Certified Facilitator Spotlight

April 21, 2020

Meet Jacqueline Thea

Jacqueline Thea approached TimeSlips about certification training last November. An advocate for elders with extensive experience in working with seniors as a guardian/conservator in California and Oregon, she has also worked as a nurse and counselor. Her joy is easily shared! Jacqueline recently published a book: “Wake Up Your Fairy Grandmother Within: You’re Never Too Old To be Young at Heart.” She also presents regularly on awakening the joy within ourselves to care communities. We recently asked her 5 “Beautiful Questions.” May her answers enchant and inspire you as much as they did us!

What interests you about TimeSlips?
TimeSlips interests me because the program focuses on the positive, what is available––the imagination, the half-full glass, rather than what is lost––the memory, the half-empty glass. A little more than a year ago, in a moment of deep sorrow over the loss of Prince, my charming Greyhound and beloved companion, I was blessed with a vision of a fairy Grandmother who granted my true heart’s desire. Prince came back to live in my heart, transforming my grief into joy. I wanted to share that joy with others. TimeSlips gives me and my fairy Grandmother a way to help generate a sense of joy in others by stirring their imagination through creative storytelling.

What do you love most about what you do?
The freedom to be me, to find what sparks joy in my life and share it with others. I’ve had many careers and opportunities to serve in the helping professions as a nurse, counselor, professional guardian/conservator and author. Now as a volunteer, I have a new mission in my healthy old age. I use my experiences to explore new ways to help spark joy in the lives of other elders, especially those less fortunate than myself.

How does TimeSlips influence the work I do?
It gives me another tool in my bag of tricks to help people with memory loss to touch the wonder and enchantment of their imagination and pool of life experiences. Asking beautiful questions is like casting a fishing net into that pool and being delighted with your catch.

What is the one thing your fairy Grandmother would like to say to anyone looking to try TimeSlips?
I believe we all have a spirit of joy within ourselves that I call our fairy Grandmother. Using TimeSlips can help wake up that fairy Grandmother and spark joy in our lives by stirring the imagination. WooHoo!

If you could wave a magic wand to solve one problem. What would it be?
I would dissolve the block––whether it is fear, anxiety, doubt or hurt–– whatever keeps an individual from experiencing his/her own deep felt joy and love of life.