The Legacy of Norma Canner

NA RRATIVES

The Legacy of Norma Canner

Nancy G. Beardall • Anne Brownell •

Nancy Jo Cardillo • Priscilla Harmel •

Shira Karman • Vivien Marcow-Speiser •

Donna Newman-Bluestein • Elizabeth McKim •

Deborah Smulian-Siegel

� American Dance Therapy Association 2014

Abstract This article traces Norma Canner’s life and development as a pioneer

and leader in the field of dance/movement therapy through the lens of her former

students to whom she was a mentor and dear friend. Norma’s legacy is discussed

highlighting her seminal early intervention work with children, her commitment to

social activism and her expansive international work. Norma’s interest in the natural

world evolved through many projects in the latter part of her career while her

teaching and practice remained constant. Norma’s presence reverberates in the lives

and work of all those who witnessed her great spirit.

Keywords Expressive therapies � Embodied � Social action performance � Voice

movement therapy

Introduction

Norma Canner was a teacher, mentor, dance/movement therapy (DMT) pioneer, and

one of the original faculty members of the Expressive Therapies Division at Lesley

University. She was honored as Professor Emerita at Lesley University as an

educational innovator and social activist. Norma embodied what we as dance/

movement therapists understand and recognize. Her unique contributions to DMT

N. G. Beardall (&) � N. J. Cardillo � P. Harmel � S. Karman �V. Marcow-Speiser � D. Newman-Bluestein � E. McKim

Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, USA

e-mail: beardall@lesley.edu

A. Brownell

International Association for Voice Movement Therapy, Oak Bluffs, MA, USA

D. Smulian-Siegel

Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Burlington, MA, USA

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DOI 10.1007/s10465-014-9167-4

included the use of the creative process, relational connection, playfulness, deep

respect for her clients, integration of voice and movement, and a love of nature.

Throughout her life Norma experienced and celebrated life fully. This article

presents perspectives on the life of a prominent pioneer of DMT collaboratively

written by nine of her students to honor Norma Canner’s vast legacy in the field of

dance/movement therapy.

Background

Norma was the first Dance/Movement Therapy Coordinator in the Expressive

Therapies Division at Lesley College and began teaching in 1973. She was an

inspired pioneer who brought the work to Lesley College, Cambridge, Massachu-

setts and established a legacy that has spread nationally and internationally through

the generations of dance/movement therapists she trained and successively through

the generations who trained thereafter.

Norma, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, began her career as an actress and

studied with Barbara Mettler. She moved to Toledo with her husband and two

children and found herself teaching creative movement to women where a

psychologist told her she was practicing dance/movement therapy. She had not

heard of DMT and inquired, ‘‘What was that?’’ Norma continued to pursue her

studies in dance and psychology and worked briefly with Marian Chace and Irmgard

Bartenieff. Eventually she and her family found their way back to Cambridge, MA.

In the 1960s, Norma started her pioneering work beginning the creative movement

program for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health for pre-school

children. Norma trained teachers and psychotherapists in the work. This program

would pave the way for early intervention work with young children.

Norma taught at Tufts University and the Harvard University Summer School of

Dance. In 1973, Lesley College offered an innovative, vibrant, and creative program

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in the Expressive Therapies. At that time Norma embraced and explored all of the

art forms but using dance, movement, voice, and rhythm was her passion.

One of Norma’s strengths was how she connected to her students, clients,

children, and the world around her. Norma was a relationally responsive teacher and

person encouraging all to explore and allow their dance to emerge out of their

natural movement and the use and integration of voice and sound. She had great

respect for all, believing in their individual expression and the creative process

within each individual.

Norma approached life with a willingness to observe the very familiar with an

attitude of openness and freshness. In this way, she was always willing to appreciate

the range of human emotions and experiences, witnessing life with reverence and

deep respect.

International Work

In the early days of the Lesley program, students were attracted to the vibrancy of

the core faculty, including Shaun McNiff (the program’s founder), Norma Canner,

Paolo and Mariagnese Knill, Joe Powers, and Peter Rowan. At this time, there was a

culture of collaboration, experimentation, and freedom in exploring the expressive

arts therapies. Early students forged ahead and created new approaches, new

training sites in the field, and went on to create new possibilities for training

students in other countries. The reputation of the primary faculty attracted many

international students to the program.

