Maria Hodermarska is the executive producer of the NYU Program in Drama Therapy's Theater and Health Lab's, As Performance Series. Over her clinical career she directed a substance abuse treatment program for people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injury. She has worked as a consultant for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation in community-based mental health program and substance abuse treatment programs. Maria is coordinator of creative arts therapies for Project Common Bond, an international symposium for young people who have lost a family member to an act of terror, armed, inter-religious conflict or in military service. Her current research interests examine how community making through theater can impact well-being. She has presented and consulted nationally on disability, trauma, violence, substance abuse, and drama therapy to a variety of universities, community organizations and health institutions, including Roehampton University, Second annual CTLA Conference, Applied Drama Research Center of the Chinese Theater Literature Association, Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China, Beijing, SPOLEČNÝ PROSTOR – COMMON SPACE –OBSHCHEYE PROSTRANSTVO 2014 international conference of expressive therapies and psychotherapy focused on body and psychosomatic approach: Research • Education • PracticeArt Centre of Palacký University in Olomouc Univerzitní . the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Yale University and Duke University, the American Association of Mental Retardation, and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and has lectured at NYU Silver School of Social Work and Union Theological Seminary. She is a licensed creative arts therapist, a registered drama therapist, a credentialed alcoholism and substance abuse counselor, and an internationally certified alcohol and drug abuse counselor, and has held leadership positions in the National Association for Drama Therapy. She has taught in the graduate program in drama therapy at NYU Steinhardt since 1995.
Selected Publications
Landy, R.J., Sajnani, N., Hodermarska, M. (in press). Drama therapy: Past, present, future. In I. Serlin (Ed.) Whole person healthcare: Arts and health. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Hodermarska, M. & Benjamin, P. & Omens, S. (2017). The Play as the Client: An Autobiographical Experiment in Therapeutic Theater. In S. Pendzik, R. Emunah, and D. R. Johnson (Eds.), Autobiographical, Self-Revelatory, and Auto-Ethnographic forms of Therapeutic Theatre.
Hodermarska, M. (2016). Mother, Son and then some: On Autism and Dramatic Reality, in Haythorne, D. and Seymour, A. The Handbook of Autism and Drama Therapy. London, UK: Routledge.
Hodermarska, M.& Landy, R. & Dintino, C. & Mowers, D. & Sajnani, N. (2015). As Performance: Aesthetic and Ethical Considerations for Therapeutic Theater. Drama Therapy Review. 1:2.
Hodermarska, M. (2015). Body Knowledge and Living Enquiry. For the proceeding of the SPOLEČNÝ PROSTOR – COMMON SPACE –OBSHCHEYE PROSTRANSTVO 2014 international conference of expressive therapies and psychotherapy focused on body and psychosomatic approach: Research • Education • Practice Art Centre of Palacký University in Olomouc Univerzitní 3, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Landy, R. & Hodermarska, M. (2015) Role, in Bas van der Mije (ed.), Vocabulary for the study of religion. Netherlands: Brill Publishers.
Hodermarska, M. & Haen, C. & McLellan, L. (2014) Exquisite Corpse: On Dissociation, Deadness, and Co-Construction – Implications for Trauma-Informed Drama Therapy, in Johnson, D., and Sajanani, N. (Eds) Trauma informed drama therapy: transforming clinics, classrooms, and communities.
Hodermarska, M. (2013) Autism as performance, Dramatherapy, 35:1,64-76
Landy, R.& Hodermarska, M. & Mowers, D. & Perrin, D. (2013) Performance as art-based research in drama therapy supervision, in S McNiff (ed.), Art as research opportunities and challenges. Chicago, Il: Intellect Ltd.