Virtual Training Series

Amidst the painful reality of the pervasiveness and persistence of racial injustice in United States history and society, is it possible for deeper insights and new levels of empowerment to result from engaging with carefully selected poems as part of a professionally facilitated process? This workshop, designed and facilitated jointly by an African American Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator and a white Registered Poetry Therapist, both of whom have extensive experience building hope and resilience in contexts of social suffering, uses methods derived from biblio/poetry therapy to support people of all races and backgrounds in becoming more aware of difficult truths about the historical and ongoing trauma of racism and in discovering new wellsprings within ourselves and each other to move beyond despair. By the end of the workshop, participants will have become familiar with a variety of poems germane to the realities of race and, through a respectful process of reflection and sharing, will be in touch with wider possibilities for mutual recognition and freedom.

Shanee Stepakoff, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and registered poetry therapist, holds a MFA in creative writing, and is currently completing a second PhD, in English, at the University of Rhode Island, where in Spring 2021 she will teach an undergraduate course on The Short Story. She was the psychologist for the UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone for over two years. She also spent two years as psychologist/trainer for the Center for Victims of Torture, first in Guinea and later in Jordan. Additionally she has provided training and consultation to trauma treatment programs in Liberia, Cambodia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, as well as in a variety of settings in the United States. Dr. Stepakoff is the author or co-author of nearly two dozen scholarly articles and book chapters, and has won several professional and literary honors. Her first book, a collection of poems about the Sierra Leone Civil War, is due out from Bucknell University Press in June 2021. Dr. Stepakoff is a graduate of the two-year training program in Biblio/Poetry Therapy at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, DC, is credentialed as a mentor/supervisor by the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy, has served on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Poetry Therapy, and was the 2019 recipient of IAPT’s Outstanding Education Award for leadership in advanced training programs and academic graduate studies in poetry therapy. She has taught poetry therapy courses in graduate programs at Lesley University and California Institute of Integral Studies and has been on the teaching faculty of the Kint Institute since Spring 2016.

For the past fifteen years, Rev. Dr. Alice V. Thompson has been the Spiritual Care Director/Coordinator at Calvert Health Medical Center (Maryland). She is also a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator (CAPF) credentialed by the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy (IFBPT). In 1996 she completed a rigorous, two-year training program in Biblio/Poetry Therapy at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (D. C. Commission on Mental Health Services), under the co-directorship of the pioneering Registered Poetry Therapists Dr. Kenneth Gorelick (a Harvard-trained psychiatrist) and Ruth Monser (a registered nurse). She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Poetry Therapy, has presented at NAPT conferences, and for several years chaired NAPT’s Diversity Committee.

Dr. Thompson is a graduate of Howard University School of Divinity’s Doctoral Program. Her many earlier and/or further credentials include Pastor of Covenant Christian Community, Clinical Member of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Care, Member of the Board of Professional Chaplains, and Certified Bibliotherapist. Dr. Thompson has served as chaplain and bibliotherapist to various hospitals and hospices in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. Her work is informed by her particular expertise with African American families and communities yet at the same time has addressed the spiritual needs of a wide variety of cultures and faith traditions. She has served as faculty member of Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life and at George Washington University’s Program for the Elderly. Dr. Thompson devoted several years to compiling an African American History Collection titled “We’ve Come This Far by Faith.” It has been featured several times in The Washington Post and other newspapers, as has her work on the creative uses of biblio/poetry therapy with persons and communities struggling to overcome adversity and maximize strengths.

Course Objectives:

• Select appropriate preexisting poems as a tool for building awareness of racial justice issues.
• Discover two different expressive writing exercises as a tool to counter despair that can arise when working on racial justice issues.
• Identify two poetry therapy methods for non-clinical populations to support greater awareness of racial justice issues in US society.

Agenda

Content Level: Beginning/Introductory

Target Audience: Psychologists, Psychoanalysts, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, MFTs, Counselors, Creative Arts Therapists

CE credits available: 3 CEs ($20). Click here for CE language.

