Overview: 9TH ANNUAL TYE DYE INTERNATIONAL PLAY THERAPY STUDY GROUP
TYE DYE TOPIC: ENACTING THERAPEUTIC STORIES
Tye Dye 2024 - October 17, 18, & 19, 20, 2024
One Day Workshop - Thursday, October 17, 2024: Enacting Therapeutic Stories in Child and Play Therapy: The Role of Drama, Puppetry and Art in Bringing Stories to Life- Presented by Dr. Wendy Froberg (Play Therapist, Actor and Playwright)
Three Day Tye Dye International Play Therapy Study Group – Presentations included: Miniature Theatres: Inspiration from Shakespearian Quotes, Enacting your Culture of Celebration, Tye Dye Mask-making, Silent Stories in the Sand, Her Story, Our Story, and Stories Supporting Change in the Play Therapy Setting.
Tye Dye 2024
We began a new chapter at the 9th Annual Tye Dye Study Group as we all gathered at RMPTI’s new training institute in Canmore Alberta! It was the inaugural meeting! During the weekend there was a wonderful Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Prosecco and the Good- wishes Jar to honor our new home and new place to gather as a community. This was all organized by core RMPTI trainers Adriana Sorbo and Michelle Smith. Thanks to both of you for your undying commitment to training and support of others!
We tipped the weekend studies off with a presentation named Enacting Therapeutic Stories in Child and Play Therapy: The Role of Drama, Puppetry and Art in Bringing Stories to Life presented by Playwright, Actor and Play Therapist Dr. Wendy Froberg. Wendy invited participants to partake in numerous experiential activities including: Simple storytelling, creating therapeutic stories, collaborative drawing exercises using story-stems, introduction to “enacting” movement, sounds and miming and brief improv, drama, and enacting drama with shields, superheroes and villains. She introduced the family puppet interview and ended with a guided group enactment “The Journey”. Wendy provided a detailed handout for participants to use in their practices in the future. It was a great experience! Many thanks to Wendy!
And it would not be Tye Dye without a song from Bruce Beaudet and this year was no exception! Bruce wrote The Tye Dye Bunch “sung to the tune of the historical hit TV series The Brady Bunch”! “And that’s the way we all became the Tye Dye Bunch!” 😊 During Tye Dye this year Bruce announced he was going through many transitional changes. He shared that he bought an electric guitar prior to coming to Tye Dye. Claiming not to be musical, this is a new challenge for Bruce. For 2025 our group offered one challenge to Bruce: Bring your guitar next year and we want “JUST ONE SONG”. He has reluctantly agreed. We didn’t know it, but there are a number of guitar players in the group!
Shari Roth came back in-person to the group this year (Shari has been a constant Tye Dye partipant either in-room or on-line) and led us in a nature visualization. As usual Shari was amazing and helped us all come to a deep state of relaxation. We are forever grateful she is back with us live!
Another participant Irene Barrett returned this year! We are very happy to have Irene back with us. New-comers included Kelly McConnan Wiltshire and Kristen Klassen
We deeply missed a few of our regular participants this year including, Dana Diamond, Mercy Yeboah- Ampadu, Morgan Bissegger, Dionne Sackiw and Heather Forsey (Heather you almost made it back)! A few others were obviously missing – Joni Stride, Leona Corniere, Charlene Bradshaw, Bonny Peng (and many more).
The food was amazing yet again and there was more variation and soul food than we could ever imagine. Katharine Chapman took this task off my hands again this year (year 2) and single handedly provided home-made food for the whole group. In her onesie, late at night, Katharine cooks, roasts and bakes. For a second time I can’t believe what she accomplished! There was, homemade soups, curries, salads, yogurt, fresh veggies from the garden, fruit bowls, homemade sourdough breads, different specialty eggs (including Eggs benny!!!) each morning and more and more and more … deserts (pies) and sweets …ohhh sooo amazingly good!
To add to the fun – everyone was invited to a wine and cheese reception at Lorri’s. A few people asked the Tarot cards a “question” and the cards provided some interesting prompts for consideration. After wine and readings (a good combo) we all went to Bridgette Bar again (year 2) for dinner on Saturday as a group and we were able to find a way to gather together and learn more about each other! Family members and partners were welcomed! We all meet the sweet Sophia (Katharine’s daughter who brought me sweetgrass she braided and sage), Kerry (Katharine’s partner), Aisha and her father, and Irene’s lovely partner Brian. We missed Karen and Bruce for dinner but there is always next year.
As part of Tye Dye there is at least one discussion question posed to the group. This year the question was “What do you consider when self-disclosing to (or sharing a part of your story) with clients and /or supervisees?” Two groups came up with some a number of things to think about. Three people agreed to join in on writing an article for the purposes of publication (Michelle Smith, Nana Aisha Isu and Irene Barrett) Lorri will join to help out. Each year the members of the group will have the opportunity to join in on a writing activity. To create a bit of order, all interested people’s names will be put into a hat and we will draw a maximum of 4 people.
For the 10 Anniversary next year, participants have agreed to provide a summary of what happened over the past 9 years. Lorri will forward a template to use to write the summary and most of the information is on the website.
We went away full and rejuvenated for another year! Until we meet again for the 10th Year Anniversary. Come and join us for a very special year!
Thank you all for your contributions!
Lorri