Helpful Tips For Respectfully Interacting With Homeless and Disabled People:

Helpful Tips For Respectfully Interacting With Homeless and Disabled People:

 I am feeling inspired to offer some advice about how to respond to a homeless person with respect and dignity.   I realize that most people aren’t trained in trauma informed approaches when engaging with vulnerable people in our community.  In addition, just because someone is a therapist, doesn’t mean they know how to handle situations with homeless and disabled folks.  I realize that most people have good intentions and genuinely feel some empathy for them.  They might have politically correct values and beliefs and progressive political views that are in alignment with an assortment of social justice concerns.  I have come to realize that compassion and empathy occur on a continuum, which means that one can always cultivate more of it.  In addition, sometimes people’s actions can be contrary to their beliefs and values.  Thus, it’s always a good idea to make an attempt to “walk your talk”, so to speak. As human, we have contradictions, shadow elements, and learned social norms.

Proper treatment of homeless folks, particularly if they have a mental or physical disability, is a tender issue for me.  I have a tremendous amount of compassion for them, which is a direct related to a lifetime of personal experiences with beloved family members and professional experiences as a home health medical social worker.  I have some deep traumatic wounding as my biological father had a psychotic break when I was seven and was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia.  This was incredibly traumatizing for my mother as she was left with 3 girls to raise in Ashland in the late 1970’s.  My father’s brother, a humble hero and doctor in Portland (chuck Christensen) helped Rick get the medication he needed to stabilize; however, his brain changed organically due to a multitude of Biological and Psychosocial factors. Tragically, he was no longer able to function in various aspects of his life.  Fortunately, he qualified for Social Security Disability, but only received a small amount of money each month ($800.00) which wasn’t enough to pay his rent, utilities, and food.

As a result, he was homeless at various times in his life.  One time I received a call that he was seen sleeping under a bridge in Medford.  This put a tremendous amount of life stressors on his friends and family as we were in poverty ourselves. We felt shame that we were not able to help, but his 3 daughters and my mother were all working burn out minimum wage jobs in Ashland. This was my first wake up call to the rampant war on poverty in America the Great. 

 I continued to work my ass off doing pink collar jobs in Ashland-- housecleaner, caregiver, retail sales, waitress, landscaper, house painter, and baker—eventually leading to chronic physical exhaustion, anxiety, and depression.  Despite having funding for graduate school, I absolutely had to go as my undergraduate degree in the social sciences, wasn’t very marketable.

To make matters worse, there is a massive shortage of subsidized housing, group homes, and transitional group homes not only in southern Oregon, but in the United States.  All of this has been documented by numerous social services organizations; such as, Housing Authority of Jackson County (HUD), ACCESS, and Rogue Valley Council of Governments (RVCOG).

Some of the most economically vulnerable people are those with chronic diseases, mental illness, physical disabilities, and substance abuse.  Women and children are also incredibly vulnerable, not to mention single mothers (my mother raised 3 girls). 

I know this is a fact as I worked closely with various social service agencies and medical providers as a home health social worker, such as Columbia Care, Rogue Retreat, Disability Services, Senior Services, JCMH, Adult Protection Services, Etc. 

All of these agencies witnessed first-hand how some of the most vulnerable community members fell into a revolving door of homelessness and hospitalization.  And if they tried to sleep in their cars in Ashland, some would receive tickets from the police because some people would complain about it.  They would also complain about them being downtown asking for money.  I heard every complaint in the book – “I can’t go near them because they small like urine”, or, “we don’t want these people effecting our ability to do business.”

These incredibly vulnerable people would get fined by the police, which further criminalized poor people because they couldn’t pay the fine and would end up doing some

When a vulnerable patient with multiple chronic issues needed to be hospitalized, they would be admitted or admit themselves to the Emergency room.  The hospitals had to admit the patients and try to bring them back from the brink of death, but it was too costly for the hospital to board them long term.  And they couldn’t go to a skilled nursing facility because they didn’t qualify for that level of care.  In other words, they were to independent in their activities of daily living to qualify for Medicaid and skilled nursing.  

One needs to qualify for Medicaid in order to be admitted to assisted living facilities and foster homes.  However, the criteria is ridiculously strict, and sadly, too many vulnerable seniors and disabled folks are living in poverty with absolutely NO hope for a change in their situation. 

This is what we have been doing in AMERICA THE GREAT for decades to our most vulnerable people.  I understand why they no longer vote or believe politicians.

I can no longer look these people in the face and tell them they didn’t qualify for Medicaid in-home care services because they were “to ambulatory in the activities of daily living.”

There are too many vulnerable seniors living alone in rural areas that don’t have the money to pay out of pocket for a caregiver, and, Medicare doesn’t reimburse for caregiving.  These people have mild – severe dementia in addition to other chronic diseases, but they can dress, feed, and toilet themself, which disqualifies them from receiving Medicaid in-home care services. 

It is too easy to wear your rose-colored glasses and make gross judgements from the comfort of your safe homes and offices.

These vulnerable folks eventually get discharged to a transitional psychiatric group home, but there is a limit on how long they can stay.  It is never enough time before they are eventually discharged to the harsh streets of Medford, only to have the same thing happen 3 months later when it got too cold for them to sleep outside.

This completely broke my heart many times over.  

 I understand why these people refuse to vote. 

As you can imagine, this was incredibly painful for my father’s family members, as most of us didn’t have the financial means to take care of him. Knowing my father was incredibly vulnerable and suffering was incredibly painful and psychically draining on everyone that loved him.

Perhaps the most profound wounding I experienced was the subtle and blatant forms of social oppression he experienced.  This poor man was experiencing an incredible amount of suffering –he was constantly attacked by unloving voices that told him to kill himself. He was a greater threat to himself than he was to other people. 

My father, Rick, was one of the kindest people on the planet—he would give the shirt off his back to help his friends. He knew how it felt to be constantly criticized by others; thus, he chose to not judge people for their human foibles.  This type of abuse occurs subtly thru harsh facial expressions, avoiding eye contact, body language, and walking away from them.  Blatant forms of social oppression can be revealed through negative stigma’s, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse. 

Having a mentally ill father inspired me to pursue a career in social work and mental health. I am very sensitized to the various ways families are affected by mental illness.  I am also aware of ableism, particularly how these biases are unconscious in the majority of people.  White privilege is also an unconscious bias, as well as gender biases (sexism).

I am a Sociologist and clinical social worker who devoted 4 years of my life working on the frontlines with a team of medical professionals that went into people’s homes (home health).  We served some of the most vulnerable people in Jackson and Josephine counties.  I had the honor of working with some of the most courageous humble heroes who taught me a lot.  I also gleaned a tremendous amount of wisdom from my clients, many of whom had chronic diseases, mental illness, physical disabilities, poverty, homelessness, trauma, elderly, and substance abuse.

