SoulCollage® Facilitator Training- Northeast
October 15 – 17, 2010
The Guest House
Chester, Connecticut
with Anne Marie Bennett & Jeanne Marie Merkel
Have you been practicing SoulCollage® for your own personal enrichment and now want to share it with a workshop center, women’s circle, professional group, classroom or church?
Are you a coach, art therapist, spiritual director, or other helping professional looking for a creative tool to help your clients tap into their intuition and inner wisdom?
If you answered yes, then please join us for this exciting, challenging and fun adventure…. the SoulCollage® Facilitator Training Weekend!
This Training Is For You If You:
- are interested in forming a new SoulCollage® group
- want to introduce SoulCollage® in an already established group (such as a church group, woman’s group, senior group, hospice network, educational class…etc.)
- want to use this simple art technique in connection with other kinds of groups, classes, or workshops
- are a therapist or art therapist who is attracted to learning more about how to use SoulCollage® for healing, therapeutic purposes
- are a minister/spiritual guide of any faith who wants to facilitate SoulCollage® in your ministry and use it to build community
- are a teacher, artist, administrator, workshop facilitator, mother-daughter team leader, social worker, Scout leader, nurse, dream group leader, or anyone interested in personal growth or the healing arts
Participants make cards, share cards, and use their own processes as teaching examples for the group in learning how to facilitate SoulCollage® work.
We learn how to do “readings” which use our own intuition to deepen self-knowledge. We learn creative applications and how to adapt the process to different populations. We work towards constructing a plan that fits participants intended uses of the technique.
Training participants network with each other and share how to adapt the SoulCollage® process to their clientele.
We want to stress that no degree or other credentialing is needed to register for this course and that enthusiasm for the process and its use in one’s own life are the chief criteria for participation in the training.
Meet Your Trainers
Anne Marie Bennett
Anne Marie Bennett is a freelance writer, self-taught artist, experienced SoulCollage® Facilitator and Trainer of Facilitators who trained directly with Seena Frost. She has a BS degree in Education from Southern Connecticut State University and has taught children, teens and adults throughout the East Coast. Her workshop and retreat participants flourish as she gently guides them through the process of self-discovery while encouraging playful, creative self-expression with a joyful, open heart.
She passionately believes that we are all lit from within… and that SoulCollage® helps to remove the shadows from our souls so that we can be our true, radiant, authentic selves. Anne Marie lives, laughs, loves, writes, sings (and makes her own SoulCollage® cards!) in Beverly, MA.
Jeanne Marie Merkel completed the SoulCollage® facilitator training with Seena Frost in June of 2004.
She is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in NY City, and is a life-long student of Psychology, Spirituality and Creativity. She currently works as a Retreat and Workshop facilitator, and does Spiritual Counseling and Rites of Passage, as well as SoulCollage® Workshops.
She is passionate about integrating Ritual into SoulCollage® work.
She is the mother of 3 grown daughters, and a grandmother, and takes great joy in nurturing spiritual growth and soul friendship in open-hearted community.
She has been assisting Anne Marie with the New England SoulCollage® Facilitator Trainings for three years.
To read more about Jeanne Marie’s background, philosophy, and spiritual offerings, please visit her website, Anam Cara Spiritual Visioning Network.
Why People Become Facilitators
Beautiful Cards at a SoulCollage Training
Over the years we have heard many reasons why people have been drawn to train as a SoulCollage® Facilitator. Not everyone who attends a Training always fits neatly into one of these categories, but in addition to enthusiasm for one’s personal experience of making and using SoulCollage® cards, these are the reasons that are most often shared with us:
1. Non-artists struggling to express their longing to be creative appreciate that there is no wrong or right way in SoulCollage®; the process is simple, fun and profound. Anyone able to manage scissors and glue can create beautiful cards and enjoy sharing them with others.
2. Therapists, counselors, nurses and other helping professionals find a creative way to work with their clients that goes beyond words and concepts, one that provides direct experiential access to intuition, insight and transformation.
3. Healers and people seeking to heal see in SoulCollage® a gentle yet deep self-care method that reveals their inner guidance by exploring and “becoming” images and by using their cards to do SoulCollage® readings.
4. Artists interested in bringing a new dimension to their art find a spiritually-infused process that they can share with others, a creative threshold to surprising revelations, greater self-understanding and the enriching acceptance of the light and shadow at play in our lives.
5. Anyone who values participating in and building learning communities based on mutual respect, support, and a commitment to care for self and others are drawn to learn and share SoulCollage®.
6. People looking for a way to give back to their communities, families, friends, children, church groups, women’s/men’s groups, hospices and other organizations see SoulCollage® as an opportunity to support the growth and well-being of others and themselves.
7. Individuals seeking spiritual renewal and a creative way to access their deeper guidance and wisdom.
Preparation and Prerequisites
Please prepare for the training by:
- Reading Seena’s book SoulCollage
- Reading Seena’s article “The Transpersonal Cards of the SoulCollage® Deck” (it describes two additional cards which were added after the book was published)
- Listening to her two CDs (one is an Introduction to SoulCollage with a guided meditation, the other is about Facilitating SoulCollage® in Groups)
- Reading and familiarizing yourself with the Principles of SoulCollage
- Making a few cards in each suit for your own SoulCollage® deck (this is important so that you can gain experience with your own card-making before learning how to facilitate the process with others)
These preparations are important so that you can gather experience from your own card-making process before working with others who are learning to make cards.
