The Split Rock Thinking Experience – Strategies from a problem-solving people
“Just as the hammer splits the rock into many pieces, so a problem can be approached from many points of view, strategies and methods” (paraphrase of a Talmudic passage) Split Rock Thinking is a fundamental creative strategy that supports and is a short hand for a myriad of methods we can use to understand our Jewish Historical experience, i.e. Words, poetry, music, photography, film, dance drama, structured fantasy/imagery, dream and body work. Split Rock Thinking interweaves traditional interpretation technique with experiential methods to both better understand aspects of the Jewish people’s life coping skills and explore one’s own life situation.
The Living Midrash Experience–
Living Midrash is a mixture of traditional methods, dream-work, “here and now” therapies and psychodrama, with Hebrew scriptures and rabbinic tradition being viewed as part of our collective consciousness and thereby benefiting from these various ‘experiential’ approaches. Such openness to the collective consciousness enriches our own individual consciousness expanding our own spiritual resources.
The Jewish Ethnotherapy Experience – Making sense of your Jewishness!
Jewish Ethnotherapy is a two-fold approach: That of assisting the individual Jew to develop a positive image of himself or herself as a member of the Jewish people, and that of providing the individual with specific knowledge of their resources within the historical experiences of our people that he or she might find as supportive tools toward further self -discovery.
The Jewish Prayer in Slow Motion Experience
This is an experience of Jewish worship as environment for encounter with self and one’s experience of God achieved through membership in a purposeful community. Structured as an interactive participatory exploration of traditional prayers with the emphasis is on being a member of an experimental prayer group in a trust building communal setting. Previous knowledge of Jewish prayers not a requisite.
To Life! -Lechayim! – Reinventing ourselves
Adult life, especially around retirement and or relocation, does not come with a user’s manual. The question each of us must ask and answer for ourselves is how can we achieve a meaningful life that will lead to our welcoming each day as a blessing? This workshop explores various roadmaps for personal self-understanding and meaningful goal setting including that of the biblical Jonah, the Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes -each work attributed by tradition to the wise Solomon at progressive stages of his life.
You and Your Significant Other – Creating a Celebratory Experience
Relationships between significant others are valued within the Jewish tradition and our contemporary Jewish community. Whether for those walking the traditional path of Jewish significant others (to be) blessed by clergy and by state, LGBT couples, couples of mixed religious backgrounds, or couples wishing to somehow mark their relationships, this program builds on the Jewish notion of the sanctity of the individual, the creation of a significant other relationship contract honoring the uniqueness of each other, and the affirmation of the relationship witnessed by others.
Entering Moments of Our History as a Problem-Solving People
There is much to be learned from Jewish history: Despite great odds and powerful forces, the Jewish people has survived for thousands of years. During its historical experience it has mastered the art of change and continuity as its members have lived in both times of tranquility and times of crisis. It has survived among its many variations:
The ability of the Jewish people to survive and make these transitions is based on its being a problem-solving people with a flexible set of creative strategies that support both change and continuity.
These same creative strategies are available to organizations as they cope with their futures and their need to adapt to change.
Among the creative strategies that have supported the Jewish people in their response to changing circumstances, and the need for problem-solving have been:
All these challenges and creative strategies can be applied to an organizations strategic planning process.
Organizational Workshops
The Wall of Wisdom Building Experience
“Who is truly wise, who can learn from all others” Ethics of the Fathers. As a first step in an organization’s process improvement, and or strategic planning initiative, this workshop evokes input from participants toward building a “Wall of Wisdom”. During the experience, the various inputs are then gathered into meaningful target groupings for further deliberations. The emphasis is on non-judgmental collection of ideas, suggestions, and wishes that could be then combined into various subsequent action plans.