Poetry Therapy The Irish Poetry Therapy Network Journal Volume 1: Issue 2: Autumn 2016 Volume 1: Issue 2: Autumn 2016
A Poem To Make Your Eyes Smile 5th Annual Conference IPTN: The First Thirteen Years
IPTN Irish Poetry Therapy Network 1
Contents
Editorial Dear Readers,
Editorial
Contact Us
We are very pleased to bring you the second edition of Poetry Therapy, produced by the Irish Poetry Therapy Network (IPTN).
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IPTN Conference: Keynote Speaker
Email: irishpoetrytherapynetwork @gmail.com
p.3 Blog: A Poem to Make Your Eyes Smile Shelley Tracey p.3
www.irishpoetytherapynetwork. blogspot.ie
We are very grateful to Niall Hickey for his piece ‘IPTN - The First Thirteen Years’. In this piece Niall outlines the early stages of IPTN and elaborates on the progress of IPTN to date. In her article ‘A Poem to Make Your Eyes Smile’ Shelley Tracey describes how she has used the poem ‘A hundred objects’ with varying groups, and highlights the importance of choosing a poem for a poetry therapy session.
IPTN - The First Thirteen Years Niall Hickey p.4
We also have news about upcoming courses including the annual IPTN conference and Poetry/Bibliotherapy online course. A review of ‘The Healing Fountain’, one of the leading publications on poetry therapy, is also included.
Lapidus Poetry/Bibliotherapy Online Course Victoria Field p.5
We hope you find this edition interesting. As always, we invite readers to submit articles, book, poetry, film reviews, workshops relating to the area of poetry therapy and how it supports the personal development and therapeutic development of the individual.
Book Review: The Healing Fountain Geri Chavis and Lila Weisberger (Eds) Theresa Kelly p. 5
Theresa Kelly PTP IAHIP/IACP
Coming Events IPTN Annual Conference p. 6 2
Annual IPTN Conference Welcomes Keynote Speaker Dr Noreen Giffney
A Poem To Make Your Eyes Smile This
year’s
annual
IPTN
Conference will be held in the beautiful Tinakilly House Hotel in Co. Wicklow and we are pleased to announce that Dr Noreen Giffney is our keynote speaker. Dr Giffney works as a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and also provides research supervision to clinical practitioners, academics and students who are conducting research in the fields of psychoanalysis and of psychotherapy. Dr. Giffney has published extensively in the fields of psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality studies, and cultural studies and has run a regular course on Film and Psychoanalysis. We are very excited about this year’s conference and welcome as many of our readers as possible to join us. Full details on the conference can be found on our website at: http://irishpoetrytherapynetwo rk.blogspot.ie
By Shelley Tracey bereavement groups, and people with eating disorders An important aspect of poetry and those with sight loss. therapy is the selection of Where does the appeal of appropriate poems and other this poem lie? My experience of texts. ‘A Hundred Objects Close using this poem with a range of By’ by 16th century mystic Mira groups has identified a number Mirabai, has been effective with of answers to this question. a variety of groups, including The language of the poem is ten year olds in schools, accessible and its themes teenagers with physical universal. Its tone is positive disabilities, writers exploring and connects its readers with wellbeing, reminiscence and hope and identification of their strengths and assets. A further aspect of A HUNDRED OBJECTS CLOSE BY the poem’s usefulness in a poetry therapy I know a cure for sadness: context is its capacity Let your hands touch something that to invite collaboration Makes your eyes between group Smile. members. This can either take the form I bet there are a hundred objects close by of sharing oral or That can do that. written responses to the poem, or it can Look at beauty’s gift to us – involve the creation of Her power is so great she enlivens a group poem. The The earth, the sky, our process of composing Soul. group poems enhances participants’ Mira Mirabai sense of belonging to the group and their
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confidence about participating in poetry therapy. In my practice, ‘A Hundred Objects Close By’ has prompted the creation of several group poems, whereby individual responses were collated by the group into a continuous piece. The ‘objects’ identified include physical ones, as well as significant people, memories and moments, as these examples demonstrate: “Photographs of people who aren’t with us anymore.” “Savoury food, potatoes of any sort, /Purty pudding from a Fermanagh recipe, /Butter on a roastie.” “Your sense of touch, which gives you a better sense of what something is really like.” “A Matryoshka doll, / The story of sixteen dolls /which only fit inside each other, /Concealing many things, / An opportunity missed.” “Snowdrops, the way their heads hang down, so delicate, / they come up through the snow, / No matter how hard the ground is.” “My hands touch my daughter, /A child so tender/Fingers like marshmallows/Tuning your heartstrings.” When groups read their completed poems out loud together, a sense of wellbeing and group camaraderie is present in the room. This makes my eyes smile. SHELLEY TRACEY is a poet, researcher and community arts facilitator in Northern Ireland, currently training as a Poetry Therapy Practitioner with iaPOETRY.