I was also fortunate to learn about National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, at a time when I was going thru multiple life stressors.  When my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer and had to be transitioned from Illinois to Oregon, I signed up for an 11 week course and support group for family members of mentally ill.  I thought I knew about mental illness and medications, but I knew very little, even with a Master’s degree in Social Work. 

I tried to get my father in a group home, but he didn’t quality for Medicaid, even with a diagnosis of bladder cancer and schizophrenia.  He eventually had a horrible fall , which caused face injuries. 

At this time his entire family was in great need of help.  Thankfully, another humble hero in the community, a clinical social worker at the V.A., Fred Berger LCSW, was able to pull some strings and get rick to see a social worker at Jackson County Mental Health.   They had mercy on his soul and got him on Medicaid and admitted to a 24 hour foster home as his needs were too high for us  to handle. 

Perhaps the most heart wrenching discovery was the rampant social oppression these people experienced thru misinformation and negative stigmas they must deal with on a day-to-day basis. 

It is hard enough living with a mental illness or physical disability in a country that hasn’t provided adequate funding, housing, or mental health support for them to even make ends meet, much less having to endure the blatant and subversive forms of social oppression.

1)         If you see a houseless person treat them with respect and dignity.  It is important to take a nonjudgemental approach that is calm.  It is also important to acknowledge their existence, as opposed to not giving them eye contact.  They are sensitized to people’s body language, facial expressions, and avoidance patterns.  It’s not a good idea to laugh or make demeaning, condescending comments under your breath.  If they ask you for money, kindly communicate that you wish you could help, but you don’t have any cash on you. If you have something to offer (money, food, or items) share it with a warm smile and a kind heart.

2)        If they are wrapped up in delusional behaviors, it’s important to NOT laugh or mock them.  Evidence based research from the National Alliance from the Mental Ill has revealed that Paranoid Schizophrenics are more often a harm to themselves then they are to others.  However, sometimes they can have angry outbursts due to paranoid delusions and voices. They can also violate your personal space at times, which can cause people to feel uncomfortable as they naturally get an endorphin and cortisol rush due to having a nervous system (fight or flight).

3)        If these vulnerable folks leave a mess of stuff everywhere they go, it is important to understand that Schizophrenia is an executive functioning disability, which means they don’t have organizational skills, time management skills, working memory, problem solving, emotional regulation, and some social skills.  Please reframe from your verbal judgements and do what humble heroes in our community have done for decades.  Get some gloves, a garbage bag, a couple of friends, and pick the mess.  It will literally take you 15-30 minutes out of your day.

4)        Be committed to learning from people with disabilities.  More often then not, they have been forced to develop fierce defense mechanisms in order to survive in this heartless world.  It is very common to unconsciously project your ableism bias onto others.  It is also common to unconsciously project gender biases, sexism, racism, and class privilege. Social scientists have revealed that people tend to socialize with people in their own Socio-Economic class.  If you live in a city, such as Ashland, it is important to know that historically, there hasn’t been a lot of racial diversity here.  If you choose to not go to the Cooperative Food market because there are homeless folks there, you are unconsciously acting out white and class privilege. 

5)        Last but not least, be open to learning from people in our community who directly work with homeless folks.  If you don’t have the time to do direct service work, offering financial help is always welcome. However, it is incredibly humbling to get out of your comfort zone, your safe office, your safe home, and donate some service hours every month to a humanitarian agency that is directly servicing houseless folks.

If you need assistance navigating social service agencies in Southern Oregon, I offer social work consultations, therapy, and workplace evaluations. I am also a sociologist and social researcher who has devoted my life to serving socially oppressed people in Southern Oregon.

For more information about me, Victoria Christensen, M.A, M.S.W, see my website:

www.guanyinhealingarts.com

You can also email me at: electrart@hotmail.com

 References:

Social Class influence on values and beliefs":

https://pressbooks.howardcc.edu/soci101/chapter/8-3-social-class-in-the-united-states/

NAMI research on Schizophrenics as high risk for suicide:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1845151/

Research on Ableism, Racism, and white privilege:

https://truthout.org/articles/ableism-and-white-supremacy-are-intertwined-we-must-confront-them-together/

https://disabilityphilanthropy.org/resource/intersections-between-racism-and-ableism/

The Primordial Sacred Union in Psychology, Religion and Mythology

The concept of the primordial sacred union has come to us by way of world religions, especially in elements of Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism, as well as in the Platonic traditions of the West.  An assortment of disciplines has also attempted to conceptualize this symbiotic union. The writing of Carl Jung is filled with examples from myth and culture that point to the importance and value of recognizing the qualities of the primordial sacred union within each individual and the world at large. Humanity was meant to be modeled after this divine union, but has somehow fallen away or become severed from its original wholeness, and has digressed into the imperfect world we see all around us. 

In his book, Man and His Symbols, Carl Jung proposed that, in addition to our immediate, personal consciousness, there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature, which is identical in all individuals. He referred to this as the collective unconscious, which does not develop individually but is inherited. The contents of the collective unconscious, Jung argued, manifest themselves in the form of symbolic images, or archetypes, representing the primordial events that shaped human history.  These archetypal images, which include such symbols as the mother and father, the warrior, the seeker, the sage and the child, are common to all people.  Jung's theory of the feminine principle as a universal archetype, a primordial, instinctual pattern of behavior deeply imprinted on the human psyche, has assisted humanity in its ability to both understand and ground the concept of the Goddess as existing within both the individual and collective psyches.  In this sense, archetypal symbolism of the primordial sacred union is an international form of communication because it bypasses the barriers of language, race and culture.  It is perhaps the most effective form in which sacred concepts can be given expression.

Carl Jung's studies of alchemy, Taoism, and the work of new paradigm scientists led him to become one of the first modern male scientists to value the feminine in equal measure to the masculine.  His concept of wholeness, the goal of the process of individuation, included the integration of the masculine and feminine principles.  He recognized the feminine as the source of receptivity and relatedness, and called for its integration into a Western culture that had gone too far in development of the rational, the materialistic, and the masculine. 

Jung proposed that the primordial sacred union, otherwise referred to by him as "androgyny,"is a universal archetype inherent in the collective unconscious and similar to the sacred marriage.  Humanity was supposed to be modeled after this divine image of Creator/Creatrix, but somehow mankind fell away from and was severed from the original wholeness. While this sacred union is as old as creation itself, we have come to know about it through traces left in myths and the sacred traditions of many indigenous peoples. Jung proposed that androgyny, which refers to the anima (feminine) and animus (masculine) aspects within a single human being, regardless of sex, may be the oldest archetype inherent in the human psyche.  Both are present within every human psyche, regardless of physical gender.  In other words, there are masculine and feminine qualities in both men and women. 

