Frequently Asked Questions

Resilia General FAQs

When was Resilia founded?

​​Resilia started providing their creative products and training services in June of 2022.

The founder of Resilia is Ellie Rose Schoessling. Ellie is an artist and social gerontologist who developed the company Resilia to provide products and services that care for the legacies and well-being of people living with life-limiting illnesses like dementia, advanced organ diseases, and cancer. Her unique path started when her resilient grandmother escaped from a nursing home and Ellie was forced to problem solve and create alternative care solutions within our conventional healthcare system. She has over 15 years of experience producing and contributing to arts-based, healthcare programs. She has degrees and certifications in fine art painting and sculpture, nursing, applied gerontological practices in gerontology, social gerontology, and leadership in healthcare. She has led and operated multiple adult day health centers, memory clinics, a home care agency, and a nurse training school. After living in Mexico City, Mexico for seven years, Ellie moved back to the United States to help individuals, families, and healthcare organizations rise above the norms of traditional care and provide a more person-centered and meaningful experience.

The office of Resilia is located just south of Milwaukee Wisconsin in the city of St Francis. However, all products are through the shop on the resilialife.com website or in person through exhibitions or event appearances. Services are provided within client homes, on the campuses of institutions, or at events for associations or other community gatherings.

Resilia currently contracts artists and clinicians from the United States of America and Mexico. Resilia does not employee part-time or full-time artists.

​​Yes, Resilia has a private art studio at their St. Francis office however it is not open to the public at this time. Resilia will open their first art studio and gallery located in the Third Ward district of Milwaukee, WI in October of 2024.

No. Resilia does not have currently have a gallery. Resilia will open their first art studio and gallery located in the Third Ward district of Milwaukee, WI in October of 2024.

No, the private office of Resilia is not open to the public.

I am a Gerontologist which means I am a master’s level, degreed healthcare professional who studies aging and I promote well-being among older adults. I observe the physical, emotional, and cognitive changes that happen as we age, and I recognize that even though aging affects everyone, it doesn’t affect everyone in the same ways. When I began my career, I only focused on people over 65 and was specifically observing and developing creative interventions for people living with dementia. But quickly I learned that my interventions not only helped all older adults, even those not living with dementia, but also that my interventions helped middle aged adults who were living with life-limiting health conditions like cancer, organ diseases, and neurological diseases. I, and my company Resilia, promote well-being by designing, facilitating, and teaching others therapeutic arts techniques.

Therapy FAQs

What kind of therapy does Resilia do?

Resilia provides products, activities, consults, and trainings of therapeutic arts and creative expression interventions that improve the health and well-being of people living with life-limiting illnesses. Licensed art therapists and social gerontologists are the clinicians who designed and tested all the products of Resilia. It is not required for users to be artists or clinicians.

Creative Therapies is a health discipline that incorporates various mediums of visual, performing, and literary art to intervene, elevate, and/or support the healing of a person’s physical, psychological, emotional, and cognitive impairments. Creative Therapies is frequently a complement to talk therapy and originates in the psychotherapy health realms. Creative Therapies has evolved and divided to define specific objectives, techniques, and results in specific mediums such as Creative Expression Therapy, Visual Art Therapy, Dance Therapy, and Music Therapy.

Creative Expression Therapy conducts sessions and interventions that evaluate cognition skills related to speech and language and also serves as a multimodal mode of integrative psychotherapy. Creative Expression Therapy uses creative expression to heal the mind and body and can use any medium of the arts to do so. For example, creative expression can take place in the form of artmaking with paint, clay, and drawing. It can take place in the writing of poetry or stories, in dance and singing, or even with drumming and the playing of musical instruments. This creative therapy type does not focus on a product, rather, interventions are designed around the process of expression. It is great for people who are unable to articulate their inner or outer world with words alone. Resilia uses Creative Expression Therapy with people living with Frontotemporal Lobe Dementia and with people who have other speech and language impairment conditions. Resilia also uses it with multicultural groups when language differences are a barrier to communication.

Visual Art Therapy is an artmaking intervention that uses specific mediums that contribute to the creation of an object that can be touched like a painting, drawing, sculpture, or mixed media. Art therapists are trained in psychotherapeutic processes and how visual artmaking can help explore and reveal thoughts, feelings, and dispositions. Resilia uses visual art therapy to exercise the brain and frequently incorporates art thinking exercises with artmaking to stimulate reasoning, language, memory, and attention abilities. The unique processes of making art are not dependent on a person’s artistic abilities, and both traditional and non-traditional materials can be used. For example, sculptures can be made with found objects on a nature walk and paintings can be completed with the color discharged from fruits and flowers.

