Looks good, Rob, thanks for setting this up! We were just talking today about your suggestion to find something that is already being measured and see if a change can be made in it through teaching focusing. State or city health departments probably have records of how many prescriptions are written for anti-depression medication, also how many work days are lost due to depression. Vermont's state government seems to want to be on the cutting edge of health care reform, and part of that is cost-effectiveness. So maybe we could design a project that would teach focusing and see if the prescription anti-depressant drug usage goes down. It might be an effective way to get governments interested in community focusing. What do you think?
I think that's a great idea! If you can get access to that data, then you've got something that's 1) easy to measure, and 2) very important to governments. You'd want to have a research consultant for something that big, but the state might provide that for you.
Thanks, Rob for setting it up. I have never really gotten into blogging before. We';ll see how this works for us!
Beatrice that sounds like a stunning project! When we talked the other day, I didn't hear this about the measurement possibility. Maybe you said it. Good idea!
I don't know how to do this next part, to post. Guess I'll try to follow the directions. Oh, have to sign up to be able to leave a comment. ok, I did that. Now lets see if it works Nina Joy
The July 14 issue of Time magazine has an article (p. 23) about Major League Baseball's commitment to "raise $100 million to provide free psychological counseling for returning veterans'.
"There's just a tremendous need for counseling " says Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The Department of Veterans Affairs psychological counseling program is overwhelmed. The suicide rates for returning vets are just off the charts. If Major League Baseball can get this program up to scale, we could save thousands of lives."
The following is from the website set up to raise funds for the effort, welcomebackveterans.org:
"...three major universities -- Cornell, Michigan and Stanford -- are collaborating to create a "protocol" for helping returning veterans -- and their family members -- avoid mental health problems commonly associated with life after combat. This will be free of charge and available soon.
"That would be the start of what we hope will be a network around the country, connected with the V.A. hospitals and the Department of Defense areas, where we will have the troops and their families treated for free," Wilpon (owner of New York Mets) said.'
Does anyone have connections at Cornell, Michigan or Stanford?
David Young on TFI's discussion list has been working with PTSD and veterans.
The cover story in Time two weeks ago was how troops are on Prozac.
We're talking about large-scale community mental health, so could this be an opening?
Here is another quote from welcomebackveterans.org that reflects a part of counseling that focusing would be so good at. It's from a returning woman soldier:
"All the guys I came back with, they still to this day, they all feel 'different,'" she said. "You can't really put your finger on it. Unfortunately, you turn to drinking, you do things that you wouldn't normally do. We've lost a couple of guys just this past week. Another of my very close friends, who I was extremely close with over there, he died in a drunk-driving accident, 3 o'clock in the morning on Wednesday. We don't know why. I had spoken to him earlier that week. You just don't feel normal. You almost seek adventure, or thrills, to feel normal again.
"Generally, what's hard about reintegrating back into everyday civilian life is that it's not structured. Military life is very structured. You wake up at this time, you eat this, you go to bed, you work, you know exactly what you're doing to get the mission for the day. You have so much freedom when you come back home, that you don't know what to do with yourself. You don't know what you're supposed to be doing. Your whole mindset is focused on: 'There's a mission. What am I supposed to be doing?'
So coming back here and transferring into freedom, if you will, it was overwhelming. It's extremely overwhelming to be able to make every decision on your own, when for nine months you didn't have to do any of that."
Wow, Beatrice, you sure are finding possibilities! I don't know if anyone has ties already to veteran treatment or ways into this. Maybe that query could go on the Focusing Discussion List that has a wider audience, and if someone comes forward we could see if we could work with them to develop something like this...?? Nina Joy
To get into places like the VA we need a few randomized controlled studies published in peer reviewed journals. To do that, we need researchers (probably university based) who understand what focusing is. (Unfortunately we already have people doing research on their misunderstanding of Focusing, but that only confuses things). Since we're not set up to do our own research, we need to reach out to people who are; so we need to communicate with the people who are doing research on psychotherapy. It shouldn't be too hard: A grad student in psychology could get a great dissertation out of this! We've made a good start the Boston Trauma Conference this year and last; I'm giving a presentation at the APA Division 32 in August, and if Nina and Pat are up for this, we might submit a proposal to the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies next year. And if anyone knows someone in the VA or a major university, that would help, too...
P.S. It would be great if Beatrice can get a research study going with the State of Vermont. If we can show that Focusing alleviates depression, researchers will be more willing to try it with other "disorders" like PTSD.
I just want to share with you some excerpts from the letter i just received from Melba Jimenez, the person who really promoted NVC and Focusing in El Salvador through the organization she worked for, Provida. She was no longer working with Provida last January when i visited with her, so we were not sure how to proceed, but now she is working for the municipality of San Salvador, a dynamic city government presided over by the FMLN party, the opposition to the current national government. This same municipal government had offered Melba and myself the opportunity to teach NVC and Focusing to all the municipal employees through its health department.
