HEALING STORY Fall, 2002 Issue #8

Spread the Word

Inside This Issue

Dr. Noonan Workshop

Dr. Estés Speech

2

4
T he NSN 2002 Conference in Denver was
terrific! I wish all of you could have been
there. Our preconference workshop with Dr.
William Noonan was well attended and enthusi-
astically received. Many people joined HSA as
Conference Workshop Reports
Black 5 new members and others renewed their member-
ship. This is easy to do; just call the NSN office
Avstreih/Kaplan 6
Abraham/Galex 6 at 800-525-4514.
Burch 7 HSA had very high visibility at this confer-
ence. Many of our members presented and there
Shimmel/Ibsen 8
McGrath/Lipman 8 were a variety of offerings of interest to our mem-
bers. If you were able to attend, you noticed that
Rosen 9
Hornyak 10 HSA related workshops were many and some
Gilchrist 10 were scheduled concurrently so that it was im-
possible to take advantage of all that was offered.
Ellis 11
This issue of the newsletter is fully loaded with
reports from the conference and we hope it will
HSA Meeting 12
help to keep all of our members up-to-date on
14th Rocky what was offered, whether or not you were able
to attend.
Mountain Festival 13
HSA Board members Allison Cox, Diane
Rooks, Fran Yardley and I were happily able to
Society for Arts in
Healing Conference 14 make it to Denver this year. We all received won-
derful feedback from the NSN Board, state liai-
sons and so many others about the quality of the
Call for HSA Proposals 15
work HSA has done and continues to do. The
third issue of our journal, Diving in the Moon,
was distributed to members at the conference and,
as with our past issues, people were impressed
with the depth, quality and beauty of the publi-
cation. Congratulations once again to Journal
Editor Allison Cox and thanks to all who helped
and contributed. Members who could not attend
the conference will receive copies within a few
weeks. Please be patient with the NSN staff (they
have lots to do after the conference) and with the
mail.
Because HSA was the first Special Interest
Group formed in NSN, because the work that
we have done is respected and because our mem-
bership continues to grow, other SIGs and dis-
cussion groups look to us as a model as they set
their courses to serve their members. There is
some wonderful overlap of interests between
SIGs and we had lots of conversation about how
we can work together and support each other.
Allison, Diane, Fran and I were able to talk
to many storytellers who are doing exciting, of-
ten groundbreaking work with story and healing
in a wide variety of venues. We invited them,
and we invite you, to write about your work for
publication in the newsletter or journal so that
we can continue to learn from and share experi-
ence with each other.
In the past, our newsletter schedule has been
post conference (August), post festival (Novem-
ber), and spring (April/May). This year, our next
newsletter will not be out until February, 2003,
so look for it then and stay in touch through the
listserv. We welcome you also to email, call or
write any of the board members with comments,
questions and suggestions.
Thanks to all HSA members for your inter-
est, support and for the work you do with
healing story.
Gail Rosen, Chair

[Ed. Note]: This issue contains a wealth of articles about the 2002 NSN Con-
ference in Denver. These articles will be identified using the mountain graphic
you see here. Our immense gratitude goes out to the many willing and able
reporters who covered workshops and speeches so we could share them with
the larger Healing Story community.

Healing Story Alliance
101 Courthouse Square
Jonesborough, TN 37659
The mission of the Healing Story Alliance
is to explore and promote the use of
storytelling in healing. By “storytelling in
healing”, we mean the telling and evoking of
stories to support people and communities to
find their own way to healing and wholeness
physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Insofar as our mission is broad, we welcome
members who hold differing viewpoints,
styles, perspectives and opinions about
storytelling. As a membership organization,
our mutual commitment is to respect and
honor our diversity.
Board Members
Our titles are brief, but our commitment is deep.
This is a team effort...
Gail Rosen
Chair
GailStory@aol.com
Allison Cox
Vice Chair
Journal/Website Editor
Allison@dancingleaves.com
Meg Gilman
Outreach Coordinator
Meggart@aol.com
Dr. Andre B. Heuer, LICSW
Community Networking, ListServ
andreh@usfamily.net
Caren Neile
Social Action Committee
carenina@bellsouth.net
Diane Rooks
Resource Coordinator, Secretary
diane@storyjourney.com
Laura Simms
Consultant, Forum
storydevi@earthlink.net
Fran Yardley
Newsletter Editor
parkyard-fran@northnet.org
2 HEALING STORY
Emissaries From the
Imagination Craft Life into
Healing Lore
Preconference Workshop
Dr. William Noonan
Reported by Erica Lann Clark
O
ur internal sense of meaning, so central
to our well being, is severely challenged
by disruptive experiences such as loss, tragedy
or the sudden onset of life-threatening illness.
The age-old question, “Why?”, has no answer.
Life defies logic. We may easily accept Life’s
miracles and joy, asking for no explanation, but
we are as easily tempted to call Life senseless
when disaster strikes.
How do we make meaning of Life when it
serves up senseless events? Not through neat
rational answers, according to Dr. William
Noonan, a healer and folklorist. He proposes that
meaning is restored through the gradual telling
of our story, the so-called narrative act, which
implies the presence of at least two: a teller and
one or more listeners. Acts of imagination reach
beyond reason and make meaning. With a twist
of fancy, the imagined shifts from villain to hero,
from foe to friend. A failure can become a ve-
hicle of redemption, a frog can become a be-
witched prince, Rumplestiltskin’s name can be
overheard. As Noonan says, “The imagination
is the productive organ of adaptation with which
one responds to, alters and augments the world.”
How do we make mean-
ing of Life when it serves
up senseless events?
I arrived at the National Storytelling Con-
ference in Denver a day early to attend the all-
day Healing Alliance pre-conference workshop,
Emissaries from the Imagination, led by Dr.
William Noonan, a chaplain with a doctorate in
folklore. His workshop wasn’t intended to help
us create works of art, but instead to show us
how to discover meaning through the use of our
imaginations, our fantasy, our metaphors. Using
the disasters in our own lives as the raw material
for the unrehearsed stories our imaginations
would create, we would turn life into lore; we
would create personal folktales to describe in
metaphor a powerful, disruptive personal expe-
rience or life altering event. And we would also
learn how to teach the process to others. All in
one day-long workshop!
As soon as the sixty to seventy participants
walked into the room, we knew we were on a
dangerous fairy journey faced with risk and
choice because the familiar rows of chairs were
gone. The room was filled with round tables.
Wherever we chose to sit, those six or seven
strangers would become our story buddies and
our listeners as the ordinary round table would
metamorphose into a life raft, magic carpet, fear-
ful cavern or slippery glass mountain.
I chose my table the way any everyday hero
embarks on a fairy journey – by accident. As we
began, we were each handed a spiral bound work-
book, Emissaries From the Imagination. I will
tell you now, in retrospect, that its 39 pages are a
gold mine of material for anyone who wants to
learn Dr. Noonan’s method for transforming di-
saster into a healing tale. But as I looked at them
then, first Bengt Holbek’s principles (from his
book, Interpretation of Fairy Tales), and then
Vladimir Propp’s 3l functions, (a term based on
his structural analysis of folktales from his book,
Morphology of the Folktale), I tell you frankly I
thought I had bitten off more than I could chew.
I will tell you now, that it is
a gold mine of material for
anyone who wants to learn
Dr. Noonan’s method...
I’m no folklorist, just a storyteller. Like most
storytellers I know, I’ve witnessed the healing
power of stories in both my students and in the
listeners who come forward at the end of a
storytelling concert. Like many storytellers, I
have worked with a variety of “at-risk” popula-
tions as well. And there have been times when
I’ve been guided to tell just the right story for a
wounded listener, a friend waiting for death, a
child tired of being called “stupid”. But I can’t
analyze tales. I proceed by intuition. I tell a lot
of personal tales along with folktales and I’m not
sure I could analyze them according to Holbek
and Propp. So I crossed my arms and got ready
to resist.
Then Bill Noonan, a tall, diffident, kindly
man, began talking about how he felt a bit
daunted teaching this kind of story making to
storytellers because he originally created his
method for those who confront life-threatening
illnesses. While his method is suited for serious
illness like cancer, it is not limited to that. Any-
one who has endured a major change in their lives
can benefit from this method. A person can be-
gin to develop a story or mythic awareness about
his or her life.
Hmmm, that sounded intriguing, and before
I knew it, Bill Noonan had won me over with his
clarity, his honesty, and his intelligence. For
many years, as chaplain, bereavement counselor
and healing arts coordinator, Bill Noonan listened
to the stories of hospitalized patients. One day, a
friend said, “You should start telling stories to
the patients. In fact, you should get a Ph.D. in
storytelling.” He did just that, at U.C.Berkeley,
where he became a folklorist.
FALL
 To help us approach our first workbook ex-
ercise, Dr. Noonan told us a strange story, not
the sort of thing we’d hear for entertainment, but
rather a story created by a cancer survivor to make
meaning for herself. She had been guided by Dr.
Noonan. She had used his storytelling method.
Her story wasn’t “universal art”. It was the op-
posite—a good example of how unique our per-
sonal metaphors are and how, when we encode
our horror, anguish, frustration, fear, anger in
story, that story is as inimitable as our finger-
prints. In hearing her story, I heard with relief
that I certainly was going to proceed by my intu-
ition and I could let Bengt Holbek’s principles
and Vladimir Propp’s functions help give some
form, some guideposts to my metaphor making.
As we began working with our life-threat-
ening events, Bill Noonan told us about his re-
cent experience with prostate cancer. He shared
his experience of denial, the shocking awareness
of his mortality, the plethora of treatments avail-
able, each with their own benefits and cautions,
which made the process of coming to a decision
a whirligig of confusion. But he embedded his
story in an unfinished folktale, a work-in-
progress, because he is still dealing with his life-
altering event.
Throughout the day, as we struggled to turn
life experiences into metaphor, Dr. Noonan re-
ferred to his story for modeling and example.
When we worked on the Split, in which “con-
flicting aspects of a character are distributed upon
different figures in the tale”, we met Dr. Noonan’s
identical twins: Morton T. Ally (mortality) and
Dee Niles Ally (denial). They were tricky as twins
2002
can often be, so you think you are with one, but
you’re really with the other.
Later, when we considered Projection, in
which “feelings and reactions in the protagonist’s
mind are presented as phenomena occurring in
the surrounding world”, we accompanied
Noonan as he visited his wizard with the magi-
cal dice whose numbers kept changing even when
they weren’t rolling. The wizard demanded that
the hero choose a number immediately! We saw
the landscape, heard the wizard’s insistence, saw
the devilish dice and heard Bill choose a num-
ber. We perceived the edge of uncertainty in his
voice. Would it be the right number? Would the
treatment work?
Of course, we also did the exercises in the
workbook ourselves at our tables, as many of
them as we could cram into a day—a daunting
task! We’d write, then share around the table and
then whoever wanted could share with the whole
room. Because we were a room full of storytell-
ers, the story fragments we shared were often
clever, funny, moving, but the material was never
literary—it was therapeutic.
At my table, first we saw a slew of meta-
phors. Nobody’s metaphors seemed really to
connect or lead towards a story. Then, as we
kept working the exercises, one after the other,
we could see themes emerge. A self-revelatory
story was hidden in metaphor. People were
shackled, imprisoned in towers, dragging chains.
There were strange allies and enemies. Several
of us cried when we had to read our “stuff” to
the others at our table. But as the day wore on,
we progressed; we felt each other’s pain and cried
and let each other cry. We sensed healing emerg-
ing out of shifting themes of metaphors—birds
escaped their cages, slaves took off their irons.
By the end of the day, we found ourselves deeply
moved by each other’s stories, though the sto-
ries were without panache and style—not con-
cert storytelling. We talked afterwards about how
it’s no accident we choose to tell the folktales
we tell.
We sensed healing emerg-
ing out of shifting themes
of metaphors—birds es-
caped their irons. By the
end of the day, we found
ourselves deeply moved by
each other’s stories.
Dr. Noonan created this storymaking
method for people who confront life-threaten-
ing illnesses. It could be adapted to anyone who
has endured a major change in their lives—at-
risk youth, victims of domestic violence, teen
moms, incest victims, etc. But, as Dr. Noonan
reminded us more than once, his method is best
suited in a counseling session with a trained thera-
pist. His method is a tool for counselors to help
their patients/counselees create personalized folk
tales.
HEALING STORY
As for me, more than once during the work-
shop I felt how lacking technical knowledge of
folktales held me back from skillful manipula-
tion of metaphor. I also felt how lack of training
as a counselor inhibited me. Even if I could help
someone develop their healing story, how would
I discern which elements of their story had thera-
peutic potential for them?
We talked afterwards about
how it’s no accident we
choose to tell the folktales
we tell.
Nonetheless, it was powerful to explore
turning personal tragedy into metaphor. Folktale
“brings order to the chaos of feeling”. A tutored
imagination can open possibilities and new
directions. Depending on one’s imaginative re-
sourcefulness, what was previously viewed as a
limit could become essential to an emergent,
novel phase of personal being.
To those of you who didn’t get a chance to
attend this workshop, to anyone with an interest
in the intersection of personal life and metaphor,
to anyone who works with story as a healing pro-
cess, I strongly recommend getting Emissaries
from the Imagination and working through the
exercises. Bill Noonan’s style is straightforward.
He gives you just enough overview and philoso-
phy, then takes you through the steps of creating
a story. It’s a remarkable workbook. It will widen
your view.
Dr. Noonan’s workbook, Emissaries
from the Imagination, can be ordered
directly from him.; $12.00 plus $3.85
shipping & handling. Write:
Dr. William Noonan
2431 E. 14th Street
The Dalles, OR 97058.
Erica Lann-Clark is a storyteller, poet, play-
wright and Therapeutic Touch therapist, with a
background in traditional Chinese medicine. She
has been featured at many California storytelling
festivals, is the Director of Storytelling at
Stagebridge and storyteller-in-residence for
Watsonville School for the Arts.
3

