The developing sense of community has been a shining attribute of the Artist’s Way. Community has deepened through the sharing of experiences  writing morning pages, telling of artists’ dates, and reflecting on the challenges and successes in recovering creativityCurrently, the Mentoring Store is hosting a “creative cluster” based on Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. Facilitated by Adler School of Professional Psychology (Vancouver Campus) Community Service Practicum students, the Artist’s Way cluster is at the midpoint of it’s journey!

“Growth. This is a term that encapsulates the experience working with the Artist’s Way,” shares group coordinator Craig Lee, on his journey through the Program. “Being able to hear about the collective experiences of each group member has fuelled my own growth, too!”

“The kindness…the inspiring words from the team,” reports one group member from the weekly check-in sheets, illustrates the strength cultivated within the group in overcoming creative obstacles.

Members contribute to the group experience in their own unique ways: from the rituals of sharing fine teas and nourishing delectables, to reciting aloud An Artist’s Prayer and other inspiring poems. Of note, the members have created stunning centerpieces that align with the week’s readings and help hold the groups’ focus on the creative sense.

A highlight of the group has been the emergent awareness of weekly synchronicities. Synchronicities are events that give evidence to the universe listening and working in our best interests. One group member excitedly illustrated this: “Thinking of abundance, I found out I’m getting a nice income tax refund!”

The first Artist’s Way experience, presented by the Mentoring Store, will conclude mid April 2014, with a collaborative art project. This project will give the group an exciting and fulfilling way to take the creativity that has developed throughout this program and give it back to the universe.

Written by:  Craig Lee

 

In January 2014, the Mentoring Store launched its inaugural Artist’s Way group!

The Artists Way, by Julia Cameron (1992) is a self-help book written to inspire reader’s artistic creativity. Ms. Cameron envisioned peer groups coming together in “creative clusters” to support and witness each other as they become creatively unblocked.

Group members meet weekly to work through the twelve chapters which engage them in exercises to increase awareness of and remove creative blocks, build self-confidence, and strengthen their awareness of personal spirituality and creativity.

The group is co-ordinated by Community Service Practicum students from the Adler School of Professional Psychology (Vancouver Campus): Craig Lee, Arleen Windigo, and Sunny Chung, and Communty Volunteer Fabienne Gassmann.

Weekly, the small group meets for two hours to have tea and reflect on the week’s tasks: chapter readings, journaling (morning pages), artist dates, and reporting any synchronicities experienced.

Of the Artist’s Way group, Craig shares, “I have always been an artist and the Artist’s Way has helped me find the courage to reclaim that title. While I began the Artist’s Way with hesitation, it has helped change my perspectives on what it means to be an artist. I credit this discovery to the group’s process – I am responsible for my personal growth and to support the others in their journey. I am excited for what the future holds, both with my Artist’s Way group and my own  process of integrating art back into my life.”

The Mentoring Store seeks to offer future Artist’s Way groups and potentially tailor them for unique populations in need.

 

 

The ‘Imagine 2014’ workshop team led by Paula Pappajohn created a magical space for participants to bring their intentions for 2014 down to reality.

The collage materials were set up, the celebration feast was laid and people got busy working with images to help bring to life their dreams, hopes, and wishes for the new year.

Vision Boards were made and now go into the world with participants to hold the energy of their desires in a concrete form that can continue to remind them of what they imagine for themselves in 2014.

Recently, my mentor asked me why I had called my website a “store”; a mentoring “store.” I laughed and began telling her the story of how when I was in grade three, my teacher made a “real” store out of painted cardboard boxes at the back of the classroom. That is where she taught us about numbers.

How I loved that store. But I especially loved being behind the cash register. I loved the feeling of someone coming into a store where I put things, and then they would buy something that I put on the shelves. Then there was an exchange of money, and the customer would leave the store happy.

Yet, a store means so much more to me than that. In the hamlet where I grew up, there were three general stores. Each offered something unique and they were fun to visit. I guess it was our version of shopping.

