Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

The 2010 Quandaries in Health Care Conference (hosted by the University of Colorado as Aspen's Center for Bioethics and Humanities) is titled "A Need to Confess?: Writing About the Healthcare Experience,” and it seems like it may very well be of interest to TLA folk.  It happens Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2010 in Aspen,  so if you aren't going to be able to join us in VT, perhaps you can make it out there.

Quandaries in Health Care is a conference series in which keynote discussants, guest faculty and conference participants gather at the Given Institute in Aspen, Colorado, for two and one-half days of large and small group discussions on emergent and perennial issues in biomedical ethics and health humanities.

The theme of the 2010 conference, "A Need to Confess?:Writing About the Healthcare Experience,” explores the literary trend among healthcare professionals to reveal the pressures faced and felt by them, such as the expectations to be perfect, to enact compassion, and to demonstrate respect for patients—even the most difficult ones. These narratives, many of them autobiographical in form and confessional in tone, often detail breaches in those expectations as well as the shame, guilt and anxiety that such breaches evoke.  

Additional information can be found here.

Just wanted to recommend Jennifer Lawler's great blog, Particularly amazing is her essay, "For Jessica," which is simply the most powerful thing I've ever read about being a parent, loving another person, cultivating courage in the face of the impossible, and what love is truly about.

For Jessica

July 19th, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine and I were talking about a study she’d just read, which concluded that people without children were happier than people with children; or, to put it more precisely, despite what conventional wisdom holds, the study found that having children did not increase anyone’s happiness.

At which all I could do was burst out laughing.  Because, well.  Duh. (Read more)

In an exciting piece of news from the poetry therapy front, TLA Network Council Member Sherry Reiter shares that she has been invited to the 2010 "Conference on Humanities Therapy," sponsored by Kangwon National University in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do province, South Korea. 

The conference organizers there are affiliated with The Humanities Therapy Research Institute, which "aims to study wide-ranging theories, methods, and practices to prevent and cure manetal and emotional problems, seeking to improve the quality of life by integrating the curative contents of humanities and its related fields. The goals of Humanities Therapy are to keep one's life happy, recover peace of mind by preventing and curing mental and emotional problems, and help with quality of life."

Congratulations to Sherry and past Power of Words presenter John Fox, who will also be part of this fascinating gathering. We hope to hear more when you return!

Having just finished national national Creative Arts Therapy Week, it seems like it might be well worth while to remind folks of the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations (NCCATA), which has some great resources regarding upcoming conferences, professional associations, and some occasional job and grant postings.

It was there that I found out about the Portland, OR celebration of Creative Arts Therapies.  Check out all that was offered there!  Any other areas have anything like this?  

From Sherry Reiter we receive this, of possible interest for TLAN folk:

Now Taking Applcations: Part-time Manager/Administrator for the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR POETRY THERAPY (NAPT)