Wise advice from Cathy’s first psychodrama trainer:
“If you never make a mistake, you can’t learn.”
Photo of Cathy & Rene M. Clay (c. 1981
Staying Safe
LPTI places participants’ safety and wellbeing as our top priority. We are hopeful we may be able to open safely in October; however, we continue to monitor federal, state and local guidance on public health conditions. Should we be unable to open our doors in October, we will work online until such time as we can gather safely in person.
Notes from Cathy
Dear Psychodramateers:
Welcome to the Summer/Fall 2021 issue of Behind the Scenes at Laurel Psychodrama Training Institute (BTS-LPTI). Although LPTI has been dark over the summer, there has been lots of activity behind the scenes. A few of the special initiatives include:
- The LPTI Fitness Club – I have enjoyed exercising to Jane Fonda’s videos off and on since the 1980s; and now, a small group of LPTIers joins me every Tuesday and Friday at lunchtime for a brisk low-impact aerobic workout. I am grateful and happy to share my admiration for Jane Fonda, Academy Award-winning actor, feminist icon, social activist, fitness guru, and aging role model. And I am grateful to the exercisers who motivate and support me. What a wonderful way to capitalize on the power of social support (Hanna, 2002; SAMHSA, 1998) to initiate and sustain lifestyle or other behavioral changes.
- The LPTI Legacy Project – This summer the LPTI Organizational Team, Carley Foster, Sarah Klotz and Thomas Northrup conducted three focus groups to elicit responses and suggestions for the LPTI Legacy Project. This project is intended to distribute comprehensive training packages for teaching the 7 core subjects (History, Philosophy, Psychodrama Methodology, Sociometry, Research & Evaluation, Ethics and Related Fields) tested on the Certified Practitioner (CP) examination, as well as materials on a variety of “special topics” related to psychodrama, such as the one previewed during the focus groups.
- The focus group participants were advanced students, CPs, PATs, and TEPs with special interest and expertise in education and training. Focus group members responded to a Learning Package for a workshop called, Finding Meaning: Narratives of Transformation in Action, I debuted at the first International TELE’DRAMA Conference and subsequently refined as an LPTI Special Topic Workshop. The focus group comments have been extremely helpful by offering suggestions regarding the value, benefits, potential audiences and uses for the comprehensive Learning Packages.
Many thanks to the Focus Group participants:
Whitney Bell
Linda Bianchi
Cindy Branch
Uneeda Brewer
Kimberly Dailey
Jacqueline Fowler
Michael Gross
Tanja Lee
Jenny Salimbene
For more information about the LPTI Legacy Project and the Learning Packages, please contact me at cathynugent@verizon.net.
- Planning for the return of the LPTI Training Cohort: If public health conditions allow, we return in person in October for the 2021-2022 LPTI Training Cohort. The 9-month training (October 2021-June 2022) meets once per month (either the 2nd Wednesday or 2nd Saturday) as a closed group for a full day of training. Admission is by application and screening interview. All levels are welcome to apply; however, applicants must have attended at least one LPTI Special Topic workshop prior to joining one of the cohorts. (Click here for application)
- LPTI Special Topic Workshops: Based on responses to a survey of cohort members’ interests and recommendations from the LPTI Leadership Circle, we are putting together the schedule of Special Topics Workshops for October 2021 through June 2022 Stay tuned for some new workshops, as well as repeat presentations with new, updated content and action structures.
- Please take note of our special guest trainer, Milton Hawkins, always an LPTI favorite, who will be teaching about Psychodrama and Internal Family Systems on December 5.
- Be sure to check out the interview on the LPTI Peer Mentoring Program in this newsletter. Cintra Harbold discusses this initiative with program coordinator, Will Halm.
- Thomas Northrup, Coordinator of the LPTI Peer Reading Club, offers an update and some plans for upcoming meetings.
- Become inspired by the lovely poem offered by Laura Greer, and enjoy the talent and commitment of so many LPTIers.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported LPTI, especially during the past year when our programs had to be translated to the online platform. Special appreciation goes to the Leadership Circle–Carley Foster, Laura Greer, Will Halm, Cintra Harbold and Thomas Northrup–for ongoing commitment, support and guidance.
May we be filled with lovingkindness; may we be well!
How May I Help You Today?
Coming Up at LPTI
Wednesday, October 13 & Saturday, October 9: LPTI Cohorts form 2021-2022 begin. Find the application here/ Event Flyer
Sunday, October 24th, 9:30-5:30: Special Topic Workshop: Ethical Decision Making. Event Flyer.
