Those Who Attended
2^nd Meeting
Had This To Say:

Gail Rosen. Baltimore area storyteller gives workshops on bereavement and nurturing the nurturers, pastoral care givers, nurses, social workers and hospice staff on using storytelling to teach listening skills and diversity: appreciating the way different people deal with different issues.

James Millikin — Missouri. Storyteller for Springfield Fish and Wildlife Museum, National Park Service at George Washington Culver National Monument, and Gray Campbell Homestead. Lost his daughter in 1987. Writer and past president of Missouri State writers guild. Works with school groups & elderly. Will help in any way he can.

Betsy Doty — Atlanta. 12 years work in homeless shelters mostly with children, some parents. Population is totally transient with no access to therapist. Would like to connect with others doing this work and find ways to make it more effective. Also presents professional storytelling programs for senior groups. Would like to formalize a plan to initiate telling life stories that can be left with activity directors.

Vanita Moore — Indiana. Helps manage family’s funeral home, using healing stories mainly in bereavement and grief. Gail and Vanita have submitted a proposal for 2001 National Funeral Director’s Convention on using stories in bereavement.

Micah Guy — Denver. Vanita’s daughter. Counselor working with children in abuse, neglect and bereavement, currently in graduate school to be a therapist. Has seen the power of stories since a child. Very interested in knowing what is going on.

Mary Kane — Kentucky. Free lance storyteller mixing art with story. Background in clinical social work and art. Works at UK Children’s Hospital. Doing a two part program in storytelling and healing about people saying things that are original about themselves and finding a way for them to remember these things in the hospital. Will bring four storytellers in to tell stories that elicit emotion. Then using simple and strategic questions will get stories back from the kids and parents. These will be recorded for later use.

Doug Lipman — NSN Board — Boston area. Professional storyteller and coach of storytellers. Two main interests: wants to coordinate with the staff and the board to help the SIG thrive; as a coach is very aware of the healing power of storytelling for the teller which requires that you let the story make you bigger.

Charlotte Phillips — Missouri. Coordinator of the Community Alliance of Compassionate Care at End of Life in Springfield. Came this way from a story keeping project in local hospital. Seniors recorded their life stories, story keepers transcribed and produced a written document for families and community. Produced a how-to brochure on recording life histories. Part of SFI presentation group. Complimented HASIG.

Susie Risho — Montana. Non-profit organization in Missoula called Story Keepers. Thrilled to be part of network. Works in nursing homes, assisted living situations, and oncology unit getting other people to save their stories and the see healing value in that. SFI presenter.

Barbara Spring — Montana. Cofounder of The Missoula Demonstration Project, The Quality of Life’s End. Working to see how community can embrace dying, death, and grief issues, learn to communicate and support one another. Story Keepers is a branch as doing life stories is a major piece in finding meaning at the end of life. Encourages community and teaches how to be good listeners and take the time to hear our life stories. SFI presenter.

Valerie Griffin — Missouri. Gerontologist with Southwest Missouri State University Large part of training was writing life stories and reminiscent therapy. Does qualitative research by taking many stories and looking for cohort themes, spiritual themes. Coordinates older adult services in a large hospital system and does lots of education programs for elders. Formed a project group with older people, writers, hospice, to write a how-to book on writing your life story. SFI presenter.

James and Norma Mauldin —Missouri. Volunteers with older adults for CLAIM, Concerned Laymen Aiding the Insured of Missouri. Assists with problems with bills, prescription plans. James did life story last year and is SFI presenter.

Sarah Campbell Arnett — North Carolina. Dance and Movement therapist in a psychiatric hospital entrance into storytelling was telling to psychiatric patients. Massage therapist. Training as a corporate coach as corporations certainly need healing

Connie Bunker — United Kingdom. Hopes to help build a bridge with the society for storytelling there. Professional background was in psychiatric social work wants to build the bridges between her professional experience and love of storytelling.

Rebecca Jernigan. Artist rosters of Tennessee, Mississippi, and the Department of Defense Schools in Europe doing storytelling, drama and play writing. Member of Alternate Roots, coalition of southern artist and others committed to bringing social change and healing as performers and within our own communities. In 1997 was awarded a Mississippi Arts Commission grant for "Sacred Telling, Tales of Faith and Healing". Brought storytellers to U of Miss., churches and libraries to tell healing stories.

Mary Jo Smrekar — Virginia. Clinical psychologist in employee assistance program and private practice. Trained to do a specific kind of procedure in therapy which may help people to redo their belief systems and try to heal the distress of what ever kinds of experiences they have had. Colleague has done a workshop on this called "It’s Never Too Late To Have A Happy Childhood." Believes stories can help and is looking for resources.

Kathleen Mavournin — Tennessee. Tells in Knoxville homeless shelter weekly and in assisted living. Wants to talk to others who are doing this work. Also looking at branching out into sexual abuse crisis. Since coming to the first SIG meeting, horizons are just opening up all over the place.

Linda McLinden — Massachusetts. Activities director. Hears stories, looking for way to formalize it so families and residents know they have been heard & can hear their own story.

Cynthia Dobson — Nova Scotia. Works mainly in schools with children as early childhood educator has become interested in stories and healing and came to find out more about it.

