Welcome to the Classroom Narratives Healing in
Education podcast, the space where education
meets resilience. I'm Dr. Joey Weisler, and in
each episode, we dive deep into the personal
stories of educators, students, leaders, and
frontline advocates who are navigating the complexities
within modern education. Whether you're just
starting your teaching journey, or are we seasoned
professionals looking for inspiration, we'll
explore how to foster meaningful change, prevent
burnout, and build trauma -informed communities
within our schools. Now, let's take a seat at
the front of the classroom as we get started.
Welcome back to the Classroom Narratives Healing
in Education Podcast. I'm your host, Joey Weisler,
and today's guest is someone whose work beautifully
bridges the worlds between storytelling, design,
and healing. Professor Brenda Cowan teaches in
the Exhibition and Experience Design Program
at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan,
and she spent her career exploring how spaces,
stories, and objects can support wellness and
recovery, especially in the wake of trauma. Her
theory of Psychotherapeutic Object Dynamics,
examines how the things we preserve and present,
whether in classrooms or even museums, can really
work to facilitate our own healing. From Syrian
refugee stories to 9 -11 memorials, Brenda's
work invites us to ask the question, what do
objects remember for us? And this conversation
is for anyone thinking about the environments
that we create for our students and for ourselves,
and even how the smallest details can really
work to speak volumes. Brenda, we're so happy
you're here with us. Welcome to the show. Yes,
Joey, thank you so much for inviting me. I'm
delighted. Delighted to be here. So Brenda and
I actually met because we are colleagues together
at the Fashion Institute of Technology, but this
program is completely unaffiliated with FIT,
yet it's so wonderful to merge two expert minds
in the fields and have a great conversation about
education. So Brenda, I wanted to begin by thinking
about the work that you have done with the Psychotherapeutic
Object Dynamics for our listeners. How can you
break that down for us? And how did you get started
in discovering what this theory is all about?
Sure. So Psychotherapeutic Object Dynamics looks
specifically at the ways in which people engage
with objects in ways that can be directly attributed
to their well -being and also to their healing.
in times of need. And healing also, it's the
kind of thing that I've discovered throughout
the course of this research work is something
that we seem to be doing all the time. And sometimes
in small ways, and then other times, of course,
much more notable in the wake of tragedy or atrocity.
So how did I begin? I've been teaching for many
years about objects in museums, objects in exhibitions,
and how to use objects, how to explore them,
and how to design with them and for them. been
able to take the research that is out there about
how objects are evocative, how objects have all
of these characteristics and how we associate
with them in different kinds of ways, all of
which are a part of meaning making, all of which
are a part of ways in which we form and can recognize
emotional connections with content or even with
our own lives and so on and so forth. I have
always been just so enamored with this aspect
of my teaching, and yet part of me was always
feeling like I wasn't going quite deep enough
and always wondering, why? Why is it that people
have all these connections with objects? Like,
what is it? Why are they evocative? Why do they
spur memory? For what purpose? And I could never
find an answer to that. And back in 2013, I became
familiar with an adolescent wilderness therapy.
facility and started to learn that young people,
teenagers who were going to wilderness therapy
were using objects found in nature as a part
of their healing therapies. They were using sticks
and stones and leaves and little plastic beads
and were undergoing tremendous healing therapies.
And intrigued, I got my way into a week in one
of these facilities and was able to observe therapies,
was able to participate with young people who
were going into the wilderness and undergoing
specific kinds of therapies with these sorts
of objects. And I began to recognize after a
while that we do things that all people seem
to be doing similar kinds of things with objects
on our own, even without therapists. And then
the more I looked and the more that I learned,
I began to realize people in museums have these
same kinds of relationships with objects that
I'm seeing in these healing therapies. And so
that was the spark that led to the theory. And
the thing to know is that in the course of the
real directed research that I did over the
course of five more years and working with different
museums in several different countries and with
many different types of people, I was able to
identify seven specific things that people do.
The first is giving and receiving. When we give
a gift, when we receive a gift, when we give
an object as a legacy or an inheritance or any
other number, birthday gifts, right? Any kind
of giving and receiving is an act of love. It
is an act of appreciation. It is an act of recognition.
It is an act of being seen and of seeing. The
next one I call associating. And associating
is when we keep an object close to us. Maybe
it's that wedding ring that we wear every day.
Maybe it's an item of clothing that we wear.
