Working with Metaphor - Institute for Drama Therapy: October workshop (NYC)

[Guest guest]

The Institute for Drama TherapyPresentsThe Imperative in Containing Trauma: Metaphor as Heroic MediatorOctober 17, 2009Facilitated by Nash, LCAT, and Wise, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT3,000

years or more ago, men had no conception of those limits which we

accept as dividing the world of actuality from to world of imagination.

The limits of human and superhuman, material and immaterial were but

dimly realized. There was something in common between God and men and

the beasts of the field and all growing things, and the pathway between

the living and the dead...every stream and oak and mountain was the

habitation of a spiriual being whose nature was on the borderline

between the divine and partook of both. And so weak was the sense of

identity, that with a touch of magic it was felt that the barrier might

be passes, and a man might become a wolf or a serpent of a hoopoe or a

purple lilly. He might renew his youth: he might be raised from the

dead...like Melampous, he might understand the language of all living creatures...In childhood, we know all these feelings.

- E. Bradford, (1963) Ulysses Found While

working with clients and patients who have experienced the multiple

ruptures of attachment caused by traumatic experience, therapists often

find themselves wrestling with a sense of overwhelm, disconnection, or

extra-ordinary living. It is the nature of trauma to destabilize

everyone in its path. Developing a safe environment for essential

containment of affect and memory requires approaching trauma work

within a multi-dimensional framework.Engaging

metaphor as the mediator between the devastating sensorial memory of

trauma and the explicit verbal narrative of "what happened" allows a

bridging between fragmented parts of the self to occur. Within the

metaphor, opportunities for distancing, safe management of affect,

expansion of possibilities, explorations of meaning and many other

crucial aspects of psychological and emotional healing may develop. To

leap directly form the sensorial to the cognitive is to bypass the

necessary work of development which lends substance to transformation.This

work requires courage on the part of both the client and therapist, as

there journey together does not rely upon formulaic devices, but

rather, the open-ended engagement of imagination, empathy and creative

expression. Metaphor heroically reaches into the heart of the trauma,

symbolically transforms the unspeakable into a more manageable 'other'

and provides psychic fuel for 'ordinary' living.This workshop will provide the

opportunity to explore the role of the use of metaphor as the mediating

instrument between that which was lost and that which is found - a

return to the wisdom of childhood when 'play' was our work.Join Us AtJudson Church239 Street10:00am to 5:30pmProfessionals: $120Full-time Students: $65CEUs: 6.5 hrsTo register email dramatherapyinstitutefordramatherapy or call