Peer Support Catalog

This is a snapshot of A Cup of Jo Bruno (ACoJB) Consulting workshops, guided story-telling, peer support facilitations, touch therapy, metaphysical practices, and community needs associated with the ACoJB Wellness Cafe. The Wellness Cafe is not yet established, but it’s the goal. Participants can pick and choose which they want to join and they are not limited to one thing. The ACoJB Wellness Action Plan is a weekly, one-on-one meeting between Jo and the participant. Group facilitation is different and can be a weekly or monthly meeting, focused on a specific topic that is previously picked by ACoJB Consulting and the team. If a participant wants massage work, there will be a one-on-one intake and peer support session to go over the needs. The guided story-telling can be an outcome of a participant who finishes their Action Plan and wants to share their story for policy change.

TABLE OF CONTENT:

Workshops
Building your Wellness Toolkit
Daily Maintenance
Identifying Stressors
Crisis Prevention
            Feeling well
            Symptoms
            Support
How Journaling Helps
The Power of Authentic Self
Finding Your Core Values
Business Branding Your Authentic Self
How To Use Your Story

Guided Storytelling
Writing and Publishing

Peer Support
Facilitate One-On-One and Group
Goal setting and Vision Boards
Wellness Action Plans
Conferences & Key Note Speaker

Massage & Metaphysical
Touch Therapy and Energy Work
Death Doula and Grief Counseling
Kundalini Cleansing, DV Survivors
Tarot Reading
Sage Blessings

Community Needs
Cafe and Food Pantry
Clothing Closet
Pool Table

WORKSHOPS 

(FACILITATED BY JO WITH ACoJB MATERIAL)

Building Your Wellness Toolkit: Wellness Tools are specific to recovery because it’s a list of reminders that keep us well throughout recovery and our overall journey. In this workshop you will identify and list the things you use to help yourself feel better when you are having a hard time. As a group, we’ll discuss things that work and don’t work and how we can use our wellness tools to create better routines. You’ll be prompted to think about specific tools that are well-known and others you’ve never thought of. It’ll be used as a resource list when things get too difficult to handle. Writing these things down is an essential piece to forward movement and overall wellness as you start or expand your business.

Daily Maintenance: Daily maintenance is extremely important when we are under stressful situations. Remind yourself of what you might need to do, want to do, or need help doing. Making a “to do” list will empower you every time you cross off a task. It’s not easy, but it’s rewarding. 

Identifying Stressors: Stressors are external events or circumstances that may produce very uncomfortable emotional or psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety, panic, discouragement, despair, or negative self-talk. All of which can be met with hope and wellness. Reacting to stressors is normal, but if we don’t recognize them and respond to them appropriately, they may cause a downward spiral, making us feel worse or give up. Taking the time to identify stressors can help you notice the behavior associated to them, which can most times keep us low energy and tired. The more we recognize our behavior to the stressors, the more we can change them. We can also learn how to set boundaries to prevent the stress from returning.

Crisis Prevention 

• Feeling well: Express your truth. Be specific about how you’re feeling when you’re well and common attributes of your character. How is your self-talk? How are you eating? Sleeping ok? When we’re taking care of ourselves, we feel better about ourselves, so what does feeling well mean to you? Then, how do we use this to do our best in business?
• Symptoms: Explain what would indicate that you need a break from your responsibilities. If you’re in a stressful stage of life, what happens to you? Symptoms could be internal or external characteristics that prevent you from achieving daily responsibility. Depression is real, and sometimes it might be difficult to eat or sleep or even shower. What happens to you when stress becomes prominent? Let’s identify it and create wellness around it.
• Support: What does support mean? List the people you WANT help from and anyone you DO NOT. In what ways do you need help from others? In what ways do you not need help?

How Journaling Helps: Right brain, left brain. When you write, you’re using multiple parts of your brain. Handwriting is even more so impressive with the amount of brain power it takes to think about what you’re writing but not think about it at all. Journaling comes in handy when you’re having trouble figuring something out. It can help to build your character and self-image. Journaling can be used to goal set and dream bigger. 

The Power of Your Authentic Self: ACoJB built her brand from her authentic self. Established in 2008, while writing for a local college newspaper, Jo found her niche in writing. She loved it. Being her authentic self has led to branding #CupOfJoBruno, a bitter-sweet blend of Bay Area grit mixed with unconditional love and endless hope for community wellness. A self-published memoirist, Jo is currently working on an erotic fantasy series and helping someone publish their poetry. This workshop will focus on building a foundation of authentic self so others can tap into their authentic selves too.

Finding Your Core Values: What’s important to you may not be the same as what’s important to someone else, that’s what makes your core values so important for your business. There is always competition in business, so if you have a common business, what sets you apart from the others? It’s your core values that sets you apart. To sit back and think about what’s important to you outside of business, outside of family, outside of religion and outside of your corporate jobs will determine your core values. This is the deep understanding of who you are as an individual. In this workshop, you will learn how to identify your core values based on who you are, not what you’ve been told to believe who you are.

Business Branding Your Authentic Self: It takes courage to express your truth and stand in your authentic chaos, but it’s worth it when you’re branding your business. Understanding the levels of your growth and how you got to this position in business is how you can brand yourself. 

How To Use Your Story: We all have a story, and if you want to use your story to promote your business or maybe use your business to promote your story, this is the workshop for you. Learning how to authentically identify your storyline can be a daunting experience if you’re unaware of how you got to where you are in business. There’s a journey there that can help you in business. 

