Archive for the ‘community’ Category

Project Green Prom

PGP_logo

Continuing her involvement with Teens Turning Green, Kathleena volunteered at the Project Green Prom fashion show at The Village in Corte Madera in May 2009. You can read more about Project Green Prom in the Marin Independent Journal. In the photo below, taken by Robert Tong, you can see her applying environmentally friendly cosmetics to Morgan Abbett.

Morgan Abbett, a junior at the Branson School, gets her face done by Kathleena Gorga before the start of a fashion show at Project Green Prom Shop in Corte Madera. (IJ photo/Robert Tong)

Embracing True Beauty and the Beauty of Giving Back

Embracing True Beauty Workshop (photo by Ivy Rashid Mulholland)

Embracing True Beauty Workshop (photo by Ivy Rashid Mulholland)

My friend Sonja, author of beauty blog The Coveted, invited me to do a workshop with Chinese teens on March 29th that incorporated self-care, beauty and makeup tips, as well as a photography session. Neutrogena was good enough to donate products. Read Sonja’s post for all the details.

Teens for Safe Cosmetics

Teens for Safe Cosmetics strives “to inform teens about an all-encompassing eco-lifestyle, beginning with greener alternative choices in cosmetics and personal care products as many ingredients have links to cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm.”

Kathleena appeared in a YouTube video with the Marin-based coalition and participated in the Zensational Green Spa at the 2008 Radio Alice Now and Zen Fest.

Watch the YouTube video where Kathleena talks about Jane Iredale cosmetics as part of a Teens for Safe Cosmetics event.

Elders Expressing Their Beauty

Conscious Beauty was part of the celebration for National Nursing Home Week by bringing a little nurturing, styling and outer beauty appreciation to some lovely ladies at the Villa Marin Retirement Home in Terra Linda, CA on Mothers day.

National Nursing Home Week began on Mother’s Day, May 11, 2008 and continues through May 17, 2008. American Health Care Association established the week-long celebration in 1967. Activities are designed to foster intergenerational relationships, collect and preserve patients’ reminiscences, strengthen relationships with family members, celebrate quality, and recognize all staff members who demonstrate excellent care giving.

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Chrysalis

Kathleena facilitated a special workshop for women recovering from drug and alcohol addiction at a residential detox facility called Chrysalis in Oakland, CA. The purpose of the workshop was to help participants to explore and nurture a healthier, more loving relationship with their bodies and to foster more self esteem.

Utilizing a combination of modalities that included movement, theater exercises, music, & singing, Kathleena crafted a program that culminated in a mask ceremony, “Removing The Mask of Addiction.” With the support of other participants, each woman experienced her face being cast with plaster strips during a guided meditation to create a personal “shadow mask.”

The sensation of the hardening strips of plaster on the face provided a powerful metaphor for the suffocating effects of substance addiction. Subsequently, the masks were painted and adorned creating an alchemic opportunity for the captured shadow soul fragments to be transformed into beautiful pieces of art.

Click images to enlarge.

masks-naked alchemy

stories masks-painted

Moebius

Moebius Syndrome is an extremely rare condition which typically affects the sixth and seventh cranial nerves. These nerves affect the face and eye muscles and cause facial paralysis. Characteristics of Moebius Syndrome include lack of facial expression, crossed eyes, and inability to smile.

SoulIt was a pleasure and a privilege for me to offer a presentation at the 2006 Moebius Syndrome Conference  about “Embracing Our Deep Beauty”. The first part dealt with nurturing an inner beauty experience daily and the second part demonstrated outer beauty enhancement and transformation with the help of Kryolan Cosmetics.

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