My latest card

My newest SoulCollage® card, made as my demonstration card during the recent Inverell workshop. 

Love her, loved finding out what she revealed!

SoulCollage® in 2012

Pregnant with Possibility. That's 2012!

Hello, and welcome to 2012!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and feel rested and ready to start another year.  My Christmas was infinitely different from last year, when I experienced the magic of a snowy white German Christmas in Berlin with all my family together. This year I spent it in a somewhat warmer climate, on the Sunshine Coast, with my amazing 97-year-old mother-in-law, Laura, and some more extended family, but neither of my children or my grandchild, who all live overseas. I know I'm repeating this, but I'm so thankful that I live in the age of Skype! 

Most of us are making resolutions and plans for the year ahead at this time, and SoulCollage® is a great tool to assist in that. We can do readings from our cards asking for insight on what we need to focus on for the coming year. Formulate an open-ended question around that, draw a card, or a number of cards, and then dialogue with them, writing down what comes. You could use all the dialoguing questions, or just the first "Who are you?" question.  With your original question in mind, you then finish your dialoguing with a question something like, "What wisdom do you have for me as I set about this new year? Or "......about this issue", etc. Don't forget to date it so you can refer back to it later. 

After a short break over the holiday period, I’m now gearing up for the year ahead, with some exciting things happening. 

Here are the dates for planned SoulCollage® workshops and Studio sessions for this year (so far!):

CAIRNS, North Qld

6th & 7^th March, 2012: 

‘PROCESSING TRAUMA THROUGH SOULCOLLAGE®’

A one-day SoulCollage® workshop will be a component of this two-day training on trauma for health professionals, co-facilitated with Dr. Greta Galloway from Alan Webster Consultancies. If you are a counsellor, therapist, social worker, psychologist, mentor, support worker, carer, or guidance officer, then this training is for you. For more information, please contact me by clicking on my profile link at right to access my email.

The Cairns workshop resulted from a serendipitous meeting with Greta, whom I’d never met before, on a broken down council bus in Brisbane last year. I just love the way SoulCollage® works so synchronistically in my life. One never knows what amazing and interesting things might ensue from such a simple act as chatting to the person next to you on the bus!

BRISBANE

PLANNED ONE-DAY WORKSHOPS:

SATURDAYS from 9am to 5pm, on:

18th February

7th April

16th June

4th August

20th October

STUDIO CARD MAKING SESSIONS 

(for people who are already making cards). First Monday evening of the month.

MONDAYS:

6^th February

March: No Studio session

2nd April

7th May

4th June

2nd July

6th August

3rd September

1st October

5th November

Workshops are also planned for INVERELL NSW and MALENY QLD some time this year. 

GROUPS

I am available to give complimentary short talks to groups about SoulCollage®. This is not training but to give people who may not previously have heard of SoulCollage® an idea of what it's about. 

DISCOUNTS FOR ORGANISING YOUR OWN GROUP FOR A WORKSHOP

Organise your own group for a workshop and save. Ask me how!

INTERESTED IN SOULCOLLAGE® BUT UNABLE TO ATTEND THESE EVENTS?

If you're unable to attend these events because of the timing, or because you don't live in the area, please contact me and I will endeavour to assist you with a facilitator in your area, or in any other way I can. I am available to travel out of SE Qld to run workshops.


BRISBANE SOULCOLLAGE® FACILITATOR TRAINING
This is happening in Brisbane on 24-26 February 2012, run by our fearless Australian SoulCollage® leader, Karen Mann from Melbourne, and there's still plenty of time to book in if you think that you'd like to do this training, which would qualify you to teach SoulCollage®, or you might simply want to learn more about this wonderful tool of self-development. I'm very pleased that one of my former workshop participants will be taking the training. For more information, visit the Australian SoulCollage® website.


Please contact me if you're interested in any of these events, and I'd be very grateful if you could pass on this information to any of your contacts who might be interested, too.

May 2012 bring you transformation, joy and success, and hours of creativity and deep insight and guidance from your SoulCollage® cards.

Jo  xxoo

Now is a very good time to revisit my 'Stepping into my Power' card!

