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Natalie ROGERS Obituary
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Memories and Condolences
for Natalie ROGERS
Cheryl Sutton
December 25, 2024
As I wake up on this beautiful Christmas morning, I was drawn to look up Natalie´s name and found this place to share memories. Although it has been 9 years since she died, I have not been able to process this loss or to put into words what she meant to me. I met Natalie 34 years at an Expressive Arts session at JFK University. I had just started my psychology graduate program and had decided to specialize in Expressive Arts Therapy. The main thing I remember from that day was watching Natalie joyfully move through a circle with a drum in hand and I knew that I wanted to get to know her. Through the next 15 years or so, I would attend special events that she was sponsoring or presenting at and I was also in a women´s expressive arts therapy group at her home for about 5 years. We met regularly, and the comraderie, connections, creativity, and great food will live on forever in my heart. Natalie even accompanied me to the ER at the Kaiser hospital in Santa Rosa after I passed out at one of our gatherings.
I wanted to thank her daughters and her family for having this special place to share memories and I will continue to put into practice all that I learned from Natalie Rogers, both professionally and personally.
Thank you Natalie for the beautiful gift of you that you so generously shared with so many.
João Hipólito
October 23, 2024
You will be always alive i our memory...
Fiona
October 15, 2023
My dearest Natalie,
You are always in my heart Miss U!
Much love and hugs,
Fiona
Alice Rutkowski
October 15, 2023
Always remember our mother dance at Tamalpa with Daria
Myrna Araneta, Ph.D.
October 15, 2023
Natalie, your Legacy lives on with us, and with those people whose lives we touched.
Mercier Gérard
October 17, 2022
pour une personne intègre qui éclaire ma pratique.
Reconnaissance du fond du coeur.
Gérard Mercier
[email protected]
I see you up there watching over the challenges our world < is facing. We miss you =.
Dr. M. Roberta Araneta
October 16, 2020
As you watch over us during our world challenges---we miss you amidst our struggles to fight for our democratic principles, which you've always fought for. ❤
Your PCEA wisdom inspires us a lot. Thank you our dearest Natalie
Fiona Foo
October 15, 2020
Every time I lift my head up to the sky. I imagine you are having fun with a hand drum, wearing a smile and dancing freely over the rainbow. You give light to our dreams. You add colors in our life. Your compassionate being and inspiring words always stay with us. We miss you, love you Natalie. ❤
Anin Utigaard
October 15, 2019
The world is a bit dimmer without your light Natalie. You were a guide, teacher, friend and mentor to so many, especially in the field of Expressive Arts. Your books, videos and teaching continues to carry us on and vibrates globally even though youre no longer with us. But your energy, light and love are deeply missed. You have been a torch for me and will continue to be as long as Im living. ❤
João Hipólito
November 28, 2016
James Regan
August 10, 2016
Many blessings...
December 27, 2015
Dear Frances, and each of your sisters, family, friends,
I have just finished watching the Memorial Service for Natalie on YouTube. Awe, tears, remembrances, new knowings and discoveries, all came to me during this wonderful video of the service that you created together.
What a sweeping, soaring expansive life that you and your sisters and whole family and friends conveyed so vividly about your mom, Natalie. It has allowed us all to see and feel together the immensity and complexities of her life, and the impacts and ripples for our world that she leaves here now.
How proud I imagine Natalie would be to see such a gift of love and openness from you all, verbally, visually, emotionally and philosophically. I am very grateful to have shared this from afar, not being able to be there. And thus to be reminded of all the work yet left to do for those remaining, to deepen the commitment to action and change that Natalie catalyzed in so many ways in an effort to integrate the human family on a path to peace through playfulness, creativity, and the power and integrity of our voices.
Please stay in touch over time. I send all my warm affection to each of you in the family at this tender and meaningful time of the year especially.
Warm Aloha - gay (swenson)barfield
Ngan Ching Chau
December 5, 2015
Your teaching inspire me, thanks Natalie Rogers.
Thanks Natalie for your genuine presence
Eve Wong, PsyD, MSW
December 5, 2015
Thanks Natalie For coming to HK and bringing the Person-centred Expressive Arts Therapy to us, so I've the chance to enter this global garden. To have reached your strong branch, our small flowers and leaves being nourished, and your love and passion links us all!
Thanks Natalie for your presence
Eve Wong, PsyD, MSW, EXAT
December 5, 2015
Natalie Rogers and PCEAT links us all
Eve Wong, PsyD, MSW, EXAT
December 5, 2015
Playin' my bass.
