMSW, LCSW, LMHC, LMFT, LPAT, ATR-BC

Continuing Education

This program provides 3 CE hours.
-Approval NASW-KY #333350-01292602. NASW-KY is an approved provider for social work credits through the KYBSW.
-Approved Provider #50-33522 Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling. Course #20-946039.
-Accepted by the OH CSWMFT Board.
Continuing education requirements vary by state, while many accept the above approvals, please confirm with your board.
When a client is consumed by grief, the weight of their loss can completely overshadow the joyful memories they need to heal. How do we help them find those hidden pockets of light?

In this masterclass, Nancy Gershman introduces a fascinating, cinematic technique to help clients arrive at the exact internal imagery they need to move from isolation back into the world. You’ll discover how blending imagination with "magic realism" can trigger actual memory reconsolidation — allowing the brain to safely update and soften long-term, distressing memories.

Through real case studies and live demonstrations, you will learn to:

  • Spot the hidden cues: Learn how to listen and prompt for unexpected moments of humor and courage in your client’s narrative.
  • Co-create tangible healing: Guide clients in transforming heavy memories into supportive, image-based artwork.
  • Adapt to any setting: Master how to use this versatile method both in-person and via telehealth with adults facing bereavement, hospice care, or major non-death life transitions.
Get an immediate sense of how prescriptive memory-making can liberate a client’s thinking about grief and loss by reading transcripts from actual "Dreamscaping" sessions :

Learning Objectives

  1. List (3) identifiers for suitability and (3) contraindications for Prescriptive Memory-Making/"Dreamscaping".
  2. Identify the (3) critical types of narrative “material” which work best as retrieval cues for positive memory during interviewing.
  3. Describe (2) or more ways Dreamscaping’s brain based approach launches memory reconsolidation and updates a distressing long-term memory.
  4. State (1) or more reasons why it is beneficial for the prescriptive memory to “violate the expected” so it can open the bereaved individual to a therapeutic, corrective experience.
  5. Apply (1) or more times how to evoke a client’s memory with observational humor, deep play and magic realism— to optimize its positive charge.
  6. Name (3) arts intervention skills to help a client transform the prescriptive memory into an image-based tangible object [they can practice with or share with their support network].
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Nancy Gershman

LCSW, Integrative Psychotherapist
Nancy Gershman is a psychotherapist with BHAVA Therapy Group, and the developer of "Dreamscaping" (Prescriptive Memory-Making), an imaginal and photo-based therapy supported by the way memories get encoded in the brain. Her publications include Prescriptive Memories in Grief and Loss: The Art of Dreamscaping (Routledge, 2019) with Barbara E. Thompson, and case studies in Robert A. Neimeyer’s Techniques of Grief Therapy (Routledge, 2012, 2016). Her Dreamscaping work with end-of-life patients and their families at Visiting Nurse Service of NY was featured on NY1’s “New Yorker of the Week” (2016). Her work with the eating-disordered culminated in the traveling exhibit, “The Brides of Ed” (2013). Since 2013, Nancy has hosted Death Café New York City.
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