Mentoring:
How to Be an Elder:
The Gifts and the Challenges
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D
Reported by Allison Cox
W
hen I first saw Dr. Clarissa Pinkola
Estés, years back at the Women of
Wisdom Conference in Seattle, she had just con-
tracted Bels Palsy, a form of facial paralysis, usu-
ally temporary, resulting from damage to the cra-
nial nerve. She slowly walked on stage and sat
in a chair, draped in a dark satin shawl. She apolo-
gized to us for carrying the oversized handker-
chief and explained that if we didn’t mind her
patting the drool from the one side of her mouth
throughout the day, she planned to go right ahead
with the conference and talk to us with the other
half of her face. We filled that vaulted church
ceiling with cheers and drums resounded. I re-
member thinking “That woman has guts!”, or as
Dr. Estés told as at the NSN Conference—“Ova-
ries!” We breathed collectively that morning as
she spun tales for us and we sang out questions
in the afternoon that Dr. Estés answered with
warmth and humor. She was remarkable.
We cannot be silenced, she
warned, for when the
“dreamers, the peacemak-
ers, the old believers” are
annihilated, the threads of
a culture will unravel.
At the NSN Conference, a beautiful Dr.
Estés stood in suede heels and a brilliant red
dress… I remembered back to Seattle when she
had spoken of the story, The Red Shoes, com-
menting, “I really do miss wearing those high
heels…” The contrast of these two experiences
was striking. This time Dr. Estés seemed more
subdued, slower to warm to story, first bringing
forth acknowledgements, jests and poems. I must
admit I did love the poems —especially the one
about her patron saint, Guadalupe, as a girl gang
leader in heaven. It reached right down to my
Catholic school roots. I could see those girls,
uniforms skirts rolled up so short. They would
stand forever in the school bathroom, arms up-
lifted, ratting their hair and bragging that they
hid razor blades in their bouffants in case there
was a fight after school.
And then Dr. Estés began to slip into story
as she told us the meaning of the title of Ana
Castillo’s book, Massacre of the Dreamers; of
the dreaming priests who foretold the end of their
4 HEALING STORY
culture with the arrival of the Spaniards in
Mexico. These prophets were murdered by their
Aztec emperor to prevent them from warning the
people across the lands. Montezuma refused to
believe that the dreams were true. Dr. Estés chal-
lenged us to tell the truth; to “be willing to speak
of shadows and failures —those times when we
couldn’t rise to the task… to speak of darkness”
too. We cannot be silenced, she warned, for when
the “dreamers, the peacemakers, the old believ-
ers” are gone, annihilated, the threads of a cul-
ture will unravel.
“Many of us are of more than two races or
heritages,” she told us. We have both the “con-
quered and the conqueror in the same bloodline.”
Dr. Estés believes that those born since the world
wars are here for a reason—to be the harbingers
of peace and that we must tell out stories to help
the world find its way through these dangerous
times.
Dr. Estés challenged us to
tell the truth; to “be willing
to speak of shadows and
failures—those times when
we couldn’t rise to the task…
to speak of darkness.”
She spoke to us of the importance in her
life of what her family calls La Santa Sombra —
The Saint Shadow. This is the one who assists
and exits, his or her shadow leaving last—one
who never looks over his shoulder to see the out-
come. For Dr. Estés , it was this humble man, a
janitor at Columbine High School on April 20,
1999. During the midst of gunfire, smoke, fire
alarms and sprinklers going off, he urged students
from the cafeteria and pushed them into the hall-
way, yelling “Ruuuun!” He locked hall doors,
keeping students in the rooms where they would
be safe. He climbed above the ceiling panels,
peeking into room after room to tell the students
that they would be all right. If we are to follow
the path of La Santa Sombra, we must “let go of
ego…” and “believe in something greater than
ourselves.”
She reminded everyone that
our work is sacred art when
we tap into the spirit of
another’s healing journey.
At this point, I was searching for the tissue
I was certain lay buried in my purse, but of course
remained hidden. And I wished that I had on a t-
shirt so that I could just pull it up over my face
and wipe my whole face clean before popping it
back on, just as I did as a child. I felt a need to
start fresh and listen even more deeply, but it was
suddenly over. People were thanking her and ap-
plauding. And here I felt that we were just get-
ting started. I had been so ready to hear more
stories. Last time we had the luxury of time. Dr.
Estés talked to us for hours. I still wanted to hear
some folktales, to travel among the old stories
with her across the landscape of our imagination.
And so I ask—please, Dr.Estés, I know that
the personal stories are important. So many sa-
lient conversations with storytellers at the con-
ference were rising to the surface of my thoughts
throughout your talk. It was inspiring, relevamt.
painful and revealing—and still, please, won’t
you come back and tell us some more stories from
long ago when everyone understood that there
are those who can dream the future? I want to
listen to those dreamers and walk with them—
all the better to envision a new future.
If you wish to quote Dr. Estés from this article,
you must first contact her office and request per-
mission; (303) 777-6577.
Allison Cox is co-editor and contributor for two
books that will be released in February, 2003 ;
The Healing Heart; Storytelling to Encourage
Caring and Healthy Family and The Healing
Heart; Storytelling to Build Strong and Healthy
Communities;www.dancingleaves.com/allison.
FALL
 Once Upon A Self:
Creating Original Fairy Tales for Personal Growth and Delight
J udith Black illustrated how “stories are a
talisman to hang your hat on.” She led us
“into the woods” of constructing tales based on
our own struggles, finding our “places of dis-
comfort” and identifying those blessings or gifts
that enable us to conquer personal demons. Judith
stated “we can re-author our lives” and journey
from where we are to where we want to be. She
described a variety of functions that these sto-
ries can offer. One such function is “Discharge
Tales” illustrated by this story: a boy sat in school
detention while Judith told him the folktale,
“Bluebeard”. The principal had shared with her
that this child had been acting out since his fa-
ther had been sent to jail.
The boy later presented Judith with his
spontaneous drawing of his own personal nem-
esis, “Blackbeard”, and told his own version of
the tale, of a man who was being kept behind
bars “so he couldn’t get out.” Judith realized that
Metaphors and Fairy Tales for Healing Story Work
Dr. William Noonan and Judith Black
I am merely a “cracked pot” as I attempt to
carry to you water from the wells of two of
the NSN Conference workshops, Once Upon a
Self with Judith Black and Emissaries from the
Imagination with Dr. William Noonan.
Although these workshops differed from
one another in format, they contained the same
basic message; working with metaphors and tell-
ing your stories through fairy tales is a powerful,
healing art. Using their own, unique styles,
Noonan and Black relayed this message by en-
gaging the audience through examples and, of
course, stories.
Dr. Noonan conducted a hands-on work-
shop set up in a room with many round tables.
The first exercise involved introducing ourselves
to our tablemates, not by what we do but by a
metaphor of what we do. Noonan gave the fol-
lowing example, “If I am a student, I might say
‘I am a sponge.’” At first, there was mostly
stunned silence as a response. But soon there
were three way mirrors, bridges, birds, and bus-
ses in the room!
2002
Judith Black
Reported by Allison Cox
Reported by Elsa Zuniga
Once the gears had shifted, Noonan ex-
plained that the story making method helps
people make sense of experience and integrate it
into their life in order to move on. After describ-
ing his storytelling method and setting some ba-
sic ground rules and guidelines, he walked us
through the different structures found within fairy
tales. For a majority of the structures, we were
given time to work on a relevant exercise, share
our work with our table, and then share our find-
ings with the larger group.
Working with metaphors
and telling your stories
through fairy tales is a
powerful, healing art.
Between exercises, Noonan shared fairy
tales that cancer patients (including himself) had
written. By the end of the workshop, I was con-
vinced there is great value even in the exercise
of finding metaphors to represent different as-
pects of one’s story.
HEALING STORY
the child’s behavior was not due to his father
being locked away but to the fear that one day
his father may return.
She warned that not all people are at the
stage where they can come full circle with their
story, to reframe the tale into new meaning for
their lives. Sometimes, these stories simply al-
low the teller to “face your demons.” She de-
scribed an attendee at one of her workshops, a
woman who had been sexually abused through-
out her life and who spoke in a meek sweet voice
about the atrocities she had endured. The work-
shop participants joined this woman in reenact-
ing her experience through a spontaneous
folktale, thus empowering her to denounce her
abusers and end their grip over her ability to ex-
press herself. “Whose voice is that in your head
being mean to you?” Judith asked us. “Life is
hard enough without you punishing yourself!”
This workshop offered potent pathways for uti-
lizing story “to create the world as we want it to
be.”
Judith Black’s workshop was set up in an
audience/presenter format. Although the work-
shop wasn’t participatory, it was by no means
less engaging. Judith expertly wove together her
personal fairy tale and observations, snippets of
others’ fairy tales and colorful threads of thought
into an entwining presentation.
Throughout the workshop, Judith demon-
strated the different ways personal fairy tales can
heal. Among other things, stories can be used to
discharge, reframe a problem, face demons and/
or create the world one wants. She encouraged
us to go to our place of discomfort and face our
demons. Of course, she only did this after re-
minding us that we not only always win our
battles, we also get to choose how we win them.
Judith’s personal fairy tale and overall pre-
sentation was inspiring. I left feeling eager to
explore my fairy tale world and ready to win some
fairy tale battles.
Elsa Zuniga is a storyteller, storylistener, problem
solver, and conversation companion. You can learn
more about her by visiting http://www.prolisten.com/
or by contacting her via e-mail: elsa@prolisten.com.
5