SoulCollage® Studio Monday November 7th

Hello dear SoulCollagers,

I've been a little distracted for the past few weeks, with my daughter and little granddaughter visiting from Berlin.  It's so delightful to spend time with a 2½ year-old and experience how joyously creative and spontaneously in-the-moment they are.  Perfect inspiration for SoulCollage®!  I'm totally besotted with The Divine Miss Zizi Matilda and thankful that we live in the age of Skype where I can still talk to my family face-to-face and sing along with Zizi online and share in her life, even though they're so far away. 

Although it's been difficult to focus back on my day-to-day life here after such a delicious interlude,  the next Studio session IS coming up next Monday 7th November from 6pm to 9pm,  so I need to get hopping. 

This session will be purely for making cards and enjoying the company of other SoulCollagers, although if you have any questions about your SoulCollage® practice, please bring them along. 

All other relevant details are the same as for the previous Studio session so you can find them on my August 31st post below.

If you're in the Brisbane area and have been making some cards, you're welcome to come along and meet other SoulCollagers.

Don't forget you must book with me if you're coming. 

So looking forward to catching up with you on Monday.

SoulCollage® Studio session Monday 5th September

"Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!"   ~~The Queen to Alice in Wonderland.

Hello dear SoulCollagers,

I hope you're enjoying the experience of making and dialoguing with your cards. If you'd like to get together with some like-minded people, the next SoulCollage® Studio session is coming up next Monday 5th.

These Studio sessions are for people who are already making and dialoguing with their SoulCollage® cards, not for people new to the process.

Here are the details:

WHEN: Monday 5th September, 2011, 6pm to 9pm   
WHERE:
Downstairs Room 
Brisbane Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St
Kelvin Grove Go down the path beside the house and then continue on down the stairs. 
There's a small carpark inside the grounds, or you can park in the street. 

COST: $10 (to cover room hire, materials, and coffee, tea and nibbles)

NB: If you attended the workshop at Brookfield on 13th August, you can come to this session for free.

WHAT TO BRING: 

Please bring any cards you've made. I'll supply magazines, scissors, glue etc but it's nice if everyone brings one or two magazines to add to the variety of images. (NB: I provide Glue Sticks, but if you prefer to use your own particular glue, please bring it with you.)

I'll have for sale:

Packs of blank cards: $9 for 10 cards

Seena Frost's latest book, 'SoulCollage® Evolving': $33 ($30 for anyone who's previously attended one of my workshops).    

Packs of 25 card sleeves to protect your cards: $5 (or .20c each sleeve).

SoulCollage® & Art Therapy CDs: $15 

This session I'll be going over the questions that you use to dialogue with your cards, and the rest of the session will be for card-making.                                                                             

**PLEASE BOOK:  Due to considerations of space and materials, it's important that you  book with me by phone or email. Thanks

These regular monthly evenings are for meeting other SoulCollagers, for card-making and for sharing our cards and SoulCollage® experiences among friends.  Seena Frost, the creator of SoulCollage®  believes that community is a very important component of SoulCollage®.  If you have any questions about SoulCollage® this is the time to ask me (you are, of course, welcome to phone me at any time with questions which might come up for you with your SoulCollage® practice).  Note that if you don't want to share any of your insights from your cards with another person or the group, that's perfectly OK.  Please still come along and enjoy making some cards.

NB: If you've been making and dialoguing with your cards but haven't been to a workshop, you're still really welcome to come along to these sessions and meet others doing SoulCollage®, be inspired, and have fun!

If at any time you have suggestions on what you'd like me to cover during one of the studio sessions, please let me know. 

If you're enjoying your SoulCollage®, please tell your friends about it. Although I don't have any workshops scheduled at present, I'll be continuing to run the introductory workshops, and later, more in-depth workshops on  some particular aspects of the process. Also, if you know of a group (church, women's/mens group/quilting or art group/therapists' organisation etc) I'm happy to come along and give a free talk about SoulCollage® to the group.  I can offer participants a tempting taste of the process in about 30 minutes to an hour.

