Story Remedy combines my love of reading with my training in spiritual care. Poetry therapy (bibliotherapy), a healing modality that has been used since World War I, is experiencing a rebirth. Literature has often been turned to in times of moral, spiritual, and physical crisis. The healing power of words and the use of reading and writing as therapeutic tools has been shown to give people strength when they are facing difficult circumstances. Bibliotherapy can deepen and intensify our ability to find some clarity in the search for meaning in our lives.
My group workshops and individual sessions draw on outside texts as well as on clients' own writing — journaling, reflections, and creative writing. Alongside my curiosity about the intentional act of reading, I focus on how the act of writing can be its own meditative and mindfulness practice.
I am a certified poetry therapy facilitator (CAPF) through the International Federation of Biblio/Poetry Therapy, and received a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. I have an MA in Literature from the University of Colorado, and received my BA in English from Barnard College. I completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) as an intern at Boulder Community Hospital and Jewish Family Service where I witnessed the spiritual healing power of words and learned how to share that with others.
I work in private sessions and conduct group workshops. Most recently, I have worked at a local vets' center where I offered expressive writing workshops including ones on moral injury. I also introduced a local hospital to the benefits of offering a weekly poetry therapy group for patients in the psychiatric unit (with staff supervision). Before that I worked for five years at a women's prison where I focused on an expansive "What's Your Story?" workshop.
I worked for many years as the director and owner of a foster care agency, where I (unknowingly!) designed a bibliotherapy program for parents and children.