Travels begin!
After weeks of planning and liaision, my fellowship travels have begun! I flew into NYC and then travelled onward to New Haven, Connecticut. By the time I arrived I calculated that I'd been travelling for around 19 hours non-stop, and I was feeling quite disorientated as a result!
I spent a couple of days acclimatising and adjusting to the time difference before I had any meetings. I'd recommend other Fellows to also allow themselves some settling in time after travelling long haul, I was so pleased that my schedule had worked out this way. The day after I arrived I stumbled across a play which ended up being really relevant to my fellowship- Elders & Newcomers at Long Wharf Theatre https://www.longwharf.org/. This is part of the New Haven Play Project, and the performance was the culmination of a year of theatre workshops and storytelling sessions with Long Wharf's 'community partners'. In this case the community partners were The Towers (residential community for older people to 'live their best lives) and IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services). What resulted was a lovely and moving piece of inclusive theatre which empowered people from The Towers and IRIS to tell their stories and express themselves through theatre. There were themes of 'home' and 'belonging' throughout the performance.
I have spent some time exploring New Haven and the beautiful Yale buildings. In the Yale Center for British Art I encountered a Nicola Hicks sculpture, 'Brave', of a person encased by a bear.
The bear reminded me of the sort of archetypal resource figures that trauma therapists will often encourage clients to develop during EMDR therapy. Identifying symbolic figures that represent nurture, protection and wisdom is often immensely helpful for individuals who are processing traumatic memories. I thought the image of being enveloped by a bear could be a wonderfully protective resource.
Following my settling in period I had my first Fellowship meetings yesterday at the Post Traumatic Stress Center (PTSC) http://www.ptsdcenter.com/which was set up by Hadar Lubin and David Read Johnson. The centre uses dramatherapy alongside other forms of psychotherapy and trauma-processing therapies. The centre believes it is important to address the traumatic material at a early stage and they do generally do not promote an initial stage of stabilisation/grounding in their work. It was interesting to hear Dr Johnson's reflections on the varying trends in trauma-therapy over time; whether or not to directly address traumatic material (and at what stage), and the notion of 're-traumatising', are significant areas of debate within the trauma field. Over coming days I will be spending time taking part in their Miss Kendra programme, a schools-based preventative approach to toxic stress.
The PTSC is housed in an amazing building (a former fire station) and they make great use of symbolism and artwork throughout. As you approach the building you encounter a steel beam that was originally part of the World Trade Center. Apparently a local artist spontaneously added the sculpture of a bird, to the surprise of the clinicians who arrived at work the next day.
At the base is a plaque that reads:
'After Our World Collapses Truth Still Stands
Dedicated to all victims of violence
And those who come to their aid'
I spent a couple of days acclimatising and adjusting to the time difference before I had any meetings. I'd recommend other Fellows to also allow themselves some settling in time after travelling long haul, I was so pleased that my schedule had worked out this way. The day after I arrived I stumbled across a play which ended up being really relevant to my fellowship- Elders & Newcomers at Long Wharf Theatre https://www.longwharf.org/. This is part of the New Haven Play Project, and the performance was the culmination of a year of theatre workshops and storytelling sessions with Long Wharf's 'community partners'. In this case the community partners were The Towers (residential community for older people to 'live their best lives) and IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services). What resulted was a lovely and moving piece of inclusive theatre which empowered people from The Towers and IRIS to tell their stories and express themselves through theatre. There were themes of 'home' and 'belonging' throughout the performance.
I have spent some time exploring New Haven and the beautiful Yale buildings. In the Yale Center for British Art I encountered a Nicola Hicks sculpture, 'Brave', of a person encased by a bear.
Following my settling in period I had my first Fellowship meetings yesterday at the Post Traumatic Stress Center (PTSC) http://www.ptsdcenter.com/which was set up by Hadar Lubin and David Read Johnson. The centre uses dramatherapy alongside other forms of psychotherapy and trauma-processing therapies. The centre believes it is important to address the traumatic material at a early stage and they do generally do not promote an initial stage of stabilisation/grounding in their work. It was interesting to hear Dr Johnson's reflections on the varying trends in trauma-therapy over time; whether or not to directly address traumatic material (and at what stage), and the notion of 're-traumatising', are significant areas of debate within the trauma field. Over coming days I will be spending time taking part in their Miss Kendra programme, a schools-based preventative approach to toxic stress.
The PTSC is housed in an amazing building (a former fire station) and they make great use of symbolism and artwork throughout. As you approach the building you encounter a steel beam that was originally part of the World Trade Center. Apparently a local artist spontaneously added the sculpture of a bird, to the surprise of the clinicians who arrived at work the next day.
'After Our World Collapses Truth Still Stands
Dedicated to all victims of violence
And those who come to their aid'