Caren Neile was unable to attend
the NSN Conference, but never-
theless submitted these articles
which give a good sense of three
Healing Story workshops.
Caren S. Neile is HSA Social Action Committee
chair. She teaches storytelling at Florida Atlan-
tic University in Boca Raton.
Violence Reduction
Through Storytelling
Activities
Bobby Avstreih and Susan Kaplan
D
enver-area storyteller/educators Bobby
Avstreih and Susan Kaplan presented
Violence Reduction Through Storytelling Activi-
ties in which they introduced storytelling activi-
ties that have formed the core of their more than
25 years of combined violence reduction work
in prison, school and family settings. Here are
condensed versions of stories that illuminate
some of their most cherished ideas about non-
violence.
Susan’s personal story describes one happy
incident in the long process of building peaceful
relationships…
“Last summer I was working with Building
Bridges, the summer camp of the organization
Seeking Common Ground. They had a very dif-
ficult time getting both Palestinian and Israeli
girls to come to the camp, so they had a reunion
camp. Only girls who had been to at least one
camp session were there; some had been to two
or three. We were attempting to teach, through
storytelling, how to see the ‘third side’. This is a
concept in peace and justice work to help some-
one to see the third side of peace; that is, you try
to see both sides of a conflict, but also a third
side. In working with the girls, it was very inter-
esting. I told a personal story from a very angry
perspective. It was about Vietnam. I told the story
about my personal experience and also that of
all my family members who were involved in
different ways. I told a very, very angry story.
We were attempting to
teach, through storytelling,
how to see the ‘third side’.
Then I told the same story from the perspec-
tive of just telling it, trying to create the third
side and trying to just connect. Afterward we
talked about which story was more comfortable
to hear, which was more interesting, which
6 HEALING STORY
touched them. Some said they liked the angrier
one because they felt angry; all they could hear
was the anger. So for them, the second story was
boring; they couldn’t connect. Others were tired
of anger, threatened by it and felt very discon-
nected from me by that story. When I told the story
from a non-angry process, those girls were sigh-
ing with relief; they made eye contact. It was very
interesting to talk about the fact that when you
tell a story with anger, you will connect with some
and not with others. We also discussed how to
tell your own story so that it will be heard and
secondly, how to tell other people’s stories. One
young woman said, ‘I didn’t realize that I was
tired of being angry. So when I heard you, it was
like, I don’t want to be there anymore.’”
Bobby’s story is the first one he ever told, an
allegory that he relates to nonviolence work…
“Once upon a time, I, Zhung Tzu, fell asleep
and dreamed I was a butterfly. And I was con-
scious only of my nature as a butterfly, fluttering
hither and thither, when suddenly I awoke and
found myself a man again. Now I do not know if
I was then a man dreaming he was a butterfly, or
if I am now a butterfly dreaming it is a man. Be-
tween a man and a butterfly, there is necessarily a
mutuality. This is called ‘becoming’.
That’s something that story-
tellers create... the place of
balance within which any-
thing can happen.
To do conflict resolution work, to do alter-
native to violence work, you have to hold that
place of becoming, the place of possibility. D.W.
Winnicott uses the imagery ‘potential space’.
That’s something that storytellers create; that’s
what ‘once upon a time’ is all about, the place of
balance within which anything can happen. To do
nonviolence work is to believe in possibility.”
Celebrating Our
Differences: A Tapestry
B.J. Abraham and Audrey Galex
A
ttendees at the NSN conference in Den
ver enjoyed a moving experience: a per-
formance of Celebrating Our Differences: A Tap-
estry of Arab-Jewish Storytelling Dialogue. The
show was created and performed by Atlanta tell-
ers B.J. Abraham and Audrey Galex. B.J. and
Audrey recently discussed the show with HSA
Social Action Committee chair Caren Neile.
CN: Is Tapestry pretty much “set” or is it
always evolving, perhaps to reflect current
events?
BJ: We have a basic structure and within
that structure, we might add some lines. This
would be something that we would okay with
each other before the performance. For instance,
and this doesn’t necessarily reflect current
events, we begin the presentation by presenting
to the audience two symbols of our peoples that
reflect something that an Arab or Jewish family
might have in their home as a symbol of wel-
come and a symbol of peace. At a recent perfor-
mance, I wanted to bring that in at the end, given
what was going on at the time at the Jenin refu-
gee camp (an alleged massacre). And that some
day, we hope that homes displaying a hamsa (a
symbol common to the cultures of the Mediter-
ranean, including the Jewish community) and a
platter displaying the words for “welcome” in
Arabic may again sit side by side in peace.
AG: What we often do is share with each
other e-mails and articles, such as a story about
two young Palestinian women who had been in
the U.S. for the Academy Awards and couldn’t
get back to the West Bank. We talked about what
they were quoted as saying in the newspaper
here in Atlanta. Sometimes, as we talk about
current events, a reference to the specific event
won’t show up in our presentation, but we look
at our presentation and see if the contents con-
tinue to reflect the current reality. If need be,
we make additions or modifications.
CN: What kinds of responses have you got-
ten, both from the public and from family mem-
bers?
AG: Initially, I was terrified about the re-
sponse of the mainstream Jewish community
about what I’m doing. You see, many of us have
become deathly afraid that what is at stake right
now is the very existence of the state of Israel.
Unfortunately, in many Jewish circles, there is
a sense that any criticism even of Israeli poli-
cies is seen as criticism of Israel itself. I have
tried to go to great lengths to say, “I wanted this
Arab-Jewish storytelling dialogue to exist be-
cause only this way, through telling each other
our stories, do I see the existence of the state of
Israel continuing. Given the blood on all of our
hands, Arab and Jewish, we need to talk to each
other; we need to stop dehumanizing each
other.”
So far, the reaction we’ve gotten from au-
dience members who are Jewish has been, “You
were very fair. I was afraid there would be a lot
of Israel bashing, but there wasn’t.”
Continued on page 7...
FALL

