Symposium for storytelling as a healing art 2009

New blog

2010-10-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

Dear readers of this blog
Since it has now been more than a year since this wymposium took place, and the traffic here has been very quiet lately, I have decided to continue blogging at http://www.healingstorydenmark.blogspot.com/

Thank you for following this blog, and I hope to meet you as readers of my healingstory blog.
Best wishes
Marianne

The power of group

2010-04-02T02:51:00.000-07:00

narrative medicine: relationships, stories, and healing

Lewis Mehl-Madrona

A medical doctor trained at Stanford University School of Medicine, Lewis Mehl-Madrona has pioneered the conscious intregration of Native American approaches to healing with 21st-century health care. He is the author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native American culture has to offer the modern world. In this excerpt from Narrative Medicine: The Use of History and Story in the Healing Process, he discusses how relationships and the sharing of our personal stories can be tools for combating disease.

The Power of Large Groups in Shaping Identity

A few people have a bed for the night
For a night the wind is kept from them
The snow meant for them falls on the roadway
But it won’t change the world
It won’t improve relations among men
It will not shorten the age of exploitation.
—Bertolt Brecht

Imagine a ceremony in a rural area near Duncan, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island. In the longhouse, a youth is being initiated. Two hundred people are singing. The rhythm of multiple drums and rattles sets the pace. The youth is lying flat. He is lifted up and carried on the shoulders of eight men. He remains this way for four days after which time he is returned to the vertical. The collected energy is awe-inspiring. Even the trees outside are vibrating in the thick fog.

Western culture has forgotten the power of large groups. Modern culture’s closest version is the sports spectacle, which has a very different intent from ceremony and ritual. Religious services provide us with some sense of group power, but modern religion has vitiated the power of its ceremonies so greatly that it is hard to feel. (Notable exceptions to this generalization exist, including in some Roman Catholic masses, evangelical revival meetings, and Gospel churches.) While we can still go to ceremony in areas rich in aboriginal culture, it has vanished for much of the urban world.

In my teachings about ceremony and ritual, I like to show people how easy it is for a group of strangers to come together, create shared ceremony that is inclusive of elements of all their cultures, and then enact it. Whenever people gather with the same intent, coherence occurs. Coherence implies connectivity. In essence, we hook up. Hearing stories is healing. It requires a group setting to produce those stories and to hear other people’s stories. Within the group, we can hear the story and consider its source. Others are present to corroborate the story, thereby demystifying it. We have a diversity of sources supporting a common story. As people have become more and more isolated, however, such group experiences have become progressively less common in modern life. Lost along with the sense of community group experiences engender, is the opportunity to take a storied approach to health care through a process of group re-authoring. Groups that can provide this do still exist, and include Alcoholics Anonymous, the Native American church, and others in which people give testimony and the group reshapes the story, in a sense “re-authoring” a new story in a collaborative framework.

Life is storied and narrative is the mode in which meaning and values are stored. This allows for multiple techniques for transformation. We are not limited to one set of local practices and values, regardless of how successful they are in that locale. They may not generalize. As one elder told me, “When you think you know what you’re doing, you don’t. When you think you know what’s going on, you’re wrong.” That’s an important perspective to keep. We can talk about what we think we’re doing and what we think is going on as we work collaboratively with others, but in the spirit of remembering that we’re probably wrong and we’re only making gross approximations anyway. Transformative practices and results spontaneously emerge in large groups when people gather with the same intention, defying rational explanation.

In medicine, we doctors are faced with the difficulty that most of us don’t know that we have a story. We think everything we do is the factual truth. We forget that history really means “his story” or “her story.” When we talk to someone about her illness, we are actually helping her tell her story, how she came to be where she is. Having other family members and friends present results in a much richer story than would emerge with just the individual there. Health care is supposed to build on the story with each contact, but if we don’t know the story, each contact becomes a closed episode of its own, disconnected from every other episode. Fragmentation results as the outcome of a nonstoried approach to health care.

Disease Is Found Within Relationships

In the view of conventional medicine, disease is found within organs. Autopsies with microscopic confirmation are the ultimate form of diagnosis. When we look for disease, we look for structural and enzymatic changes within individual organs. Aboriginal elders tell me that what we are seeking is only the footprint of the disease. Looking as we do, we only find the tracks and traces of disease, which, they say, is long gone by the time a person dies. Look for the disease within the relationships, they say. That is where it is found. The rest is consequences and effects of the disease. This leads us to a consideration of the logic behind spiritual healing, for it addresses what lies between people, or between people and spirits, or people and earth energies.

Is some of the potential value of conventional medicine that it offers a break from being accountable for our own health as people? If it’s all random and biological and genetic, then it’s best left up to the experts. We can relax. We don’t have to change anything. We’re not responsible. We can just do what the experts tell us and let the chips fall where they may. For Europeans, modern medicine also broke the tightfisted hold of the church. In that context, illness had been seen as punishment from God. Illness was not supposed to be cured because doing so interfered with God’s divine will to punish. Healers were burned at the stake in thirteenth-century France and Spain. Conventional medicine freed Europeans from this terrible burden, from this belief that illness was justified punishment. If it was merely random and genetic, and people weren’t responsible, then the Church had to stop vilifying the sick. Clearly this was a step forward.

What must be pointed out, however, is that indigenous cultures didn’t need this liberation. While the conventional medical story may have liberated Europeans who had been held captive by the Roman Catholic Church, it was not so beneficial to aboriginal people who did not have the same need for liberation. An Assinboine elder put it bluntly:

From the treaty, they took everything away, the diet, the way of life; all that was put on the earth by the Great Spirit. The new diet made the people weaker. It was too much change, too quickly … [The old people] say that they brought sickness over from across the water; sickness like typhoid fever. And after they got rid of the Indian medicine and the people had to take white medicine, and some of it made us real sick. They kind of damaged our bodies through pills and their side effects. They were experimenting on us. It was the tame food, too. We were used to eating wild game. That’s why they figured our bodies lacked the strength they had before.

