2011 NADT Conference Countdown Blog

October 25, 2011

Will You Stand With Me in the Fire?

This is a provocative invitation. An injunction, a command. We invite each other into the dangerous territory of relationship. Fire implies pain, transformation, alchemy. Do we burn for a purpose? Will you join me in this crucible, this place of suffering and hope? We take each other's hand, each other's gaze, and move into the flame. I wonder if you will reveal yourself to me and I to you. What will we endure and how will we fare? Suffering does not always yield forgiveness, or enlightenment.

Nearing the end of my second year in the Firehouse, otherwise known as the Post Traumatic Stress Center, New Haven, I am coming through the fire which has forged my identity as a drama therapist/trauma therapist. I came as green wood, flexible, untried. My instrument has been refined through an encounter with fear and pain, my clients' and my own, unlike any I had experienced before.

A google search on “How to Fire Harden Wood Spears” yields the following. “Fire hardening has been used for ages to produce primitive edged weapons such as spears. Hardened wood was used as an emergency substitute for flint weapons during the Stone Age. The skills necessary to create a fire-hardened wood spear are taught in survival courses, making this age-old process useful in emergency situations.”

When we are in a fight for our survival we are asked to open ourselves to the pain of labor. We loose something in the exchange. We are disillusioned. We gain a deepened understanding of what it is to be human, the scope, breadth, depth, and possibility. The wonder, the awe. Victim and perpetrator exist in the same universe, a universe which, according to Tantric philosophy (to quote fellow drama therapist Mira Rozenberg), says yes to everything. 

I believe that it is this understanding that we ultimately offer our clients. A torch in the darkness, fire contained and utilized, we burn our passion brightly. Jean d'Arc, another beautiful borderline who went up in flames (to borrow Cecilia Dintino's hypothesis), is my companion in this journey. Which is not to suggest that we give in to our temptation to martyr ourselves to the work. But like all great art, and those lives which have become legend, we can benefit by metaphor. I go to battle with the trauma that holds my clients' minds captive. This requires my courage and perseverance, tolerating the intensity of proximity, and at times, leaves me burnt out. After the fire, water, to revive the senses. What is your well? I drink deeply in community, in mothering, in the beauty of art and nature, and in meditation, the still center where I expand infinitely, loose my sense of significance, where all is one. These are the gifts that fire has brought me. 

What has it brought you?

Emily Burkes-Nossiter, MA

October 25, 2011

The President's Masked Ball!

This year's theme “will you stand with me in the fire?” really got me thinking about flames and shadows, and the way that both flames and shadows dance and sway and change all the time. If you stand with me in the fire, then our shadows are there, too.

All day long we will attend workshops, igniting our drama therapy passions, interests, questions, skepticisms, queries, suspicions and love; but this is only one side of us. So this year, the President's Reception also has a theme! Shadows, Alter-egos, Other Selves.

Bring your best (or your worst), with a mask, a costume, or just a mischievous grin and revel with the other sides of your comrades, colleagues and friends. There will be entertainment: A Mysterious Masked Man with oh-so-much-talent!

Worried about packing a beloved mask along with you on your travels? Never fear! There will be a simple mask making table at the conference, so that you may discover your other self in-the-moment.

The President's Masked Ball: Shadows, Alter-egos, Other Selves
Saturday, November 5th, 7pm. Gold Rush Ballroom.

I can't wait to see you there, no matter which “you” you are!

Mira, Conference Co-Chair
     (and Max, her mustachioed alter-ego)

October 17, 2011

Five Things Drama Therapists Might Not Know About Being Partnered to a Drama Therapist

As Mark Stone, I am the husband of Abigail Stone, drama therapist extraordinaire. I don’t pretend to speak for everyone who is partnered to a drama therapist. With three years of experience, thought, I think I’ve probably got a few things to share.

Let’s read.

One: We’re Pretty Good At This, Too

I don’t know how to say this without potentially belittling all the hard work and education you’ve gone through, but chances are pretty good that your partner has picked up a lot of what you do. I am eternally astounded – and eternally astounding Abby – with the drama therapy stuff I know, whether I’m talking up Developmental Transformations to people I meet or spotting signs of trauma in my middle school students.

What this really means is don’t be afraid to talk to us about your work, at least, as much as you’re allowed to. Chances are, what you do is part of what we love about you. Best of all, we understand a lot of your jargon, and might even be curious to learn more.

Two: Ritual Romance

Man, this is probably the best part of being with a drama therapist.

Romance thrives on rituals. From little things like our innumerable in-jokes that always seem to occur at proscribed junctures (I’m sure you’ve got them, too) to bigger things, like rituals for dispelling tension, clearing away the past, and separating home from work, rituals can be really important in making a relationship work.

I practically guarantee it that we love it when you bring a sense of the ritual and the sacred to our relationship. It makes love so much more fun, and provides us with tools that most people have never even heard of.

Three: We Hate It When You Do That

No, I’m not talking about that thing you do with your teeth when you’re nervous, or your habit of leaving your socks draped all over the furniture (no, wait, that’s my habit). What I’m talking about is the dark side of being partnered to a therapist.  When you’re at your worst and we’re at our worst (funny how it seems to happen at the same time, isn’t it?), you’re probably just better at it. You know how to remind us of all our failings and invalidate our feelings with all sorts of awkward truths about our baggage while expertly deflecting our attempts to do the same thing to you.

In other words? Your therapy training has probably left you really good at being really bad. Quit it.