Healing a Wounded World
Milbre Burch
Note from Caren Neile: Milbre Burch’s work-
shop, Making the Heart Whole Again: Stories
of Peace, Justice and Reconciliation for a
Wounded World, grew out of September 11 th and
its aftermath. Milbre approaches her topic as an
artist, a human being, and, perhaps above all, a
mother. A book she co-wrote with Gay Ducey,
Mother’s Milk: Folktales of Mothers and Moth-
erhood Around the World (August House), is due
out next May. This article comes from Milbre in
advance of her workshop...
S ome years ago, I was at a festival in Calif-
ornia with Bob Jenkins, a wonderful teller
and retired theater professor. It was during Desert
Storm and he told stories from the Middle East
with the firm conviction that we needed to know
more about these people whom the media and
government were demonizing. I was profoundly
moved by listening to their stories at a time when
we were being told not to recognize the human-
ity of these “other” human beings.
I was profoundly moved by
listening to their stories at a
time when we were being
told not to recognize the
humanity of these “other”
human beings.
After 9/11, I needed to find stories from Af-
ghanistan. I found what I was looking for in
Amina Shah’s book, Folktales of Afghanistan.
There’s a coming-of-age story about three young
soldiers returning home with nothing but the wish
to see their families. They meet a dervish who
gives them a shawl that will grant them whatever
they desire and then a trumpet that will summon
an army. The men don’t go home after all and
soon lose both of their gifts to a crafty princess.
When the dervish hears this, he says, “Riches and
...“Celebrating” continued from page 6
Another surprising reaction was the wife of
a man who was Jewish. An older woman, she
approached me after a performance and said,
“Many times my husband is not proud of being
Jewish. Today, you made him feel proud.” As for
my family, they’re thrilled, while I continue to
have “spirited debates” with my father about the
situation.
BJ: There is an extensive Lebanese com-
munity in Atlanta. I was a little bit fearful about
their responses, but so far I’ve gotten nothing
but praise. Some Lebanese are on the side of the
Israelis, some on the side of the Palestinians. With
that in mind, I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t
2002
power can be given and taken away. So take this
instead.” The final gift is a saddle-bag with a
day’s supply of food that replenishes itself daily.
The young men return home to find their vil-
lage dying of famine. They are able to heal their
families and neighbors with food.
In October, I told this story in a classroom
of second graders. I didn’t say it was a tale from
Afghanistan till it was over, and the gasps were
audible; it was apparently a revelation just to be
exposed to a story from this place and these
people! I came back the next day and told a
French-Canadian version of the same story, fur-
ther proof that people are people wherever they
live.
For me the story is powerful in and of it-
self. But being able to speak or hear about wis-
dom-getting among the Afghan people was an
opportunity unlike any I’d been offered by the
popular culture. In Margaret Read MacDonald’s
book, Peace Tales , there is a Chinese tale about
an elephant who mocks the efforts of a humming-
bird to keep the sky from falling. The humming-
bird explains, “We all must do what we can do,
and this is what I can do.” That message em-
powers me to do the little bit that I can do to
make sure tales of peace and justice and recon-
ciliation are being transmitted in our neighbor-
hoods.
On January first, my family went to see a
friend; a longtime activist and community builder
who had recently adopted a baby. As we were
driving home, my five-year-old, Elizabeth, cried
out, “Idea! Idea! Idea! We get all kinds of mail-
boxes, and we paint them like all the people of
gotten a lecture by someone in the audience who
might have come up to me and said, “How can
you stand up there with this Jewish lady? Look
at what they did to the Palestinians.” But nobody
has shaken their finger at me. My brother who
lives here came to the first presentation; no other
family member of mine has seen it yet. But
they’re all impressed and proud.
CN: What do you see as the impact of story
on peace?
AG: Peace-making and conflict resolution
is a process. Perhaps it’s one step forward, two
steps back, yet I think story must be part of the
process. I remember when President Bill Clinton
HEALING STORY
the world. Even the bad guys and the bullies can
be on the mailboxes. And we paint our house
like all the people of the world. And then we get
clothes like all the people of the world. And that
way no harm will ever come to us.”
May it be so.
Making the Heart
Whole Again
Milbre Burch
T
Reported by Allison Cox
he session opened with audience mem
bers reading articles about September 11,
reactions to war and the search for peace in our
world. My favorite was from The Onion, describ-
ing a press conference held by God who was so
frustrated that he had even delivered his mes-
sage to us on stone tablets in mono-syllabic words
and we still DID NOT GET IT! Milbre affirmed
that storytellers can help shape people’s world
view. She told accessible and pertinent folktales;
I am delighted to hear stories incorporated into
workshops and wish this was required by NSN!
She shared her considerations for developing sto-
ries that raised questions on these subjects, in-
cluding the subtle story crafting shifts she found
necessary to mold a story to fit her own views as
a feminist.
When the audience joined in the discus-
sion, it became apparent that the subject of rec-
onciliation was a topic that could have been
talked about for days on end. Personal stories of
war trophies causing rifts between families, as
well as healing decades of grief were offered by
Milbre and participants. The ability to forgive
and move toward peace is still a struggle for many
of us. Stories on these topics help us come closer
to making that all important step. And thank you
Milbre, for the six page bibliography of selected
folktales to help set us on this path.
was in office, Dennis Ross, one of his envoys
involved in Middle East peace talks said, “It’s
one thing for the politicians to negotiate. Ordi-
nary people need to share their stories. That’s
the way peace happens.”
BJ: I think storytelling can certainly plant a
seed. It can get people to think, possibly by
watching us model peace between us. Of course
we didn’t have any points of contention; we
weren’t angry with each other. But I’m envision-
ing being in an audience, totally disconnected
from this problem, and being moved, if not to
action, at least to thought. And if that happens,
maybe there is hope for peace in our time.
7