Maybe it's something that we keep in a box in
the closet. And we just need to know it's nearby.
And it always moves with us wherever we move
to throughout the course of years. And sometimes
that means we visit an object at a museum over
and over again. And we just like knowing that
object is there. Releasing and unburdening is
another dynamic. And that has to do with the
action of removing something from your life.
And maybe it's anything from spring cleaning,
donating objects to a goodwill. Maybe it's after
a bad breakup. That ex -partner, their stuff
has just got to go. Synergizing is another one.
That is a dynamic of donating, loaning objects
to a collection. Maybe you collect objects on
your own. There is something in the knowing that
you are a part of a larger collective. that is
a synergistic experience that you are having.
Touching is another dynamic action. There's actually
brilliant research out there about what happens
when people touch objects and about touching
objects that are museum objects, quite specifically,
and that can be directly related with health
and healing. The last one I call composing. And
composing is when you have two or more objects
that have to be kept together. It could be the
pair of boots that a first responder donated
to the 9 -11 Memorial Museum. And under no circumstances
can those two boots be separated because it is
only together that they tell the right story.
So that is the quick, fast journey through the
psychotherapeutic object dynamics. It's automatic.
It is inherent. It is a part of the dynamic of
objects being a part of our lives every day,
just as a part of being a person on this planet
and being surrounded by objects and therefore
knowing that we exist and that we have, that
we're situated. in a place at any given time.
You mentioned that there's objects that can be
used as therapy. What kind of objects have you
seen that are therapeutic? Like I said, it's
in directed therapy. It's those stick stones,
leaves, whatever it is that is on hand. Sometimes
people, throughout the course of my research
work, there are a lot of objects in museums
that tend to have particularly evocative value
and that people tend to really relate to very
deeply. And it's a lot of different kinds of
things. First of all, I can give you a very general
kind of category, which is clothing is very evocative.
And I saw this at a study that I did with the
museum at FIT, but also clothing at the War Childhood
Museum, hats, jackets, things that were worn
by children during wartime. Very, very powerful,
very, very evocative. I saw this at the 9 -11
Memorial Museum, people relating to ordinary
things, not even just items of clothing, but
things like watches or... teddy bears, like you
mentioned yourself earlier on, and items that
included things like ID badges or things that
had been crushed, things that had been coated
in dust, right? Things in ash and objects that
showed wear and tear of the event itself. Those
are the kinds of objects that people responded
to very, very powerfully. and had a relationship
with, or maybe identified with in specific kinds
of ways. I love here talking about clothing,
most in part, because it makes me think about
Van Der Kolk, the brain and body keep the score,
where there's a study that I saw from other grief
scholars who indicate this idea that sometimes
when survivors actually re -wear a piece of clothing
or an article that they had on during a tragedy
their body reacts to it like they might literally
spawn a rash or some reaction of some kind from
their body who's bringing them back to that time
in that place and i think clothing has that for
us because it brings us back to a moment in time
where we may have experienced trauma while wearing
that article and I remember in my own classroom
as well like my favorite time of the year were
always the holidays And when I say holidays,
I mean any occasion worth celebrating. That's
Halloween. That's Thanksgiving. That's Easter.
Any time that there was a season coming up because
students would see that I would put up little
things around the classroom and then they would
come in with their own things to contribute as
well. For Halloween, I had a bunch of students
in my first year of teaching give me like all
these extra little pumpkins, like little plastic
pumpkins that I can still hold on to. And same
thing in December with. holiday knickknacks and
whatnot. And when it comes to these keepsakes,
even though I haven't spoken to some of those
students in almost six years, I still bring out
their keepsakes every single year just to remember
that one season we all got to share together.
Hey, you know what, Joey? I'm going to unpack
that for you. Are you ready? That was my next
question to help me unload that. Sweet. Awesome.
So here's what's going on. You have students
who were giving. objects to join in with yours.
You were receiving them right there, giving,
receiving. You're recognizing them. You're saying
yes to them. They're saying, I want to be a part.
I want to be with you. I want to be with this.