Jung believed that the anima (feminine) and animus (masculine) had to be in balance before a person could achieve psychological individuation, or psychic wholeness.  Thus, women, at some point in their individuation process, need to integrate within themselves the masculine qualities, such as assertiveness and objectivity, in order to become whole persons.  Conversely, men need to integrate the feminine qualities that reside within their psyches, such as compassion and non-resistance or passivity, in order to become psychically whole.  Jung was not proposing that men become women.  On the contrary, Jung believed that in order to bridge the gap between male and female, we needed to be able to empathize with the opposite sex.  The movement towards becoming androgynous persons implies a radical change in human consciousness and different styles of human behavior than what has been deemed normal.  It demands that we resist traditional sex role stereotypes and the forms of sexual identity that force men and women into exploiting their differences rather than working together in equality and interdependence. 

The concept of androgyny also proposes new ways of thinking about sexual identity.  Rather than viewing sexual identity as only male and female, androgyny proposes that we begin to view sexual identity as existing on a continuum, which includes recognition of the multitude of sexual permutations that exist in the gray area, such as gays, lesbians and bisexuals.  Biologist and feminist Anne Fausto-Sterling wrote a brilliant book titled Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, which challenges the notion that there always has been and can forevermore only be two human sexes; male and female.  With examples drawn from daily life and from history, sociology, biology and anthropology, Fausto-Sterling demonstrates that these dualisms are neither natural nor cultural universals, but arise from our society's insistence on seeing people that way.  If sexual identity indeed exists on a continuum, and male and female are universal energies, then it makes sense that there is an enormous gray area that has been severely denied in our culture.  After reading this book and gaining an understanding of the universal archetype of androgyny, my sense of male versus female was radically changed. I began to understand why some women I know exude more masculine than feminine qualities, and conversely, why some men appear more feminine than masculine. 

In addition to individual, personal experience, the concept of androgyny demands a meeting of the opposites in our external, socio-cultural environment as well.  Jung proposed that once we have learned to recognize and accept the seemingly contradictory aspects within ourselves, it naturally follows that we need to extend this attitude of mutual interdependence to the wider human community.  Change and wholeness happens from the inside out; therefore, we cannot expect to have equality in the external, socio-cultural environment until each individual first works on becoming integrated within his/herself. The power of the individual to change the world is a profound concept if, and only if, one is committed to her/his personal and spiritual growth.  Too often people try to save the world when in fact what they really need to be doing is examining their own false beliefs and internal imbalances.  Jesus said that a person must first remove the log from his own eye before he can see clearly to remove the splinter from his brother’s eye. 

Author and Jungian psychologist June Singer explains in her book, Androgyny: The Opposites Within,19 that all cultures around the world have collectively attempted to conceptualize the beginning of creation, and each one of them has pointed to the primordial sacred union that existed long before creation. Creation mythology has existed wherever people have questioned their origins. It is in the nature of humans to wonder about the unknown and search for answers.  Since the beginning of time we have tried to imagine what it might have been like before anything had come into existence, yet the language tends to vary from culture to culture.   Science too has focused on understanding what happened seconds before the Big Bang.

Despite being separated by geographical barriers, Carl Jung and his protégé's discovered that many cultures have developed creation myths with the same basic elements. June Singer, for example, noted that one of the commonalities is the belief that in the beginning there was a dark void. Chaos is the potency that exists in the void. No entities of any kind were in awareness, and then, in some mysterious way, some bright spark emerged out of nothingness. Within that spark were energies that would eventually be distinguishable as opposites, separating then into the masculine and feminine principles. In the old myths, the idea of this divine union stems from the belief that in the beginning there was a primordial unity, “the eternal one” in which all the opposites are contained. In other words, the "One" ultimately transcends gender.  It can be defined as the genderless One which contains the Two; namely, the male and the female. At some point in time the primordial unity is broken open and separated into two opposite energies. Those polarities are expressed in an assortment of ways; for example, light and dark, positive and negative, hot and cold, mind and body, art and science, war and peace, peace and strife.  Through the conflict and harmony of these two energies, the original, elemental creative force was born—The Primordial Sacred. 

COMPASSION IN ACTION: SUPPORT HOUSELESS FOLKS IN ASHLAND

What really moves me these days is witnessing compassion in action.  I have been impressed with the amount of service that has occurred in Southern Oregon after the Alemeda fires 3 years ago. 

However, I am continually inspired by humble folks that consistently care about vulnerable people in our community.  While I am happy to personally know many of these heroes, I feel it is my duty to do what I can to support social services organizations that are consistently making a difference in people's lives.   

Southern Oregon Jobs With Justice has been feeding houseless folks in Ashland for years, and, the needs are higher than they have ever been.  There is a tremendous amount of food insecurity in Southern oregon and it continues to get worse due to the Alemeda fires and pandemic. 

Jason and Vanessa Houk are powerful bodhissatva's in our community.  They have won community service awards year after year for their Ashland Community Peace Meals, which have required volunteers and community donations to make it happen.  They are a registered NonProfit with a socially redeeming mission to serve working class folks.  Here is quote from their website:

A TIME OF SERVICE FOR THE HOUSELESS IN ASHLAND 

Vanessa and Jason are raising funds for their annual Christmas dinner for houseless folks in Ashland. This was so incredibly moving to me that I had to promote it to my friends and family. 

Jason and Vanessa lost their home in the Alemeda fire, yet they continued to serve in more ways than can be described here.

Here is a tidbit from Vanessa about the Holiday Peace Meal Celebration being held on November 22 at the Ashland Presbyterian church (Please see flyer below and share this newsletter to people who can help):

A little hope costs less than you might think it does.  (Holiday peace meal party information is here too, but first you have to wade through my holiday musings.)

You already know how much we care about hunger and food insecurity in the Rogue Valley and how the peace meals quietly serve our most vulnerable neighbors, week after week. You know that it's nearly an all volunteer effort that's fueled by thousands of volunteer hours and it's love in action. Thank you to our friends, volunteers and supporters for keeping it all going. 

It's almost time for the holiday peace meal party and I haven't done much of anything to pull it together. Normally by now, I'm several months into collecting gift items and I have a folder full of wish lists. When we lost everything in the Almeda fire, it taught me a lot about hope, and accepting help from others. The past few years has been a series of new lessons for me and one of the most poignant is learning to ask other people for help. 

Help! 

On December 22nd, we are going to create a spectacular party at the Presbyterian church, one that makes that whole building feel like home. There will be gifts for everyone, because as you know, we have to take better care of each other. There will be a good hot meal and how about the tradition of boxes of homemade treats for everyone to take with them at the end of the party? I think that sounds nice. 

