Dr. Renée Pitre is a Registered Drama Therapist, Board Certified Trainer, and a Licensed Professional Counselor. She has 13 years of clinical experience in delivering trauma-centered drama therapy and psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and adults who have experienced traumatic events. Renée began her career as a drama therapist at the Post Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven, CT, and as a founding member of the A.L.I.V.E school program. She is the former training director of iWest, a satellite of the Institute for Developmental Transformations (DvT), and has trained students in DvT all over the world: particularly in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, China, Ireland, and Canada.
In addition to being an adjunct faculty member at NYU Steinhardt, Renée has also served as an adjunct faculty to California Institute of Integral Studies and as temporary core faculty at Lesley University.
Renée’s research focuses on the co-creation of the therapeutic environment and the dimensional layers within this dramatic conversation and what we might glean from them. She has a particular interest in the curation of scaffolding to support in-depth reflective processing for training therapists post-clinical sessions and in generating mindfulness in the distinction between ‘caring for self’ and self-care in emerging drama therapists. A believer in open access to knowledge, Renée has also previously created and hosted a podcast. She continues to maintain a connection to her own evolving artistic expression as well, through writing, gestural drawings, and DvT.
Education
Ph.D., Expressive Therapies, Lesley University
MA., Creative Arts Therapies: Drama Therapy, Concordia University
BA., Drama & English literature, University of Alberta
Selected Publications
- Johnson, D.R., Pitre, R. & Davis, C. (2021). A DvT-based clinical assessment of toxic stress in young children, Drama Therapy Review, 7, 2, 257–71.
- Johnson, D.R., & Pitre, R. (2021). Developmental Transformations. In D. R. Johnson and R. Emunah (Eds.), Current approaches in drama therapy, 3rd edition, p. 123-161. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.
- Pitre, R. (2020). The Dramasphere: Adding a dimensional lens to the practice of Developmental Transformations. Expressive Therapies Dissertations. 105.
- Pitre, R., & Johnson, D. (2019). 400 Seconds. A Chest of Broken Toys, 182-227.
- Frydman, J.S., & Pitre, R. (2019). Utilizing an embodied, play-based intervention to reduce occupational stress for teachers. Drama therapy review 5, 1, 139-155.
- Pitre, R. (Producer). (2018, January – May). This DvT Life [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from: 1223827067.
- Pitre, R. (Producer). (2017, April – December). This DvT Life [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from: id1223827067.
- Rosen, M., Pitre, R., & Johnson, D. R. (2016). Developmental transformations art therapy: An embodied, interactional approach. Art therapy, 30, 4, 1-8.
- Pitre, R., Mayor, C., & Johnson, D. R. (2016). Developmental transformations as a stress reduction method. Drama therapy review 2, 2, 167-181.
- Pitre, R., Sajnani, N., & Johnson, D. R. (2015). Trauma-centered developmental transformations as exposure treatment for young children. Drama therapy review 1, 1, 41-54.
- Pitre, R. (2014). Extracting the perpetrator: Fostering parent/child attachment with Developmental Transformations. In N. Sajnani and D. Johnson (Eds.), Trauma-informed Drama Therapy: Transforming clinics, classrooms, and communities. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.