Monza Naff

Executive Director of Inner Growth Services, Oakland, California, Monza is a sought-after facilitator of workshops on creativity and spirituality and exponent of arts in the workplace. She is a keynote speaker, teacher, and leader of ritual. She uses poetry, meditation, and ritual to teach people how to reduce stress in the workplace, increasing both productivity and morale. In addition, Monza is a writing consultant and editor. She can work with businesses and other organizations to create written materials, such as mission statements, that reflect the organization's core values and articulate them in ways that inspire and motivate.

Monza makes poetry and ritual accessible and meaningful to a wide range of people, respecting diversity in their spiritual traditions. She also demonstrates how, at work, at home, or in nature, taking a moment to read a poem and/or do a small ritual can create deep relaxation, a sense of freedom, a fresh approach to problem-solving, and more joy in living.

Throughout the United States, in settings ranging from conferences to corporations, universities to spiritual communities, Monza has led groups of all sizes in unleashing their creativity, sharing ritual in times of celebration, mourning, and transition. She has an extraordinary ability to galvanize individuals to join together in community.

As a workshop presenter and conference speaker, Monza often uses spontaneous creative writing exercises to help people find a depth of self-expression, no matter how they generally feel about their skills with language. Monza is also teacher of teachers, using her skills to guide other teachers and trainers to foster the kind of genuine dialogue that empowers all group participants to feel safe and spontaneously express their opinions on complex issues and become better listeners as well.

Helping adults "find their creative voice," Monza teaches popular classes in creative and professional writing, appealing to men and women of all ages and backgrounds. She offers ongoing classes in the Bay Area and workshops in other parts of the nation. Once a year she offers "Woman, Spirit, Nature," a week-long retreat for women writers. In addition, Monza helps people create rituals for transition. She also works in conjunction with psychologists to create rituals for clients who wish to make a bring final closure to a past and painful issue.

Monza is the author of an award-winning book of poetry, Healing the Womanheart, winner of the prestigious "2000 Benjamin Franklin Award" from the Publishers' Marketing Association, and Exultation: A Poem Cycle in Celebration of the Seasons. For 26 years she taught in colleges and universities, most recently on the faculty of the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. Her forthcoming book, "Conscientious Objections" brings together political and spiritual perspective using story and poetry,-"song for the spoken word." Monza is also currently working on a book about ritual making, "To Brave the Pain: Non-Traditional Rituals for Times of Transition."

Sample Workshop and Conference Topics

• Stress Reduction Techniques
• Rituals for Transition
• Community Dialogue: Where Everyone Is Heard
• Writing Mission Statements
• Creative Writing and the Inner Life
• Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun, Quadruple Your Productivity
• Spirituality in the Writings of African American Women
• The Glory of Compost
• Woman, Spirit, Nature
• Come Home to Your Core
• Sounding Your Inner Voice
• Art in the Workplace

Partial Client/Conference List

• Allied Arts Council
• A Celebration of Women Artists, Conference, Wake Forest University
• American Association of Women in Community Colleges
• Head Start
• Hospice of Lane County, Eugene, OR
• Center for the Humanities, University of Oregon
• Minnesota Council of Teachers of English
• National Women's Studies Association"Radical Spirituality, Prophetic Politics,"
• St. John's University, MN
• Women's Leadership Conference, Cal Poly Pomona
• Women and Spirituality Conference, Mankato State University
• Leadership Training Seminar, Menucha Conference Center, OR
• Ecumenical Women's Conferences: Oregon, Washington, Idaho
• Potpourri Lecture Series, The College of St. Benedict, MN
• Zonta International Church
• Women United
  
• Unitarian Universalist Association
• Campus Interfaith Ministry, University of Oregon
• Gallagher and Associates
• InPartnership Consulting
• World Trust

Comments about Monza's work

Dr. Monza Naff can hold groups of five or five thousand in the palm of her hand in ritual. —Rev. Tiare L. Mathison-Bowie, Campus Minister at the University of Oregon

Monza Naff has an incomparable combination of talents. —Stephanie Wittman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. Bellevue WA

"Monza is a great facilitator . . . getting the best participation I've ever seen . . . everyone talked . . . the discussions were amazing . . . I have never seen anyone draw stimulating discussion out of a group at anywhere near the level of skill. Bravo! . . . I was impressed with the fact that no one was ever alienated in our discussions even though people expressed very diverse opinions . . . Monza has a way of help us see diversity as exciting instead of threatening . . . Dr. Monza Naff isn't afraid to be herself . . . She demonstrates what it looks like to be real . . . . . . I was impressed with Monza's handling of several difficult interpersonal conflicts which surfaced during the discussion . . . We came up with insights that made us all say "Wow! Yes, I see that! Whew!" and then see even more connections . . . I learned more than I ever hoped. More than that, I learned how to live my life . . . she gives us a spark to light our will to create . . .Monza Naff is an incredibly brilliant and inspiring woman . . . Her eloquence and brilliance are awe-inspiring, but she cares more about being a catalyst for learning than about being a star." —A summary of anonymous evaluations regarding Monza's group facilitation skills.

I perceive the practice of rituals to be the last crucial step in the psychological healing process. I am delighted that Dr. Monza Naff is doing and writing about such rituals. Dr. Naff is truly a gifted and brilliant expert. —Dr. Gisela Bergman, Licensed Psychologist, Eugene, OR

Dr. Naff recognizes the wounds caused by the illusion of separation in our culture, and she artfully creates rituals essential to creating authentic community-no-two-snowflakes-alike rituals which provide the sacred space to rediscover a feeling of wholeness. The feeling of integration is shared by everyone attending a ritual guided by Monza. —Dr. Ann Jauregui, Co-founder of Marin Creek (Multidisciplinary Healing) Center, Berkeley, CA and Faculty, School of Clinical Psychology, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, CA

Comments About Monza's Poetry

Monza has a very big heart, so big it must burst open and like a flower spread its seeds. This is the impulse behind her poems: the act of giving, sharing, linking hands; imagining; and making believable, the kind of life we would like to live. —Mimi Khalvati, Director of the Poetry School in London

. . . the collection [Healing the Womanheart] is for all of us, even if it should be the first book of poetry we own. —Marjorie D. Lewis, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Texas Christian University

The poems of Exultation act as shofars to the soul, calling us to remember, to feel, sense, know in our very beings that we are connected . . . experience a spirit that comforts and quiets, uplifts and inspires all at the same time." —Vicki Dello joio, Chi Kung Master Teacher, The Way of Joy Center, Oakland CA

A work of courage, challenge and joy . . . In these poems Monza takes up the inconsolable sufferings of the world and transforms them into song. —Mara Faulkner, OSB, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English, College of St. Benedict

. . . this is indeed a book of healing. —Ursula K. Le Guin

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