Writing Away the Demons

Book excerpt: Sherry Reiter, PhD, director of The Creative Righting Center, is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), a registered poetry therapist (PTR-M/S), and registered drama therapist (RDT-BCT). Dr. Reiter entwines talk therapy with writing therapy; poetry, story, and the reclaiming of voice are dynamic healing components in her work. Sherry divides her time between writing, teaching at Touro College and Hofstra University, and private practice. At The Creative Righting Center, she mentors helping professionals who want to incorporate creative techniques into their work. Sherry is the coordinator of Poets-Behind-Bars, an innovative long-distance training program, in which poetry therapy trainees mentor inmates of the Indiana State Maximum Security Prison. Dr. Reiter served as president of the National Association for Poetry Therapy (1993-1995), and was president of the National Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy (1995-2005). She is the recipient of the Art Lerner Pioneer Award (2005), and the Morris Morrison Education Award (2007) for excellence in teaching and bringing poetry to marginalized populations. Sherry aspires to the beautiful words of poet Dawna Markova: to live so that which comes to us as seed / goes to the next as blossom / and that which comes to us as blossom / goes on as fruit.