I found this quote by Alan Alda (the actor from the 'Mash' TV series) which seems to me to relate to major aspects of SoulCollage®, i.e. the need to make the cards intuitively, it's sometimes 'uncomfortable', but the reward is discovering yourself (your 'Self') in the process: 

"The creative is the place where no-one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." 

Hope to see you next Monday.

Happy SoulCollaging!

Jo

The Unknown Self

The Unknown Self

So much of what delights and troubles you

Happens on a surface

You take for ground,

Your mind thinks your life alone,

Your eyes consider air your nearest neighbour,

Yet it seems that a little below your heart

There houses in you an unknown self

Who prefers the patterns of the dark

And is not persuaded by the eye’s affection

Or caught by the flash of thought.

Excerpt only: John O’Donohue, from Benedictus – A Book of Blessings

Drama Queen!

No surprises for me as to what this card is about:
Jo, you're such a Drama Queen!

I couldn't quite believe that I found that classic image at the bottom.
Of course, it miraculously appeared just when I needed it!
Amazingly relevant images will materialise for you in the same way once you start on your SoulCollage® journey.

See my post for July 5 for full information about the next 'Introduction to SoulCollage®' workshop on Saturday August 13th.
Hope to see you there!

Oh, and I'll try not to be TOO dramatic at the workshop!

SoulCollage® Studio sessions

Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness. 

~~ George MacDonald

On Monday evening, some of us met up for our first SoulCollage® Studio session at the Quaker House. We started by going over the basics of doing readings with our cards and everyone seemed to find something valuable from these. As most of the attendees had made only a few cards of their own, some of them drew a card from my deck and found themselves amazed at some of the insights they received from THEIR readings of MY cards. It's perfectly OK for others to read from your cards as long as you don't read the card for them or discuss YOUR interpretation with them before they read it. They will most likely have quite a different interpretation from what you had. After all, they will see a part of THEIR soul reflected in the card, while you would see reflected a part of YOURS.

For the remainder of the session, we had fun making cards.

Following the success of this first Studio session, they will now be held monthly, on the first Monday of the month, at the Brisbane Quaker Meeting House at Kelvin Grove, from 6pm to 9pm.

These sessions are not for tuition, although from time to time I will add some kind of learning experience which is not covered in my introductory workshops, or I will have a guest presenter.  Rather, they are for people who have previously attended a workshop or who have otherwise been making cards for a while, and they are designed as a forum to make cards together, to meet others who are working with the process, to share our ideas and experiences of using SoulCollage®, and to have fun! If you have a friend who's interested in finding out what SoulCollage® is about, please ask me first if it's OK for them to come along and I will make the decision as to whether that particular session is appropriate for them.  I have this rule as I don't want the sessions to become tutorials for beginners as that may interfere with the dynamics of the group.

Because of considerations of space and materials, it's essential to book with me for these sessions.

In keeping with the spirit of fun at our SoulCollage® Studio, here's my 'Goddess of Neglected Paintbrushes', a mixed media piece which I had great fun making in 2008. She hangs in my studio to remind me to take care of my equipment, and also that I don't have to be perfect.  She's also a good reminder for me about being playful and lighthearted while I'm working.

August SoulCollage® workshop at Brookfield

Discover your Self with SoulCollage®

Do heart work on the pictures within you. ~~Rainer Maria Rilke

What is SoulCollage®?

 *An intuitive collage process to access your own Inner Wisdom.

*Make a personalised set of beautiful cards 

to assist you on life's journey.

*Fun to do.      

*No art experience needed. 

We are each the perfect artist of our own Soul!

 *A powerful tool for use with clients in counselling,

 and many other applications.

SoulCollage® was developed by U.S. psychotherapist Seena Frost. It's a powerful transformational process for accessing our inner wisdom by creating a deck of collaged cards with deep personal meaning that is a reflection of our own inner and outer worlds, and which can help us with life's questions and transitions.

Using found images in magazines and from other sources, we intuitively create a beautiful deck of cards and then dialogue with the cards to access our own insight and inner wisdom. 

In addition to personal use, SoulCollage® is being used in many other areas, including in many aspects of counselling, with church groups, women's, men's and children's groups, coaching, creative problem solving, team building, conflict resolution, dream work, money issues, cancer support, life transitions, & more.

