If you were at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN, this October, and attended the 2nd General Meeting of the Healing Arts SIG you took part in an ongoing story of delight. If not, following are highlights:

Gail Rosen, Founder, greeted the group gathered in the Tent in the Park with a brief history. She explained that the Healing Arts SIG mission statement "to explore and promote the uses of storytelling in healing" is purposely very broad. "My initial thought,” stated Gail, “was that I knew that all of you were doing incredible work with stories in all sorts of contexts with the intention that stories would aid people to find their own wholeness. I wanted to know what people were doing and if we had a SIG we would have a way to talk to each other. We now have close to 125 members. There has been such tremendous support and response to this that it’s been a bit overwhelming but oh, so gratifying ."

Continuing projects include publishing and distributing journals and newsletters, investigating the offering of training programs, developing funding sources, and designing a coherent and well-designed plan of action and budget. The SIG board encourages feedback from its members.

A short Q & A followed. The differences between Storytelling Foundation International (“SFI”) and the National Storytelling Network (“NSN”) and information on an SFI Healing Arts presentation at the festival were covered. To another question on SIG member benefits, Gail explained that anyone who joins NSN and checks the interest box for HASIG will receive one newsletter but must join to receive additional newsletters and the journal. While anyone can have access to the web site, we are building a members-only database to support and encourage one another. “For instance,” Gail said, “if I get a call from somebody who wants me to come into a hospital and do storytelling on a burn unit for children I can go to the database and look up storytellers in this organization who have done similar work so that I don’t have to start from scratch and reinvent the wheel. I have people to call and say ‘What have you done, what works, what doesn’t, what problems did you run into, so that I’m grounded as much as possible before I head out into something unknown to me."

Gail closed the meeting on an encouraging note, “Hearing what you are doing and thinking nourishes each of us in our own little piece of it to know that other people are out there with the same goals and feelings. In some ways healing arts is the foundation of storytelling and we are just noticing it now. Even when it’s supposed to be ‘just entertaining,’ it is healing and the messages that come through the stories, even as they’re making us laugh, are healthy and life affirming…I think this is core and central to the stories and the storytelling that all of us have loved."

        Gail Rosen, Founder

Newsletter Contents:

Page 1. Gail’s Welcome - Founder Message
Page 2. Board Member Contact & Membership Update
Page 3. Guidelines for Storytelling - Article by C. West
Page 4. Bravo For Guidelines
Page 5,6,7. A Healing Journey - Article by Laura Simms
Page 8. Erica Helm Meade Workshop & SIG Website
Page 9,10. 2nd Meeting Attendee & Member Input
Page 11. Welcome Contributions & On the Wings of Words