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In difficult times, people turn to poetry, reading, and writing for solace and peace. In emotionally intense and traumatic times, people use poetry to process and understand the lived eyepieces. The havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the emotional and psychological well-being of individuals all across the world. Poetry has emerged as a savior in these difficult times. A phenomenon, "lockdown poems", came into existence as individuals all across the globe processed and shared their lived experiences of isolation, pain, and suffering through poems. In the present paper, students of a management program process and share their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent lockdowns, and their community work experience. Poetry as a therapeutic and hope-building tool is discussed in the paper along with the original poems written by the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical paper provides an experiential account of learning from self-help books by the teachers of the management stream from the Indian context. The current environment is posing new and unprecedented challenges to academicians, management teachers being one of them. Self-help books have for centuries helped readers to deal with such challenges. Hence, this exploratory study, using the narration method, has inquired through qualitative interviews with management teachers about their personal experiences of reading self-help books. The findings provided a broad understanding of how they learn, get inspiration, get the guidance, get healed and thus cope with the challenges in their life as a result of reading self-help books which may be extended to Poetry Therapy or unstructured Bibliotherapy in some ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the possible role of Poetry Therapy in the treatment of a young adult with Eco-Anxiety. The subject is a 21-year-old male from Vienna, Austria, suffering from a severe form of Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Depression. Poetry Therapy with 10 sessions was conducted on a 14-day rotation in 2021, with each session lasting 90 min. Through Poetry Therapy, patients can better understand themselves and repressed psychological content, learn, and find new creative ways to cope with Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Depression, and focus on the anxiety antagonist Hope. The analysis shows that Poetry Therapy helps to view anxiety as an externalized object in a more detached way, to gain new insights into how to deal with it. Furthermore, the patients' words, when read frequently, have a powerful effect on his psychological well-being. Poetry Therapy improved the patient's quality of life and helped him to cope in everyday life again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an a/r/tographic (artist/researcher/teacher) study through autobiographical close readings of several poems as a means to understand death within what the author calls eternal poetic time. Moving beyond the author's childhood's static image of death, the paper suggests that the ephemeral nature of life is not something to fear, but makes living more beautiful and eternal through the making and sharing of poetry and art. This paper is the first part of a three-paper study, which includes original poetry by the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illuminates a method of representation of research methodologies and philosophical positioning expressed through the use of poetics, allowing for a more playful space for critical reflection in qualitative research. Methodologies and ontological and epistemological positioning can take on many forms within the research process and can pose a conundrum for the novice researcher. During my exploration for a suitable methodology whilst I undertook a Professional Doctorate in Health and Wellbeing there emerged a selection of poems debating the merits, in addition to the limitations, of the potential options available; all dependent on the philosophical stance I chose to embrace. Within this process, I was encouraged to use this art-based method of poetic expression within the doctoral trajectory which continued throughout the journey to facilitate reflexivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Poetry and nursing have much to say about humanity during and after the global lockdown. Whereas nurses have worked on the front lines to treat infected patients both physically and mentally, poets have played a tremendous role in relieving students of negative energy, motivating them to pursue their dreams and hopes. Building on Thematic Analysis and the Reflective Learning Approach, this paper examines the relationship between virtual poetry and nursing education. One focus group from Agadir city had to study English at ISPITS institute for 14 h, using Google Meet and, at a later stage, they were entailed to evaluate their learning experiences with the Online English Class. The results unveiled that the Moroccan student nurses share a great concern for humanity and that virtual poetry could be used as an instructional medium in shaping their personality traits and reinvigorating their academic goals about the nursing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns young adults who came to Sweden from Afghanistan as unaccompanied refugee minors (UMs) and their engagement with poetry and other creative activities. The aim was to explore how UMs use poetic writing and other creative activities to handle resettlement challenges. Seven young men and six young women, aged 18–24, participated in semi-structured interviews. The material was analyzed using the three components of poetry therapy, developed by Mazza. Three themes were identified: (1) Encouragement; (2) Creative expressions as a "safe place"; and (3) A sense of recognition. Through creative expressions, our participants could understand and handle the emotional difficulties and the insecurity associated with resettlement. Poetic writing was a way to convey personal experiences of injustices, a source of self-understanding, and a way to establish new social networks. We discuss and present suggestions on how poetry and other creative activities can be integrated in interventions toward UMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, drawn from the author's keynote address presented at the National Association for Poetry Therapy annual conference on 29 April 2022, provides a professional and personal perspective on the benefits of poetry therapy in promoting unity and facilitating healthy transitions. The power of poetry therapy lies in its effectiveness in both helping clients through painful or difficult emotions, and in helping them find wonder and beauty and renewed vitality. The search for unity is considered in the context of unity