So that relationship there was a part of enhancing
wellbeing, possibly even a part of healing for
some of the students involved. Then there was
also the dynamic of synergizing. Their objects
were being a part of this larger collective whole
that you were generating. All of you were synergizing
together by creating this whole environment together
of objects. So we had synergizing happening right
there. You're experiencing associating. Keeping
these objects year after year, bringing them
out, thinking about the students, reflecting
on that giving, taking a look at the synergizing
that occurred within this whole sort of decorative
experience that you were creating with these
objects. And again, the fact that you hang on
to them, that's associating, affiliating and
associating these objects with a specific holiday.
that you then are marking the year with and you
are taking this composition of objects this collection
that you have created and at this designated
time bringing them out you are also experiencing
the psychotherapeutic dynamic of composing so
you see there's a whole lot happening if you
use this particular framework all of these specific
things are part of how you are experiencing your
own well -being and the students who participated
likewise. Absolutely. And I also think about
other things I would just keep around my classroom
for my own comfort. Admin used to say to me,
put out more of their A papers and their work.
And I'm like, well, they spend an hour a day
in here. I spend seven. So I'm going to decorate
it with things way more than seven, more like
10 or 12. I'm going to put things near that make
me think about myself, not to sound selfish,
but it was my mentality. So I had a little tree
in the corner here. I had a poem that I wrote
on the side of my desk over there. And when I
think about those things, just having all of
those things in presence gave me comfort. Because,
of course, does that mean that the government
funded classroom comes with. the ceiling the
desk and the floor but the teacher classroom
it's their energy that they propel into there
to make it all come together to create some sort
of I won't even say a healing space, but just
make a space. And then we can come in and say,
like I used to call my classroom, my Zen space.
And the students like, oh, okay, this is a Zen
space. And the mentality buys into them as well
that, okay, with these objects, this is the space
that he wants us to experience. And he wants
it to be Zen. With the tree in the corner over
there and the mean bag chairs beneath that, those
objects send the message that this classroom
used to be Zen. healing. And I'm wondering, Brenda,
what have educators learned from either museums
or exhibits that when it comes to creating safe
and reflective human -centered classrooms, what
does that mean for us? Like, what's going on
in our minds that you can help us unpack and
explain when we want as educators to create those
different classroom environments through the
objects we put into it, like our zen areas that
some teachers pointed out? I think that when
we work with objects, such as what you're doing
with the tree, with the beanbag chair, even with
the poem that you have on display, we are, and
teachers who do and follow suit and do that kind
of thing, and folks who, frankly, create exhibitions,
for example, or work with objects in any number
of ways within environments. We work with objects
and their subjective associations when we are
looking to elicit sharing, when we're looking
to share personal perspectives, to add depth
to the explorations of topics. And I think that
really noticing that and being very aware of
how it is that we're using objects to share ourselves,
to share our perspectives, to add depth. to the
different kinds of ways in which we want to learn
and grow within a space is definitely very important.
And what's happening when you say Zen space,
what I'm hearing is a space that is about sharing
and about allowing people to have associations
with objects in a very free form. So what Brenda
is about to look at is a picture of My classroom
from my first year of teaching, I call this the
Zen area. What she notices is that there's a
tree in the corner of the classroom. There is
wallpaper in the background of it that's very
deliberately made where I had a piano kind of
background there. And that piano represents,
in my eyes, the different keys where there's
white notes and darker notes that just kind of
show that pattern of the human experience that
my students could be walking through. And I explain
that to them. There is a Charles Schultz. Snoopy
poster that says, keep looking up. That's the
secret to life. Another poster that says, find
your path. Another one with a butterfly that
says, it doesn't get easier. You just get better.
And a Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket poster that
says, always let your conscience be your guide.
All deliberately placed within the Zen area.
Beneath that, there is also a applied suicide
first aid badge and certificate that shows my
training in that area. along with a sonnet that
shows about the resiliency of overcoming grief
and working to begin again that I wrote. This
is after the Brooklyn shooting. So for an area
like this, I was very, very partial towards this
area in my classroom. It was as much as I wanted
to welcome students into it. And they definitely
took advantage of it. I was also very cautious
of it. They knew I had one rule in my class.
I should have had more rules, but I only had
one rule. The one rule was never, ever touch
that tree for any reason. Do not touch the tree.