Beth Ohlsson — Maryland. Hired as a storyteller at Frederick County Adult Detention Center in substance abuse and with women. Has found spiritual stories and stories of recovering the self useful but would appreciate ideas..Also part of Political Coalition being formed of Health Care Professionals, Politicians and Hepatitis C victims in Maryland. If there’s a population that needs healing and attention, it’s the heppers.

Susan Gordon — Maryland. Storytelling since 1981. Since 1984 working in school for emotionally impaired kids because teachers of those kids said, "your stories start out where our kids are, an absolute mess, but the stories say that the kids can make it through it and they don’t know that that is possible". Teaches at Montgomery College using stories in therapeutic settings, works at Georgetown Hospital in Pediatric Ward with stories. Husband died a little over a year ago. Now works at Frederick County Substance Abuse.

Judith Schimpf — Ohio. Teaches at 2 year Cincinnati State Technical and Community College coaching students and helping them get co-op jobs so hears a lot of stories. Has gathered healing stories from her own healing. This group makes her feel like a part of storytelling. Open to how he is to be used.

B.J. Abraham — Atlanta. Professional storyteller since 1983. Realizes the power, the healing art of storytelling but has never presented a full program only sacred stories within programs. Did a one year memorial for a friend who had died Grateful for group and hopes to learn a lot.

Connie Dodge — Atlanta. Storyteller and teacher of storytelling. Doesn’t think of herself as a healer, except over and over keeps noticing whenever people are listening to or telling stories or sharing from their own stories healing is going on constantly. Interests include using healing in support of marriage, racism, infertility, children, elderly. Loves teaching teenagers and seniors, two groups where she sees the greatest need and healing.

Maureen Brabbs Cincinnatti. Came because of flyer, thought it would bean interesting place to be. Husband nearly killed in serious automobile accident in 98 and she retired from teaching that year. Mother-in-law in Alzheimer unit, couldn’t get her story. Wants father-in-law’s story. Is a listener and finds this interesting.

Linda Yemoto — California. Chair of NSN. Noted that board is well represented, shows their concern for our first special interest group. Not a professional storyteller, thinks of self as a professional connector because she likes to find the different ways of connecting different people with their interests and their concerns and their needs. Told Gail recently in an e-mail that "the storytelling movement is no longer a revival, it is a whole new paradigm in itself". Feels that the healing arts is a paradigm in itself, the jumping off point. That’s why she feels so good about the work you all are doing and wants to support it.

Sara Armstrong — California. Secretary of Board of NSN. Uses storytelling in presentations at conferences and teaching. Not a platform storyteller but absolutely believes in the power and the heart to heart connections. Glad to support our work as a board member, a member and as a person.

Lorna Czarnota — New York. Storyteller 15-16 years. When teenage niece ran away she felt helpless, couldn’t do anything because she was too close. Coming to stories as a way of healing was to heal herself. Started program called Crossroads, for teen runaways and homeless. Presented workshops at National Conference and Sharing the Fire. Program has many components, gives teenagers a voice. Newest is a literary program for pregnant mothers to teach them to do stories and rhymes with their children. Will go to Washington, DC in February to present her work for the National Network of Youth.

Beth Vaughan — Maryland. Establishing a discussion group on Intergenerational Storytelling. So much of what we are saying, where does one line end and the other begin? What does the term "elder tales" mean, telling to elders or collecting stories? Likes storytellers sitting and listening to each other, recharging our batteries, then meeting to share what the batteries have to offer. Very glad this is working.

Andre Heuer - Minneapolis. Focuses on the role of personal narrative in healing, community building and personal aspects. Doctorate focused on use of personal narrative in pastoral and spiritual care. Staff clinician for Hospice of the Twin Cities, leads a workshop called Storytelling a Spiritual Quest, run two venues of storytelling -- Experiments in Story and A Company of Tellers with storytelling venues monthly and weekly to bring people into the whole idea that story is for everyone. . Worked with narrative within prisons, produced a radio show for several years of men sharing their personal stories.

Shelia Darr — Texas. Writer, Masters in Communication. After several deaths in family discovered how stories can be used in life and death situations in discovering a person’s spiritual path. Hospice volunteer, workshop leader in getting patients to tell their stories, writes newsletter for volunteers to tell their own stories. Hospice motto "live all the days of your life" Seminary student. Now a storyteller.

Marianna Gage — Storyteller, retired educator, teacher coordinator, principal. Tells in support groups, retirement homes, adolescents at state hospital. Currently working with single adults and developing a workshop model in shaping and looking at their life experiences and making stories.

Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo — California. Stories are transformative. Eth-Noh-Tec is evolving toward stories of a spiritual nature, and wisdom tales. Presenting piece on an atom bomb survivor who finds forgiveness is part of healing.

Nancy Wang - California. Eth-Noh-Tec. Psychotherapist. Hears many stories. "Once in awhile I can take a story from our own repertoire and use it in therapy and it really, as you all know, cuts through to a lot of other stuff. It just hits other places in you that suddenly the light can go on in a different way. So we’re really excited that this is happening because we feel that storytelling is a sacred thing, a healing art."

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