Bobbi Chaney
December 5, 2015
Natalie was such a shining light in all of our lives. I met my husband, Sky, at her first expressive therapy workshop at Sonoma State University. After that I joined several of her small groups to continue the work and ended up writing my master's thesis on expressive therapy. I'll always remember her wise and playful spirit. -- Bobbi Chaney
Dr. Val Kendall
December 5, 2015
Dear daughters of Natalie,
I want to thank you for sharing this with us all. I cannot attend the memorial but I am certainly there already with you in spirit. The tears are just starting to abate after the opportunity to see the video from IEATA, which Fiona posted on Facebook. How very timely. I have been reading the writings in Natalie's guest book and experience the same feelings as many have written there. I feel speechless. My heart is full of so many feelings that I cannot express right now. I need a poem, a song, more time. I was shocked to see how Natalie suffered when I met her again at Westerbeke Ranch last year (2014 for the PCEAI symposium). I am glad she is relieved of that now. I am thankful to Natalie for helping me process so many challenging feelings in my mother role, when my youngsters were travailing through their teens and early twenties. This through the use of the expressive arts. It was such a healing time while going though her expressive arts certification course in the early 90s at Westerbeke. Her pioneering courage has been absolutely inspiring. I send lots of love and thanks and I would sing so hard if I was there. My heart will sing here for her, as it gains strength after pouring out the tears. Have a glorious day. Val Kendall
December 5, 2015
Dear Natalie,
I cannot thank you enough for coming into a pivotal point in my life; a career transition from teaching to what I thought would be a career as an Art Therapist.
Just at that point, I serendipitously discovered a workshop you were offering at Mt.Madonna with Kat McGiver. I decided to attend. At that workshop, I experienced your and Kat's powerful presence to me. At the end of that workshop you took me aside and invited me to be part of your Expressive Arts monthly group for graduate students. That workshop and your invitation led me to PCETI and the powerful work of Expressive Arts. There I was gifted to encounter and learn from a remarkable group of well educated and creative women teachers you trained.
I will never forget the loving support you offered me Natalie, after the great loss of my mother. You were a grief mentor for me during that dark period when all I could do was tear paper and cry. I am so very grateful to you for the support you afforded me during that dark journey of loss.
In essence, Natalie, you have been a powerful role model and mentor for me, as well as your very special colleague mentees. I feel most fortunate and deeply grateful to have met you Natalie. I know your beautiful, generous, and empowering spirit lives on in us as so many of us across the world carry on your powerful work of Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy.
With abiding Gratitude and Love,
Jenny (Janssen)
Spring'14Natalie&Sara
December 5, 2015
Sara Rinaldi
December 5, 2015
Over a month after Natalie's passing, I am still finding myself mourning deeply.
I wasn't used to see her on a regular basis, but it is not easy to know she isn't there any longer.
There are so many things I feel in response to her loss... here are some of them.
Natalie Rogers has been the woman who has influenced and changed my life the most, directly and indirectly. It took me years to realize and acknowledge that.
She was my teacher, but also a mentor, a friend and least but not last, an example of a fully actualized, empowered woman. A kind of woman I had never had the chance to know before I had met her.
My meeting with Natalie and the people around her in summer '99 changed me and the course of my life completely.
Natalie liked to hear the story of how I got to PCETI and she often asked me to tell it. She actually shared it not long ago on the first issue of our Newsletter. A young Italian woman living in London who, following the strong feeling of having to be there, arrives by chance at a PCEA intensive in Sonoma County, North of San Francisco, after a series of synchronicities that would make the most colorful Fiction look boring!
Even today, when I think of how I got there, I have no logical answers, if not that in some way I must have heard a call, Natalie's call, the PCEA call.
My training with her and other PCEA people at PCETI made me flower and grow in ways I had never experienced before. Through Natalie, her teachings and her loving community I felt seen, heard and beautiful. That had never happened before. As a consequence I started to feel free to be me for the first time.
Thank to her work and her example, Natalie offered me among other opportunities, the chance and the tools to meet myself and get to know myself, with compassion and self-acceptance. A rare and precious opportunity in one's lifetime.
Such new ways supported what my heart most wanted and valued deeply and still supports it today. I didn't think it was possible, but through her I know it is.
For this and other reasons I will never be able to express enough in words my gratitude, my admiration and my infinite affection for Natalie Rogers.
Those who know me know how passionate I am in bringing PCEA into the world.
Unfortunately, it has been rather challenging, especially in my own country, where I am the only one trained in PCEA. Nonetheless, I will do my very best to honor Natalie Rogers, her work, her memory and the Person Centered Expressive Arts by bringing them even with stronger passion into my daily life, and to whoever will want to know about this, in Italy and in the world.
I am looking forward to fulfilling my call and carrying Natalie's legacy in any possible, meaningful and creative way. When I say this, I know that many more people around the world will echo my same commitment.
And that is because of you, dearest Natalie. It is another one of your very, many precious gifts to the world.
Ciao Natalie, sarai sempre nel mio cuore!
Sad and grateful more than any word could ever express.