with others, within the self, and with Nature. Important transitions are considered both as expectable developmental changes, such as aging, and as responses to unexpected or external events. The paper emphasizes the importance of hope and the role of imagination in poetry therapy and also suggests a wide range of appropriate literature, including both published poetry, and a number of the author's own poems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses the therapeutic power of poetry in the form of poetic epiphanies and epiphanic knowledge in medicine, in two illness narratives of Ian McEwan. The first novel Saturday deals with a patient suffering from Huntington's disease. The second novel The Children Act deals with a leukemia patient. Both of these novels show how literary and creative art forms like poetry can generate epiphanic moments for the patient and epiphanic knowledge for medical professionals which act as moments of opportunity to cultivate and encourage empathetic clinical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of interaction with metaphors on a measure of creative potential: ideational fluency. For this purpose, 150 Mexican college students were selected. They were assigned to two experimental conditions (major and minor interaction with metaphors) and a control group. The CREA Creative Intelligence Test was used as a measure of ideational fluency and two instruments were developed for the presentation of metaphors. As a control measure, an instrument for the presentation of synonyms was developed. All instruments were designed and presented in Superlab. The analysis of covariance showed statistically significant differences (p <.001) between the means of the three groups, where high scores were consistent with the groups with the greatest exposure. The discussion of the findings revolves around the cognitive implications of metaphors and its possible applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the book Tribute to Freud, by Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) (1886–1961). In the book, H.D. – an important person in the modernist poetry scene – presents her psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). She describes how literature, sculptures, mythology, and symbols were central to their dialogues. I have analysed these dialogues with respect to the three components of poetry therapy, the receptive, the expressive, and the symbolic. Based on the analysis, I discuss how poetry therapy and psychodynamic practice can be integrated and how practitioners from the two orientations can learn from and inspire each other. I reflect on the presence of symbols and mythology in the book and suggest that the symbolic component, which has received the least attention, could be strengthened by the psychodynamic tradition's acknowledgement of symbols and mythology. I also discuss how poetry therapy could inspire psychodynamic practitioners to acknowledge the expressive component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This semester-long study attempted to investigate 122 (M: 21; F: 101) Taiwanese undergraduates' responses to bibliotherapy and two textbooks in an Advanced English Reading classroom. Data collection included an anonymous 6-point Likert scaled questionnaire with a space for free comments and the students' reflection papers to show their perceptions. The results of the study showed that bibliotherapy effectively helped the students (a) understand the importance of self-knowledge, life growth, emotion management, positive thinking, and behavior awareness, (b) understand the importance of (literature) reading, (literature) reading course, and the benefits of (literature) reading, and (c) enhance self-understanding, positive thinking, mental growth, and (positive) behavioral change. Moreover, the study found that the two textbooks could effectively boost the students' bibliotherapeutic energy, including their positive thinking ability, mental growth, and mature behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scholarship suggests Black and Brown youth disproportionately experience stressors that can disrupt cognitive and emotional regulatory processes, the recognize the resilience and innovation that Black and Brown youth have demonstrated amidst exposure to systemic stressors. Given this reality, school counselors are responsible for adopting strategies that center Black and Brown youth's internal capacity to foster authentic, emotional, development. This paper describes a culturally responsive school counseling intervention that leverages evidence-based counseling theory and hip-hop cultural practices to aid student's internal social and emotional potential. Specifically, the amalgamation of Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Therapy and Motivational Interviewing offers school counselors a social and emotional learning framework designed to engage with the complex intersectionality and emotional experiences of Black and Brown youth. A conceptual framing is presented herein, followed by tangible strategies for school counselors, an illustrative case study, and implications for practice and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The death of a loved one can create a tear in the fabric of meaning. Grieving involves remaking meaning. In therapy, events can be emplotted into stories, which can return some sense of coherence to the bereaved. In this paper, I present a way of narrating loss through a narrative therapy approach of retelling. This involved writing found poems, known as rescued speech poems, from the conversations of people who had lost a loved partner. The found poetry sought to bring an order to grieving and to polish the beauty of key moments following loss. For one participant, the found poetry amplified a narrative of the biography of the loved one. For another, the poems added beauty to a memory of her deceased partner. Thus, rescued speech poems—judiciously selected from speech, and sensitively arranged on the page—can provide another way to facilitate vibrant meaning-making of life after loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the father absence and/or misattachment with depleting effects psychologically, personally and collectively on the daughter. The concept unfolds through a series of a woman's dreams along with the poetry and dreams of Sylvia Plath, an American poetess from the mid-twentieth century. The perspective of Jungian analytical psychology is complimented by that of French psychoanalyst Andre Green. The cross-currents of these thinkers bring forth the interweaving of poetry and analytical psychology. Both examine the lack of attention to the detrimental effects of absent fathers and how this contributes to the well-being and creative expression of daughters – or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]