61st Annual Meeting

October 18 - 25, 2014

Workshop 41 (ticket)

Writing From the Heart: Methods for Therapeutic Poetry With At-Risk Youth

Participants gain appreciation for the complementary and integrative role of teen writing and shared expression with other evidence-based treatment modalities (such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy). One successful teen writing program, Pongo, illustrates the methodology implemented in psychiatric hospitals and juvenile justice facilities. Participants learn how poetry provides a unique youth engagement strategy that may enrich self-awareness, understanding of emotions, camaraderie, and the development of coping skills to use in the future. How to facilitate a poetry program in individual treatment or with in-patient, residential, and corrections programs serving at-risk youth is discussed.