Creative Therapy: Suzanna Tereyan

I first met Suzanna Tereyan  at Aviva High School right around 2006 when I was formulating some of my teaching methods. I always thought she brought a unique perspective to teaching because she was raised in a completely different culture. Because of this "outsider" vantage point, she could read situations and people in a kind of subversive but very intelligent way. I interviewed her at Lola’s on Brand.

Q.
Please tell me what movie or documentary reflects your vision of the world?

A.
The one that I saw about 10 years ago. French director. Damage. Starring two  of my favorite actors including Jeremy Irons.

Q. 
Very good. Okay, well, you're happy to know that was just sort of a test question. We're not really talking about movies. First question before we get started. I wanted to talk about teaching but before we get into that, where were you born?

A.
Armenia. In the capital city in 1968. 

Q. 
Wow. In this culture you are not supposed to say the year you were born. 

A.
Well, I'm from Armenia so I'm telling you. The whole thing.

Q. 
You're here in this very different culture aren't you? What is the one thing in the American culture that you really like, and you hope doesn't go away. And also one thing you do not like, and you wish it dies a cruel death. 

A.
Interesting. Well, it's the same thing that I like and the same thing that I don't like it's one thing that I really appreciate, but the same time it has the negative point that I really don't like. And I just thought about it. I never thought about the question you asked me. I was thinking one thing that is striking me I really like is tolerance. Tolerance towards different cultures different traditions different religions. Freedom that you can express yourself, you can worship where you want. Go to a mosque or to church-just any kind of racial tolerance. I just like the freedom and tolerance and freedom of choice. At the same time I don't like it.  It's one thing that I would definitely kind of edit, kind of remodel. I don't like that there is no black and white in a sense of the good or the bad. It's not said that it's bad. It's sad it's not that good which to me is not honest. To probably be more specific I would say it's not politically correct to say someone is bald you should say follicly challenged, for example. So to me you're making it too complicated and you're polishing something that is very obvious such as someone is bald. I can't say you're doing a bad job. I have to say that you're doing a good job, but--You see what I'm saying?

Q.

Yes. It sounds like as much as you admire tolerance you also understand its limits. And that it bothers you that there's people who have maybe overdone it, overextended. 

A. 
Right, overextended and trying to be all the time socially politically correct. It is a lot of pressure on me coming from a different culture where you do have tolerance but you're also not ashamed to say I was born in 1968. I'm gonna turn 50 this year and it's not making me feel bad about myself and I don't understand why would that be bad for someone else. Yeah limitations. I also understand why when you extend tolerance it's not something that I favor. I understand that it's a multicultural country and if you don't put the limits on certain expressions or certain actions people are not going to stop. I understand that too. But at the same time, I feel I know where to stop. So if I ask you a question, When were you born? Nothing is going to change. I'm just going to know how old you are. And I'm going tell you how old I am. And we're going to become friends because we're honest, we're not trying to hide something. So my personal point of view is that tolerance,  and freedom of choice is good, excellent in this country, but it has gone to the point that we lost the clarity on what is right or wrong and everything seemed to be right in some sense, and then we get the chaos and you know, things just go differently. 

Q.
Now we're gonna switch gears a little bit. I wanted to bring up teaching but before I do, you mentioned the other day that you are very much interested in yoga, right? And that you practice this? What would you say is the greatest benefit you've attained from yoga?

A.
I would say the first benefit is that when I'm practicing the physical part of yoga, I am focusing on what is being taught and what is being done. It's the only place that I can focus one hundred percent. When I'm trying to understand how my body works that makes me concentrate better than when I read a book, watch a show or watch a movie. For some reason because different thoughts come while reading a book, different thoughts come while watching a movie but when I'm trying to do the splits, let's say, I don't remember,  I don't recall,  I don't think about anything but how to make the right move to make it happen. I would say number one is concentration. It's the only place where I can be with my own self without interruption of my own thoughts. Interruption that is going on all the time. 

