At a Glance: no solos
“We don’t know what soul means but we are lost without it.”
~Michael Meade, mythologist
no solos is a soul-based approach to mentoring & expressive arts. This means:
Welcoming the unknown, unwanted, dismissed, or defiant element
Cultivating powers of both language and silence
Bowing to the paradox of psychic wound = giftedness
Courting grief, Eros and dreaming
Nurturing the subtle inter-relationships of soul and spirit.
What is the scope of the no solos mission? To:
Find beauty in that which doesn’t fit the mold
Include creativity in all definitions of health
Address widespread loss of soul
Provide uncommon, inspired, and practical mentoring and instruction
Foster human maturation and fruition
Promote mytho-poetic education and mentoring
Nurture and renew family and local culture.
What distinguishes the no solos approach to mentoring?
no solos is generative. It supports skillful and life-affirming responses to an ailing culture. Specifically, no solos:
Integrates depth and attachment-based developmental psychologies with poetic traditions
Offers reflection, naming, and tempering of individual gifts
Takes a trickster approach to weaknesses, falls from grace, struggles, and predicaments
Honors the true sources of eloquence: mixed feelings, grief, receptivity, imagination
Addresses an often overlooked human need: Adults need to receive regular and attuned attention in order to flourish.
Distinctions of the no solos approach to expressive art:
Holds as a birthright the myriad forms of human eloquence
Synthesizes developmental attachment & depth psychologies, somatic, aesthetic, and poetic traditions
Heals and nurtures the senses
Integrates cross-cultural perspectives on performance and ritual
Honors human attention as a community resource
Includes education in the arts of grief
Embraces conflict as an expressive art.
