The Irish Poetry Therapy Network was founded at PCI College Clondalkin in December 2003. The first comittee was comprised of: Liam McCarthy, Josephine Murphy, Niall Hickey, Ger Campbell, Ger Byrne, Peter O'Leary and Martina Foy.
Niall was training in PT with Lila Weisberger, who co-authored the classic PT text, The Healing Fountain with Geri Chavis. Both ladies were involved in NAPT, the American National Association of Poetry Therapy, founded in 1980. Niall invited Geri to Ireland and PCI hosted her to deliver a course in November 2003.
Niall founded the Irish Poetry Therapy Network and was chairperson for a year. Geri Chavis became Hon. President and Liam, now sadly departed, and Josephine became life members. For eleven years from 2004 to 2015, Ger Campbell chaired the Network and to her goes the credit for keeping PT alive over a lean time and guiding into a period of strength. The current chair is Carol Boland.
The declared function of IPTN was firstly to assist those interested in poetry therapy and secondly to facilitate those wishing to train. In the period 2003-2012, IPTN concentrated on the first part of its function. Niall invited Geri Chavis give to a follow-up course and Geri provided with details of how to run peer groups that would fulfill training requirements. Those groups met regularly in Maynooth, Kilkenny, Inistiogue and Portlaoise. From 2005 to 2014, Niall was the sole qualified poetry therapist in Ireland. This needed to change to ensure the ongoing future of Irish PT.
In recent years, IPTN's emphasis shifted to helping those wishing to train. In 2012, Niall invited Lila Weisberger to Ireland to help deliver the first annual PT convention in Maynooth. She came again to Maynooth in 2013 for the second convention. Lila had founded iaPOETRY, the International Academy of Poetry Therapy. Niall subsequently founded an Irish training body, Poetry Reach and Irish trainees enrolled.
IPTN hosted a third and fourth convention in Kilkenny in 2014 and 2015, and their fifth will be held in Wicklow on 9th October 2016. There are now three new trained poetry therapists in the country, Carol Boland, Ger Campbell and Theresa Kelly, and the number is growing. So far, all those trained or in training are counsellors/psychotherapists.
Niall Hickey founded IPTN and PoetryReach in association with iaPoetry (US) and is author of The Backwards Book - Poetry Therapy from Practice to Theory.
Artice initially published in IPTN eZine, Vol.1, Issue 2, Autumn 2016.