One store had a bench inside the front door where all the old men sat and talked as they watched people come in and go out. It was a social spot where there was lots of conversation. The checkout was close by and someone from the family that owned the store was always there. They sold cloth behind the heads of the men that sat on the bench; they’d all need to get up if a woman came in to buy cloth.

Buying cloth was quite a process. The women would talk about the patterns they liked. My mom was a seamstress (a very good one). She always knew exactly what she wanted. It was a real treat to buy cloth. It usually meant new clothes for us girls.

Next to the cloth counter was the candy counter! That’s where I bought penny candies with my own money. I dreamed for hours at that counter learning how to get the most out of my money and still get what I liked.

Sometimes I would buy pop from the cooler which also had water in it, which was right by the bench of old men. This wasn’t very often, as it took lots of my money to get it and I’d rather have had a fuller brown bag of candy.

If you went further back into the store you could buy meat and canned goods, and there was a little hardware corner.

These are the images of stores that danced in my head as I chose the name of this website. “Oh, to have my own store! To sell books, CDs, DVDs, online courses! Products I could make, and I can also publish other people’s work. Where I can offer podcasts, and blog, giving it that social feeling. Where people can learn things.”

And that’s why I named it a “store.” I loved playing store as a child, and I still love it. Stores, to me, are wondrous places.

Mandala by Franziska

Coloring pre-drawn mandalas with elderly people is one of the ways that art therapy can help them increase focus and concentration.  Because mandalas are a circle the shape inherently creates a centering effect in the mind.  As such it has often been described as an inherently meditative process.

Recent research in art therapy (Curry & Kasser(2005); van der Vennet & Serice (2012) also suggests that such activities can help to reduce anxiety.

A social work student learning about art therapy drew these mandalas for a woman who was in her 80’s.  The woman had just began exhibiting some signs of dementia.  She enjoyed coloring and would spend hours sitting at a table working with pencil crayons and a variety of these images.  Coloring these pre-drawn mandalas with elderly clients was found to be beneficial as an art therapy experience  in that:

1.  It gives elderly people an age appropriate image to color.  Many coloring books are geared toward children.  Elderly clients and their caretakers reported being relieved at having a more appropriate image to color.

2.  It has inherent healing properties in the act of coloring, the effect of color as well as the focus on the mandala design.

3.  It can be done as ‘homework’.  It is easily taught to nursing home staff and or friend/relatives of an elderly person so that the activity can have healing impact far beyond the therapeutic hour.

4.  Art supplies for the activity are inexpensive, easy to store, and easy to transport.  This is significant because much art therapy work with elderly people is on location in their homes or in the hospitial.

5.  Mandalas can be worked upon by crayon, felts, chalks or paint depending on the therapeutic goals and the client’s capabilities.  Size and shape can vary in accordance with treatment goals as can the surface that mandalas are printed upon (paper, canvas, board, etc.).  This range can be worked with to maximize therapeutic effect in line with the goals for the individual.

6.  The completed projects,  because of the symmetry and color, are beautiful.  They can be worked with as a positive affirmative object to put up in the client’s environment or to create into a scrap-book.  The client can then show her/his work to others.  This can result in positive feedback which serves to increase self-esteem, increase self-confidence and help the elderly client have a sense of purpose.  Their work can be noticed and appreciated.

7.  Pre-drawn mandalas are easily available through http://www.free-mandala.com/

How are you working with mandalas in your art therapy practice?  Leave your comments below so that we can continue to share our ideas for the benefit of everyone.

Enjoy Dr D

Dr. Evangeline Rand, creator of ‘A Jasmine Journey’

Dr. Carl G. Jung’s travels in India are brought to life in “A Jasmine Journey: Carl Jung’s Journey to India and ‘Ceylon’ 1937/8 and Jung’s Vision During a 1944 Illness:  “Something New” emerging from ‘Orissa'”, – a new work by Dr. Evangeline Rand, to be released in Spring 2013.

