Life Performance Coaching
“Helen Abel and Eileen Moncoeur’s ‘Creating New Performances of Growing Older’ came along at just the right time for me. Feeling isolated by the COVID-19 quarantine, I was connected through Zoom with a group of people from around the U.S. who were in various stages of aging. Through performance techniques and thoughtful leadership, I found myself really caring for the others…and will never forget the two couples who were dealing with dementia. Both women who cared for their husbands told of how much love they each felt for each other even though their lives were greatly changed. It is inspiring and hopeful to realize that life can be rewarding even in troubling times.”
— Susan Van Kuiken
“What are we going to create tonight?” is always on our minds, if not said out loud. The group has such a rich palette to work with. Joyce and Randy are life performing masters and I enjoy doing the hard work of creating with them each week.”
— Alice, 70, administrative coordinator, retired, New York, NY
“Joyce and Randy are an amazing co-coaching partnership! My partner and I have gotten closer, are more playful and loving thanks to our work with Joyce and Randy in their partner group series. It is so powerful to participate in building a group with other partners that is not about fixing problems in the relationship! Joyce and Randy are so skilled at helping us broaden our views and getting out our own couple narratives.”
— Jennifer Bullock, 52, psychotherapist, Philadelphia, PA
“My participation in a series of shorter-term” Creatively Aging” groups has allowed me (at age 60) to work with fellow travelers (aged 50s through 90s) on improvising some heartfelt, playful ways of experiencing the passage of time, the significance of illness and physical changes – and our shared capacity for lifelong development throughout our whole lives. As a member of a longer-term ongoing group…I am moved by how a group of diverse individuals can commit to meeting regularly, jointly producing an unpredictable something that didn’t exist before, and shape-shift in ways that enable new conversations with the rest of the changing world.”
— Sean, 60, consultant, San Francisco, CA
Director
Joyce Dattner is a life performance coach who has led groups and practiced social therapeutics for over 40 years. Joyce directs Life Performance Coaching and leads in-person and virtual social therapeutic coaching groups from coast to coast. While a NYC public school teacher in the 1970s, she joined East Side Institute founder Fred Newman and other educators and helping professionals in developing social therapeutics. A faculty member of the Institute’s Social Therapy and Emotional Development Department, Joyce is an accomplished teacher and facilitator who has travelled the globe to help advance social therapeutics. She is founding director of the All Stars Project (ASP) of the San Francisco/Bay Area and a former member of the ASP national board.
Staff
Helen Abel is a life performance coach who has practiced, and helped develop, the social therapeutic approach for over four decades. She co-leads short term groups on “Creating New Performances of Dementia, Memory Loss, and Growing Older.” Helen also leads the Playground series, which helps participants discover their capacity to create, perform and play. She has been instrumental in building Life Performance Coaching as a hub for performance activism and has led workshops in London, Greece, Serbia and the U.S. Helen received her MSW from New York University and has worked at a number of social service and health agencies, including Alameda County Behavioral Health for 23 years.




Randy Wilson (they/them/theirs) is an experienced life coach trained in social therapeutics who excels at creating intimate and philosophical environments that are both loving and challenging. Having lived with HIV – and faced other serious challenges – over the last four decades, Randy is passionate about helping clients become more creative choice makers and believes that participating in building communities of development helps to reshape and redefine their relationship to emotional and physical pain. As part of the East Side Institute’s Tech Production Team, they have helped lead an expansion of the Institute’s global offerings.