You can sit next to it, but never touch it. And
I guess what I'm thinking about is when we set
these spaces up for students that help us just
as much, by the way, I used to feel, I guess,
in my own mind, I would tell myself I would feel
better if I would step into the Zen zone and
take a deep breath and then step out of it before
my worst class would come in. I had to breathe
in that spot. It couldn't be anywhere else in
the room. It had to be in that corner where I
took that deep breath. Then I would feel better
emotionally prepared for that class. And I guess
my question is with all the objects that we see
in this space, does that actually work? Is it
all in our heads or is it true that those types
of gestures help us find healing? Oh, I would
imagine very much so. I don't think it's, I mean,
it's funny your question about it being all in
your head. I mean, we are talking about a dynamic
psychological theory here. So it is all in your
head. And by the way, your head's a pretty important
place. I think that there are probably a couple
of things that are going on when you describe
not just the design, the sort of the build out
of your Zen area. First of all, there's the fact
that you were taking an intentional pause, enabling
yourself to reframe and get prepared for the
next piece of work that you needed to attend
to. But that pause is huge. That's really important.
And as a tangent, every single class that I teach
with my graduate students, so these are folks
in their 20s, 30s, 40s, older. We always begin
with a pause and a stretch every single class
session. And at first the students find it really
kind of funny or weird, and then they really
get into it. And by the time students have graduated
from my program, they're like, hey, we forgot
to stretch today. That's not cool. Let's do it
now. It's a really great thing to take a pause
and to make that a part of a transition. The
second thing that I noticed was you've got an
object from nature there. And folks who are experts
in biophilia will talk about how it is that objects
in nature as a part of designed environments
are really essential to folks having experiences
that are based in well -being. People, and this
is part of wilderness therapy, going back to
where we began. When our listeners start to prepare
for their upcoming school year, as much as they
don't want to do that in the middle of the summer
there, and when they start to think about different
layouts for their classrooms, whether they're
coming back to an old space and reworking some
things or starting somewhere completely new,
what are some ideas that they can carry into
their classrooms as a way to design it to be
both student and teacher friendly? I think that
Having a combination of what you're doing, which
is having maybe a couple of personal objects
that tell the story of who you are on display
is really, really important. Having an object
or more from nature, and it doesn't even have
to be a living thing. It can be, again, it can
be beautiful stones that you've collected or
seashells or whatever the case might be. It could
be beautiful sticks and twigs. a branch from
a tree, who knows? There's all kinds of beautiful
things out there that can be brought into a classroom
as objects of nature. And then I think that it's
really interesting to offer to students to bring
in an object that perhaps they have made or an
object that is in some way important to them
and maybe having an exhibition area. in the classroom.
It can be a shelf. It doesn't have to be anything
elaborate. It'd be great if you had like a display
case. And by the way, like IKEA sells display
cases that even can, that are all glass that
can be locked up. So having a display case where
students have little objects on display that
tell a part of their story of who they are, that
would be very meaningful. You reminded me of
another little project I tried in that first
year. called the Nostalgia Wall Project. What
I did is that in one corner of the room, I had
a bunch of seasonal pictures, like from Halloween.
It was like anywhere from my first Halloween
to... Halloween when I was a little bit older
like in my late teens early 20s and I just had
pictures from that October season that I would
keep on my wall for October and I would switch
it for all the different seasons and I invited
students to also share their own pictures as
well to be in that area but the buy -in culture
was very low as well and same thing with the
holidays I asked students the one time they could
actually really be in touch with that tree. is
that we almost turned it into like a little bit
of a holiday tree and the way I phrased them
is that I said every tree needs an angel on top
during the holiday season so I asked them to
come in with pictures of those anywhere from
a pet to a person of people that they could not
share their holiday with because they were no
longer there and we would attach those pictures
onto the tree for that month. And again, the
buying culture was also very low. So what are
some ways, first of all, how can we explain why
the buying culture could have been low? And what
are some ways that other teachers who may want
to try that increase the engagement from their
students? Yeah, I think that it's a triggering
thing for students to really think about, for
anybody to think about someone whom they've lost.
So I think that from thinking about it as being
a potential trigger, it could be something that
folks just aren't ready to go to. You know, it
takes a lot of healing, a lot of processing,
growth to be able to connect with, to reflect
upon, to meditate upon a loss. So I can imagine
that it might have felt too personal. It might
have felt too intimate for somebody to go there.
And other students would have been ready, right?