Thus, narrative medicine represents a search for a storied understanding of health and disease that works for all the world’s peoples, and not just Europeans. It is as compatible with indigenous knowledge and healing as it is with European-derived approaches. It is not compatible with a position, like that taken by much of medicine, which restricts truth to only one story—that of biology and genetics. Conventional medicine has served people by freeing them from the bondage of Old World religions and giving them permission to not heal, address change, or restore balance and harmony—to just relax and be passive. Some need this, and we can be thankful that it is available for them. But not everyone wants this approach, which is why we need diversity and a more narrative approach to medicine.

Those of us who attempt to bridge the Native world and the world of conventional medicine are trying to conceptualize and integrate the wisdom of indigenous cultures with biological medicine. We believe that current medical explanations for health and disease are culturally driven, and that we cannot separate biology from culture.

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, is trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology and has been on the faculties of several medical schools. He is of Cherokee and Lakota heritage.

Don’t miss Lewis Mehl-Madrona at Kripalu: Coyote Healing: The Power of Native American Spirituality, April 30–May 2, and Cherokee Bodywork, May 2–7. http://www.kripalu.org/

The article is from The Kripalu newsletter April 2010 and copied with allowance from Lewis Mehl-Madrona

Being a group

2009-10-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

After the symposium we created a small group of participants here in the south of Denmark.

Today we were 6 people, who had our second meeting, in my home. It was SO GREAT to meet in order to tell wonderful, healing stories!

Today we told 2 stories from Nancy Mellon's book 'Body Eloquence', a story about a 'Miracle in Berlin' and a story about 'everything is as it should be'.

Since I took part in the first international symposium in Järna in 2005 created by Inger Lise Oelrich, I've felt it as a quite lonely path to walk on, working with storytelling as a healing art.

So belonging to a group is a big step towards more energy and consciousness.

Somebody once said: 'Energy flows where attention goes', and I feel now for sure that when more people are being interested it truly creates more energy.

So hopefully we can make a big difference in this little corner of the country.
And besides we can create more focus which again will lead to more energy.

I believe we're into a good circle.

And it's also very good to know, that there are many many friends around the world working with this.

Marianne Christensen

Storyteller

Thanks

2009-09-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for a wonderfully inspiring week

Mette Winkel

Sharing stories

2009-09-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you for your sharings.
I am happy to know of sooo many storytellers around the world. I ll be happy if some of you want to share your after experiences doing storytelling back home.
Just a little story in five minutes/lines. I would really appreciate to recognize all the good, healing and laughter making events you all create around the world.
Thank you!

Sidsel Katlev

More than storytelling

2009-08-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

“If you don’t know the trees
Then you are lost in the forest,
But if you don’t know the stories,
Then you are lost in life.” Siberian Elder

In July I went to an international symposium for Storytelling as a Healing Art in Tappernøje, Denmark; ‘Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope’. I have recently started working with storytelling as a healing art, it having been my goal since I became accredited as a storyteller with the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and I felt the time was right to attend a gathering such as this.

I was fortunate to be funded by The Scottish Arts Council’s Professional Development Fund, a process I have used before and one I am very grateful for. I told them it would be an incredible experience for me to attend such a symposium, and indeed it was!

The symposium was offering an opportunity to meet many other people from around the world who work in this way as well as attending a workshop each day. There was a choice of 6 workshops and I chose Nancy Mellon’s workshop; The Eloquence of the Body “…a practical approach to self-transformation through the wise old art of storytelling. Discover how to speak to and from heart, liver, lungs and all your bodily parts.”

This was an incredibly well organised event hosted by storyteller Marianne Christensen and set in the beautiful surroundings of Marjatta it was so much more than attending workshops and discussions but was a place of sharing and experiencing. The workshop leaders spoke with great inspiration each morning of their experiences in their field of work and as the week progressed there were also fascinating stories from the workshop participants of how they use storytelling in their work.

As well as all the organised events and workshops there was valuable networking time. Often as storytellers we work alone and are at risk of becoming isolated which was why this was as important and something I found so wonderful as I heard of all the many ways people work. We laughed together, we cried together and we shared, so much. By the end of the week it was like leaving a new found family. It was enriching to be among these people for this time and to have affirmed that the work we are doing is good, appropriate and worthwhile.

I would recommend checking their website (below) for details on how this symposium and previous ones went.
Wendy Woolfson, Glasgow

http://www.nordiskalba.org/symposium.htm
http://www.mariannechristensen.dk
http://www.healingstory.org

Every little cell in my body is happy...

2009-08-24T14:41:00.001-07:00

It is hard to find the words to express what a powerful week it was for me. Everyone was so eager to share and to listen and to share again that by the time I left, it felt like I had known everyone from long before – and maybe I had.

I have been inspired in a way I didn’t know was possible and “Every little cell in my body is happy…”
Wendy Woolfson, Glasgow

Feedback

2009-08-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

The Storytelling symposium created a positive, empathetic atmosphere from the very beginning. 80 people can become a group and start giving their courageous best in a very short time, when the space is open and supportive. There was a pioneering spirit with a deeply felt wish to contribute something valuable, freely and not because it’s paid for. This is possible at a time when economical hardships and an atmosphere of loss and discouragement is prevalent in society at large.

