STORYTELLING: A Survival Inside and Outside of a Classroom

STORYTELLING: A Survival Inside and Outside of a Classroom

The classroom is a site of potential and possibilities. However, it requires students to adopt the responsibility of an educator, while the educator must express the enthusiasm of a student. For this to happen there needs to be an equalizing and empowering energy that necessitates vulnerability. Every student has a life, a story, thoughts, and feelings that they bring with them to the classroom and the learning process. This workshop explores theoretically and in practice the impact of identity affirming storytelling to activate reflection, introspection, transformation, and action.

Join us as we understand these concepts and connect them to a wider lense of the art therapy practice of storytelling and supporting young adults in a transitional point in their lives. Art experiential will allow for personal exploration of the topic and ways to use these ideas in clinical practices of all kinds.

Melissa “Mel” Maldonado-Salcedo is a medical anthropologist, experimental ethnographer, and artist. Her work intersects health, justice, and art. Currently she holds an appointment as an Associate Research Scholar in the Department of Anthropology and instructor at New York University and at the Tandon School of Engineering. Her courses relate to medical ethics, science, and identity with a focus on “storytelling.” She earned her doctorate in Anthropology in 2016 from the CUNY Graduate Center and a specialization in women and gender studies. Her current research examines how youth care for themselves to create “confident futures” across New York and Amsterdam. Also, she is currently working on a photo/storytelling project on invisible disabilities. Mel is a scrabble enthusiast and enjoys investigating the world with her husband and son, “The Pablos.” She resides in the Lower East Side with her family and two dogs, Sir Max and Lady Bailey. You can find her work and updates at www.melthestorydoc.com

The Art Therapy Project is recognized by New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative art therapists # 0006 and social workers #0500. 3 CE hours provided.