Soon after graduation, several of the international students returned to their home

countries and became instrumental in the development of expressive therapy

programs in international sites. Norma was highly supportive of these international

efforts. In December 1979, she visited Israel where Vivien Marcow and Yaacov

Naor were in the process of establishing the Arts Institute Project in Israel. The

program, in affiliation with Lesley University, has continued since that time and

34 years later is transitioning into an Israeli College. Norma’s visit and teaching in

1979 was pivotal to the development of that program.

In 1981, Phillip Speiser, another of the early Lesley graduates established the

Scandinavian Institute for Expressive Arts in Gothenburg, Sweden and Norma

began to travel to teach in this program from 1982 to 85. She trained several of the

early generations of expressive therapists in these countries and helped to mold and

shape the training community through her ability to mobilize large groups of people

in moving together. Her keynote address at the Nordic Conference on Expressive

Arts in Gothenburg in 1985 raised awareness of the importance of the arts for

individuals with disabilities. A number of individuals presenting at this conference,

including Gunnel Enby, Goran Muhlert, Agneta Alstrom and Phillip Speiser were

inspired by Norma and her late husband Leonard Canner, who had served on the

board for Very Special Arts Massachusetts. These individuals then went on to form

the first board of trustees for Very Special Arts Sweden, the affiliate program to

Very Special Arts at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Norma’s joie de vivre

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was evident in this work and photos from this period show her sensitivity and

playfulness in action.

In 1983, Norma was joined by Vivien Marcow in leading the on campus DMT

program as Norma moved toward retirement from the Lesley campus in Cambridge.

At this point Norma’s international reputation was firmly established and as was

typical, in the last core group, more than half the students were international,

coming from Germany, Switzerland, Israel, and Japan. After retiring from Lesley in

1986, Norma continued her contacts with students and alumnae from around the

world and continued to engage in teaching, private practice, travel and consultation.

She had already attained a national and international reputation for her pioneering

work and approach (Marcow, 1990).

After being introduced to the new discipline of Voice Movement Therapy by

Anne Brownell in 1994, Norma, at age 75, became a supervisor, visiting teacher,

and adviser for the first Foundation Training program in South Africa. Thus

Norma’s interest and enthusiasm for engaging with new ideas and approaches and

her love of the human voice came to inspire a whole new community of professional

people in various parts of the world.

As a testament to her international work and reputation, The European Graduate

School in Switzerland awarded Norma a Citation for Lifetime Achievement in the

Field of Expressive Arts Therapy. Norma Canner was dearly beloved by her

students from around the world and her legacy continues into the present. Norma

Canner’s approach and the continuing work of those she trained transcend

boundaries, affirm the human spirit, and will continue to have a global impact for

generations.

Perkins School for the Blind

Norma’s early work in DMT began with working with children with developmental

disabilities. Norma was the flame and pivotal force attracting the community with

the largesse of her being. As her students, we all moved with and around her. She

supported each student in finding a distinct path and we knew that she would stand

behind us in the work we did. Norma validated each of her students’ own choices

and the development of our own distinct voices and approaches, be it movement,

psychodrama, music, art, etc.

We all moved with her at Perkins School for the Blind in 1976 where she and

Elizabeth McKim, the poet, worked together with sound and movement, which was

an integral element of Norma’s approach to working with the body. By her own

example as a role model, Norma facilitated individual growth and expression

through her steadfast belief in our emergent capacities. She began a partnership with

the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown in the mid-1970s where Lesley

University DMT students train into the present day.

The Perkins School opened its doors in 1832. When Norma arrived, almost

150 years later, the students in attendance were generally affected by multiple-

handicaps in addition to vision impairment. The DMT graduate students then and

now carry on her goal of generating expressive confidence through play and dance.

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Norma gave permission to trust play as a basic tenet of our field. Norma would tell

us, ‘‘When the child is present, healing takes place.’’ So whether working with a

child speaking through the metaphors of play or an adult re-learning to trust her

intuition and initiative, Norma taught us first hand that play had a healing place in

dance/movement therapy. Unlike water and oil, she would tell us, joy and sorrow

are allowed to mix in therapy. Since then, many articles have been written across the

educational and therapy domains about the importance of playful learning and play

in and as therapy.

One way Norma achieved this goal was by drawing from her background in

improvisation for theatre and creative dance. This interchangeable flow between

dancing and playing is part of the conceptualization of Norma’s work at The Perkins

School. As a dance/movement therapist, Norma embodied play while keeping the

dance in dance/movement therapy.