As a small company, InRoos Oy (www.inroos.fi) working with Emotions in Organizations, we predict a huge success for this impulse in the future. There is a lot of good work to be done all over the world.
Yvonne and Virgo

Succes

2009-08-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

The symposium was a succes in more ways than it is possible to describe.

In the coming time you can read about what the participants have experienced.

Many new projects will get started after the symposium.

Personally I was so happy with the workshop that Alexander MacKenzie had. We worked with the story about Parcval, and we had lots of challenges during the week.

Each of us had to make a commitment to something we want to do as a leader.

You'll hear more about my commitment later.

If you want to see pictures from our storytelling evening inVordingborg by the Goosetower follow this link http://www.sn.dk/artikel/9071:Vordingborg--Fortaellere-fra-hele-Europa-ved-Gaasetaarnet

It's happening

2009-07-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

We're doing it.

See a little appetizer here:
http://www.tv2regionerne.dk/reg2005/?r=3
More pictures will follow soon.

One week to go

2009-07-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

Butterflies are flying around in my stomach. I'm trying to teach them to fly in formations!

Lists are being made, emails are beeing written, it's all like a gigantic jig zaw puzzle.

I've totally lost the overview, so I'm very happy to have a team that is coming to help during the week. We will be sure to have everything ready when people arrive.

I've been thinking about a story to tell at the opening, but so far there hasn't been a very obvious one, but I trust that one will come to me before Sunday evening.

There is still room in some of the workshops, so if you read this, and you want to join, please check my homepage and call me. www.mariannechristensen.dk

Ready for the symposium

2009-07-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy time lately.
Now all participants are looking forward to coming, and we're so much looking forward to welcoming them all at Marjatta.

It's going to be a great week where there all day and night will be talked about how stories can do a difference in peoples lives and health.

People are coming from Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Germany, England, Slovenia, Scotland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark to join.

Teachers
Alexander MacKenzie from Ireland
Bente Klrke from Denmark
Lewis Mehl-Madrona from Hawaii
Nancy Mellon from USA
Roi Gal-Or from Israel/England

Read more about them all at my homepage www.mariannechristensen.dk

There is still room for more people if you like to join!
Just call +45 30254774 to hear more.

I am looking forward to meeting you

2009-06-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

By Karsten Mathiasen, Danish storyteller

I am looking forward to meeting all the participants in the symposium at Marjatta. It is a very beautiful place close to the fjord. I live close by. It is known as one of the best places for mentally retarded people, children and adults. They work a lot with creativity. I have made several circus performances there over the years.

When I started my career as a storyteller I focused on “trickster stories”. I told stories about “when I was a naughty boy”, stories from my ten years as scaffold worker in Copenhagen, stories about Till Eulenspiegel, Hodja Nashreddin and Coyote, etc.

As a peace activist, I also more and more gathered and told stories about forgiveness and reconciliation, alongside working as a circus clown in his my circus.
I believe that forgiveness is the greatest healer and that acts of forgiveness provide powerfully creative sources for stories that guide us towards a better future - both on the personal and global level. ”Let us find the stories that work like small sticks in the wheels of revenge and hate!” I am looking forward to facilitating the daily lunchtime storytelling session on this fantastic subject.

I have founded "Think Tank for Forgiveness" with the website www.tilgivelse.dk . I am sorry there is not yet an English version, but you should take a look at the menu “links”, And you will get an entry to the world wide movement for forgiveness. There are many links, and I have not yet even myself been through all of them.

Also take a look at the menu “Arbejdsgruppe og rådgivningspanel” (Advisory Board) Here you will find contact information about eleven highly qualified people, working with different aspects of forgiveness and reconciliation

Also take a look at the menu “Arbejdsgruppe og rådgivningspanel” (Advisory Board) Here you will find contact information about eleven highly qualified people, working with different aspects of forgiveness and reconciliation

Hearts ease

2009-05-20T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hearts ease

In the old times, when time was stiller than now, there lived a young man.

Taking his sword in his hand, the young man decided that the moment had come when he must walk out into the world, and find the song which had been calling him for so many years.

The song had been whispering gently to him from time to time, in little moments recently, and it was gradually becoming stronger and louder.

The words of the song were not yet in his understanding, and he knew that if he followed the words and the voice – eventually he would reach a place where everything would become clear.

His parents were sad to see him go, and his first love cried bitterly – and she knew that where he was to go, was important for him, his purpose was heart led and he must find its ending.

Before leaving his parents handed him three things.

A large book, in which he could finally write the song that had eluded him for such a long time, a silver pen filled with unfading ink, so that the song could be recorded for ever, and a packet of seeds, that never emptied – so that he could mark his journey with flowers – hearts ease – so that any who followed might know the right way to go.

He embraced his parents, wished them love and a strong journey, then turned to his first love.“My sweet one, this is one place that I must visit, and I will not return. In time you will follow me, and remember that hearts ease will mark the footpath on the way.”“

My love, I am deeply sad to see you go, for I cannot hear the sweet song that you hear, and I know it fills you with a deep joy that cannot be denied. Please take this with you – for it has been a part of me for so much of our lives, and I would feel happy if I knew you had me with you”.

With that, she handed him a tiny gold heart on a chain which contained a lock of her own hair. She put it around his neck and kissed him gently on the lips.

The young man smiled and his heart filled with love for the family and for his first love, there was nothing more that he needed, so taking his bag filled with gifts, and wearing the heart on a chain around his neck, he set out on the road, following the sound of the beautiful voice that called onwards.

The family watched the young man as he disappeared over the hill, into the sunset, and as he dropped from view, the most beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky, as if gifting the family with a last shaft of love straight from the heart of the young man.