One of the things that we've identified as an ongoing need for our brothers and sisters who are living outside is that there aren't enough places where they can get inside for a little while. Thinking about that, and knowing how much we like to encourage everyone to shop local, I'm asking anyone who can afford to buy a couple of small gift cards for local grocery stores, restaurants and/or coffee shops. 

These gifts are handed out to our most vulnerable friends and neighbors and it buys them a meal and an hour of warmth on the coldest days. It literally buys hope. 

A $10 gift card can get someone inside for an hour or so, on one of the coldest days. I'm trying to collect 100 gift cards, and I have holiday cards that we will write some sweet messages in, and I'd like to include a gift card inside each one. 

It's a season of hope. I can finally feel it-- I wasn't sure that it was going to find me this year. If that isn't magic, I don't know what is. 

Drop off locations:

Can inside Pony Espresso next to the bank

Lithia Park, Thursdays and Fridays near the gazebo or bandshell area from 3:30 to 4:30 pm, no matter the weather. 

Mailing address 

Southern Oregon jobs with justice 

258 A Street #1-220

Ashland Oregon 97520

Thank you.

The 8th annual Holiday Peace Meal celebration will be held on November 22 at the Ashland Presbyterian church (1615 Clark Ave, Ashland). 

Cooks, volunteers, and cookie bakers are needed! Here's a sign up sheet for that. (INFO: look for the Rsvp button and click that to sign up)  

https://www.signupgenius.com/.../30E0B4BAAA928ABF58...

We will have volunteers who will deliver a hot meal to any neighbors who are home bound in the Ashland area, or for those who lack transportation. To sign up for a delivery, please visit the link in the first comment.

Creativity Under Siege: Being Jealous of Creative Time

By Victoria Christian, art titled: creativity under seige)

As artists living in a complex, postmodern society, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the expectations put on both men and women in this day and age.  It seems that everyone I talk to are taxed to the max just making ends meet.  As a result, there is little to no time for self reflection, creativity and time in nature, all of which are essential to receiving creative inspiration.  While I am aware that our society would seize to exist without creativity in its various forms of expression, I also get a sense that a certain kind of creative expression is under siege.  It seems very clear to me that creativity that fuels the directives of capitalism, science and technology are very prevalent in Western society and are highly valued. 

This fact is quite evident when examining the workforce.  It's quite obvious that the availability of jobs and resources for scientists vs. artists is severely imbalanced and is a direct reflection of our societies priorities. Not only are the arts continuing to be portrayed as dispensable luxuries that must prove their worth in an impersonal mass market, but an increasing number of schools are opting to eradicate the arts and extracurricular activities in order to focus instead on what a scientific and technologically oriented culture views as societies major priorities. Furthermore, the culturally constructed either/or binary which portrays the artist as subjective, hermeneutic and irrational and the scientist as objective, removed and rational has not only led to a hierarchical portrayal of science as "better than" or "more valuable" than the arts, it has perpetuated and justified the marginalization of the arts and artists.

As a result of this larger social trend, artists blatantly and subversively receive messages from external sources that constrain their ability to not only develop artistic identities, but create art as well.  This, as we all know so well, is a human atrocity and one that has psychologically wounded and alienated artists in horrific ways.  As a result, many of us have chosen to hide out from the world and lick our wounds so to speak.  While the need to take time for healing is important; we mustn't forget the power we have as human agents to create a reality that is conducive to our creative spirits. 

We don't have to fall prey to fatalism and the false illusion of social hierarchy and fierce competition if we don't want to.  While apathy and victim mentalities are indeed prevalent in our society, we have the choice to consciously choose a belief system that is conducive to forming an artistic identity if we really want to.  While this will indeed require that you examine some of your deeply held believes and values and possibly restructure your life in drastic ways, the human will to overcome adversity is no doubt a powerful force. Unfortunately, a large percentage of people fear change because it defies our need to predict and control the outcomes of our lives.

The first step towards empowerment is coming to grips with the fact that we are all products of social programming.  In other words, throughout our socialization process we internalize the values and beliefs of our families and our culture, which may conflict with our deepest, most heart felt desires.  However if your unsure what it is you actually desire, taking some self reflective time to feel into yourself might be the first step. Discerning what it is you desire plays a critical role in your ability to individuate because it aids in your ability to know what it is you value.  

Being true to your hearts desire will require that you look within yourself for the answers about who you are as opposed to relying on external sources to define you.  When we measure ourselves against the yardstick of materialism and social prestige, we will always come up short or lacking in one way or another. While there is no doubt we need external validation, to much reliance on the expectations and definitions that others supply lead one to feel unstable, confused and disempowered.  It also serves to stifle creativity and alienate you from your true desires and intentions. 

Once you become aware that you are a product of social programming and that you have the power to change the tapes in your mind, you can then begin to cultivate a value system that is more conducive and in alignment with your authentic identity as an artist.  At some point in our lives, we are all forced to take a stand and make our own decisions about who we are.  The only way we are going to be artists is to make conscious choices that support our creative desires.   By making self-nurturing choices that protect our need for creativity, we are able to maintain an environment that is conducive to developing as an artist.  For example, in order to maintain my creativity, I realized I had to become jealous of my need for creative space.  It also meant getting in touch with the guilt associated with this need.  By feeling into the guilt and releasing its control over me, I was more able to set healthy boundaries as opposed to letting guilt get the best of me.  I've also had to be really careful about who I chose to spend my time with. I found that it is very important that I surround myself with people who nurture and fuel my creativity as opposed to trying to put out my creative flame. 

Another internalized and dysfunctional belief I had to re-examine was the rampant value of perfectionism.  Many of us in contemporary culture are socialized to have standards of perfection that are practically impossible to live up to.  The tendency for Western society to place a greater emphasis on results as opposed to process give many of us the false impression that if we aren't showing talent or skill immediately, we shouldn't do art at all.  While it is a wonderful thing to strive to do the best you can do, perfectionism doesn't leave any room for mistakes or the process that is takes to create a powerful painting.  Nor does it respect the process one goes through in their development process as an artist.

Furthermore, because we live in a highly competitive society that promotes hierarchical thinking and competition, we are taught to spend a great deal of time and energy on how we rate in comparison with those around us.  Differences between people are magnified and are then used to rank people as better or worse, superior or inferior. Yet this way of thinking offers no middle ground--you're either a piece of moldy poop or you're on a peda-stool, holier than everyone else.  Getting in touch with dualistic, black and white thinking and replacing it with a value system that is more fluid, compassionate and integrated will most definitely assist you on the artistic path.

            While I've only begun to scratch the surface of self empowerment as an artist, it's definitely a start. All of us, at some point in our lives struggle with internal conflict and/or conflicting messages, yet we mustn't forget the power we have to create and nurture the artist within amidst a chaotic world rampant with fear and nihilism. Empowering yourself with choice, as opposed to feeling like a victim will bring a new found freedom in your ability to create not only yourself, but your art as well.