And therefore would have participated eagerly,
really found it to be really meaningful in a
very deep way. So I imagine people are at very
different stages at any given time. One thing
that I would recommend is actually keeping things
really vague and letting the students identify
what is meaningful. So for example, I do an exercise
in my class with my students where I keep really
open -ended and really simple. And I say, bring
in an object that is meaningful to you, deeply
meaningful. And that's all I say. And a lot of
times people will bring in objects from their
childhood. They will bring objects associated
with a special day or a milestone. They will
bring in an object that is something that was
given to them by somebody who they lost. They
will bring in objects that they made. They will
bring in all kinds of objects that... I always
am surprised by they'll bring in objects that
are very humorous or objects that are very serious.
And what we do is we then go around the room
and the students share. And I give a lot of allowance.
I'm like, you don't even have to share the meaning
with the group if you need to pass. If it's too
hard, if it's too emotional, that's cool. You
can pass and we'll go on to the rest of the group.
And almost always people want to share. Because
they brought in the object and they really want
to share it because it was their own choosing
and their own decision about what was meaningful
about it. And I get a lot of depth. And folks
will, there will be tears sometimes and there
will be laughter sometimes. But I find that by
keeping things open -ended like that and having
the student define what meaningful is and what,
you know, where they want to come to that kind
of conversation, they'll go there. And you will
see participation, I think, on a higher level.
And you'll get stuff that you wouldn't have expected.
As an educator and something to always bear in
mind, have the students bring themselves to the
topic, to the task at hand, and let them use
their own agency when it comes to decision making
in these kinds of situations that we create,
that we set up for them to engage. Let them determine
what they're going to bring to it. And you will
see students really step up. I'm going to mention
something that's very, very grim and dark for
a moment. After the tragedy, there were teacher
friends of mine that had original things like
original diplomas and original trophies that
they never got to see again because they were
in the building that was massacred and they never
got to go in and take those objects back because
that building was eventually. disintegrated and
I think one thing that I've learned is that our
room should be filled with things that we love
but not the most personal things that we love
that we would risk losing out on and I think
that's a good message for our students as well
to bring your energy in but bring in copies or
even dummies of things that can be duplicated
at any time. Absolutely. I mean, your most cherished
possession, bring in a photograph of it. Yes,
exactly. Yeah. Right. And leave the real deal
at home. That works too. What have you also seen
that students bring into a buy -in culture that
works for them? So many different things. I see
students bring in a lot of things that for a
30 -year -old would really surprise you. A toy.
I see a lot of toys. I see a lot of objects given
from siblings or parents or dear friends that
embody the relationship with a very important
person in their life. I see a lot of that in
those associations being drawn, the connections
with another person. Is there a question that
I haven't asked you yet that we expected to talk
about today or any final thoughts for our listeners?
And another question I'll ask is when it comes
to what I call the secret sauce of education,
what would you say is like the secret sauce to
the psychotherapeutic object dynamics that educators
can think about going into their next school
year? Oh, my goodness. I think in a way what
I already shared in terms of using objects. to
allow people to share, to offer their own perspectives,
is really probably one of the best things that
I say, keep in your head, keep in your mind as
an activity that can be done. And again, if it's
bringing in a photograph of an object that's
too precious or too dear to be able to actually
bring in itself. But having students create a
display, have an exhibition, and again, maybe
it is an exhibition of photos of an object that
is very near and dear to you, creating an environment
where the students are sharing those things and
they're on display, or even if it is just a one
-day sharing kind of activity, having an object
where a student is, again, giving definition
to what they think meaningful is. And how that
works from their own perspective, the return
on that is huge, really huge. Even if you're
not seeing it, even if students are acting kind
of like, yeah, well, I just did this because
I was told to. Chances are there's something
there that is really, really clicking for the
student. And you will find a tone of sharing
student to student, student to you. that will
be really changed in a really positive way. And
I think that students definitely engage in classes
that invite them to do so, so much more, because
now they're physically a part of it, not just
emotionally, but also physically a part of it.
Professor Brenda Cowan, thank you so much again
for sharing your thoughts and your insights on
the power of stories, spaces, and the objects
that we hold on to. This episode reminds us that
healing isn't always loud. It's often quiet,
subtle, and found in the textures of our everyday
lives. To our listeners, remember that the spaces
you shape are stories in themselves. So let's
keep building ones that make room for reflection,
empathy, and growth. Thank you for joining us
on the Classroom Narratives Healing and Education
podcast. If today's episode inspired you or made
you think differently, I'd love to hear from
you. Drop a comment or review wherever you listen
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