The journey had only just begun, and a wonderful journey it was to be. What was the song?

We may never know, for the young man reached his destination – but all along the way, he strew hearts ease seeds, which still bloom to this very day.

........

Written by Stephanie, whom I met at Emerson College in Sept. 2008.

I'm very grateful for that story in a time when my husband is very ill. Thank you!

Marianne

I see you

2009-05-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

Last week my little group of storytellers from 'Vordingborg fortællerkreds' and I went to a day care center for elderly people who've become too weak to live by themselves. We did it for free to help a friend whose brother is at the home, handicapped with Parkinson's desease.

An old lady was sitting in her wheelchair as left by the staff facing a table but with her back to the storytellers. So we turned her around so she could see us. After the coffe break, however, she was again sitting with her back to us. I turned her chair again, she raised her hand and with the tiniest voice she whispered 'Thank you'.
I looked into her light blue eyes and saw an ocean of gratefullness and life.
While I was telling my story she kept staring at me and I enjoyed watching her laugh a quiet laughter.

Afterwards I went to say goodbye to her and asked her name. She told me. And then she whispered again. *I didn't mean to stare at you, but the spark in your eyes when you were telling just dragged me into the story. And I enjoyed your radiation. You saw me, and I'm so thankful that I got to meet you today!"

I didn't do anything special, I just saw her.
And now I can't stop thinking about what her story is. She gave me a wonderful gift that night, and I know that all I have to do is be myself, and see.

What is the opposite of¨'healing'?

2009-04-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

Healing doesn't have to be the opposite of 'illness'.

Recently I told an old love story about a woman who waited more than 40 years for her loved one, while he was travelling around, having children with other woman. They finally got together, and she was very happy.

After the storytelling a woman came to me and told me, that the story had felt healing for her, because she had lost her husband a year ago. Listening to the story had made her become aware of her deep feelings of sorrow and grief, and now she could finally deal with her feelings.
She cried - but now it was tears of relief.

I've told the story many times, and I always get very warm feedback but from different viewpoints.

You never know when and from what the story is healing.

Flyer

2009-04-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

Please send an e-mail to mach@oncable.dk if you want me to send the flyer for the symposium.
You can get as a pdf-file.

The symposium at local tv

2009-04-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

Even if you don't understand Danish, you can see the pictures of where we are going to have the big night of storytelling as part of the International symposium for storytelling as a healing art.

It's in the center of Vordingborg, at the foot of the Goosetower.

See the little video here: Storytelling symposium

Read about the history of the Goose Tower.

From Steph

2009-04-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Marianne,
You asked us for stories that had helped us, or others in our lives.
I was working for a Rape and Sexual Abuse counselling service a couple of years ago, on the phone lines.
I was speaking to a young girl - about 14 - who was still struggling with her experience of sexual abuse by her father. She had moved away from her family, and was living with foster parents, a move she found hard, because in her eyes she was responsible for hurting her mother (by telling the truth) and her father was in prison.
She was lonely, frightened and very tired, but could not sleep because of her fears that someone might come and hurt her again.

I sat and listened on the phone for half an hour, and then we agreed that between us we would create a story - a happy one, which would bring her to a place of peace in her mind and enable her to sleep.

By talking gently to her, finding out about the things she loved, we created a wonderful story of a little girl who went walking in the fields near her home, went riding on her horse, had a picnic with her foster mother, then went home to a good meal, and snuggled down into bed with her favourite teddy bear.

At the end of the story, I spoke to her gently, and she did not reply, tried once more, but no answer, all I could hear was soft breathing. She had fallen asleep with the phone on. I gently put the phone down, knowing that, just for now, she had found a quietness in her spirit - that pleased me.
Hugs and love
Steph

2009-04-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

A local webpage in USA has written out a funny contest about storytelling in honor of The World Storytelling Day.

At their page there is a beautiful picture of a sunset somewhere in a land of palmtrees.
That made me think of a wonderful experience I had, when I was quite young.

I was 18 years old and I was travelling cross country in the States by Greyhound buses along with another Danish girl. It was in July.
Earlier that year we had met some nice guys from Tucson, Arizona, and they had told us to come and visit.
So when we arrived in Tucson, we went to the nearest phone box and called them. Luckily they were at home, so they came to pick us up. - Their house was full of youngsters who wanted to meet these two, strange Danish girls, so there was an occasion for a nice party.
We celebrated the meeting by drinking Tequila sunrises, and I learned, that it doesn't take a lot of Tequila for my legs to turn into jelly.

We had fun all evening, dancing to the latest record with Buddy Miles, and we liked being there so much, that we decided to stay for a couple of days more than planned.

The following day, the guys showed us how to fry eggs at the pavement!
And in the evening we sat at the roof watching the sun set over the desert. Truly romantic and I really fell in love with Arizona in those days!

See the picture that opened my memory for that story:

http://www.travelinlocal.com/world-storytelling-day-a-contest-and-your-neighbors/#comment-750

Attention from everywhere...

2009-04-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to recieve mails from Australia and New Zealand from people whom I do not yet know.

They are offering their help to spread the good news about the storytelling symposium!

Good intentions bring good flow!!!

Today I've worked with checking addresses for the press release. I hope all newspapers will bring something about it.

The picture is from Järna 2007, Stories under the tree

World Storytelling Day 2009

2009-03-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

In the little storytelling circle in Vordingborg we've joined the World Storytelling Day since it started, and we've celebrated it almost every year.

Last year I was joining a course with Lewis Mehl-Madrona at Kripalu Center in Massachusetts, and there I just told som stories to a small group of listeners.