All the King’s Children
Nancy Schimmel and Nancy Ibsen
Reported by Ann Hoban
A
ll the King’s Children was a condensed
version of a longer workshop which
Nancy Schimmel, a birth mother, and Nancy
Ibsen, her adult birth child, presented at a re-
cent Adoption Conference. Theirs is an inspir-
ing story of birth mother and adult birth child
joyfully re-united. A song they sang in bell-like
unison was a touching revelation of their shared
inherited talent from legendary singer, Malvina
Reynolds, Nancy Schimmel’s mother and Nancy
Ibsen’s grandmother.
Next came their individual stories which
included their independent decisions to look for
each other through an internet web site. They
also told four different adoption tales, includ-
ing the ancient tales of Oedipus Rex and Moses;
the first, representative of a closed adoption gone
terribly awry and the second, an open adoption
with the happiest of resolutions. Two other
lesser known tales for younger children finished
up the presentation before the workshop was
opened up for a question and answer period.
This segment of the workshop provided
graphic evidence that this is a subject area
fraught with a great need for the healing power
of Story. The attendees, many of whom were
adoptive parents, were eager to tell their stories
which were filled with the difficulty of
raising the adoptees that had come into their
lives. The need for stories from the adoptive
child’s native culture was expressed by a parent
of a small child from Southeast Asia. It was
agreed that birth stories crafted for the child,
even when little is known about her/his birth
parents, can be a creative and healing exercise
for both the child and the adoptive parent.
...this is a subject area
fraught with a great need
for the healing power of
Story.
One recommendation that could be made
for future workshops on adoption might be an
announcement at the beginning acknowledging
the weight of the emotional issues being
addressed. Then a counselor could be identified
in the room who would be available during the
session should any deep feelings be triggered.
This method has worked beautifully in other
highly charged workshops. It was more than
clear that there are many exciting uses for
storytelling as a healing tool for adoptive par-
ents, birth mothers and adoptees.
8 HEALING STORY
A very comprehensive bibliography was pro-
vided at the workshop. This can be provided for
anyone interested by contacting Ann Hoban at
Telanyost2@aol.com.
A former Secretary for the Board of Directors of
LANES, Ann Hoban comes to Healing Story from a
background in the visual and theatrical arts. Since
receiving an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counsel-
ing, Ann works as a Counselor/Advocate for survivors
of domestic violence and sexual assault in a suburban
hospital emergency department.
Finding the Sacred in Stories
Pam McGrath and Doug Lipman
Reported by Debra Olson Tolar
L
ittle Red Riding Hood as a sacred story?
I didn’t believe it at first, but after partici-
pating in the workshop presented by Pam
McGrath and Doug Lipman, I was converted. Ac-
cording to Pam and Doug, it is not the content of
the story, but the intention with which you tell
the story that makes it sacred.
During the workshop Pam and Doug asked
us to talk with a partner about a sacred relation-
ship in our lives. Then, as a group, we identified
some of the emotions connected with that rela-
tionship. The emotions named were quite diverse,
including love, passion, power, inspiration, en-
durance, humility, letting go and fear of inad-
equacy. Pam then asked us to invite in one emo-
tion, to feel it. That emotion then became our
intention and we were asked to tell a seemingly
secular story, Little Red Riding Hood, holding that
intention. In other words, we were asked to tell a
story with a sacred intention rather than simply
to tell a sacred story.
Many of us were a bit reluctant in the be-
ginning. “You mean I should tell my partner this
story as a sacred story? Little Red isn’t sacred.”
But Pam and Doug just invited us to try it out. I
turned to my partner and held my chosen emo-
tion (acceptance) in my mind and heart. I felt
the story begin to unfold in a manner I never
would have believed possible. I literally felt ac-
ceptance in my whole being, not just in my head.
We were asked to tell a
story with a sacred inten-
tion rather than simply to
tell a sacred story.
Although we didn’t have time to tell the story
all the way through to our partners, the process
was clear by the end of the exercise and I heard
many participants remark on the power of using
intention while telling. Without telling our part-
ners the emotion/intention we were using, most
partners were able to discern the emotion/inten-
tion after hearing only a portion of the tale.
Pam and Doug also stressed that the con-
text (the event and audience) as well as the theme
of a series of stories both contribute to the po-
tential sacredness of a story. The conscious use
of intention, however, was the most tantalizing
part of their workshop for me. And just maybe
I’ll start telling “Little Red Riding Hood” as a
sacred story to see if anybody notices.
Debra Olson Tolar (Ph.D. in Speech Communica-
tion), a professional Storyteller and college profes-
sor living in Southern California, just recorded her
first CD,“The Stars in the Sky”; storytolar@
mindspring.com , http://home.mindspring.com/
~storytolar
First Do No Harm
Gene and Peggy Helmick-Richardson
Reported by Cristy West
A
s several dozen participants introduced
themselves near the opening of this
workshop, it became clear that the group encom-
passed a huge range of experience, from begin-
ners to big name performers and professional
health care workers. Clearly the topic was a com-
pelling one.
The presenters, a husband and wife team
from Texas, started with a “smudging” ritual and
an invocation of the four directions, thus honor-
ing Gene’s Native American tradition. They
shared a story about a radical new society being
created as individuals who are “imaginal cells”
are forming into groups of “imaginal discs” that
will eventually bring change to the world. The
FALL
Helmick-Richardsons suggested that the group
in the room represented a “community of prac-
tice” of the sort that could help effect this trans-
formation. Peggy and Gene also shared that their
involvement in this kind of work manifests itself
through volunteering storytelling programs in
shelters and substance abuse recovery centers.
To “do no harm” must be a
primary consideration of
storytellers, whatever their
skill level.
They suggested ways of locating venues,
such as contacting United Way and the Red
Cross. Then they went down a list of factors to
consider in doing the actual work, such as con-
sulting with staff, avoiding playing counselor,
reporting problems, doing background research.
These were all useful thoughts.
Our next task was to divide up into small
groups formed by matching up puzzle pieces of
faces we’d been given. People mulled around to
find their matches, introducing a playful element
into the workshop. Each face had an imagined
problem to go with it. For instance, our group
had a pale faced woman who matched up with a
possible role description that she was living in a
shelter for battered women. Our assignment was
to think up possible stories for this person. We
were supposed to report back to the large group
about stories we’d chosen for our imagined cli-
ent but there was not enough time to do this.
Peggy explained that they just hadn’t time to
cover so much within the limited time frame and
that all story suggestions that were gathered could
still be shared with the group that had signed up
on their attendance sheet.
Tellers can learn to work
confidently and effectively
in challenging venues.
To “do no harm” must be a primary consid-
eration of storytellers, whatever their skill level.
This is especially true when working with frag-
ile and damaged populations. With certain basic
principles more clearly understood as the essen-
tial foundation, tellers can learn to work confi-
dently and effectively in challenging venues. In
the future, I hope this topic will be discussed in
far greater depth within the HSA community and
beyond. Thanks to Peggy and Gene for moving
the dialogue forward.
Cristy West is a storyteller and creative arts
therapist living in Washington, D.C.
2002
Telling “Tough” Stories
Gail Rosen
Reported by M. Carolyn Miller
T he stage is lit with Sabbath candles, a
purple cloth, a somber tone. Reading
first from a Jewish morning prayer book and
then from a storybook, Gail Rosen draws in
her audience as she recounts the story of Hilda,
a holocaust survivor. The checkerboard pattern
of the storytelling—prayer book to storybook
and back again—allows the audience to breathe
in the story and offers protection. It is not an
easy story, but it is a triumphant one. It is not
one Gail Rosen ever planned to tell.
How will I ever be able to
do this?, I asked myself?
Gail first met Hilda at a holocaust remem-
brance gathering. At that first meeting, Hilda
charged Gail with telling her story. After much
reluctance—after all, it was not her story to
tell—she agreed. The two women met regularly
until Hilda died. That was when it was time to
do something with Hilda’s story. “I remember
sitting on the floor, with all these transcripts
around me, crying,” said Gail. “ ‘How will I
ever be able to do this?’, I asked myself?” Even-
tually she did and she now shares Hilda’s story
so that audiences can learn the lessons this pow-
erful story teaches.
Everyone has difficult stories to tell. In
her conference workshop, Telling ‘Tough’ Sto-
ries, Gail Rosen offered a process for getting
to know the story that has presented itself for
you to tell.
The goal is to identify the relationship be-
tween story and teller by asking questions such
as: What is my personal relationship with the
story I want to tell? How does it feel in my
body, e.g., does it give me a sick feeling in my
stomach, does it make my shoulders hurt? Why
do I want to tell the story in the first place?
Who is my audience for this story and why
would they care to hear it?
In the workshop, Gail had participants start
the process of telling their own difficult sto-
ries, beginning with an opening sentence and
then expanding (or not). What was interesting
was that as I worked with the story I wanted to
tell—or thought I wanted to tell—I was pro-
voked to think about my relationship with the
story.
Again and again, Gail stated that this was
only one process and not the process; that one
must look at the story from this angle and from
that and from inside out and outside in. This
work does not occur in a vacuum. You take it
HEALING STORY
out and share it with others and get their opinions
of the story and the relationship you share with it.
Eventually, like any relationship, be it with a story
or with a partner, the goal is to find a balance be-
tween intellect, intuition and passion.
M. Carolyn Miller is an author, educator, storyteller;
wyngz@ix.netcom.com.
Laura Rittenberg also wrote a comprehensive review
of Rosen’s workshop. Due to space constraints, we
are unable to print the whole review, but here are
some salient excerpts….
Gail Rosen offered insights into approaching,
owning and shaping the difficult stories we have
to tell; those that are ours and those that we are
irresistibly compelled to tell.
…Because the tough stories are both great bur-
dens and great gifts, they are stories that are big-
ger than we, the tellers, are. In tough stories, we
discover a way to honor the dark and difficult ex-
periences of life and the strength and courage sum-
moned to cope and to survive.
The greatest lesson I took
from listening to Rosen’s
process was the importance
of patience.
…We composed on the spot and shared an
opening line of the tough story each of us brought
to the workshop. There were stories of lost loved
ones, lost freedom, identity lost and found, chil-
dren abused, a city under attack, to name just a
few. We worked together answering questions
Rosen provided, questions which would elicit re-
sponses which would deepen with time to reflect
and explore... She invited us to consider the re-
sponsibility inherent in the decision to tell the story,
the principles, such as truth, artistry, commitment
and obligation that we must bring if we are to be
in service to it. At the end of the small group dis-
cussions, some of us were teary eyed, some were
glowing, for in our initial foray into those ques-
tions, we sought difficult truths and could not re-
main untouched by the experience. Rosen’s last
question asked us to consider whether our answers
to these questions would change over time, thus
helping us recognize that this was an ongoing pro-
cess and we would do well to revisit these ques-
tions as long as we tell the stories.
In Rosen’s story, in time she had arrived at a
moment of...being “ready enough” —as with
chicken soup, the longer it sits, the richer it is on
the tongue. To wait for perfection might mean the
story could never be told or, worse, that the story
would be told and never grow or deepen from that
moment.
Laura Rittenberg earned an MFA in creative
writing from Antioch University in Los Angeles
in June of 2001.
9
 Storytelling, Grief and Healing with Youth Suggested
Suggested Stories
Stories
Will Hornyak Anger
Anger work:
work: The
The Story
Story of
of the
the Half-boy
Half-boy
(Africa)
(Africa)
Grief
Grief work:
work:TheTheWater
WaterBearer
Bearer (India);
(India);
Reported by Kate Lutz
The
The Water of Life (Grimms); Skeleton
Water of Life (Grimms); Skeleton

W
Woman
Woman(Inuit)
(Inuit)
ill Hornyak is a full-time storyteller of our losses. Grief can be described as the pro- Addiction
Addiction Issues:
Issues: Swallowing
SwallowingMonster
Monster
from Portland, Oregon who has fa- cess of eldership as life constantly moves us (Nez
(Nez Perce); The KingWho
Perce); The King WhoLoved
LovedMeat
Meat
cilitated men’s groups involving grief work and from one path to the other and back again on a (Africa)
(Africa)
the use of story. He has helped to create grief journey that must be sprinkled with generous Just
Just for
for Fun:
Fun: Medio
Medio Pollo
Pollo(Spanish);
(Spanish);
rituals for a variety of communities and most amounts of humor. Storytellers play a critical The
The Magic Box (Chinese); The
Magic Box (Chinese); TheWalking
Walking
recently worked with 15-18 year old “at-risk” role in “eldering” in all settings. Without elders, Catfish
Catfish(American
(American Tall
Tall Tale)
Tale)
youth through the Multnomah County Juvenile initiation does not happen. But wherever there
Justice System. are elders, there will be initiations and stories. Recommended
RecommendedReading Reading
The room was quiet and thoughtful as Will We then heard a story of two water jugs, La
La Vida Loca:
Vida Loca: Gang
Gang Days
Days in in L.A.
L.A. by
by
Hornyak led participants of his workshop in an one whole, the other leaking and of the lovely Louis
LouisRodriguez
Rodriguez
The
The Water
Water ofof Life
Life and
and Absence
Absence ofof El-
El-
ders: Violence of Youth by
ders: Violence of Youth by MichaelMichael
Meade
Meade
Ritual
Ritual and
and Community
Community aanndd Of Of Water
Water
and Spirit by Malidoma
and Spirit by Malidoma Some Some
Trickster
Trickster Makes
Makes This
This World
World by by Lewis
Lewis
Hyde
Hyde
Rag
Rag and
and Bone
Bone Shop
Shop of
of the
the Heart,
Heart, aa Po-
Po-
etry
etry Anthology, edited by Michael
Anthology, edited by Michael
Meade,
Meade,James
JamesHillman
Hillmanand andRobert
RobertBlyBly
We’ve
We’ve Had 100 Years of Psychologyand
Had 100 Years of Psychology and
the
the World
World isis Getting
Getting Worse
Worse by by James
James
Hillman
Hillmanand
andMichael
MichaelVentura
Ventura
Women Who
Women Who Run Run WithWith
Wolves by b y
Wolves
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Clarissa Pinkola Estes

