Meet your Facilitator / interviewer
Blythe Bohonos B.Ed., M.A
My passion for connecting with others - for facilitating meaningful self expression, including story-sharing - has many threads of origin.
I am grateful to many kind helpers, wise mentors and for all the life experiences that propelled me along this path. I bring to this calling...
- Genuine curiosity, love and appreciation for others
- A longing to support and truly make a difference
- An introvert's capacity to listen deeply; to enjoy quiet, meaningful exchanges that go beyond superficial small talk.
- Many years fervently researching my way up several branches of the family tree, uncovering and honouring their incredible (surprising and often heroic) stories
- A Master's Degree in Expressive Art Therapy with decades in private practice, supporting individuals of all backgrounds and ages - as they share their stories, express and integrate thoughts, feelings and perceptions relating to various life experiences.
- Certification in Synergetic Play Therapy - with many years of service helping young children tell and integrate their (often trauma-filled) stories through creative play
- Training in "Conscious Aging" - with appreciation for age-related issues and themes - as well as first-hand navigational experience having entered my senior years
- An artist's eye, appreciation for beauty and the capacity to generate creative ideas and solutions.
- An eagerness to continue learning, exploring, improving!
how family history helped shape this vision
My Father
My father illuminated the value and gift of storytelling as he devoted himself to the writing of his memoirs. Engaging him on so many levels, it provided a strong sense of focus and purpose. Consulting us along the way - it brought our family closer together in what turned out to be the last few years of his life. I admired his generosity, his capacity to adapt to changing circumstances including the loss of partners and a series of health issues. His positive yet determined outlook was a thread that carried through every chapter of his life - a life that began as a child of Ukrainian immigrants, struggling to make ends meet during the great depression. What a gift - that this process helped him reflect, recognize and exclaim - "I''ve had a wonderful life!" Along with the treasure of his written memoir - we can now recall the incredible delight he expressed in sharing and reading his stories aloud.
My Mother
My mother modelled compassion, empathy, and non-judgement; a reminder to interview with sensitivity. Sometimes, in telling our stories, a weight is lifted as we unburden ourselves but people need to choose what, if and when they are ready to share. Mom's life story included an early chapter of great confusion and shame following the uncommon experience (back in the 1930's) of parental divorce and maternal abandonment. Unable to explain this incomprehensible situation to her peers - she only trusted and befriended those school chums who never asked questions. Sadly, mom died suddenly at age 58. I will always regret not formally capturing her voice, her sense of humour and the stories she would share. Genealogical research has since brought comfort and healing; discovering several 'back stories' - we've brought them out of a shroud of shame and into the light of loving acceptance.