We also request that participants bring all of their SoulCollage® cards when they come to the training weekend.
To receive a certificate of completion a participant must attend and complete ALL sessions of this training.
Persons who complete the SoulCollage® training will receive a Certificate of Completion and may use the SoulCollage® trademark in doing individual or group work according to the Principles of SoulCollage. Thus, SoulCollage® LLC trains, rather than “certifies,” facilitators.
What the Facilitator Training Covers
Anne Marie Bennett (assisted by Jeanne Marie Merkel) will teach using her extensive experience of facilitating SoulCollage® in groups for the last four years. This training includes:
- How to create a safe, supportive environment where workshop attendees are empowered to trust their intuition and explore their own stories
- Various ways to facilitate card-making so that the experience of SoulCollage® is fun, joyful and healing for all participants
- Written and oral exercises to use with groups and individuals to help them deepen their understanding of their cards, and to enhance their relationship with their Deck
- Ideas for facilitating SoulCollage® card readings
- Examples of how to encourage card makers without being judgmental
- Participation in several rituals throughout the weekend that help us to create sacred space during SoulCollage® workshops, retreats, and individual practice
- A variety of formats for leading introductory workshops and discussions of ways to adapt the process for specific audiences and groups
- Help with posting your facilitator bio and workshops on the SoulCollage® website
- Connection to many resources available to our several hundred SoulCollage® facilitators worldwide
- In-depth review of the SoulCollage® Principles and copyright issues, as well as the ethics of being a Facilitator of this wonderful process
- Follow-up support from Anne Marie Bennett and Jeanne Marie Merkel
Feedback from Previous
New England Training Participants
I now feel clear, competent and confident about bringing SoulCollage® to others. The training clarified questions and issues around group practice, helped me with business considerations and provided the sharing that SoulCollage® is all about. — Kate, Massachusetts
I enjoyed the rituals which created immediate community, and the small group experiences which created intimacy.
— Carol in Tennessee
I’ve gained an excellent overview of the process of SoulCollage® and of facilitating workshops, as well as gained tremendous resources and tools! I feel very supported and encouraged. I plan to apply what I have learned for my own personal growth and creative practice, as well as to facilitate workshops in my area. I am ready now! — Lisa, Massachusetts
I appreciate the balance and flexibility of Anne Marie & Jeanne Marie in sharing personal experience while holding space and at the same time organizing time constraints and the physical needs of the group. — Darcy, California
What a heartwarming, connecting experience to join this wonderful group of women for this training! — Karen, New York
I felt accepted in the group from the start and that helped me to relax right away. I am ready to go home and build a woman’s SoulCollage® group. — Christine, Montreal
I have gained confidence that this process is a perfect path for me now. It integrates perfectly with the many skills, desires and gifts that I already have. — Maggie, New Hampshire
All the rituals were very powerful. The closing circle was simply profound and I will carry that with me always. — Julie, Ohio
What did I gain? Friends… inspiration… nourishment… adventure… focus… joy. — Heather, Ontario
I feel very blessed and grateful! A door has been opened for me, and I am ready to run through it! — Nici, Connecticut
Your Investment
The training fee includes:
2 nights lodging at The Guest House (see below)- 6 meals
- tea, coffee & snacks
- all training sessions, beginning at 3 pm on Friday, ending at 2 pm on Sunday after lunch
- all materials including lots of blank cards and an abundance of images
- a year’s membership in the SoulCollage® Facilitators’ Circle
- subscription to the SoulCollage® Facilitator monthly e-newsletter
- an invitation to join the collaborative SoulCollage® Facilitator list serve (Yahoo group)
- follow up support from Anne Marie and Jeanne Marie
Location
The Guest House is a delightful new retreat and conference center in the scenic Connecticut River Valley. ALL of their spacious guest rooms have private bathrooms.
They also offer superb cuisine, and amenities that range from a grand piano in the lobby to wireless internet in every room. This beautiful space gives guests a place to focus on their work without distractions, while enjoying a nurturing and comfortable environment.
You have your choice of a single, double or triple room, so please be sure to choose the correct PayPal button below.
Cancellation Policy
A full refund, less a $100 processing fee, will be given at the cancellation of a SoulCollage® Facilitator Training registration as long as the cancellation is received up to one month prior to the training.
No refund or credit is given for cancellations made with less than one month notice, if you fail to attend, or if you leave the event early, unless someone is able to take your place at short notice from our waiting list.
Some exceptions may be made for sudden incapacitating illness or family emergencies, depending on our agreement with the retreat center.
You might be able to apply a partial credit toward another SoulCollage® Facilitator Training led by Anne Marie Bennett within the next 12 months.
Registration Information
Payment Option #1- Pay in full
$699
TRIPLE ROOM
(Two roommates will be assigned to you
unless you specify who you’d like to room with.)
$749
DOUBLE ROOM
(A roommate will be assigned to you
unless you specify who you’d like to room with.)
$799
SINGLE ROOM
(A spacious room all to yourself!)
Payment Option #2
Please contact Anne Marie for information about paying with check or money order, OR if you have any questions.
