So You Want To Be Certified?
You've read Poetic Medicine. You've read all the information you can find on the Internet about Poetry Therapy. You've talked to a few folks who are working in the field, and it sounds like a perfect fit for what you want to do with your life and art. So now what?
Well, you go to the National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) website
at:
http://www.poetrytherapy.org
and you read about "Trainings and Education." In this section, you will
find all kinds of information about becoming a Poetry Therapist, about
the difference between Certification (CPT) and Registration (RPT), about
Training Institutes and more. On this page you will find the information
you need to get a CPT/RPT Training Guide which will cost you $25. The
NAPT website now has a shopping cart feature which you can use with a
credit card to get the Training Guide as soon as possible. But there is
also mailing information available on this page to which you can send
a check or money order as well. I requested the guide via check, and it
was delivered to me within one week.
Okay, so the package arrives, and you are thinking you are set. Well, not exactly. You are just at the beginning of the process really. But this Training Guide is thorough, so be sure to cozy up with a cup of tea and settle in for some detailed reading. You will find many things in this guide such as:
- An overview of Poetry Therapy
- Summary of Requirements
- Steps to Complete Training
- What to Include in your Application
- Completing Documentation for Application
- FAQ
- Forms
- Code of Ethics
- Approved Mentors
- Bibliography
All of this is very helpful. One thing to note immediately is that you must have an appropriate Bachelor's Degree previously to get your CPT. And you must previously have a Master's Degree in a clinical field to go for your RPT.
That said, you will then learn up front that you will need to be ready to make a monetary investment immediately to get started. You will need to file the certification processing fee which can be anywhere from $60 to $145 depending on your starting point in the process. This fee will need to be sent along with your application to get started.
Part of getting started will also require that you set up a relationship with a mentor or supervisor for your training. The NAPT website and written Training Guide both offer information about mentors who are available to you all over the United States. The NAPT is clear that you don't necessarily have to have a mentor geographically near you in order to work with them. But you will have to make arrangements with your mentor wherever they are to meet 1 on 1 and do peer work in order to finish the program. So travel as well as paying for the time of your mentor will be a must.
There were several mentors available to me near by as well as far away. On average, the costs come out to the following for starters:
- Approximately $25/hour for peer group sessions
- Be prepared to pay $100/month for 4 hours of that peer group
- Approximately $50 to $100 per hour for one on one sessions with mentor
Understand that these costs are the equivalent of paying for "credit hours" in a university. Each hour you are paying for in peer group and one on one is counting toward your certification. Know that you will also probably need to pay for some university credit hours, too, because you will need to do didactic study in psychology and literature. All those hours count toward your certification.
In addition to these things, you will need to be able to show hours completed in facilitation of therapy sessions with groups or individuals. There are lots of ways to do this in your own community, so look around for opportunities to work with local organizations such as hospice or grief support groups. You can learn a lot from taking hospice and bereavement trainings as well. You'll have to do those trainings to work in the organizations anyway, so it's possible that those trainings can count toward certification hours, too. You'll need to determine that individually with your mentor though.
As always, explore explore explore. Do your homework and research. Read as much as you can. Know as much as you can BEFORE you make the investment of your time and money. This is a commitment to your education and to your service of the community. Know as much as you can going in, and I will say that the $25 for the NAPT Training Guide is totally worth it just for the bibliography even if I never did another thing with it.
Miracles to you!
