Re:Dear Interested Doctor (in art therapy)

I also had the idea of fixing the problem before it became a problem. For 9 years I taught a poetry writing class. The students were mostly elementary age (grades 1-6, ages 6-12). They taught me that they had a story to tell, often NO ONE listened to them, they considered their story important, they did not wish to be spoon fed nursery rhymes, they could handle poems with high emotional content (kept the subject matter age appropriate). Briefly, the format of the class: I read and dialogued with the students poems that contained 1 aspect of poetry//I described the new form or idea that we would work on//they wrote (hopefully) poems that contained the new idea//then we shared until time ran out. I introduced a poem as different from other writing this way: A poem tells a story using all the sensory details available, but just like a tree needs the unseen roots to live, a poem needs feelings to be trully alive. Here is your (therapist) opportunity to discover what cannot be said directly. I hope this idea helps you see how trully dynamic poetry can be as a writing therapy.

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