People House Presents: Scribing the Soul
Transforming Your Life through the Power of Writing
September 23-24th, 2011
Friday 6:00 to 8:00 pm, Saturday 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Colorado Heights University
Tickets are $129 and include lunch and light refreshments
Featuring Kay Adams and The Center for Journal Therapy practitioners
This conference meets the requirements for DORA’s new Continuing Professional Development plan
The 2011 People House Presents Conference will proudly feature the legendary Kathleen Adams LPC, RPT, founder and director of the Center for Journal Therapy and best-selling author, speaker, psychotherapist, visionary and author of several books.
Kay is an international teacher whose innovative work has helped hundreds of thousands of people heal, change and grow. She is the voice of journal therapy at conferences, hospitals, mental health agencies and seminars around the world.
In this exciting conference, Kay will assemble a rich team of writing practitioners who will help us enrich our professional and personal lives through the power of therapeutic writing.
A portion of the ticket price will be tax-deductible. 50% of the ticket price will be refundable until Aug. 31.
After you purchase your tickets, be sure to come back to our website to select your workshops.
The Center for Journal Therapy is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP®) and an educational co-sponsor of this event/program. The Center for Journal Therapy may award NBCC-approved clock hours for events or programs that meet NBCC requirements. The ACEP maintains responsibility for the content of this event.
An Interview with Kay Adams, Founder/Director of the Center for Journal Therapy:
Kay, you have declared that this conference will be the kickoff for International Journaling Month. Tell us about all of this.
There are about 200 Certified Instructors of the Journal to the Self method around the world. We're designating October 2011 as International Journal Writing month, and I've challenged the instructors to each offer a class, lecture, workshop, talk or gathering during that time. We'll kick it off in late September with the Scribing the Soul conference, and it will end on November 5, which is the 26th anniversary of the first Journal to the Self workshop I ever taught!
What do you think will be the three key benefits healing professionals and individual attendees will experience from being part of this conference?
Clarity on new ways to use writing for personal growth, healing and change – for self and (for helping professionals) clients. Creative connection – the experience of dipping deeply into the soul-self and surprising ourselves with what's waiting for us. And community! It's always magical when people come together to write and share.
This conference is called Scribing the Soul: Transforming Your Life through the Power of Writing, based on your book, Scribing the Soul. Can you explain what this means in everyday terms?
C.S. Lewis said, "You don't have a soul. You are a Soul." I'm a firm believer that each of us has wisdom within us that is accessible for the asking. Along with prayer and meditation, depth writing is one of the most genuine and effective methods I know to access and hear the "still, small voice" that carries within it our own truth and deeper understanding. My hope is that each person who attends this conference will leave with a direct experience of the surprise, delight and comfort of having made that connection.
You have been teaching therapeutic journaling techniques for over 25 years and have worked with many diverse populations. Can you describe the value and benefits of therapeutic journaling not only to the lay person but also to the healing professional?
In the past four or five years I've taught a basic journal therapy workshop to over 7500 therapists around the country. I open every workshop by asking the participants to finish this sentence stem: "When my clients write journals…." The top three benefits therapists ascribe to journal writing are: 1) Insight and awareness; 2) emotional regulation and management; 3) therapy moves faster. For the healing professional, a journal can provide an antidote to compassion fatigue and burnout. And it’s a great way to do self-supervision if you’ve had a frustrating session or you’re feeling stuck with a client's treatment.
Could you provide one case example of how journaling transformed one of your client's life?
One story from my book Scribing the Soul tells of a woman with terminal cancer who wrote an email journal that she distributed to friends and family, chronicling her confusion, struggles and fear. Over several months we witnessed her transformation to complete peace of mind and acceptance, just by giving herself permission to write whatever uncensored thing she felt like writing. She had a beautiful, profound death.
Workshop Presenters/Descriptions:
Conference attendees will particpate in three breakout workshops on Saturday. Please be sure to register your choices here after you have purchased your tickets so that we can set the workshops schedules to ensure attendees see the presenters that match their interests.
