May 2000 Newsletter
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May 2000 Newsletter |
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A Special Interest Group of The National Storytelling Network |
Issue 1, May 2000 Page 1 |
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Greetings all. This newsletter is going out to everyone who has expressed an interest in the Healing Arts Special Interest Group of the National Storytelling Network. The Healing Arts Special Interest Group has been officially approved by the NSN board. Procedural details still need to be worked out - here is what we know: * Our purpose is to explore and promote the use of storytelling in healing. (That's intentionally broad so that we can further define ourselves and our goals, as we determine who wishes to participate.) * The Special interest Group (SIG) is open to members of NSN. * Dues will be an additional $18 per year. Of that, $7 goes to NSN for administrative expenses. * Our bylaws requiring us to meet at least once a year and maintain 30 members. We will hold our first meeting at the Conference in July and at the Festival in October. The meetings will be an initial "town council" where we can share our work with each other on how we use storytelling in healing contexts. We will also begin to define how the SIG can best support us. The current board consists of the following volunteers: |
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Chair - Gail Rosen Secretary - Diane Wyzga Publications Editor - Allison Cox |
Vice-Chair - Laura Simms Treasurer - Colin McNaughton Outreach Coordinator - Cristy West |
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We would like to produce a newsletter and a comprehensive bibliography of resources for storytelling as a healing art. This is more of a notice than a newsletter. We will need your input on what you would like to see in a newsletter and how it could support the work you do. The frequency and content of the newsletter will be determined by you! Allison Cox will be accepting any submissions for future newsletters, so please send these to her at the e-mail (preferred) or address listed under contact information. We are putting together a first edition of the bibliography now. We plan to distribute it at the Conference meeting in July to all members of the SIG (if you cannot attend the NSN conference in July, but want a copy of the bibliography, please contact Diane Wyzga). If you have suggested entries for the bibliography, please send an e-mail (preferred) or mail to the address listed below for Diane Wyzga. Send us your favorite top ten resources for books about storytelling for healing (this could be focused on theory, favorite stories, specific topics,... we are open to what you want to share). Goals and project possibilities abound. How do you want to be involved? Here's more about those of us who have volunteered to be on the board: Gail Rosen, Chair - A large focus of my storytelling has been in the field of bereavement, hospice and pastoral care. I proposed this SIG, got all those signatures, wrote the by-laws and gathered other brave souls to volunteer for the board. I know storytellers are working in all kinds of "healing" contexts and I want to know who you are and what you are doing. I want to share my work with others who are interested and learn from others who do similar work. I want to increase the awareness of and respect for story as more than "entertainment," and help create more venues in which storytellers can use our gifts and training. So join us. Tell us what your work is, what your goals are, and how this group can help. I can't wait to hear. Laura Simms, Vice-Chair - My commitment has been to climbing underneath the text of story to uncover how story functions as a living event which can stabilize the mind, open the heart and make for a profound reciprocity in engagement, wherein meaning is discovered within the listener. I have worked with patients in hospitals and children in schools. I am a contributing editor/writer for Parabola Magazine. Most recently I am working on a project for refugee children using storytelling as a means of instigating detraumatization using cultural materials. I have been given 2 grants: the Humanity Fund to create a web site on the art of storytelling for world peace (Summer 2000); and the Gerzon Family to support children of war torn countries. Diane Wyzga, Secretary - As a storyteller in juvenile hall, high schools, domestic abuse shelters, corporations and associations, I have witnessed the increasing need for storytelling beyond the entertainment value. I have seen both tellers and listeners gain a transforming and healing effect from stories when used in relation to life's trials and tribulations. I would like to ally with other tellers using stories in healing contexts to share ideas, gain insight, experiment, collaborate and support an expanded model for storytelling. I have presented storytelling workshops & concerts on healing domestic violence. Also, I am compiling a bibliography of texts, stories, web sites, articles, papers and the like to promote the practice of storytelling as a means of healing and therapy. Colin McNaughton, Treasurer - I have told stories at Children's Hospital of Michigan once a week for three years in the Oncology Clinic and at beside. I discovered that presence was at least as important as the content of the story, and that I was doing more listening than I was telling. I learned that stories were only one part of what the children needed in the hospital