IPTN – THE FIRST THIRTEEN YEARS By Niall Hickey
The
Irish
Poetry
Therapy
Network was founded at PCI College Clondalkin in December 2003. The first committee was comprised of: Liam McCarthy, Josephine Murphy, Niall Hickey, Ger Campbell, Ger Byrne, Peter O’Leary and Martina Foy. Niall was training in PT with Lila Weisberger, who co-authored the classic PT text, “The Healing Fountain” with Geri Chavis. Both ladies were involved in NAPT, the American National Association of Poetry Therapy, founded in 1980. Niall invited Geri to Ireland and PCI hosted her to deliver a course in November 2003. Niall founded the Irish poetry Therapy Network and was chairperson for a year. Geri Chavis became Hon. President and Liam, now sadly departed, and Josephine became life members. For eleven years from 2004 to 2015, Ger Campbell chaired the Network and to her goes the credit for keeping PT alive over a lean time and guiding it into a period of strength. The current chair is Carol Boland. The declared function of IPTN was firstly to assist those interested in poetry therapy and secondly to facilitate those wishing to train. In the period 2003-2012, IPTN concentrated on the first part of its function. Niall invited Geri Chavis give to a follow-up course and Geri provided us with details of how
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to run peer groups that would fulfil training requirements. These groups met regularly in Maynooth, Kilkenny, Inistioge and Portlaoise. From 2005 to 2014, Niall was the sole qualified poetry therapist in Ireland. This needed to change to ensure the ongoing future of Irish PT. In recent years, IPTN’s emphasis shifted to helping those wishing to train. In 2012, Niall invited Lila Weisberger to Ireland to help to deliver the first annual PT convention in Maynooth. She came again to Maynooth in 2013 for the second convention. Lila had founded iaPOETRY, the International Academy of Poetry Therapy. Niall subsequently founded an Irish training body, PoetryReach, and Irish trainees enrolled. IPTN hosted a third and fourth convention in Kilkenny in 2014 and 2015, and their fifth will be held in Wicklow on 9th October 2016. There are now three new trained poetry therapists in the country, Carol Boland, Ger Campbell and Theresa Kelly, and the number is growing. So far, all those trained or in training are counsellors/psychotherapists. NIALL HICKEY founded IPTN and PoetryReach in association with iaPOETRY (US) and is author of ‘The Backwards Book - Poetry Therapy from Practice to Theory’.
Lapidus Poetry/ Bibliotherapy Online Course By Victoria Field
One
of
the
challenges
for
people newly interested in the potential of poetry therapy is understanding exactly what the field is and what characterises different approaches. Anne Taylor and I worked together some years ago devising a oneweek course at Falmouth University – where we had the pleasure of meeting Carol Boland – and have since developed a new version of the course to run over 8 weeks online. We’ve identified six distinct areas of work – biblio-poetry therapy of course, but also life writing, journal writing, the principles of group work, reflective writing and the uses of metaphor – as well giving an overview. On the course, students experience the techniques directly, share their writing and comment on each other’s – always respectfully and emphasising process rather than literary product. We also invite visiting experts for a live chat and are delighted that Rachel Kelly, best-selling author of ‘Black Rainbow’ has joined us twice. We are very proud that it’s part of the Professional Writing Academy’s suite of courses which are run according to well-researched and sound pedagogical principles which means students learn at a steady pace and few people drop out. It has now run twice and has been very warmly
received by students from all over the world. Obviously the online environment is different from face to face groups. There isn’t a handy beach to visit after class as there was in Falmouth, for one thing. But even though I love the buzz of people round a table, the online forum has many advantages such as flexible hours, not having to travel and the groups have included students from Canada, Vietnam, Japan and Norway, as well as Ireland and the UK. Also, everything is archived so there’s a wonderful rich resource of work and reflection to look back on. The next start date is 12th September and it’s booking now. www.profwritingacademy.com Victoria Field is a writer, poetry therapist and Chair of Lapidus (Literary Arts in Personal Development London).
