One of my favorite, very silly, barely game-games that we play in the Jam for Joy improvisation classes is YOU! One person starts by pointing at another person in the game and saying “YOU!” The person receiving that point and callout immediately finds someone else to point at and say “YOU!” to. There are great […]
James Parkinson wrote “An Essay on The Shaking Palsy” in 1817, identifying the disease for the first time in medical and academic circles. For as many things as he got right, he excluded the mental health impact of Parkinson’s disease (PD) on those who live with it. Incredibly over 200 years later, we’re still dealing […]
We just completed a wonderfully (and appropriately emotional) Cinema Therapy session featuring the Pixar classic, Inside Out. Participants who have been through other Cinema Therapy classes several times had beautiful things to say about their hero's journey: I learned through the power of failure – and now I'm using it to keep moving. I thought […]
This is rough. There is more bad blood between Oakland and Las Vegas than a mob of Swifties and a MAGA rally. Just this week, Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said in a People interview: “We don't take no shit from people like John fucking Fisher who sold out the Oakland A's to Las […]
One of my Cinema Therapy students, Terri Van Bibber, said those beautiful words to me after doing her fantastic presentation at the Parkinson's Association of Northern California (PANC) conference on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. Terri presented as Joy – literally. She took our Turning Parkinson’s disease Inside Out class and, from that work, came up with […]
When I picked up my dad on the morning of the A’s final game in the Oakland Coliseum, I asked how he was feeling. In what has become his typical way, he shrugged, looked away and didn’t really say anything. My dad is an A’s fan. He’s just one of those A’s fans that has […]
We are all Unwritten. Natasha Beddingfield’s 2004 hit “Unwritten” is one of my favorite songs. The beat is magnetic and immediately gets me moving. There’s a yearning in her early vocals before we even start with the lyrics – and oh, those lyrics: I am unwritten Can't read my mind, I'm undefined I'm just beginning […]
Ryan Reynolds’ star power is soaring. He’s had a long string of solid hits, but nothing like what the role of Deadpool has done for him – and us. For all of the snark of Deadpool, Ryan, the man, also has tremendous depth and pathos that some don’t know as well. Ryan’s father, James, had […]
And I’m on a hunt for stories. Your stories. However this is not the story you know, it’s the one you don’t yet. This is the one you’re willing to go on an adventure to find. It’s a hero’s journey and I can say with great confidence I can help get you there. That doesn’t […]
Acknowledgement. Acceptance. Action. Those are three steps that are crucial in making a change. Some language from recovery and addiction treatment leaks its way from anonymous into the public sphere – and this is one of the very good examples of how practical some of it can be. It’s simple, but not at all easy. […]