Sara Rinaldi, Italy
Sandra Mussey
December 4, 2015
Natalie was one of my most inspiring, liberating mentors. It was the fall of 1986, when I began training with Natalie to become a certified Expressive Arts facilitatora training occurring simultaneously with the beginning of my own business as a professional intuitive consultant and intuition trainer. In the late fall of 1998, during the traumatic Balkan Wars, it was Natalie who encouraged me to travel to St. Petersburg, Russiain May of 1999to begin leading intuitive development and expressive art training's as part of the international peace and conflict resolution process. Attending and facilitating at the 7th International Conference on Conflict Resolution in St. Petersburg was an awesome experience out of which came forty subsequent seminars I was invited to facilitate in Eastern Europe, from 1999 to the presentin St. Petersburg, Ufa, and Moscow, Russia, in Kiev in the Ukraine, in Belgrade, Serbia, and in Radovici, Montenegro.
It's been a long journey since Natalie first urged a rather shy, cautious, hidden intuitive to step up and begin facilitating in a larger arena than simply the living rooms of the USA.
I am forever grateful for Natalie's inspiration. Her belief in me and what I had to offer was empowering and humbling. She also believed along with acting coaches I've had"that the personal is the universal," even "that the personal is the political," so that as we connect and share our personal hearts and souls cross culturally, we can be the change we want to see in the worlda vision Gandhi urged. Natalie's inspiration will always be remembered, along with the insightful guidance of her father, Carl Rogers, whose therapeutic values of authenticity, empathy, and unconditional personal regard, continually inspire me.
Dinah Brown
December 4, 2015
I came over from the UK to train with Natalie in the late 1980s and am hugely indebted to her for empowering me to believe in my capabilities as a facilitator. Seeing something through my shyness, she was sometimes irritated by my timid voice when expressing myself in the group. One day she handed me a plastic sword, urging me to hold it up high and to lead the group of participants around the room. It's been my privilege to lead groups in the UK, sharing the Creative Connection ever since. I'm keenly aware of what a huge gift Natalie has left to myself and other trainees, but more significantly, to wider humanity. Heartfelt thanks to a great teacher.
Bonnie Slayton
December 3, 2015
Natalie's compassionate light has shined bright to many corners of the world. So sorry for the loss of a loved one, I'm glad she is no longer suffering.
Natalie was my teacher and friend. I am honored to have known her, to have played, danced, wept and created with her by my side. Her light continues to shine brightly in the spirits and hearts of many! Much love and gratitude.
Arthur Bohart
December 2, 2015
I had the privilege of knowing Natalie for only the last few years. We met when I worked with her at Saybrook University. I remember when she invited me up to her house to talk about the role of the Person-Centered Expressive Arts program. I found her to be a wonderful kindred spirit. I admired her clear eyed way of seeing things and her thoughtful straightforwardness on things we were both concerned about. Of course she was immensely creative. Her Person-Centered Expressive Arts approach is one of the major contributions to the field of psychotherapy. She asked me to review her most recent book on it for a professional journal. That was a task I found immensely enjoyable and highly informative. Of course I thought it was excellent. Not only psychology but the planet is going to miss her.
Kathleen Horne
December 2, 2015
Natalie, you were one of my first Expressive Arts teachers, and you taught me so much. I thank you for your vision, courage, commitment, and for the legacy you have left in this world that is in such need of it. You live on in the hearts, minds and lives of so many. Deep condolences to your family, and deep appreciation of you.
Roslyn Satten
December 2, 2015
Natalie changed my life so much. I was thinking of going to art therapy school in Boston and then I attended her workshop at a Person Centered Therapy conference and Carl Rogers was there. I went to her 2 hour expressive arts workshop and decided I this was what I needed instead of the clinical path! It was so transformative and powerful, I felt good about moving to California which I was planning with my husband and then did the whole PCETI path. It was wonderful and even after I finished and got my certificate, I would use my vacation time to keep going to more since it was so juicy and fun. I thank you Natalie for all of this and all the wonderful people I met along the way. Natalie appeared to me in a dream the nite before she passed, just walked into the room and left. Her way of saying goodbye. Many blessings to Natalie and her family. Thank you.
Bree Kalb
December 1, 2015
I was profoundly influenced by Carl Rogers during my training to be a therapist. Then, 20 years into my career, I stumbled upon Natalie's work and attended Part 1 of the PCETI training at Omega Institute nearly 20 years ago. Natalie had a profound influence on me and on the world. I expect her influence to continue to resonate for generations. I'm so grateful to have known her.
Jean LaSarre
December 1, 2015
Natalie, I thank you for opening up your home, your creativity, your guidence, and your spirit to me (and to so many others) throughout your beautiful life. You are deeply loved.
Thank you for teaching me how to heal with art and showing me how to listen with LOVE!
Stella Bay
December 1, 2015
November 29, 2015
We send our loving thoughts and empathy to Natalie's family and wide circle of friends and students. Natalie was creative, courageous and compassionate. She made a unique contribution to the world with her pioneering work in Person Centered Expressive Arts. I met Natalie when I moved from Silicon Valley to the wine country in 1985 and thus began unexpected and wonderful adventures with her. I am a family therapist and she invited me to join her doing workshops at the University of Moscow in Russia. That led to workshops at the University of Tartu in Estonia where I had already made connections. It was an honor to work with her there. As a result we brought several people to come here from Russia and Estonia to study at PCETI. The learning from these experiences and exchanges were life changing. Our friendship continued and I had a wonderful conversation with her as her journey was coming to an end. I will always hold her close in my heart.
