Resiliency: The Golden Thread
*Adapted from a blog I wrote as a Pongo Publishing mentor in collaboration with Seattle Public Library - April 2013 (part 4 of 4). In the previous three blogs about the Pongo Teen Writing Project, I discussed major themes our young poets tend to write about - loss, family, and trauma. In this last blog I want to discuss the golden thread, a precious commonality that connects all the difficult experiences teens write about. This golden thread is the beauty that adorns what wa
Trauma and the Power of New Ink
*Adapted from a blog I wrote as a Pongo Publishing mentor in collaboration with Seattle Public Library - April 2013 (part 3 of 4). Many of us have had terrible things happen in our lives. This trauma leaves an imprint on us like a tattoo, the ink of which holds all the intricate details of what happened. The ink may fade in time but the tattoo never disappears. Hopefully we discover an outlet that empowers us to give this ink new meaning. At the Pongo Teen Writing Project
Family: A Tapestry of Memories
*Adapted from a blog I wrote as a Pongo Publishing mentor in collaboration with Seattle Public Library - April 2013 (part 2 of 4). Often people tell me about their families in a way that reminds me of a complicated tapestry, one that includes both remembered and subtle hints of experiences, all of which can affect their current feelings and questions about life. We are defined by many things throughout our lives, as our brain ceaselessly accumulates snapshots of people and ev
Loss: A Shape-shifter
*Adapted from a blog I wrote as a Pongo Publishing mentor in collaboration with Seattle Public Library - April 2013 (part 1 of 4). In my role as a writing mentor with Pongo Teen Writing, and in my psychotherapy practice, loss is a common denominator in most stories I have heard. I think this is because loss is a shape-shifter, appearing as one emotion (shock, sadness) then suddenly changing into something else (guilt, anger), continuing to shift in a multitude of ways, somet