Listen to presences inside poems.
Let them take you where they will.
Follow those private hints,
And never leave the premises.
---Rumi
On June 8, 2009, the fields of
psychiatry, poetry
therapy, and creative arts therapy lost Ken Gorelick, MD, who succumbed to
brain cancer after a two-year illness. I became acquainted with Dr. Gorelick because of his contributions to the field of poetry therapy, as a past President of the National Association for Poetry Therapy [NAPT], and as an author and advocate for the power of words to heal. In 2005, Gorelick wrote a seminal chapter on poetry therapy for
Expressive Therapies and was widely published on topics ranging from Jung to Kafka.
Poetry therapy is the intentional use of poetry and other forms of literature for healing and personal growth. Clients in poetry therapy often read verse, write it, or both. While there are many historical references to the emergence of poetry in medicine and psychology, Benjamin Franklin was a known advocate as early as 1751. Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, founded by Franklin, used many adjunct treatments for their patients with mental illness, 
including reading, writing and publishing writings. Benjamin Rush, often identified as the "father of American psychiatry," also introduced literature and poem writing to patients. Today, the National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) confers credentials to poetry therapists who have met its educational and professional standards. It also maintains a registry of poetry therapy practitioners in educational, medical, geriatric, therapeutic, and community settings.
Poetry has become a therapy of choice with veterans and newly returned military, particularly in combination with art therapy and other creative modalities. Prose and verse are potent modalities for expression of war experiences, homecoming, and challenges of reintegration and redeployment common to the more recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan [For more information on the impact of poetry on a Vietnam veteran, see previous post on "Words of War, Words of Peace" focusing on the work of veteran Larry Winters].
It should be noted that Dr. Gorelick was not only a poetry therapist and poet; he was well-known for his work as a psychiatrist at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in DC. His expertise as a historian was the basis for a keynote address he gave at the hospital's 150th anniversary. Gorelick was also a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, among other honors. More recently, he was interviewed in the May 2009 Washingtonian Magazine as "doctor as patient" in response to his diagnosis with brain cancer. One of his own poems appears in the interview, written after brain surgery in 2007, and reveals both his humanity and artistry with words:
Looking back I feel my life has been right
No second-guessing that this or that might have been better,
No ache that I might have climbed higher mountains.
I am in a generous leisurely mood with myself
Filled with gratitude and awe for what has been,
The gifts, the luck, the love.
In the Washingtonian interview Gorelick remarked, "I don't want to feel like I've been cheated by life," in reference to his struggles with cancer and treatment. In contrast, those of us in the creative arts therapies always feel a little cheated when we lose someone like Ken Gorelick too soon and within our small field of practitioners. His generosity of nature and mentorship to so many in the creative arts therapies will of course be missed. Fortunately, his work lives on in print, and it taught us on a personal level "that we are all part of the same verse, the universe of words... this is a place where you are not alone, that your story is not the only story" [adapted from Richard Brown, NAPT website].
© 2009 Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, ATR-BC
www.cathymalchiodi.com
Visit the growing community of art therapists from around the world at the International Art Therapy Organization [IATO], www.internationalarttherapy.org. One world, many visions...working together to create an inclusive and sustainable future for art therapy.