Lapidus provides networks and information for people interested in writing and creativity for personal development and in working with others. Whether you want to write creatively yourself or use writing in your work with others, Lapidus: the Writing for Wellbeing organisation links you to the information and networks you need. http://www.lapidus.org.uk
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Book Review
Theresa Kelly reviews ‘The Healing Fountain’ by Geri Chavis and Lila Weisberger (Eds)
In
this book the editors bring
together a selection of pieces by poetry therapists, bibliotherapists, psychotherapists and those interested in using poetry for therapeutic and educational purposes. What emerges is an anthology of work which acts as a resource for others who are also interested in using poetry for therapeutic and educational purposes. The title of the book, the editors tell us, is drawn from W.H. Auden’s words, and acts as a metaphor to help us as we struggle through difficulties in life’s journey. This journey is traced through the various sections of the book, the opening section focusing on Mindfulness ‘sets the reflective tone as a way of introducing readers to the anthology’s creative approach’ p. 3. There are five sections in all:
Mindfulness on The Journey Ahead; Twists in the Road; Facing the Shadows on the Road; Flowers along the Road and Sharing the Journey: Travelling Together In and Out of Step. Each section opens with a thematic overview of what will be covered in the section. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of a selection of appropriate poems on the theme. The authors then give examples of questions or exercises a therapist/poetry practitioner could use to draw out the client or the group they are working with. The goal being to explore what the poem might mean to them or the impact the poem may have on them. The exercises may encourage the client/s to develop their own writing skills in a way that will help them to explore the struggles they may be experiencing or have experienced in the past. In addition to the detailed review of a number of poems the anthology provides an annotated bibliography of poems on the theme of each section and how best they might be used. This is a really useful resource and opens the therapist/poetry practitioner to many potential ways of working with poetry for therapeutic or developmental purposes. Each section ends with the reprinting in full of a selection of poems on the theme.
Send us your experiences on poetry therapy, whatever they may be. We would love to hear from you.
Coming Events
Lapidus Online Course The next start date for the online course is 12th September and it is booking now. www.profwritingacademy.com
Annual IPTN Conference
Update
‘Getting in touch with the inner self through the creative arts’ Join us for our annual IPTN conference in beautiful Tinakilly House, Co. Wicklow. The theme of this year’s Poetry Therapy Conference is how to find our inner self through the creative arts of poetry, music and film. Our keynote speaker, Dr Noreen Giffney, will consider how visual culture texts offer each of us an opportunity to be with our own thoughts and feelings while watching a film or visiting an exhibition. Excerpts from selected films will be screened followed by group discussions. Facilitators during the day will also include Carol Boland, Theresa Kelly and Shelley Tracey. Full details will appear on our website in due course. When: Sun 9th October’16 Where: Tinakilly House Hotel, Rathnew, Co. Wicklow Time: 9.30am to 5pm Cost: €70 (€60 for IPTN members) Lunch can be purchased at the hotel bar. CPD: 7 hrs Email us to secure your place: irishpoetrytherapynetwork @gmail.com
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IPTN held two poetry therapy sessions at the beginning of the year. The first was situated in an attic room overlooking Gartan lake, Co. Donegal, where the sound of lapping water added to the atmosphere of a successful afternoon. The second session was held just outside Hollyfort Village, Co. Wexford, where 14 participants experienced poetry therapy in a relaxed group setting in the countryside. Further PT sessions will be arranged throughout the year and details will be advertised on our blog and on Facebook. A minimal fee of €10 is charged with a reduced rate of €5 for IPTN members. All those interested in poetry therapy are welcome to attend.