A primary goal of the Perkins groups was for the children to leave the session

with a new sense of what it meant to be present in their bodies. This could begin by

simply paying attention to the body in a new way, by spontaneously initiating a

gesture and having it accepted and reflected back, or by the release, natural

momentum or synchrony achieved through rhythm or breaking through an

inhibition.

Norma, with her sense of humor and contagious energy, invited participation

where there might otherwise have been hesitation or resistance. She chanted and

sang, used body percussion and drumming to create the circle and warm-up. She

modeled how to connect space kinesthetically through rhythm tapped or stamped

into the floor or with props she found in nature, the hardware store, or made herself.

She encouraged children to move out into the far reaches of their kinesphere and

experiment as much with strong, percussive movement, as with gentle and free

movement. She stressed the use of control-release-control, emphasizing develop-

mental progressions leading towards and away from dynamic releases of breath,

voice, movement, and emotion. There were times when the gym vibrated with the

collective energy of the group! Since the graduate training program challenged

students to connect with their own emotions, Norma demonstrated how most people

wouldn’t express their emotions unless they knew how to bring them back under

control. One thing that can distinguish vision-impaired children from their sighted

peers, particularly in their play, is feeling free in their bodies to fully, energetically,

and purposely release into space.

Over time, we students learned to sense and appreciate the inner world of our

partners and their communicative style no matter how fleeting, recurring, or bold.

We practiced kinesthetic empathy, mirroring, and vocal and rhythmic attunement as

we built islands together of shared meaning within the larger container of the group.

Eventually, the old gym in which we moved, took on a pattern of concentric circles

of dancing duets and presence in play.

It is one-dimensional to present a notion of childhood involving happy, carefree

children leaping and twirling, when in reality that is not the childhood experienced

by most children. Norma understood that, as the vignettes in her film (Brownell &

Wilcoxen, 1998) and book, …and a time to dance (Canner, 1975) demonstrate

many times over. She could at once switch gears from accompanying us on a

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journey of playful anticipation to one of soulful reverence or sorrow—felt all the

deeper from having known the other. These are the ebbs and flows we acknowledge

and value through our craft.

Mentorship

Mentorship, group facilitation, and supervision were areas where Norma was a

natural leader. She accepted these roles understanding the broad spectrum of

responsibility and held herself accountable to her students.

Norma believed that education for the next generation should ensure an

environment where collaboration and peer support would enrich both the individual

and the collective group. Norma believed individuals gravitate to places where they

feel enriched and are stimulated when exploring collaborative ideas and shared

accomplishments. Norma worked with her former students to explore the premise

that a working group of cohesive individuals offers a more satisfying experience, by

enhancing spontaneity and creativity, than when an individual works alone.

Norma’s enjoyment in sharing her students’ work was contagious, and she

seemed ageless when examining the clinical aspects of a case. She was forever

curious and always present as a mentor. When work was discussed she never let an

opportunity pass without reinforcing the importance of presence when ‘holding’

another’s pain.

Working with Nature

Part of Norma’s full and deep engagement with life included a rich appreciation for

and concern about the natural world. It meant she often took her students out of the

studio and into nature. In doing so through movement, she helped students to feel

the great story of life’s development from simple creatures through the evolutionary

journey from invertebrates to vertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and

mammals. Through movement, she helped students to feel how ontology

recapitulates phylogeny, how our own individual developmental story reiterates

much of the story of the evolution of life on earth. She had a deep appreciation for

ecological concerns and saw the urgent need for us to care for our planet.

Vignette from Nature

The last movement structure that Norma created at age 88 was one in which she

asked her students, a gathering of mentees of more than 30 years, to experience the

world of the polar bear. As we, her oldest students, moved with the experience of

trying to survive on smaller and smaller ice flows, we could vividly feel the sense of

the planet at risk and the need for action. It seemed to be one of the last messages

Norma fervently wanted to communicate to those of us that she would leave behind.

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By putting ourselves back in contact with this world, we seek to recapture our

child’s sense of wonder and the power of our creative self. Canner explained more

fully this belief:

As dance, art, music, and expressive therapists, the idea of wholeness and

integration is a basic part of our work. Perhaps we can be agents of change for

our troubled society and world by helping people move from isolation into

connection with all living things. For the practice of healing through love

using art, dance, and song is inherent in our very roots as human beings.