This year we celebrated at the small island of Bogø. We had asked to be in the old bakery, where there is now a culture house, thanks to Malene Langborg who makes concerts there during the summer. But it was too cold, so we were happy to be invited to use a community house.

People came from near and far, and the room was quite crowded! I guess we were all a little surprised to see so many participants.

Everybody were so happy. The storytellers were happy for having a wonderful audience and the audience for having the opportunity to listen to good stories.

We were really close!!

Ann Mari Urwald's story

2009-03-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

We continue to give space for all who want to express their experiences about 'storytelling as a healing art'.

At the storytelling festival in Lejre some years ago I was telling stories for deaf children in the large tent. It requires some breaks to give time for interpretation. But there were not only deaf children. There were also other children and adults.
I told an African story about Ntikuma, who happens to buy a drum instead of black eyed beans for the family. He can’t make himself return the drum, It has become part of him, his legs will not move. So he has to go on home with a long line of happy people following because his drumming has made them dance. And what does his mother say?
‘Well, how could we know that you had a talent for drumming’, she says. ‘We had never thought of that ourselves. Thank God for that.’ Ntikuma was forgiven right away, and they just ate corn porridge instead.
When I had told the story, which of course is much longer than this short summary, an old man with tears in his eyes came me to me and thanked me. The story had moved him deeply and unburdened his heart, he said.
His gratitude and emotion made a deep impression on me. A possible reason is that he through the story got the forgiveness he had subconsciously longed for for years. And that is what stories can do. We can mirror ourselves in them, and when the right story passes our ears, it unburdens the soul, or confirms it.

Ann Mari Urwald, author and storyteller
www.amurwald.dk

Touching the heart

2009-03-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

As a storyteller I wish to touch people's hearts and move their feelings through the stories I tell.
We all have experiences and wounds that are invisible to others and storytelling may be like putting a little ointment on these wounds.

In my work as a storyteller I have experienced again and again that I get so much in return from my listeners.
This makes me grateful.

I have just finished a half year project with groups of people in an "Old Peoples Home" and the stories they shared with me made me remember many things from my own life.

Fom Berit Godager,Norway
www.berito.no

A story which made me smile

2009-03-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

It was a time when I was totally stressed. I felt I had too many responsibilities, too much work, too many worries about my relationship and just too many worries in life. I felt that I couldn't breathe properly anymore and soon I would just break down.

One day I took an hour break from a work and took a dog for a walk on the beach. And while I was walking there came an old song to my mind. A song I had heard in some storytelling workshop years before. I started silently to sing the simple words of the song and the song just kept going.
After some time I was walking on a forest road back to the greenhouse where I was working and suddenly those words of the song started to create a story, I wasn't singing anymore, I was chanting the story aloud. I was telling a story for my self and for the forest around me. And a story went on and on. It was a simple story about life and paths and it felt like every single tree, every stone, every bird I saw added some new words and sentences to the story.

When I finally arrived to the greenhouse the story was finished.
I breathed the fresh air and inhaled the smell of herbs
And I smiled tears on my eyes: Life is good!

Markus luukkonen
markus_luukkonen@hotmail.com
www.helsinki-uluru.blogspot.com

Coyote Wisdom: The Healing Power of Story

2009-03-11T01:31:00.000-07:00

by Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD
One of the workshop leaders at International symposium for storytelling as a healing art, July 2009, Denmark

In his first book, Coyote Medicine, Lewis Mehl-Madrona tells his own story—as a medical doctor trained at Stanford University School of Medicine who began rediscovering the healing traditions of his Native American heritage. In the book, he writes, “From a Native American perspective, healing is a spiritual journey … People can get well. But before a person can do so, he or she must often undergo a transformation—of lifestyle, emotions, and spirit.” He is a firm believer that ancient and modern approaches to illness can and should be integrated in a way that offers patients the benefits of both. In this piece, he explores the vital role of story in health and healing.

All of us come from a past in which our ancestors lived in direct relationship with nature and with each other, intricately woven together in communities. People’s lives and the health of the group were sustained by shared knowledge and experiences. Stories were an active part of everyday life. If you asked an elder a question, you got a story in response—that way you would never forget. Stories were used to teach, to bring healing, for enjoyment, as well as for reprimands. We all come from cultures of story.

The notion of story is crucial to identity. “All you are is story. When you pass over, the stories told by you and about you are all that remains,” said one Native American elder. Another said, “We are all the stories that have been or ever will be told about us.” In many indigenous cultures, identity formation is the development of a coherent master story that links together the multitude of one’s told and yet-to-be-told stories into a yarn that makes sequential sense. Psychosis and other mental illnesses are seen to be the result of the breakdown of that coherent narrative, an inability to make narrative sense of one’s self and one’s life.

So how does story relate to healing? In traditional times, when someone got ill, it was the role of the healer in the community to attend to the person’s body, mind, and soul. It was important to communicate with the spirit of the illness to find out what was causing the problem and what could be done to change it. The healer would also intensify the power of the community to help its sick members, often through ceremony and ritual, and would intercede with the spirit world by directly asking for help for the patient.

These traditional healers and elders worked (and still work) through stories. They know that illnesses do not exist in isolation and are not just biological facts. From the moment of the first symptom, the illness becomes an element of our story and the main character in its own story. Bringing these stories into the open in order to understand the energies behind the physical symptoms is an important part of finding solutions that uniquely suit the individual.

This is why I begin much of my healing work with a conversation with the person’s illness, a principal character that can, itself, be interviewed. The illness has a spirit, or soul, if you will, that can be engaged with when we enter a slightly altered state of consciousness. Its communication is usually extremely enlightening, bringing a clarity to the situation that would be hard to attain in any other way. The results of this dialogue provide clues about how to proceed in creating health.