Loss and Love: Heart Wisdom on Grief

Welcome all of you tattered and exquisitely beautiful souls. Thanks for receiving this offering and showing up for one another in our deepest grief and existential despair. It takes courage to show up in your vulnerability and rawness, so I commend and honor you.

 We are all experiencing the collective trauma of the environment crisis, but also rampant social problems. It has been an endless and horrifying barrage of abuse and while I know the human spirit is strong, our flames are weak.

 We gather here today to honor our individual and collective grief.  And the need for our community to come together and support one another in our collective trauma.

The intention is to cultivate more reverence for the sacred process of grieving.  Our deep grief is not something to simply “get over.” On the contrary,  it is something to learn to appreciate and value as a necessary part of life.  We need to have just at much reverence for loss as we do for love.

Another intention is to get out of mind and into our hearts—our emotions, our bodies, and our soul.  In the west there is an overemphasis on “rationality” and “rational modes of knowing.”  We see a championing of the mind over the emotions— and are literally taught to live in our minds and devalue the wisdom of our emotions, bodies, and spirits.

It is also our intention to offer a safe, nonjudgemental, healing ground to release any deep grief you have been suppressing and any further support you might need in the future.

 We truly are all in the same boat and things are very dark and bleak right now.  We will most likely be experiencing this darkness for awhile now. However, we must find a way to unite in our love for the earth, in our love for the diversity of species on this gorgeous planet, and in our love for one another.

 With all the loss and collective trauma in the world today, we need to offer support to one another as so many are feeling silenced, marginalized, isolated, alone, and wounded.  I want to honor all of the people who are so paralyzed in their pain that they can’t leave the house. I work with a lot of these people in my job as a home health social worker. You would not believe how many vulnerable people are feeling isolated and terrified right now.

It is common to isolate when one is experiencing deep depression and despair.  However, I don’t recommend isolating for long periods of time as it can lead to a downward spiral to suicidal ideation and even suicide.

We all know the pain and wounds are deep. WE have all been terribly wounded by capitalism—particularly those who have been horribly discriminated against due to race/class/gender/and not to mention LGBTQ concerns.The system of social inequality is continuing to get worse, and we are more divided now than we have ever been due to social inequality, fierce competition, and hyper individualism (every man for himself).

 However, there is also another larger social trend happening at the same time.  We are evolving at a rapid pace, which feels like the quickening. The veils are being lifted and there is a massive tidal wave of awakening occurring.The new paradigm has been emerging for awhile now, but it has been stifled by corruption of the power elite and the corporatocracy that our political system has sadly become

We are witnessing the merging of science and mysticism, new humanitarian social systems, and regenerative agriculture. We are also witnessing the reclaiming of indigenous wisdoms and a renewed connection to the earth. We all have a direct access to the spirit world and literally possess a universe in our own minds.

I truly believe that the indigenous peoples hold the deep wisdoms for our individual and collective healing. The purification times are here, as they have prophecised.

And while the scientific facts are undeniably daunting and fatalistic, no one really knows what is going to happen.  We all know on a soul level, that the apocalypse is and archetype deeply embedded in the collective unconscious and it is emerging now. The meaning of apocalypse is “A Lifting of the Veils.” As Karl Jung purports, the universal occurs in the collective unconscious and we all have access to it.  

 The human mind has always been ignorant, and limited in its ability to conceptualize the brilliance of the Infinite Universe.

 It is our greatest hope, that in going thru the dark night of the soul, there will be the possibility of new life, redemption, and possibly a new golden era on earth.We also need stay open to the upleveling of humanity, which is equally possible if we can unite in one common goal, which is the survival of the species and living in harmony with the Earth.

 It is possible to experience rapid changes during the quickening. We are seeing this change happen now all over the world. It is my hope and prayer that this continues to escalate, as our time is short.

 I would also like to say that the environmental grief that we are experiencing is totally different than personal grief as it involves the potential death of human species and most species on planet earth.

We have experienced problems in the past, but not at the epidemic levels we are experiencing now. We are all suffering from some kind of modern day neurosis—anxiety, depression, ADD, fragmentation of the psyche.  This neurosis is NOT something to pathologize…it is normal to be experiencing an unraveling of the psyche in a time of chaos and social unrest.

 This global dark night of the soul will inevitably stretch all of us beyond our comfort zone and will continue to do so in the near future.  It will trigger a full range of negative emotions, such as utter rage, deep despair, shame, confusion, and apathy.  

 We are being called to surrender to the dark void of transition—to be the mystery at the crossroads. 

It will be incredibly difficult for us to befriend our individual and collective pain as it feels totally overwhelming, doesn’t it? When you love with all of your heart, you loose with all of your heart. And this loss, as many of you know, is a painful death of the ego and even hope. Having the courage to grieve is sitting with the most horrific shadow and allowing it to utterly transform you.

 We all must be committed to our own personal grief work and the many layers of grief that will unfold in the future. We most likely will be grieving for many years, particularly if we are indeed in a hospicing phase of humanity.  Hospice therapist and author, Elizabeth Kuebler Roth, worked with hundreds of people who experienced profound grief and loss at the end of their lives. Her research on grief revealed stages that all people go through in the grieving process (Stages of grief—denial, anger, grief, acceptance).  

 Most are still in the denial and anger phase, which is normal. One can’t force something through the process, nor can one force someone to grieve. We don’t have to do it all at once. It will occur in layers and stages.  And I personally think that we can regress to previous stages.  For example,  after three years of coming to terms with the reality of the ecological crisis, I have moved to a place of more acceptance.  However, I find that I can cycle back through to the anger and grief phases at times.

 Another thing I want to say about grief is that we all grieve in our own unique way. One is not better than the other. There is no pressure to cry if that is not want comes for you. Some may feel the need to make sounds or moans, which is welcomed. You might also choose silence.

For those of you who have been through your own dark night of the soul, you know there are gifts that come in the void of uncertainty. What do you think some of these gifts might be?

 1)   It challenges us to be in the present moment—to get in touch with our intuition and direct access to spirit.

2)   It challenges us to surrender to the Great Mystery. To learn how to sit with the void of the unknown and be OK with not having a plan of action.

3)   There is wisdom that comes in the complete shattering of the ego—radical humility and equality with everything.

4)   Challenges us to re-evaluate our values, beliefs and priorities. (family, friends, earth)

5)   Challenges us to practice non-attachment and letting go

6)   Asks us to practice radical forgiveness of self and others, reaching out to the community for support.