(Canner, 1992, p. 129).

Lifelong Curiosity

Norma was deeply and genuinely curious about life and about people, including her

clients, students, and trainees. Her curiosity and unconditional acceptance created a

space for people to share what was important to them. Because Norma was most

interested in how people felt, how they experienced life, and how they interacted

with others and the world around them, she offered them a full array of tools to

express themselves, such as breath, movement, sound, and visual art.

With her eyes wide and bright and a certain breathiness as she presented

structures, props, or materials, it was as though she were asking each person, ‘‘Who

are you? What do you want to do with these colors, this newsprint, and this waste

paper basket? What sounds do you want to make? How do you want to play at this

moment? What do you bring? What is your movement, breath, and rhythm? What

shape do you want to make? What animal do you want to explore? What part of the

body are you leading with? How does that make you feel?’’ Norma’s authentic

interest and nonjudgmental attitude allowed people to freely explore and be curious

about themselves and their environments. She encouraged clients to tap, scratch,

beat, and caress objects. They often opened up revealing aspects of themselves long

held secret. Norma did not impose her own aesthetic or belief system on others.

Rather, she encouraged people to become aware of their choices and to contribute

their choices to the larger synergistic whole.

Norma modeled spontaneity and presence; her questions weren’t so much about

what a person thought they knew about themselves, but rather, in a given moment,

to be aware of their choices. She was often playful, laughing delightedly and

responding in the moment to whatever was happening. She encouraged others to

express big feelings and large sounds, or to stand their ground. Having a full

spectrum of expressive movement and emotion herself, Norma could also see when

a person was restricted in a pattern. She taught her students to see and to mirror what

they saw and to stay present with their clients. For example, when the children at

Perkins were rocking, she had her students rock continuously until, through

observation, they sensed the slightest change. At those moments of readiness, she

encouraged her students to help the children amplify, contrast, or deepen their self-

expression. Her curiosity continually invited everyone to be curious about

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themselves. Quite amazingly, she remembered their responses, often for decades.

Norma’s attentiveness and acceptance were evident.

When Norma was asked if she could work with people with specific disabilities

or restrictions, her response was always, ‘‘I don’t know, but I could try.’’ Her

humility and curiosity allowed her to work with clients and students without her ego

getting in the way.

After her students graduated, Norma created a study group with former students

and peers so that all could continue to learn about group dynamics, body armoring

and other subjects for exploration. That group continued to meet together for many

years.

The study group met together monthly to discuss the questions and issues that

emerged in our practice as dance/movement therapists and to continue to develop in

our personal journeys. Norma was our guide who skillfully facilitated this process of

study.

As we charted the different topics that would allow us to deepen our knowledge

of DMT, one of the most striking aspects of this group over the years was Norma’s

creative inspirational approach that modeled her ability to question and explore the

therapeutic aspects of this domain. Norma was a strong presence but more

importantly she had an uncanny wisdom and ability that emerged in relationship to

whomever she was with. She created a space for each person’s voice as she

encouraged and responded to the issues that we discussed. At the same time, there

was a shared obligation among the members of the study group to be responsible for

how we chose to navigate through the issues that emerged. One critical aspect was

that we discussed the topics of concern and worked on moving together to explore

the ways in which embodied knowledge informed us.

Dance/Movement Therapy in the Schools

During the 1950s, Norma laid the groundwork for the early intervention program in

Massachusetts for special needs children. Norma also believed in the role of DMT

in schools for all children. ‘‘The time is ripe for us to begin to focus our efforts away

from the medical model in the field of mental health….Dance Therapists need to

work in the schools—both public and private—from preschool through high

school’’ (Canner, 1992, p. 129).

Norma’s methodology was a sensory-motor developmental approach that

integrated dance/movement with all of the expressive arts to facilitate growth and

change. She believed that the rhythm of breath and sound united us in dance, and

that dance encouraged creativity and harmony in a personal, relational, cultural and

spiritual sense. Dance encouraged children and adults to experience and celebrate

life, feel joy, empathize and better understand each other, express individual inner

states as well as that of the group. Norma believed dance was preventative,

stimulating social/emotional growth and development.

