The Wisdom Care Project offers a 1-hour program called "Wisdom Circle" for senior women in nursing homes. The goal is to create a nurturing space where seniors feel honored, empowered, and able to find peace. The program uses practices like sound meditation, sensory stimulation, guided imagery, and storytelling to enrich participants' emotional and physical experiences. Led by two facilitators with experience in counseling, sound therapy, herbal medicine, and women's spirituality, the Wisdom Circle aims to strengthen connections between participants and help them access an empowered internal space.

1. Wisdom Care Project
wisdomcareproject.com
Program Title
“Wisdom Circle”: Sound Meditation and Empathetic Sensory Stimulation Group
Program Objective
Our intention is to hold a nurturing, loving, supportive and transformative space for Elders living in nursing homes. A
space to gather with the intention to remember, recognize, strengthen, celebrate and honor their inner wisdom,
intuition and courageous hearts. We envision empowered senior women embodying with dignity their elder­hood,
finding peace in the present moment, valuing and knowing how needed their guidance is to other generations.
Our approach to caregiving focuses on the improvement of quality of life and self­worth through the honoring and
compassionate understanding of old age and explorations on how to inhabit the aging body. The program integrates
practices such as mindfulness­based elder care, sound meditation with the use of overtone­playing instruments,
voice and music therapy, sensory stimulation (herbs, flowers, oils, touch, color, light, aromas, smudges, etc), gentle
movement and massage, guided imagery and visualization, and storytelling to enrich the lived body and emotional
experience. Both verbal and nonverbal methodologies of interaction are explored based on healing approaches used
in indigenous, transpersonal and contemplative psychologies.
Program Description
A 1­hour long non­denominational circle for women designed for Elders with cognitive and physical challenges in all
stages and also patients at the end of life. Participants gather in a circle where, in ceremonial manner, a sacred
space is set to create a nourishing, peaceful, and non judgmental atmosphere, where Elders are recognized and
honored as wisdom keepers. Each group session is designed around a guiding intention to remember and celebrate
the deep bond women have to one another, strengthen the capacity to recognize the self in the circle as well as the
inner capacity to hold space for oneself and each other, reconnect to the earth and the universal elements, recall the
memories of our ancestors, and recognize the wisdom of the body. By working with voice opening, sound vibrations,
sense of smell and touch and the breath, participants access an empowered internal space to release and alleviate
suffering that can hold them back from experiencing a sense of freedom within.
Tools and Methods
Some of the examples of the tools and methods used:
● Safe space: non­hierarchical, caring, relaxing, respectful, non­judgmental, intimate container.
● Therapeutic use of sound and voice (instruments that emit harmonic overtones, singing bowls, gongs, koshi
chimes, frame drums, rattles, shruti box, chakapas, rain stick, etc.)
● Guided visualization: creative and imaginative stimulation, such as heart connection, awareness of space
and directions, identification with the moon and other forces of nature.
● Visual–spatial exercises aimed to work with deep level emotions and practices to explore sensory and
ultra­sensory memories and intuition
● Mindfulness meditation and focused breathing techniques
● Aromatherapy and flower essence therapy
● Storytelling exercises
● Body­oriented holistic therapeutic techniques to unveil relationship between body and emotions and identify
and release traumas (light yoga, movement, touch, hugging, affections, etc)
● Takeaways such as flowers.
● Symbolic tools used in various traditions and cultured to enhance imagination and healing practices such as
talking stick, feathers, gems and crystals.
● Psychoacoustics

2. Facilitators
Karina Koloch’s background and education range from social and
digital entrepreneurship to psychology and religious studies. Her
work has been always focused on bringing social change and
relief to those most neglected in the society. Over the past few
years her work has been dedicated to work with women, using
contemplative counseling and sound meditation methods to
empower and bring awareness and by organizing teachings
rounds and circles for women. She’s devoted to studying and
researching healing properties of sound and women’s spirituality
with accomplished teachers and researcher. She organizes
meditation workshops with other female teachers of various
traditions to help women discover and align with the right practices
for their personal growth.
“​I aspire to train in developing and cultivating wisdom and compassion to
benefit those who I become in contact with, to be able to empower other
women to explore their full potentials and reconnect to their intuition. To
respect and honor experiences and knowledge of elders. To help people
learn techniques and tools, which can help them bring attention to the
inner­experience and to explore the natural state of awareness and learn
how to heal and transform mental and emotional obstructions​.”
Paula Winograd is a silent activist with a background in design
and photography and experience in community organizing, group
facilitating and art as a path for social change. Through her work
Paula is interesting in the exploration of ways to empower and
experience the full range of human existence. She has been
practicing permaculture, wise women herbal medicine, holding
space for women circles, and meditation with the moon since
2011. She is the cofounder of Fundacion Musgo a non­profit
working with creative tools to plant seeds to open space for
collective transformation and exchange.
“I honor this moment in my life and the experiences and teachers that have
brought me to it. I am passionate about women's connection to the
cosmos, to nature, to each other and to our own core womb center. I’m in
awe of the cyclical feminine intuitive wisdom women carry within and the
rituals that we inherit from this wisdom. I believe in earth magic, community
strength, ritual, honoring our ancestors and elders and the sharing of our
stories. I work to empower radical self care, self­healing, the sacredness in
everyday life and the power of ritual and ceremony to reconnect with our
inner intuition, natural rythms, and wisdom. I seek to hold safe space to
reclaim reconnect and empower the connection of mind, body, heart and
spirit and deepen our relationship with the Earth. Im humbled to do the
work I do.”

3.
Current Clients Referrals to Contact
• Hudson Pointe at Riverdale: Grace White, Director of Recreation, Phone: 718.514.2000, Email address:
GWhite@nathealthcare.com
• Methodist Home for Nursing and Rehabilitation, Andrew Ferreyra, Director of Recreation and Volunteer Services,
718­548­5100 ext 225, Email address: ​aferreyra@mchny.org
** Additional Credentials
● Lucia McBee currently mentors us, she is the author of "Mindfulness-Based Elder Care" book.
● Paula has been studying with Lucia McBee at The Continuum Center for Health and Healing, attending the
course on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
● Paula also does her apprenticeship with Robin Rose Bennet (​http://robinrosebennett.com/​). Robin is a
writer, author of many books, speaker and respected herbalist.
● Paula has been practicing herbal medicine, holding space for women circles, and meditation with the moon
since 2011
● Karina has finished her first phase of Compassion Cultivation Training with Stanford Compassion and
Altruism Research Program (​http://ccare.stanford.edu/​)
● Karina has been studying and co-facilitated together with Alexandre Tannous sound meditations for
women. He is an internationally respected sound therapist and researcher, currently head of the sound
therapy program at New York Open Center (​soundmeditation.com​)
● For the last 3 years, Karina has been also studying meditation practices designed for women with teachers
of different traditions: Lama Tsultrim Allione, Regina Koerten, Karla Jackson Brewer, Clarissa Pinkola Estes
and also just recently began studying traditional drumming methods for women with Rowan Storm.