opening ritual to name our grief. We wrote a
loss on a small piece of paper and then, one by
one, spoke our loss and placed the paper in a
cauldron to be burned at the end of the session.
When everyone was finished, Will looked at the
cauldron, then at the participants and began;
“In grief work we gather on the ground of loss,
not accomplishment. We are identified as much
by what we do not have as by what we have.
Grief tends to feel like a ‘watery’ experience —
flowing down, dropping us into a common sea.
Grief work involves risk, vulnerability. The
paradox is that we create trust and a ‘safe con-
tainer’ by learning to risk in a way that is safe
for us. In work with youth, it is the adults who
must be the guides, risking first, modeling vul-
nerability, creating a safe place through dem-
onstrating their own willingness to be both de-
fenseless and resourceful.”
Will talked about two roads towards whole-
ness. On one road, Ascent into Spirit, we de-
fine ourselves by what we have gained; the
adrenaline, the excitement and the element of
fire. The other road is the Descent into Soul,
where we are plunged into darkness, loss, de-
pression and the element of water. Levity be-
comes the air that allows us to dive to the depths
path of flowers nurtured by the drops of water
sprinkled by the leaky jug.
Once we were properly storied, we turned
to the real life uses of stories in grief settings.
Bridging Communities
Will encouraged the group to consider not only and Cultures
the grief connected with major events but also Garth Gilchrist
the small things that pile up and are never
grieved. In his work with young men involved Reported by Peggy Helmick-Richardson
with the courts, he designed a ten session “ini-
D
tiation” experience that used stories of anger
uring his showcase, Stories of
and grief as complements to experiential pro-
Immigrants’ Journeys, Garth Gilchrist
grams such as a sweat lodge ceremony. In ini-
shared how he produced twelve radio pro-
tiation ceremonies, elders use terror and fear
grams of recorded stories of Latino, Haitian
positively by helping young men face their fears
and Vietnamese immigrants living in the
and grow. In initiations and stories, we cross a
Canal District of San Rafael, California. He
threshold into a different world and back again.
also demonstrated a modern version of an age-
The result is a powerful affirmation because the
old means of honoring another person;
experience of resolving a difficulty changes the
listening to and acknowledging their story.
imagination forever. We learn that the impos-
Garth took the venture one step further by
sible can become the possible. Stories reveal
allowing others, who normally would not have
the commonness of anger and grief to all hu-
the opportunity, to participate in the process.
manity.
These people played their role through the
medium of radio.
Kate Lutz is a Colorado storyteller who works Garth described the nuts and bolts of
with hospice programs on grief, loss and putting together the series of radio stories for
storytelling; Radio Canal on KSRH. He covered equipment
303-744-8055; katelutz@mindspring.com.
Continued on page 11...

10 HEALING STORY FALL

 Caught in the Headlights: Facing Our Fears
Elizabeth Ellis

Reported by Sharon Creeden

The Guest HouseHouse
The Guest

T rying to condense Elizabeth Ellis’ work

shop is like trying to squeeze a Texas Blue
Norther between the pages of my hand-made
With candor and wit, she helped us pinpoint
our fears and then share them with a partner. “To
name something by its true name is to have power
This
Thisbeing
Every

AAjoy,
beinghuman
humanisisaaguest
morning a new
guesthouse.
arrival.
Every morning a new arrival.
house.

journal. Her three-and-a-half-hour intensive over it,” she said. joy,aadepression,

depression,aameanness,
meanness,
some
some momentary
momentary awareness
awareness comes
comes
workshop had it all— games, crafts, snacks, and She taught a technique using denials to “strip
gentle probing about our individual fears as sto- as
asan
anunexpected
unexpectedvisitor.
visitor.
away those things from the past that no longer
rytellers. serve us.” Two examples of this are “I deny the
Elizabeth reminded us that fear, like coy- Welcome
Welcomeand andentertain
entertainthem
themall!
all!
power of depression over me.” and “I deny the
ote, is a great shape shifter. Fear can take the Even
Even if they are a crowdofofsorrows,
if they are a crowd sorrows,
power of self criticism to keep me from telling
who
whoviolently
violentlysweep
sweepyour
yourhouse
house
shape of depression, envy, arrogance, procrasti- stories.”
nation, self-blame... empty
emptyofofitsitsfurniture,
furniture,
Next we wrote our own affirmations. Some
still,
still,treat
treateach
eachguest
guesthonorably.
honorably.
examples were “What I do is enough.”, “I am
He
He may be clearingyou
may be clearing youout
out
pleased with what I create.” and “I have some-
for
forsome
somenewnewdelight.
delight.
thing important to say.”
As the final activity, we each decorated a
The
Thedark
darkthought,
thought,the
theshame,
shame,
small mirror with affirmations to carry home and
the malice,
the malice,
remind us of our positive thoughts.
meet
meetthem
thematatthe
thedoor
doorlaughing
laughing
To help us welcome fear into our minds,
and invite them in.
and invite them in.
Elizabeth read a poem by Rumi, the thirteenth-
century Sufi poet.
She said fear is not our enemy; fear is there Be
Begrateful
gratefulfor
forwhatever
whatevercomes,
comes,
because
because each hasbeen
each has beensent
sent
for a purpose; fear serves as an opportunity. For Sharon Creeden resides in Seattle and Green
example, fear of poverty motivates us to work as
asaaguide
guidefrom
frombeyond.
beyond.
Valley, AZ and is the author of two collections of
harder. Each fear has a blessing and, like Jacob folktales; Fair Is Fair and In Full Bloom. Rumi
Rumi
who would not release the angel until he received She may be reached at screed@aol.com
his blessing, we must wrestle with our fears un-
til we receive our blessing.