Norma led many workshops training educators in creative movement and

expressive arts therapy approaches while respecting the teachers’ needs and

challenges. She worked with teachers and her students in a mentoring/modeling

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style that allowed for experiential, theoretical, and creative application of DMT.

Norma’s book…. and a time to dance, illustrates clearly through Klebanoff’s

photography the child-centered manner in which Norma followed their lead

allowing the child to explore and express (Canner, 1975). Norma created a safe and

trusting space. Her style of connecting was contagious, her joy apparent, and her

belief in the harmony and balance in life was ever present. As more dance/

movement therapists have found their way into schools, Norma would be pleased.

Social Activism

Norma was always concerned with social action dating back to her involvement in

civil rights. Norma was interested in the natural world, politics, how to make sense

of it, and how to have a voice in response to what inevitably shaped the fabric of our

lives.

In the late 1990s, Norma, an avid reader, called some of us to come to her house

and discuss the possibility of creating a dance piece based on an article she read in

the New York Times about a Vietnamese woman who lost her son in the war and

had been searching for his bones for over twenty years. This woman’s journey

touched her very deeply and she felt it was a story that would provide a voice about

issues that concerned her. Thus began our journey to bring this woman’s personal

mission to life as a statement about the destruction that occurs in war, the pain and

losses that can never be recovered. The atrocities of war, the not knowing, the

remains scattered in a vast landscape was a void historically faced by countless

families.

This journey was inspired by improvisations that were guided through group

discussions and Norma’s far-reaching vision. It resulted in a dance piece entitled

‘‘Bones of the Earth’’ which was performed in a number of venues including

regional and national conferences.

Norma had an innate power and the wisdom of a sage, and knew how to leap into

the unknown, to investigate the creative unfolding landscape lying before and inside

us. The driving force inside her was unrelenting. She was always ready to shape a

space, to carve through the reality that we constructed in our daily lives, and to

breathe and dance.

Poetry and Dance

Norma loved poetry and saw language expression as an integral part of movement,

sound, and music. She was an immensely generous presence, full of humor, spirited

intelligence, and surprise; she understood the organic rhythm of language. The poet,

Elizabeth McKim, followed Norma around for two years, took her classes, and

worked at The Perkins School for the Blind along with her Lesley College students.

This was the beginning of a lifelong relationship she had with Norma, where she

was in her element, and Norma was her agile guide. McKim writes:

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An agile guide’s good

When you cross a fragile bridge

From here…to here…here…

Norma’s work is based on belief in the body’s wisdom,

the pleasure and power of the improvisational moment,

knowing that one movement will lead inexorably to another

and creative movement will interweave, integrate and inform,

and out of this will spring the songs stories and poems that we call the oral

tradition.

In the spirit of the dance, the embodied dramatic material

arrives, along with the conflict, the differing perspectives,

defining moments and often problem solving.

Yes the narrative arc like a rainbow of color, comes directly

from movement, from non/verbal communication to the verbal naming

and metaphoric revelation: the active verb and the lively noun leading into

movement and message across culture and time from the roots of breath,

silence and sound change and continuance, and rhythm and pulse.

Conclusion

Lesley University’s Expressive Therapies Division and Dance/Movement Therapy

Specialization is celebrating its 40th Anniversary. The DMT field is thriving and

expanding in the 21st century both nationally and internationally. Norma’s presence

is continually felt and her legacy is lasting.

Norma’s light and life force are an important and vital aspect of her legacy that

continued to thrive into her later years. Her humor, spirit, and brilliance served to

endear her to all who had the good fortune to know her. Light emanated from

Norma; that will forever prove to be a deep source of solace in whatever may lie

ahead. Just as the Vietnamese woman who spent so many years in her search for the

bones of her son, Norma never gave up in her search to touch the lives and spirits of

the people she encountered and served to inspire. Norma’s legacy lives on in all of

us and in the power of dance and the rhythms of life.

References

Brownell, I., & Wilcoxen, W. (Directors). (1998). A time to dance: The Life and work of Norma Canner

[Motion picture]. Somerville, MA: Bushy Theater Inc.

Canner, N. (1975). … and a time to dance. Boston: Plays Inc.

Canner, N. (1992). At home on earth. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 14(2), 125–131.

Marcow, V. (1990). An interview with Norma Canner. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 12(2), 83–93.