Claire Fitzgerald
I was a student, colleague and friend of Natalie's father Carl. My time with him transformed my life as a person and a psychologist. My relation with Natalie and her work expanded me as a person and developed my dedication to the Person Centered Approach. Natalie was a woman I will always admire and think of warmly when I have a chance to touch others with my wife Claire in our work with couples at Stanford. Pat Rice (Claire Fitzgerald's husband)
Claudia Hartke
November 27, 2015
Natalie was my beloved teacher. I am saddened by her passing, and thankful that she found relief from suffering. This morning I sat down, lit a candle, and followed what Natalie taught me, express my feelings in a drawing. I am filled with deep gratitude for all I learned from Natalie, not just through her teaching, but most of all by how she fully and uncompromisingly embodied her values and her truth. Thank you, dear Natalie, what you taught me lives in my heart. Your courage to live fully inspires me to keep on growing, and to touch the lives of others like you touched mine.
November 27, 2015
Dearest Natalie,
How can I possibly express in words the deep, enduring friendship we had, acknowledging that we were truly sisters.
I am so grateful that I was able to be with you in those last days, and even that you suggested we draw/write in our journals the day before you died! "I am at peace," you wrote below an image of love pouring into a heart -- your heart.
And all through your life, you poured out love, creativity, courage, and compassion in your relationships -- personal and professional.
What a life! I rejoice for you and thank you. I'll always carry you in my heart, immensely grateful for all we shared.
Much love, Olivia
Found this on YOU-tube
November 25, 2015
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Kate Donohue
November 25, 2015
Shining Star Award
What it is and how it works!
In 1997, the IEATA current executive co-chairs proposed to the board of directors that we establish an award to honor one of our pioneers who had contributed tremendously to developing the field of expressive arts and had also contributed to the formation and life of our organization. The board vote was unanimous. Everyone felt this was good idea as we wanted to show our gratitude to those professionals who were inspired us and who had contributed so much volunteer time for IEATA. The second task of deciding on a symbolic name for this award was our next challenge. After much discussion, the board decided on an imagistic name that represented how this person contributed to our field. They were a guiding light inspiring us as we navigate the birth of the field and our organization. So we called this person our Shining Star.
Our first Shining Star award was given to Natalie Rogers at our Tornado conference in 1998. At each bi-annual conference the Shining Star Award is presented to its recipient. There are other recipients: Anna Halprin, Paolo Knill, Kate Donohue, Jack Weller, Steve and Ellen Levine, Sally Atkins and Anin Utigaard.
The award is announced at the conference and is a surprise for the person as well as the membership. However, members can make nominations to the board for the award recipient, then the board votes on the final person.
Kate Donohue
November 24, 2015
Natalie Rogers received the first Shining Star from the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association in 1999. I remember Natalie saying that this was her first award, her dad was always the award winner. Natalie was so warmed that her first award was from IEATA, an organization she loved and mentored. I will always remember Natalie's kindness and her warrior women perspective on important issues.
Natalie we honored you in India when I heard the news. You are our shining star!
Natalie accepted her award
Kate Donohue
November 24, 2015
Natalie's Rogers' shining star award in Tornado 1999
Kate Donohue
November 24, 2015
Tess Sturrock
November 19, 2015
Dearest Natalie
I was greatly saddened to hear of your death. I knew you were feeling frail, but the news still came as a shock.
I was so grateful, through Frances, to feel involved by phone and email immediately after your death. However, through all the subsequent weeks, I haven't known what to write for for this memorial book.
I feel now all I have to say is thank you - for the strong, creative, loving and challenging presence that you have been in my life.
Thank you for my training, for our work together, for our laughter and shared holiday times.
My love and thoughts are with you in whatever sphere you may now be journeying. I echo Sabine's thoughts about art materials. I hope there is an unending supply, as well as space for dance and song, for great frivolity and serious debate too.
I love you and miss you.
My thoughts are also with Janet, Frances and Naomi and all the family in their loss.
From Tess
Louise Klemperer Sather
November 17, 2015
When I first met Natalie in the Leve l I Training, I was surprisedshe was not the kind of disempowering, caretaking leader I was used to, but she was honest and fair, so I embarked on Level I and blithely sailed along until participating in a group anger mural in Level II. Expressing my repressed anger in the group drawing brought up HUGE tsunamis of emotion that were not finished at the end of the exerise, so I very helpfully (I thought) informed Natalie the following day that the next time she did that exercise with a group, she should offer a bigger mural surface. Natalie looked me in the eye and said, I don't see you taking responsibility to get your needs met, Louise.