When I went to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to record Dr. Rand’s new work (August 2012) I had no idea how profound and life-changing the experience would be for me.

Dr. Rand Recording ‘A Jasmine Journey’ 2012

In an atmosphere of intimate reflection, with my eyes closed as she read her paper, I could ‘see’ the journey Dr. Carl Jung made in India and how the life journey that Dr. Rand has made weaves exquisitely into it. I could hear the drummers that Jung heard during a jasmine infused temple ceremony he attended in India with rhythmic beats emanating from the drummers in the four corners of the room and the central drummer in the middle. I could smell the jasmine flowers and feel the heat of the country.

Dr. Rand made ‘A Jasmine Journey’, which weaves through the adventure and route that Dr. Carl Jung took during his travels in India, come alive. With the evidence that she found in a box of ‘souvenirs’ from his travels, she writes Carl Jung’s story as a man, a human being who got sick when he went to India and who had to have someone write to let people know that he could not go to pick up the award that he had traveled there to receive.

As I sat quietly within the sanctuary that she calls home, I carefully listened to her read her paper and began to see how perfect she is to bring this part of Dr. Carl Jung’s work (his travels in India) forward because of her personal connections to India and her life story.  I also began to see how she is able to expand this part of his work because she is a scholar with a unique perspective and vision in the 70th decade of her life. I realized that it was as if she was born to do exactly this work.

Dr. Rand recording ‘A Jasmine Journey’ with Dr. Eleniak, Edmonton, Alta Canada 2012

It makes sense to me that the box of ‘mere souvenirs’ from Jung’s travels to India had remained relatively unnoticed before Dr. Rand got permission from the C.G. Jung Papers Collection in Eidgenossische Techgnische Hochschule, Zurich (2010, 2012) to view them. The librarian there initially suggested that they might not be “of much interest to scholars”. But I can see that the box was simply waiting for the right ‘eyes’ to witness its contents. Dr. Rand is a scholar and human being who would indeed recognize their importance and who could breathe life into the map of Jung’s journey that she found there.

Wedding Photo of Dr. Rand’s parents

Through her very life story, Dr. Rand draws many countries together: India, England, Europe, Egypt, the United States and Canada. The story that she tells through the “A Jasmine Journey” helps to move depth psychology into an increasingly broader, more international perspective. The Indian names I could not pronounce just rolled off her tongue, rooted in her earliest childhood memories as a daughter born in India of English missionaries.

The complete work “A Jasmine Journey” takes us on a circular path weaving many threads into visions of  ‘creation as redemption’: Dr. Jung’s India/’Ceylon’ travels and eight decades of ‘India’ experiences, hints of the influence of the 37/8 journey on his later writings, and aspects of Dr. Rand’s journey through her life with some critical psychological insights couched within a historical context.

Dr. Rand is a master weaver, not only in the art of her embroideries, but also in the exacting nature of her choice of words and delivery. She is a master storyteller and scholar who, through ‘A Jasmine Journey’ brings to life new and exciting insights in depth psychology.

Dr Rand and Dr Eleniak 2012

I have been blessed to have heard this seminal piece of work which opens the way to new connections. I have been blessed to have her as my mentor.  I look forward to a more complete presentation of this work next Spring.

Dr. Duanita G. Eleniak

Dr. Rand’s work “A Jasmine Journey: Jung 1937/8 and ‘Something New’ emerging from Orissa 1944” will be available Spring 2013. Write info@mentoringstore.ca for more information.

See the article on Quilibrio about my book Be The Change: Acting with Intention, and how it is enriching the Quilibrio movement.

Closing with a “give-away” at the very end of a workshop can assist the experience and feelings of abundance generated in the workshop to flow out into the lives of the participants.  This is the therapeutic intention that was held during the series of Vision Board Workshops given through Envision 2012:  Designing Dreams.

