Steven, I can’t thank you enough. You are a true healer, a special soul, and I am so grateful our paths crossed and I was able to take the workshop. I feel different this week - lighter, happier, more alive and inspired. My inner dialogue has become much more loving and I’ve been connecting to and honoring that four year old little girl when fear or self-criticism comes up. What a healing, nurturing and transformative 6 week journey with an amazing group of people, I’ll forever cherish the group experience.

I.A.H.

Steven's workshop has been a roller coaster with my feelings towards my childhood trauma. My feelings before I began the workshop was complete fear base but also excitement. My first meeting I wanted to cancel. Steven introduced me to the other group members and I felt really safe and non judgmental. Steven created an amazing environment for all of us to share our stories. The group was all super supportive. Steven gave us a very clear guideline to start our raw materials and write from the heart. He utilized his talent as a successful writer to guide us to format our stories in a screenplay format. It was so neat to write down all my feelings of a trauma I buried so deep.

I used to feel this type of aggression towards men, my relations were always super toxic and I went through so much talk therapy my entire adult life. But Steven's workshop offered an outlet for us to release and heal. I feel so much lighter and less angry with the world.

T.H.

I just completed Steven Shibuya’s workshop journey of self discovery by screenwriting our own trauma. I have been fighting this tragic moment in my life for over 40 years. I am in therapy and attending men’s healing circle groups. But by attending Steve’s workshop I felt so much better emotionally. Steve was able to make this workshop very motivating and peaceful. He is very attentive to everyone’s story and gives great feedback. He was able to get 5 strangers in a room and share our stories without any judgement, and it became a very peaceful and trusting group. He is able to make me feel confident and not ashamed of my story. With his guidance I was able to find my inner peace with his teaching. He made screenwriting fun, I never wrote this way and he made it fun and easy. I will forever be grateful to him because I was able to put my pain to rest. I am a better person because of Steve’s teaching in this workshop.

P.M.

Steve Shibuya is a treasure. I had deep trauma from an abusive experience in childhood. I had made many attempts at dealing with it, but still felt intense shame. In our trauma writing workshop with Steve I recreated the situation for the first time. At that point I felt it was too heavy to read. It took all my effort to share it with our class. They were beyond supportive. I can truly say I am recovering from the heavy burden I once carried. Even better, we’re continuing to work on issues of the past. Kudos to Steve and the power of his workshop!

C.L.

I committed to this workshop and actually missed one day of it due to the intensity of it and still operating in immaturity. My life was a mess. Being a single mom on disability, I struggled. I did notice some growth however. I was getting out of bed more and doing chores around the house more by myself. My daughter noticed I was being more sensitive to her needs. I really started accepting my limitations. I signed a work from home contract that lasted 3 months and was able to complete the work. I was much more conscious about my actions and how I responded to others. Fast forward to June of this year, 2023, I finished my fifth workshop with Steve! I now have so much more control over my life. I’m working for a company I love and able to do so much more around the house. My eldest son joined me and my daughter and this was a dream come true. We are all working together on a business and I have finished my first book about all of the screenplays I did, a sort of Memoir with all 5 of the screenplays inserted and just now about ready to release called “Scars On The Page” I owe so much of my success to Steve although he won’t accept it. He always says “Not me, but YOU did it."

L.F.

The effects of childhood trauma continues to live in us, rooted in the trauma experience, in our subconscious, causing pain, fear, negative self-esteem throughout our lives. That part of ourself does not mature with the rest of us as we grow in to adulthood. In Steve’s workshop, I was able to recover and restore the “little girl” me that had been molested, humiliated and deeply neglected. I now feel whole.

B.V.

I took Steve’s DTM workshop in June/July 2022. The workshop really helped open me up, and gave me the ability to address trauma that I have been carrying around my entire life. Doing the work through the vehicle of screenwriting gave me an opportunity to look at the events with incredible detail, and to see it from another perspective. It actually helped me realize some things that I hadn’t considered. All in all the workshop was profound. It took me on a journey of deeply guarded emotions and events, ultimately helping me to start the process of healing and to begin a new life of true forgiveness and self discovery.

A.E.

I am writing this letter as a personal reference for Mr. Steve Shibuya, I am a life skills instructor in the Los Angeles county jails and met Mr. Shibuya through one of the administrators. Mr. Shibuya has been teaching a screenwriting workshop for my class since 2018 and has brought tremendous change in the students.

Mr. Shibuya has a unique style of utilizing the skills of screenwriting to help students make sense of their own life path and how it landed them behind bars. I have personally witnessed Mr. Shibuya help students learn skills to cope, instill hope and regain dignity through the power of words. I have been consistently impressed with Mr. Shibuya’s passion and flexibility. Even in a difficult environment, he is able to hold boundaries, yet teach in a non-judgmental and compassionate manner.

I am confident that he will devote himself to a position with your organization with a high degree of diligence and responsibility. He will establish productive relationships with your staff and constituents and continue to help change lives of his students.

I enthusiastically recommend Mr. Steve Shibuya without reservation. Please feel free to contact me if I can answer any questions. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Aileen Hongo
MSW, MAG, CCTP

Steve Shibuya is a very supportive, understanding, and gentle facilitator during the "Defining the Moment" (DTM) Workshops. I wrote two screenplays that are helping me heal from past traumas. I highly recommend participating in the DTM, I certainly plan on attending again! Digging deep into the pain of the past is the most effective way to move forward and mending.

Dr. Sherri Raftery
Professor, Toastmaster, Published Poet, Grandmother

When I first learned about Steven's workshop, DTM I was intrigued. As a person in recovery in many different aspects of my life, and a person who uses these experiences, to not only continue to grow but also help others by publicly sharing her story, I was attracted to the possibility that one adverse childhood trauma was affecting my entire life, and how identifying it and writing it out in a screenplay format, would be able to help me understand it and therefore process it, changing my life and how I viewed the world, for the better. Was that really possible? I am here to tell you it is! In meeting the multifaceted Steven and having gone through his outstanding workshop I was able to rewrite a part of my story where I had been wronged as a child. In this short but deep undertaking, I was able to find this specific event, detail it out, understand the effect it had on me when it happened, and see how it has played a role in the actions and reactions that I have today. After finishing this outstanding workshop, I have been able to make actual changes in my life by recognizing where much of my self-sabotaging came from. Thank you, Steven Shibuya, for your heartfelt and courageous workshop! I recommend it highly for all who want to live their life free from the trauma that can keep you bound!

Diana Cortez Yanez,
International Public Speaker, Suicide Prevention Advocate, Peer Support Specialist