Doing this deep work is a practice of reverence for the death process.  Nature is such a profound teacher of the cycles of life and death, love and loss.   Humans have a lot of attachments, don’t we? Grief is also an honoring of our deep love for the good in humanity, as it is ultimately LOVE that will heal our jaded, broken hearts.  Love is the light that seeps into the cracks of the dark underworld.

 We know the power of this love and we must NOT forget the promise of INFINITE LOVE and GRACE on the earth plan and in the spirit world.  Our connection to the spirit world will literally be our life line and meditation will be a way for us to stay grounded and sane during the great turning. So will cultivating community and finding your own medicine offering for healing.

 There is no doubt it is difficult for humans to stay in a place of hopelessness.  We need to move into inspired action and find the motivation to do what we can in our own personal lives, but also in service to positive social change. It is incredibly healing to get out of your own suffering and assist people who are incredibly vulnerable, whose suffering is much greater than yours.

 There is a tremendous amount of redemption that comes when we start serving others.  There is much work to be done, my friends. And honoring our grief is a necessary part of the humbling and healing process. So pat yourselves on the back because you are stepping up to do some of the most important work of our time.

Women Artists and Identity Formation in a Postmodern Era: Book Release and E-Course to be released in 2023

I am excited to announce that I am finally publishing my book and Ecourse Women Artists And Identity Formation in a Postmodern Era, in 2023

Excerpt From Preface:  Women Artists and Identity Formation in a Postmodern Society

This book seeks to clarify the various ways in which women have come to assume identities as artists and how their identities have developed over time. The purpose of this book is to contribute to the feminist art movement and the revaluing of women artists in their process of coming to terms with who and what they are. This book addresses such questions as; Why is having an identity important to women artists? Are there common themes or stages that all women go through in their identification process as artists? What are the common constraints that a large number of women artists experience in their developmental process? What effects does the lack of an artistic identity have on individual women’s psychological health, work performances, and attitudes towards others and the world in general? And what effects does a lack of an artistic identity among large numbers of women artists have on them as a group, politically, economically, and socially?

Whether you are a woman who is grappling with the idea of assuming an artistic identity or are firmly rooted in your identity, this book will serve as a valuable source of wisdom for women at various stages or phases in their identification process who are seeking in-depth understanding about what it means to be a woman artist in a rationally and scientifically oriented culture. By reading the stories of a variety of women who have assumed artistic identities, and the ways in which they have been enhanced and/or impeded in that process, it is my hope that others will gain insight and courage in their own identification processes.

As a white, female, artist from the lower middle class, I’ve experienced first-hand the deep complexities that occur within an artist’s psyche. I know deep in my soul what it is like to try to form an identity as an artist in a culture that not only devalues women, but art as well. Because of my unique standpoint as a Sociologist, Feminist, Artist, and Jungian psychotherapist, I am particularly sensitized to the internal psychodynamics of women artists as well as the larger social structural issues that both inspire and constrain identity formation, particularly for women in poverty. Furthermore, I’ve spent five years researching the topic of women artists and identity formation in a Masters in Sociology program at Northern Arizona University as well as speaking at various art centers and women’s organizations on the topic.

Through in-depth interviews with a diversity of women artists, I’ve learned that issues of identity are of enormous concern. Yet, several artists have voiced that there are few current sources of information that truly speaks to their hearts. Women artists need a source of information they can go to that will not only console them in times of doubt and despair, but also empower them through the enhancement of their minds.

Amazingly enough, literature and research about how a woman comes to assume an identity in a postmodern society are scare. Although feminist art historians reveal the ways in which women's identities have been constrained historically, few reveal the implications of identity formation and development in current times. Furthermore, although there is an assortment of research on identity formation and how an artist is made, there has yet to be a comprehensive analysis which emphasizes the experiences of women artists as unique to the experiences of male artists. Although there are similarities in the ways in which male and female artists develop identities, there are experiences that are very specific to women, and these kinds of experiences will not only speak directly to their hearts, but also help them to know they are not alone.

Most of the pertinent literature that addresses artists and issues of identity comes from feminist art historians, the psychology of art, and the sociology of art. All of these approaches encompass a variety of perspectives on artists, ranging from aesthetic and humanist explanations, to sociological, social psychological, psychological and psychoanalytic perspectives. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the feminist movement that real concern for women artists began to interest scholars, which partly explains why there is a lack of research that specifically addresses women artists and issues of identity. In addition, beginning with Freud, theories of human development have traditionally been conceived in terms of male development, with female development either ignored or treated as an afterthought. In other words, developmental theorists have traditionally established men’s experience and competence as a baseline against which both men’s and women’s development are evaluated, which has led to the misreading of women’s experiences (Bakan 1966; Chodorow 1978; Gilligan 1977; 1979, 1982; McMillan 1982)

Furthermore, prior research on women artists and identify formation has tended to take either a strictly “externalist” social constructionist approach or an “internalist” psychological or biological approach, assuming that identity formation is determined by either socio-cultural factors, or internal, psychodynamic mechanisms. Yet, this research, by examining the conditions by which women artists formulate identities, cannot help but reflect the complex interplay of both internal and external factors responsible for the shaping of their artistic identities. My research on women artists suggests an explanation of identity formation that is different from the dominant social constructionist approach. It attempts to bridge the chasm between the modern “internalist” and postmodern “externalist” approaches to identity. Rather than conceptualizing identity as either the product of internal, psychodynamic mechanisms or external, socio-cultural influences, it suggests that we must begin to think dialectically about identity. In other words, it seems more appropriate to say that identity is the product of a multiplicity of factors—both internal and external. It is both self-created and socially constructed.

The reader will discover in this book a complex psychoanalytic and sociological analysis of a diversity of women and their process of forming an artistic identity. Although I have tried to be comprehensive in my analysis of identity, I do not intend this book to stand as the definitive statement. On the contrary, after years of consistent research, I have only scratched the surface as far as forming an artistic identity is concerned. Although I have managed to bring more clarity to the process of identification, it still remains a mystery in many respects. And to some extent I am deeply thankful for this mystery. Like an absolute concept, identity is both universal and unique. It is as common as the air we breathe, yet it is as unique as an individual snowflake. Thus, because it is not humanly possible to capture the totality of identity, there remain numerous areas for future research. It is my hope that this piece of research will not be the last word on the subject.

 E-Course Key Learning Points:

1.     Gain more understanding about what identity means and the importance of having an identity in society.

2.     Gain more clarity and self-awareness about your unique identification process, but also the common stages that all women go through in their identity change process.

3.     Gain valuable psychological and sociological tools to help you become more aware of internalized social forces of oppression and how to decolonize the psyche so that you can be more liberated creatively and boost self-esteem.

4.     Become more aware of the common social supports and constraints that a large number of women artists experience in their developmental process.

5.     Become more aware of internal psychodynamic mechanisms and cues that both aid and hinder a woman in her identification process.

