Mentoring Professionals Discover a New Tool

What does a Wand mean to you? Attendees voiced their own varied ideas during the session on Star Journey last week at the 2011 Mentoring Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Magic, Actualizing, Harry Potter, Spell, Talking stick, Getting blessed, Making dreams come true" were some of the associations expressed about the Star Journey symbol Wand. With each response, an attendee was given a long, sparkling star-wand from Star Journey author Richard Geer. 

“Guess what, all of these different responses are right!” Geer said to the roomful of people. “Star Journey symbols show how the magic in life really is in YOU. What you think about something is real for you, and that in turn affects your own reality.”

This engaging workshop gave attendees a first hand experience of the tool, learning how utilizing symbols, metaphor, visualization and other techniques in Star Journey aid in the mentoring process. Mentors and mentees can use this method to set goals, explore underlying issues, and consciously create a plan for success. The process emphasizes personal choice and is known for increasing self-direction and confidence.

The audience included professionals and educators who are involved in mentoring nationally and internationally. In the session, specific areas of application of Star Journey method were discussed. These included training of nurses and health care professionals, working with teens and related family issues, and multi-cultural mentoring and coaching, working with people from different countries.

The presenter team joining Richard for this interactive session were Sonya Hardin, PhD, RN, Professor of Nursing, University of North Carolina–Charlotte, Gerry Marr, MA, MFT psychotherapist from Santa Barbara, and Linda Lott, RN, Star Journey facilitator from Salt Lake City.

Nearly 400 people attended the 4th annual conference held October 26–28, which was sponsored by The Mentoring Institute, part of the University of New Mexico.