Contact
Research Areas
Psychology; Education; Community Action; Poetry
Education
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts
M.S., University of Massachusetts
Ed.M., Harvard University School of Education
Links
Georgia Sassen
Georgia Sassen
Georgia’s work uses relational cultural theory to prevent mental health crises among at-risk children, to work clinically with adults and to build excitement about learning at schools in poor neighborhoods.
Georgia applied relational theory to debunk the idea that women have “fear of success” and developed the program “Taking Control of Our Work Lives” to build girls’ awareness of work as an avenue for social change and increased personal freedom. After founding the nonprofit “Building Resilience in Kids,” Georgia created “Art from the Heart” and “Write from the Heart,” programs for at-risk middle school girls. These programs helped girls discover connection with each other as a way to feel powerful, and as an alternative to violence as a way to get their way. Her teachers’ seminar, “Making Connections at School,” gives teachers tools for creating community in classrooms. Her workshop, “Girls on the Brink of Adolescence” has given birth to mothers’ groups that continue to support mothers of teens and has provided fathers with guidelines for helping their girls navigate early adolescence.
Georgia has been a Visiting Scholar for one year and a Faculty member at the Jean Baker Miller Institute of the Stone Center at Wellesley College, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Clark University.
Current Projects
“Drums and Poems” helps at-risk urban children build relational skills and literacy skills, increasing their awareness of gender equity and cross-cultural connection as they create rhythm and poetry together. In contrast to traditional expressive therapies, the program is preventive, and all the art, music and poetry is made communally.
Representative Publications
Sassen, Georgia, Spencer, R. and Curtin, P. “Art from the Heart: a relational-cultural approach to using art therapy in a group for middle school girls.” Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, (1) 2, 2006.
Sassen, Georgia. “Mothering Against Consumerism: the case for swimming upstream.” ReSearch, the Ezine of the Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, September, 2010.