Q.
It's interesting how many people have a time of, people who are successful, I would say anyway, just have some kind of mindful mindfulness practice like that, where they try to exclude their thoughts for a moment or do something like controlled breathing, but in your case, it would be yoga so that I guess when I think of it I think it is an exercise but what  you're saying it is also a good contemplative practice. 

A. 
Yeah absolutely. The yoga I practice is Meditation in Action because we don't really sit. I try to sit and meditate. It does not work with me because when I sit and meditate in five minutes I find myself thinking about something else. But when I actually do the physical yoga, physical exercise, I don't want to call it exercise. Physical practice, it is so difficult that I have no room in my mind and heart to think about anything else. So I end up enjoying that hour and a half just connecting to my own body without any external interruption. 

Q.
If you were to talk to somebody who was completely uninformed in this area, but was interested in yoga? What would you tell them? Where should they start? 

A. 
I would tell them to start with the anatomy book, pictures, just to know the names of the body parts.

Q.
And to understand their body?

A.
Not even to understand. I think understanding is very deep, I don't think I understand or probably there are a few Yogi's in the world who can really understand I would say, that's a tough word. That's probably the 10th level of yoga to understand it. But I would say to know, what is the location. We think we do. But if you go a little deeper, like okay, where's your neck? I mean, everybody can show it but at the same time the connection of your neck to your head once you start looking at the pictures even Google Images of the human body, the connection of the muscles the connection of the nerves, it's basically like a universe. I mean we know where the earth is we know the solar system. The connection of the planets is the same thing as the connection of your body parts. So I will advise to start with the anatomy like simple basic anatomy. And then go to the connection of the parts and the muscles and nerves and then maybe in a couple of weeks read an introduction to yoga, something like an article or a little fiction story. Fiction will sink in into your mind. Informational text is not gonna do anything. 

Q.
Let's talk about fiction because it seems to be an interest in both of our lives. How has literature impacted you the most? What's the greatest benefit you you've gotten from literature? You do recognize people don't read. people. People say they hate fiction. So this is an important question, right? 

A.
I don't want to use the word fun. But at the same time, like to me, first of all, it's fun because I read somebody else's imagination and I get to use my imagination to make up something out of their imagination. So we're, it's like, it's like you're playing in a music group like, you know, each instrument is having fun with the different instruments, especially in jazz music, which I like, a lot of improvisation. So I'm having fun when I'm reading somebody's story and the characters that I read I start thinking, well I think I know this character. I start reflecting and using my imagination and kind of play together. Now we're partners, partners with the writer with the story actually, not with the writer. But let's go straight in the story. So we are the characters in the story. They become my characters. I read, I reflect, it's fun. It makes me think. I would say first, I would say the fun part of being partners with characters, being friends, becoming friends and just living with them in their own world.  

Q.
I could tell you teach high school because you went right to fun, you know, you're trying to get your kids to read, and I understand that, and it is fun. I wanted to be specific now, because there are writers that you and I very much like that we share this interest in and I want to speak specifically about Dostoevsky, Balzac and Somerset Maugham. How would these authors speak to people today? Why should they read them? You could pick one, you don't have to talk about all three. 

A. 
Let me pick Dostoyevsky's since you said his name first and then now, I just came from St. Petersburg and I went to Dostoyevsky's museum and to his grave site. I would say he's my icon. As far as the writing goes I have never read anyone so deep, so detailed and so entertaining at the same time. Because, like the conversations in his novels, the monologues, go on for pages. You could see a monologue for about six to seven pages from Raskolnikov talking to someone. In real life nobody talks that much like two, three hours, like a monologue unless you're drunk or something. 
I would suggest Dostoyevsky because it really reflects what we would we don't say when you speak and would you don't express with others. We're kind of afraid or confined sometimes too, right? Like you can't say certain things in society. We think about certain things a lot, not everybody, right. So a lot of people, thinking people, the breed of people who have ability who enjoy thinking
and acting upon our thinking, I think Dostoyevsky turns that cover from inside out and he basically expresses thoughts and ideas that we're ashamed of thinking. We're ashamed of ourselves that we think that. 

