Welcome to my website.
This website, like life, is a work in progress, and parts are still under construction.

I have offices in San Francisco and Berkeley, California.
Phone: 415-820-3974.
Email: SheilaRubin@SheilaRubin.com

I am a Marriage & Family Therapist and a Registered Drama Therapist, providing a variety of services including psychotherapy, marriage and family therapy, drama therapy, consultation, and groups. I offer short-term solution-focused therapy as well as long-term in-depth work. Therapy is a combination of body-mind somatic work as well as expressive arts, drama therapy, and cognitive-behavioral work, among others. I also offer EFT,  Emotionally Focused Therapy of Sue Johnson when working with distressed couples. I see clients once a week; please call 415-820-3974 if you are interested in setting up an appointment.

Drama Therapy Groups currently being offered:

Life Stories (offered as a 10-week workshop, 4-week workshop or 1-day workshop)

Therapy groups for Disordered Eating currently being offered:

Women, Food & Feelings

Therapy groups for women in transition currently being offered:

Women in Transition: Expressive Arts and Energy Groups

I also offer Professional Training in Drama Therapy and Supervision. >>

For more about Sheila Rubin, click here.

Current Drama Therapy Schedule:

Life Stories (10-week Self-Revelatory Performance Workshop)
Spring/Summer Thursday evening group: 6 - 8:30 pm. Begins May 7, 2009 in Berkeley, CA. Performance on last night of class.

Fall Thursday evening group: 6 - 8:30 pm. Begins September 10, 2009 in Berkeley, CA. Performance on last night of class.

Free Life Stories Performances
Open to all.

Intro to Life Stories (4-week Self-Revelatory Performance Workshop)
Thursday evening group: 6 - 8 pm. Dates to be announced. In Berkeley, CA.

Life Stories (1-day Self-Revelatory Performance Workshop)
Saturday, May 30, 2009; 10 am - 6 pm in Berkeley, CA

Life Stories:
A 10-Week Self-Revelatory Performance Workshop
Exploring Personal Narrative Through Improvisation

This is an invitation to take a journey which supports your creative process as it unfolds through embodied storytelling. Experience the power of telling your personal story with presence and authenticity, while being witnessed by a supportive group.

When we explore the threads which weave between our daily experiences and universal themes, a deeper story emerges. And it is this deeper story which feeds us at a soul level.

In order to connect with, embody, and express this deeper story, this Self-Revelatory Performance Workshop will use:
     • theatrical improvisation
     • dreams
     • guided visualization
     • movement
     • somatic exercizes
     • writing
     • group interaction

Those who choose to, can create a 5-10 minute perfomance for an invited audience for the last night of class. Some class members will be working on material for a longer piece. This class is for all skill levels.

Spring/Summer Dates:
     Thursday evening runs 10 weeks beginning May 7, 2009. Meets each Thursday evening from 6 - 8:30 pm. Class performance on the last night of class.

Fall Dates:
     Thursday evening runs 10 weeks beginning September 10, 2009. Meets each Thursday evening from 6 - 8:30 pm. Class performance on the last night of class (November 19).

Location: Berkeley (just off I-80)

Cost: $400. $50 off for students or seniors over 65. To register, call 415-820-3974.

Free Life Stories Performances
LIfe Stories 10-Week Workshop Performance

Open to all, please come.

Dates/Locations:
          Berkeley: Thursday, July 16, 2009 at Sheila's Studio at Rudramandir
          San Francisco: Saturday, July 18, 2009 at Shotwell Studios

Time: 7:00 pm

For more information, click here.

Intro to Life Stories:
4 weeks of Self-Revelatory Performance Workshops

Want to try the Life Stories process and don't want to sign up for 10 weeks? Or have you taken Life Stories before and want to be in that creative heart-space again? Try this.

Dates:
      Thursday evening workshop runs for 4 weeks. Meets Thursday evenings from 6 - 8 pm.
      Fall 2009 dates to be announced.

Location: Berkeley (just off I-80)

Cost: $40 per night (or $150 if paid in full by mail before the first night). To register, call 415-820-3974 and request payment address

Life Stories: Embodied Storytelling Workshops

How you tell your life story can change your life.  
Experience the support and power of this process.

This is an invitation to take a journey which supports your creative process as it unfolds through the powerful process of embodied storytelling and drama therapy. Each person will be working on solo stories that emerge in the group during a series of structured improvisation,  writing, and movement exercises. Themes may emerge about the hero or heroine’s journey, the wounded healer, dreams, childhood memories, family of origin stories.

When we explore the threads which weave between daily experience, myth, archetypes, and family of origin stories, a deeper story can emerge. This deeply personal story often has universal themes, providing clearer sense of what your life has been about and who you are. Many report a sense of ease and connection with their deeper self, the group, their family, and the whole community after being in one of these workshops.

