by Barbara Esrig. I have been the Writer-in-Residence with the Shands Teaching Hospital Arts-in-Medicine program and involved in an oral history project at this Gainesville, Florida, facility since 1999. Every week I go to patients bedsides and ask them to share their life stories. I tell them that in every room there is an amazing […]
Playback Theatre: Putting Story on Stage as an Opportunity for Healing Details »
by Lani Peterson Psy.D. The first Public Voice Project (PVP) was launched in November of 2004 by the City Mission Society in Boston. Over the course of four evenings, seven formerly incarcerated men met for the purpose of exploring the use and effects of storytelling. My participation with PVP was as the storytelling coach. Carla
The Public Voice Project: Creating a Storytelling Program with the Formerly Incarcerated Details »
by Lorna MacDonald Czarnota. For the past ten years, I have worked with at-risk youth. One of the facilities I visit regularly is a residential treatment center or minimum- security detention center. Although it originally housed only girls, three years ago the facility added two boys’ cottages. It currently houses up to 30 boys in
Healing Storytelling: An Old Technique that Reaches the Young Details »
by Susan Kaplan, M.S.W., M.P.A. “So nice to know that I am not alone! exclaimed one mother. “Now we can create something that is meaningful to us and not fight about it!” Earlier in the evening, she had shared with the participating families how explosive struggles between her and her daughter had stopped the planning
Peace in the Family: Stories and Skills to Build Healthy Families Details »
by Nancy Mellon. A sturdy Israeli lawyer and devoted father, Hanan experiences the great joy of storytelling almost every day with his young children. He insists that he would have missed this pleasure were it were not for his wife, Tsipori, who has been practicing storytelling as a healing art for several years in the
Stories for the Journey Details »
by Suzanne Montz Adams. I used to think that myths were simply old stories that had little relevance for twenty-first century dilemmas. Yes, I admired their wildly imaginative content, the occasional unexpected twist, and the characters’ fantastical feats; but important to me personally? Not a chance. There was a slight glimmer of contemporary relevance, however,
by Bobby Seigetsu Avstreih. The Alternatives to Violence Project started in the mid- 70’s by men in New York’s Greenhaven Prison who sought assistance from the local Quaker Meeting in developing ways to lessen the violent prison atmosphere. When I joined in 1986 A.V.P. had both national and international branches. I joined to seek out
The Three Paths of Transformation; Stories from the Alternatives to Violence Project Details »
by Sharon Mathis. As a teller of healing stories, I know that a story invites the listener into suspended time, a landscape of possibilities where even the lies are true. Story creates a vessel big enough for the whole person, with delights for ears, intrigue for the brain, safe places for the heart, and spaces
Stories Transforming the Teller: Sacred Theatre Details »
Compiled by Cristy West. Cristy West: I thought it might be interesting to consider what we mean when we talk “transformation” in the context of story. How are we hoping to transform our own lives? What sorts of transformative goals do we have for those we work with? What do we mean when we speak
Story and Transformation: A discussion from the HSA list serve Details »
by Dr. Brian W. Sturm & Dr. William A. Sturm. There was once a stonecutter who wanted to be the most powerful being in the world. As he was working, the king rode by, and the stonecutter wished to be that king . . . and so it was. He felt powerful as King, very
Growing Through Enchantment Details »
