Storytelling, Healing and Community

Andre Heuer D.Min., LICSW grew up in a culturally diverse medium-sized city in Pennsylvania with first to third generation Americans. At neighborhood gatherings, weddings, funerals and church events and at his grandmother's kitchen table he listened to the stories of humor, sadness, and the everyday. In these experiences Dr. Heuer learned the importance of stories. His doctoral thesis utilized a personal narrative inquiry methodology.

Dr. Heuer is committed to supporting individuals in developing storytelling skills to:

  • craft and tell stories
  • foster healing
  • build community
  • create cultural awareness
  • advocate for justice
  • identify the essential stories of their organization

 

Andre develops and presents programs and trainings in storytelling for:

  • medical and mental health, and social service professionals to foster healing
  • educators to enhance teaching skills
  • writers, visual artist and performers to augment their art
  • organizations to find their story and to identify their brand

Dr. Heuer has trained individuals in the use of story in the United States, Liberia and Thailand and has worked with organizations such as the Center For Victims of Torture; St. Johns Stroke Center; Fraser Child and Family Center; and Pathways: a center for those in health crisis. He has presented conference workshops on storytelling and healing for the Genetics Alliance, Northlands Storytelling Network, University of Wisconsin Festival of Expressive Arts Therapy and the Family Therapy Network. He is a former board member of the Healing Storytelling Alliance. Dr. Andre Heuer works closely with you to design programs and workshops to meet your clients, staff and organizational needs, and to organize storytelling performances and events.

The following are just a few of the workshops that Andre presents:

 

Reflections on Andre's Workshops

"It's the best workshop I've ever attended." "We must offer this for our co-workers".

"Andre Heuer led a group of refugee care providers in a morning of re-building and healing. Our stories provided a safe connecting thread that brought us to each other."

"Dr. Heuer's soft-spoken and gentle manner helped participants to relax and to trust and to listen to themselves and each other. Community building happened as the stories were offered and shared."
Evelyn Lennon, M.A., MSW, Project Coordinator, The Center for Victims of Torture, Mineapolis, MN

"Through a lovely journey of story you taught us that we can achieve together by creating mutual benefits and that even self-interest can be a valuable tool in working together…. We so much appreciate your sharing this knowledge with us."
Valerie Griffin, Coordinator, Older Adult Services, St. John's Regional Health Center, Springfield, MO

Andre was well prepared, had an engaging style, and was really very well received by our audience…  His approach was especially helpful in dealing with trauma, which is present in the histories of so many of our clients and see how much their current thinking and behavior has been influenced by the history of their family milieu.
Alan Ingram, JD, MSW, LISW
Executive Director, National Association of Social Workers -Minnesota

Andre’s gift of storytelling, creative use of ritual, and incorporation of all the senses was refreshing, challenging, and affirming.
Franchon Pirkl, OSF, Hospice Chaplain, Owatonna Area Hospice , Owatonna, Minnesota

I met Andre Heuer during the American Imagery Institute conference in Minneapolis. Andre, as a psychotherapist and a storyteller, has taken the tool of storytelling to perfection. Through his storytelling Andre is effective in exciting in others their ability to heal and grow. Andre made me eager to learn more to perfect my own ability to tell healing stories whether they are cultural, family or personal stories.
Nicholas E. Brink, Ph.D. 
Clinical Diplomate, ABPP 
Past President, American Association for the Study of Mental Imagery 

Andre led me on a very personal journey, where I further explored my own relationship to death. In my hospice work this is an essential path to walk if I am to keep my own experiences sorted out from those of my clients. 
Nancy B. Nelson, B.S.N., C.M.T., Hospice Massage Therapist 
Veteran's Inpatient Hospice Unit 

We all love to hear stories, and everybody has a story to tell. Dr. Andre Heuer can take you to where your story is; teach you to tell it; and help you, your friends, your families, your co-workers or anyone you want to share with, revel in it.
Ruth E. Furan
Hospice Manager for Immanuel-St. Joseph's Mayo Health System Hospice, Mankato, Minnesota

There's something gentle, deep, and caring about Andre's manner that easily coaxes one's creative stories to the surface. His techniques evoke memory and allow one to shape it easily into story form. And the best part is they can be used over and over to evoke more stories.
Gregory Leifel
Author and Storyteller, Crystal Lake, Illinois

Andre's personal story workshop immediately gives people the confidence that they can create interesting stories from their lives. The exercises we used in this workshop were immediately useable. I used them the very next week for a story I'm working on. Andre covered unearthing material as well as structure and the key elements of story. People left surprised and amazed at themselves. What great motivation to keep on working.
Susan O'Halloran
Author, Performer and Educator, Evanston, Illinois

Andre Heuer is very flexible in meeting the needs of individual classes and schools. His wide range of experience lets him walk into any situation, assess his audience, and find the right techniques to reach his students. 
Allison Chapman
Youth & Community Programs Coordinator, Minnesota Center for the Book Arts

Andre Heuer's exemplary teaching not only provided support for our school-wide goal to improve student writing, but was consistent with our mission to be a model for collaboration by students and staff. Andre's wise and perceptive guidance allowed both staff and students to discover that they each had many important stories waiting to be told. Teachers often distracted by the challenges of the day, found that the after-school workshop did not merely hold their attention, but was energizing and empowering as well. 
Barbara M. Mauk
Library Media Specialist, Roseville, Minnesota

Participants in Andre's workshop will experience in a concrete way what is meant by community and how they are an integral part of it. Conflict and dissent are seen in the shared context of appreciation and hope. As an educator, I see his work as a dynamic and vital way to promote a sense of belonging among the diverse citizens that make up a school's population. 
Jennifer Monroe
Reading and Language Arts Teacher, Madison, Connecticut