...“Bridging Communities” continued from page 10
used, the task of matching appropriate
translators with storytellers, editing styles and
defining themes. But for most of the work-
shop, he allowed the stories to speak for
themselves. After all, it was the power of the
stories he had heard from friends that first
lured him into wanting to delve into this
project. For the audience of storytellers in the
room, it was a moving and inspirational dive
into new depths of emotional and cultural
waters.
Paula, a college professor from Guate-
mala, told how she fled her country after her
husband “disappeared” following his
announcement that he was leaving his
national intelligence job. Her home was
ransacked and mysterious men in dark suits
trailed her before she finally made her escape,
eventually coming to San Rafael. In the
interim, she was apprehended by Immigration
and Naturalization agents who accused her of
being Columbian and smuggling drugs. After
winning asylum, Paula supported herself by
cleaning houses.
Norberto shared how he escaped from his
war-torn El Salvador with a brother and
cousin, all three intent on making it to the
United States. The young men were separated
2002
when attacked by bandits in Guatemala. Alone
and without money, Norberto continued on his
trek. Along the way he supported himself by
learning how to work on a fishing boat and
eventually landed a job fishing for sharks out
on the ocean. He laughed about how he
practiced swimming so he could cross the
“huge” Rio Grande when he eventually
arrived at the border of the United States.
“They didn’t know their
experience was valuable”,
he explained. “But when
they know they are being
listened to, things come
flooding out.”
Enrique’s enthusiasm for Burger King
and other U.S. “amenities” was infectious. He
is a man who works three jobs each day,
approximately fourteen hours, to support
himself. In spite of his hard labor, there was
no tone of resentment in his story. Enrique is a
man who appreciates the opportunities he
gained by coming to the United States.
Through his efforts, Enrique sent money to his
family living in a small town in the Yucatan,
enough to build homes for both his parents
and himself as well as to plant an orchard. He
HEALING STORY
also acquired one luxury here; a stereo
system. Although Enrique hopes to eventually
return to the Yucatan, he continues to work in
the U.S. for a little longer because of the
money he can earn.
For showcase participants, Garth
distributed the list of questions interviewees
were given in advance and asked during their
recordings. He also shared the letter of
introduction in both English and Spanish that
was given to each of the radio interview
storytellers as well as an example of a
narration script with the English voice-over.
In hopes of inspiring others to tackle a similar
project in their community, Garth provided a
list of audio equipment with prices and a
description of his own program that he uses to
present to other radio stations.
Garth pointed out to his audience that
many of those being recorded initially did not
understand why he wanted to interview them.
“They didn’t know their experience was
valuable”, he explained. “But when they
know they are being listened to, things come
flooding out.”
Peggy Helmick-Richardson is a both a
professional freelance writer and a storyteller
from Dallas, TX. She performs with her
husband Gene as the tandem duo “Twice
Upon a Time Storytellers”.
11
 Minutes of the HSA Meeting at the 2002 NSN Conference
C hairperson Gail Rosen welcomed every-
one (approximately 60 people were
present) and announced that the third addition
of the HSA journal was available for all mem-
bers at the conference and would be mailed to
other members soon. Additional copies were
available at the conference bookstore for $10.
Gail offered members copies of the new “Sample
Newsletter” prepared by newsletter editor, Fran
Yardley, to share with others.
In the three years of HSA’s existence, our
membership has grown to 250 members with over
200 active participants on our listserv. We have
helped NSN to understand the importance of
special interest groups within the organization
and increased understanding of storytelling as a
healing art.
Gail then introduced the old and new board
members who were present—Allison Cox, Fran
Yardley, Diane Rooks, and Cristy West—and
described the functions they perform for the or-
ganization. She mentioned the board members
not present—Andre Heuer, Caren Neile, Laura
Simms, and Meg Gilman—and the roles they
have within the organization and included Mark
Summary of Regional Groups at the HSA Meeting
Western Region (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM,
UT, WY) Submitted by Jaime Weisberg
W
e began with an introduction of every-
one there and what topics they’re
working with or interested in. We had people
from all over Colorado (Denver, Greeley, Ft.
Collins, Golden, Longmont) as well as Salt Lake
City, Utah, Tempe, Arizona, and New Mexico.
People are working in a lot of different
areas: elder care, hospice, grief (death and
change), interfaith issues, conflict, diversity,
stress, prevention, personal healing, reiki, medi-
tation, environmental loss (e.g. fire), Judaism,
and law enforcement.
There are also many of us who are inter-
ested in learning more about or exploring these
areas. We feel it is important to note that:
1. Many are interested in involvement who
are not already using the healing power of sto-
ries in professional work.
2. There is a real interest in using the HSA
SIG for educational purposes, to learn more about
the ways of using storytelling in healing.
Our main concern was to meet the needs of
the group and not duplicate the work of the gen-
eral HSA listserv. A need for conversation was
expressed. The main ideas we came up with were:
12
Bassett, our Webmaster. She also acknowledged
the work of former board members Diane Wyzga,
Colin McNaughton, and Peggy Kenny.
Gail stressed that we want to support the
healing interests of all members and encouraged
those interested to participate in the new inter-
faith and diversity discussion groups. She invited
members to become part of the board and re-
minded us that every member is on the outreach
committee. A motion was made and seconded
for the board to continue to operate on an adhoc
basis. Discussion followed: something should be
in place by the next conference for the replace-
ment of board members; board shouldn’t all ro-
tate off at once—value of continuity; interested
members should step forward to help create a
viable procedure; all members welcome to be part
of the board based on individual interests. The
question was called and the motion passed. The
invitation for members to establish a procedure
and be on the board will go out in a future news-
letter.
Allison Cox asked for more member input
for the journal, the newsletter, and the website.
Diane Rooks announced that our bibliography
1. To see if we can get space and time to
meet at the Rocky Mountain Storytelling Festi-
val and/or Conference.
2. To add to the Tempe Storytelling Festi-
val that is in the works (contact Lorraine
Calbow).
3. To work towards a Healing Story confer-
ence to address the use of story in the healing
professions and make sure to emphasize ethics
in storytelling for those in the health care pro-
fession who want to use story but aren’t aware
off how to do so responsibly.
South Central Region. (KA, OK, TX, LA,
AR, MI) Submitted by Sheila Darr
S
ome of the ideas we discussed were:
1. Searching the HSA membership roster
by state to identify other members in the South
Central region (to create a mailing list).
2. Planning a retreat for South Central mem-
bers to network and share ideas.
3. Identifying places where we can spread
the word about HealingStory and what we do,
such as ministerial alliances, colleges and uni-
versities, groups/organizations for health profes-
sionals, hospitals and hospices.
HEALING STORY
is now in an online database that can be searched
by author, title, and category. All members were
encouraged to enter their favorite resources with
specific, descriptive information on the website
data entry form. Fran Yardley asked for volun-
teers to help with the newsletter as copy editors.
Christopher Maier, Ann Hoban, Sheila Darr,
Darlene Dufour, Kate Lutz, Laura Rittenberg, and
Peggy Helmick offered their help and Glen Mor-
row agreed to get ISBN numbers for our jour-
nals.
Gail discussed the community gatherings as
described by board member, Andre Heuer, and
distributed a handout prepared by Andre with
gatherings that we already know about. The group
then divided into the seven NSN regions to net-
work and brainstorm about ways that gatherings
and support could be facilitated in each region.
Members of each region exchanged email ad-
dresses to be used for future developments and
each group reported the highlights of the session
to the entire group. Some of the results are re-
ported below.
The meeting was adjourned.
Diane Rooks
Secretary, Resource Coordinator
Northeast Region (CT, DE, ME, MD, MA,
NH, NJ, NY, DC, PA, RI, VT)
Submitted by Ann Hoban
W
e had a very free flowing discussion.
Here are some of the ideas which
were raised:
How can we get together to network? A
meeting at the Sharing the Fire Conference is a
possibility. There have already been two meet-
ings at STF. Buddy sharing is another option.
We discussed the idea of having ad hoc
workshops with possibly a national level teller
in studios, homes, churches, community centers.
Then we discussed whether community building
would be more likely with an equal level of tell-
ers rather than one “expert”.
We discussed theme circles. How do we
gather people together? We agreed that gather-
ing in person is critical so that we can support
each other. We realized that we need to focus on
two levels of community; the “inner circle” (us)
and the larger community we’d like to create.
We all have inner wisdom and we’d like to
meet and interact in ways that excavate that
knowledge.
[Ed. Note]: As of publication date, we had not
heard from the other regions. We hope to include
their reports in the next newsletter.
FALL
14 th Rocky Mountain
Storytelling Festival
S
Reported by Max Hale
ome folks said the Fourteenth Rocky
Mountain Storytelling Festival at Palmer
Lake, Colorado was a success before it started.
Volunteers, tried and true, under the experienced
guidance of John Stansfield, Director, and his
wife, Carol, set the stage. By the time the head-
liners took the stage, the audience was ready.
Early on, one of the emcees spoke of the
Kiowa Indians coming out of the Rockies on their
way to becoming Plains Indians and coming to
“a place where they had to change their lives.”
The emcee promised that those who had gath-
ered to hear the storytellers had also come to a
place where they would change their lives—no
empty promise as it turned out.
... those who had gathered
to hear the storytellers had
also come to a place where
they would change their
lives.
Norma Livo assumed her rightful place as
grande dame of the event with her warm and
wonderful spirit and stories that amplified the
theme: Story Medicine—Humor and Healing.
She laid claim to being the oldest in years. The
youngest storyteller was Mick Harris, who, at age
nine, told a delightful tale of the trickster Coy-
ote. The power of music and words of Dennis
Freeman, now from Arizona, set a pace and a stan-
dard that challenged and delighted everyone.
Greg Martin, a mountain man from Glen Haven,
Colorado and first-timer at the Festival, regaled
everyone with homespun humor from the hills.
Max Hale, from nearby Monument, added just
the right touch of low-key humor and depth in
stories inspired by his storytelling father. Beth
Kopit, a professional without equal from Boul-
der, Colorado, provided a powerful presence and
repertoire.
But it was Cassandra Sewell, a forty-two-
year-old electrical engineer from Denver, who
stole the show on more than one occasion. She
was compelling enough as Harriet Tubman and
Maya Angelou. But it was when she told of her
grandmother, the trials she faced as an African-
American in her native Mississippi and the les-
sons of love that reached beyond survival to in-
spire a love powerful enough to transform hate,
that Cassandra received a well-deserved stand-
ing ovation. Look for her one day at
Jonesborough. She’ll be the willowy six-foot
woman sporting high-heels and speaking in a
black velvety voice.
Workshops offered help for both the begin-
ning and advanced storytellers and illustrated the
value and power of healing stories. Folks left the
event saying they could hardly wait for the first
weekend of August, 2003 for the next Festival.
2002
The Dance of Life
By Yvonne Young
Interfaith Storytelling
A t the conference of the Association of
Death Education and Counseling in Port-
land, Oregon, I attended a day long workshop
Group Formed
At the recent NSN Conference in
given by Gail Rosen on using storytelling in grief Denver, an announcement for storytellers
work. Gail shared a personal story about her interested in inter-faith telling and stories
mother’s Alzheimer’s, beautifully interwoven brought 35 people to an initial meeting
with a Native American tale about Coyote danc- on this area of storytelling.
ing with the star people. The story appeared in Introductions were made and discus-
the HSA Journal, Diving in the Moon, Issue 2, sion was held on the value of network-
Summer 2001, in an article entitled The Widow ing. Two main areas of interest emerged:
as Butterfly by Dr. Terry Tafoya. Gail got per- 1. The desirability of supporting,
mission from him to use the story in her sharing resources and enabling each other
storytelling and grief counseling work. in the faith-based work that we already
Gail asked us to use art materials to respond do.
to a story. I didn’t seem to feel like using the art 2. The possibility of establishing in-
materials. Next thing I knew the words to this ter-faith story circles in various areas of
poem appeared in my head. the country.
Information-gathering and discus-
sions of how this new NSN Discussion
Group might be structured are underway.
A listserv is being set up to facilitate com-
The Dance of Life munication.
If you have an interest in faith-based/
Parts fall away, inter-faith storytelling, please send your
But the dance of life name, address, e-mail address and a de-
Goes on. scription of your faith-tradition and/or
A mother dies.... interest in this work to: Gert Johnson;
johnson@aol.com or Sheila Darr;
Parts fall away.
sojourner@austin.rr.com.
A girl grows up,
Questions and comments are wel-
goes to college, come. We are excited about this venture
and marries. and hopeful that many of you will join
Parts fall away, us.
But the dance of life
Goes on.
A daughter is born.
The dance of life
Goes on.
A husband leaves... HSA Bibliography Update
Parts fall away.
Attention Members! You can now
A daughter leaves...
enter you favorite healing story resources
Parts fall away. directly on the HSA website online bibli-
The daughter returns home. ography. Make our bibliography more
The dance of life useful by adding specifics about the re-
Goes on. sources. Select Member’s Resource Form
from “What’s New” or from the bibliog-
That daughter marries, raphy page. Please email Diane Rooks,
and gives birth diane@storyjourney.com, if you have
questions or problems.
to two sons.
For your information, the HSA
Parts fall away,
website address is www.healingstory.org.
But the dance of life
Goes on.
Yvonne Young
HEALING STORY 13
 Society for the Arts
in Healing Conference
April 17 – 20, 2002
Reported by Diane Rooks
T
he 2002 National Conference for the
Society for the Arts in Healthcare was held
April 17 – 20 in Gainesville, Florida. The key-
note speeches, workshops, networking sessions
and social gatherings were inspiring as each new
experience expressed ways in which the arts are
being used in healthcare environments world-
wide. The conference was an opportunity to net-
work, learn from each other and share our sto-
ries. As President Naj Wikoff said in his opening
comments, “You’re not the only person who is
using the arts to support the process of healing.
Often you feel like you’re out there in the wil-
derness, but actually you’re part of a family, part
of a tribe.” I was overwhelmed at the creative
ways artists are using the visual, literary and per-
forming arts to demonstrate the valuable role the
arts play in enhancing the healing process. I was
impressed by the number of health organizations
that have active arts programs in place and the
number of arts organizations that have outreach
programs to those who need healing.
Each new experience
expressed ways in which
the arts are being used in
healthcare environments
worldwide.
A one-day intensive pre-conference offered
two tracks: Caring for the Caregiver and Creat-
ing Successful Arts in Healthcare Programs. At
the Arts presentation, the directors of arts pro-
grams from the medical centers at Duke Univer-
sity, University of Washington, and University
of Michigan described the scope of their pro-
grams, art collections, student arts projects, art-
ists-in-residence programs, healing environments
and performances at bedside and in public spaces.
The afternoon session featured directors from
other health systems with arts programs as well
as groups that provide art and artists for them.
Most of the coordinators mentioned storytelling
as part of their programs.
The keynote speakers were outstanding and
provided different perspectives and inspiration.
The one that most impacted me was Jean Watson,
RN, PhD, who focused on art as a way of caring
for others. She reminded everyone that our work
is sacred art when we tap into the spirit of
another’s healing journey. She explained the pro-
found gift of understanding that when we care
for another (by sharing our art), we are dealing
with the inner journey of another soul. She chal-
lenged, “Open your mind to the sacredness that
14
lives within all of us. Revisit what it means to be
human. Revision the nature of the work we are
doing. Honor the diversity of life.” She closed
with this wonderful Chinese proverb:
“If there’s light in the soul, there’s beauty
in the person.
If there’s beauty in the person, there’s har-
mony in the house.
If there’s harmony in the house, there’s or-
der in the nation.
If there’s order in the nation, there will be
peace in the world.”
The other keynotes were outstanding too.
Blair Sadler, President and CEO of Children’s
Hospital, San Diego, spoke about The Healing
Arts:AKeytoTransforming21st Century Health
Care; Patch Adams, MD emphasized the impor-
tance of humor in healing as he described An
Arts Centered Hospital (and, yes, he is as wacky
as Robin Williams portrayed him in the movie);
Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect, gave
an overview of how practitioners and caregivers
can best use music and sound to enhance their
work. Coleman Barks, PhD and author of The
Essential Rumi, gave readings from Rumi and
presented Listening to the Guide of the Soul;
Rumi’s Poetry and Communal Health. Leonard
Shlain, MD and author of The Alphabet Versus
the Goddess, talked about the research for his
book and the conflict between word and image.
The stated goal of the conference was “to
offer you creative experiences and knowledge
that you can use to expand the world of art in
healing in your own community. We invite you
to realize fully the artist within you and open
your heart and mind to new possibilities. We have
invited a group of extraordinary presenters from
all over the world to share their wisdom. Our
commitment is to integrate art in healing into
mainstream healthcare. We believe a conference
of this significance can move our field forward
in our culture for individual and collective heal-
ing.”
I was impressed by the
number of health organi-
zations that have active
arts programs in place.
The workshops and presenters offered in-
spiration and knowledge in many areas and were
too numerous to mention them all. Some of my
favorites were Looking Death in the Eye: Car-
ing for Ourselves in Order to Care for Others,
Rx Arts in Medicine: Guided Imagery, Living
Well: Evoking the Inner Healer through Music
and Writing, The Art of Wholeness in Medical
Education, and Doctors in Action: Use of Mys-
tical and Intuitive Tools.
Many opportunities to interact and learn
from others were available during the breaks and
in the numerous receptions and wonderful
evening entertainments. In addition, a network
HEALING STORY
breakfast by discipline and a network luncheon
by region promoted getting to know people with
common interests and goals.
She reminded everyone that
our work is sacred art when
we tap into the spirit of
another’s healing journey.
I honestly cannot say enough positive things
about the wonderful four days I spent at this con-
ference. I made new friends, discovered new op-
portunities, found inspiration, learned more than
I dreamed was possible, and truly felt part of a
vital healing community. I would recommend at-
tending anything this dynamic group offers and
hope to attend their conferences in the future.
The 2003 conference, hosted by Aesthetics,
Inc., San Diego Children’s Hospital and Scripps
Health, will be April 9 – 12 at The Holiday Inn
on the Bay in San Diego. The theme is Trans-
forming Healthcare Through the Arts: Healing
Our Patients, Our Communities and Ourselves.
You will be transformed if you attend!
Dr. David Satcher to be on Board of
International Storytelling Center
Kathy McGregor, member of the
Healing Story Alliance, has worked
with Dr. David Satcher, now retired
Surgeon General, in her capacity as
Parish Nurse at National City Chris-
tian Church in Washington, D.C.,
where both she and Dr. Satcher are
members. Dr. Satcher delivered the
“State of the Nation’s Health Address”
last March. Kathy coordinated that
event and in her efforts to demonstrate
the connection between faith and art
to healthcare, she led with a healing
story told by Baba Jamal Koram and
in the event featured many different or-
ganizations involved with both faith
and healing and the arts and healing.
As a result of the conversation
begun in March, Dr. David Satcher has
graciously accepted an invitation to
service on the Advisory Board of the
International Storytelling Center. We
all look forward to having Dr. Satcher
involved in the work of the healing art
of storytelling.
FALL
 Call for Proposals for the HSA Pre-NSN conference, July, 2003
The Healing Story Alliance is calling for proposals for presentations for the HSA Pre-NSN Conference on Tuesday evening July 8 and the
morning of Wednesday July 9. The purpose of this day is to present a variety of methods and approaches for using storytelling to support healing of
individuals, families, communities and the earth. The day will be divided into several segments including a Tuesday evening storytelling
forum, Wednesday morning workshops and, on Wednesday afternoon, focused learning groups to promote learning and community building.

