Speaking & Workshops

My Mission

We can all choose to walk a path with an open heart and inner strength.
My work can support your path to be one of personal development, service to a greater cause and positive influence in your circle of friends and family.

Speaking and Workshops

Since 2000 Brenda has guided 1000’s of theatre-goers, people in spiritual communities, faculty and students of colleges and high-schools and trainers and survivors in the field of domestic violence in effecting proactive, intentional change.  She deeply knows the issues and skills involved in forgiving the unforgivable in order to experience freedom and peace. She has a master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology from The University of Santa Monica, but more than that she has lived the lessons she learned and knows how to teach them to others. She is a trained prayer chaplain and sat on the board of Unity Church of Sedona.

Brenda offers a number of speeches and workshops geared to awaken people to their true potential. She emphasizes the importance of digging beneath the surface so you can succeed in your life right now. To reinforce and support the forgiveness tools people receive from her speeches, Brenda offers on-site coaching and teleseminars.

Keynote Presentations

1. One-hour and fifteen minute performance of ‘My Brooklyn Hamlet,’ the powerful one-woman show based on her family, murder, and the power of forgiveness.

For a detailed history on my one-woman show, My Brooklyn Hamlet, visit my site.

2. Abridged version of ‘My Brooklyn Hamlet.’

(Can be performed without lighting and sound technician)

A Question and Answer Session is included directly following each performance when requested.

Brenda,

More than a week has passed since your visit to Manhattanville College and our students are still praising your moving and powerful performance and the workshop following. Among the gifts you offer are honesty, courage, genuine emotion without sentimentality and a humane and welcome sense of possibility and regeneration. I was particularly struck by the openness, coherence and compassion of the workshop, how suddenly and surely forgiveness and the desire to forgive arose in the room-clearly the therapeutic model is close to your heart. So on behalf of the students and faculty of the Department of Dance & Theatre and those from the Duchesne Center, our deepest thanks and appreciation. Please keep in touch and let us know when you are next in the east.

All good wishes and success.
Kol tuv.

Michael

Professor Michael Posnick, Director
Department of Dance & Theatre
Manhattanville College 2900 Purchase St.Purchase, NY 10577
914 323 3209

“I saw Brenda Adelman’s performance in September of 2006, while attending the annual conference of the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Having worked as a domestic violence advocate and therapist for 15 years, I thought I understood the emotional experience of survivors, children, and offenders quite well. Yet, as I watched Brenda’s life unfold before my eyes, I came to a humbling conclusion:

I did not understand how survivors, including myself, could still love, still trust, still forgive, after all the pain our abusive partners or parents caused.

That is, not until she spoke to her father, “I hate you, I love you.”

For in that moment, I realized how unforgiving and resentful I had been toward those in my life and in my field who caused me harm, or inadvertently revictimized those clients with whom I identified.

I had thought I was cured, when in reality, I was holding onto hatred, and denying my love.

Brenda Adelman’s moving performance opened the door to my own further healing. She is an amazing woman, with courage, strength, and above all compassion. She normalized the experience of my being a survivor, and made it okay to feel again.

Though it was over a year ago that I witnessed her performance, it inspires me to this day. Now, I am able to find and restore the sweet souls beneath the scars of indignity that she has forever opened my eyes to see.”

With Infinite Gratitude,

Deena Stewart-Hitzke, M.A.H.R.,.M.A.P.C.,
L.I.S.A.C.
Domestic Violence Educator, Treatment Provider, and Advocate.
Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Survivor

Workshops

Forgiving the Unforgivable as a Pathway to Happiness

Brenda, known as The Queen of Forgiveness, has lived the kind of dramatic life that story books and news segments on television are made of. From sleep-walking through her life, to her shocking awakening because of tragedy, to forgiveness mastery, she has learned how to let go of the limiting beliefs she took on as a girl, how to face the harsh reality of her life without closing her heart down, and how to activate healing in others by creatively sharing her journey.

