THE INTERNATIONAL CLASS
A Study and Training Program in Social Therapeutics
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Open to practitioners and scholars with a broad range of educational and life experiences -- and a passion for innovation.

Apply now for the 2017/18 Program. Deadline is May 15.
The International Class changed my life and work. How? By fostering communication, creativity, collaboration, and play - by celebrating mistakes as opportunities to learn, discover, develop. I started loving language again and discovered that words not only record what is, but create what is becoming.  I met talented, playful people from around the world! Social therapeutics, the methodology created by Fred Newman and Lois Holzman, revolutionized my work and play in refugee camps  and other communities.  No matter what you bring with you, the International Class will show you how to build something new with it." 

-Elena Boukouvala, performance activist  and therapist organizing with refugees across Europe, founder of   Play is Hope
Led by Institute director Lois Holzman, The International Class is a unique study and training program in cultural and creative approaches to human development and learning. The program focuses on social therapeutics, a philosophically informed, practically oriented method in which human beings are related to as creators of their culture and ensemble performers of their lives.

I've been a school principal for 25 years, and right now working with teachers from four different countries and students from six different nationalities. My experience with the International Class helped me find a path towards creating relational and emotional activities which keep me developing - independent of ideology/ truth/ labels/ programmatics. I am immensely grateful to Lois Holzman and her works, which have given me back the pleasure of learning and teaching in the classroom and beyond.

- Qazi Abdur Rahman, principal, Bangladesh School Sohar, Sultanate of Oman
The performatory approach of social therapeutics  allows people to experience life in new ways other than how we've been socialized,and to organize environments for group creativity to flourish in unforeseen developmental ways. Utilized in diverse mental health, educational, youth development and community organizing settings in the US and internationally, social therapeutics has influenced both the postmodern and the cultural-historical activity theory movements in psychology, psychotherapy, education and community and organizational development.

 
A Flexible Structure and Curriculum

The ten-month program combines residencies in New York City and seminars, supervision and project development sessions conducted online. Students come together to work with Institute faculty and others in a broad development community and advance their own programs and research.

Residencies. The International Class meets at the Institute three times during the year (in October, February and June) to work together as a group with Institute faculty and associates at The Social Therapy Group, The All Stars Project, Performance of a Lifetime, and Independentvoting.org
  • Site visits
  • Observations
  • Community organizing participation
  • Workshops
  • Seminars   
At Home. In between residencies, students study the social therapeutic method at home. Learning formats include on-line seminars and Skype calls with faculty. 
 
Seminar and Workshop Topics for Online Study and In-Person Residencies include:
  • The Politics, Philosophy and Psychology of Social Therapeutics
  • The Postmodernizing of Marx, Vygotsky and Wittgenstein
  • Social Therapy as Clinical Practice
  • Breakthroughs in Youth Development
  • Performance Activism
  • Play, Performance, Learning and Development
  • Improvisation and Theater
  • Community Organizing
  • Independent Fundraising for NGOs