Peer Writing with A Cup of Jo Bruno

10/14/2025

ACoJB consulting is a peer support, lived-experience approach to guided story telling. For those of you who want to tell your story but don't know how, or who to tell it to, or what to do all the content, I can help Jo Bruno

10/13/2025

It's about time we go viral

06/13/2025

Will you donate and sponsor The Housing Action Plan, an ACoJB Jo Bruno publication. Please.

Please donate and sponsor the DP Housing Action Plan

03/11/2025

I believe my book, The Wench's Cocktale has gone international, and I haven't been paid for it yet 💯

03/04/2025

For many years I have expressed myself via written word. I write. I love to write as I process. I write what I practice, what I preach, and what I pray for. I've been inspired by many people but a lot of stories are riddled with pain. I haven't written in quite a few months, maybe even close to a year. I haven't had much to process. Nothing inspired me to express myself. I've felt empty for a long time now. Then, here I am, a moment of darkness met with kindness and love. Failure meets "try again". Eye contact, invites, love. Not received. Alone. But inspired once again by the nothingness. I'm inspired by the amount of hope I held. I'm inspired by my style of love. I was inspired by myself, and I love that Jo Bruno

02/15/2025

Sometimes a hug lingers Jo Bruno Do you remember the embrace, calming hands against the waistline, and then that gentle kiss behind the ear 💯🍄 still, even after all these years, you're there Husbandman. As I am there, always.

BRING ME BACK

I’m here, you know.
In the quiet spaces between your thoughts,
In the soft light that brushes your face,
In the smile you wear when you’re thinking of me.

I didn’t go far.
I’m in the sunflowers that turn their faces toward the light,
In the birds that greet the morning with song.
Every time you smile,
It’s like I’m right there beside you.

I watch as you move through life,
And I know it’s not easy.
But remember, love, I’m still with you.
I’m in every breath of wind that stirs the trees,
In the warmth you feel when the sun touches your skin.
These are my whispers to you,
Telling you I’m never really gone.

Every time you feel the flutter of a butterfly,
Or the soft rustle of a leaf in the wind,
That’s me,
Just a breath away,
Reaching for you,
Reminding you that love doesn’t end.

You don’t have to see me to know I’m here.
I’m the smile on your face when something feels right,
The peace that washes over you when you stop to listen.
You feel me in the quiet, in the simple things,
and that’s where I am -
In every moment that makes you feel loved,
In every heart that brings you joy,
Everything that gives you peace.

I’m here,
I’m always here,
In every butterfly,
Every sunflower,
But it’s your smile -
That beaufiful smile,
It pulls me through the distance,
Brings me back,
Now, always, forever -
It brings me back
To you.

11/18/2024

Hey Jo, The Housing Justice Storytelling Initiative is an intensive workshop to develop and share video stories of courageous hope and collective action that center Bay Area residents who have experienced housing insecurity.

The initiative is designed to empower and engage storytellers, strengthen video production skills within the housing justice movement, and build narrative power so that people can see and believe that we are building a future where everyone can afford to live and thrive in the Bay Area.

The Housing Justice Storytelling Initiative is an intensive workshop to develop and share video stories of courageous hope and collective action that center Bay Area residents who have experienced housing insecurity. The initiative is designed to empower and engage storytellers, strengthen video p....

11/04/2024

The last time I leveled up on this professional play ground was 2017/18 (just about 7 years ago) when I established The Massage Garage Pit Crew with National Holistic Institute. I encouraged quite a few folks to take the NHI course and work with the Pit Crew. I became a liaison for hundreds of massage therapists in the Bay Area, providing onsite chair massage for employee wellness. Kaiser employees got a lot of care from us. So, the Pit Crew went out of business in 2019 as I started to battle homelessness, then COVID hit. Through 2019/2020 I lost everything and literally had to start over. I lost my finances. I lost my home. I lost family and friends. I lost faith. I did, however, gain insight and a support group I just adore. So, as I was crawling out of my journey of recovery and darkness, I created the foundation of Delta Peers. What my therapist at the time called a 4 day BiPolar manic episode, but whatever. I created a badass program. So, I then encountered the SPIRIT program through Contra Costa College, and became Valedictorian 2021! Yes I did style! I then became lived-experience advisor of our council on homeless. Currently exiting from a 4 year venture. My SPIRIT internship research project produced the Constitution of Intent, an ACoJB publication. As valedictorian, it's my responsibility to encourage folks to take SPIRIT just like I did with NHI internship program and The Pit Crew. There's also a specific Delta Peers program for NHI students who take SPIRIT because trauma informed massage therapy needs to be a reality! I created a WRAP program for homelessness that mirrors the Wellness Recovery Action Plan for SPIRIT graduates and many other peer specialists. I'm also well-trained in facilitation of WRAP and have a very specific network of SPIRIT trained facilitators who have Delta Peers training too. I have also brought more SPIRIT graduates into our council on homelessness; it's an epic web connecting us all. We're a large network of massage therapist, trauma informed peer specialists and lived-experience advisors. The plan is to infiltrate the system, one peer at a time. The goal is to express the lived-experience of folks who have utilized our system of care so we can change public policy. The overall purpose is to encourage people to live a trauma informed life and use that lens when we communicate, listen, vote, create programs, ask for money, and most importantly reflect on our choices and learn how to live better with others. This entire thing is for the new world, and I will not accept anything less. I do not, cannot separate business and personal. My personal life is my business; it's my brand. My conversations are like constant interviews. My interactions are forever mirroring reality of my feels. I know too much but also know I know nothing at all. It's well known I don't like a lot of people but it's even more well known that those I do love are forever associated with my business adventures. Literally written into the business plans. So, as I level up once more, in 2025 I will be met with less friendships, more solitude, less trust, more money, less crying, more laughter, less fear, more happiness. I will find my own housing, maybe become her to Husbandman, and have a kid. Might even f**k around and find out I'm mayor of Antioch. Whatever! I'm good.