Q.
So let's use a hypothetical. If somebody were to come to you and say to you, "I'm really troubled right now, I'm really struggling," say a friend of yours came to you, an American friend. And you say "what is wrong," and she were to say, "I'm feeling shame for something I've done. I'm feeling bad or uneasy" perhaps. Conceivably you would say something like, "You should read Notes From the Underground. or "You should read Crime and Punishment?" 

A.
Yeah absolutely. 

Q. 
So it's almost like something therapeutic or a type of literature that teaches us but in a very dramatic fashion.


A.
And when you're reading you feel like you're a part of humankind because you're not alone in thinking all those shameful thoughts. and you feel like you're not supposed to be ashamed of yourself because someone else obviously thinks like Dostoyevsky. Most of his characters are thinking shameful thoughts and not being ashamed of them. 

Q.
How does he do that? Like for example in Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky gets into the mind of a killer but he himself ,of course, is not bad. How does he do it? What's your opinion on how he does that so effectively? How does he get into the mind of Raskolnikov? How does he do that?

A.
It's just strictly my opinion, I think because Dostoevski, probably any genius, has everything in him. He's a killer. He's a drug addict, alcoholic. He's everything. And he's pretty much aware of it. That makes him a genius because he is aware of every human being that lives inside him. So I believe we all, everybody has everybody, but because we're not aware of all those different types of people that live in us. We're not becoming Dostoyevsky because we just ignore it. We become alcoholics or addicts because we have discovered that part and we like it and we kind of ignore all the other parts, the beautiful other parts that we have.  So because Dostoevsky is aware very much, almost hundred percent about each of his personalities within him, he can express how good being a killer feels after killing the the little old lady, Raskolnikov killed and he has a skill to present that to the reader. I strongly believe he feels hundred percent what Raskolnikov felt. 


Q.
I remember you had said a few years back that it's possible that some of these artists suffering only triggers more the beauty of that of that art perhaps those these past suffering might have contributed to this notion of being able to access all the things that you say that you had said it and I and I doubted that but I think you were right. I've come to see that in other writers like Dickens. 


A. 
I believe suffering makes a human reevaluate and rethink what life is about. But suffering alone doesn't do it because millions of people suffer only one becomes Dostoevsky. So again, I think it's the ability to recognize the suffering to have the skill to express it, you know, but I think it's like if you really look even composers, writers, artists, most of them suffered from poverty, diseases, alcoholism, all kinds of different addictions. So it's just my feeling that suffering will make you look for a way out and on your way of looking for the way out you come up with different versions of how to do it. I think suffering is a powerful tool. 

Q. 
It's really fascinating to look at some of these artists lives. I know there's the new critics who believed that you shouldn't look at the artist life . You should just look at the work because the work speaks for itself and there's a lot of there's some truth to that. But it's fascinating to look to look at someone's life like Dostoyevsky to see his background and how it contributed to his work. Let's talk about teaching. You and I met at Aviva High School and to give some context: this is a high school, all girls, small class size. There were girls there with learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, and there were girls who were well adjusted students. And there were teachers that were very good and teachers maybe not so good. What would you say is that the greatest benefit teaching or something that you learn from that experience?

A.
I would say that I learned how to deal with spontaneous situations. Every day for me at Aviva was an adventure. It's eight in the morning and I didn't know what I'm gonna face every day. It's not like regular school, you know your students and you have period one period two, like I've been teaching for the past two years. I knew basically who's coming.  With Aviva it was just spontaneous and I had to learn how to deal with how to take that spontaneity and put  it in order. So I kind of organize it into a way that I could actually teach material. To organize these girls who came from basically disorganized chaotic families or non families. And it was fascinating. It was like driving a fast car or something. I would say one thing that I learned from the girls is to take the spontaneity and not to panic, take each day as it comes. Aviva was like an artist waking up in the morning and think, "Oh, I am inspired with this red rose today." So I think our teaching was kind of like being creative in as we had to come up with decisions every day because situations would change everything and then we'll have to adapt. In America Aviva High School was the place I worked the longest, for seven years because I got bored at my jobs every two or three years. Aviva took me in for over seven years. I enjoyed every single day. I never complained.

