THE WORDSWORTH CENTER
for Growth and Healing


Education Enrichment for:

counselors, creative arts therapists, educators
expressive therapists, health advisors, hospice workers
librarians, marriage&family therapists, mediators, ministers,
poets, professors, psychiatrists, psychologists, school counselors,
social workers, teachers, writers, youth counselors, journal keepers, counselors, creative arts therapists, educators, expressive therapists, health advisors


THE WORDSWORTH CENTER
Poetry Therapy Training Programs

The CENTER offers three educational programs, each of which is consistent with the training and supervision requirements for credentials conferred by the National Association for Poetry Therapy. The diligent learner can complete the 440-hour certification requirement in a two-year period.

Each of the two-year programs includes attendance at the annual summer Intensive and provides directed reading, workbook exercises, peer group experience, and supervised practicum geared to the student's interest and expertise.

THE FIRST YEAR provides an overview of poetry therapy history and theory, an introduction to essential learnings in the field, and direction in formulating and initiating practicum experience. 

THE SECOND YEAR focuses on advanced techniques in creative writing and action poetry therapy, use of diverse language media, and strategies of applied literature for specific populations and issues. 

INTENSIVES each year offer learners the opportunity to explore selected topics in depth while interacting and participating in peer and supervision groups with professional colleagues from across the country and around the globe. Each annual Intensive reprises essential elements of poetry therapy and also features new topics and perspectives. 

Credentials

The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) designates two forms of poetry therapy: developmental and clinical, and confers credentials on successful applicants. The Certified Poetry Therapist (CPT) is a poet, writer, teacher, librarian, or other qualified professional with a bachelor's degree or beyond, who works with the healthy aspects of the personality and is trained to recognize and manage or refer troubled individuals to a primary clinician. 

The Registered Poetry Therapist (RPT) holds a master's or doctoral degree in psychotherapy, counseling or a comparable discipline. 

The CPT completes 440 hours, the RPT completes 975 hours of supervised training.

NAPT is the membership organization for people interested in poetry therapy. Membership benefits include the quarterly Journal of Poetry Therapy, "Museletter," reduced fees for annual conferences. The Center recommends NAPT membership to all and requires it of trainees. For more information, contact NAPT at: 

NAPT
525 S.W. 5th. Street, Suite A
Des Moines, Iowa 50309-4501
Toll-free 1-866-844-NAPT
Phone: (515) 282-8192
Fax: (515) 282-9117

FACULTY OF THE WORDSWORTH CENTER

Kenneth P. Gorelick, MD, RPT, has been the Director of Continuing Medical Education at a major teaching hospital for the past 25 years and has conducted a private practice of psychotherapy and poetry therapy. He is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University and has taught poetry therapy in the graduate programs of The Catholic University of America and Lesley College in Cambridge, Mass. A past president of the National Association for Poetry Therapy and the NAPT Foundation, he has presented workshops nationally and internationally. He serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Poetry Therapy and Arts in Psychotherapy.
e-mail Ken Gorelick 


Peggy Osna Heller, PhD, LICSW, RPT, is a Diplomate in clinical social work. She has taught courses in poetry therapy at The Catholic University School of Social Service in Washington, D.C. and at Lesley College. She serves as adjunct faculty for the Union Institute Graduate School. A lecturer and workshop leader nationally, she is an executive officer on the board of The Bibliotherapy Round Table, is a past president of the National Association for Poetry Therapy, and the NAPT Foundation. She has held poetry therapy positions at hospitals and treatment centers and founded the Poetry Therapy Training Institute.
e-mail Peggy Heller 

Ken Gorelick and Peggy Heller are NAPT-approved mentor/supervisors.

THE WORDSWORTH CENTER

Poetry Therapy Training 

For therapists, counselors, clergy, teachers, writers, poets, librarians, and other lovers of language as applied to growth and healing of self, relationships and community

The Center offers professional education illuminated by poetry, story, journal, creative and reflective writing provides didactic and experiential learning, supervised practice and collegial interchange for those wishing to enhance skills and/or professional credentials

Poetry therapy is older than literacy. Before written language, bards and storytellers wove the beauty of language into individual and collective experience, giving voice to pain and activating the healing process. Eastern cultures have long used poetry to express what is otherwise inexpressible; poetic utterance is most prized. The psalms too reflect this timeless understanding. At the threshold of east and west, the Greeks in their worship of Apollo respected the connection between medicine and poet

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