Lori Cavallo: Cultivating Personal Respite
Participants will learn how to use journal writing to better understand the need for personal respite, identify ways to free time for self care, and discover personal fulfillment in their role as a caregiver. During this session you will develop the tools to manage self care, create a plan of consistent personal respite time, and learn journal strategies for self care.
Lori Ramos Cavallo, founder of www.carepartnersresource.com, personally used journal writing to successfully manage the stress of caring for her mother and father during the final eight years of their lives. Both journaling and the close guidance of Kathleen Adams, Director of the Center for Journal Therapy helped her handle the immense challenges of care giving with humor, faith, and patience. Lori speaks to support groups on the importance and responsibility of self-care while caring for a loved one. Lori is also contracted by National Stroke Association to provide her expertise on several caregiver and stroke survivor programs.
Susan de Wardt: Beyond Words: The Art of the Journal
Art is a healing activity, a fundamental tool for expression and emotional release. Simply viewing art can change a person's mood and feelings. Making art of any kind has an even stronger effect on the psyche. Explore the art of visual journaling in the practice of journal keeping. Learn how to incorporate art into your daily life – even (and especially!) if you are not an artist. Discover simple collage techniques, hand-painted papers, tips for freeing the artist within, as well as creative bookbinding methods to create your own artist's journal
A specialist in the use of story, poetry and art for self-discovery, writer, artist and Life Coach Susan de Wardt (CJF/CAPF) brings the transformative power of creative activity and reflective writing to individuals seeking enrichment and healing through self-expression. With nearly twenty-five years of experience as a Life Coach and workshop facilitator Susan inspires people to access creativity, connect with inner wisdom and bring life into balance through writing practice. Susan serves on faculty for the Therapeutic Writing Institute and is a certified applied journal facilitator/certified applied poetry facilitator, board member and current President of the National Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy, Through her business Mindworks Coaching, she regularly facilitates "Expressions of the Spirit" poetry groups and journal workshops for teachers, individuals and special populations. Susan is a member of the Steamboat Springs Writers Group and resides in northwest Colorado. For individual coaching or information on workshops, you can reach Susan at sdewardt@mindworkscoaching.com or visit her on the web: mindworkscoaching.com
Kent Ira Groff: Playing with Words: Writing Your Way Home
How can a writer "play with sorrow like a child's toy," in Maxim Gorky's words, and "make a carnival of grief?" Experience writing practices to restore the healthy child and live awake with one's soul to life's pain and play. Drawing on "multiple intelligences" and the presenter's book Writing Tides, explore writer's block and depression as gestation and novelty.
DR. Kent Ira Groff is a writer poet, a spiritual companion, and a retreat leader living in Denver, Colorado. He is author of six books including Writing Tides: Finding Grace and Growth through Writing and Facing East, Praying West, prayer poetry from time in India. He is founding mentor of Oasis Ministries, Camp Hill, Pa., and loves to coach fellow journeyers into a deeper purpose through their fingertips. www.kentiragroff.com.
Carolyn Jennings: Writing Our Wings of Recovery
This session is for those seeking creative tools, who are in recovery or working with eating disorders, compulsions or other addictions. Recovery involves developing the practice to face our lives, relationships, and emotions beyond disorder and addiction. In this breakout session, we'll combine Journal to the Self character sketches with J. Ruth Gendler's The Book of Qualities to befriend your befuddling emotions with compassion and creativity.
For over twenty years, Carolyn Jennings has used her journal as a primary tool for recovery from an eating disorder and in creating a thriving life. This experience inspired her to write the award-winning Hunger Speaks: a memoir told in poetry and to become a Journal to the Self® certified instructor. She now guides others to uncover awareness, wholeness, freedom and abundance through their pens. www.WritingOurWings.com
Sosanna Kuruvila: Writing Your Life – Your Story
This session is about the art of writing the narrative of your life, with all its nuances and complexities. You will be encouraged to view the events of your past and connect the dots in your journey. Discover the hero of your life so far and recognize the myths and theories you were told to make sense of your life. Take this time to become an objective observer of your story by not only grabbing the energy of the past but the future as well.
