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IDEAS, NEWS AND RESOURCES | November 2015
We hope you enjoy receiving our newsletter which includes constructionist ideas and practices as well as news and resources from the Taos Institute.
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Brief Encounters
with The Taos Institute
This month we welcome Lorraine Hedtke as she talks about
Narrating Grief During the Holidays.
Narrating Grief During the Holidays
In upcoming months, families will gather to celebrate holidays and holy days. Times of celebration and reflection often connect us with those we love when we recall what is important, honor long-standing relationships and recount stories of the year. For those whose loved ones have died, these events can also invite sadness and missing. For the bereaved person, it can feel like they are carrying a ghost to the annual office party or family gathering, where clumsy social conventions often exclude the deceased.
Traditional bereavement practices of the last one hundred years have encouraged (if not insisted on) "closure" and "moving on" from the connection between the deceased and the living. While there have been challenges to this individual, psychodynamic view of death and grief that severs relationships, it has continued to largely dominate the professional and lay literature alike. The stories of the deceased are often silenced at holiday get-togethers and the bereaved are left to quietly, and privately, mourn.
Social Construction offers a theoretical platform for new practices that incorporate the stories, and love, of the dead into the ongoing lives of the living. Rather than relocating the dead to a distant land, we can fold the best of what they offered, their shining moments, into definitional ceremonies that stand against "letting go" in the face of grief. My work embraces practices that actively include those who have died, creating celebratory rituals to embrace a lived vitality when death, and grief, visits.
Sally's mother died in June last year. When we spoke, she shared her apprehensiveness about Christmas. She knew her mother's presence would be missed, particularly for her four grandchildren. She also wondered whether others thought that, after five months, she should be over her grief. She found that she seldom spoke of her mother and even her friends had stopped sharing stories. Sally's mother was quietly disappearing from the family traditions. When we spoke, I inquired into what her mother liked about Christmas. "Most everything," Sally replied, "but particularly baking cookies for the kids and seeing their joy."
"What would it mean to your mom, if you were to continue baking cookies with some of her recipes?" I asked. She thought her mother would appreciate the chance to have a place in Christmas. Sally further thought she could prepare homemade recipe picture books to give to each one of the younger generation to remind them of their Grandmother's love for them.
Those who die need to feature into the lives of the living, not just during holidays, but as a way to serve as ballast to the yearning that accompanies grief. This form of future remembering affords threads of continuity between the past and present to shape a relational future. In this regard, relationships do not die when a person does, but their influences can be continued in rituals that act as a touchstone for a larger story; a larger story that breathes life into generations, past and future.
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FRIENDS OF TAOS INSTITUTE WORKSHOPS
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For details and to register visit:
The overall purpose of this movement:
*To increase the motivation - and indeed the joy - of learning and teaching.
*To bring education into synchrony with emerging world conditions.
*To ensure education for all, regardless of ability or need.
*To increase the opportunities for everyone to make use of their full potential.
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TAOS INSTITUTE EUROPE EVENTS
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"Designing TIE´s Future" in Madrid, Spain,
22-24 January 2016
Everyone who is interested in the forming and connections related to Taos Institute Europe is invited to attend.
- Jan 22nd, Friday (9.00-14.00) Conference: Presentation of Social Constructionism (SC) and TIE in Spain and Workshop on SC
- Jan 22nd, Friday afternoon (16.00-20.00) Conference & Dialogues on "Social Construction in Europe: what TIE and the SC have to offer in the XXI century Europe"
- Jan 23rd Saturday and 24th Sunday: "Seminar on Social Construction and Design" with guest speakers, dialogues and design circles (hands-on design working groups) TIE's Future. Only for associates and candidates.
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We are thrilled to introduce our newest WorldShare Book and we hope you will take a few minutes to download your free copy today.
BUDDHA AS THERAPIST: Meditations
by G.T. Maurits Kwee, in collaboration with Daniel M. Kwee
& Marvin H. Shaub
This book highlights and explains the rich heritage of Buddhist thought by offering a mosaic of main themes in a compact way. It narrates Gautama's life from a clinical psychological perspective, illuminates pan-Buddhist core components against the backdrop of Ancient Greek Buddhism, and articulates known and lesser known past and recent data of Buddhism in a healing framework. It thereby touches Social Constructionism and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and structures traditional Buddhism in a Western context while elucidating this important adjustment for a 21st century world.
See all the WorldShare Books >
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NEW BOOK Getting Great Reviews
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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PERSPECTIVES ON GROUP WORK
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by Emerson F. Rasera
Taos Institute Publications, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-938552-31-1
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U&ME: Communicating in Moments that Matter - New and Revised Edition
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by John Stewart
Taos Institute Publications, 2014 (new and revised edition)
Paperback, 281 pages
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A STUDENT'S GUIDE TO CLINICAL SUPERVISION: You Are Not Alone
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by Glenn E. Boyd
Taos Institute Publications, 2014
Paperback, 112 pages
ISBN: 978-1-938552-22-9
For more information
→
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POSITIVE AGING NEWSLETTER
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Sign up for this free newsletter in the following languages:
- English
- Spanish
- Danish
- German
- French
- Chinese
- Portuguese
By focusing on the positive aspects of aging, and the availability of resources, skills, and resiliencies, research not only brings useful insights into the realm of practice but creates hope and empowers action among older people. By moving beyond practices of repair and prevention, to emphasize growth-enhancing activities, practitioners also contribute more effectively to the societal reconstruction of aging.
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Appreciative Inquiry: Past, Present and Future
Celebrating with
Jane Watkins
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES
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Welcome (Bienvenidos) to the International Journal of Collaborative Practices. The Journal brings together members of a growing international community of practitioners, scholars, educators, researchers, and consultants interested in postmodern collaborative practices.
Sponsored by Taos Institute and Houston Galveston Institute
Issue 5 - Available Now in English and Spanish -
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Paul Leslie and Celiane Camargo Borges
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The First Taos Institute Ph.D. Defense at VUB - The Free University of Brussels
The Taos Institute Ph.D. program has been expanding and growing over the past few years. And to accommodate this growth, the Taos Institute has developed partnerships with several new universities in Europe. We are proud to announce that we had our first Ph.D. defense at VUB
(Vrije Universiteit Brussel) on October 13, 2015. Paul Leslie successfully defended his dissertation
"Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach" and was awarded a doctor of philosophy degree. His Taos advisor was Celiane Camargo-Borges and his VUB supervisor was Professor Nadine Engels.
Congratulations Dr. Paul Leslie!
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The Taos Institute's mission is to bring together scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value.
We are committed to exploring, developing and disseminating ideas and practices that promote creative, appreciative and collaborative processes in families, communities and organizations around the world through a social constructionist lens.
We look forward to your participation in the dialogue.
Keep up with our updates!
Dawn Dole, Executive Director
The Taos Institute
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