GUIDED STORYTELLING (SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR)

Writing and Publishing: ACoJB is a self-publishing entity and has created and published a hand full of pieces. From The Wench’s Cocktale, where ACoJB shares her lived-experience as a prostitute, to publishing years of poetry, a housing action plan, and an Erotic Fantasy Series. Established in 2008, ACoJB got her start as a columnist for a local college newspaper and currently working on a collaborative piece called Words of Wisdom. ACoJB has written herself out of depression and into hope, and has reams of paper from when she wrote letters to a prison inmate. She has also written blogs throughout her adult life, documenting her journey of recovery. ACoJB has documented her hardships and the hope associated with it to encourage others to do the same. 

PEER SUPPORT FACILITATIONS (SPIRIT INTERNSHIP SITE)

Facilitate One-On-One and Group Peer Support: In a way, this is talk therapy but not the traditional psychiatric kind of talk therapy or the typical AA style of group therapy. ACoJB peer support is unique because it’s rooted in lived-experience and self-care. It promotes an understanding and vulnerability that traditional therapy lacks. ACoJB one-on-one peer support is usually used for a specific topic we explore in great detail. Group peer support is more general and can cover a verity of topics. One-on-one peer support can be the start of any of the other work ACoJB provides, but group peer support can be utilized throughout the entire experience. ACoJB will become an internship site for SPIRIT students and a place of work for graduates who wish to facilitate a peer group.

Goal Setting and Vision Boards: Processing trauma can be difficult if one doesn’t have the right tools to process the pain. Artwork is key. Creating something from the pain and trauma gives us a visual representation that we couldn’t put into words. Material will be provided for anyone who is interested in doing a vision board to set goals and prepare for their future. This is part of the Action Plan, so the art table is always available for those who are working on their wellness plans.

Wellness Action Plans: Created by ACoJB Publications, a client can create their own Wellness Action Plan for a specific purpose. A Wellness Action Plan can be used for when someone is transitioning into something new and letting go of old habits. For example, someone who is retiring might want to put together a Wellness Action Plan to find pathways of success when they’re no longer working long hours, but at home with no work to be done. Wellness Action Plans can be used for someone who is trying to figure out a new hobby or entertain revisiting an old project they put away. It can spark new interest and remind people of old passions.

Conferences: ACoJB has participated in a number of panel discussions based on her lived-experience. A Cup of Jo is available for panel discussions, key-note speaking, and participate in more policy driven discussions to bring the data captured throughout the guided story-telling to the government entities who need to hear the lived-experience of the people they serve. 

MASSAGE AND METAPHYSICAL PRACTICES (NHI INTERNSHIP SITE)

Touch Therapy and Energy Work: With over 900 hours of hands-on training, ACoJB is a certified massage therapist with a specific quality of cleansing energy associated with trauma. Through one-on-one peer support mixed with trauma informed care, the kind of massage A Cup of Jo provides is fully clothed and under video surveillance. It is extremely important ACoJB is safe in her abilities to do body work with the history she’s had, so the sensual and sometimes sexual energy that is shared is addressed logically, not emotionally or physically. Both ACoJB and the client will be vulnerable, and safe. Additionally, ACoJB will contract with National Holistic Institute to obtain massage interns for 15-minute chair massage for the community members. There is also 30-minute chair and 60-90-minute table massage available.

Death Doula and Grief Counseling: Recovery comes with grief, and there is no way to get through trauma without grieving the loss. Not only do we grieve in our trauma, but the loss of a loved ones, either it be human or a pet. It’s important to have someone who can hold space for us, and ACoJB has that ability. A Cup of Jo is not a certified Death Doula, but she holds the wisdom of loss in her own life that she’s turned her grief into the practice to hold space for others as they grieve. 

Kundalini Cleansing and Domestic Violence Survivors: Those of us who have been sexually assaulted, forced upon, and/or abused by our intimate partners need specific work around the Kundalini energy, which is a Chakra point at the base of the pelvic floor. It’s where our traumas rest within our bodies. As a survivor, ACoJB has tapped into a specific practice for the Kundalini and releases the energy that’s trapped inside. An action plan may need to be created for the recovery process.

Tarot Reading: Words of affirmation, oracle readings, runes, divination, and tarot cards are further explorations into spiritual understand of oneself. If someone needs more insight, a reading might be what they need. This also includes a numerology birth chart.

Sage Blessings: In the journey of recovery, ACoJB has been educated and given permission to conduct a traditional Native American, Sage Blessing. With the insight, direction, and training of an Elder, ACoJB has the knowledge and tools if someone needs to be blessed with sage. Ritualistic practices such as a sage blessing is an ancient practice that has been passed down generationally.

COMMUNITY NEEDS (Coming soon)

Cafe and Food Pantry: Every day, ACoJB will provide a community meal. There will be fresh bread baked, muffins or cookies and coffee always available. There will be teas, coco, and hot apple cider available during the cold months and sun tea during the summer. The food will not be sold, but offered. The food pantry will be stocked with canned goods and non-perishables. There is also a cooking prep program associated with the cafe and food pantry to teach the youth how to prepare meals. The food program also has a pathway to build a community garden for the surrounding neighborhoods.

Clothing Closet: ACoJB has received many donations over the years and will continue this service just like the food distributions. The clothing, shoes, jackets, and accessories that are donated will be available to the community at no cost (donation drop box available).

Pool Table: A pool table will be available at the ACoJB establishment to become a host site for the Thursday and Sunday pool leagues. There is a youth program associated too.