I was shocked. Horrified. Embarrassed. I withdrew, fumingbut I had driven all the way down from Portland for this training and had had high hopes for what I could learn here, plus, Natalie had such a good reputation, and so, after calming down, I decided to accept her challenge. For the next five mornings I got up early and each day before breakfast completed a 6' tall anger drawing on butcher paper, making visible all my hidden feelings. I found a space on the balcony where I could hang them togetherLouise's Anger Gallery. My experience of pouring out all my repressed feelings, seeing them in a tangible form , allowing others to see themand then still be accepted--the heart of the PCETI Experience which Natalie had createdwas transformative. And thus began my lifelong journey into becoming my true, authentic self.
Postscript: 25 years later, at the 2014 Symposium, I related that experience and what it had meant to me to Natalie. She questioned me about how it had played out in my life, then accepted my heartfelt thanks. Completion of the circle.
Louise Klemperer Sather
Sabine Lehnert
November 17, 2015
Natalie, Im so sad, hearing, that you passed away.
I remember my - life changing - training through PCETI, the workshops with you and Marianne in Switzerland. I remember you visit to Wiesbaden and your interest im my work. I remember the stay at your house, your hospitality and the time with you in your studio, our laughter, our talks.
I remember you intuitive insights for other people needs, your eagerness to understand their inner world, your spirituality and your great professionalim.
My thoughts are also with her family. She always spoke with so much love of you.
Ich werde Dich sehr vermissen.
And I hope, whereever you are now, that there will be art supply around.
Sabine Lehnert, Wiesbaden
Miriam Labes
November 15, 2015
Natalie was a beam of light in my world. She was a friend, colleague and mentor whose heart and vision deepened my life. I have cherished memories of traveling, facilitating and learning alongside Natalie. Her beautiful spirit lives on in the colors and textures of my creative life. I will always carry with me her teachings on love, authentic presence and the extraordinary power of the arts to heal. Sending strength and support to Frances, Naomi and Janet as well as the extended family during this time.
PCEA Class of 2008-2009 at Westebeke.
November 13, 2015
Jürgen Kriz
November 13, 2015
I feel my sadness hearing that Natalie has passed away although thats the final landmark on our path on earth (and I am aware of this on my way). Natalie and I were interested in understanding of and working with the power of healing by using expressive arts. So I stayed in her house for some days, enjoying her hospitality, friendliness, and open-mindedness for other perspectives of understanding. Natalie was an exceptional practitioner of some fundamental insights of her farther, Carl Rogers, which she interpreted in her own way.
My thoughts are with her family and nearby living friends
Osnabrück (Germany), Jürgen Kriz
November 12, 2015
Natalie's PCEA workshop with Christine Evans in HK in 2011
November 12, 2015
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Saybrook Class of 2008-2009 at Westebeke
November 12, 2015
Jennifer Camacho
November 12, 2015
My sincere n deepest condolences to the family. Thank God for allowing us to know a great woman.
Char Horning
November 9, 2015
Natalie became and was my sister over the 30 years of our honesty and pain and love. Our awareness of each our own needs and loves and work and families in our evolving lives brought us to art and tears and laughter and such fun just being together. We traveled to Alaska and Asilomar, the Sierra foothills and the Pacific beaches, to small coffee houses and fancy eating places. I miss you, dear Natalie, yet you are here with me in essence and sacredness of all that is in this loving mystery of being. Char
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Mother's Day 2015
Frances Fuchs
November 8, 2015
Charles Merrill
November 8, 2015
Natalie worked tirelessly extending person centered theory and practice to a more expressive therapeutic process. I first met Natalie in 1980 and knew her as a colleague and friend. She touched many lives all over the world including me.
November 8, 2015
in the end our paths were common thru harner's shamanism training. before that i learned from her and pceti, how to flow endlessly from one art to the next and i often tell people that as if they understand. how one feeds the other. keep going. on and on. before that we separately but commonly knew anna. and before that i found play mountain place in culver city and that was a summerhill/carl/fritz Creation. so when i drum for my own mother who passed on october 23rd....i am also drumming for the happy blissful well-deserved place i know you have found safely tall sweet strong brave Natalie. stay the course. blessings. xoxo catherine
Candace Hartzler
November 8, 2015
So very sad to hear of Natalie's passing from this life. The training I experienced through PCETI was life-giving, life-changing. The women and men I met, Natalie's compassionate, warm, loving approach to art and growth will never be forgotten. Much grace as you dance and paint your way on the other side.
Betty Meador
November 7, 2015
Natalie dear heart, We will miss you so much, dear friend. Memories of you, of your dear father and mother, will always be with me. Sweet journey,
Betty (Meador)
Emily Janet Day
November 7, 2015
Seminal in my training was her personal coaching during workshops I attended. Her writings I still refer to when I am preparing for workshops that I am leading and occasionally private session with clients. She will be missed!
