by Aanand Chabukswar. Background The World Centre for Creative Learning Foundation (WCCLF), a group of teachers-artists within India, introduces art forms for healing and growth into various settings. Before the project “CHI” —energy!— (Creative Healing Interventions) began in 2001, no known programs of creative therapies existed in 365 drug and alcohol abuse prevention and rehabilitation […]
Story-Circles in De-Addiction from India
by Michael Cotter. A few years back, I was fortunate to join in as the storyteller for an experiential workshop involving a film crew, health professionals, musicians and twenty-two terminally ill people of various ages. This collaboration resulted in a powerful film, “The Healing Power of Stories, ” that documents one of the most memorable
Sharing Our Grief: A Healing Workshop
by Vanita Moore. About ten years ago when I wrote this story, I never dreamed I’d find myself back in Indiana, working beside my husband in his family’s funeral home or using a story to help a grieving widow. But one day, as we sat in her farmhouse living room and talked about how hard
Rooster’s Good Morning Thank You
By Peggy Helmick-Richardson. For it was a saying among them that a man is not really dead until he is forgotten. —“Cow-Tail Switch” from A Treasury of African Folklore, Harold Courlander. Born in 1924, Hilda Stern Cohen was raised in the tiny German village of Nieder Ohmen. When Hitler came to power, Hilda and her
Interview with Gail Rosen: On a Journey of Healing
by Lewis Mehl-Medrona. The power of story emerged in the pages of the New York Times on May 12, 2002, in an article by Natalie Angier about Michael Gearin-Tosh, a professor of English literature at Oxford University. We read the spirited account of his diagnosis of multiple myeloma, a virulent cancer of the bone marrow.
Narrative Medicine: Inspiring Healing Through Story
by Suzi Wolf. look for me in the shadows for there is where I will be telling the stories of the ancient ones whispering tales to the people look for me in the shadows my face illuminated by the clan’s fire or a storytelling candle my shape moving among the people look for me in
by Diane Wyzga. They said I was mentally disturbed. They said I posed a threat. They asked the security guards to call the police and have me removed from the premises. Once, when the Spanish had taken over an Aztec city they refused to let in anyone who was dressed in traditional Aztec clothes. A
Greeting the Human in Each Other
by Mary K. Clark Are you interested in storytelling and medical narratives? While many who visit the Healing Story Alliance Website are oral storytellers, we can learn much from story as it is expressed in other art forms. Penn State University’s College of Medicine asks their 4th year residents to create graphic stories – that
Graphic Storytelling & Medical Narratives
A story from Sudan, retold by Allison Cox. Long ago, when the world was new, the Creator called all the creatures together and told them, “The earth is filled with wondrous places – go out and find the place that you would call home.” So all the creatures went out and at first, all the
by Mary K. Clark In this moment what word strikes you as powerful? Once you have that word, does it evoke a story? I thought of the word yes and it did evoke a story. I was having a difficult time keeping a promise. I never had such difficulty making a change in my life and