Cancellation Policy: All registrations are non-refundable.

Certificates: Certificates are available following course completion at www.ceuregistration.com

Disclosure Statement: Shanee & Alice have no relevant financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.

CEs can be purchased through R. Cassidy Seminars.

For questions or concerns, please contact info@kintinstitute.org

Virtual sessions have necessitated a shift in trauma informed care in order assure safe, responsible practice in unconventional therapeutic spaces. What happens when the theoretical third person in sessions becomes the literal person in the room? This workshop will use a single case study to explore and discuss how to safely adapt trauma informed interventions to include caregivers/family members who have shared traumatic experiences with our patients/clients. It will address the importance of creating safe transitional spaces in order to help our clients re-story reenactments and process relational trauma while minimizing the risk of retriggering caregivers/family members with PTSD.

Missy Hall, MA, LCAT, MT-BC, has over 25 years’ experience working with children and families in New York City. She is currently the music therapist at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia’s Family PEACE Trauma Treatment Clinic where she provides mental health services to children ages birth to five years of age (0-5), and their primary caregivers, who have been exposed to various forms of trauma including violence and abuse. Missy received her Master of Arts in Music Therapy from New York University and in addition holds an advanced/professional certificate in Classical Acting from Stella Adler Conservatory/NYC. She also holds advanced training in Vibrational Medicine/Sound Therapy and is currently pursuing additional advanced training/certifications in Child Parent Psychotherapy with Dr. Ana Rodriguez and Ways of Seeing Dance Movement psychotherapy with Dr. Suzi Tortora. Missy specializes in attachment theory/relational trauma and employs a multi-modal approach to her practice. Her work is centered around Viola Spolin’s improvisational tenant of “Yes, And!”; acknowledging a client’s state of being in the moment while focusing upon expanding and enhancing their authentic self in the music and beyond.

Course Objectives:

• Appraise current clinical practices with trauma populations including modality strengths and weaknesses
• Evaluate barriers to treating patients/clients with complex trauma in virtual settings including barriers to modality specific interventions which trigger PTSD
• Identify additional modalities which help foster safe therapeutic spaces and minimize relational trauma triggers
• Integrate multi-modal interventions to help promote flexible, safe and ethical clinical practice

Agenda

Content Level: Advanced

Target Audience: Psychologists, Psychoanalysts, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, MFTs, Counselors, Substance Abuse Counselors, Creative Arts Therapists

CE credits available: 2 CEs ($15). Click here for CE language.

Cancellation Policy: All registrations are non-refundable.

Certificates: Certificates are available following course completion at www.ceuregistration.com

Disclosure Statement: Missy has no relevant financial or nonfinancial relationships to disclose.

CEs can be purchased through R. Cassidy Seminars.

For questions or concerns, please contact info@kintinstitute.org

Jessica Lochte, MA, AthR, R-DMT, LPC, is a dance/movement therapist and body-based counsellor. Originally from Germany, she received her training in the United States and has worked in North America, Europe, East Africa, and Zealandia. A Kint Institute graduate, she gained experience working in inpatient psychiatry and with refugees and asylum seekers in community settings. She currently resides in New Zealand offering individual and group therapy to survivors of sexual abuse, harassment, and violence, as well as to private clients.

Before starting her MA in dance/movement therapy, Jessica worked as a research assistant at Columbia University in the City of New York looking at the impact of threatening national identity and its effects on group-based guilt/ shame, anti-Semitism, and reparation attitudes. Over the past 8 years, she has built on the results, focusing on the embodied experience of trauma and how it intersects with culture, history, race, gender, sexual orientation, national identity, and language. Her passion for the topic lead her into co-teaching and facilitating courses and workshops on diversity, cultural humility, and cultural communication at Columbia College Chicago and into collaborating with spiritual leaders and health care professionals in East Africa.