Katherine Kirk
November 7, 2015
Natalie changed my life through her teachings of person-centered expressive arts. I will be forever grateful to have known her and to have learned her work through experience. Thank you, Natalie. You are missed.
Cynthia Broschat
November 7, 2015
Your legacy flame will forever burn with Gratitude and Love
Cynthia Broschat
November 7, 2015
Forever Blessings and Gratitude to Natalie and her legacy for making such a huge difference in my life, therefore in the life of others. A huge heart-full hug,
Louis Krupnick
November 7, 2015
I met Natalie in 1965 as Janet's mother. A year later my family visited Oahu and visited the Fuchs. Her graciousness eased my awkwardness. Fast forward to 1977ish. Ellen Bass told me about the first of many 17 day retreats Natalie, Carl, Maria, John and others had organized in San Diego. I hadn't known she was Carl's daughter. We recognized each other in the elevator. What a merry meeting!
The retreat was one of the pivotal experiences of my life. Sixty or seventy people from several countries created a loving and challenging community. Years later Natalie described the retreat as a coming out party for herself, personally and professionally. Very much Carl and Helen's daughter but developing a strong vibrant voice of her own. She showed me a draft of a paper she had written about her experience growing up as a very very bright girl/young woman conflicted about the cultural (sex role) expectations of the 1950s and
1960s. She was nervous about presenting the paper to the community. The response was galvanizing. She managed to entwine a strong personal narrative, utterly authentic, with acute observations about our culture - not just the wider culture but the culture of the retreat itself. She challenged me to challenge myself. And, she was so much fun! In the rooms, in restaurants and on the beach. I was smitten.
The pleasure she took living on the houseboat in Sausalito....showing me how to look for water using a divining rod in Oregon....speaking eloquently about expressive art therapy at a conference I organized at a treatment center in Tucson...her delight in nibbling rose hips and chamomile on a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. And so much more.
A life well lived. Thank you Natalie. My thoughts are with you Naomi, Fran, and Janet.
Dr. Rick Lippin
November 7, 2015
Natalie and I shared a belief in the enormous power of the arts as healing. She was kind enough to serve the profession of Psychology at a World Future Society meeting in San Francisco where we presented the bio-psycho-social-spiritual (BPSS) model of health care. We had a very nice private lunch following the presentation with a spectacular view of the Bay Bridge. Natalie's reach and influence was important and global. May she rest in peace.
November 6, 2015
We will forever appreciate the intuitive insight Natalie had about the supreme intelligence of helping people meet face-to-face at the heart, realizing we are one another's best doctors.
Seeing the Soul of the Other - Bringing Israeli and Palestinian Women Together For a Peaceful Future
by Natalie Rogers
with Irit Halperin and Miriam Labes
May, 2006
http://www.nrogers.com/PDF/israelarticle.pdf
With our gratitude and affection,
Libby and Len Traubman
San Mateo, California USA
November 6, 2015
I am forever grateful to Natalie for sharing with me her vision of how expresive arts were inextricably connected to the work for peace and justice.
Dr. Rick Lippin
November 6, 2015
Natalie and I shared a deep belief in the enormous power of the arts as a healing agent. She kindly agreed to join me (a physician) a sociologist and a theologian to represent the field of psychology as we presented the BPSS (bio-psycho-social-spiritual) model of health care at a World Future Society meeting held in San Francisco followed my a memorable lunch overlooking the Bay Bridge - RIP to a remarkable woman and a teacher to and inspiration for many around the globe.
Keynote at the 2013 IEATA Conference in Berkeley
Fiona Chang
November 6, 2015
Person-Centered Expressive Arts Symposium 2013
Fiona Chang
November 6, 2015
Krisitna Grey
November 6, 2015
If someone were to ask me to choose one adjective to describe Natalie,
I would say, Courage.
In my perception, she was more than a pioneer blazing a trail in the field of expressive arts therapy. She was a warrior and crusader, flying the banner of her renowned father tearing down the prejudices and blindfolds of the established schools of thought regarding how therapy should be conducted. Teaching the principles of Person Centered Expressive Art Therapy was her sacred mission.
Synchronistically, on the very day of her physical death, I was leading a group of women in an exercise that I'd learned from Natalie at PCETI in 1986.
Her spirit lives on.
She and her work changed my life. I will forever be grateful.
Thank you, Natalie!
November 4, 2015
Re: Remembrance of Natalie Rogers
Remembrance cries
out -
your place, no place, one place - remains
vacant
Margo Fuchs Knill
Natalie Rogers left us and we sense the loss of an international leader who in her generosity endowed us with a network of great students and professionals.
In the late eighties Natalie and Paolo taught together in Switzerland and California as an exchange. The following amazing story mentioned in her book Creative Connection happened while theiy were teaching in Paolo's home land (Appenzell):
It was foggy and rainy and we danced with the community for the sun to come out. Then we walked up a canyon with a gushing mountain river. Natalie walked in front into the dark unfriendly canyon. Paolo was behind her and suddenly the fog had an inner light and from above the mountain broke a sunbeam. Natalie was shining. That's were we see her standing now.
