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Posts Tagged ‘TimeSlips’

TimeSlips Creative Storytelling featured on NPR’s Morning Edition

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 14, 2012 |

A thoughtful piece on the power of inviting people with dementia into the world of the imagination was featured this morning on NPR’s Morning Edition.  Thanks to Joanne Silberner for a piece well done.  One correction – the interactive website for TimeSlips can be used without training…but we do encourage people to get training if they are going to use it with groups of people. 

And we also sorta prefer not to refer to people at patients…

Thanks to Nora in Seattle for being so open and willing to being interviewed! 

 

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TimeSlips is on the Move

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Forget Memory, Try Imagination!  is the tag line the TimeSlips creative storytelling uses to encourage people to leave behind (at least partially) the fears and stigma of memory loss.  The imagination is a powerful communication tool that enables people to reach each other across the communication divides of cognitive disabilities like memory loss and dementia.

TimeSlips creative storytelling is a simple, improvisational storytelling method that can be used to connect people across that divide.  TimeSlips has been around since 1998, training family and professional caregivers through in-person workshops.

This year, TimeSlips is launching a playful online training and a new interactive website that will enable people to tell stories with friends/family virtually or in person.  The official launch for both will be September 24th at the National Adult Day Services Association conference in Milwaukee, WI.  But look for the “soft launch” in July.

www.timeslips.org

TimeSlips is housed at the UWM Center on Age & Community.

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Reaffirmed

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 20, 2010 |

Fresh back from a trip to Minneapolis where I did two trainings, one with the bright and passionate volunteer docents at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, who offer tours to care partners with dementia.  They are adding the TimeSlips creative storytelling technique to their tours, and it was a thrill for me to wander the galleries with Education Director Sheila McGuire, observing their sample sessions and looking at the MIA’s collection with an eye toward which pieces would invite imagination-based stories.  I can’t wait to hear what comes of storytelling and the Henry Moore sculpture that I love so.

The second training was with  the good folks at the Presbyterian Homes in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  We gathered at a brand new facility – the Care Center at Boutswell’s Landing in Oak Park Heights.

Joyce Konczyk was on hand again to arrange the live webcast of  me doing a session upstairs with folks in Assisted Living, while the 100+ trainees observed in the auditorium.  It was a challenging session – with several people nearly beyond language.  But they followed my eyes and spoke with me in the language they had, and I echoed and echoed, and invited and invited, and one woman, after I had written down several of her phrases on the flipchart, looked at me and said “We’re starting to get happy!”

The story was about a cowboy named Jose Karl de Jazz de Jazz and his horse named Tonto.  Jose Karl is a jumper.  He’s a professional jumper.  He plays guitar for a living.  He plays it with spirit.  He plays country western music in the west.  He’s playing You Are My Sunshine. His horse is bored.  Jose Karl is not going to land on the horse.  But he will ride it away and the horse will pass some apples.

I love doing the demos and feeling the power of creative engagement.  It’s so simple in some ways.  As “StoryCorps” says, LISTENING IS AN ACT OF LOVE.  At its core, TimeSlips is intensive, full body listening and echoing.  It is hearing and affirming people through the exchange of open-ended questions that invite imagination and poetic response.

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Seeing the “AHA” in Their Eyes

Posted in art, cultural phenom, long term care, public education, tagged , , , , , , , on September 28, 2009 |

In September I had the great fortune to two training workshops. The first was a TimeSlips creative storytelling training organized by a dedicated group of volunteers who are part of the Minnesota Dementia Care Professionals network.  130 people squeezed themselves around long tables in the chapel of a nursing home in St. Paul, MN. Joyce Konczyk, the organizer of the training, used her webinar savvy to enable me to do a live demonstration on the 3rd floor of the nursing home that was live fed to the computer/screen down in the chapel.

The second training, held at Cedar Villages in Mason, Ohio, was part of ASA’s/Metlife’s MindAlert program.  “Imagine That: Creative Engagment in Dementia Care, is a day-long workshop that invites participants of all backgrounds and work responsibilities to feel the excitement and freedom of creative expression, and then imagine ways to use it to engage with the older adults in their lives.  We play with words through stories and poetry as well as simple movement exercises.

In both workshops, toward the end of what is a long, but exilarating day, you could see the excitement in people’s eyes.  In Ohio, the teams around each table created multi-tiered projects around a traditional “activity” for people with dementia.  “Sorting poker chips” became an opportunity for creating playful sculptures; for becoming a make believe monetary system that could buy you your dreams;  and a pleasurable sensory experience as you ran your hands through an enormous bin of chips.  And this was from the table with the CEO, who shared the day with us.

With two small children at home, and a husband who travels for work, the travel for trainings is a tough juggle for me.  But seeing the “aha’s” in their eyes at these two fabulous trainings gives me the sense that there is a longing for change that might just use creative engagement as its starting point.

The October training line-up:

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Creativity and Dementia in DC!

Posted in art, cultural phenom, disability, public education, tagged , , , , , on February 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »

I’m so excited for the March 30- April 1st Creativity Matters: Health, Wellness and the Arts Symposium coordinated by the National Center for Creative Aging.  I’ll be doing an all-day TimeSlips Creative Storytelling training workshop at the Iona Senior Center on Monday the 30th.

On the 31st, there’s a knock-out line up of folks presenting on dementia, storytelling (fiction and non-fiction), and the Meet Me At MoMA program.  I’m honored to be included.

On the 1st, there’s a hands-on workshop with the MoMA folks to learn how they lead discussions about art with people with dementia and their care partners.

In some ways, this is a mini version of the book (Forget Memory, due out – at long last – in May/June), as it contains profiles of the StoryCorps Memory Loss Initiative (presenting!), the MoMA program, and TimeSlips.  I’ll be doing an overview of the field that pulls on much of my research for the book.

Hope to see some of you there!

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Anti-Stigma Campaigns

Posted in cultural phenom, public education, tagged , , , , , , on October 26, 2007 | 1 Comment »

This foggy Friday morning has found me on a Google adventure, looking up the far reaching anti-stigma efforts against mental illness in this country. For just a taste of the breadth of these actions, check out this link to the Anti-Stigma Campaigns of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association. I’m also re-reading all my disability rights movement history books – trying to find the points of divergence. Why isn’t dementia included in this mammoth anti-stigma effort? It’s mentioned very rarely. What are the historical reasons why these movements separated? And remain separated? The effort in England Changing Minds, includes dementia. But not in the States. Why? The mental illness movement does seem to use a heavy language of recovery…which is not possible in Alzheimer’s. Is it because there are no survivor stories?

As TimeSlips embarks on a national anti-stigma effort, we’re looking to partner to bridge this divide.

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