FRIENDS CONFERENCE ON RELIGION AND PSYCHOLOGY
Lebanon Valley College · Annville, PA · May 22–25, 2009

SMALL GROUPS

During the Conference, you will meet four times with the Small Group which you select from the list below. The process that unfolds within the Small Group—the ups and downs and insights—is an important part of the FCRP experience. Small Groups are intended as a personal growth experience, not as therapy.

Groups are limited in size and assigned on a first-come basis. Please be sure to indicate your preferences on your registration form. Include second and third choices, in case your first choice is not available.

All readings are suggested, not required. While all attenders are encouraged to read Miriam Greenspan’s book, many small group facilitators make a special request for their participants to do so.

PLEASE NOTE: The meeting rooms are frequently uncomfortably cold due to central air-conditioning over which we have no control. Please bring an extra cover-up to ensure your comfort.

1. Parsing the Plenary*
    Dixon Bell

This workshop provides a platform for enlarging and deepening the presentations in the Plenaries and for integrating that material with our own experiences. It will center on a variety of discussion formats—prompted, open, moderated, independent group, role plays, and an activity entitled “speaker’s chair.” We will enhance individual and group reflection after the Plenaries, as well as allow space for those who wish to incorporate CDs, original writing, and/or musical instruments which they bring into the small group.
Mode: Discussion, reflection, listening
Suggested reading: Healing Through the Dark Emotions. Miriam Greenspan

*  In the event this workshop is fully subscribed, a second and similar small group will be organized.

2. Shadow Boxing in the Light
    Kayta Gajdos

The intention for this small group is to befriend our shadow and our grief in a way that honors the slow unfolding of feeling. This approach will allow us to re-member what has been dis-owned or lost to ourselves as well as to be open to the transformative alchemy of the dark emotions which can lead to authentic aliveness.
Mode: Meditation, writing, collage, walking meditation outside if weather permits
Suggested reading: Healing Through the Dark Emotions. Miriam Greenspan

3. Unveiling Our Dark Emotions through Creativity
    Dana Gayner

This hands-on workshop will provide an opportunity to search deeply within for our strengths and weaknesses. After listening to a Reiki meditation and a quiet period for journaling, we will create a personal box using paint, paper, supplied materials, found objects and whatever charms you bring. Let your inner child play or sulk. No artistic training is necessary. If you think you’re not creative, then this group is for you!
Mode: Artistic creation, Reiki-oriented meditation, writing
Suggested reading: Creativity. Matthew Fox

4. Reaching Beyond the Individual: Connecting to the Pain of the World
     Jim Gill

This small group will use the photographs of “Earth Stations” as visual beginning points for a meditative pilgrimage. These photographs show locations of great ecological injury and disaster around the globe and mark “stations” where pilgrims will walk in contemplation and prayer for our suffering planet. Using reflection and meditation as well as writing and drawing, we will focus on the individual-world connection. Through the work with “Earth Stations” and sharing thoughts and experiences, we may learn how to use our dark emotions to inspire spiritual service and social action. (Participants may wish to bring a drum or other instrument to play while on the pilgrim’s path. This small group will spend some time outdoors, weather permitting.)
Mode: Reflection, meditation, sharing, writing, drawing, walking
Suggested reading: Healing Through the Dark Emotions. Miriam Greenspan

5. Age-ing and Sage-ing
    Loy Jones and George Sinnott

This workshop will examine the challenges of living creatively through the radical psychological and spiritual changes of the “late blooming” years (60+). Discussion and exercises—role-playing, interactive games, and construction of a group letter to future generations—will enable workshop participants to discover key Jungian concepts experientially. The aim of the workshop is to examine the transitional tasks and inner experiences of later life as suggested by the works of Carl Jung and others.
Mode: Discussion, interactive exercises, role playing, writing
Suggested Reading: From Age-Ing to Sage-Ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Grand Central Publishing, 1997);
Coming to Age: the Croning Years. Jane Pretat (Inner City Books, 1994)

6. Sitting and Moving with Dark Emotions
    Lorraine Kreahling and Stephen McDonnell

Nuggets of dark emotion or psychic injury lodged within our hearts, souls, and unconscious often color the energy of our lives. Unattended—or denied—such nagging feelings can upset our body’s native balance. We will endeavor to create a safe space where we can witness these feelings and the images they spawn. We will allow what comes to carry us into movements, big or small. Wear loose comfortable clothing.
Mode: Reflection, movement, sharing

7. Collage—Images of the Soul
    Carole McNamee

Collage provides an opportunity to engage with images that hold personal meaning for us, facilitating self-expression and healing. The SoulCollage® process, in particular, is a “flexible, creative, and inclusive tool” for the creation and exploration of personally selected images. We will experience the SoulCollage® card-making process and several techniques for dialoguing with our creations. These creations often serve to surprise, bemuse, and even amuse. They always enlighten!
Mode: Collage and writing
Suggested Reading: SoulCollage®. Seena Frost

8. Becoming a Quaker Warrior
    Perry Martin and Pegeen Culley

Through story and initiation ritual we will explore the Warrior archetype and the nature of Quaker warriors. Telling our own stories, we will search for ways to find the courage to become a warrior. Participants may bring simple costumes, scarves, shells, rattles, amulets, etc. to incorporate in the ritual.
Mode: Story sharing, movement, expressive art, journaling
Suggested reading: War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.Edward Tick (Quest Books, 2005)—read Part I, Chapters 9 & 10;
The Four-fold Way: Walking the Paths of Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary. Angeles Arrien (HarperCollins (1993)—read Section on the Warrior

9. Befriending Our Dark Emotions through Journaling
    Dorothy Reichardt

Florida Scott Maxwell said that a journal is ”a place to hear the creaks and cries of a heart opening slowly.” It also offers many possibilities for exploring our dark emotions, becoming better acquainted with them, and hopefully transforming them. This is far better than letting these emotions fester in our unconscious. We shall try out some different ways of journaling to see which ones work best for us. Bring writing materials and a spirit of adventure.
Mode: Writing, optional drawing, sharing
Suggested reading: How to Keep a Spiritual Journal: A Guide to Journal Keeping for Inner Growth and Personal Discovery. Ron Klug (Revised Edition, Augsburg Fortress, Publishers, 2002)

10. If It Were My Dream…
     Gary Soulsman

This easy-to-grasp way of exploring dreams creates a safe space by inviting each of us to imagine how we might think and feel if the dream of another were our own. The nonjudgmental process—pioneered by Jeremy Taylor and Montague Ullman—evokes serious, touching, and lighthearted emotion. Bring your empathy and your dreams.
Mode: Experiential and sharing
Suggested reading: Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill: Using Dreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious. Rev. Jeremy Taylor

11. Transformation through Poetry and Movement
     Doris M. Tennyson

Poetry and movement will provide opportunities to practice skills learned in the Plenaries. Images and ideas from the poems will help us incorporate those skills into our daily lives. No prior experience with poetry or movement necessary. Wear comfortable clothes for moving and bring writing materials
Mode: Experiential—reading, writing, sharing, movement, impromptu art
Suggested Reading: Anything by John Fox, Rolf Jacobsen, Jane Kenyon, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marge Piercy, Rumi, and your own favorites