Now that I get this letter, I am wondering if I should just go down there and work with them sooner than later. I will find out if they are able to offer to pay my expenses or anything. I don't know if I told all of you that some focusing friends have offered me $3000 to cover some costs for my work in El Salvador.
I had not been in touch with Melba for awhile, because I was so busy with my book and travel business. Here s her letter...it feels so good to have a group of colleagues to share this with!
Un abrazo,
Beatrice
Dear Beatriz,
"I'm very happy...since February 23 I have been working the mayor's office of San Salvador, specifically with the people who have stalls in the public markets. There I have had the opportunity to work with many women, all of them with stories of hard work and the struggle to survive. But the most important thing is that I arrived with my knowledge of non-violent communication and in my relationships i am applying it. It is giving me great results. People have congratulated me on the changes that i have been able to make in such a short time, which I have done only by establishing, as you say, more humane interactions. I still have not given any NVC workshops, but I am preparing to. My daughter will help me. I hope that this knowledge has a lot of influence in helping these women to make more changes. In the public markets we are working with 6,500 women and about 1000 men, so it is a great opportunity to apply the techniques of NVC. The team i work with is very interested in applying this way of communicating with each other.
You had said that you were thinking of coming in September. I hope that that would be possible in order to deepen our work in NVC with these women.
I want to thank you Beatrice, because it was just a short time that we shared together, but it changed our lives, and now we are helping many people, especially women, to change their way of living. I know that little by little in this country there will be more and better changes, applying NVC.
I am very enthused and motivated by the changes that I have seen up to now with my work.
I hope that you can fulfill your plans here in El Salvador, and we will be awaiting you when you are able to come.
oh wonderful, Beatrice!! And I am so glad people have offered money to support your work there. I like particularly that Melba says you only worked together such a short time and yet it is already helping people interact more humanely. This is IT. The little bits that make a big difference. Everybody doesn't have to go all the way through learning something thoroughly before they share it. You are seeing this again. I'm sure glad you shared it!
Dear All, Hello. This is all very exciting. Thanks for including me. It was so nice to meet everyone and attend the workshop. I had a wonderful time and learned so much. What a nice frame to grow from!
I look forward to attending the conference call and catching up with everyone. All the very best, Lori
13 comments:
Looks good, Rob, thanks for setting this up!
We were just talking today about your suggestion to find something that is already being measured and see if a change can be made in it through teaching focusing.
State or city health departments probably have records of how many prescriptions are written for anti-depression medication, also how many work days are lost due to depression. Vermont's state government seems to want to be on the cutting edge of health care reform, and part of that is cost-effectiveness. So maybe we could design a project that would teach focusing and see if the prescription anti-depressant drug usage goes down. It might be an effective way to get governments interested in community focusing. What do you think?
I think that's a great idea! If you can get access to that data, then you've got something that's 1) easy to measure, and 2) very important to governments. You'd want to have a research consultant for something that big, but the state might provide that for you.
Rob
Thanks, Rob for setting it up. I have never really gotten into blogging before. We';ll see how this works for us!
Beatrice that sounds like a stunning project! When we talked the other day, I didn't hear this about the measurement possibility. Maybe you said it. Good idea!
I don't know how to do this next part, to post. Guess I'll try to follow the directions. Oh, have to sign up to be able to leave a comment. ok, I did that. Now lets see if it works
Nina Joy
Whee, it worked
NJ
But how do I get my name to appear with yours as members of this group, Rob, Nonie and Beatrice?
Nina Joy
The other side of the Afghanistan coin:
The July 14 issue of Time magazine has an article (p. 23) about Major League Baseball's commitment to "raise $100 million to provide free psychological counseling for returning veterans'.
"There's just a tremendous need for counseling " says Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The Department of Veterans Affairs psychological counseling program is overwhelmed. The suicide rates for returning vets are just off the charts. If Major League Baseball can get this program up to scale, we could save thousands of lives."
The following is from the website set up to raise funds for the effort, welcomebackveterans.org:
"...three major universities -- Cornell, Michigan and Stanford -- are collaborating to create a "protocol" for helping returning veterans -- and their family members -- avoid mental health problems commonly associated with life after combat. This will be free of charge and available soon.
"That would be the start of what we hope will be a network around the country, connected with the V.A. hospitals and the Department of Defense areas, where we will have the troops and their families treated for free," Wilpon (owner of New York Mets) said.'
Does anyone have connections at Cornell, Michigan or Stanford?
David Young on TFI's discussion list has been working with PTSD and veterans.
The cover story in Time two weeks ago was how troops are on Prozac.
We're talking about large-scale community mental health, so could this be an opening?
