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Word Power and Poetry Therapy
with Geri Chavis
This workshop will focus on the power of words and the loaded, idiosyncratic meanings that words have for us as individuals because of our particular family of origin and ethnic background. We will experience several ways in which varied meanings and connotations evoked by the same word in the context of poetry therapy can foster insight, growth, and support and encourage us to speak our truths while honoring difference.
We will also explore how special words linked to our ethnic backgrounds carry meanings and emotions that, when shared, help us connect with others, help others understand "where we are coming from," and help us grow in awareness of our own identity and patterns of behavior.
During our time together, we will read and discuss a few poems directly dealing with the power of words and others containing connotatively "loaded" words and/or words or phrasing that are ambiguous in meaning and thus likely to evoke a range of diverse reactions. We will also create a variety of written pieces involving collaboration, guided imagery, mapping, story-telling, and dialoguing techniques. A small segment of time will be devoted to group members' sharing of their own experience, as poetry therapy facilitators, with the ways in which the focus on special words has enhanced therapeutic outcome.
About Geri Chavis: Geri Chavis, Ph.D., C.P.T., L.P. is an English professor who teaches courses in poetry/bibliotherapy, literature, women's studies, family studies and writing at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also a licensed psychologist in private practice who works with individuals, couples, groups, and families, and an NAPT-approved Mentor Supervisor of Poetry Therapy. She is a recent past Board member and NAPT Vice President who has presented a wide variety of workshops in the area of creative arts therapy, authored numerous articles and book chapters, edited the book, Family: Stories From the Interior and co-edited the forthcoming The Healing Fountain: Poetry Therapy for Life's Journey.
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