The Story Within Conference - how stories and The Story Within process are used in therapy, research, and social action

Pat B. Allen, Ph.D., ATR is the author of Art is a way of knowing (1995), and Art is a spiritual path (2005), both published by Shambhala Publications. She has also published a novel, Cronation (2016), with Blue Ink Press. Her first two books were based on ‘true’ stories, her own and those of others who frequented The Open Studio Project in Chicago, which she co-founded, or Studio Pardes in Oak Park, IL. Her work in developing the Open Studio Process is centred on providing a means for individuals and groups to access their stories though image-making and writing. Her novel, Cronation, is a work of speculative fiction in which the past is reimagined as a means to create a new present and future, in which old women are the change agents and visionaries of a new narrative. Pat believes we can activate our imaginations to write and paint a new world into being through story and image and have a good time doing so. She is the grandmother of two young boys and a senior faculty of the Jewish Studio Project, an invention of her daughter, Rabbi Adina Allen and Adina’s partner, Jeff Kasowitz.

Sally Bailey, MFA, MSW, RDT/BCT, is Professor of Theatre and Director of the Drama Therapy Program at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS. Her book Barrier-Free Theatre received the American Alliance for Theatre in Education’s 2011 Distinguished Book Award. Previous to K-State, she worked for 13 years in the Washington, DC area as a registered drama therapist with recovering addicts and people with disabilities. A past president of the North American Drama Therapy Association, she is the recipient of the 2006 NADTA Gertrud Schattner Award for distinguished contributions to the field of drama therapy in education, publication, practice, and service and the 2018 NADTA Teaching Excellence Award.

Michelle J. Buckle is a psychologist whose doctoral studies at the University of Alberta’s Department of Secondary Education combines 24 years’ experience as a drama therapist with her interest in exploring the experiences of Black homicide survivors. Michelle also uses storytelling to inspire community building as a member of a Playback Theatre group.

Dr. Sandi Curtis, MT-BC, MTA, is Professor Emeritus in the Music Therapy Program at Concordia University’s Creative Arts Therapies Department in Montreal, Canada. She is an internationally trained music therapist with more than 30 years’ experience in clinical practice, education, and research. Dr. Curtis specializes in work with survivors of violence, with current research interests in Feminist Music Therapy and Community Music Therapy. She is the recipient of a Windsor Social Justice Person Award. Dr. Curtis has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and scholarly textbooks, with her most recent being “Music for Women (Survivors of Violence” (2019, Barcelona Publishers). She is a Research Member of the Arts in Health Research Collective and a Fellow in the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. She is co-investigator in a $2.5 million Social Sciences and Humanities (SSHRC) Partnership research grant exploring “Rape Culture on Campus & the Role & Influence of Arts & Pop Culture” (IMPACTS: Collaborations to Address Sexual Violence on Campus)

Pam Dunne, PhD, RDT/BCT, NT is a clinical psychologist, registered drama therapist, board-certified trainer, professor emerita at California State University Los Angeles, and executive director of the Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles. With well over a dozen books, films, articles, and book chapters, Dr. Dunne is credited with developing narradrama, which is a specific method in drama therapy that integrates drama, narrative, and the creative arts. Dr. Dunne operates a private practice and training program at the Drama Therapy Institute of LA and also offers an annual summer abroad program, conducting training and workshops in Europe. She has pioneered drama therapy and narradrama training in China and Russia. Dr. Dunne is a past president of the North American Drama Therapy Association and founding member of its board of examiners. In 2014, she was honoured to receive the Teaching Excellence Award in recognition of her outstanding dedication to education in the field of drama therapy through teaching and mentorship. In 2016, she was honoured the Gertrud Schattner Award for distinguished contribution to the field of drama therapy in education, publication, practice, and service. This is the highest award that the NADTA gives in recognition of outstanding service in drama therapy.

Alida Gersie, PhD is a drama therapist, organization consultant and writer. Until 2001 Alida directed the Postgraduate Arts Therapies Department at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Here she developed, among others, Europe-wide Masters Programmes in Art therapy, Drama therapy and Dance Movement Therapy. She now consults diverse, groundbreaking health and social/environmental change projects. These include(d) Storytelling Schools, Hospitals at Home for Children, Poetry by Heart, Forest School, Story Museum-Oxford and Schumacher College/Wildwise. She is the author of 7 acclaimed, translated books on the transformational uses of story and storymaking. Change agents in over 40 countries use her storymaking techniques and ideas.

Dr. Sue Jennings is a Play and Drama therapist and lifelong Professor of Play (EFDth). She is a children’s author and traveller and has published over 50 books, translated into many languages. Her doctoral research was carried out in the Malaysian rain-forest, where she studied the child-rearing and culture of the Temiar tribal people. She teaches Neuro-Dramatic-Play and Embodiment-Projection-Role worldwide. 

Patricia Leavy, Ph.D. is a leading arts-based researcher and bestselling author. She has published over thirty books, earning commercial and critical success in both fiction and non-fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. She is also the series creator and editor for ten book series with Oxford University Press, Brill/Sense, and Guilford Press and is co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal. She has received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association, and in 2018, the State University of New York at New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” 

Yehudit Silverman, M.A.R-DMT, RDT, is a Creative Arts Therapist and former Chair of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies, Concordia University, Montreal. Her recent book, The Story Within–myth and fairy tale in therapy, shares her unique therapeutic approach that was created out of her clinical practice, and being a professor to graduate students for over 20 years. She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and has screened her films on television, cinemas, conferences, and Universities. She received several federal and provincial grants to work on issues around suicide, and interfaith arts dialogue. She won the NADTA Research Award and leads workshops, trainings, creative rituals, and presentations internationally.