Introduction to SoulCollage® Workshop

Saturday 13th August, 2011

9.00am to 5.00pm

At the Brookfield Centre for Spirituality

139 Brookfield Rd, Kenmore Hills (Brisbane)

Cost: $130
Concession card (Student/Senior etc ): $90

$15 discount if you book by Mon 8th August

plus $15 discount if you bring a friend (for both you and your friend)
**PLUS: Go into the draw to win a copy of Seena Frost's first book, 'SoulCollage®' if you book early AND bring a friend.
A deposit of $50 is required to reserve your place.
Full workshop fee to be paid by Friday 12th August.

This lovely venue includes a labyrinth which we will incorporate into the workshop.

Places are limited, so reserve your place now!


In this workshop, you will learn about:
>How to make SoulCollage® cards
>The 4 suits of the SoulCollage® deck
>The transpersonal cards
>How to dialogue with your cards
>How to access the wisdom of your animal guides
>How SoulCollage® can help you with your life's 
journey and transitions
>Some of the applications for which SoulCollage® 
can be used by professionals

  

To book in, or for more information about this,

 and future workshops, please contact me, Jo. 

Click on 'View my complete profile' under 'About me' at top right to find my email address.

If you live outside Brisbane, please contact me to discuss organising a workshop for you, or to put you in touch with a workshop facilitator in your area.

Please contact me if you'd like me to present a free introductory talk 
about SoulCollage® to your group. 

Go to the website of the creator of SoulCollage®, 

Seena Frost, www.soulcollage.com 

to find out more about SoulCollage®

There is a knowledge of the heart that gives deeper insight. The knowledge of the heart is in no book and is not to be found in the mouth of any teacher, but grows out of you like the green seed from the dark earth. ~~Carl Jung. The Red Book

SoulCollage® Studio session

Our first SoulCollage® studio session is happening!

These sessions are for people who are already making SoulCollage® cards, not for people new to the process.

Here are the details:

When:
Monday 4th July, 2011 from 6.30pm to 9pm
Where:
Downstairs at the Brisbane Quaker Meeting House, 10 Hampson St, Kelvin Grove (Brisbane). Go down the path beside the house and then continue on down the stairs.
Cost:  
$10 each 
Tea, coffee and nibbles included.
(NB: Participants from my 'Introduction to SoulCollage®' workshop on 18th June are eligible to come to this session for free.)
What to bring: Please bring any SoulCollage® cards that you've made.  I will supply magazines but feel free to contribute a couple of your own, if you wish.  I will have blank cards for sale ($9 for 10 cards or $1 each), as well as Seena Frost's latest book ($33).

**PLEASE BOOK:  Please book with me by phone or email. Thanks

These regular monthly evenings are for meeting other SoulCollagers, for card-making and for sharing our cards and SoulCollage® experiences among friends.  Seena Frost, the creator of SoulCollage®  believes that community is a very important component of SoulCollage®. During these evenings I'll spend a little time focusing on some aspect of SoulCollage® and the rest of the time will be for card-making.

For this first studio session, I'll be going over doing readings with your SoulCollage® cards.  By 'readings', I mean posing a question for guidance in some area of your life and then drawing a card, or cards, from your deck and through them, accessing your inner wisdom for guidance on the issue.  Don't worry if you only have one or a few cards, you will still be able to do this exercise by using my deck.

Note that if you don't want to share any of your insights from your cards with another person or the group, that is perfectly OK.  Please still come along and enjoy making some cards.

If you have any questions about this session, or anything at all to do with SoulCollage®,  please contact me.

Finally, here's a lovely piece that I came across from Christian mystic, St. John of the Cross which, I feel, nicely ties in with what we're doing with SoulCollage®:

She caught me off guard when my soul said to me,
“Have we met?”

So surprised I was to hear her speak like that,
I chuckled.

She began to sing a tale: “There was once a hardworking man
who used to worry so much because he could
not feed and clothe his children and
wife the way he wanted.

There was a beautiful little chapel in the village
where the man lived and one day while
he was praying, an angel
appeared.

