Perie J. Longo lives in Santa Barbara, California, where she was the Poet Laureate (2007-09). She came to the field of poetry therapy through teaching English, writing and speech, first in high school, then going on for her Masters degree in speech and communication at UCLA. She taught there for two years before marrying and moving to Santa Barbara, where she taught speech at Santa Barbara City College and Brooks Institute of Photography. She had written throughout her life, a habit she learned from her father, a zoologist, who shared his love of the natural world and poetry with her. One summer she decided to go to the national Santa Barbara Writers Conference, where she won the poetry and writing awards, and was asked to join the staff the next year. A friend asked her to take over some second grade classes contracted through California-Poets-in-the-Schools. At first she resisted, but later agreed. This changed forever the course of her life.

She was surprised how quickly the children gained confidence and self-esteem inspired by master poets who captured their experience and language through discussion of lines they liked and related to. Their voices blossomed as their use of language and expression was valued with praise and encouragement. The teachers were amazed at how students improved in other subjects as well, during and after the residency. She wanted to learn more about the psychological process, how poetry could produce such quick change, so returned to school to study psychology, while continuing to guide students, grades K-12, to discover their hidden selves. At the same time, she was asked to conduct poetry writing workshops for adults.

In writing a paper about the impact of poetry reading and writing on the self-esteem of students, she came across Dr. Jack Leedy’s book, Poetry Therapy, which brought her to NAPT and led her to writing her dissertation: ‘The Magic of Metaphor: Children Writing Poetry in the Nuclear Age.” After earning her PhD and LMFT, she worked to receive a CPT and went on to become a Registered Poetry Therapist and mentor/supervisor. Since 1991 she has directed the poetry therapy program for Sanctuary Psychiatric Centers in Santa Barbara, an agency that serves those coping with Mental Illness and was interviewed for the Charles Osgood Radio program to explain the healing power of poetry. For the past several years she has also facilitated groups at Hospice for those living with life threatening illness and the bereaved. In 2005 she was invited by a professor of literature and expressive writing at Kuwait University to speak to the students about poetry writing as a path to peace and conduct experiential workshops at the university and other sites.

My Philosophy of Training
Because I have come to the field of poetry therapy from a writing and teaching background, and have long been the poetry chair of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and because I have witnessed people of all ages, professions, and cultures come to inner peace through the writing of poetry, including myself, I believe that finding one’s voice to speak their truth is essential to combating despair in an increasingly difficult world. As a mentor/supervisor, I honor each person’s history, culture and background as fertile ground for training to become an effective facilitator in helping others to find their words. With many years of experience as a teacher, clinician, poetry therapist, and poet, I have much to offer and much more to learn. I heard someone quote a proverb on the radio recently, that the moon travels very slowly, but it gets to the other side of the world just the same. The mentoring method of learning is much like that. It is a journey we take together reflecting each other’s light.