Story Medicine Wisdom Seeking Group with Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal

Story Medicine Wisdom Seeking Group

Stories are medicine and our Indigenous stories hold essential wisdom and relevance for our lives today. Our ancestors recognized that stories are not just entertainment, historical artifacts, or distraction, but powerful tools for healing, growth, insight, and connection to the land, manitous, and our ancestors. 

When we come into deep relationship with Indigenous stories we enter another portal, we step out of time, we discover resources.  

By recognizing the power of stories and engaging with them in traditional ways, we can tap into a vast resource. If we can remember how to approach them in a respectful and sacred manner, we can access their power and wisdom, and use them to activate our personal growth and healing, and the well-being of our communities and the planet. 

The Story Medicine process is a 6-session program over six months that is aimed at helping people discover the wisdom and relevance of stories in their lives today in order to activate growth and healing. The program utilizes a range of experiential processes, including embodied mindfulness, expressive arts, writing, and active imagination journeys. Participants are encouraged to engage with the stories in a personal and reflective manner, to gain insights and understanding that can be applied to their current life situations and the world.  

Here's a breakdown of each session: 

Session 1: Orientation. Ancestral Treasure Hunting. In the first session, we will connect with ancestral strengths. Ancestral work can be deep and complicated to traverse. We are journeying to the past with a lens for strengths. Did you know that epigenetic research has shown that we can carry the long ago past within us? There is a long line of ancestors that we have come from and there is a wealth of strength and gifts within that line. Let’s find it! Drink lots of water this month, clearing away what’s no longer needed.         

Session 2: Awakening Play and Imagination. The second session is focused on orienting to the land of stories, childhood and adult heroes, and an introduction to the power of storytelling. It’s about remembering how to play. Did you know that in humans pretend play has been tied to increased cognitive flexibility and social responsivity, as well as improved emotion regulation? It’s opens neural pathways needed for this journey we’re embarking on to awaken something needed. In beginning there is nothing except possibility. Connect with the air element this month. Breath in that which is essential to your being. 

Session 3. The Asking and Archetypes. The third session will continue the hero work, focus on setting personal intentions for the journey, and seeking archetypes through different forms of engagement with a traditional story (expressive arts, pretext, and playback). The group will expand on using experiential exercises to help them explore traditional story elements that are important to their growth and healing journey. The focus is on recognizing key archetypal energies working in our lives, and how they can inform and support our journey. It is here that we can discover something essential to our authentic self. Did you know that an archetype is an original imprint or original patterning. In that patterning is the essence of something that determines what it is? Connect with the earth element this month. Walk and feel into the solidity of the earth to support your good mind. 

Session 4: Traditional Story Wisdom. The fourth session will focus on meeting and spending time experientially with one traditional story to help us remember where we come from and how to have a good mind on the journey to where we’re going. Have you heard Native writer Tommy Orange’s quote, “And so what we could do had everything to do with being able to understand where we came from, what happened to our people, and how to honor them by living right, by telling our stories. She told me the world was made of stories, nothing else, just stories, and stories about stories.” Connect with the element of fire this month. Feel the warmth in your body to ignite something new.

Session 5: Seeking a Traditional Story. In the fifth session, the group will explore their own traditional stories connected to place and manitou. The focus will be on coming into relationship with the story, using a creative process to bring to life particular aspects of the story that resonate with them, deepening their understanding and personal connection to them using various expressive arts mediums such as drawing, painting, mask making, or collage. Did you know Nigerien Storyteller, Ben Okri said, “When you can imagine you begin to create and when you begin to create you realize that you can create a world that you prefer to live in, rather than a world that you're suffering in.” Choose an element to connect with this month, that you need to bring more into your life for balance. 

Session 6: Extracting essence. In the sixth session, the group will share creations and connections to story and learning through synchronicity and essential elements.  The group will reflect on how others' stories impact them and what synchronicities arise from sharing their stories and how this relates to the call to action. Have you heard, Native writer N. Scott Momaday, say, “Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it?” This month you will integrate all elements, water, air, earth, and fire to support you in your journey forward.

Join us online via Zoom Wednesdays from 5:00 - 7:00 pm PT:

March 6

April 3 & 24

June 5

July 3

August 7

Reciprocity Contribution Levels:

Benefactor:                 $600

     The Benefactor Tier supports the largest partial contribution for a fellow community member.

Spiritual Friend:          $450

     The Spiritual Friend Tier supports partial contribution for a fellow community member.

Supporter:                   $300

     The Supporter Tier supports most of the program cost.

Community Builder:   $150

     The Community Builder Tier supports some of the program cost.

No one is turned away for lack of funds, please contact info@braidedwisdom.org. 

Refund Policy:

If you've had a change of heart-mind and wish to withdraw from the program prior to the start date, you will be given a full refund minus a $25.00 cancellation fee. Once the program begins, there will be no refunds. We appreciate your understanding of the effort and costs that go into preparing for the program.

Setting the Container:

We request participants attend the whole program to respect the container of the class and Dr. Madrigal. We understand that life happens, and if you know you will miss more than one class, we recommend that you join at a time when you are available for all the sessions. Your presence and engagement in the class is essential for the course.

At Braided Wisdom we strive to build an online environment that creates a safer container for all. Part of creating a safer environment is asking for participants to have their cameras on during the session. If you have an access need around this request, please reach out to info@braidedwisdom.org so we can discuss how best to support you. 

About Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal

Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Author, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, a Registered Drama Therapist, the President of Mindful Practice Inc, and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with over twenty years of experience in the field. She has been featured on the cover of Mindful Magazine and was recognized as a Powerful Woman of Mindfulness in the August 2022 edition.  

She is a mentor for the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Mindfulness Awareness Research Center Teacher Training Program, a Stanford Certified Applied Compassion Educator/Consultant, and faculty member at the Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles and California Indian Nations College.  

Dr. Dionne Madrigal specializes in Story Medicine which combines mindfulness, somatic therapies, and storytelling to support insight, healing, growth, wisdom and decolonization.  

In addition to her work as a clinician, she is also an author, with an MFA from the American Indian Institute of the Arts (May 2023), and a performer. She has appeared in Indigenous plays written by her daughters and enjoys writing fiction featuring Indigenous female protagonists who save the world. Her book, The Mindful Family Guidebook, has been listed as a Best Book of Mindfulness 2021 by Mindful Magazine. Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal is currently working on her next books, Story Medicine, and thriller-fantasy Silenced, featuring Indigenous women saving the world. 

Zoom Link:

An email with the Zoom Link will be sent to you within a few days and 15 minutes prior to the program. Please search for info@braidedwisdom.org and check your spam folder if you do not see our email with the Zoom Link.

This program registration is for the Story Medicine Wisdom Seeking Group on Wednesdays, March 6, April 3 & 24, June 5, July 3, Aug 7, 2024  5:00-7:00 pm PT.

If you have any questions, please email info@braidedwisdom.org.