Spiritual Counseling
Why?
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When I was Bar Mitzvahed at the age of 13, the Torah verse I choose to be embroidered on my prayer shawl is translated in english as "A healing tongue is a tree of life." It really is incredible that we can heal each other with our words and grow each other with our presence.
After leading assemblies of high school students into inspired action, and tending the life, wonder, sense of mystery and ability to effect real change of young people in my class for the year, I've come to trust most of all the tranformation that can happen in one on one relationships. The relationships with a level of intimacy that you can see and affirm the persons soul, where you can track and reflect their change over bigger swaths of time. I want to help young people find their own God, truth, touchstone, and help them make meaning of their lives as it happens, and be a tree of life for them to sit in the shade under when they fall.
Questions: How can I help? How can I heal? How do peoples stories transform? How to make meaning of life in honoring and empowering ways? How to tell the difference between the voice of the divine and other voices?
Direct Experience:
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Holding Street Cousel- During my travels I will make myself open to those that need to be heard, preferably over hot tea. I know I am in integrity when I have enough time to hear a homeless person, and I will never turn away from someone crying on my shoes.
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Story Corner- I will make a place in a public corner for people to show and tell, share their stories, and hear other peoples.
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Singing to People in Hospice (already doing with the Threshold choir of DC)
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Prison Ministry- meeting weekly with an unaccompanied minor in the juvinelle justice system through The Young Center.
Reading List: Boundaries of the Soul; How Can I Help?; I and Thou; Being with Dying; Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma
Programs: Aware of the vulnerability of holding someone in spiritual counsel, and the skill it takes to do this responsibly I am applying to the Interspiritual Counseling Program at One Spirit, and Interfaith Seminary in NYC. If accepted this will start in the fall of 2016 and continue for two years.
End Goal Offerings:
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Find your Voice Voical Coaching. Supporting peoples whose voices have been supressed and unwelcome to find their authenic voice. To sing from their heart. Remove the obstacles to their true voice coming through.
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Find your Truth Counseling- Mentoring young people in right of passage situations to find their God, find their touchstone, find their truth through the initiatory fires.
Community for this Path: Susan, Adam S., Alan.
What?