Nancy G. BeardallPhD, BC-DMT, LMHC, CMA is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and

Dance/Movement Therapy Coordinator at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA. As a dance/movement

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therapist, consultant, Certified Movement Analyst, and educator, Dr. Beardall’s work has focused on the

cognitive, social/emotional and relational development using dance, dance/movement therapy and the

expressive arts in the public schools. Dr. Beardall has developed numerous curricula for middle and high

school students focusing on the prevention of bullying, sexual harassment and teen dating abuse,

promoting healthy relationships and making a difference in the school community. Her community

building programs through the arts have involved students, parents and community members.

Anne BrownellMA, LMHC, VMTR, is director of the Norma G. Canner Foundation for Voice Movement Therapy and

teaches and supervises on the Foundation Training in Voice Movement Therapy: The Voice Unchained.

After studying and working in the Expressive Therapies with pioneer dance therapist Norma Canner and

noted clinician and author Penny Lewis, Anne’s search for the vocal component for a movement oriented

therapy led her to be the first American to train in VMT with founder Paul Newham in London; to teach

and supervise with him on trainings in both England and America; and to establish her own training

program in the United States and South Africa.

Nancy Jo CardilloMEd, BC-DMT, LMHC, coordinates the undergraduate Art and Expressive Art Therapy programs at

Lesley University. As core faculty she has taught courses on arts integration in education and therapy

nationally, internationally, and on the Cambridge campus, including the Perkins School for the Blind for

the graduate degree in Dance/Movement Therapy. In her professional practice, she regularly supervises

interns and conducts dance/movement therapy groups for people of all ages with a wide range of physical,

emotional and cognitive challenges.

Priscilla HarmelMEd, BC-DTR is National Faculty in the Integrated Teaching through the Arts Program in the School of

Education, Lesley University. Her focus on democratic schooling and equity for all students has served to

guide her teaching. Since 2001 she has facilitated a monthly S.E.E.D. (Seeking Educational Equity and

Diversity) Seminar for core and adjunct faculty at the university. She runs dance therapy groups at the

Community Therapeutic Day School in Lexington, MA and works as an artist in residence and consultant

for VSA Massachusetts. She has presented trainings in Mumbai, India to teachers and students for the

NGO Mumbai Mobile Creches that provides daycare centers for the children of workers on construction

sites in Mumbai as well as workshops in Peru and Brazil.

Shira KarmanMEd, BC-DMT, LMHC is an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University and at Cambridge College and

has a private practice in Dance/Movement Therapy and Body-Centered Psychotherapy. She has consulted

in psychiatric hospital settings, in early intervention and in educational settings, as well as with senior

citizens. She has taught Dance/Movement Therapy workshops across the United States and abroad.

Vivien Marcow-SpieserPhD, BC-DMT, LMHC, NCC is a Professor and the Director of The Institute for Arts and Health and

National, International and Collaborative Programs in the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences,

Lesley University. Her work has allowed her unparalleled access to working with groups across the

United States and internationally. She has used the arts as a way of communicating across borders and

across cultures and believes in the power of the arts to create the conditions for personal and social change

and transformation. She is the author of many articles as well as co-editor of the Arts, Education and

Social Change: Little Signs of Hope as well as the Arts and Social Change: The Lesley University

Experience in Israel.

Donna Newman-BluesteinMEd, BC-DMT, CMA, LMHC is a board certified dance/movement therapist, certified movement analyst

and licensed mental health counselor. She is a senior lecturer at Lesley University and currently

specializes and provides training and writes about DMT and embodied approaches to nonverbal

communication with people with dementia.

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Elizabeth McKimMA, Poet Laureate, EGS is a poet-performer and teacher, well-known to Boston audiences and students

of all ages. She works out of the oral tradition of song, story, and poem. She has published four books of

poetry and has worked with countless children and teachers throughout the USA and internationally. She

is Poet Laureate at the European Graduate School EGS and an adjunct faculty member at Lesley

University in the Department of Creative Arts in Learning.

Deborah Smulian-SiegelMSW, LCSW, BC-DMT, LCAT, LMFT, CGP is a social worker and dance/movement therapist at Lahey

Clinic. Deborah’s practice & interests lie in the clinical aspects of pain as mitigated by movement and the

quality of that experience for a range of populations. She currently supports oncology patients & their

loved ones facing specific end of life choices with dignity, individuals in crisis and those impacted by

trauma related incidents, both acute and chronic.

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