Dance Therapy is a creative health intervention that uses movement as a psychotherapeutic intervention to support, improve, or heal the social, emotional, physical, and/or cognitive parts of a person’s health and well-being.

Music therapy is creative health interventions that use music listening and music making to support, improve, or heal the social, emotional, physical, and/or cognitive parts of a person’s health and well-being including memory enhancement, emotional expression, physical rehabilitation, pain management, and stress relief.

Diagnosis FAQs

What is Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease?

Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life, while Alzheimer’s is a specific disease. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia.

Dementia is a general term for loss of memory and other mental abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life. It is caused by physical changes in the brain. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia, but there are many kinds such as Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Parkinson’s Dementia, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, Huntington’s Disease, Mixed Dementia, and Vascular Dementia.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease of the central nervous system. It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder, a condition in which the body attacks itself by mistake. Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable disease that affects people differently. Some people may lose their ability to see clearly, write, speak, or walk when communication between the brain and other parts of the body becomes disrupted.

Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain characterized by repeated seizures. A seizure is a sudden alteration of behavior due to a temporary change in the electrical functioning of the brain. Normally, the brain continuously generates tiny electrical impulses in an orderly pattern. These impulses travel along neurons and throughout the whole body via chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. In epilepsy the brain’s electrical rhythms have a tendency to become imbalanced, resulting in recurrent seizures. In patients with seizures, the normal electrical pattern is disrupted by sudden and synchronized bursts of electrical energy that may briefly affect their consciousness, movements, or sensations.

The human body is made of cells that grow and divide as needed. When cells are abnormal, they usually die. Cancer starts when abnormal cells don’t die and actually replicate despite the making of new cells. As cancer cells grow out of control, they can crowd out normal cells. This makes it hard for your body to work the way it should.

There are many types of cancer. Cancer can develop anywhere in the body and is named for the part of the body where it started. There are two main categories of cancer: Solid tumor cancers and hematological or blood cancers.

Here at Resilia, we want to help in any way possible. There are a lot of resources available but here are just a few that might be of some assistance. 

Creative Therapies Benefit FAQs

How can art improve the quality of life of someone living with a neurological disease?

Artmaking, singing, dancing, legacy telling, and listening to music or health interventions that engage people living with life-limiting neurologic conditions and have been proven to alleviating symptoms.

Therapeutic arts interventions offer people living with a life-limiting cancer a relaxing escape against the backdrop of treatment anxiety and fear for the future. A person does not have to be an artist, or even like art to benefit. The only requirement is an open mind. Resilia focuses on artmaking and legacy-telling interventions for people living with cancer.

Resilia designs, sells, and facilitates products that improve the health and well-being of people like you who are living with life-limiting illnesses like Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, an organ disease, or cancer. The products for you mean that you can follow the directions and complete the creative tasks independently, without the assistance of a family member, caregiver, or other assisting person. Our products and services will help you explore concepts, express emotions, alleviate pain, communicate your ideas and stories, and decrease depression and anxiety.

Resilia designs, sells, and facilitates products that assist family members in improving the health and well-being of another family member who is living with a life-limiting illness like Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, organ disease, or cancer. The products for families mean that a single family member or group of family members can follow the directions and assist their person in completing the directed creative tasks. The products and services of Resilia will help the family member(s) explore concepts, express emotions, alleviate pain, communicate ideas and stories, and decrease depression and anxiety.

Resilia designs, sells, and facilitates products that assist organizations in improving the health and well-being of people living with a life-limiting illness like Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, an organ disease, or cancer and their family members. The products for organizations mean that staff members or groups of staff members can learn to facilitate the products in a group setting, with more than one person living with a life-limiting illness. The products and services of Resilia will help organization leaders explore concepts, express emotions, alleviate pain, communicate ideas and stories, and decrease depression and anxiety.

Resilia has multiple arts interventions, each focusing on specific health outcomes. We have some that measure and focus on decreasing depression and symptoms of anxiety. We have others who support people in coping and writing their legacy. And, we have even others that measure and focus on cognitive exercise and functional improvement. All of our interventions include person-centered components of reflection, expression, and goal setting. These components help our clients define realistic goals that lead to achievable wins. This combined with expression supports our client’s self-worth. Even though the simple exhibiting of a person’s creative outputs and productivity support personal and social confidence. A pill can’t give you that. The Arts emphasize the person and their families are more than physical bodies. They have emotions, ideologies, roles, and spiritual awareness. The art interventions of Resilia are safe and provide huge value in treating life-limiting conditions and diseases.

