Poet and Author, John Fox, joins the show to talk about the healing power of poetry.
John Fox, Certified Poetry Therapist, is a poet and the author of Finding What You Didn’t Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity through Poem-Making and Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making. He teaches regularly at the collegiate and postgraduate level as an adjunct faculty member of the California Institute of Integral Studies, Sofia University (formerly The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology,) and Holy Names University, Oakland. He taught for twenty years as an adjunct at John F. Kennedy University – first through the Graduate School of Professional Psychology and then since 1997 in the Arts & Consciousness Department.
Show Notes
Poetry as Healing (Opening) – John talks about his role as executive director at the Institute for Poetic Medicine. He shares how losing a leg early in life led him to God and the healing potential of poetry.
“Part of that amputation threw me into this desperate longing for God, needing to know that I wasn’t cast out.” – John Fox
Discover More: Jack Kornfield explores the heart’s need for poetry on this episode of Heart Wisdom.
When Someone Deeply Listens (10:50) – One of the greatest lessons John has received from working with poetry therapeutically is learning how to listen. He and Dale discuss the importance of listening and being listened to.
Take Risks and Let It Unfold (14:00) John talks about the writing process and what we can all do to start writing therapeutically for ourselves.
“I feel that we think we have to be proper and perfect, but I often feel that something has happened in childhood that has sort of taken away from us this birthright of being able to be creative and use our own voice. Use your own words, in whatever way you would like to experiment with. A lot of the work I do is to make it safe for people to take risks.” – John Fox
Healing Words (33:30) – John shares a heartfelt poem that he wrote after the death of his sister Holly.
“I want the losing it all, as when it rains hard. I want to let it all loose, to open myself to the only true opener of my freer fallen feelings.” – John Fox
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