Attending rallies is not enough: Navigating conversations around white supremacy with our family, friends, and fellow white folks across the divide

Postponed until further notice

Facilitated by Lizzie McAdam, MA, RDT

As white people who are working to identify, understand and combat white supremacy in all of it’s many forms, it is important for us to engage with people who we know personally on all sides of the political spectrum. Attending rallies with like-minded people is a good first step and it can feel cathartic and energizing, but if the work stops here how do we truly encounter the “other side?” How does change happen? Many times opportunities for these uncomfortable, painful conversations around race and privilege exist right in our own backyards. How can you talk to a coworker, family member or friend when they make a racist comment? This forum is intended for white creative arts therapists interested in discussing when and how to have these conversations with other white folks, but is open to anyone interested in the topic. 

Lizzie McAdam, MA, RDT is the Associate Director of the ALIVE Program at the Post Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven, Connecticut, providing trauma-centered drama therapy services in both clinical and public school settings. She is also an adjunct faculty member at New York University. As a former educator-turned-drama therapist, she is interested in examining systems of power, privilege and oppression within educational settings and working with students to connect their lived experience to their learning process.

Strategizing Anti-Racist Efforts

Friday November 10th, 2017: 5:00pm EST, 4:00pm CST, 2:00pm PST
Facilitated by Nada Khashaba & Charlotte Steuter Martin, MA

This call will focus around brainstorming strategies to counter racism and white supremacy. This conversation is open to creative arts therapists and other mental health professionals from diverse racial backgrounds. The aim of the call will be to share ideas and strategies around:

 Daily bigotry and speaking up
Using our privilege to fight back
 Ways to support grassroots movements
 How to support our clients
 Forms of resistance

10 Participants Maximum

Nada Khashaba is completing her Master's in Creative Arts Therapies at Concordia University. She/they are currently writing heuristic research on her cultural learning experiences working with Indigenous clients, and is especially commited to working within racialized communities.

Charlotte Steuter-Martin, MA is drama therapist who recently graduated from Concordia University. She is currently working at the Post Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven, Connecticut as a clinician and in the ALIVE program with children, adolescents, and adults with trauma. 

Beyond Good Intentions: White Therapists Practicing Anti-Racisism

Monday, November 20th, 5:00pm EST, 4:00pm, CST, 2:00pm PST
Facilitated by Marika Henreichs, MEd.

In this dialogue, we will identify and explore some of the ways that white supremacy culture can often shape and influence Western approaches to therapy. We will reflect on how we can be more aware of and able to challenge these dynamics in our work with clients and with each other. We'll also talk about how we can bring the skills and knowledge that we have as therapists outside of the therapy office, and what we might have to offer to social movements working to address issues around race and other injustices in this political moment.

Marika Heinrichs is a therapist and community organizer who grounds her practice in trauma-informed and body-based approaches to therapy. 

A Call About Microaggressions

Wednesday November 29th, 8:00pm EST, 7:00pm CST, 5:00pm PST
Facilitated by Azizi Marshall & Carlos Rodriguez Perez

The impact of microaggressions, strategies for self-care and responding.

Azizi Marshall is a Drama Therapist and  Founder & CEO of Center for Creative Arts Therapy.

Carlos Rodriguez Perez is a Drama Therapist and  Former NADTA President, 2017 NADTA Diversity Award, Director & Drama Therapist at Kings County Hospital Center

Beyond Good Intentions: White therapists practicing anti-racism

Monday October 2^nd, 2017  8pm EST, 5pm PST
Facilitated by Marika Heinrichs, M.Ed, Registered Psychotherapist

In this dialogue we will identity and explore some of the ways that white supremacy culture can often shape and influence Western approaches to therapy. We will reflect on how we can become more aware of and able to challenge these dynamics in our work with clients and with each other. We'll also talk about how we can bring the skills and knowledge we have as therapists outside of the therapy office, and what we might have to offer to social movements working to address issues around race and other injustices in this political moment.

This dialogue is designed to support white therapists in reflecting on these issues in our work, but is open to anyone who is interested.

Some questions we'll explore during the call:
What responsibilities do we hold as therapists in naming and addressing racism?
What is "whiteness" and "white supremacy" and what are some common ways these things show up in our work?
What are some tools and practices we can use to challenge white supremacy in our work as therapists, and beyond?
What gets in the way, what are we afraid of? What holds us back?

Marika Heinrichs is a therapist and community organizer who grounds her practice in trauma-informed and body-based approaches to therapy. She works with youth, adults, and families from a diversity of backgrounds, including many clients on the LGBTTIQQ2S spectrum.

