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The
Community Therapist
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Newsletter of the Social Therapy Group
February/March 2010
Editor: Ann Green
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NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR
Quite a Combination
Christine LaCerva, Director,
Social Therapy Group
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February is a month known for Valentine's Day and Black History. That's quite a combination! As the community therapist I want to share some thoughts with you on how we might celebrate. Love, Diversity and Community -- How do we learn to talk more intimately about what is near and dear to us? How do we organize our love? Do we keep it for a special someone? For our families? How do we as progressives create new ways of loving? How does a multi-racial community express its love for the celebration of Black history?
What if we made use of this unusual combination to learn more about how to love each other in ways that help us all grow and develop? As a social therapist I think it's loving to have hard conversations as honestly as we can about our relationships and what they mean to us.
For example, the Social Therapy Group has a very long relationship to social activism in Brooklyn. We have been involved in growing Brooklyn through community organizing for over 35 years. Our activism, therapeutically and otherwise, is a way we express our love for our community.
Recently we have begun to rehearse a new play by Jeff Fader, a community theater playwright and director (see article below). The Social Therapy Group is working with Jeff to create an environment where voices that have something to say about race, identity, and living in a multi-racial community that is rapidly being gentrified can be heard. Our first rehearsal was -- in two words -- "a revolutionary conversation!"
Speaking of revolutionary conversations, my colleagues at the East Side Institute have been running a series called Conversations with a Black Minority. The next 4-week session runs February 17 - March 10. The class features four leading African American women activists who will dialogue on their personal and political growth and the impact this has had on the communities they work in. The class is led by Lenora Fulani, a leading youth development specialist who co-founded the All Stars Project. Dr. Fulani is a developmental psychologist and a longtime builder of Social Therapy.
Do join us for an intimate and exhilarating talk on difficult and challenging issues. It's our Black History month celebration!
Conversations with a Black Minority #4
Postmodern Marxists in Dialogue about a New and Innovative Approach to "Black" Psychology
Wednesdays, Feb 17 - March 10
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION |
How Can I Develop?
Ask Dr. Rafael Mendez, Social Therapist!
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I'd like to have more sex with my partner, but so often I'm just not in the mood. I'm tired, or I'll let the last little argument we've had stop me from initiating or responding to him. Sometimes I just don't feel sexy -- in particular, I don't like the way my body looks since I had a child. What can I do? -- Social Therapy Group client
You've taken an important step by acknowledging your contribution to you and your partner not having more sex. What can you do? Have a conversation with your partner. How does your partner feel about you (and your body) now that you've (both) had a child? Are there things you can do together, sexually speaking and otherwise, to help you with your tiredness? Maybe you can take some time to just have fun -- go to a concert and some movies, or maybe do something physical like yoga or going to the gym. In other words, taking a "sex break" and having some fun may relieve some of the stress and irritability. And if it doesn't, don't worry about it -- keep exploring new and creative ways to be together!
As a single woman I am finding the search for a relationship exhausting. What's exhausting? Meeting new people is tedious as is the ongoing work of figuring out what kind of relationship I want. I also feel the societal pressure to be in a couple. How can I do this differently? -- reader, The Community Therapist.
You ask a very important question, How can I do this differently? For many people, meeting that "special someone" to share their life with is (over) identified with how successful they are as a person -- so much so that when they don't meet someone, or aren't gratified by the meet-up experience, it's easy to experience themselves as, at best, inadequate and, at worst, failures. So maybe you can, with the help of your friends and support networks, take a break from searching for the right mate and start trying to get to know the people with whom you're spending time, regardless of whether you find them immediately attractive or "relationship material." Be interested in who they are and more intimate about what you share with them (which means giving of yourself with no expectation of getting something back). This way, the search activity becomes more a part of your life and not some lonely, fruitless -- and tedious -- exercise. So my prescription is -- Have fun and be joyful with whoever you're with!
Want to pose a question to a social therapist? We invite you to submit your questions to The Community Therapist. The deadline for submitting questions for the April/May issue is April 2. |
To ensure that your forwarded email is not corrupted, we recommend you use this link.
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THE INTERNATIONAL CORNER
Juarez, Mexico
Helping Young People Choose Development
by Miguel Eduardo Cortés Vázqeuz
Coordinator of Childhood Programs, Centro de Asesoria y Promocion Juvenil (CASA), therapist, teacher of Community Education at Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez. Miguel has a degree in psychology and is a graduate of the East Side institute's International Class. |
(Miguel (l.) with one of the CASA young people)
The following headlines have been published recently in the Mexican and international media: "Juarez on Path to Anarchy," "Juarez: the Most Violent City in the World," "Fears of a Lost Generation." Juarez, Mexico, located on the border between El Paso and New Mexico, is known around the world for the murder of women and for the level of violence that claimed the lives of well over 2,500 people last year in drug- and crime-related deaths.
(Young people outside of CASA)
By far the largest group affected by violence are young people, something that especially concerns us at the Centro de Asesoria y Promocion Juvenil (CASA), where our mission is to create the conditions for young people to grow and develop in an environment where for many the option of joining a gang or drug cartel is an attractive one. Teresa Almada Mireles, director and founder of CASA, has worked tirelessly to create more options for youth, not only in the western part of Juarez where we are located, but throughout the city.
