About Growing Edge Consultants

Mission

At Growing Edge Consultants, our mission is to empower organizations across artistic, community-based, and corporate sectors to cultivate thriving workplaces and communities through comprehensive consultations, workshops, and classes. We specialize in fostering workplace wellbeing and preventing burnout, recognizing that resilient and supported employees are essential for delivering sustained excellence in service to their communities and clients.

Our programs offer in-depth training on topics such as stress management and collective-care incorporating dance, movement, and art making, fostering creativity and empowering employees to proactively prioritize their mental, emotional, and physical health. By investing in the wellbeing of their workforce, organizations not only enhance employee satisfaction and retention but also strengthen their capacity to deliver high-quality, uninterrupted services to the communities and clients that need it the most.

Why Collective Care?

“Shouting self-care at people who really need community care is how we fail them” (Valerio, 2018).

Interventions addressing the wellbeing of workers need to move beyond individual self-care and into healing centered community care. A healing centered approach implies an investment of the administrators in the wellbeing of their employees (Ginwright, 2018). This model builds on a more collectivist, community oriented approach to healing, so workers do not need to feel isolated in their experiences. Collective care “refers to seeing members’ well-being – particularly their emotional health – as a shared responsibility of the group rather than the lone task of an individual” (Gray-Donald & Mehreen, 2018). A collective care model can help promote feelings of connection and fellowship.

Why Art/Movement Sessions?

The expressive and creative arts, including dance/movement therapy, are evidenced based practices that can be implemented effectively during times of crisis and severe stress (Byers, 2011; Gertel Kraybill 2020; Gertel Kraybill 2013; Gray, 2001; Harris, 2007). Although talking is beneficial, when dealing with intense levels of stress and burnout, people often do not have the words to express how they are feeling mentally and physically. Movement can help providers feel grounded and centered, release stress and tension, highlight internal resources and sources of support (Gray, 2008) and promote connections with other providers through a collective movement experience.

About our Founder

Ashley Fargnoli, MA, BC-DMT, LCPC is a dance/movement therapist and licensed psychotherapist specialized in working in conflict affected countries and with populations who have undergone severe trauma. She has worked alongside refugees, immigrants, survivors of intimate partner violence, survivors of human trafficking, and LGBTQ+ communities. She has presented her work across the United States and internationally, including in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, France and Switzerland. Ashley has also taught Expressive Arts Therapy at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago. Ashley lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina for three years where she implemented numerous dance reconciliation projects as well as integration projects for Roma youth. Her introduction to dance/movement therapy was with Kolkata Sanved, an empowerment focused organization in Kolkata, India working with survivors of human trafficking and abuse. Ashley is an alumna of the MA in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling program at Columbia College, Chicago and also holds a MA in Cultural Project Management from the Institute of Political Studies (France). Ashley was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka from October 2019-March 2020.