One of my clients, Shannon, came to me because she had diabetes. Now, diabetes is a character that has filled many stories over time and across cultures. But its presentation varies within each individual’s life, and I worked with Shannon to find out what it was doing in her life specifically. When we began, neither of us knew that in order to heal, Shannon would need to address a core story that had been passed down from generation to generation, requiring her to face her deepest beliefs.

In the first session, I had Shannon relax and enter an altered state. When we first set off to converse with Shannon’s diabetes, it was very elusive. We had to go looking for it. Eventually, we found ourselves in a bayou on a flat-bottom boat. We were hunting frogs and dodging alligators. As it turned out, Shannon had an uncle who used to hunt frogs early in the morning, selling them to fancy restaurants just after daybreak. They were the freshest frog legs money could buy. She had gone with him a few times and had helped with the frogging.

Shannon’s diabetes turned out to be a really big frog. We stopped into its lair for a chat, and Shannon apologized for her uncle’s hunting its kin. “Oh, well, he had to eat,” responded the Frog King, “but the joke’s on him. In the end, I ate him.” He was right. Her uncle had lost both of his legs to diabetes; gangrene had literally eaten them off.

“Why are you here?” asked Shannon.

“I came at birth,” he said. “I just wait until the right time to appear. Then I claim you for my own.”

“What if I don’t want to be claimed by you?”

“Well, then,” said the Frog King, wearing an old-time suit like that of a Mississippi River boat gambler, “you’ve got to live your passion. Nothing else will do. You see, I can’t compete with passion. It trumps every card in my deck.”

The dialogue continued productively, but this small vignette highlighted the key message for Shannon: she needed to live her passion. When we explored what this might mean, together we discovered how miserable she was in her job, her relationships, her life. She worked just to make money in an environment that she hated and felt was unethical and demeaning. Her partner mooched off her and rarely held a job. She resented his freeloading.

She kept telling herself that she could be better if only she worked harder, tried harder, and sacrificed more. Together, we got to the core of this idea: it was part of a family story, a story about how God rewards good Catholics who then are celebrated and healed. At a deeper level, Shannon’s mother and grandmother actually had a lot of anger at God for not following the formula.

For Shannon, there was a direct relationship between the beliefs she had inherited with this family story and her diabetes. But in order to heal, she needed to understand more about how to change the story. What did she really believe? We sought further guidance.

In this communication, Shannon was told by a healing spirit, “You’d like to heal. You’re trying to. But what if you can’t? Everyone and everything has limits. And God has no more power than all of us added up, because all of us, together, are God.” This contradicted and challenged Shannon’s story about an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God. And it led her toward another question and another story, that of how she would live if she were God to herself. Would she be punishing or loving?

Through our work together, Shannon constructed a new story about her life, a story in which she was part of a compassionate God, she could live her passion without fear, and she didn’t have to sacrifice in order to be blessed. As this new story developed, her health improved, and she began to feel stronger. She exercised. She lost weight. She went to ceremonies. The symptoms of her diabetes disappeared, though we knew it still lurked in the corners and the shadows, ready to return if given the opportunity. As Shannon changed her story, other aspects of her health improved. She successfully used herbs to reduce her glucose and her cholesterol. Homeopathy reduced her neuropathic pain. Acupuncture improved her digestive symptoms.

There are many, many stories like this—stories of healing in which a person becomes empowered to create health through a change in their story.

* * * * *

The trilogy of books I’ve written on Native American healing practices are called Coyote Medicine, Coyote Wisdom, and Coyote Healing. Coyote is the teacher who reminds us to be open to everything, including change. He is the clown, the trickster, and the survivor, reminding us to shift perspectives, to be willing not to know, and to laugh at ourselves and our shortcomings. Coyote reminds us that medicine is anything that works.

All of our ancestors, no matter where from or how far back, used stories for healing. Every one of us can draw on this past, however distant and however forgotten. An encoded memory of this ancestral past is embedded within our DNA. All who are alive today carry the wisdom of our ancestors within our genetic code.

As I wrote at the end of one of my books: “If I had to choose one single idea, it would be: Don’t give up. Don’t stop trying. Help is always available, whether inside or out of the halls of conventional medicine. Don’t give up until you’ve tried everything there is to try. Help yourself to a little coyote medicine, and thrive.”

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology and has been on the faculties of several medical schools. The author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native American culture has to offer the modern world, he is of Cherokee and Lakota heritage.

Secrets of healing

2009-03-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Storytelling is a healing art that is helping to transform medical consciousness. As we learn to integrate science with the power of imagination and speech, we can discover as yet unknown secrets of healing.

Please come to our symposium and learn how to integrate energy medicine with the transformative wisdom of storytelling.

We are standing at the theashold of a new understanding of an old shamanistic art.

Nancy Mellon
www.healingstory.com

Nancy Mellon has recently published the book 'Body Eloquence' which she has written with Ashley Ramsden.

A story that still has an impact on me

2009-03-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

As co-carrier of an international biography workers’ conference some years ago, I was asked to find a way to open the conference. I had just acquired a wonderful book called Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, and in it I found a story that touched me, and I learned it and told it at the start of the conference. Under the name of the author it just said Chassid.

