LIVING STORY
Juliet Bruce, PhD
For Wellness, Human Resources, and Community Resilience Professionals
If you want to help your patients make an integrative journey toward wholeness in their lives, a working knowledge of narrative medicine and how other expressive modalities support it is essential.
Topics addressed in these trainings include, among others:
- Story structure applied to life;
- The power of metaphor, myth, and fairy tale to access deeper layers of being;
- Story and neuroplasticity;
- The child's developmental journey and its impact on adult life;
- A fresh perspective on depression;
- How to listen to story.
FEATURED TRAINING:
"THE FIREBIRD": EXPLORING DEPRESSION AS TRANSFORMATIONAL GROUND
Depression and anxiety are the twin maladies of our time. The Centers for Disease Control predict that by 2020, over 80% of women will have experienced depression. Beneath the roots of depression and anxiety in our personal lives, many depth psychologists believe these miseries are a reflection of the violence and destruction taking place throughout our world, including to our earth itself.
In my practice, I help my clients follow an ancient path through this condition. Traditional cultures understood depression and other non-ordinary mental experiences as states of emergence rather than as disorders.
This experiential workshop helps professionals take a fresh approach to client and staff depression. It uses the rich metaphors, visual images, and environments of a famous Russian folk tale to take a fresh and optimistic approach to depression.
"Thank you for your wonderful Firebird presentation. Looking at depression through a story lens was useful. Definitely useful." -- from The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute, presented on May 8, 2014.
Write to me to book this event for your agency.
julietbrucephd@gmail.com
- The Library of Congress,
- New York Public Library,
- World Congress for Social Psychiatry,
- National Association for Mental Health Professionals,
- C.G. Jung Foundation of NYC,
- Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute, Adelphi and Long Island Universities, Expressive Therapies Summit, among many other venues.
To speak with me about a story presentation for
your hospital, academic institution, or other organization, write me at the above address.
"Your supervision reopened my creative sources due to focusing myself on the aim of the trust and safety -– building community instead of trying to create individual therapeutic goals at the beginning. I realised clearly the context and I will direct my effort to group work with usage of storytelling, music listening and parachute-movement. The issue of body movement in metaphorical way also impressed me, I will work on it." Psychotherapist working with institutionalized elderly with Parkinson's Disease, Prague, Czech Republic
“As a psychotherapist who works with freelancers, artists and helping professionals, I've found Juliet to be an invaluable resource in helping individuals find their voice and be in the world. People do not grow by therapy alone! Her intuition is spot-on, her values and integrity impeccable and her approach designed to fit the specific needs of each client and each group she leads. Highly recommended.” Mary Wallach, MFA, LCSW.
"I have had the privilege of knowing and working with Juliet for a few years now. The first time I met her, I was a trainee who was quickly moved and influenced by such a powerful method of personal exploration. As we listened to poetry, music, and stories and created our own, I discovered creativity and ways of communicating I never believed were inside of me. One quickly learns there is never a wrong answer. She helps remind us there is meaning and value in everything. Since then, I have watched Juliet present again and even worked with her as a mentor. What was there in the beginning never wavers. Juliet continues to provide love, care, nurturing, and creativity to those around her and her work." -- Melissa Kester, LMFT, Founder, Practice Director, Madison Marriage and Family Therapy, PC.
"Juliet Bruce is a master storyteller, a consummate facilitator of workshops, and an inspiration to the healing and growth process. As a guest lecturer at The Creative Righting Center, she has wowed us several times with workshops that speak to the soul, that help us to discover the hero within, and help us to discover what needs to be done to move forward in our lives." -- Dr. Sherry Reiter, Author of Writing Away the Demons: Stories of Creative Coping Through Transformative Writing.
"Juliet has an extraordinary capacity to engage with clients through the use of story. Her hero's journey and Write of Passage courses are inspirational and profoundly healing, and it has been a pleasure to collaborate with her in the past, and to plan future coillaborations. She is a true gift and one whom I very highly recommend." -- Eva Usadi, Founder and Executive Director, Trauma and Resiliency Resources, Inc.
"I am a creative counsellor, child and family therapist, and therapeutic storyteller in New Zealand and have been practicing for thirty years. In 2010, I participated in one of Juliet's teleseminars and found it to be enlivening. The course was well constructed and comprehensive and delivered with enthusiasm and compassion. Later that year, Juliet asked me to read the manuscript of a book she is writing about her work. I believe her work will add considerably to the therapeutic storytelling and narrative therapy cannons and look forward to the publication of the book." -- Gaye Sutton, M.A. with distinction, Dpl. Soc. Sci., Advd. Dip. Creative Writing, Winston Churchill Fellow, 1990.
"Juliet is an inspiring supervisor who helped me have a deeper knowledge of narrative therapy. She has always been supportive and encouraging towards my work. Although the course I took was the online Write of Passage course, I felt there was no distance between us. She could listen to my needs and was there to satisfy them! She offers professional services on a humanistic and friendly basis. The seminar was very helpful and motivating!" -- Stavroula Sanida, psychotherapist, Athens, Greece.
