Dartmouth Events

Theater as Medicine with Rhodessa Jones and Prof. Edward Machtinger

Healing from the Impact of Lifelong Trauma among Women Living with HIV. Lectures + Discussion with Montgomery Fellow Rhodessa Jones and Prof. Edward Machtinger

Tuesday, October 10, 2017
4:30pm – 6:00pm
Dartmouth 105
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories: Performances

~~Theater as Medicine
Healing from the Impacts of Lifelong Trauma among Women Living with HIV

Lectures and Discussion with
Montgomery Fellow Rhodessa Jones and Prof. Edward Machtinger
How to help women with HIV and beyond heal from the trauma that underlies and perpetuates most of the illness resulting from substance abuse, depression, suicide, murder, and multiple other trauma-related causes of disability and death? Numerous studies have shown that traumatic experiences such as child and adult physical and sexual abuse, neglect, as well as domestic, community and structural violence such as racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia are the biggest single factors affecting illness, disability and death in the United States.
Clinicians increasingly realize that a major component in healing from trauma is to reduce isolation, shame and stigma – an approach that cannot be accomplished in a medial setting alone. At one point, Professor Edward Machtinger adapted Rhodessa Jones’ longstanding method to create trust, community and, ultimately, empowerment developed over twenty years in jails leading the “Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women” for use with HIV-positive women. Studying Jones’method, Machtinger and his colleagues learned that people can heal from even the deepest wounds of trauma.
Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth, performance artist Rhodessa Jones and Dr. Edward Machtinger, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Women’s HIV Program at the University of California San Francisco, will talk about their cooperative work in the field.

For more information, contact:
Ellen Henderson

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.