The East Side Institute

The East Side Institute is an international center for the study of social therapeutics and performance activism, which bring human and community development to the forefront of culture change and social transformation. The Institute’s educational, cultural, research and community-building programs and partnerships promote and create alternative and radically humanizing approaches to psychology, education, health care and community building.

Chief among these approaches (social constructionism, cultural historical activity theory, narrative therapies) is social therapeutics, an approach to human development and social change that relates to people of all ages and life circumstances as social performers and creators of their lives. It is practiced globally as both a group-oriented, development-focused psychotherapy (social therapy) and a methodology with broad application in educational, cultural, health and community settings.