Sosanna Kuruvila has a Masters of English Literature from India and a Masters of Applied Language from the University of Colorado at Denver. She has taught at Sophia College in Mumbai and worked full time for All India Radio, Mumbai until she moved to the United States in 1981. She is a published translator and has taught at Aurora Community College and Arapahoe Community College. Her latest work has been published in the Pilgrimage Magazine.
Debbie McCulliss: Body Stories: Journal Writing for Your Health
Participate in an experiential guided journey through your own body's stories. This workshop is designed to help you uncover, explore and construct one body story in prose or poetry. Find a new language to connect the flesh and the spirit. Journal writing suggestions and resources will be provided.
Debbie McCulliss is a nurse, wellness educator, writer, certified applied poetry facilitator and journal writing instructor. She facilitates writing/poetry classes and retreats. On faculty at the Therapeutic Writing Institute, she teaches "Body Stories" and "Body Poems." Debbie's chapters on "Empirical Research in Poetry Therapy" and "Bibliotherapy and Writing" are scheduled to appear in Writing Research in Mental Health in November. A listing of her other publications can be found on her web site, www.dmcculliss.com.
Joannah Merriman: A Quilt of Words: Gathering Our Memory Scraps
"My grandmother arrived in America alone when she was fourteen..." "Every day I hid in the woods, hoping someone would find me..." "Summers spent at the lake made for a magical childhood... " "I never did know who my father was..." If you had the opportunity to tell five stories from your life, what would they be? In this short workshop we will excavate a multitude of memory scraps, choose the most vivid, most haunting, or most fun, and scribble a few scenes that start us on our memoir path. You do not need to be a "real writer." We all have rich stories to tell!
Joannah L. Merriman, M.A., community educator, writer, and psychotherapist, has kept a journal for over fifty years. She has presented workshops and seminars locally since 1979 and nationally since 1993. Writing for herself and others, she lives in Fort Collins, and is working on two novels and a memory scrap collection entitled Darling Girl. www.lifeprintsjournal.com
Dudley Pace: Journaling with Your Sacred Texts
This workshop helps you learn how to release the healing power from your Sacred Text (the Bible, the Torah, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Quran and even the poetry of Rumi). Journaling with your Sacred Text is a creative way to deepen your spiritual knowledge of self. A variety of journal methods will be used to allow the inner self to hear the Written Words of your faith and respond.
Dudley Pace is an author and artist. He received a Bachelor's of Art degree in Religious Studies from McKendree College in 1983. He served as a Local Pastor with the United Methodist Church. He managed a mission for the homeless and disadvantaged. He worked as a counselor in homeless shelters for teenagers. Dudley is an active member of Cameron Church in Denver, Colorado. In 2005, Dudley created Little Red Wagon Adventures – A Gallery to explore the divine stirrings he was experiencing through art and journaling. He now devotes his time providing opportunity for others to use art and journaling to explore their own mysteries and deepen their knowledge of self. He has led Journaling with Jesus and Friends at Cameron Church since 2008.
Jane Pace: Dialogues with the Soul: Connecting to Your Inner Wisdom
Discover strategies for developing your connection and relationship to your soul's wisdom. Learn about powerful reasons you may have that interfere or prevent you from hearing and acting on your guidance and what you can do to eliminate them. Using dialogue, guided meditations and direct questions that speak to purpose you will begin to deepen your alliance and partnership with your own inner compass and knowledge.