The story is about a monastery on the edge of a woods. The numbers of monks were dwindling, as young people didn’t seem to be interested in the monastic life. The abbot was very worried about this, as this would mean that the monastery would have to close.
In the woods was a hut where a rabbi came for a retreat once a year. When the rumour reached the abbot that the rabbi was now in residence in the woods, he went to see him and seek his advice. The rabbi listened to the abbot’s tale of woe and replied that he too had noticed this tendency in his faith. He said he was sorry that he didn’t have any advice for his old friend the abbot, but in parting said: “Remember that the messiah is one of you”.
When the abbot imparted this cryptic message to the monks it set off a wonder and lots of thinking. Each monk thought of his fellow monks, wondering which one of them was the messiah. The good and bad qualities of each one were assessed by each one, and the awesome and awful thought also popped up that maybe, what if... no... could it be? What if the messiah were me?

As a result, each monk began treating the others with extraordinary respect, and in case they themselves were the messiah, they started treating themselves with extraordinary respect. Summer came, people came to the woods for picnics, people visited the monastery, and one and all noticed a very special glow over the place. There was a feeling there that seemed very attractive to the soul. So young men came to enquire further, and little by little more became monks and the monastery thrived.

Again and again in my life I have seen where my own failures in the social realm and others’ failures in the social realm stem from a lack of this extraordinary respect. In times of distress and fear as we are experiencing now, respect and love would be the highest vibration, the most exalted path to take. Caring for one another and helping selflessly in case the other were the messiah!

all the best,

Sigrun Hardardottir

sigrunhardar@get2net.dk
www.victoria-ledelse.com

Any story can be healing

2009-03-06T01:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was invited to a goup of interested listeneres in Næstved, only 30 kms from Vordingborg.
I've been there two times a year for 2 years, so this was the 3rd time. This year I had been invited to tell about life at the island Lolland, where I grew up and to tell about my own life.

There were lots of new faces, so I was a bit exited about how they would recieve my stories.

Very quickly there was a really good sensation in the room. At first many had seated themselves in the back of the room, behind the rows of chairs that had been put up.I asked them all to come forward, since I really don't like to tell to empty chairs.
Luckily they wanted to move.

It has become quite obvious to me, that in order to tell my life story, I must tell about the ones who were there before me. My ancestors who made it possible for me to be born on the farm where my family lived forever, it seems.

And since the audience was older than me, they listened with great interest.
I told stories about ordinary people, like me, in everyday situations. And they really enjyoed hearing about it.
i also told them aobut the work that is being done around the world with 'healingstory'. I told them how I use stories for healing myself now, when my husband is so ill.

Afterwards a woman at 72 came to me with tears in her eyes and down her cheeks.
- "Your storytelling was very healing in itself for me today. It was when you told about that woman who waited for her beloved for 40 years, finally married him and then lost him again. My husband died last year, and I don't know what it was in the story, but it sure healed me."

The point here is 'We never know what it is in the stories that heals a person. But it works.'

Do I need to say I was proud and happy, when I left the room.

People are signing up now

2009-02-21T07:40:00.000-08:00

Now the time has come when the first participants have signed up.

This is great news!!!

I have sent out the little flyer around the world, and I'm getting lots of e-mails form people, who want to help spread the news by forwarding the flyer.
If you want to help send me an email at mach(ad)oncable.dk, and I'll mail it to you.

It is so nessecary that a lot of people help to 'spread the word', so that the whole world knows we're doing this!

'Storytelling as a healing art' is not just a buzz word.
In my practice as therapist I regurlarly help people change their life story through storytelling. Either I tell a suitable story to comfort or change their mind about the problem that is draining them for energy.

Storytelling is magic, it's great and it has worked forever!

In my own life storytelling is what makes the difference between being weak or strong in a time, when illness has entered my house and made my husband suffer from cancer.
If it hadn't been for the stories, I wouldn't have been able to carry on with my activities as I do.

Because the world needs stories!
And only by creating spaces for 'storytelling as a healing art' can we go on spreading the words of healing and comfort.

So let's get together at the symposium in July 2009 in Denmark.

http://www.mariannechristensen.dk/

Are you ready for a wonderful summer 2009?

2008-09-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

Now is the time to plan your summer next year.

There will be lots and lots of storytelling events throughout the year. Courses, festivals, meetings and so on.

For more than a year now, we have been working on making an International symposium for storytelling as a healing art in Denmark. Finally we are as close as we can get right now. And it is now possible to sign up for the symposium.

You can find all practical information at the home page http://www.mariannechristensen.dk/. Just follow the links. Everything concerning the symposium is in English.

We will be staying at Marjatta in a very extraordinary landscape with water, forest and open fields - all in the same spot.

It will be possible to have 90 participants at the symposium, so be sure to join soon.

Deadline for participating is May 15th, but please sign up before that.

The workshops:

1. Alexander MacKenzie, Ireland: Parcival and personal leadership in business

2. Bente Klerke, Denmark: Creating Healing Stories

3. Inger Lise Oelrich, Sweden: Healing words: Revitalizing the earth through story

4. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Canada: The Healing Power of community

5. Nancy Mellon, USA, The Eloquence of the Body

6. Roi Gal-Or, Israel/England: The doors of perception

Karsten Mathiasen, Denmark, will facilitate storytelling sessions about forgiveness during lunch breaks

The Klezmerduo will participate with music throughout the week.

Find Marjatta on the map

2008-09-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

Marjatta is the main institution, where we will have workshops and gatherings in the morning and in the evening.
Bredeshave is where we meet during meals, breaks and networking.

Most sleeping rooms will be at Brøderup Ungdomsskole
There is a shortcut through Sjolte.