The angel said, ‘Follow me.’ And he did, out into an ancient forest.

‘Now dig here,’ the angel said. And the man felt strength in
his limbs he had not known since youth and with just
his bare hands he dug deep and found a
lost treasure, and his relationship
with the world changed.”

Finding our soul’s beauty does that – gives us
tremendous freedom
from worry.

“Dig here,” the angel said–
“in your soul,
in your
soul.”

~St. John of the Cross

So looking forward to seeing you on 4th!

August SoulCollage® workshop

Preliminary notice about an 'Introduction to SoulCollage®' workshop which I'll be facilitating  at the Brookfield Spirituality Centre, Brookfield Rd, Brookfield, on the western outskirts of Brisbane. The date is Saturday 13th August and it runs from 9am to 5pm.  Further details coming soon.  Contact me to register your interest in finding out more about the magic of SoulCollage® at this beautiful venue, which includes a small chapel and a labyrinth.

Surrealism and SoulCollage®

Victor Brauner | Romania/France 1903–66 | Loup-table (Wolf-table)1939, 1947 | Wood and taxidermied fox | 54 x 57 x 28.5 cm | Donation of Jacqueline Victor-Brauner 1982 | Collection: Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris © Victor Brauner/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2011

Yesterday afternoon I visited the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) here in Brisbane to attend the gallery members' preview for 'Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams', an exhibition which is visiting from the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Wow! Surrealism is so much more than just Dali!  We were extremely fortunate that Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of the Pompidou Centre, presented a floor talk, during which I was struck by how much Surrealism and SoulCollage® have in common, most notably, of course, both work by accessing the subconscious. The director spoke about how, in Surrealism, the juxtaposition of disparate elements into a new image creates the "spark" from which a "new mythology" can emerge. And it seems to me, that's exactly how SoulCollage® works!

This is a very comprehensive exhibition, 180 works by 56 artists, tracing the history of the movement from the 1920s up to the 1960s. It includes paintings, collages, sculptures, drawings, photographs and films. I was thrilled to find, too, a lovely little assemblage by Joseph Cornell.

One of the features of GoMA is the wonderful purpose-built Children's Art Centre incorporated into the gallery which runs fun and fabulous activities in conjunction with all major exhibitions. Yesterday I was able to check out the latest Surrealist activities for little and big children, and now can't wait to get my Inner Child back there to create some Surrealistic sculptures and collages! The children can email pictures of their creations to themselves, their friends and family, from the centre, so watch this space for mine!

The exhibition runs until 2nd October and my suggestion is - go!  Here's the link to the information on the gallery website. 

Meanwhile, if you'd like to have your own surrealistic experience with SoulCollage®, come along to my latest SoulCollage® workshop (below) or contact me to register your interest for a future workshop.

René Magritte | Belgium 1898–1967 | Le modèle rouge (The red model)1935 | Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard | 56 x 46cm | Purchased 1975 | Collection: Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris | © René Magritte/ADAGP. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2011

Click here for a slideshow of some of the works.

Introduction to SoulCollage® Workshop

'Do heart work on the pictures within you'.  Rainer Maria Rilke

Discover your Self with SoulCollage®

*An intuitive collage process to access your own Inner Wisdom.

*Make your own personalised set of beautiful cards to assist you in life's journey.

*Fun to do.      
*No art experience needed.

We are each the perfect artist of our own Soul!

*A powerful tool for use with clients in counselling, and many other applications.

SoulCollage®, as developed by U.S. psychotherapist Seena Frost, is a powerful transformational process for accessing our inner wisdom by creating a deck of collaged cards with deep personal meaning that is a reflection of our own inner and outer worlds, and which can help us with life's questions and transitions.

Using found images, intuitively create a beautiful personalised deck of cards and dialogue with the cards to access your own insight and inner wisdom.

In addition to personal use, SoulCollage® is being used in many other areas, including in many aspects of counselling, with church groups, women's, men's and children's groups, coaching, creative problem solving, team building, conflict resolution, dream work, money issues, cancer support, life transitions, & more.