Here are the top 3 recommended “give-aways” to consider when planning your next art therapy group closing.

1.  Food.  At the end of every vision board workshop (after the ritual closing), group participants were given a container of food left over from the buffet that was set out during the workshop.  This allowed participants to take food home to share with people in their world.  Their children, roommates, husbands and families were able to break bread together and celebrate in the birth of the participant’s vision.

2.  Cut Flowers.  The beauty of cut flowers provide delightful and inspirational energy that can serve to hold and maintain the feelings generated in the workshop for participants who take them home.

3.  Living Plants.  Plants require on-going attention in order to live.  When given to participants to take home after a vision board workshop they can serve as an environmental affirmation and focus point, reminding the participant of the vision s/he created.  Just like plants, it is good to water our visions daily and keep them in the sunlight of our conscious remembering.

The Prayer Plant:  A beautiful plant we found to give away during Envision 2012 was a “prayer plant”.  They are a hardy, tropical plant that opens during the day and closes at night.  Their leaves form the shape of two hands together in prayer.

Fear was the predominant feeling for workshop participants when they received the plants to take home.  They were afraid that the plants would die because they thought they did not have a “green thumb”.  Plants, like our visions and images are alive and they require us to take responsibility for their care.

Upon follow-up of the vision board workshop, it was heart-warming to hear the stories of these prayer plants in the women’s lives.  All of the plants survived.  One woman was inspired to begin bringing more house plants into her life.  Some women reported having to transplant the plants because they had grown so much.  One woman shared an insight she had:  “What I discovered was that all they really needed was love.”

 

Prayer Plant in Waiting Room

An Environmental Affirmation for the Art Therapist:  After the workshop, I kept 3 prayer plants in my studio.  I find that their natural rhythm of daily movement draws my attention.  At odd times, I find myself noticing something different in a corner of the room and then I realize that the prayer plant has opened, or that it has closed.  I am reminded of the participants from the workshop.  I am reminded of the vision boards, our hopes, our dreams, and our images.

I find myself grateful for these little plants who serve in my studio to help me remember on a daily basis; who serve to continually hold our visions day in and day out; and who send our images and intentions out into the Universe in a prayerful pose each night and open to receive each day.

I hope that this blog inspires you to get creative with give-aways that can serve to hold the benefits from your group art therapy workshops for you and for participants.

What give-aways have you found particularly therapeutically effective with groups you have run?

Please leave a comment and share your experience so that we may learn from each other.

Enjoy.

Dr D

International Heart Lessons

Being a student in another country was a life-changing experience for me in 1983 when the Rotary Club chose me to be one of their international scholars and sent me to the University of Hawaii as an Ambassador of Goodwill and Understanding.

Since then I have been committed to providing such an  opportunity for international students wanting to study in Canada.

This year I was blessed to have an opportunity to get to work with Franziska von Eysmondt, who did her social work practicum at Creative Counselling and Education.  Here is her story.

-Enjoy!- Dr D

Fraziska (far right) and Angel Team at a workshop

My Social Work Practicum Experience In Canada

My name is Franziska von Eysmondt and I am social work student from Cologne, Germany.

I started to do my practicum with Dr. Duanita G. Eleniak in Febuary 2012.  Last summer when I was in Vancouver on vacation I saw her website and was curious to meet her and hoped for a practicum opportunity as a social work student.  For my surprise, she gave me this great opportunity, and after a few months of arrangements with my school in Germany, booking flights and writing exams, I sat in a plane from Frankfurt to Vancouver.

What I learned in my practicum with Dr. Duanita was definitely beyond everything I could ever imagine: Art Therapy, Play Therapy, Counseling, Teaching, Adoption, Home visits, Teamwork, Workshops, my own caseloads, promotion, and writing to the business part of private practice.

I had the chance to increase my knowledge in all those different fields. The opportunity to have my own clients, which she thought was the best way to learn as a student, challenged me in the beginning but was a great experience which I am very thankful for.  To have that responsibility and experience was definitely a very good way to learn.