Now Brenda is ready to tell her story. In excerpts from her acclaimed one-woman show, My Brooklyn Hamlet, she’ll show you how to face the unthinkable, forgive the unforgivable and take your joy back. On your terms.
Forgiving the Unforgivable as a Pathway to Happiness is the distillation of what Brenda has learned from her mother’s brutal murder in 1995 by her father and his subsequent marriage to her aunt. She shares what has set her free to enjoy her life again and have a peaceful heart without being in denial about what happened. In this session, Brenda will show you just how exciting, creative and inspiring your life can be by revealing how she triumphed over tragedy.

Ultimately, she’ll let you in on the greatest secret of all- how to build a fulfilling life by letting go of the past and moving into the present. You’ll learn the surprising truths that she lives by:
1. Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. (So create a positive outlook now!)
2. Obstacles are not failures. (They are pointers to get you on track and in alignment with what you were meant to do)
3. You have ALL the answers within you. (Learn to tap into and to trust your innate wisdom)
4. Forgiveness makes you feel better. (If someone else benefits-great)
5. Making money and living large is wonderful (Yes, you deserve it!)

The Art of Forgiveness: Creative Ways to release your anger

Acting your Story: Activating Your Healing

Participants learn tools of forgiveness that they can immediately implement into their lives.

Options:

Workshops can be one-hour, two hours, ½ day or a full day.

Retreats:
1st Night: Performance of ‘My Brooklyn Hamlet’
2nd day: Full day workshop on The Power of Forgiveness.
(includes elements of all three workshops)

Contact Brenda for booking information

” As for the forgiveness workshop…The one specific that really stuck with me was the analogy of anger being like a poison that we drink, and then expecting the person at whom we’re angry to get sick. I don’t wanna drink the poison anymore! I am also a big fan of (though I don’t always take the time to do) healing work in a group format. I find sharing parts of my story and hearing parts of other people’s stories (in a safe, non-judgemental, non-victimy setup) to be very cathartic and helpful. Your workshop provided that atmosphere.”

Marah
Massage Therapist
Flagstaff, AZ

With Brenda’s background in Spiritual Psychology and outstanding stage performance lives are transformed and healing takes place. I encourage everyone involved in domestic violence groups, or those interested in the personal transformation of forgiveness to see the play and attend one of Brenda’s workshops.

Karen Koebnick Stellar Productions Sedona AZ.

Stellar Productions
Transformational Events, Journeys & Conferences
www.stellarproductionslive.com

Brenda Adelman’s powerful and authentic presentation in a writers workshop I was taking moved me deeply and has inspired me to retrace some of my history–or “her-story”. I became vitally aware that I have more personal forgiveness and healing to do through this vehicle of
story telling in my own voice. Brenda’s artistry and compassion can assist in clearing the way.

Marian Sears . age 77

Brenda Adelman has the rare combination of having been profoundly wounded by life, having a willingness to bring her wounding into the public eye with great love and immense humor, and being an extraordinary talent. Her show captures the audience from the moment she steps onto the stage and she holds our attention throughout. Finally, and most significantly, the show is an experience in healing for all who attend. In my opinion, as a spiritual teacher who spent years encarcerated and living the dark side in my earlier life, nothing impacts us more than to actually see someone who has returned from the darkness with a message of redemption. Such is the case of Brenda Adelman and her phenomenal show, My Brooklyn Hamlet.

Rev. Mark Pope
Minister/Unity Church of Sedona
Founder/ The Awakening Heart Center of Sedona

Brenda’s Speaking and Performance History

Schools and Youth:

• University of Hawaii
• Manhattanville College (Purchase NY)
• Verde Valley School (Sedona, AZ)
• Red Rock High School (Sedona, AZ)
• Campbell HS (Ewa, HI)
• Communities in Schools (Wiapahu, HI) ages 8-15

Theatres/Festivals/Cultural Centers:

