North American Drama Therapy Association

Hello Michigan NADTA Members! Recently we have become aware of an opportunity to join a licensing bill in progress for Art Therapists in Michigan. We are reaching out to gather support for an NADTA member who is leading this effort to expand this proposed bill to be inclusive of other Creative Arts Therapies. This bill is in early stages and you are able to follow its progress here:... Michigan Legislature - House Bill 6098 (2018) http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(vng2jxquvxazeiu0ozvwucks))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=2018-HB-6098 We are seeking to create a Michigan Taskforce to join this effort. Please let me know if you or anyone else is interested and do not hesitate to reach out to Government Affairs ([email protected] ) to answer or navigate any questions you may have as this process progresses. We look forward to working with many of you on this exciting possibility of licensure! Thank you! #NADTA #DramaTherapy #CreativeArtsTherapies #CATS #Licensure #NADTAGovernmentAffairs

Hello community! One of the many things to look forward to each year as a member of the NADTA is our annual conference, where we are able to gather together to catch up, celebrate, and create. We shared in an incredible experience at last year’s first ever virtual conference, and had hoped to gather with you all in-person in Niagara Falls, NY in October 2021. However, we are not yet out-of-the-woods with COVID-19, and the safety and wellbeing of our membership is of the ut...most importance. With that in mind,we are excited to announce that our 42nd Annual NADTA Conference will be another ALL-VIRTUAL CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE coming in the Fall of 2021!We will be building on what we have learned as well as the successes of last year’s conference and introducing lots of new elements for our attendees. We have an all-new format to bring to you this year for #NADTA2021, and are excited to share this SAVE THE SATUR-DATES announcement! Please see your email for more information and keep an eye on dramatherapyconference.com for all the details! #NADTA #DramaTherapy #AnnualConference #NADTA2021

Drama Therapy Review 7:1 is now available! Sign into your Memberclicks profile on NADTA.org for free access as a benefit for all NADTA members!

Please support the efforts of the NJ Drama & Dance/Movement Therapy Taskforce on Licensure! If you live in NJ click the link to participate! If you don't, share this post to encourage other NJ residents to participate!!!

The NADTA was recently made aware of another tremendous loss in our community: Marilyn Toddy Richman passed away on April 24, 2021. We send our love and condolences to those who knew and loved her. We are grateful for these words from Judy Holstein, LPC, RDT-BCT, member of the Board of Directors of ITA: In 1975, Toddy founded theInstitute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA)in Chicago, IL.. Under her leadership, ITA grew to provide four forms of creative arts therapy, b...ecoming one of the only centers in the country to bring art, dance/movement, drama, and music therapies together. Toddy also made significant contributions to the field of drama therapy and was a co-founder of the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA). She taught drama therapy courses at Columbia College and National-Louis University, and presented workshops and papers for 23 annual conferences. In 2008, she was honored with the NADTA Service Award in recognition of her substantial time and effort serving the association. Judy is welcoming photos, documents, videos, or pieces of history to sharewith the staff of ITA so that they can create an accurate, comprehensive and fitting tribute and honor Toddy’s legacy. She also invites anyone to share contact information to stay informed offuturememorial or celebration of life that ITA plans to [email protected] Please feel welcome to also share any [email protected] in the comments. Obituaries: https://www.legacy.com//chi/name/marilyn-richman-obituary https://patch.com//evans/marilyn-toddy-richman-nee-melvoin Contributions can be made to the following: Institute for Therapy through the Arts,https://itachicago.org; Makom Solel Lakeside,http://www.mymakom.org; Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Chicago,www.bjeecc.info Picture 1: Marilyn Toddy Richman, 1927-2021 Picture 2:Toddy and her family at ITA's 2019 Healing Arts Celebration Picture 3: Newspaper photo of Toddy playing with props. #NADTA #DramaTherapy See more

Important update from the NJ Drama & Dance/Movement Therapy Taskforce on Licensure !