No prior experience necessary. Shy people welcome. Wear comfortable clothes and bring a journal or notebook. You can attend either or both of the workshops.

Dates: Saturday, May 30, 2009; 10 am - 6 pm

Location: 830 Bancroft Way, Suite 102, Berkeley (just off I-80)

Cost: Each workshop is $110. ($10 discount if check is received 7 days in advance of workshop). To register, call 415-820-3974 and request payment address.

Hours from this workshop can be counted toward Alternative Track Drama Therapy Training.

Women, Food & Feelings:
Healing Disordered Eating
Therapy Groups for Women who have Eating Disorders

This supportive therapy group is a safe place for women to explore, understand, and begin to change unhealthy eating patterns, body image, self-esteem and boundary issues. Through mindfulness, expressive therapy, drama therapy, and DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy), we will begin a process of self-discovery and transformation.
.
Recovery from food issues goes beyond changing eating habits. It can be a pathway to discovering your deeper self.

This therapy group will help you:
      • Cultivate Mindful Eating
      • Access Your Inner "Wise Woman"
      • Understand the Connection Between Food and Feelings
      • Develop Healthy Coping Skills
      • Regulate Difficult Emotions
      • Feel Alive in Your Body

Location: San Francisco (Mission District).

Days/Times: Ongoing group offered on Wednesdays, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Cost: $50 per group meeting.

Intake interview/assessment required before joining group ($120 fee for intake interview). Groups are ongoing with initial three-month commitment.

Women in Transition
Expressive Arts and Energy Groups

Need support in a changing world? Deepen your connection to your creative source. Feel embodied and radiant as you take the next steps in your life. Creative heart-felt expressive arts therapy group is filled with inspiration and tools for your life journey. Experiential group uses somatic and drama therapy and expressive arts processes for learning about your energy, voice, boundary setting and how to access and direct your creative life force. Writing exercises to help clarify goals and life choices. Art to explore blocks and solutions. Movement and drama to express yourself and even move beyond stuck places into the radiant, abundant person you really are.

Location: 1197 Valencia St., Suite 5, San Francisco (Mission District).

Days/Times: Ongoing groups offered on:
                 Wednesdays, 12:00 - 1:30 pm
                 - or -
                 Tuesdays, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Cost: $50 per group meeting.

To register, call 415-820-3974.

I also offer Supervision and Professional Training in Drama Therapy as a clinical modality for Alternative Track Drama Therapy students and other therapeutic professionals. For more information about professional drama therapy trainings being scheduled for 2009, call 415-820-3974.

Integrating Mind, Heart and Body...

How Do People Change and Grow?
Current brain research shows that in order to really learn something new or heal past wounds it is helpful for the client to participate in an experience that engages the right brain, limbic system and brain stem, as well as the left brain. Drama Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy provide creative processes – imagery, symbolic play – that involve the right brain. Somatic therapy helps to integrate the limbic system – which regulates emotions and the brain stem – which influences breathing and body processes. Combining these expressive and somatic processes with traditional therapy as well as CBT/DBT, can get the whole brain involved in the healing process.

Drama Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy
This work is active and experiential, using drawing, storytelling, improvisation, movement, or writing in a therapeutic context. Role playing allows a client to act out issues and problems, gain perspective on real life roles or patterns and experiment with alternatives. Symbols and dreams can offer access to the unconscious. Structured exercises provide containment for nonverbal expression of feelings.

Children and Drama Therapy
Since play is the language of children, I am able to gain rapport and help a child express, in their own language, what is bothering them. Drama therapy with children is a directive form of play therapy that can use: drawing, puppets, games, dramatic and
developmental play to help a child cope with shy-ness, loss, divorce, anger, ADHD and more.

Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy is body based, working with a sense of mindfulness or deepened attention to the body, where much information is held, including sensation, emotions, memory.

Sheila Rubin, MA, LMFT, RDT/BCT, is a drama therapist and psychotherapist with a private practice in San Francisco and Berkeley. She is well known for directing self-revelatory performances. She is an adjunct faculty member and an alumnus of C.I.I.S., the California Institute of Integral Studies, Psychology and Drama Therapy Department. Sheila is also an adjunct faculty member of J.F.K. University and a past President of San Francisco CAMFT.

For further information, to register for a workshop, to schedule a therapy session, or to enroll in professional training, please call 415-820-3974.

Articles:

Click here to read an article by Regan McMahon (Special to The Chronicle) from Sunday, March 22, 2009 in which Sheila Rubin was interviewed on layoffs' impact on home office, workers.

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Or call 510-251-1410.