Four: We Love It When You Do That

On the other hand, as a therapist you are really good at solving problems. You know how to cut through the pedestrian BS and find out what people really want and really need. You’re good at shifting contexts and building alliances, making teams out of troubled families, divided couples, and, of course, yourself and your individual clients.

We love it when you bring those skills to our relationship, because they work. We like never having to be alone when we’re facing the tough stuff in life, because you know how to make us feel like you’ve got our backs. We like having happier and more harmonious relationships because you’re good at helping us cooperate to find solutions.

Five: Play!

In typical blogger fashion, I have saved the best – or at least most striking – for last.

Drama therapists are good at playing. Entire branches of drama and expressive arts therapies are dedicated to play. You guys know how to have fun, turning the mundane into the extraordinary and disasters into adventures. Chances are, if we’re with you, it’s because we enjoy it. We long for a sense of fun and adventure, and you are happy to provide it.

Don’t hesitate to share your exciting forms of therapeutic play. Playback Theatre, for example, makes for a great date night (and, as it turned out in our case, pre-wedding event). Masking can be a great way to bond, and when you’re done you have your Halloween costumes ready to go. We love you, we love your work, and we want to have fun.
So keep on playing with us and we’ll keep on playing with you for a good, long time.

Bio: Mark L. S. Stone is an Oakland middle school teacher, a writer, and an enormous nerd. If you want to take a walk on the geek side, check out his science fiction, fantasy, roleplaying, and writing blog at the Burning Zeppelin Experience. He has been partnered to therapist Abigail Stone for seven years and married for a little over a year.

October 16, 2011

The Community is Why I'm Here

The last time I attended a drama therapy conference I was still a student, just starting to look for a practicum site.  Organizing the AV needs of the conference meant that I got to work with most of the  presenters, by email and in person. Each workshop was to me a journey of the imagination, trying to predict just what knowledge I'd need in my upcoming work, what techniques and clinical prisms would help me help whatever clients lay ahead.

Now I'm coming off of my first month as a post-graduate therapist and care manager with a growing caseload, trying to juggle groups, individuals, families and teams of social services personnel, with no other drama therapist on site. My imagination has been cluttered with very real, very specific questions. ­ I have a much better conception of what I don't know. While I am still looking forward to a few workshops esoteric to my current responsibilities, for the most part I am looking for new techniques to try and reminders of those parts of my education which have faded for lack of a concrete experience with which to connect. And I look forward to drawing upon those relationships I began three years ago, by email and in person with presenters, to help me help my clients.

So should you find me running frantically about, grumbling to myself about uncooperative laptop connections, overloaded circuits or last minute requests, feel free to play it back to me later or even joke with me in the moment. The technology is merely a means of connecting me; the community is why I'm there.

 -- Max Bernstein, MFT Intern
Therapist and Care Manager at Edgewood Center for Children and Families
AV Chair of the 2008 and 2011 NADT Conferences

October 6, 2011

The Fire of Old Age

As I think on this year’s theme, I am struck by its particular applications to the field of geriatrics, the population in which I work and am deeply passionate about.

Many thoughts, themes and questions jump to mind. However, the question that most stands out is: How does the “fire” of “old age” look and feel in the therapeutic encounter?  Our society’s myopic view of aging suggests that there is little “fire” left in in our aging population. The false dichotomy exists that the young are full of life and “fire” and our elders are just the opposite. Though fire may present differently in older adults, it is a falsehood to believe it doesn’t burn!

Through the wonderful work of the drama and art therapists on staff at bishop Hucles nursing home, I witness daily the passion, strength and fire that continues to exist and burn in older adults – often brighter and brighter  – as their ego strengthens from the wonderful creative arts group work happening!
The most prevalent challenge is how to communicate about the fiery work of our elders to others within the medical model of the nursing home industry. It is an exciting and worthwhile challenge, and one about which I am all fired up!

I look forward to hearing all about the fires and challenges with the many populations with whom our community works.

See you in San Francisco!

Mary Hershkowitz, MA, RDT, LCAT

October 1, 2011

Join me in “The Emerald City by the Sea”

The annual conference is right around the corner and I am getting ready to book my flight to San Francisco. I’ve been looking at the conference workshops and I am so excited to see the amazing range of what is offered. Before we even begin, I want to applaud the presenters and say thank you for offering your creativity and hard work!

If you haven’t decided whether or not to come, please, please consider it! The site is right in the heart of the city, the room rate is really, really good and it’s CALIFORNIA!!! Especially all you centraI “regionites” – join me in what I consider “the emerald city by the sea”! We will have our regional luncheon for the second year in a row and continue to build our connections and share our stories of work and wonder in the world of DT!

I joined the NADT at the age of 50. I had never been a joiner. I just finished a term on the NADT board of directors, something I could never have seen myself doing 20 years ago. I was always a “loner” artist; joining with others for intense periods of co-creation (like doing a play) but I always kept myself apart, somehow. I thought I was a snob and anti-social. Maybe it was just that I had never found my “group.”

Going to a DT conference, I feel part of this group of people who combine both “brainy” and “zany” in perfect measure and in the service of healing and transformation. It’s so reaffirming and I know the workshops will inspire my creativity while they blow my mind. I can’t wait for John’s keynote address!

I certainly look forward to seeing my CIIS chums (class of ’05) and to diving into the cleansing “fire” of the conference energy –burning off the clouds of doubt and restoring clarity of purpose to my DT practice!

See you in San Fran!

Liz Muckley, Chicago, Central Regional Representative

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