Sunday, December 5, 9:30 am to 5:15 pm: Special Topic Workshop: Psychodrama & Internal Family Systems—
The Interplay of Roles & Parts, Special Guest Master Trainer: Milton Hawkins, LCSW, TEP, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Save the date! March 10-14, 2022 Psychodrama Intensive at the Blue Mountain Retreat Center in Knoxville, MD. See Flyer here.
All programs require preregistration.
Email: cathynugent@verizon.net
Phone: 410-746-7251
Cathy’s Virtual Travels in September
September 9, 2021: Turning to the Self with Kindness: Self-Compassion. Second International TELE’DRAMA Conference, Living the Dream: International Sociometry & Action in the Virtual Space (September 9-12, 2021). For information or to register: https://conference.teledrama.org/en
September 14 & September 21: Attached from the Start: Attachment Essentials & Interventions. 09/14: Attachment Theory & Experience. 09/21: Attachment Interventions. British Psychodrama Association Online Festival: Psychodrama and Sociodrama—From Roots to Shoots: Moreno to the Future (September 3-24). For information or to register: Booking here: https://www.psychodrama.org.uk/product/bpa-conference-roots-shoots-from-moreno-to-the-future/
Updates from the LPTI Peer Reading Club
LPTI’s Peer Reading Group, facilitated by Thomas Northrup, is back in session. Look out for announcements from the club about upcoming sessions. This fall, Paula Catalan, LCPC, CP/PAT, will serve as the content expert on the importance of sharing after enactments in one of our meetings occurring in October and November. Final dates TBA by September 30.
New to LPTI: Please contact Cathy to discuss your interest in the Peer Reading Club.
Updates on the Peer Mentoring Program: An interview Cintra Harbold and Will Halm
Click to view the 15-minute video interview between Cintra Harbold, a long-time LPTI student, and Will Halm, also a long-standing LPTI student and supporter, to learn more about the LPTI Mentoring Initiative. This is a special project emphasizing peer support that Will has coordinated and facilitated over the past year with the LPTI training cohort. Here are some quotes from the interview:
“One teaches to learn. For me, teaching has always been something that inspires and engages. It takes you a little deeper into what you want to do… I am excited that in LPTI there is an expansion and growth of people going towards certification, taking it and putting it into action because for me psychodrama has always been a very powerful change agent. I am glad there is another wave of people going out there and practicing it.”
From The LPTI Toolkit:
Warming Up To Directing
In June, LPTI students met with students of Paula Catalan and Sylvia Israel for our Directors’ Intensive. Eight student directors and eight general members attended along with three trainers, who gave the directors feedback. The student psychodramatists each directed a full psychodrama over the course of our two-day Zoom workshop. Knowing your colleagues, it won’t surprise you to hear that every director was successful in guiding their protagonists to a place of healing and contentment.
As a warmup to the intensive, the directors wrote about how they prepare for a psychodrama and how they would be showing up for the weekend. From slogging through the workdays until the intensive arrived, to establishing new routines to get grounded in the weeks before, everyone realized that the days leading up to any workshop always, in some way, prepare them to direct. Most people indicated that they drew confidence from their belief that psychodrama is a valuable method. Others are reassured by their experience as clinicians to hold them as they hold others. The idea that, “I’ve done this before” assuaged many students’ doubts. All student directors recognized some inner strength that allows them to direct from a place of calm. Each personal strength offered encourages the director’s psychodramatic flair and spontaneity. Some of our group’s strengths were: curiosity, intuition, mind-body connection, groundedness, the belief that we are held, practice doubling, energetic attunement, and enthusiasm for psychodrama.
Next time you direct an action structure, what strengths will you bring along?
Written by Thomas Northup
On the Green Carpet
A poem by Laura Greer
Meet you on the Green Carpet
I visited a sweat lodge with you, once.
You brought your kitchen conversation into a photograph of my childhood.
Together, we crouched, weeping, over an injured fawn on the side of a country road.
We wept for more than the broken animal. We mourned for all of humankind and for the heaviness of grief, despair, and rage. Sometimes we danced, though.
You were my sun
Others were my darkest shadows, hovering in corners: hissing and clawing.
From somewhere behind me, she looked through my eyes, revealing secrets while off to the side, he offered the wisdom of my ancestors.
We travelled to foreign lands, where you taught me the songs of a distant tribe.
In the future of my old age, I showed you my glory. You cupped your heart into the gentleness of your open palm and offered it.
We exchanged rocks and cut up paper scraps and oceans of words, sounds, and gestures.
You are me
and I am the universe
Laura Greer
Cartoon Corner
Biggie preparing scarves for the new 2021-2022 Training Cohorts.
