Exploring and Releasing Our Voices
2013 Workshop Series
Led by Donna Jenson & Jackie Humphreys
Come join us on our next journey – five Saturday mornings: once a month from Feb. to June – to discover what we each have to say, express, write and share within a supportive group of incest and child sexual abuse survivors. The format is an amalgamation of two primary activities:
1.Writing & reading our writing to each other and
2.Gentle Yoga & Mindfulness practices
We are convinced that by combining these two we can move in and out of the myriad of emotions our experiences have placed within us to finding the joy and strength of our true selves.
There are threads of common purpose for writing within a supportive group - to catch the undercurrent of our minds, spread it out on the page and see what we make of it to:
> broaden self awareness
> pour out feelings and emotions onto paper
> reclaim or preserve memories of ourselves, people, and events
> sort out thoughts and clarify ideas
> reap the wisdom of the unconscious
Our yoga and mindfulness practices are designed in synergy with the writing, supporting nonjudgmental self-awareness, acceptance and creativity. Our bodies often hold our experiences of trauma, loss or suffering on a cellular, muscular and visceral level, constricting our capacity to be fully present.
By engaging in gentle yoga postures: simple twists, heart opening stretches; breathing practices: breath awareness and deepening; and mindfulness practices such as connecting with our highest intentions, we clear the obstacles to our creativity and compassion which opens us to experience our own clear voice in the present moment.
Consider giving yourself and your voice this gift of attention for five Saturday mornings in 2013. We’re all so worth it.
Logistical details:
Dates:Saturday Feb. 23, March 23, April 20, May 18, and June 15
Time:9:30am to 12:30pm
Size:Limited to 9 participants
Cost:$200 for the full series ($40 per session), payments due: $50 at registration, two payments of $75 at sessions 1 and 3.
Where:Wild Life Sanctuary Studio, 221 Pine St, #349, Florence, MA
To register contact: Donna @ 413-367-9661, djenson@crocker.com or
Jackie @ 413-364-3527, jacqueline.humphreys8@gmail.com
The play, What She Knows, depicts a full range of what it is like to grow up in a sexually abusive family; what one woman experienced and then did to reclaim her life and make it worth living. Witness the main character figuratively (and once literally) dancing between her life's joys and traumas, between time periods and experiences showing how she survived and ultimately came to thrive. The original score, composed and performed by master guitarist John Sheldon, provides live music that weaves a heightened impact into the play’s dramatic tempo and opens audiences to the full richness of its sadness’ and delights.
One Woman’s Way Through Incest to Joy
The play is presented as a 60 minute dramatic reading by the author, Donna Jenson. In a post performance dialogue the audience is invited to engage with Donna exploring the issues surrounding sexual abuse that What She Knows has raised for them. Where possible the playwright offers follow-up workshops for audience members interested in further reflecting on and articulating their own experience.
The Workshops:
copyright 2010 DJ
Workshops led by Donna Jenson with Jackie Humphreys are offered to those interested in further exploration of the issues and responses evoked from experiencing the play and the post performance dialogue.
The core method of exploration and sharing in the workshop is through writing and hearing what each other wrote. Great care is taken to ensure the environment is safe and supportive.
Director: Sheryl Stoodley, co-founder and Artistic Director of Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble
Dramaturg: Leonard Berkman, the Anne Hesseltine Hoyt Professor of Theatre at Smith College
“Jenson shapes the raw clay of a childhood violated by a broken father and firing it in the white hot oven of art. Her finished piece glows with the heat of injustice and is cooled in a mountain stream of tears. Finally, it is polished smooth by a chorus of love, self-care and healing. Master guitarist John Sheldon has composed an original score which he sensitively performs adding emotional texture to Jenson’s powerful performance.”
Rob Okun, editor,
Voice Male Magazine
“Donna’s work connects the past to the present with an iron scaffolding of courage, the persistent song and dance of joy, accompanied by the kite-like body of a child tethered to the fear and confusion of incest. We feel the clench of the despairing spirit while through and through is the velvety cord of resilience. Her courage inspires me to be more courageous and her speaking not only inspires me but is almost a mandate that we all speak, no matter what holds us to our silence.”
Jackie Humphreys, LICSW
WSK Clinical Consultant
and incest survivor.