Counselling

I learned how Dr. Duanita worked in private practice.  I saw her interventions in counseling sessions and how she kept case loads.   I learned about how Art Therapy impacts a client and what you can see in the pictures. Art Therapy was a whole new field for me, which I was always interested in. I also learned about the power of Art Material and what you have to think about when you work with it. In my work with children I learned to see what they express in their art and play, the stories they tell you without using their words and the importance of giving them a safe place where they can lead and decide what they want to do when they come in.

We created workshops in a team of students from the Adler School of Professional Psychology and this experience opened up new areas for my own personal and business goals and showed me where I want to go in my career.

Thanks to Duanita´s trust in my skills, I was able to experience my strengths in the work we did and what I have to work on. I had the opportunity to improve my verbal skills, social skills and my language skills through practice. I feel much more confident now in what I do than before and I will take my experiences and the honor to meet so many wonderful people home with me.  I will always be gratetful for being able to work with Dr. Duanita.

For anyone who is thinking about working in a different country, I can only recommend that you do it because you are learning on so many different levels,

All the best wishes to the Angel Team,

And Thank you so much for everything, Dr. Duanita! It was a pleasure to work with you!

Auf Wiedersehen 🙂

Franziska von Eysmondt

International Oneness in Education

Abundance Consciousness

The Program to Activate Your Business Consciousness is a business course for helping professionals given from a transpersonal perspective. Program participants complete a Daily Business Intentions Journal where they write morning intentions and then become scientists in their own world asking to see signs that their intention was received.

One of the exercises in the Workbook is to create an inner power team of “imaginary” helpers who can assist to bring dreams to reality.

Here is a story from a counsellor who was working in the program to increase abundance in her life.  It illustrates how daily intentions and work with imaginary inner team members can help to bring powerful insight into your work.  Enjoy – Dr. D

A Counselor’s Story

“With it being income tax time I decided to ensure enough cash flow in my bank to help my latest affirmation “Doing my taxes just gets easier and easier every year.  I love tax time” become a reality. I decided to request the services of my imaginary inner team member Ganesha, the East Indian Elephant God that helps to remove obstacles from one’s life.

In my Daily Business Intentions Journal I wrote my intention “Today Ganesha helps me to clear all resistance to the flow of cash in my life. I am grateful as I become aware of signs that leave me no doubt that this intention was received.” Then I went about my day and the intention went to the background of my busy life. 

When I got home in the evening and checked my email there was the sign that left me no doubt that my intention had been received.  Not one but two people who had owed me significant amounts of money (both of whom I had forgotten about) wrote to tell me that obstacles had moved in their lives and that Paypal payments were ready for deposit into my account.

The outstanding lesson for me in this little daily experiment was a reminder of how we are all one.  I was thinking that I needed to remove personal barriers and resistance to the flow of abundance into my life and that the resistance was in me somehow.  What I saw was that Ganeesha helped to move barriers in people connected with me. I was left with the very clear lesson of my connection to others.”  – Clinical Social  Worker –

Wisdom in the Signs

Our abundance often flows to us through others. We benefit as we wish others well and send energy in the direction of their release from resistance because as one of us becomes free, we all become lifted.

Experiences like this illustrate the essential flaw of a business system based on competition rather than cooperation and support.  As we release poverty consciousness and develop abundance consciousness we can easily support each other in business knowing that there are enough resources for everyone and that as one person gains, all people gain.

Now…go to your Daily Business Intention Journals and find the thrill of becoming connected with the magic of sparking synchronicity.

Thank you for sharing your story.  Dr. D

For more information about the Program to Activate Your Business Consciousness contact 604-988-5689 or email info@mentoringstore.ca

For a free online Course in Daily Intentions and free downloads of the journal pages go to http://www.mentoringstore.ca/free_practical_tools.html