Writing Away the Demons: Stories of Creative Coping Through Transformative Writing - Softcover

Reiter, Sherry; Johnson, David Read

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0878393293 ISBN 13: 9780878393299

Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2009

Synopsis

Transformative Writing as evidenced by the diversity of writers who contribute to this ground-breaking collection comes from specific experiences, insights, stories and metaphors, and through those specifics, illuminates what s enduring, what's life-giving, what makes us human. Each writer in this book holds up a lantern of transformative writing to show us not just the way through the dark, but how meeting the darkness with curiosity and compassion makes life shimmer with meaning. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, founder and coordinator of Transformative Language Arts (TLA) at Goddard College

About this title

From the Author:

Sherry Reiter, PhD, director of The Creative “Righting” Center, is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), a registered poetry therapist (PTR-M/S), and registered drama therapist (RDT-BCT). Dr. Reiter entwines talk therapy with writing therapy; poetry, story, and the reclaiming of voice are dynamic healing components in her work. Sherry divides her time between writing, teaching at Touro College and Hofstra University, and private practice. At The Creative “Righting” Center, she mentors helping professionals who want to incorporate creative techniques into their work. Sherry is the coordinator of Poets-Behind-Bars, an innovative long-distance training program, in which poetry therapy trainees mentor inmates of the Indiana State Maximum Security Prison. Dr. Reiter served as president of the National Association for Poetry Therapy (1993-1995), and was president of the National Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy (1995-2005). She is the recipient of the Art Lerner Pioneer Award (2005), and the Morris Morrison Education Award (2007) for excellence in teaching and bringing poetry to marginalized populations. Sherry aspires to the beautiful words of poet Dawna Markova: to live so that which comes to us as seed / goes to the next as blossom / and that which comes to us as blossom / goes on as fruit.

Review:

Dr. Sherry Reiter, one of the pioneers in poetry therapy, is a uniquely gifted writer, practitioner, and educator. Her writing speaks to the heart in a sensitive yet disciplined manner and is compelling because it draws from real life professional experience. In essence, Dr. Reiter s artistic approach to writing is research of the highest order, filling a significant gap in the professional literature. --Nicholas Mazza, Editor of The Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education

In these remarkable stories, we bear witness to the transformation of pain into power. Sherry Reiter makes an undeniable case for writing as a way through human suffering, with case studies that are nearly archetypal. . . . A vital and necessary contribution to the literature of therapeutic writing. --Kathleen Adams, author, Journal to the Self and The Way of the Journal

There is abundant scientific evidence that expressive writing is a profound way to affect health and well-being. Writing Away the Demons: Stories of Creative Coping Through Transformative Writing is a stellar example of everyday people discovering this truth first-hand. Along with this, Dr. Reiter is keenly sensitive to the way sharing our stories reveal soul and the remarkable resilience of human beings. --John Fox, author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-making President, The Institute for Poetic Medicine

In these remarkable stories, we bear witness to the transformation of pain into power. Sherry Reiter makes an undeniable case for writing as a way through human suffering, with case studies that are nearly archetypal. . . . A vital and necessary contribution to the literature of therapeutic writing. --Kathleen Adams, author, Journal to the Self and The Way of the Journal

Dr. Sherry Reiter, one of the pioneers in poetry therapy, is a uniquely gifted writer, practitioner, and educator. Her writing speaks to the heart in a sensitive yet disciplined manner and is compelling because it draws from real life professional experience. In essence, Dr. Reiter s artistic approach to writing is research of the highest order, filling a significant gap in the professional literature. --Nicholas Mazza, Editor of The Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education

About this edition

• Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0878393293
• ISBN 13: 9780878393299
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 281