environment. Listening to the children has led me to also become a practitioner of Polarity Therapy, Cranial Sacral Therapy and Trauma Healing. I am very interested in what other folks are doing around the country with storytelling and healing. I hope to bring what I have learned in studying and practicing these other therapies to this forum. Allison Cox, Publications Editor - For 18 years, I have incorporated storytelling into my work in therapy, social work and health education. I incorporate stories into health promotion efforts for subjects such as: breast cancer prevention, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and prevention, community development, parenting support, allergy and asthma prevention, domestic violence prevention and education, - even to help prevent head lice! I was the chair for the "Storytelling for Prevention Conference, Building Wellness In Our Communities" in Fife, WA in '98, which focused on stories potential for healing and creating positive change. I am currently compiling a book on storytelling for health promotion. Being able to share ideas on this work is exciting. Cristy West, Outreach Coordinator - My interest in storytelling is an extension of my training as a creative arts therapist. My doctoral work in Arts in Education, with its focus on storytelling, has given me a broad grasp of important theoretical issues. I hope our SIG will encourage more discussion about how storytelling can promote healing and growth and also what constitutes "good practice." As outreach coordinator, I will be trying to identify individuals who may not even define themselves as "storyteller" in any professional sense yet who are doing valuable story work in community and hospital settings. I am especially eager to find and to develop sound, coherent models for teaching and mentoring those interested in therapeutic story work. NSN Healing Arts SIG Members of the Board Contact Information
In alphabetical order: |
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Allison Cox, Publications Editor/Website 25714 Wax Orchard Rd., SW Vashon Island, Washington 98070 Phone: 206-463-3844 E-mail: Allison@dancingleaves.com Website: Healing Heart Diane Rooks, Resource Coordinator 151 Santa Monica Ave. St. Augustine, FL 32080 Tel 904 829 1754 Fax 904 826 0449 Email: diane@storyjourney.com Laura Simms, Vice Chair 814 Broadway New York, New York 10003 Phone & fax: 212-674-3479 E-mail: storydevi@earthlink.net Diane F. Wyzga, Secretary, Data Base Coordinator Tell It By Heart P.O. Box 1213 San Clemente, CA 92674. E-mail: dwdragn@attglobal.net Website: Tell it by Heart (Coming Soon) |
Colin McNaughton, Treasurer 17850 Maumee Grosse Pointe, MI. 48230 Phone: 313-884-8008 Fax: 313-884-8005 E-mail: BearHand@aol.com Gail Rosen, Chair 721 Howard Road Pikesville, Maryland 21208 Phone: 410-486-3551 Fax: 410-486-5976 E-mail: GailStory@aol.com Cristy West, Outreach Coordinator 2720 Brandywine Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20008 Phone: 202 966 7746 E-mail: cristywest@aol.com Dr. Andre B. Heuer LICSW 5609 Vincent Avenue south Minneapolis, MN 55410 Phone: (612) 920-5914 Email: andreh@usfamily.net |
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Some Ideas from The U.K.
Months ago, John Rogers shared with the STORYTELL list serve from Texas Women's University about a Healing Arts story group in the U.K. We are printing some of the goals and objectives that were listed, as a starting place for reflection about what we want to do. Here's a summary of the draft that John had offered:
A new sub-group of the UK Society for Storytelling (SfS), known as the Healing and Therapy (HaT) group has met several times over the past 2 years to share experiences and ideas. This group will focus on the usefulness of storytelling to both listener and teller at emotional, psychological and spiritual levels and will provide a forum, network, mutual support and information for learning and developing in this approach .
The Objectives are many: * Build a bank of stories that tellers and listeners have found to have a healing and therapeutic effect. The stories will not be presented as cures but as potential catalysts for transformation. Stories may be traditional, personal or newly created, but all had proven use as healing or therapeutic. Included will be descriptions of the context in which the story was useful and the effects it had. * Storytelling Courses, Retreats & Workshops will be offered so storytellers can deepen their own inner process through the medium of story. These will be both experimental & experiential workshops on issues, ideas, approaches and topics. The results will be shared through newsletters and publications. * Apprenticeship and Mentoring will be offered for the less experienced storytellers/healers/therapists to gain insight & be supported through inner learnings/challenges by those who have walked ahead of them. * Publications - The group will seek to support the publishing of its members' experiences in any suitable format (hardcopy or electronic) in order to promote the need and practice of storytelling, in all forms, though primarily as a means of healing and therapy. * Projects may come up, either short or long term, and the group can seek among the membership for assistance in fulfilling them.
"The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them.
If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each others memory. This is how people care for themselves." by Barry Lopez from "Crow and Weasel"
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