Forest Emily Franken is a board-certified dance/movement therapist #941, an Authentic Movement practitioner and a faculty member of the post-graduate, international program, Circles of Four: a program dedicated to the teaching of the Discipline of Authentic Movement founded by Janet Adler Ph.D in 2014.

Forest received both her MA in dance/movement therapy (1995), and her MFA in choreography & dance (1998) from UCLA. Prior to her graduate studies, she completed her BA in dance at UCSB (1990). She began her dedicated study and practice of Authentic Movement in 1993. This practice has been her passion both personally and professionally and has complemented her lifelong study of dance and the somatic arts.

She worked, clinically, as a dance/movement therapist (DMT), for more than a decade in psychiatric hospitals, cancer wellness programs and rehabilitation facilities. She then focused on teaching both dance/movement therapy and Authentic Movement at the Graduate school level at several California Universities and programs and in Seoul, South Korea. Currently, she is dedicated to her private teaching practice and to her ongoing work as faculty in Circles of Four.

Forest is a two-time cancer survivor and believes deeply in the power of mind/body integration as a form of depth practice and healing.