Poetry As a Tool For Wellness Facilitator Training
During 2024 the Poetry as a Tool for Wellness (PTW) Facilitator Training program leaders worked with a number of Texas groups and individuals. One of these opportunities was a chance to offer continuing education to the Texas Peer Support Specialists through online training offered to participants state-wide. We are excited to have 10 facilitators trained to offer healing poetry as part of their work in peer support AND an opportunity to train 24 more facilitators in the coming year!
Another group that our PTW team worked with was Circle Up in Austin. Below is a letter from the members of that group about their work and how they came to incorporate PTW within the programs they offer.
Circle Up is a giving community gathering together to serve justice-involved people using curriculums focused on healing trauma, processing grief and fostering wellness. Amongst our growing tool kit of educational, inspirational and transformative curriculum, it's an honor for us to carry Poetry as a Tool for Wellness into Texas Dept of Criminal Justice prisons.
In 2019, Martha Koock-Ward, lover of poetry and believer in its power to heal, facilitated a Poetry For Wellness session at the Hilltop Unit in Gatesville. It was her vision that Poetry as a Tool for Wellness be used regularly in women’s prisons around Central Texas, and though Martha passed away in 2023, Circle Up is honored to play a part in keeping her vision alive.
With honor and respect,
Tina, Kris, Rhonda, Ashley, Laura, Carol & Julie
The PTW Training Train is Rolling!!
As we close out the year we are delighted to report that Poetry as A Tool for Wellness (our 8-week Peer Facilitator Training series in Poetic Medicine) is gaining steam and coursing along through the energy of its participants! With generous support from The Office of Behavioral Health Services at the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, PTW will double their offerings of Trainings to Certified Peer Specialists and Family Partners in 2025. These are all individuals with a lived experience of mental health challenges who offer their expertise and support to their peers on the path to recovery. They receive training from the state office for their vital support role and they are responding very heartily to incorporating the expressive art of Poetic Medicine in their tool kit.
In addition to offering PTW as Peer Facilitators, over 50% of graduates have stepped into Apprentice roles so that they may offer the Training Series as well! This increases our capacity to extend even more widely across the state and reach many more individuals through Poetry as a Tool for Wellness. Our team of Trainers is delighted to be working shoulder to shoulder as mentors to this dedicated and enthusiastic group of Apprentices.
Since every state has funding support for mental health and substance abuse Peer Specialists, we envision bringing this model beyond our state borders as our capacity grows, perhaps through attendance/presentations at regional or national conferences.
Speaking of “beyond our borders”, another recent opportunity that will kick off in early January is bringing the PTW Facilitator Training series to health care workers in Singapore! Following the moving and impactful series of workshops delivered by John Fox in partnership with SingHealth in Singapore, Dr. Joanne Ngeow received funding based on her testimony and request to bring an online training series to health care workers whose appetite was whetted to learn more about incorporating this expressive art into their own lives and medical practice. Sharon Lowe and Bindu Lanka are excited to deliver this series throughout January and February 2025. This will complete Bindu’s apprenticeship requirements as well as certify several health care workers in Singapore!
Commentaires