Q.
It's interesting your metaphor is the artist, the canvas is different. You're inspired by the rose. I thought I saw something different every day. But I looked at it almost as the hunter-gatherer walked into the forest and wondered what lion is going to attack me? Where can it be, but I enjoyed it.

A.
Your point of view has to do with gender. 

Q. 
Maybe. 

A.
Because I said beautiful red rose but you said like a hunter's like who's gonna attack me.

Q.
It's interesting because one can look at a an environment like that and and look at the negativity and there were there were students that that was episodes that were violent at times some but then you can overlook the great kindness and the beauty of some of the students as well. Of all the schools I worked at I have the most Facebook friends from Aviva from students and not that Facebook is everything because I have my criticisms of it. But there are a lot of good kids from there and and they've come out of very troubled backgrounds and yet there are some great women.  In terms of teaching strategies, what strategy, be it related to content or class management, that you use to great benefit that you wish other teachers would try at least one week. Maybe even a day. 
A.
I never thought about that. Teaching all these years and never thought about that. That's a very valid question. Maybe if a teacher spent a day or two to establish the connection between the teacher and the student.The aim of dedication is knowledge is not the information because today we can Google and get the information but it's never going to stay with us. so school and the teacher is there for knowledge besides that connection. Connection to be made between teacher and the student. So that information will turn into knowledge. I would advise teachers spend a couple of days to make that connection. 

Q.
I've noticed that some teachers will use icebreakers or maybe games. game playing Are you referring to that?

A. 
I use a questionnaire. And then I asked them if, if everybody feels comfortable if I share the questionnaire. Most of the time kids love it, I have never had the students that don't feel comfortable to share. What is my favorite color? What my favorite food? What country have I traveled to everybody wants to communicate, they just don't know how. So the teacher is a mediator between, you know what students want to communicate even to each other. But they kind of, especially nowadays, they have their cell phones, tablets and everything, so they don't talk much. So I think I just do the question and then we'll talk about different things. I talk about my experience in a different country. We get to know each other and then once we have that connection, information I give them seems to work better.

Q.
What book have you gifted or recommended the most?

A.
One that I really like is maybe going to disappoint you but it's The Little Prince.

Q. 
Why would that disappoint me?

A.
I like the big writers like Gogol, Pushkin and American writers like Henry Miller. But I would not recommend Henry Miller. Exupery touches on all that I have read from Eastern literature. That book is everything. The Little Prince is like a little guide to life. And plus it's funny. There's so much philosophy. It's short and to the point.

Q.
I've read it I want to say in my early twenties and I remember enjoying it. I will re-read it.

A.
The truth of it is so simple.

Recommended Books:

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

It’s a great approach, I believe, that when someone requests a book on teaching or educational strategies you offer the title The Little Prince. This small book outlines a problem that every teacher will encounter: what if you ask a student to perform a task or operation and the student does something else? What if you ask the student for a snake and she gives you a hat, or God forbid the converse! You ask for a hat and she hands you a writhing, poisonous viper. Perhaps the student means to say that the hat is right there, sleeping inside the snake. There are layers of complexity and creativity inside of every child that Exupery suggests we draw out and channel.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

There is something here for everybody: a crime thriller, a case study of madness, a philosophy of the individual freedom cost vs. benefits of the society as a whole. It is remarkable how the author can manage to create such a complex character: brilliant, reasonable, and thoroughly evil. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4

The Magician: John Clougherty

I met John Clougherty many years ago in the back of a truck. As we flew through East LA he told me his name and a little about the trauma of his past. Since then, he has taken up skills such as magic and gaming as a means of adjusting and succeeding in the midst of a high-stress job and some serious personal setbacks. We recently met for Thai food in a strip mall in Azusa. I had curry chicken, he opted for the broccoli beef. Here is my interview with John.

