Nadya Notes

Top programs?
- Many of the currently accredited programs are relatively new. How might this impact my experience?
Are drama therapy job prospects tied to the reputation of the program?
Any external places you know of that might be willing to fund part of my schooling?
Licensure transfer process from Concordia?
Info about alternative training track?

- Nadya doesn't have a license
- Nadya went to Kansas State in 2000-02
- K state has LGBT graduates and have done research in developing the field
- Nadya was on the NADTA board during the accreditation/re-accreditation of every program except K State (she didn't do that because it would have been a conflict of interest)
- NYU uses role theory, since Nisha became the director there has been a shift towards social justice education.
- "Very different qualities developed in students at different institutions," Nisha brings qualities from Concordia as an alum from there
- "The qualities they develop in clinicians will change at NYU"
- Role theory: We are a collection of roles and there is no central person. Postmodern theory.
- Concordia has "deeper expansiveness," NYU focuses more on "play"
- Lesley is focusing more on roles, current directors are NYU graduates
- What resonates with what I'm doing: Nisha Sajnani (NYU), Renee Pitre (Lesley), who both focus on "developmental transformation"
- Both focus on the relationship with the body, which is something I want to focus on
- Both are Concordia graduates
- LGBT+ person at Lesley in the Music Therapy department
- Jason (director at Lesley) is LGBT+
- Degree in counseling - more important to look at the requirements for a counseling license in MN/other states
- Her "confidential, honest opinion" is that the program at Concordia is "spotty." At other programs, all the professors are "on some level in agreement with one another," and that there's an "overall consistency." This is not the case at Concordia.
- Steven Snow (drama therapist) wrote a piece for Current Approaches that was very culturally appropriative. Steven Snow has a philosophy of "eskimo drama" and his PhD work was to view an old film of a shaman and develop a theory of how this person works, and determined that this person was doing performative work. At a 2016 conference, they brought in Autumn Brown (MPLS SJ person) to do a group session. Steven talked about work he had done with a trans person and misgendered them repeatedly. Truc Hyunh (?)
- Steven Snow is not SJ-oriented
- At the other extreme, Jessica Bluer (?) is at Concordia and was one of the first NADTA diversity chairs. Some of the professors there have a way of working that resonates with my modality (relationship with the body).
- In MN, you can submit your transcript to the MN state board and they will go through it and determine if it counts for a license. Things to think about for license transferral, particularly in Canada, are about if there's a quarter system or a semester system. I might consider asking about it on the Facebook drama therapy pages.
- Nadya doesn't know anything about CIIS/curing autism
- CIIS is very expensive. They have a social justice focus. Nadya has heard mixed reports from students there around how they feel about the social justice focus. One in particular was a GNC person that felt very invalidated in the program.
- Nadya doesn't recommend the Seattle program. Nadya hasn't seen changes since we last talked. Confidentially, the head of the program at the start was an art therapist, and what they told their students about the educational quality did not match the quality itself. They knew students wouldn't be able to get their RDTs with the education that they got, and they told the students that they could.
- K State probably wouldn't challenge me academically.
- Alternative training is "cobbling together a program." NADTA has started a program with a cohort of alternative training students that meets twice quarterly.
- About new vs. older programs -- Antioch is still "getting their wings." K State has actually had its drama therapy program since the 1980s. Started really developing around 1998-1999 and when Nadya went it was an alternative training route, but was similar to how an accredited program would function.
- Nadya "doesn't know that a student can have much impact on the development of any of these programs."
- A "wrench" to throw in it would be not to get my RDT or worry about that.
- Talia does a lot of developmental transformation, and a lot of the non-binary members of the drama therapy community are into DBT. If I wanted to just become a DBT practitioner I could do that.
- Lesley -- I could potentially sub in Human Development and the Social Environment for the developmental psych requirement.
- External orgs I may want to look into: MN has a state sale tax on the arts. They're through MRAC, the Metro Regional Arts Council. That money goes to a state arts council that funds things in the state, and the rest gets divided up among the regional council. Their office is on University Ave. They give grants and have something called an "arts education grant." They have regular classes and how to write the grant. Look through the library of all the grants that have been submitted, and what has and hasn't been funded. You can write your grant, submit it for MRAC, rewrite it, and submit it for consideration. Talia served on one of the arts councils.
- Look into Minneapolis Art Board
- Education grant usually covers MN people going out and coming back, to share the knowledge