All the friends she made here in Switzerland and worldwide us from EGS are now united in our hearts and send blessings to Natalie's family, her students and teachers and friends throughout the world.
Paolo Knill, Margo Fuchs Knill and the EGS team
Maria Gonzalez-Blue
November 3, 2015
Natalie, I have to write to you as I have been carrying you with me for days. Thank you for the two beautiful messages you left me in that last week. I feel the same, you have been such an important person in my life, a connection that grew at so many levels, especially the last two years. You often said I chaneled Carl and now I think I'll be chaneling you as it is clear there is some of you in my heart. I am accepting that you are gone, though I still get the urge to call you. I bet you are reading all these messages as we are all your greater family and you've held us all so lovingly. Thank you for your life on this planet, thank you for your realness, for all you gave to the world. I will see you again down the road. In the meantime, the woodpecker has been in my trees lately. Please know I am committed to carrying on Carl's work and your beautiful healing work, bridging it with my work of Spirit. With much love and gratitude, Maria Gonzalez-Blue, the hummingbird.
Sara Harris
November 1, 2015
I only knew Natalie for a short time, but I always loved her spunk, humor, devil-may-care attitude. I am glad her suffering in the physical body is done now, and I have no doubt her spirit is flying free on to its next amazing assignment!
Truston Davis
October 31, 2015
Natalie carries a part of me with her as I will always Carry a part of her within the better part of myself. How fourtunate we are who spent time with her. Her spirit will continue to inspire me.
Much Love To You, My Dearest Natalie !
Natalie delivered an inspiring lecture on Person-centered Expressive Arts in Hong Kong in 2013 with 350 participants.
October 31, 2015
Second Book Launching Party at Westerbeke Ranch in 2012
October 31, 2015
Kirk Schneider
October 29, 2015
Although I did not know Natalie well, I deeply appreciated the moments we did share, and in particular her openness and warmth. I will always cherish her embrace of the awe of life, which she so kindly conveyed in one of my books.
Soojin Lee
October 29, 2015
I miss you Natalie! I appreciate you always smile and seem to be happy in my dream.
Jan Francis
October 29, 2015
Dear Natalie,
Sometimes I picture you in your big studio on Riebli Road, writing, dancing, sculpting, recording, creating workshops to carry around the world, and other times in the more intimate offices and garden of your Sebastopol home planning and writing your next book and articles. You would diligently pour over the writing until you were sure it was precisely what you wanted as a teaching tool. As an artist, your creativity flowed spontaneously into painting, collage, clay, and, of course, play. Wherever you went, you created a colorful and rich environment to share with friends, colleagues, and students. The key for you was sharing. You were always thinking about how to create a better world through the enrichment of others. And you were always so generous to me in your encouragement and praise. I loved working with you all those years, a relationship for which I will forever be grateful. - Jan
Gerhard Stumm
October 29, 2015
I met you, Natalie, 2000 at the Diversity Group after the Conference for Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling in Chicago. We were both participants. Pretty soon, in the course of the group you raised your voice: "I came here to face those bastards who are not willing to acknowledge the work I've done". With that you particularly referred to what has become well known as "Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy" in which you embedded the method of "Creative Connection", a combination of different creative modalities like painting, movement, music, writing and so on. You addressed your statement to some of the facilitators who were there. Later on - together with a colleague - you offered to the group a practical session to get to know your creative Approach: The whole group welcomed your offer and took part in the session. I thought that the experience was something like a reconciliation for your feeling ignored or devaluated by some of the representatives of PCA.
Personally I got along very well with you. I felt understood with my concern. And I especially liked that you would not be treated as daughter of a famous father but as a person, woman, innovative mind in your own right. I liked your modesty and being unpretentious at the same time advocating a deep commitment to humanistic values. We never met again but a couple of years later you contributed an article to one of the books I've edited in German. In a very loose and discreet way I ever since our meeting have felt connected with you. Sadly but also joyfully
Gerhard
Brian Thorne
October 29, 2015
I recall those occasions when Natalie and I worked together in groups, large and small, shared meals in fine restaurants or simply enjoyed luxuriating in each other's company. She was a source of inspiration for me and I like to believe that there were times when I was able to be a support and encouragement for her especially when things were tough.
It is not easy to be the daughter of a famous man but Natalie undertook this task with courage, honesty and consummate skill. She was thoroughly her own person and her development of person-centred expressive therapy, while drawing much inspiration from her father's work, is strikingly original and bears all the marks of her powerfully creative, holistic and socially engaged personality.
I admired Natalie immensely and enjoyed her presence in many different settings. Her convening of the Centenary Symposium in 2002 was a wonderful way of both honouring her father's life and setting others free to pursue their own paths without fear of being deemed heretics. I shall miss her being in the world and am eternally thankful for having known her and for being counted among her friends.