Q. You are a person who connects people and brings them together through games and magic. Is that correct?

A: Yes.

Q. Before we get into magic, let’s talk about games. How did you become interested in games?

A: I think that even from a young age, my childhood was so rough and I was in such a bad place, games were a really good outlet. I could forget about what was happening or where my dinner was coming from. Whatever problem I was going through at the time, games allowed me to not focus on that and put my energy into something else that was more enjoyable and let me forget about the negative. As a kid you shouldn’t have to be thinking about these things.

Q. It’s interesting how you bring that past as part of the equation of the present. You brought something very negative and made it positive which is kind of a mature approach. What has been the greatest benefit to gaming? Aside from the fact that you have been able to pull ahead from past experiences, what aspect of gaming has benefited your quality of life?

A:  I think it’s allowed me to connect with people I wouldn’t have otherwise connected with and understand different views. In the beginning, I thought gaming was a really good chance to meet people and work with people who cooperate towards a larger goal. Our personal goals may not be the same but people can come together and I felt that building that bridge first, when you cooperate and work on something together then you can get to know that person as an actual person. It allows you to connect with someone and understand them better. I also learned a lot about different cultures. I have played with people from Europe and Australia and China. I’ve seen an 18 year old interact with a 77 year old through games. Not just talk to each other but learn from one another.

Q. I like the concept of bridging cultures and ages through games. If someone wanted to get into gaming, what game should they start with?

A; Let’s start with board games. In general, the game most people start with is Settlers of Catan. It’s a good introduction because you are faced with decisions that impact other players. And it’s also, at its heart, a bartering game. It’s not too analytical so for those wanting to get their feet wet, it’s a good entry level game. As far as video games go, video games have become very complex. It’s very difficult to get someone who is unfamiliar with video games to throw them into Halo 4. The gaming community can be very unforgiving. This is why I have always supported Nintendo. The reason that I think Nintendo has got it so right is that all of their games are technically casual. You can play a Mario game and beat it without too much difficulty but there’s a whole other level to the game where there’s achievements for collecting everything in the game which is a lot more difficult than just, “I beat the game.” So it caters to the casual people to the more serious gamer. Any of the Mario games is a good place to start. They also have Mario Kart where people are less forgiving but Nintendo is still a really good place to start.

Is there a system to your process when introducing games to a group?

The type of games I play are called Eurostyle games which center around board control, work replacement, resource management, and cooperative gameplay. These are the type of themes that run through a lot of the games.so a lot of times I can look at a new game, and think, OK, that’s a work replacement game and I know for sure this particular group will hate it. Because this group despises those type of games. One of my favorite games is called Keyflower. And this particular game requires heavy thinking. A lot of people I play with don’t like this game because it’s too heavy, too over the top. In Keyflower, every decision you make, no matter what it is, impacts the entire game. So if you make one wrong decision, it could throw your whole game away, essentially.

Q. What brought you to the world of magic?

A: I got into magic because in my senior year of high school I knew a guy in math class who did a basic trick that didn’t require any sleight of hand but most of the trick is based on a psychological principle that i didnt understand at the time. It was a standard pick a card trick. But I could not figure it out. This guy was not very good at math and so I agreed to help him with math if he continued to show me the trick. At the end of the year, he slipped up with the trick, and I figured it out. And I felt like a complete idiot. Because at its base, magic is very simple. Magic is not very difficult if you put the time in to understand the concepts behind it. What I want to do with magic is make a better presentation through telling a good story.

