Overview —
With deepening social and political crises worldwide, many who want to make a difference find that they need more. They search for new tools, methods, conceptions and approaches to move forward.
Since 2004, the Institute’s flagship program, The International Class, has attracted over 100 passionate and creative scholars, researchers, clinicians and community organizers looking to impact the poverty, violence, despair and fierce prejudices of their communities. Read their bios HERE.
They are introduced to Social Therapeutics — a radically relational, cultural approach to human development, community building and leadership. Its core practice is relating to people as active performers and social creators of their lives. As a unique synthesis of individual and community development, Social Therapeutics has unlimited potential to reinvigorate social activists and re-initiate developmental social change. Currently, it informs an array of community-based programs in New York City and, through The International Class, dozens more across the globe. Read that story HERE.
Institute director Lois Holzman leads The International Class. With her guidance, each International Class (typically 10-14 students from around the world) embarks on a 10-month-long, philosophically challenging, radical experiment in group building as it is learning Social Therapeutics. The core immersive and experiential residency periods in New York City, with Holzman and expert faculty from across the Institute’s development community, are supplemented with on ongoing online classroom. Read program & course outline HERE.
The backgrounds of International Class participants are quite varied. They come from psychology, education, social work, theatre, dance, music, creative arts therapies, counseling, medicine, humanitarian aid, and community organizing. Some have explored the use of play, improvisation, performance, theater, or other creative arts and story telling in their work. Others have not. All are committed to empowering individuals and communities, whether they are involved with refugees, marginalized communities, homeless and poor youth, or educational, therapeutic, rehabilitation or educational institutions. It is the hands-on experience and up-close look at a powerful approach to human and community development that so many graduates say has been invaluable in helping give new direction to their academic research, community programs, and social activist organizing.
Curious? Want to learn more?
Please contact: Melissa Meyer mmeyer@eastsideinstitute.org, Program Coordinator, for more details on the schedule, registration, tuition and scholarship availability.