6.     Gain more understanding about how the internalization of a spoiled artistic identity can effects women’s psychological health, work performances, and attitudes towards others and the world in general.

7.     And how does a lack of an artistic identity among large numbers of women artists have on them as a group, politically, economically and socially?

The Sexual Shadow of the World

In the past few years more and more women are having the courage to speak up about the trauma’s they have endured in their families, homes, churches, and work environments. And while it has been painful to see, it give me hope to see all the sexual shadow coming to the light for healing as it has been denied and buried for too long.

As a trauma specialist (clinical medical social worker) I have helped numerous women receive emotional support, validation, find safety, shelter, and receive the short and long term therapy they need to heal. I have had the honor of working with an amazing team of professionals—all of whom provide a highly effective wrap around service for woman and men in crisis or with histories of trauma.

It was important for me to include an article in Feminine Mysticism in Art about the history of women’s sexuality and the sexual shadow. I personally know several women who have been sexually traumatized to various degrees and I deeply understand the ways in which severe trauma changes people’s brains.

It is an honor to have several authors, medical visionaries, and sexual therapists who are experts in women’s sexuality and healing in Feminine Mysticism in Art. Because these issues are coming to the light for healing right now, I wanted to share an article written by Azra Bertrand and Seren Bertrand called The Sexual Shadow of the World. We also have another article that is just as amazing by Linda Savage PhD, Reclaiming Women’s Sexuality.

The Sexual Shadow of the World

 The truth is, there is a hidden epidemic of sexual abuse in our world – that is eating away at our communities, destroying the heart of humanity, and ravaging our planet. We can no longer afford to look the other way or turn a blind eye. The recent sexual abuse scandals involving Harvey Weinstein in America, Jimmy Savile in the UK, and in the Catholic Church across the world, are part of a greater cultural apocalypse – a feminine root word which means ‘unveiling what is hidden’. We are finally seeing the hidden rot behind the false surface image of our culture. And before we point fingers of blame and shame ‘out there’ – we must know that this unveiling is gathering pace in every sector, every industry, and even in the family home.

 These revelations teach us one lesson about the reality of sexual abuse, one thing we must understand if we want to heal and rebirth our world: most rape and sexual abuse is denied, hidden, repressed, unrecognized and unreported. What we see is only the tip of the iceberg. If we want to know the truth we must look deeper, we must be prepared to face one of the longest, darkest shadows of the world.

 The scandals also teach us that a few brave individuals who break the spell of silence, who speak up and challenge the businesses, churches, gurus, media organizations, legal structures, health care systems, and family members who are complicit in the culture of denial – can create a new culture of truth and transparency that leads to tremendous healing. Our voices and our truth, especially when we come together, create change powerfully and quickly. This is the way our world will heal.

 5,000 Years of Rape Consciousness

 It is important to note that the mass collective culture of rape consciousness is not new, but has dominated the planet for thousands of years. In past eras, it was not even a taboo, as some women, and young girls and boys, were openly used by male power holders, including priesthoods, state rulers, politicians and family members, as if they were objects. These are the ancestral legacies still living on inside us.

 Overt, culturally sanctioned sexual abuse still happens in many cultures of the world, but in others – such as the western world – the essence remains hidden from sight, repressed and kept as a forbidden secret. No wonder we feel an immense sense of cognitive dissonance in our lives. On the surface we are told one story, of caring families, caring leaders, caring organizations. Underneath is a completely different story, held in deep shadow.

 We live in a tumultuous, difficult, yet important time in history in which the shadow is being revealed. Rather than a charming politician with slick wordspeak, our current epoch gives us an elected president of the United States who publically condones “grabbing ‘em [women] by the pussy.” [1] The air is thick with the stench of sexual predation and dehumanizing rhetoric. Actors cavalierly say in public they love their job as they get to “rape beautiful women.” [2]

 Sexual Abuse & Mental Health

 The same tidal wave of unveiling and revelations will soon sweep the mental and physical healthcare fields, which, at the moment, are still choosing to stay in denial of the true scope of the problem. When this happens, there will be a complete revolution in the way we look at health – and the impact of these trauma legacies.

 Based on my twenty years experience as medical doctor, healer, researcher and community leader, working with more than 25,000 people, I have come to a very controversial, but sadly very real conclusion: sexual abuse is a huge, unacknowledged contributing factor in much of our physical and emotional illness.

 The truth is that childhood developmental trauma, including a startlingly high incidence of sexual abuse, is a contributing factor to both chronic somatic illness and to many psychiatric diagnoses listed in the DSM-V, the so-called “Bible” of the mental health fields. [3] This includes depression, anxiety, borderline personality, dissociative identity disorder, and many others. The more intensive the trauma, the longer its duration, and the younger the age at which it happened, the more severe and chronic the psychiatric condition will be.

 The same is true in chronic physical health conditions. Childhood traumas, referred to by researchers as “adverse childhood events”, including sexual abuse, account for a large percentage of physical illness, not just in childhood, but throughout our adult lives. A full account of this phenomenon deserves its own book, and indeed many good ones have now been written that detail the hundreds of medical studies supporting this conclusion (Scared Sick, by Robin Karr-Morse is one example).

Sexual Abuse Much More Common Than We Are Told

 Conservative and well-respected medical studies state that around 25% of girls and 18% of boys have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18. [4,5] But, it is widely known that these reported numbers do not represent the true amount of sexual abuse. The actual numbers are significantly higher than this

In 2014, the National Academies of Science stated, “sexual assaults are grossly underreported.” At least 80% of childhood sexual abuse goes unseen. [6] Beyond the issue of non-reporting, childhood sexual abuse is often not remembered, for a number of reasons. In many cases, childhood abuse is perceived as so frightening, overwhelming and shameful, that an instinctive, protective amnesia and dissociation kicks in, and the memories are immediately repressed and forgotten. Or children may be given sedative drugs, alcohol or over-the-counter cold medicine, which blur memory further, with events lost in the unknown recesses of the mind.

If sexual abuse occurs when children are young enough, typically under the age of four, they usually do not have the neurologic capacity to form clear conscious memories. The feelings remain, but they are encoded in body memories and vague states of upset or behavioral symptoms that are difficult to understand.

 In my clinical experience with women seeking healing for physical and/or emotional issues, the numbers are around 70% or greater who consciously remember sexual abuse, or who carry the symptomatic, behavioral and energetic signature of someone who has been exposed to sexual abuse, or who have this memory buried in their family history and lineage. The abuse can vary in intensity, from unwanted or inappropriate touch, voyeurism, leering, fondling, oral sex, penetration and beyond into the unthinkable. The more violent the incidents, the longer the duration, the closer the relationship of the perpetrator, and the more powerless the child feels to find support and safety, the more disruptive the outcome is to physical and emotional health.

