Oasis
Our aim is to:
• Address the whole human being in body, soul and spirit.
• Help people step out of the medical treadmill and learn to live in a more creative way with their particular condition.
• Address each person’s hidden potential and facilitate an active engagement with their own healing process.
• Offer a safe environment where people may share, speak out freely about experiences and support one another.
• Provide biographical and artistic exercises to encourage greater understanding for the patterns and paths in life.
• Explore sources of inner and outer creativity.
• Awaken hope, love and a new purpose in life by mastering the emotional life rather than being swamped by it
• Acknowledge that there is an inner journey that runs parallel to the outer, medical one.
Oasis artwork
We run a supportive programme for people suffering from long-term health conditions, including anxiety, stress, depression and the effects of unresolved illnesses. Self-help and management of these conditions has been our main concern along with the support that a caring and confidential space may give for true listening and sharing of concerns related to these issues. The artistic journeying can happen in so many ways, in Oasis we would like to celebrate the courage of the human spirit to survive the challenges that difficult life experiences can bring. Through an active collaboration of ar tistic therapy and counselling we aim to provide a new resource for people with long-term health conditions through weekly support in groups. Hidden sources of creativity and inner healing lie in each human being. We will explore this potential in Oasis. feelings such as fear, anxiety, love, trust and courage can give us new hope and purpose for the future.
"Oasis provides a space in the week which lies quite apart, and therefore encouraged me to ‘make contact’ with myself. As well as that, a great deal of warmth and concern was generated within the group which nurtured me and others. Oasis was always refreshing". (A former participant)
How the idea came about:
The idea of exploring the inner and outer journey was sparked by meeting Karin at my home in Kent. She was travelling on foot on a six month pilgrimage to visit the Karlstein Castle in the heart of Bohemia. I had been on my own inner journey through recovery from a serious illness which had left me unable to walk, yet my life was rich and full in other ways. We made an agreement then, that when she came back we would discuss how our paths might meet in our work. We both felt we had an abundant supply of energy and vitality for this work, through a meeting of the artistic work, the enlivening of imagination through myths and folk-tales and in the richness of people’s life-experience, with all its joy, pain and suffering. (Melanie Taylor)
Oasis group
For further information and bookings please contact Karin Jarman
Tel: 01453 757436. Email: oasis@phonecoop.coop