She has been engaged with anti-racist work for over 15 years, including long-term organizing with Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario, and the creation and implementation of anti-racist workshops for white folks in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is currently organizing with Showing Up for Racial Justice, a North American network committed to organizing white people for racial justice. She continues to explore the ways her work as a therapist can dove-tail with the work of decolonization and anti-racism. Marika is a white, Queer settler, living in Tkaronto/ Toronto, Canada

Dispelling the Myth of Multiculturalism in Canada: Recognizing White Supremacy North of the Border

Wednesday October 4th at 8pm – 9:30pm EST, 5-6:30pm PST
Facilitated by Christine Mayor, MA, RDT

A space for Canadian drama therapists or drama therapists situated in Canada

Since the events in Charlottesville, I have found myself in many conversations comparing Canada to our southern neighbours. Wrapped in the myth of multiculturalism, many white Canadians engage in a kind of celebratory and comparative rhetoric of “Canada the good.” Engaging in this discourse requires both historical amnesia and the denial of ongoing white supremacy within our borders. This talk will focus on Canadian legacies of colonization and injustice, the need for anti-racist organizing, and the role of drama therapy in confronting and challenging systemic and individual acts of harm.

Christine Mayor, MA, RDT is a white bicultural drama therapist living in Ontario, currently completing her doctoral studies in critical social policy within the social work department at Wilfrid Laurier University. Having moved a year ago from the U.S. to Canada, Christine has become increasingly interested in the ways different national identities shape white supremacy and its denial. She is the Associate Editor of Drama Therapy Review, adjunct faculty at Lesley University, and has published several articles focused on power and race in drama therapy.

Navigating the drama therapist's role: The connection between systemized oppression and intergenerational trauma of Black and Brown bodies in the U.S.

Monday October 9^th, 5pm-6:30pm PST, 8-9:30pm EST
Facilitated by Mimi Savage, PhD, RDT-BCT

This call is open to everyone who wants to discuss the political, social and psychological roots of marginalization for Black and Brown Americans.  Please make sure to watch the documentary 13th (Netflex or rent).

This is a call that will be grounded in the viewing of the documentary 13th by filmmaker, Duvernay.  It is an educational forum that asks drama therapists of all races and ethnic backgrounds to consider the history of the client through the lens of government sourced intergenerational trauma and the workings of the U.S. Constitution.

It asks us to consider our own biases and prejudgement's as we navigate working with marginalized people. It asks us what we as drama therapists and citizens can do to end the machinations of the 13th amendment.

Mimi Savage, MA, PhD, RDT-BCT, I am a women, an RDT-BCT of color and educator.  
Dr. Savage is director of SoCal Drama Therapy Center, head of the expressive art therapy program at Recess Speech and Language Therapy, on the faculty of the UCLArts and Healing SEA program and Western region rep on the NADTA board.  After seeing this documentary I realized how little I know about the political machine and the role the U.S. Constitution plays in maintaining oppression as viable option for economic growth. This information undoubtedly affects me, my students and the clients I facilitate. I can not (in good conscience) facilitate without this historical and present day knowledge as I contain a space where oppression prevails.

Whiteness, White Supremacy and White Drama Therapists: Responding to Charlottesville

Monday, October 16, 2017  8-9:30pm EST, 5-6:30pm PST
Facilitated by Adam Reynolds LCSW, RDT/BCT & Christina Opolko, MA, CCC

This is an open call to white therapists wishing to dialogue around the importance of interrogating and owning our whiteness and how it contributes to power, privilege and oppression in North American society. In this call, we will discuss our experiences, fears and goals as well as share resources for creating an inclusive practice, ways to be an ally, as well as brainstorm actions in response to institutionalized/systemic racism and anti-semitism.

Lets come together as white people to speak about our role in this struggle to unlearn racist habits and dismantle racist structures.

Adam Reynolds, LCSW, RDT/BCT -- Adam is a cis white gay male drama therapists in NYC who has a prickly relationship with his privilege. He is the Training Director at the Restless Playspace, the training institute for Developmental Transformations in New York City.

Christina Opolko, MA, CCC -- Christina is a white drama therapist in Montreal, Canada who is dedicated to creating inclusion and community inside and outside of the therapy space. 

Being a Jewish Creative Arts Therapist, Challenges, Identity & Nuance

Monday, October 23^rd, 8-9:30pm EST, 5-6:30pm PST
Facilitated by Jessica Bleuer, Yehudit Silverman & Mira Rozenberg

A call for Jewish creative arts therapists of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds to talk about our identities, internalized anti-Semitism, privilege, whiteness, "passing" and responding to anti-Semitism and other intersecting forms of oppression in our work, our lives and our communities.

Yehudit Silverman MA, R-DMT, RDT is Chair of the Department of CATS, and an award winning filmmaker. Yehudit recently directed an innovative project called Seeds of Hope in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts working with diverse communities affected by suicide. The project culminated in a featured exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts of masks made by community participants. Her current film project Interfaith Arts Dialogue brings together Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities to work together through the arts. 

