Presentation Ideas
Making Safe Places
Dr. Alsop examines how to create emotionally safe places for our children, students, clients, families and ourselves so we can grow and learn from each other. Using his humorous anecdotes and sing-alongs, he illustrates why awareness of our feelings is the key. When we ignore or medicate painful feelings, our bodies let us know. "Burn-out" does not exist for those who know how to take steps to change difficult situations.
Opening Doors
We can only help others achieve a level of clarity that we have about ourselves. With commitment to self-growth as our focus, Peter's delightful stories and humorous sing-alongs weave us through the lessons we learned from our families. We explore how family roles affect us; how work, sex and humor can act as medicators for pain, and how we can gently open old doors together, and rekindle the joy and playfulness inside each of us.
Filling Our Toolbox: Making Feelings and Ideas Real
Dr. Alsop demonstrates the powerful technique of "sculpting" with people; a practical experiential techniques that gets people involved. It helps us "realize" (make real) what's going on. He will discuss filling our toolboxes with useful tools such as music, humor, and the arts, and answer questions about why they are important in our own lives, as well as in our work with children and families.
How To Eat An Elephant: A Focus On Process
For teachers, parents and human service professionals, this presentation explores using music and humor for personal and social growth; the importance of self-esteem and process; understanding privilege and living with ambivalence. We may also learn to play the spoons and use other pocket instruments while we explore using humor and metaphor as effective methods for changing focus and direction.
The Art Of Humoring Parents
Collect valuable family survival tactics we can pass on to our children, instead of the many "uneven parenting techniques" we received. Peter explores alternatives with insightful sing-alongs, group discussion, tears, laughter and silliness.
Making Your Toolbox A Toybox
Playful sing-alongs, stories and strategies demonstrate how we can use music and laughter to help balance our own lives, and pass these techniques on in our work with children and families. DON'T MISS THIS ONE!
Family Community Concert
Fun-filled humor and insight for kids AND parents. Have a good time with songs, ideas and feelings, while singing along to some healthy parenting ideas. Don't be surprised if you find yourself giggling or humming these songs two weeks later.
Difficult Transitions: Sometimes It Hurts To Be A (Nurse, Teacher, Parent)
Our personal experience with loss and change colors the way we relate to death and dying in our professional life. This course provides a safe place to explore our thoughts and feelings about grief and loss, and presents opportunities to learn some strategies that can help others.
Turning Problems Into Puzzles
If we can view a difficult situation as a puzzle with a missing piece, rather than seeing it as a problem that keeps us stuck, we remove a major roadblock in our search to find solutions. Humor and creativity help us gain another perspective, reevaluate our resources, and find the missing pieces of our puzzle. Peter models this in his sculpting demonstrations and by using humorous sing-alongs to unlock our creative potential.
The Art Of Human Being: Therapeutic Uses Of Music And Humor
Dr. Peter Alsop provides a unique training opportunity for human service providers to learn about the role of humor and music in mental health. Through insightful sing-alongs and stories, participants experience the therapeutic benefits of being flexible enough to laugh at ourselves and at some of the difficult situations we face.
The Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa, And God: Using Music, Humor & Story To Get Unstuck!
Humans used story, song and dance to find spiritual guidance when they were stuck, long before the first word was written. Our brains are designed to remember stories and make connections. Our beliefs carry great power to shape reality. When all human children feel safe to laugh and sing and tell their stories, our culture will be healed. Come and begin!
Teaching Between The Lesson Plans
Dr. Alsop models and discusses practical experiential techniques to help clarify the complicated social interactions that come up in classrooms. Some of the most important learning occurs before and after our lessons. When students face difficult situations, they draw on what they have seen modeled for them. Tools such as music, humor and "sculpting" can be used to clarify what is "really going on", and with them we can model coping with emotionally loaded subjects in ways that can be heard by even the most reticent student.
And...
- Using Metaphors To Heal: Experiential Therapies
- Feeling The Family Pulse
- Out Of Our Pigeon-Holes!
- Baby Don't Need No Silver Spoon
- Teaching Social Skills With Funny Songs
- Don't Put Your Hand In My Pants Just Cause We're In Love
- Prisoners Of Traditional Sex Roles
PROMOTION TIPS
Get Help Organizing
- find friends to help you, so do not have to do everything yourself
- co-sponsor: with schools, hospitals, county mental health, local churches, rape crisis center, hospice, scouts, pre-schools, senior center may help organize a grandparent/grandkid event, P.T.A., boys/girls club; have them put in some money and get their own folks to come
- ask your school to send announcements home with the students
Financial Backing
- local businesses may use some of their advertising budget to sponsor a community wide family concert. Look for unlikely places that have never been asked before, but who want to maintain a "friendly" presence in the community: real estate agencies, funeral homes, local pizza parlors, automobile dealerships, banks
- other organizations in your town could benefit from Peter's consulting or training. Hospitals, mental health groups, schools and businesses have hired Peter for half a day, and covered half of his expenses. They also spread the word about the family concert throughout their own constituency.
Charge Something for Tickets
- people have learned that if it's free, it's probably not worth anything.
- print tickets and make them available at local bookstores or other outlets
- so we have an idea about attendance as the date approaches
- sell blocks of tickets to businesses to give to employees
- sell blocks of tickets to donors, for distribution to families who can't afford them
Give Tickets Away
- through the PTA; local radio; newspaper; Kiwanis, Junior Chamber of Commerce, women's clubs, local churches, etc.
- reduce admission fee if someone brings a toy or canned good as a donation
Make Posters
- to display in schools, local stores, churches, shopping centers
- have boy scouts or girl scouts do postering for merit badge credit
Publicity
- we will help you by providing promotional materials:
- tapes at 1/2 price for distribution to schools- videos or DVD's for local cable stations to play and announce the concert- fun glossy photos for newspapers, for phone interview and feature article- mailing labels for your area, so you can mail direct to Peter's existing supporters- CD's for local radio airplay, or with public service announcements
- ideas for posters or hand outs