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.
The first film to show at the Milliken Auditorium on Oct. 12 was “Inside Out,” with the post workshop focal theme being “all feelings are valuable.” The second film set for Nov. 16 is “Encanto,” and the workshop theme focuses on “healing family burdens.” The third film screening on Dec. 14 is “Coco,” where workshop attendees will talk about the theme of loss and connection. The last film in the series is “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” which will be shown on Jan. 11, 2025, with the workshop centering on the theme of “leading with love.”
“With the lack of support and isolation that families experience so much and just trying to achieve care for their kids so people can work — many families don’t watch these (movies) with their children, and that’s why we really wanted to provide a space where we protect — like this is important, sitting and watching these with your kids,” she said. “These are the messages we hope will help you in showing up in ways that may feel really hard to show up for your children and yourself.”
Mertaugh-Graber said with the recent advisory made by the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy concerning the urgent need to support the mental health and well-being of parents, she is hoping that the timing of this event series will provide “an accessible and much needed resource” for caregivers, and hopes to bring to the forefront how important and critical this kind of support is for caregivers in raising children and creating a healthy community.
“I hope the workshops help create a bridging language where grownups and children can understand each other better and experience reparative connection,” she said. “The work of raising a child is crucial to the health and wellbeing of our society and parents need just as much support currently as kiddos do… I’m hoping whoever attends is able to walk away with more of a sense of community and a gentleness around their own experience and struggles, let alone their children’s as well.”
Tickets for the event series are “pay what you can”, where individuals can purchase an adult ticket to reserve a spot in the adult educational workshop for $0-45. Youth tickets to participate in youth art workshops are $0-35. At least one adult registration to participate in the adult educational programming per family is required, to enable a child/children of the same family to participate in the youth expressive arts programming.
For more information on the film screenings and post-workshops, go online to www.dennosmuseum. org/events/films.html or events.humanitix.com/collective- self-cinema.