Presenters will:
• have 20 minutes on Tuesday evening to tell a
story and to give a short reflection on why and
how they use the story in their work.
• give a 75 to 120 minute experiential and
interactive workshop focused on the telling
and working with story within healing on
Wednesday morning.
• participate as group members on Wednesday
afternoon in facilitated focused learning
groups. The purpose of these groups is to help
conference attendees focus on significant
issues and approaches to using storytelling in
the healing arts.
• write a short article (500-750 words) for the
HSA newsletter explaining your work and the
focus of your pre-conference presentation. The
purpose of this article is to help promote this
exciting new preconference.
Your proposal should include the following:
1. A description of the story that you will tell at
the evening forum.
. itself
2. A short description of your Wednesday
workshop and a brief outline.
3. Two references from people who are familiar
with your healing work using story.
4. A bio of your work with storytelling and
healing, 100 words maximum.
5. One demo tape of a story. This is not
required but will be helpful in the selection
process.
Deadline: November 1, 2002.
Possible topics include:
1. Inner peace/outer peace
2. The healing journey of the story experience
3. Working with life’s challenges—illness,
grief and loss
4. Evoking story for healing and wellness
5. Prisons, internal and external—substance
abuse/prevention, detention centers, jails
6. Faith connections within ourselves, with
“spirit”, with others of different faith traditions
7. Sexuality and identity combating homopho-
bia in schools, culture, self
8. Healing the earth through story
9. Other related topics
Presenters will receive : $325.00 stipend and
the Pre-Conference fee will be waived.

Send 5 copies of your proposals to: Meg Gilman, 272 Newcastle Ave., Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801
If you have questions, additional details are on the HSA website www.healingstory.org or contact Meg Gilman at (603) 433-8578 or Meggart@aol.com

Join the Healing Story Alliance!

We are excited about this Special Interest Group of the National Storytelling Network
and are eager to welcome you on board. Cut out the coupon below and send it in!

The Benefits of HSA Membership
Subscriptions to:
• Diving in the Moon: Honoring Story, Fa-
cilitating Healing - Annual HSA Journal
• Healing Story – HSA Newsletter three times
per year
Internet Resources – HSA Website
(www.healingstory.org)
• The Forum – discussion of new stories
• Articles
• Events Calendar
• Bibliography
• Membership database
• Healing multicultural tales
• Links to other Internet resources
E-mail ListServ - an interactive discussion of
topics related to story and healing.
Membership Meetings
• July NSN Conference
• October NSN Festival
Discounted Attendance for HSA Pre-
Conference Workshop at annual NSN
Conference.
Community Networking
• HSA members across the nation connect
with each other and tellers of like minds.
I would like to join the Healing Story Alliance!
Please check one…
o As an NSN member, I enclose my dues of $25.00 for one year (membership renewal is due at the
beginning of the calendar year).
o As a non-member of NSN, I enclose my dues of $35.00. (If you would like to become a member of
NSN, see form below).
I would also like to join the National Storytelling Network as a:
o Standard Member (1 year/$50; 2 years/$90; 3 years/$120)
o Youth or Elder Member (1 year/$35; 2 years/$65; 3 years;$95)
(Youth = under 18, Elder = over 65)
For additional categories and corresponding fees, see
http://www.storynet.org/Membership/membercategories.htm
I enclose my payment as:
oCheck (please make check out to NSN/HSA)o Credit Card___ VISA ___ Mastercard
___ Discover ___ American Express
Card Number ________________________ Expiration Date _____________
Signature _______________________________________________________
Total Amount of check or charge $_______________
Name ___________________________________________________________
Address ___________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip ____________________________________________________
Daytime Phone __________________ Email _________________________
Please mail this form to :National Storytelling Network,101 Courthouse Square, Jonesborough, TN
37659 or fax to (423) 753-9331 or call NSN at 1 800- 525-4514.

2002 HEALING STORY 15

National Storytelling Network
101 Courthouse Square
Jonesborough, TN 37659

“T he 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
when they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than
food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other’s
memory. This is how people care for themselves.”
Barry Lopez
Badger’s comments in Crow and Weasel