Amirrorself.com Interviews and Welcomes Linda Woolfson, SoulCollage® Trainer & Facilitator:

The week of October 19th, 2016, I was trained by Linda Woolfson to become a SoulCollage® facilitator. Behind the green doors of her home in Cascais, Portugal, she welcomed participants with open arms into her SoulCollage® garden of delights.

Along with five other participants from around the world, I immersed myself in SoulCollage®, learning the psychology behind the process, the ethics involved, the ins and outs of facilitating a workshop, doing sample readings, besides laughing and crying as my relationship with my cards deepened.

After receiving my certificate, when I got home I thought I’d like to hear more from Linda about her involvement and relationship to SoulCollage®. I sent Linda a few questions and she wholeheartedly replied.

AMS.com: What attracted you to SoulCollage®? Over the years has your impression changed? If so what attracts you now?

Linda: In 2009 I was already deeply involved in running creativity workshops and came across the word “SoulCollage®” while researching the drying times of glue. The name intrigued me, I googled it and did the reading offered on the Home page of www.soulcollage.com The experience was so powerful that I immediately sent off for Seena Frost’s book and my first set of card-making supplies. Over the years I have continued to benefit from my personal SoulCollage® practice while in my workshops, retreats and Facilitator Trainings I bear witness to the impact of this magical process on a wide range of other people and its capacity to transform lives.

AMS.com: You belong to the Seena Frost lineage of trainers, what’s your fondest memory of her?

Linda: My fondest memory of Seena Frost: after a Training in California, driving through the redwoods with Seena at the wheel, chatting away about our shared love of Shakespeare. She told me all about the time she was cast as Ariel in her high school production of “The Tempest” – great casting, as Seena had a sprite-like, agile lightness. A week before the performance she broke her leg and had to deliver all her lines from behind an onstage rock! We had a good laugh about this. Laughter was at the heart of Seena’s attitude to life – levity for her was inseparable from depth.

AMS.com: What do you think Seena Frost meant by SoulCollage® Evolving, and how do you make use of this idea in your life, in your career, in your relationships to the people you train?

Linda: One of Seena Frost’s favourite metaphors was the “imaginal cells” in the DNA of the caterpillar which help transform it from an “ugly mush” inside the chrysalis into a beautiful butterfly. She related these “imaginal cells” to the capacity inherent in our consciousness to bring forth transformation. She saw SoulCollage® as a catalyst to help people to evolve both individually and as communities. The power of SoulCollage® to bring about personal and group change was a core aspect of her vision and philosophy. Seena’s vision of the potential of SoulCollage® to bring about change was never set in stone but always flexible and inclusive, designed to be a vehicle for everyone to make their unique contribution.

The book title “SoulCollage® Evolving®” conveys the rapid rise of interest in SoulCollage®, as it has expanded from the 1980s in California into a global phenomenon used in many different cultures and contexts. As a multi-lingual person working in the UK and Portugal, the international and cross-cultural reach of SoulCollage® and its capacity to bring people together rather than separating them are core qualities which continue to inspire and motivate me in my work as a SoulCollage® Trainer and Facilitator.

Linda Woolfson

AMS.com: If you could change or add one thing to your current SoulCollage® routine what would that be and why?

Linda: As an enthusiastic explorer I am always developing my practice. I’m currently developing my own personal blend of visual images and the written word and also progressing a recent workshop I ran at a SoulCollage® conference in Colorado on deepening our relationship with our SoulCollage® cards by focussing directly on our senses.

AMS.com: In your opinion, who makes a good facilitator? What’s needed besides book knowledge?

Linda: Someone who trusts his/her own intuition and supports other people to follow theirs….a sense of fun, and a deep love of the creative process. Also you need to be a very good listener. Perhaps surprisingly, most people need some training to be able to listen well! This is one of the main qualities we aim to develop in the Facilitator Training program.

AMS.com: Of all your Neters, which are/is your favourite and why?

Linda: I really don’t have any favourites! Sometimes it is the most simply or even clumsily made cards, and the least flattering to the outward personality, which offer the most wisdom.

AMS.com: As an example of “making art that defines you,” Linda shares two of her SoulCollage® cards from her personal deck:

Incubation

“I Am The One Who loves to go within for a while. Manifesting thoughts, dreams and visions begins with the creativity of winter incubating. This inner mulling can be full of surprises.”

PortugalUK

“I Am The One Who lives a dual-based life between two countries, two cultures, two homes. The see-saw sway of these different ways of being and seeing fertilises my imagination.”

Linda, thank you for being such an inspiring soul.

Ivette & Linda

Linda Woolfson lives part of the year in Portugal, and the rest in the UK. To learn more about her work with SoulCollage® and/or training, please visit www.collageyourlife.co.uk