View map here

Struggling against the wind

2008-08-27T03:11:00.000-07:00

Some few years ago, when I had just started rowing kayak, I went out for a short trip one nice, sunny afternoon. But before going out on the water, I put my finger up in the air to meassure the wind, and it seemed ok for me.
I rowed east along the beautiful coast of South Sealand, and I really enjoyed having the wind in my back. The waves seemed wonderful and they carried me along, so it felt quite easy.
When I got to my destination and should turn and row back, it felt as if the wind was blowing a bit stronger. I looked at the waves and yes, they were bigger, and the wind was getting stronger.
Being outside in strong wind doesn't normally bother me, but here the waves were affected by the wind, and they were quite lively.
My kayak started to live it's own life more and less, and I decided to hurry back before the wind got even stronger.
I rowed and rowed with all my (very little) strength, and I seemed to move slower than ever. I was getting tired, but my mind was strong. I realised, that I was actually a little afraid that the kayak would tilt, so I would fall into the water.
So I tried to find a nice rhytm, I sang a song where the rhytm fit perfectly for the tempo I wanted to achieve. It went quite well, but I could feel I was getting angry at the wind, and I decided to fight it.
I bit my teeth tightly together and rowed harder.
I still had the feeling of moving slowly although I was using all my strength, and I kept looking at the boat house in the distance that I was heading for.
I had to take a tiny little rest to breathe normally, and when I did that I noticed the water. I saw the plants at the bottom, and I saw that the water level was only about half a meter.
Then I started laughing. 'Am I really afraid of falling into water that is only half a meter deep?'
'Who am I to think, I can fight the wind!'
I might as well take it easy.
I took a deep breath and with this new, calm sensation in my whole body I rowed the rest of the way, still singing, but a whole lot more relaxed. I let the kayak follow the rhytm of the waves, and I'm sure it did'nt take any longer to get to the boat house that way. But it was much more fun and I felt a little more connected to the Universe.

What did I learn?
A lot but most important for me:
Even though I'm rowing against the wind I can still relax and enjoy the trip.

The beach

2008-08-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

As the symposium is going to take place right next to a beautiful bay, Præstø Fjord, I found it obvious to make it possible for the participants to go bathing.

There are lots of plants by the water, and it seemed to be a bit difficult to get through these plants. So I got the brilliant idea, that we should make a bridge so that people could walk over the plants.

I called the volunteers of the saving service, and after many mails and telephone calls we finally arranged a meeting yesterday. I was there in time. I waited...., and waited, but noone showed up. After 10 minutes finally the phone rang. It turned out that 'Strandvejen' is very long and because of the zip code confusion, they had landed in Præstø. Five minutes later they still hadn't arrived. 12 more minutes later I called back.

'Where are you, you should be here by now?

Well, the GPS had sent them to strange places, so I suggested they turned off the GPS and followed my instructions. Which they did, and 10 minutes later we finally met at the scene. They looked at the place, and it seemed like a task they would like to have and it wasn't impossible to make a bridge there.

While we were researching for the bridge, one of the staff members of Marjatta came driving by. He stopped, we told him about our research and asked him who owns the land.
He listened to us, and told us, that the municipality owns the land. But then he said: 'Why don't you use the little beach 100 meters further north? There is a nice acces to the water!'

I must admit I felt a bit stupid.

He was busy, so he left, and the little research group walked the 100 meters north, walked through the little field next to the road, behind the plants. And there it was, the cutest little beach! And though the water is quite low, you just have to walk a while in order to get a nice swim.

With red ears I had to apologise for having had them drive all the way to find out that there was already a beach. But they were quite satisfied to have found the place, which they didn't know existed, so now we were all happy.

And I just wondered how it happened that nobody had told me about the beach, because I've talking about it for a long time. Maybe it's because they did'nt know about it. Maybe it's because it's a secret little beach.

But it's very pretty. And I learned a new lesson.

The meeting

2008-08-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Today was the day of the meeting where we should talk about the details in the planning.

As the meeting developed, we decided we need to have more meetings for talking about specific details. There are many, many aspects to be aware of with such a big project.
Is it too big a job we've taken on?
Is it going to work there? Will I have to lik for another place?

Actually there were more questions than answers when we left the meeting.
But this is not unusual at this place in the proces of planning a symposium of this kind.
I'm not worried, it'll work out well.

I do get some wonderful e-mails from the workshop leaders and the board members. That is truly wonderful in order not to feel all alone in the planning proces.

We've come very far already

2008-08-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

There are so many details that have to be taken care of in order to get everything working perfectly.

All the workshops are arranged now, and now we just need some texts form some of the workshop leaders and photos of all of them. it's like gathering a puzzle - lots of fun to find all the pieces.

I recently found out, that it might be possible to apply for money to make it possible to invite some people from different places, where they cannot afford to come otherwise. I hope somebody will look more into that and help out writing the applications.

Tomorrow there is a new planning meeting, and soon we can send out information about the price for the participants. That'll be a great moment!

I've found out that many people already know about the symposium, it's as if it is beginning to live it's own life. How wonderful, and there is exactly one year left before it takes place from 26th og July till August 1st 2009.

Money, money...Storytelling as a healing art

2008-08-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

It seems that money is often a barrier for really expressing ourselves - especially when working with cultural and social events.

For about 25 years I've worked as a volunteer to create events about theatre, human understanding and storytelling. ALWAYS we have experinced a lack of money for telling the world about our good ideas and projects.
The same thing is happening now. We need to tell the world that the symposium is taking place, but since we haven't any money yet, we have to apply for some.
We hope that a lot of foundations will find the purpose good enough to support us so that we can spread the good new all over the world.

We will be grateful for every person adding a note to your e-mail about the symposium.
You can find the link here International symposium for storytelling as a healing art 2009All you have to do is copy the addres line and insert a link in your mail signature if you want to help.

I know it's not untill next year, but 'things take time' as Piet Hein said..