Earlier this month, a member of our community noted that we missed the opportunity to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day on April 2nd. Because the whole month of April is also Autism Awareness Month, we wanted to take some time to gather some resources and information to share with the #NADTACommunity! Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects how people perceive the world, how they think and behave, and how they communicate and interact with others (de...finition from Altogether Autism ) Many in the autism community are moving from the image of the puzzle piece, which could be interpreted as "something to be solved" to the rainbow infinity symbol, highlighted here, which illustrates the spectrum of neurodiversity. We celebrate the members of our community and the communities we serve all along the neurodiversity spectrum, this month and always! Below are some resources recommended by members of the NADTA Disability Justice Affinity Group: Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University Therapist Neurodiversity Collective Study Group Books: Artability: Creative Arts and Disabilities, by Ramamoorthi Parasuram and Supraja Parasuraman The Capacity Contract: Intellectual Disability and the Question of Citizenship by Stacy Clifford Simplican Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability by Miriam Kaufman, Cory Silverberg, and Fran Odette Supporting Transgender Autistic Youth and Adults, by Finn V. Grafton If there is an event you wish to see the NADTA commemorate please feel welcome to reach out to [email protected] #NADTA #Dramatherapy #AutismAwareness #DisabilityJustice

We are now in our membership renewal period for the 2021-2022 year (May 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022), and we hope you have taken time to consider renewing your membership with the NADTA. Your engagement and connection strengthens the profession, and allows us to advocate for and support you in turn. We hope to continue to provide a sense of belonging to an increasingly diverse and growing community and your support and involvement is the way that we will achieve this goal. Vie...w our website for a list of some of the benefits of membership! https://www.nadta.org/membership/benefits-of-membership.html You can renew your membership by logging into the member portal at NADTA.org The North American Drama Therapy Association is your professional home and exists to protect and promote the profession of drama therapy. If you would like to become more involved in the growth and development of this organization, please [email protected]. We welcome your participation, engagement, and feedback! #NADTA #DramaTherapy #NADTAMembership

"Very few police officers are ever held accountable for even the most egregious shootings and acts of violence. -Shaun King, American writer and civil rights activist The conviction of Derek Chauvin was a legal milestone, and a step in the right direction in our racial reckoning. The court could hand down a guilty verdict but sadly, this will not return GEORGE FLOYD to his family. #SayHisNameGeorgeFloyd... It is important to not assume that this conviction will ease the pain and fear of our Black membership and the Black clients and participants we serve. Racism is repeated trauma. While an individual police officer might be brought to trial, and even less likely might end up being incarcerated, this really does nothing at all to shift, change, uproot the systems and structures that are actually responsible for the killings, and the harassment, and the injury done to particular populations by the institution of policing. -Mariame Kaba, American activist and community organizer Throughout the duration of the trial, many Black and Brown people have fallen victim to the modern day lynching that is police brutality. We say some of their names here: Ma'Khia Bryant 16 years old Anthony Alvarez 22 years old Adam Toledo 13 years old Daunte Wright 20 years old It is ever more important that we stay the course and work together to bring about change. Take care of yourself and let’s allow our differences to be our strength in the battle against racism. Lead with love, rather than hate. #NADTATogether #BlackLivesMatter #BLM #CHEDC #NADTA #DramaTherapy #DramaTherapistsAgainstWhiteSupremacy

NADTA Membership Survey is live! https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com//SV_08vpwFIp3z 2021 is proving itself to be another year of challenge and change for many. We invite you to take this opportunity to renew your sense of community as a member of the North America Drama Therapy Association by completing the annual Membership survey.The 2021 survey will help your board better understand your experience of current membership benefits and takes a breezy 5 minutes to c...omplete! Deadline for completion: May 15, 2021 *The survey is optional and is completed by members on a voluntary basis. Responses collected are shared with the NADTA Board and Committee Chairs with the goal of meetingthe needs,interests and concerns of our diverse membership.Responses remain anonymous unless you choose to leave your name at completion. #NADTA #Dramatherapy #NADTAMembership

