Adult Programs

The following are a selection of programs commissioned by various universities and organizations.
 

Storytelling to Change the World
By empowering the imagination through the written and spoken word, multiple dialogues, and active listening techniques, Lisa guides groups through this creative process to identify and amplify their stories of healing, growth, and transformation. 

Creating Compassionate Communities
Individually designed based upon community and need. We begin by identifying community concerns; ways to address violence and injustice; create and implement programs to transform conflict, foster understanding, and inspire the creation of caring and peaceful communities and schools.

Standing in the Shoes of the Other: Moral Imagination, Empathy, and Compassion
Built upon Lisa's extensive research on narrative and the creative arts approaches that develop empathy and build caring and compassionate classrooms and communities.

Re-membering History: Reflecting on Heroic Acts of Nonviolent Protest and Peaceful Initiatives
Provides participants insight into alternative methods that have challenged and changed oppression, injustice, and despair.

Art: Protest to Transformation
Beginning with an historical overview that demonstrates how a variety of art forms have effectively been used to assist in changing humankind's perceptions and actions during times of conflict, participants are encouraged to envision personal artworks and creative projects that address issues of global, community, and personal concerns.  

Elder Leadership: Living and Transferring Our Ethical Ideals
Empowers educators, parents, and visionaries in all fields to identify, articulate, and model their highest principals of leadership.

Creating Inclusive Classrooms K-12: Integrating Peace Studies Curricula across the Disciplines
This program is designed to meet the specific needs and requests of administrators and teachers.

Narrative Healing
(Programs are individually designed to meet the specific needs of the organization.)

We are at a time in our fractured society where communities are suffering, women are coming forward bravely telling their stories of sexual abuse, children are being separated from their families, racial inequities continue to be ignored, the LGBTQ community is targeted, places of worship are threatened, it is vitally important we have local and national conversations to repair, restore, and heal, so we can honor the dignity of ALL humanity and address the critical issues of our climate and Earth.

Whether one works in schools, communities, hospitals, hospice, social services, law enforcement, environmental activism, or the arts—learning how to mediate these community concerns, create connections, heal deep wounds, and find a path to forgiveness is done through the process of narrative healing. This is the heart of my work with storytelling, writing, journaling, and dialogue.

Narrative healing provides a safe space for those suffering, silenced, shamed, or afraid, to find a way to free the story within them, to understand the root of their pain, to awaken others to what they’ve experienced, and to discover ways of addressing their trauma, isolation, fear, and pain so they can then move toward healing, care, connection, and compassion.

If you examine the narrative design of great classics, as well as contemporary award-winning novels, memoirs, and narrative nonfiction writing, you realize most of the stories are about the journey from brokenness to wholeness. This story process often begins by uncovering what’s hidden, then writing toward the wound, and finally discovering the way toward restoration and individual and collective transformation. To lead students and community members to this place of deep story-sharing and personal and communal revelation is the objective of my narrative healing work. And I do believe storytelling can help heal the world.

Writing for Social Justice

Together we will explore the profound connection between writing, social justice, peacebuilding, and the process of transforming self and community.

As Poet William Carlos Williams wrote:

It is difficult

to get news

from poems

yet men die miserably everyday

for lack of what is found there.

Embodying Story: How to Bring Storytelling into Your Classroom
This is a hands-on program, designed to fit the needs and requests of participants. 

Youth Programs

The following are a selection of programs commissioned by schools: 

Giving Voice to the Wild Things: Celebrating Rachael Carson and Considering Endangered Species
This program reflects upon the abilities of one person who, against great odds, was effective in instituting positive and lasting change. In addition to honoring Ms. Carson, we examine the current state of endangered species and ways each of us might "give voice" to those living beings who cannot speak up for themselves.

Revelations in Randomness: Telling Stories through the Language of Comic Books and Graphic Novels
This program introduces participants to the methods used in this medium, in which humor and randomness provide freedom to examine challenging situations in new and inventive ways.  

The Silk Road, the Buddha, and Jataka Tales
These profound wisdom tales offer a wealth of meaning on friendship, service, sacrifice, humility, and compassion. 

The Enduring Wisdom of Ancient Cultures
These artist-in-residencies offer students an immersion in the mythology of ancient cultures. The week involves an overview of a particular history and culture, its beliefs and artifacts, the oral tradition of the culture’s tales, and an exploration of the meanings and messages these profound stories offer us today. Throughout the week, students work on an hour-length play, which they perform at week’s end.

The following is a list of Lisa’s original plays:

Travels Down the Ganges River: Tales from Ancient India

The Ancient Aztec, Inca, and Maya: A Dream Play in Three Parts

Ancient Egypt: Eternal Kingdom in the Golden Sands

Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Eight Myths