Q. How do you tell a good story through magic?

A: Find something that you really love. For me i love sci fi culture. When i was asked once to do Harry Potter magic, it was awesome. I love Harry Potter and incorporating that allowed me to not necessarily tell my own story but tell one that’s already been told. So I think a good place to start is with something you love. With most of the magic stuff I do, it’s already been done. I am just presenting it as Harry Potter or Star Wars or whatever theme that I am working with.

Q. What book would you recommend for somebody exploring magic?

I recommend that you don’t start with the book Expert at the Card Table. That was the first magic book I bought written by an old gambler. A lot of hard tricks, what we call knuckle-busting moves so I don’t recommend it the first time out. I really like a book called Magic in Theory. For the most part it discusses why we do what we do. This book really helped me grow.

Q. If a person had only ten days to learn magic, how would they do it?

I can teach you a trick in ten minutes. The more important piece is the story. Once a person learns how to tell a story they can do magic. Engaging people’s minds with a story makes them so engrossed that the audience cannot piece together how the trick was done.

Recommended books:

Magic in Theory by Peter Lamont and Richard Wiseman: This book is a great way to start thinking from a magician's point of view. The authors demystify magic through terms such as "misdirection," "primary interest" and "off-beat." In fact, I performed a trick on my students this week and was able to explain how I tricked them using some of the principles I learned from this book.

The Magician by Somerset Maugham: You can tell that this is one of Maugham's early works because it doesn't quite reach the powers of idea and character as later in Razor's Edge, Painted Veil and others. And the last few chapters are a bit too mad scientist for my taste. But the main character, Oliver Haddo, based on real-life occultist Aleister Crowley, is fully drawn here and alive with charm, ancient wisdom and absolute madness. The manner in which Haddo uses everything from his strange outfits to flowery speeches and ancient magic to seduce and destroy is terrifically entertaining. This novel also serves in a way as a mini history of ancient books of magic as an added bonus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4

Audience of One: What You are Reading

About nine years ago I started a blog that tracked my progress in taking 99 dates to the 99 Essential Restaurants from Jonathan Gold’s LA Weekly column. To make it interesting but extremely complicated for myself, I chose to do this within one calendar year in the middle of completing a teaching credential program. How did I do? Well, I failed. I did not complete the restaurant list nor did I get the girl. Along the way, I did enjoy some fine meals and had some good conversations. And then one day, life became complicated and, just like that, I stopped writing.

But what if I started again? And what if I aimed for a different objective? What if I went with an ear to listen rather than a palate to satisfy? What if I were more interested in the quality of my questions of very smart people than in a list of very good restaurants? In short, what if I started not to finish the race but instead to enjoy the journey?

This is the framework from which I begin this blog: asking better questions of high performers about what motivates them to succeed and improve their game. These are individuals that I already know and wish to dig deeper into the resources that have made them who they are today: what are their routines, hobbies, and favorite books. Whatever fields in which I explore, whether it be magic, education or computer science, I want to ask good questions for a very simple reason: I want to learn some of these skills for my current job, teaching high school English. And also, I simply want to be better. And I will do all this over lunch. This project does not have a due date nor is it a requirement to fulfill all the restaurant’s on Gold’s list. The restaurant list is simply a resource in which to draw from.  My influences in this endeavor of gaining expertise and maximizing performance are Tim Ferriss, Seneca, and, of course, Jonathan Gold.

“What was the object of all the study applied to an art if they would reach but a very few? I am content with few. I am content with one. Content with none at all!”

                                                                                                            -Seneca

Along the way a friend of mine asked me a question: “What if nobody reads your blog? Wouldn’t you simply be wasting your time? What if nobody cares?” To this I had a ready answer: I already have one fanatical reader. And he has already gained an enormous benefit from the interviews he has had thus far. It is not a bad deal when you can lean just a little on your friends in the form of a good question and get an enormous wealth of wisdom in return for the cost of lunch. In the words of Woodrow Wilson, “I not only use all the brains I have but all that I can borrow.”