The Story Behind Our Advocacy

In 2015, Vanessa Wilde taught an Improv class for couples. One of the women in the course Amy, just so happened to be a friend - and the Education Director at Alzheimer’s San Diego. She took the course with her husband and immediately experienced the benefits of improv in her marriage.

Excitedly, Amy contacted Vanessa shortly after with a really big idea. She proposed offering improv to the caregivers of memory loss patients to help reduce stress and conflict in their interactions and asked Vanessa to develop and facilitate the program. Vanessa invited her improv partner Chris Nielson to join the cause and together they created the Living in the Moment Workshops.

The Yes, And principle of improv is the basis for Living in the Moment Workshops. The program, developed by Amy Abrams, Vanessa Wilde and Chris Neilson is offered twice a year at Alzheimer’s San Diego headquarters.

The program has now expanded its educational offerings to include Not the Same Old Story: A storytelling workshop for caregivers of memory loss patients. This highly interactive workshop premiered at the ACLA conference in Scottsdale, AZ April, 2019. It will be and will be offered again at the Life Care Planning Law Firms Association (LCPLFA) Annual Conference in San Diego, CA on March 5th, 2020.

To bring this program to your conference or event, contact Vanessa at Vanessa@OImprov.com.