Laura Persichetti: Where DrEd intersects with healing work, meditation and mindfulness.

We reached out to Laura and asked her to give us a little taste of what her DrEd journey has been like since her graduation in 2008. Her response is nothing short of inspiring

---

My name is Laura Louise Persichetti. I am a graduate of the Drama in Education and Community Program at Windsor University. I have been approached to share my experience of DRED and how that has evolved through my life since graduating. Of course, if this was a Bernie class I would just have to write point form; however, I always wrote more in my reflections than I think the professors wanted to read!

I attended Drama in Education and Community from September 2004 to June 2008. I completed a one year exchange at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia for the second semester of my third year and first semester of my forth year, allowing me to complete my forth year and graduate with my classmates in 2008.

Going on an exchange was one of the best decisions of my life. In fact, I decided in grade 12 that I was going to do an exchange to Australia during University. One of the reasons I chose Windsor University was for this option. When the time came to apply and bring everything altogether, I was accepted to do an exchange with the option to go to England. After reflecting on this option for some time, because that's what DREDs do, I decided to write a letter requesting again a placement in Australia and all the reasons why. Looking back now, I must truly thank my younger self for advocating my exchange experience to be in Australia. I wasn't going on exchange for the sake of it, I was following a calling there. I found a second home and second family that I still keep in touch with to this day. Actually, last year I went again to attend a friends' wedding and re-connect with friends I made through the exchange program. If there's time to make it happen, I highly recommend creating an exchange experience for yourself in university. The number one thing I learned while attending university was that 98% of what I learned wasn't from a text book.

During the summer of second and third year, two other DRED classmates and myself spent part of our summer teaching English in Italy. Teaching a second language with little ability to communicate definitely had us rely on our skills and creativity explored in DRED. It was this experience that planted a travel bug in me. After living in Australia for the year and coming back to Windsor to complete my last semester, it was evident that post-university would include traveling.

Right after graduation I went on a road trip with three other DRED graduates. We drove to Nebraska to attend a conference with Augusto Boal, who evolved from our text books and class discussions, to a facilitator we were able to meet and engage with. It was truly a blessing.

During this trip we discussed all our dreams and aspirations of what we were going to do with our lives now that DRED was done. Now I am curious to know how that all unfolded!

Just before this trip, I applied to a summer position at a community girls home. I knew my interview went well and I knew I had a whack of great skills to offer. I spoke a lot about this job on the trip and different things I could implement from DRED. I was really excited and looking forward to the opportunity.

While on the trip, I got the call sharing regrets that I didn't get the job. I later found out that it went to a geography student, which still doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps that was a taste of the world and the importance of who you know. Make sure you build strong relationships!

I guess I don't like not receiving what I go after because I decided to reach out and ask if I could volunteer. I shared that learning about the community girls home and exploring ideas of what I could do got me too excited to not be involved. They agreed that I could volunteer.

I volunteered once during a summer evening. They later contacted me to let me know there was another job posting, only this time it wasn't just a summer position, it was a casual permanent. I took it!

I ended up creating a weekly program called Dramarama and had the freedom to bring in all my tools from DRED. We played; we explored body images and hygiene; we had hard conversations in a challenging space; we laughed; we cried; and we developed creative projects. We ended up creating a film on what it's like to live in a girls home.

I continued at the Girls Home and an adult residential home through Community Living and an NGO, Rayjon that did development work in Haiti and Dominican. I'm pretty sure I did all of this at the same time at one point! Somewhere in there I walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, traveled Europe, spent a summer in Africa, went to Haiti a few times and explored South America.

The Girls Home closed and it was devastating to be part of something that was so needed but no longer funded. I had an opportunity to work in a different division within the same agency: St Clair Child & Youth Services. I applied for a job in the 0-6 Community Division and didn't get it. Again it was something I was excited about and very disappointed when it didn't unfold my way.

I spent a lot of my time advocating my experience in the DRED program. It was great because it was a specialty program, but it was challenging because people didn't know about it or understand. I always had to explain what it was and how it was applicable to the job I was going for. The beauty of DRED is it can be advocated to fit in a variety of different opportunities. After applying three different times, I finally got a position in the 0-6 Community Division that I wanted.

I should pause to share that when I applied to DRED I thought I was applying to be a high school teacher. I never wanted to work with younger kids because I didn't want to deal with snotty hands, wet pants and baby talk. I was certain about this in DRED.

I also didn't initially want to work at the girls home! I had no desire to deal with girl drama and could not see myself fit for that arena.

Little did I know, if I allowed my stubbornness and close mindedness take over I never would have known how much I would love working in a girls' home or how much I would thrive working with younger kids!

I ended up developing a program called Free to Be Me, helping kids 3-6 how to name their feelings and express them in helpful ways. The program was a kids group and incorporated the parents. It was also a major stamp of DRED. When I first started in this division, my supervisor said there was a need to have a feelings-based group and since I created Dramarama she thought it would be good for me to create it. I was in my glory! I researched quite a bit because 0-6 wasn't really my expertise. I connected with a lot of colleagues and of course, I tried things, learned and evolved the program.