Here is another quote from welcomebackveterans.org that reflects a part of counseling that focusing would be so good at. It's from a returning woman soldier:
"All the guys I came back with, they still to this day, they all feel 'different,'" she said. "You can't really put your finger on it. Unfortunately, you turn to drinking, you do things that you wouldn't normally do. We've lost a couple of guys just this past week. Another of my very close friends, who I was extremely close with over there, he died in a drunk-driving accident, 3 o'clock in the morning on Wednesday. We don't know why. I had spoken to him earlier that week. You just don't feel normal. You almost seek adventure, or thrills, to feel normal again.
"Generally, what's hard about reintegrating back into everyday civilian life is that it's not structured. Military life is very structured. You wake up at this time, you eat this, you go to bed, you work, you know exactly what you're doing to get the mission for the day. You have so much freedom when you come back home, that you don't know what to do with yourself. You don't know what you're supposed to be doing. Your whole mindset is focused on: 'There's a mission. What am I supposed to be doing?'
So coming back here and transferring into freedom, if you will, it was overwhelming. It's extremely overwhelming to be able to make every decision on your own, when for nine months you didn't have to do any of that."
Wow, Beatrice, you sure are finding possibilities! I don't know if anyone has ties already to veteran treatment or ways into this. Maybe that query could go on the Focusing Discussion List that has a wider audience, and if someone comes forward we could see if we could work with them to develop something like this...??
Nina Joy
To get into places like the VA we need a few randomized controlled studies published in peer reviewed journals. To do that, we need researchers (probably university based) who understand what focusing is. (Unfortunately we already have people doing research on their misunderstanding of Focusing, but that only confuses things).
Since we're not set up to do our own research, we need to reach out to people who are; so we need to communicate with the people who are doing research on psychotherapy. It shouldn't be too hard: A grad student in psychology could get a great dissertation out of this!
We've made a good start the Boston Trauma Conference this year and last; I'm giving a presentation at the APA Division 32 in August, and if Nina and Pat are up for this, we might submit a proposal to the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies next year.
And if anyone knows someone in the VA or a major university, that would help, too...
P.S. It would be great if Beatrice can get a research study going with the State of Vermont. If we can show that Focusing alleviates depression, researchers will be more willing to try it with other "disorders" like PTSD.
Dear group,
I just want to share with you some excerpts from the letter i just received from Melba Jimenez, the person who really promoted NVC and Focusing in El Salvador through the organization she worked for, Provida. She was no longer working with Provida last January when i visited with her, so we were not sure how to proceed, but now she is working for the municipality of San Salvador, a dynamic city government presided over by the FMLN party, the opposition to the current national government. This same municipal government had offered Melba and myself the opportunity to teach NVC and Focusing to all the municipal employees through its health department.
Now that I get this letter, I am wondering if I should just go down there and work with them sooner than later. I will find out if they are able to offer to pay my expenses or anything. I don't know if I told all of you that some focusing friends have offered me $3000 to cover some costs for my work in El Salvador.
I had not been in touch with Melba for awhile, because I was so busy with my book and travel business. Here s her letter...it feels so good to have a group of colleagues to share this with!
Un abrazo,
Beatrice
Dear Beatriz,
"I'm very happy...since February 23 I have been working the mayor's office of San Salvador, specifically with the people who have stalls in the public markets. There I have had the opportunity to work with many women, all of them with stories of hard work and the struggle to survive. But the most important thing is that I arrived with my knowledge of non-violent communication and in my relationships i am applying it. It is giving me great results. People have congratulated me on the changes that i have been able to make in such a short time, which I have done only by establishing, as you say, more humane interactions. I still have not given any NVC workshops, but I am preparing to. My daughter will help me. I hope that this knowledge has a lot of influence in helping these women to make more changes. In the public markets we are working with 6,500 women and about 1000 men, so it is a great opportunity to apply the techniques of NVC. The team i work with is very interested in applying this way of communicating with each other.
You had said that you were thinking of coming in September. I hope that that would be possible in order to deepen our work in NVC with these women.
I want to thank you Beatrice, because it was just a short time that we shared together, but it changed our lives, and now we are helping many people, especially women, to change their way of living. I know that little by little in this country there will be more and better changes, applying NVC.
I am very enthused and motivated by the changes that I have seen up to now with my work.
I hope that you can fulfill your plans here in El Salvador, and we will be awaiting you when you are able to come.
Here's a big hug,
Melba
oh wonderful, Beatrice!! And I am so glad people have offered money to support your work there. I like particularly that Melba says you only worked together such a short time and yet it is already helping people interact more humanely. This is IT. The little bits that make a big difference. Everybody doesn't have to go all the way through learning something thoroughly before they share it. You are seeing this again. I'm sure glad you shared it!
Nina Joy
Dear All,
Hello. This is all very exciting. Thanks for including me. It was so nice to meet everyone and attend the workshop. I had a wonderful time and learned so much. What a nice frame to grow from!
I look forward to attending the conference call and catching up with everyone.
All the very best,
Lori
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