By Mary Fridley Whenever I tell people I’m a developmentalist, they most often look at me with a polite but blank stare. I understand their confusion – after all, the word development is used in many different ways – so let me say what I don’t mean by development….
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By Mary Fridley (artwork by Wally Cox) I recently had the great good fortune to speak with Wally Cox, a dear friend of mine who has lived with dementia for over eight years. I met Wally through The Joy of Dementia (You Gotta Be Kidding!) workshop series I lead for…
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By Mary Fridley I occasionally use this column to share the writings of people I admire, and high on that list is Sally Fox, a “writer, consultant, and coach ready to help you redesign your life.” She is also one of the most curious, thoughtful, caring, and creative people…
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By Mary Fridley As I have written in past posts, I practice social therapeutics, an approach that makes the connection between play in early childhood and theatrical performance in adulthood. Both play and performance are developmental, that is, they create something new out of what exists, and what we’ve…
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agebuzz Guest Blogger Mary Fridley is excited to announce a new campaign for the Reimagining Dementia Coalition! As a reminder of Mary’s work with this important Coalition, click here. A New Worldwide Musical Campaign For Reimagining Dementia Recognizing the power of the arts for social change, Reimagining Dementia: A…
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By Mary Fridley In my last post, I wrote about Susan Massad, my best friend and an extraordinary doctor who devoted her life to working with people of all ages and from all walks of life to create their health, which she understood as inseparable from creating our lives….
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Mary Fridley is on the faculty at the East Side Institute in NYC, co-creator and leader of The Joy of Dementia (You Gotta Be Kidding!), and coordinator of Reimagining Dementia: A Creative Coalition for Justice. An accomplished teacher and workshop leader, Mary practiced social therapy for 12 years and uses the social therapeutic approach as a teacher and workshop leader. She is the author or co-author of several articles and chapters on the Joy of Dementia, including a chapter that appears in The Applied Improvisation Mindset published in August 2021. Additionally, Mary is a guest blogger for agebuzz and a playwright and theater director. She makes her living as a non-profit fundraising consultant. She can be contacted at [email protected] .
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