A Look at Poetry Therapy

The letter inviting me to represent the field of poetry therapy by submitting an article for a “Special Issue on the State of the Arts” was broad enough to intrigue me and challenging enough to help me decide on a positive reply. And as I began to formulate ideas, discuss points of view with many individuals’ and gather notes, it soon became evident that I had undertaken a gigantic task that no special guidelines could possibly describe or direct. And the more I read and researched, one thing soon became clear. To do justice to the spirit of this assignment, I could best carry out my charge by calling upon my own experiences with literature, poetry and poetry as therapy and appropriately weave them into the context of specific issues, questions, trends and other matters pertaining to the field of poetry therapy. Indeed, it is a humbling experience. I will deal primarily with poetry therapy on the American scene. I believe I can best serve the spirit and intent of this special issue by doing so. Although developments in other parts of the world regarding poetry therapy are important to the growth of the field, the basic organizational structure and forward movement of poetry therapy began in the United States and is continuing primarily under the sponsorship of the National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT). It is interesting to note that the mention of the term poetry therapy often evokes a reaction of optimistic expectation and seductive enticement that one is hearing about a field that can now handle the rational (Apollonian), the emotional (Dionysian) and deal with creative aspects of one’s psyche. It is true that there are as many reasons why people write poetry as there are people writing (Rilke, 1954). Also, there are many ways of evaluating what makes appropriate and effective therapy as there are ways of judging what constitutes a good poem (Jaskoski, 1987). Individuals coming into poetry therapy for the first time often are confused about the fact that a poetry therapy workshop is not a poetry workshop. In poetry therapy the accent is on the person. In a poetry workshop the accent is on the poem. “Poetic process differs significantly from therapeutic process in that the poetic transaction does not involve the roles of helper and person-to-be-helped” (Rothenberg, 1973, p. 96). And in the course of my experience in poetry therapy this point is one of the most difficult for the newcomer to understand and appreciate. The idea that two fields are combined to form a discipline of a special kind often arouses feelings of territorial rights. Both poetry and therapy have their own history and their own adherents, each with their special ways of looking at and understanding their areas. There is much understandable confusion and resistance here.