Freedom through Psychotherapy, LLC

Dr. Joanne F. Vizzini is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Nationally Certified Counselor. She received her Master's of Science Degree in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University, Columbia, Maryland in September 1997. Dr. Vizzini completed the Doctoral Program for Pastoral Counseling at Loyola University, Columbia Maryland, January, 2003. She is an adjunct faculty member at Loyola College, has taught Clinical Case Supervision, Substance Abuse, and Group Counseling in Schools at the graduate level. She supervises Master's level interns from the Pastoral Counseling Department.

These are photos from the July 2010 More Tools for Healing Hearts Workshop. The participants had chosen a character, practiced a voice, lip synch, eye focus and gestures and were now preparing to share the puppet character with a brief story. The queen had a history of domestic violence in her story. The wrinkly dog had a grief issue of losing his brother and the dragon had a story of overcoming not having a voice and then expressing herself. The story may not be fully finished when the participant leaves, but the character's story will unfold over time. The participant is invited to practice, practice, practice. Appropriate venues for the character and their story are discussed and suggestions are made regarding the use of the story in a larger group for psycho-educational purposes versus a smaller clinical group who may have a similar issue to the one the puppet describes. What a wonderful group of participants.