Somewhere along the way I met a boy. And that boy shared with me that he met a lady who did something called Reiki. He told me about it and suddenly I remembered a class with Bernie that we experienced sharing energy and experiencing energy through our hands. I must have talked about it quite a bit because a friend of mine gave me a gift card to receive a reiki treatment. I loved it. Soon after I studied with the lady who gave me the treatment. I ended up becoming a Reiki Master. One day my physiotherapist asked if I wanted to rent a room out of his new place to provide Reiki. I said I would check out the space and suddenly I agreed! I had no intentions of starting a reiki practice, yet here I was making business cards, buying furniture and setting up an energy business.

I soon realized I was into something that most people didn't understand. So I started sharing and teaching. I created a group called Tea Tuesday's and every month people gathered to discuss things they normally didn't have the space to discuss- anything from dreams to meditations to healing to metaphysics. I had no idea how much I knew until I was sharing things people had no idea about. This was always just a part of me and my life. I didn't know it was new for people. I found myself teaching in a way I never expected from the early days of applying to DRED to be a high school teacher!

My healing practice grew and so did my involvement in mental health. I found myself offering healings at our hospice and helping to run bereavement programs for kids, youth and adults.

Then in 2012/2013 we had a series of youth suicides in my community. Over half a dozen teens died of suicide. I was working at the children's mental health agency, doing bereavement in the high schools, volunteering with the suicide prevention committee and supporting youth and families through my own practice. I was advocating for suicide prevention- doing talks, training SafeTalk and teaching community members on suicide awareness.

Suicide. Suicide. Suicide.

It's not the easiest topic to be an advocate for. And what blew me away was that I was teaching things I thought were common sense- be present; listen; when you ask 'how are you' stay and be okay with the answer.

I started to ask myself what is it that I really want to focus on because most people don't want to talk about suicide unless they have been directly impacted. Then I realized it was about learning to love your life and enjoy what your life is all about.

I started blending the healing work, meditation and mindfulness with the mental health world. I developed new programs and incorporating strategies along the way.

Soon my vision evolved into The Good Deeds Project, which is a suicide prevention program designed to bring awareness to the power of kindness. You never know where someone is at in their head or in their world and your seemingly small gesture of kindness could be the very thing to break them out of a dark space. This evolved into a goal to capture 7 billion good deeds, one for every person on the planet. It became a filmed documentary and I started traveling Canada and the United States to film and spread a movement.

Now, here I am, reflecting on my life that feels like i am reflecting on many separate lives in one! I still run my own healing practice both locally and internationally. I wrote a book and working on two others. The Good Deeds Project is still unfolding. I still advocate for suicide prevention and work with a team of youth. I continue to develop mindfulness programs at the children's mental health agency and soon will be exploring the psych ward of our hospital.

One key thing from DRED that I implement in every session, every class, every workshop, every retreat and likely every conversation is from Brian Way, start from where you are. Sometimes I have an idea of what direction I want to go, but I always start where the person or group is at. From that starting point, I find their next step and help support them to see it for themselves.

Just the other day I thought to myself how I use DRED every day. I chose the perfect university program for me because I had the opportunity to reflect on everything. It's through this self-reflection we truly learn anything. The truth is, we don't need to learn anything, everything we need to know is within us. The key, is to learn how to discover that path of knowing.

I initially applied for DRED because it embodied many areas and at the time I had so many areas that I wanted to explore so this was appealing to me. It was between doing film at Ryerson or taking DRED at Windsor. I thought I would be a high school teacher, yet now I'm playing with teaching through film and other mediums.

I suppose it's like any improv or theatre exercise. You might have an idea of what it's all about, but to really create the scene, the best skill is to be present, listen, and say yes to move the scene forward. There's no such thing as failure when you are able to reflect and learn. And of course, the greatest exploration is through play.

DRED provides an opportunity to explore who you are, what your current thoughts and perspectives are and to be inclusive and open minded that other thoughts and perspectives exist. That openness creates the space to learn something new, and perhaps unlearn something you thought was truth until you were exposed to something new.

Life is fluid. Being flexible and adaptable to change and circumstances allows you to be unstoppable and wise. When you can be fluid in the mind to let go that which no longer serves, yet strong and courageous to advocate for something you know is important, then DRED has done its duty of peeling back your internal onion of layers and finding emotion in your depth.

Although I never really got this when I was in university. I was just so thrilled that when I went to class I got to play and friends of mine sat a desk too small and on a chair too hard. When I had to be in some of those classes, I experienced a lot of anxiety that at the time I didn't know was anxiety. I struggled more than I realized in order to do well in school. I didn't know that was a 'thing'. I remember having to read "Scattered Minds" and write a paper for a DRED class. I couldn't even get through the book! I ended up writing that I never finished the book. I got too distracted and as I read things, I realized I experienced similar things and it was triggering. I ended up getting an A+++ and I didn't even read the book. But I understood something deeper about myself and something I wasn't willing to even look at until I was done school.

Being an inclusive, adaptable, creative and caring facilitator, teacher and advocate is birthed through the DRED experience and is beneficial to those who are able to attend a workshop, class or program created from that foundation. People feel comfortable to open up and to explore and people identify their own internal wisdom and guidance when given the opportunity to self-reflect and grow.

If you need any support, reach out!

www.lauralouise.ca

I offer many programs and individual services that incorporate mindfulness, meditation, energy healing; as well as many tools and strategies to navigate through life's challenges!

Enjoy life, in joy!

Much love,

Laura Louise Persichetti

---

You can purchase Laura's book here!

Stay tuned for another post from Laura about her advice to current educators and DrEds!