Jessica Young - Columbia College Chicago

Jessica Young

Associate Professor

jyoung@colum.edu

Biography

Jessica Young (she/her), Associate Professor in Dance and co-coordinator of the Arts in Health Minor, teaches ballet, joyfulness and wellbeing, and arts in health courses.

She is the 2020 recipient of the American Dance Therapy Association’s President’s Award and Excellence in Education Award.  The arc of her 20+ year career includes serving those who are homeless with severe and chronic mental illness, educating graduate students in dance/movement therapy (DMT) and counseling, and teaching undergraduates how to tend to their own and others’ joyfulness and well-being.  She has facilitated over 35 peer reviewed conference presentations nationally and internationally in DMT theory and practice, clinical supervision, motivational interviewing, harm reduction, violence prevention, trauma informed and healing centered engagement, and wellness. Her publications focus on DMT theory and education.  She provides clinical superivison in DMT and counseling as well as direct services to children, adolescents, and adults at New Prairie Counseling Center. Jessica strives to integrate wellness research and practice into all areas of her teaching such that students develop lifelong skills of tending to their own and other’s well-being as a means of sustaining healthy careers and socially just communities.

Jessica received her Master of Arts (MA) in Dance/Movement Therapy at Columbia College Chicago.  Her additional credentialing includes: Board Certified Dance Movement Therapist (BC-DMT), American Dance Therapy Association; Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), Department of Professional Regulation, State of Illinois; Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis (GL-CMA), Columbia College Chicago.

Instructional Areas

Ballet, Joyfulness and Wellbeing, Art in Health courses (Introduction to Creative Arts Therapies, Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapy, Introduction to Performance as Therapy)

Creative Practice and Research Interests

Dance/Movement Therapy Theory, Wellness in Higher Education, Arts Application in Healthcare and Community Settings, Embodied Education

Degrees

B.F.A., Dance University of Iowa 1993
M.A., Dance/Movement Therapy Columbia College Chicago 2001