Jim Brulé is a multifaceted individual whose life’s work revolves around transformational storytelling, spiritual exploration, and end-of-life care. With advanced degrees in counseling psychology and artificial intelligence, Jim’s journey is a blend of intellectual pursuit and heartfelt service. His ordination as a spiritual storyteller in the Jewish tradition—a maggid—laid the foundation for his online school, Transformational Storytelling, which since 2016 has been nurturing spiritual storytellers from around the globe, and is accredited by the National Storytelling Network.
As a death doula, Jim provides compassionate guidance to individuals and families navigating the end of life, a calling fortified by his Master’s in Counseling Psychology and certifications from the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA) and The Dying Year. His service extends to various hospice centers, an Omega home for the dying, and as an on-call chaplain specializing in end-of-life and trauma care at large university hospitals.
Jim’s online programs such as “Journey through Dying and Living” and “Legacy Storytelling,” offer a beacon of support to those grappling with mortality and legacy. His storytelling series, including “Stories for Healing” and “Diving Deeply into Stories,” have reached a global audience, exploring multicultural narratives and end-of-life themes.
His initiative “Welcoming the Other” employs storytelling to foster empathy and understanding towards the ‘other,’ encouraging communities to bridge divides of faith, ethnicity, privilege, and class. Jim’s storytelling also extends to interfaith study groups, exploring the close comparison of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian scriptures and stories, fostering a deeper understanding among different faith communities.
Jim’s life is a testament to the power of storytelling as a tool for healing, spiritual growth, and fostering understanding in a diverse world. His journey from a family therapist to a spiritual storyteller, death doula, and spiritual guide reflects a lifelong commitment to open-hearted healing and service. His motto, “The right story told in the right way with an open heart can heal wounds and change lives,” encapsulates the essence of his life’s work, resonating through his numerous programs, workshops, and community engagements. Through every narrative he crafts and every life he touches, Jim Brulé continues to sow seeds of hope, understanding, and compassionate companionship across the myriad paths of human experience.
https://TransformationalStorytelling.org/
IG: LovingTransition
Rebecca Lemaire is a versatile Belgian-British storyteller and is currently based in the Apujarra mountains in the South of Spain. She tells stories in English, Spanish, and French wherever the wind takes her from Europe to Asia and Africa.
She has lived, studied, and worked in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Arabia (Sultanate of Oman and Kuwait), Morocco, India, France and Spain.
Her passion is to look into people’s eyes and travel with them through stories, whether at a festival, in a prison, a yoga school, a Tibetan monastery in the Himalayas, a theatre, or a library. She has played music since she was a child and often uses sounds (flute, kalimba, voice, and drum) to support the stories she tells.
She leads groups into explorations of death and grief through storytelling, conversation, creativity and meditation online, as well as in person. In her community, she is an active member of the group Morir y Vivir (Dying and Living), in which the taboo of death is overcome through conversation, practical and spiritual preparation, movies, poetry, and stories. Her practice and training in meditation and as a Reiki healer and teacher supports her work with death and grief.
Her work also includes regular performances in Spain and abroad, introductory storytelling courses for teenagers and adults, and training language teachers in storytelling techniques for the classroom.
She obtained a BA in Indonesian and French literature and an MA in Medical Anthropology from SOAS, London, before moving to Asia (Oman and India), where she spent 8 years. She studied music, yoga, Reiki, and meditation in North India before spending two years by Ramana Maharshi’s ashram and Arunachala in the South, mostly in silence.
Although she had already been telling stories when teaching yoga, Reiki, English, and meditation, it was when Rebecca returned to Europe that she trained in professional storytelling for three years with Numancia Rojas in Barcelona, Spain. She has also trained with other storytellers from around the world since then and continues to learn from her colleagues.
She says: “Storytelling is a form of communication that goes way beyond words; it is a heart-to-heart interaction, and that is why I love it!”
www.rebeccalemaire.com
IG: rebecca.storyteller