National Association for Poetry Therapy upcoming events

NAPT REGIONAL REP ASK AND SHARE (27 Jul 2026)

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:30:00 GMT

The National Association for Poetry Therapy Presents

REGIONAL REP ASK AND SHARE

Let’s Gather!

Are you a NAPT Regional Rep, or interested in becoming one in your area? Please join us on Monday, July 27th, 2026 at 4:30 PT/6:30 CT/7:30 ET to meet and chat with your fellow representatives! We will create space for Reps to share ideas and discuss their recent or past poetry/bibliotherapy experiences. This will also be a time to ask questions of others and get support for a specific project or endeavor. Let’s stay connected throughout the year so we can inspire each other in our regions -and together as a whole- in raising the visibility of NAPT, encouraging membership, and most importantly nurturing NAPT’s mission of fostering growth and healing through poem, story and symbol. Once you sign up, you will receive a more specific agenda for our gathering.

Date: Monday, July 27, 2026

Time: 7:30pm - 8:30pm (EDT)

Venue: Zoom

Host: Ashley Schaaf ashley@poetrytherapy.org

Registration: Members — free Non-Members — free

When Poems Come Alive facilitated by Dr. Magdalene Jeyarathnam (13 Sep 2026)

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 15:00:00 GMT

The National Association for Poetry Therapy Presents

When Poems Come Alive

facilitated by Dr. Magdalene Jeyarathnam

Workshop Description:

This workshop is experiential and takes poetry and the poet off words and transforms it into action through psychodrama. Poems will be explored through roles, images, imagination, and encounters. We will engage with metaphors and inner experiences to explore how poems can transform into living experiences. The workshop is founded on creativity and spontaneity, the basic tenets of psychodrama. It offers a space for personal reflection, group process and shared human stories. Participants will experience how psychodrama can expand the therapeutic use of poetry by bringing poems into action, relationship, and embodied expression. No previous experience in psychodrama is required.

About the Facilitator:

Dr. Magdalene Jeyarathnam is an expressive arts therapist, psychodramatist, trainer, supervisor, and group psychotherapist from India with over 32 years of clinical and experiential practice. She is recognised as India’s first trained psychodramatist, trainer, and supervisor, and has worked with more than 15,000 individuals through therapy groups, workshops, training programmes, and community interventions. She started the first psychodrama training institute in India.

Her work integrates psychodrama, poetry, storytelling, movement, art, and other expressive arts approaches, with a strong focus on healing, spontaneity, creativity, and human connection. Magdalene has worked extensively with marginalized and vulnerable communities, while also training therapists, educators, students, and mental health professionals internationally. She worked as a WHO consultant to the South east Asian region for 3 years. She has conducted psychodrama workshops in approximately 14 countries. She is also a TEDx speaker.

Date: Sunday, September 13, 2026

Time: 11:00am - 12:30pm (EDT)

Venue: Zoom

Host: Yun-Jen Lin yunjen@poetrytherapy.org

Registration:

Members — $10

Non-Members — $25

* Funds from our virtual events support our conference scholarship fund.

2026 International Research Symposium (4 Dec 2026)

Fri, 04 Dec 2026 13:00:00 GMT

The National Association for Poetry Therapy Presents

2026 International Research Symposium

An International Research Symposium for Biblio/Poetry Therapy will be held virtually on December 4th, 2026, from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm (EDT). This event will feature voices from across the world sharing their insights on Biblio/PoetryTherapy and its use in creating a global community. Together with representatives from European associations of poetry therapy, we'll be uniting with a shared purpose: the belief in the power of language, symbol, and story to heal and foster unity and community.

FREE - We will be hosting this event free and live for all. Recordings will be available for a limited time following the event and a Certificate of Attendance may be purchased for a fee. All participants must register to receive the zoom link.

PRESENTERS - WE ARE LOOKING FOR PRESENTERS. To be considered, submit resume/CV, abstract of four-five hundred words. Our theme is building a world community, and will focus on how bibliotherapy is used to bridge cultural gaps, highlight and affirm minority voices and cross cultures both locally and internationally to create healing. We ask that submissions stay closely tied to this theme. SUBMIT HERE: https://forms.gle/pngDh5pXXC9tRmPe6

Date: Friday, December 4, 2026

Time: 8:00am - 12:00am (EST)

Venue: Zoom

Host: Tim Kelly tim@poetrytherapy.org

Registration:

Members — free

Non-Members — free

* Any donations from our virtual events support our conference scholarship fund.