• Theatrikos Theatre (Flagstaff, AZ)
• Canyon Moon Theatre (Sedona, AZ)
• Actors Art Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)
• Philip Cotloff Center (NYC, NY)
• Red Tent Womens Project (Brooklyn, NY)
• Dr. S. Steven Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture at The Brooklyn Public Library (Comedies and Tragedies Festival)
• The 11th Annual Los Angeles Womens Theatre Festival
• Until The Violence Stops: NYC festival
• V-Day Sedona
• Repair the World-an International Jewish Theatre Festival (Vienna, Austria)
• Pulse Ensemble Theatre (NYC, NY)
• LATC (Los Angeles, CA)
• Bang Comedy Theatre (Los Angeles)

Spiritual Communities

• Unity Church (Sedona, Flagstaff, Hawaii)
• Church of Religious Science (Flagstaff, AZ)
• Jewish Community Center of the Verde Valley (Sedona, AZ)
• Seicho No Iea (Maui and Oahu, HI)
• Spiritual Mastery Circle (Beverly Hills)

Associations / Organizations:

• Association for Jewish Theatre
• Jewish Women International (Phoenix, AZ)
• International Hawaii Forgiveness Project
• Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AZ

Conferences:

• Celebrating the Divine Feminine (Sedona, AZ) Stellar Productions
• Secrets of Activating Your Personal Power, (Panelist alongside Dr. Michael Beckwith)
• The Gift of Shift
• Healthy Living: Aging with Grace (Scottsdale, AZ)

Workshops:

• Forgiving the Unforgivable: The Path to Freedom
• The 3 Steps to Forgive and Finally Be Free

Teleclasses:

• Forgiving the Unforgivable
• Setting Healthy Boundaries in Love and Life
• The 3 Steps to Forgive and Finally Be Free

Domestic Violence Community Clients: (Keynote presenter, speaker, trainer)

• The Verde Valley Sanctuary
• AZ Coalition against Domestic Violence
• NM Coalition against Domestic Violence
• Healthy Families Training (Phoenix, AZ)
• Prevent Child Abuse (AZ)
• The Children’s Aid Society (NYC, NY)
• Time-Out Shelter (Payson, AZ)
• Coconino Coalition for Children and Youth (Flagstaff)
• Dr. Kathie Mathis DV training

Awards:

• Recipient of 2008 Hero of Forgiveness award by The Hawaii International Forgiveness Project
• Best Actress Award 2007 at The Zaki Gordan Film Festival for ‘Daddy’s Girl’

Training:

Acting:

• The Riverside Shakespeare Company (NYC, NY)
• The Atlantic Theatre Company (NYC, NY)
• The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
• The Beverly Hills Playhouse
• Larry Moss Studios (Michelle Danner, Improv workout, On-Camera Technique)

Voice :

• Bob Corff

Dance:

• Cindera Che

Improv/ Stand-up:

• Bang/ Judy Carter

Acting Experience:

• Theatre
• film
• stand-up
• improvisation troupe (Laugh on the Rocks)
• One-woman show
• commercials
• print model

Other training/ experience:

• MA in Spiritual Psychology, assistant for 2 years
• Prayer Chaplain for Unity Church, Board member for 1 year, volunteer with youth ministry
• Boys and Girls Club: volunteer, Cedar’s Sinai: volunteer in pediatrics

“We were taken to the edge of human existence…Brenda Adelman’s My Brooklyn Hamlet, relived her mother’s murder by her father (who then married the victim’s sister), a drama that created a classical Greek catharsis in a modern Brooklyn setting.”

Henrik Eger, Ph. D., Association for Jewish Theatre

“Brenda Adelman has the rare combination of having been profoundly wounded by life, having a willingness to bring her wounding into the public eye with great love and immense humor, and being an extraordinary talent. Her show captures the audience from the moment she steps onto the stage and she holds our attention throughout. Finally, and most significantly, the show is an experience in healing for all who attend. In my opinion, as a spiritual teacher who spent years encarcerated and living the dark side in my earlier life, nothing impacts us more than to actually see someone who has returned from the darkness with a message of redemption. Such is the case of Brenda Adelman and her phenomenal show, My Brooklyn Hamlet.”

Rev. Mark Pope
Minister/Unity Church of Sedona
Founder/ The Awakening Heart Center of Sedona