I use the arts in my practice as a Gerontologist because I too frequently witness the unintentional failures of conventional medicine. The specialized testing and prescribed pharmaceuticals simply do not resolve the physical, emotional, cognitive, or spiritual parts of a person by themselves. I consider the therapeutic arts interventions of Resilia as an alternative medicine, meaning that they are not taught or prescribed within the conventional medicine system. 100% of my clients want more than just conventional medicine. They are looking for an alternative approach. But the truth is, the Arts aren’t the total solution either. In my experience, I have witnessed that it takes a person-centered, integrative approach to medicine to fully support and treat a person living with a life-limiting illness. An integrative approach flips the focus of medicine from disease and symptom management to health and healing. I, and Resilia, respect and value our conventional practices but we also believe that conventional interventions have a higher efficacy when partnered with appropriate alternative medicines, and the Arts are more likely than other alternative medicines to have a positive impact.

We understand that not everyone will want to participate in a full-on activity. Our Legacy Chronicle Album is a great product to capture the legacy of a loved one without needing to do a complete activity.

Not at all. We encourage anyone to give Creative Therapies a try whether you believe your art skill is up to par with others. Our products are to help and capture legacies, not to win any type of reward.

Product & Program FAQs

What is the Legacy Chronicle Activity Kit?

Legacy Chronicles Activity Kit helps you lead the creation of meaningful discussion, new connections in the brain, and tangible pieces of beauty that are transformed from the uniqueness of the person or people engaged. An arts approach will support and elevate the current health care interventions of any person as the arts-based activities will help you stop relying on generic games or childlike activities that don´t work and start engaging in the Arts that do! With Resilia, you don´t need to be an artist to facilitate or participate in these activities. With the Legacy Chronicle Activity Kit, you will be able to invite a person to do something different, something new, something that opens communication and expression of what is meaningful to them no matter what life-limiting illness a person is enduring. Find their resilience and bring their creations to the spaces of their home and community where a person can have agency and become contributors to the world again.

Legacy Chronicles for organizations is a product designed to assist professionals in facilitating group sessions of Legacy Chronicles. Legacy Chronicles is a program that uses artmaking and art-thinking to explore the ordinary and extraordinary of life. Sessions are facilitated by a staff member of an organization and are facilitated for adults living with a life-limiting illness like Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, an organ disease, or cancer. Legacy Chronicles helps organizations create tangible pieces of beauty that are transformed from the humility and greatness of the stories and life legacies of the adults in their communities.

The Legacy Chronicle Album helps capture personal stories and turn them into a tangible, personalized album to share for generations. The kit comes with all the tools, instructions, and helpful prompts needed to create and document a person’s life and legacy. The Legacy Chronicle Album is a product designed to assist you in exploring the ordinary and extraordinary of life. Everyone Has a Legacy. Create something beautiful from the humility and greatness of a person’s life story.

Our Creative Autobiography Video is for those who want a professionally personalized creation of their loved ones or their own personal legacy told in their own words. People working directly with a creative professional of Resilia to record an interview or voice recording compiled with life photographs and song favorites. This irreplaceable 20-minute piece of video art can be used to pass down legacy, learnings, and life meaning to future generations.

Masterpiece Art Cards are high-resolution prints of a famous painting or sculpture from various museums around the world. The artworks are a part of the Creative Commons open-access programs which are focused on educating others in our world’s great masterpieces. Get your first deck of masterpiece art cards today.

CogniPro Arts & Health EML Course is or the adults you serve within your organization who are impacted or struggling with one or more cognitive impairments. This course license and creative curriculum empower you to ignite cognitive connections that will elevate your service offerings beyond redundant brain games. Start offering more than the boring memory loss worksheets, stimulate new brain connections, and expand brain plasticity with the arts.

Work directly with Resilia founder, Ellie Rose, to customize a creative engagement training session or keynote perfect for your organization. Ellie is an artist and executive leader within the healthcare industry. She has over 17 years of experience producing and contributing to innovative programs that have proven to increase staff and family retention, improve client engagement and satisfaction, and elevate quality of life all through an arts approach.

Ellie Rose, the founder of Resilia, frequently consults with health and senior care businesses to support them in elevating their practices and delivering bottom-line results. In addition to developing dynamic life enrichment programs, Ellie has operated Home Care, Hospice Care, Adult Day Health Care, Nurse Training, and Senior Living businesses for over 20 years in both the United States and Mexico. She has developed a unique Adult Day/Home Care hybrid model of care called, More Than Memory, that continues to prove cost savings, client and staff retention, and sustained client health improvement.

We certainly do! Take a look at our Legacy Chronicle Album product and the gallery to get an idea of what a completed album can look like.

We understand that our Legacy Chronicles Activity Kit might be at a higher price point, that is why we offer the Legacy Chronicle Album to help capture loved one’s legacies at a lower price but with the same special touch. 

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