This program consists of a text and hands-on training at your
location or at our headquarters in Sarasota Florida
Training:
We train you in Elementary SOULSPEAK so that you are self sufficient, which takes 3 hours. If we come to your location, we stay with you and assist you getting started (with your group or class) for as many sessions as you need. Normally this is 4 sessions
Here are some comments by ESE
teachers and therapists:
SOULSPEAK in Children’s Grief
Counseling
“I appreciated learning about SOULSPEAK… I must admit I was skeptical at first… I have a fourth grader whose sister died in a car accident almost a year ago. ..Many of the regular counseling techniques were just not working. In the last three weeks, the only change in our working together has been using SOULSPEAK as a part of individual counseling. The change, well, it has been remarkable. This little girl is expressing herself, smiling, sharing her poems with her mom, which is beginning to open things up at home for her. She is so proud of her work…she often requests to share them with the office staff…(this is a little girl who considered herself “no good at poetry”.) We spoke of the [SOULSPEAK] program at last night’s Sarasota Counseling Association. Robyn Marinelli is looking into all of the counselor’s receiving this wonderful training.”
Tammi Cowan
Guidance Counselor
“I have been using SOULSPEAK on small groups of students in my RAINBOWS (grief counseling) groups…. Regardless of academic ability ALL the middle school students were soon eager to share their feelings through this unique medium… students were able to reach deeply inside themselves….I would recommend this medium as an icebreaker or anytime during RAINBOWS, as it is a very positive experience and very rewarding for all.”
Kim Blood
School Counselor
SOULSPEAK Programs for At-risk Children.
I was a participant observer in their SOULSPEAK projects ..at
a number of institutions specifically designed to treat at-risk
children : Juvenile Justice Myakka Stop Camp, Oak Park School,
Adolescent Recovery Center at Manatee Glens, Pace Center for
Girl’s. Just for Girls Inc. The young people
involved…were boys and girls, 9-17 years old. They were
victims of physical, sexual and/or substance abuse. Many were
prone to violence.
…There are
several aspects of SOULSPEAK that strike me as unique and
powerful.
1) The
SOULSPEAK process can be used by ANY youngster. It is not limited
to the artistically gifted.
2)
The
participants’ process, within a peer setting, of
emotionally embracing their identity….is remarkably
therapeutic in itself.
3)
SOULSPEAK encourages joint participation and cooperation in
the creation of these spontaneous, oral/musical poems. This is
totally unique to the SOULSPEAK process and creates empathy and
bonding within the group.
4)
SOULSPEAK uses seed words to guide the youngsters creative
processes to the particular area of trauma, i.e., drugs, sexual
abuse, anger, etc. This is healing and cathartic.
Natasha Mann, BS, MS, Clinical Psychologist, with half a
century of clinical practice, teaching and training with Fritz
Pearls, Carl Rodgers, and Albert Ellis.
Soulspeak can be utilized as an effective therapeutic tool. It helps people bypass the rational judgmental mind and access more primary process expression, which is fluid, symbolic and emotional. This can help people bring up life issues and themes that they would be more uncomfortable discussing in a subject or problem oriented dialogue. The healing quality of speaking the language of the soul in a shared and personal mode can facilitate and perhaps accelerate the therapeutic process. It seems most effective in groups, where there are multiple options for participation in ways that break down the barriers of self-consciousness without being too threatening.
Deborah S. Kaufman, LCSW, certified Gestalt Psychotherapist
Director of Special Services for Children
Coastal
Behavioral Healthcare