Gay (Swenson) Barfield
October 28, 2015
Dear Natalie and all your family - I am hesitating, where to begin, what to say, or include, lumps in my throat, tears welling, as memories pour back from decades of shared and parallel works, together and separately, joined and apart, tender and tough times, hurt or hardy laughter together, either collaborative or competitive, or co-creative; always honest, forthcoming, sometimes uneasy, ultimately restorative of mutual kindness and jointly standing together once again with our strong voices against injustice, either personal or global, racial or gender, war or peace. As recently as last year, your e-mail exchanges, voicing your strong upset from afar, making your powerful presence felt, at the non-inclusion of a critical social issue in a program in San Diego, your always courageous voice adding once again depth and indignation to a discussion on race. We are all, so many thousands of us, surrounding you and your family with love and endless gratitude for the richness of your presence on this planet, endless creative gifts, and strength of purpose and passions of your life. Several warm and tender memories in closing. After Carl's passing, Natalie, as your invitation came to all of us at CSP to come up to Carl and Helen's wonderful home for a final gathering there together, it was empathy incarnate; a home where so many parties had taken place among us all over decades, important events created, and personal private moments had taken place in all our lives, to say a final good-bye to that space and haven. Then, asking many of us to come back to pick out objects and treasures of Carl's and Helen's collections to take with us as memories. I selected 2 photos Carl took in Mexico in the 1940s, and one in El Escorial, Spain, in the 1970s at a workshop we created with people from around the world, and a beautiful antique jade vase from Mexico, a gift to Carl from the first Forum, that every day held roses from Carl's precious garden, sitting on the dining room table as we entered the door. They are with me here in Hawaii every morn on awakening and at bed at night. Finally, your visit to Hilo to bring your gifts to therapists here in a workshop several years back, and a few years ago an overnight we shared together at your wonderful home on the hill in Santa Rosa, before you moved to town, are special to me; both were spaces and times where we had moments of the two of us together alone. These will remain the final memories I hold, representing the possibilities inherent in all of us for tender and caring growth and empathic and congruent compassion. I include a photo of some of the bravest women I know in our PCA world and beyond, you, Natalie, Maureen O'Hara, Marvalene Styles Hughes, and myself, taken at the 2002 celebration of Carl's 100th year. The voices of each of these women will continue yours, Natalie, in the same spirit we each share for our tattered and traumatized yet hopeful planet and its people and life forms. Equally as significant, it seems so clear that you took your last voyage beyond this life form in a way that was beautifully congruent with your whole life and way of being; with your usual amazing strength, conviction, preparation, clarity, integrity, self-management and a loving kindness and courage in the face of your own suffering, that will be an inspiration for all of us. May you rest in peace awhile, and then shake up the Universe roundly, and we will hear. In sadness and recommitment....
October 28, 2015
With sadness and with lasting appreciation for significant moments shared, I remember you with deep fondness dear Natalie _ the passionate regard and sensitivity you epxressed in our professional and in our personal connection.
How blessed we are to be able to offer such work to the world and to receive such love and fulfillment in return. You have blessed so many, and are so loved. Your footprints remain always in the sand!
Daria Halprin
Lila Gardner
October 28, 2015
Dear Natalie,
You remain in my heart as an amazingly warm, kind and lovely soul I was lucky to meet on this our life's journey. Lucky your girls to have had you and lucky us Peace Corps Volunteers that your family shared you with us! I shall always treasure the memory of your visit to the Brent Hospital to see our new baby Heidi and see if I was okay and you brought a gift for the baby. That was so welcoming! Later on, when we were home one Sunday the Peace Corps jeep pulled up in front of our nipa house and you, Larry, and your father appeared on our doorstep to check on us, make sure we were doing all right bring your cheer, warmth and smiles to all of us-- and Dr. Rogers wanted to hold Baby Heidi which he did! Ever helpful, ever-caring- you always were! We will all miss you!
Aloha,
Lila Gardner, Honolulu, Hawaii
October 27, 2015
Ar Dheis De go Raibh a hanam dilis (RIP).
Only just began to learn about her work this month. Such a loss and such a legacy left.
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Honor a beloved veteran with a special tribute of ‘Taps’ at the National WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The nightly ceremony in Washington, D.C. will be dedicated in honor of your loved one on the day of your choosing.
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Should I Send Sympathy Flowers?
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Estate Settlement Guide
If you’re in charge of handling the affairs for a recently deceased loved one, this guide offers a helpful checklist.
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Obituaries, grief & privacy: Legacy’s news editor on NPR podcast
Legacy's Linnea Crowther discusses how families talk about causes of death in the obituaries they write.
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The Five Stages of Grief
They're not a map to follow, but simply a description of what people commonly feel.
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Obituary Examples
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Obituary Templates – Customizable Examples and Samples
These free blank templates make writing an obituary faster and easier.
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How Do I Write a Eulogy?
Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love.
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