Mira Rozenberg, MA, RDT/BCT, OPQ (Psychotherapy Permit);  is a Jewish West Coast Canadian drama therapist, supervisor, and part time teacher at Concordia University in Montreal. She is on the training faculty of DvT Montreal and passionate about engaging the whole body in the healing process. She is a yoga teacher and Thai Yoga massage therapist, and now is in training to become a doula. She serves on the board of the Quebec Chapter of NADTA.

Jessica Bleuer, MA, MEd, RDT, Psychotherapy Permit, is a Latina Canadian Jewish woman working in private practice and teaching Drama Therapy at Concordia University. Her doctoral research is on the topic of racial microagressions in higher education and she is the Diversity Chair for the NADTA.

KNOW YOUR ROLE 

Monday, October 30^th, 2017  5pm EST, 2pm PST
Facilitated by Adam Stevens, MA & Charisse Brown, RDT, LCAT

KNOW YOUR ROLE is open to all clinicians regardless of race or ethnicity.

The idea is to allow space for practitioners to develop our relative therapeutic roles when dealing with race in the clinical space. To illuminate historical representations of Black Americans through the lens of appropriated roles and racial stereotypes contributing to centuries of historical trauma.

How do drama therapists of color and other clinicians of color experience these roles clinically and in the world at large?

How can all therapists embrace these stereotypes/archetypes to support minority clients in re-authoring narratives that are meaningful and empowering, healing?

For exploration and discussion…

Development of culturally competent methodologies aimed at empowering clients of color.  This will allow persons of color to take back narratives often realized by others in the role of puppeteer. 

Creative arts therapists will be encouraged to adapt and create interventions/methodologies. This will address the performance of racial identity directly in the clinical space through the use of drama therapy and other arts based modalities. (I.e. The Black American Role Taxonomy, or the BART System, an expansion on Robert Landy’s Role Taxonomy found in Role Theory and Role Method.)

Support growth and healing in response to centuries of historical trauma.

Suggested Reading:

Strausbaugh, J. (2007). Black like you: blackface, whiteface, insult & imitation in American popular culture. Penguin.

 DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3).

Adam Stevens is an African American drama therapist who works with specially abled individuals and at risk youth. His research illuminates racialized roles and how they perform in clinical spaces.  Adam is developing an extension to Robert Landy's role taxonomy known as the Black American Role Taxonomy or the BART system.  Adam is the Student Committee Chair and Student Liaison for the NADTA.

Charisse Brown, RDT, LCAT, is an African American drama therapist who works with incarcerated teens at a secure juvenile detention center, where, in her work, she provides the context for neglected, traumatized and abused residents to tell their stories, set goals, solve problems, express feelings and achieve catharsis. As a roster artist for the Westchester Arts Council, Charisse has facilitated arts-in-education workshops in schools and in after school programs with various populations throughout Westchester and New York City.  She has a deep concern (and first-hand experience) regarding racial inequality in the criminal justice system and the effects of white privilege in that system, and how appropriated roles and stereotypes play out in the lives of her students

Racial and Ethnic Minority Microaggressions At Work and At Home

Monday September 18^th, 2017, 8-9:30pm EST, 5-6:30pm PST
Facilitated by Jessica Bleuer, MA, MEd., RDT & Adam Stevens

We invite members of color and racialized minorities to join together to share experiences of racism at work and at home. We hope to co-create a space where we can share the multiple feelings that arise from these daily injustices, self-care strategies, and insight about how to respond in professional or personal settings next time we are confronted with this form of racism.

Jessica Bleuer, MA, MEd, RDT, Psychotherapy Permit, is a Latina Canadian Jewish woman working in private practice and teaching Drama Therapy at Concordia University. Her doctoral research is on the topic of racial microagressions in higher education and she is the Diversity Chair for the NADTA.

Adam Stevens is an African American drama therapist who works with specially abled individuals and at risk youth. His research illuminates racialized roles and how they perform in clinical spaces.  Adam is developing an extension to Robert Landy's role taxonomy known as the Black American Role Taxonomy or the BART system.  Adam is the Student Committee Chair and Student Liaison for the NADTA.

Creative Arts Therapists of Color in Collaboration with NADTA
Institutional Racism & White Supremacy

Tuesday September 26^th, 2017, 7:45pm-9:30pm
82 Washington Square East, Drama Therapy Studio/Basement (New York)
Facilitated by Dr. Nisha Sajnani, PhD, RDT-BCT & Yasmine Awais, MAAT, ATR-BC, ATCS, LCAT, LPC

We will hold a space for CATs of Color to be in a supportive community to discuss institutional racism and white supremacy. This meeting will be exclusively for CATs of Color. We will also share ongoing efforts with organizing around racial justice and dismantling systems of oppression.  RSVP required e-mail [email protected]