Invitation to Apply to the
2nd Poetic Medicine Training Cohort
 

with John Fox, CPT, IPM Staff & Friends 

Dear Friend of Poetic Medicine,

 

I have always thought of poems as stepping stones

in one's own sense of oneself.

~ Seamus Heaney

 
Learn the Practice of Poetry as Healer 

By learning how to use poetry and poem-making to provide such stepping stones, have you considered that you could help people deepen a healing and core connection within themselves?

 

You may think and feel that you are not prepared for this training. However, I ask you to consider this: if you have ever made a meaningful connection to the healing power of poetry, if a poem has ever reached out to you and said 'you can make it through...' that experience can be further plumbed. 


 

You can use a cutting from your experience, plant that in the soil of this training--and grow something beautifully new. You can make this journey to help others and yourself. At the very least, I invite you to apply to explore this possibility.

 

The Institute for Poetic Medicine continues to accept applications for the second group for the distance-learning program in the practice of poetry as healer. We welcome applications until October 1, 2015. The training will begin in January of 2016.



Teaching staff and 1st Cohort Students; John Fox at right.
Start: June 2012. Students participating in Phase 2,
February of 2013.
 
IPM is offering this training because poem-making, when approached as a healing, creative and transformational process rather than with analysis or judgment, provides an opportunity for deep inner healing. It encourages connection and meaning. This is especially true when we share this experience within a community of learners who commit themselves to empathy and respect, discernment and curiosity, self-reflection and courage. 

Course syllabus and training modules were developed by myself, IPM Board members, other practitioners and by members of the first cohort in the field of poetry therapy. Everything about the course is tested, exciting and effective! We all have learned and will continue to do so. Each student brings not only their intentions and heart to this program but also a wide range of life experience and specific skills. 

 

 
"With John Fox's guidance, our cohort becomes a beloved community, where we safely practice and witness coming into our own mastery of this complex, life-giving, healing art. I cannot envision a richer formation program for the aspiring poetry facilitator."
                    

~ Cathey Capers, M.Ed.   

 

Inclusion, Collaboration & Community 
What is ripe and deeply rooted as an organic power is 30 years of experience I bring to the work as a poetry therapist. This poetic medicine training presents what I have learned about poetry's capacity to inform, salve, heal and serve as a generative and transformational force to empower people.   

 

We believe inclusion, collaboration and community are the watchwords of our day, especially as they relate to affirming and building an integrated and open learning process.

 

We are making this training accessible to people in a wide-range of helping professions who desire to bring it to those they serve, as well as to individuals keenly interested in how they can make use of this healing art of poetic medicine for themselves. Many applicants are poets, private or public, who are drawn to a path of healing and service. Yet others come because they are drawn to discover more of the poetic voice within themselves. In all our work together, I am committed to encouraging a practice of "beginner's mind."

"Since I was accepted to IPM cohort, I was empowered to write poems. Through John's outstanding mentoring and teaching, I was surprised and happy to discover that poems are there waiting for me to be written. And then, as I write them and share them they bring healing to me and to others. As a novice in writing poetry, I'm amazed at John's skill, spirit and mastery to create an environment/cohort in which your own poetry can be written, nurtured, shared and celebrated."

~ Witek Nowosiad  
  Chaplain & ACPE Supervisor at Children's Medical
  Center, Dallas, TX  
  Poetic Medicine Cohort 2012


Who Can Apply? 
You can! This training will deepen and enhance the professional practice of any healing and helping profession. Individuals who are aware of the healing power of poetry will find in the course a way to help others awaken to that experience. 

John has worked closely with people working in education, pastoral care, hospice, medicine, cancer support, the arts, social action and psychology. The most recent cohort included students from a very wide-range of backgrounds. It is important to know that while there is something to learn that the Institute will bring, our learning is not only from the course material. 

What we have to learn will come from one another as well. Feeling a sense of attunment with the image of the circle is important here. The acceptance of your application will include an invitation to bring to the circle an abundance of your creative gifts and skills, your respect and a willingness to listen. 

A circle expresses wholeness. When we sit in a circle with others,  
not everthing is healed nor are all problems solved. However,  
we are reminded of our oneness in a circle.

~ John Fox
from Finding What You Didn't Lose, the Poetry Writing Circle

Contact Us

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and all determinations will be made by October 15, 2015. 

 

Please let IPM know if you are interested, have questions, and/or would like to receive an application. You can write for more information or request an application at [email protected]. Students of the 1st Cohort are finding excellent and exciting opportunities for making a difference with this work. If you would like to speak with a current student, please let us know.   

    
Click here for a more complete description of the program.
 

Sincerely Yours,

 

John Fox and The Institute for Poetic Medicine