Introduction to SoulCollage® Workshop

Saturday 18th June, 2011

9.30am to 4.30pm

In the beautiful rainforest environment of the 

Brisbane Quaker Meeting House

10 Hampson St

Kelvin Grove (Brisbane)

Cost: $130

$15 discount if you book by Mon 13th June

$15 discount if you bring a friend (for both you and your friend)

Learn about:

>How to make SoulCollage® cards

>The 4 suits of the SoulCollage® deck

>The transpersonal cards

>How to dialogue with your cards

>How to access the wisdom of your animal guides

>How SoulCollage® can help you with your life's journey and transitions

>Some of the applications for which SoulCollage® can be used by professionals

Places are limited so reserve your place now.

  For more information about this, and other upcoming workshops, please contact me: 

Jo 

Click on 'View my complete profile' under 'About me' at right to find my email address.

If you live outside Brisbane, please contact me to discuss organising a workshop for you, or to put you in touch with a facilitator in your area.


Please contact me if you'd like me to present a free introductory talk 
about SoulCollage® to your group. 


Go to www.soulcollage.com to find out more about SoulCollage®

Here are a few more of my recent cards. 

To see some earlier cards, scroll down to the bottom of this blog, and also click on my blog archive list on the right here.
Click on the images to enlarge.


'I lived into the depths, and the depths began to speak. 
The depths taught me the other truth'.  C.G. Jung

Soul Essence (Transpersonal)

Stepping into my Power - Committee

Exciting news!

NB: Scroll to the bottom of this blog and click on 'Older posts' to see some more of my cards. 

Although a lot has happened which I haven't blogged about since my last posting while I was overseas, and though I'd like to get up to date with all my art news, I'm posting this news right now as I'm so happy to be able to tell you that I'm about to run my first SoulCollage® workshop next weekend at the 2011 Festival of Animal Imagery, organised by Frank Coughlan in the beautiful Numinbah Valley in the Gold Coast hinterland, Australia. At the link above, click on the '2011 Festival Workshops' link on the right to find information about the presenters, including moi! 

I completed my long-awaited SoulCollage® facilitator training with the beautiful Karen Mann here in Brisbane last September, but immediately went overseas to visit family in Europe and Canada for 4 months and am only now getting organised. This is my first business venture in my life (I'm of more 'mature' years!) so it's a little daunting, but exciting and wonderful at the same time.  I've loved SoulCollage® from the moment I first discovered it on a web site some years ago and am so happy that now I'm able to share with others this beautiful process created by Seena Frost, as described in her book 'SoulCollage® Evolving'. Karen Mann went to the USA some years ago to train with Seena and she is the only qualified facilitator trainer in Australia. She runs the Australian SoulCollage® website

I've booked a one-day workshop for Saturday 18th June at the Brisbane Quaker Meeting House in Newmarket, Brisbane, which is nestled amongst a beautiful little patch of inner-city rainforest. I've always dreamed of running workshops there and that's the first available Saturday on their busy calendar. I hope to schedule some more workshops there in the future.

There are also plans afoot for a workshop in Maleny, and one in August or September at the Brookfield Centre for Spirituality on the outskirts of Brisbane. This lovely spacious venue, which used to be a Franciscan Friary, is comprised of a beautiful large old house surrounded by bush and lawns, with a small chapel and a labyrinth.

I'm also busy searching for other available venues with lots of ambience to schedule more workshops. Suggestions welcomed!

If you're interested in being notified of news about these, or any future workshops, please contact me to be placed on my email list. If you don't live in Brisbane but would like to organise a group of interested people in your area for a workshop, I'd be very happy to discuss that with you.   

To send me an email, click on 'View my complete profile' at the top right of this page, under 'About Me'. 

The SoulCollage® card above I made at one of my lovely artist, counsellor and art therapist friend Liz's Heartspace evenings at the Stillpoint Centre in Toowong when I first arrived back from overseas in January, just after the floods. I highly recommend Liz's Heartspace programmes. 


Scroll down to the bottom of this blog to see some more of my SoulCollage® cards.


Now I have the sudden urge to go and make a SoulCollage® card! Talk again soon.