Happy Transgender Day of Visibility! #TDOV is a day to celebrate and uplift the trans community while also fighting cissexism and transphobia ( Trans Student Educational Resources, transstudent.org) We honor and support trans and non binary folks and folks along the gender spectrum in our community and in those that we serve! We speak out against the lack of trans representation in media. As drama therapists, we know the power of telling our stories, and witnessing the stor...ies of others. GLAAD notes that there are only 29 trans characters currently on TV. (CNN.com: Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility .Here's what you should knowhttps://www.cnn.com/2021/03/31/us/transgender-day-of-visibility-trnd/index.html) We condemn discrimination and violence against the trans community in all forms, and we offer our allyship and advocacy in dismantling transphobic structures and policies in our society. We encourage you to follow and support the Human Rights Campaign, the Transgender Law Center, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Trans Justice Funding Project transjusticefp, Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, and the TransWomen of Color Collective, as well as to research other organizations to support! Image credits: @TheFoxFisher and @transstudent #NADTA #CHED #TransDayofVisibility #TDOV

The NADTA stands in solidarity with our Asian, Asian American, Asian Canadian, and Pacific Islander membership and communities as we express our grief and rage at the ongoing systemic violence against Asians in North America. We recognize the systemic roots of this racist, xenophobic, and too often misogynistic violence, and identify that while the Violence Against Women Act was renewed this week, 172 Republicans voted against it, just 24 hours after eight women--including si...x Asian American women--were killed by gun violence in Atlanta. Please see the rest of the North American Drama Therapy Association Cultural Humility, Equity, and DiversityPosition Statement and Call to Action:Drama Therapists for #StopAsianHate: An NADTA Anti-Asian Racism Statement, in your email and on our website under NADTA News and with our other Position Statements: https://www.nadta.org/about-nadta//position-statements.html #StopAsianHate #StandWithAsians #DramaTherapistsAgainstWhiteSupremacy #CHEDC #DramaTherapy #NADTA

The NADTA Board of Directors is happy to announce that we have approved the first draft of the Standards of Practice for Drama Therapists. This document is important in establishing practice guidelines alongside the Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice. All documents are available onnadta.org. Thank you to the working group Mallory Minerson (Government Affairs), Mimi Savage (Education), Adam Reynolds (Ethics), Laura Wood (Past President), Susan Ward (Member), and Csilla Pr...zibislawsky (Member) for their dedication and swift turn around on this important organizational document. #NADTA #DramaTherapy #StandardsofPractice #NADTABoardBusiness #NADTAGovernmentAffairs #NADTAEducation #NADTAEthics

#BudgetRatified #MeetingAdjourned #3andahalfhours #WeDidIt #ThanksCaitlin!... #NADTABoardBusiness

Government Affairs is excited to announce that The National Uniform Claims Committee (NUCC) has approved our application for a separate drama therapy code to be included in the next update of the Taxonomy! As perwww.nucc.org: The committee was created to develop a standardized data set for use by the non-institutional health care community to transmit claim and encounter information to and from all third-party payers. It is chaired by the American Medical Association (AMA...), with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a critical partner. (AMA 2020) The new code and revised definition will be included in the January 1, 2021 release of changes to the code set and will become effective April 1, 2021.This is very exciting for us as an organization and for billing our work accurately. #NADTA #Dramatherapy #GovernmentAffairs #NADTAGovernmentAffairs

#boardbusiness Your President and President-elect hard at work advancing the profession of #dramatherapy

And that’s a wrap! Thank you for being part of #NADTA2020: Riding the Wave: The Next Act for Drama Therapy. The conference committee extends gratitude and appreciation to everyone who attended and made this virtual conference a success. We hereby pass the baton. See you in 2021! #NADTA #dramatherapy

Another gift added to your virtual swag bag, community! Follow NADTA Drama Therapy on Spotify, and check out the playlist of Podcasts featuring drama therapy/drama therapists! #NADTA2020 #NADTA #dramatherapy