Jane Pace holds a Master of Social Work and. is a Life Coach and Certified Instructor for Journal to the Self®. She helps those who are wanting to discover their unique life purpose and find peace of mind through journal strategies for accessing one's inner wisdom. Jane is also a Clinical Coordinator for Senior Counseling Group in Colorado which provides health counseling and mental health services to residents in health care facilities. She is a contributing writer to the newly released book: "Writing Routes: A Resource Handbook of Therapeutic Writing" edited by Gillie Bolton, Victoria Field, Kate Thompson and Gwyneth Lewis 2010, Jessica Kingsley Publishers. www.your-journaling-coach.com
Kate Thompson: The Third Eye: Opening your journal for self-supervision, consultation and reflective practice
Journal writing offers opportunities to extend the therapeutic experience beyond the face-to-face encounter and to provide clients with a self-sustaining method of support after the contract has ended. In addition it offers the practitioner techniques for self-supervision and reflective practice. In this practical and experiential workshop we will explore classic journal writing techniques (such as dialogues, unsent letters, perspectives) which can be adapted for self-supervision/consultation and used to deepen reflective practice This workshop is suitable for counselors, psychotherapists, supervisors and healthcare professionals who wish to learn more about journal writing for themselves or their clients.
Kate Thompson MA (Eng Lit), MA (Counselling & Psychotherapy), BACP senior accredited Counsellor and Supervisor, Faculty member of The Center for Journal Therapy & The Therapeutic Writing Institute. After reading English at Cambridge, followed by therapy training in London, Kate became a counsellor and supervisor working in private practice and the NHS for over 15 years. She trained in journal therapy in Denver and now lives in the Rocky Mountains above Boulder, Colorado. Kate is the author of Therapeutic Journal Writing – an introduction for professionals; and a co-editor with Gillie Bolton & Victoria Field of Writing Works: A Resource Handbook for Therapeutic Workshops & Activities, and Writing Routes: A Resource Handbook of Therapeutic Writing (all published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers). She teaches courses at The Therapeutic Writing Institute and works face-to-face and online. Kate says: "journal therapy combines my passions for literature and therapy, and my experience shows that it works".
Gail Waldstein: Dressing for the next phase of your life: Addressing the hidden challenges
Discover and create your next phase of life by building confidence in your future by writing truths you know and intuit. Learn to connect with the alive place within where you are authentic and vibrant. Take time to confide your secrets and put your visions on paper so you can move comfortably into what is calling you next.
Gail Waldstein, M.D. is a retired pediatric pathologist, having worked in her profession 35 + years, the majority of time at The Children's Hospital, Denver. After contracting rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, plus a bad second marriage, she began writing literature seriously in the mid nineties, something she'd always dreamed of, but never made the time for. She has won numerous awards in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction including Writer's Digest, The Faulkner Competition, Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, The Hackney, Raymond Carver, New Century Writer, and Writer's Abroad. Her work has been published in over a dozen publications and two of her essays were nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She received fellowships from the Colorado Council of Arts, 2001; the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, 2002; and the Rocky Mountain Women's Institute 1997/98. To Quit this Calling; Firsthand Tales of a Pediatric Pathologist, a memoir, and AfterImage, a poetry chapbook, were published in 2006. She currently lives happily with her yorkiepoo, River in Denver.
Cyncie Winter: The Thirsty Well: Writing to Access the Deep Creative
Writing to access our rich, creative inner resources is a powerful force for achieving a heightened sense of who we are in the world and where we are going. Learning to source that Thirsty Well within us that longs to write at deeper levels can be unexpectedly exciting and fulfilling. This presentation will focus on methods for creating intention, fostering safety, strengthening inner wisdom, and deepening creativity in our journaling. For professionals and journaling enthusiasts alike.
Cyncie Winter is a Licensed Professional Counselor, practicing in Evergreen, Colorado. She specializes in personal change and innovative self-expression and offers counseling and consultation to those who want to develop their creative inner resources as part of their commitment to a transformative path. Cyncie also facilitates ongoing writing groups, as part of her Sunday Writers program in Evergreen. She is writing a book called The Thirsty Well: Writing to Source the Deep Creative. You can contact Cyncie at: http://web.me.com/cynciew, (303) 331-2033, cynciew@me.com.
Back to the top of the page
Sponsored by Colorado Heights University, 1st Bank, Nexus, 50+ Marketplace, and HearthFire Books.
download the current PeopleHouse
newsletter