A big influence and inspiration at CASA has been the liberation philosophy of Paulo Freire, Ignacio Martin-Bario and many others in Latin America. We are continuing in this tradition by working to create programs that can extend young people's network of support.
At CASA I help coordinate our after-school programs, which also involve young people as volunteers. In an effort to improve our work, I began to revisit an old forgotten friend, Lev Vygotsky, the Soviet psychologist. I had encountered Vygotsky years ago as a university student. His work seems particularly relevant now as we search for ways to help children grow and develop through play, games and other activities without reducing the experience to skills building or knowledge acquisition.
(Lois Holzman, Director of the East Side Institute in Juarez, leading a workshop for the CASA staff)
During my renewed search for Vygotsky, I ran across the East Side Institute's website -- not only did I find people whose work was influenced by Vygotsky but I discovered the Institute's International Class. I applied, received a scholarship and, as they say, the rest is history -- or rather, the making of history. Practicing social therapy in my work at CASA has helped me to perform a "head taller than myself" (to paraphrase Vygotsky). Doing therapy has been more enjoyable, more creative, and my work with groups has been more exciting, more challenging, more personal and more growthful!
It can be overwhelming, because there are no fixed answers. However, what's important is that we're not trying to do this alone. In a country where having a simple conversation with a stranger is revolutionary, we're talking to many more people -- business leaders, government workers, teachers and others that we might never have spoken with before. We're also working closely with the East Side Institute -- whose director, Lois Holzman, and pedagogy director, Carrie Lobman, led a wonderfully playful three-day training with CASA staff this past October -- and other international colleagues.
As I am writing this, we received news of another tragedy -- 14 teenagers were massacred at a party, some of whom were students at the high school I attended many years ago and where CASA is running a student participation program. This increased violence in Juarez forces us at CASA to keep asking ourselves some hard questions. Are we achieving anything at all through our work? How can we contribute to stop this madness? |
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JOIN US IN
The Process of
Creating the Play
DOES THE COMMUNITY NEED THERAPY?
by Jeff Fader
A community-theater playwright, director and actor for over 20 years. Jeff's works have been performed at Goddard Riverside Community Center, the West 87th Street Players and World Theater Day. |
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Last year I was approached at Brooklyn's Atlantic Antic annual street fair to participate in a survey conducted by the Brooklyn Social Therapy Group. A follow-up call from a member of the group invited me to the public workshop, "Does The Community Need Therapy?"
I found the workshop discussion very stimulating, so much so that when I got home it hit me that I might have a good idea for a play. It occurred to me that when people need therapy, they seek out professional help, so why not begin a play with the community, personified as a character, seeking therapy? This became the opening scene of the play.
As I continued developing the play, I realized that if this is a play about the community, the real community should be part of its development. With this in mind, I wrote more scenes and created the play's basic structure. The plan was for community members to participate in the play's development by contributing their interpretations of and responses to the characters and situations presented to them. We would work together improvisationally, and I would incorporate some of that into the play going forward.
I've had tremendous support from Christine LaCerva, Director of the Social Therapy Group, and social therapist Rafael Mendez in the development of this project. We put out a call for community residents to participate, and 24 people joined us at the first of our planned meetings and rehearsals on January 20. The process continues! At the next meeting/rehearsal on Saturday, February 27, we will continue to create scenes, and I will cast parts for the play.
Anyone who would like to participate is welcome! Join us at our upcoming rehearsals, all of which will be held at 106 South Oxford St on the following Saturdays:
· February 27 10 am to 12 pm
· March 6 10 am to 12 am
· March 20 10 am to 12 pm |
If you were at the first rehearsal or plan to come the next one, I welcome any thoughts or suggestions in the creation of this play. You can email me at faderjh@yahoo.com or call me at 917-656-1740 (I will be away from February 13 -20 and will not have phone access that week.)
Please call the Social Therapy Group's office manager, Ryan Freeman, at 718-797-3220 or email rfreeman@socialtherapygroup.com to RSVP.
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Join
Social Therapy Group Therapists
in Revolutionary Conversations
Beyond Psychiatry
with Dr. Hugh Polk
Tuesdays, February 16-March 16, 7:00-8:30pm
Location: A.R.T. New York, 138 South Oxford Street
Fee: $125.00
CLICK HERE to register
How to be a Good Father
with Lew Steinhardt
Wednesdays March 17, 24, 31 and April 7.
Can Teenagers Develop?
with Barbara Silverman
Wednesdays, April 7-28, 7:00-8:30pm
Location: A.R.T. New York, 138 South Oxford Street
Fee: $100.00
CLICK HERE to register
The Politics of Loss in Dealing with Depression
with Ann Green
Saturdays, April 10-May 1, 4:00-5:30pm
Location: 920 Broadway, 14th Floor (betw. 20 & 21 Streets, NYC)
Fee: $75.00, $50.00 Senior/Student, $40.00 Unemployed
CLICK HERE to register
Hear
Dr. Fred Newman
Founder of Social Therapy
in a Revolutionary Conversation
How To Talk
Sunday, March 28, 2:30-4:00pmLocation: TBAFee: $55.00
For More Information Contact Melissa Meyer
212-941-8906
mmeyer@eastsideinstitute.org
www.eastsideinstitute.org |
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Change your life.
Change your world.
Feel better.Call for an initial consultation.
718-797-3220
212-941-8844
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106 South Oxford Street
(bet. Fulton & Lafayette)
www.socialtherapygroup.com
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