 Sexual Abuse A Common Cause of Borderline Personality and Dissociative Identity Disorders

 Of all the mental health conditions, borderline personality and dissociative identity disorder, formerly “multiple personality disorder”, are the most closely linked with childhood sexual trauma (often compounded by other developmental traumas).  A 2016 study showed approximately 45% of people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder had a known history of childhood sexual abuse. [7] An older study reports this number to be as high as 70%. [8] As shocking as these figures are, we know that they greatly underrepresent the actual percentages. Of course, not every case of borderline personality will involve sexual abuse, and many complex factors contribute to it, but we must explore this possibility, rather than ignore it.

 DID and Ritual and Network Abuse

 In dissociative identity disorder (DID), a condition in which multiple fragmented personalities are present in a person, a history of childhood trauma is nearly universal; it has been found in 97% of patients, with childhood sexual abuse found in as much as 90% of cases. [9,10,11] However, the patterns of sexual trauma in DID present an even darker and more disturbing picture. Psychotherapists report that 25-50% of their DID patients recover memories of systematic, ritual or network sexual abuse – abuse carried out by multiple people in an organized way. [12]

 Psychotherapy professionals who come forward to speak about the presence of network abuse in their patients and communities are generally disbelieved, mocked, humiliated, excluded from professional societies, and stonewalled from publication. Academic researchers who are professionally or personally invested in the climate of denial, or who are hired by the systems of abuse, have launched what has been called the “Memory Wars” – writing scientific papers that claim recovered abuse memories are a result of “false memory syndrome”, that these memories are not real.

 But, 60-80% of practicing clinicians, psychiatrists and therapists believe in the reality of trauma-repressed memories, especially in sexual abuse. [13] They are supported by new neurobiological studies and PTSD (post traumatic stress syndrome) literature that proves the existence of repressed memories caused by emotional trauma, later recovered in a safe therapeutic setting. [14,15,16,17,18] It is now known that we can repress entire events or segments of time as a coping response to an emotional crisis.

 Creating New Paradigms of Support

 Because we live in a culture that is in such profound denial of the tremendous scale of sexual abuse currently happening on the planet, often, abused women do not receive support. Their traumatic pain has not been recognized, not held with love, not healed. Instead they have often been misdiagnosed, medicated or disbelieved.

 Many men are also playing out their repressed childhood sexual abuse wounds, sometimes as victims, but also at times becoming the perpetrator, unconsciously inflicting their sexual pain on a new generation of children. Crippled by the toxic shame they feel, and lacking the emotional tools and cultural support to heal, they can perpetuate the cycle of abuse. We sometimes forget that young boys are also vulnerable, and almost as many boys are sexually abused as girls. In the Catholic Church scandal, 80% of the victims were boys, mostly between the ages of 10 – 14. [19]

 Statistics of abuse for transgender women, women and families of color, and those in marginalized or low-income communities are also higher than national averages, and are compounded with complex cultural biases that hinder support.

 Protecting Women, Protecting Earth

 The magnitude of the consequences of sexual abuse are immense; not just personally, but collectively, culturally, financially, ecologically and spiritually. Anyone who has worked directly with women knows of the slow, painful, agonizing and courageous journey it takes to heal these wounds – how they are written in the body and the psyche, and how much time and energy it takes to reweave trust.

 And beyond this, the Womb and genitals of woman – the sacred sites targeted and attacked by sexual abuse – is also the portal through which our vibrational blueprint as a race is birthed, our ‘world womb’. A womb imprinted with pain, fear, and disconnection transmits this pain to the DNA of their future children, epigenetically modifying the expression of their genome – until these womb wounds are healed. [20]

 We are literally birthing a world of pain and suffering through hidden sexual abuse.

 The developmental trauma (chronic childhood emotional wounding, or “Complex-PTSD”) that is a result of this abuse epidemic, is at the root of much of the world’s suffering, costing us trillions of dollars per year in health care expenses and lost productivity, disconnecting us from earth, and costing us the lived integrity of our true soul self. We don’t feel safe in our bodies, in our culture, or in this world.

As the body of woman is raped, commodified, abused – so is the body of Mother Earth. We are raping the very energy source that created us and sustains us.

Protecting women is about more than “women’s rights” – it is about the very survival of our species. If we defile and destroy that which births us, we will soon die out.

This current crisis of sexual abuse is an incredible opportunity to make the shadow conscious, to speak out, to take action and to begin our healing journey together. Collectively, we are at a prophesized turning point. We have an amazing regenerative capacity within us, biologically, culturally and spiritually. Our experiences of the past do not need to define who we become. We can invoke a spontaneous, regenerative healing of our collective body, and return to balance.

By Azra Bertrand M.D. and Seren Bertrand, authors of the acclaimed book, Womb Awakening – Initiatory Wisdom From the Creatrix of All Life, as well as Sophia’s Return: Healing the Grail Wound, and Sacred Womb Rituals. They are founders of the worldwide Womb Awakening movement, and the Fountain of Life Womb Mystery School.  They hold annual in-depth Womb Awakening Apprenticeships, and share shamanic music on Sacred Sounds of the Womb, Elemental Awakening, and other albums. Visit www.thefountainoflife.org. Sophia’s Return, Seren’s personal story of healing from sexual abuse, is offered as a free ebook on the website: https://www.thefountainoflife.org/sophias-return-healing-grail-wound/

 Notes:

1."Transcript: Donald Trump’s Taped Comments About Women." The New York Times. Oct. 8, 2016. Accessed October 1, 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html

 2."Game of Thrones' star Jason Momoa joked about raping 'beautiful women' on show". The Guardian. October 13, 2017. Accessed October 13, 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/12/jason-momoa-game-of-thrones-raping-beautiful-women.

 3. Schizophrenia, autism, and some other conditions are more strongly associated with epigenetic and environmental insults before and during gestation than childhood trauma.

 4. Finkelhor, D. et al. “Sexual abuse in a national survey of adult men and women: Prevalence,characteristics, and risk factors.” Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal. 14(1), p. 19-28. (1990).

 5. Singh, M. M., et al. An Epidemiological Overview of Child Sexual Abuse. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 3(4), 430–435. (2014)

6. National Research Council. 2014. Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/18605.

7. Menon, Preethi et al. “Childhood Sexual Abuse in Adult Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder.” Industrial Psychiatry Journal 25.1 (2016): 101–106. PMC. Web. 15 Oct. 2017.

 8. ibid.

 9. Chu, James A; Dill, Diana L. “Dissociative Symptoms in Relation to Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse.” The American Journal of Psychiatry; Washington147.7 (Jul 1990): 887-92

 10. Coons, P., et al. Confirmation of Childhood Abuse in Child and Adolescent Cases of Multiple Personality Disorder and Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Aug 1, 1994.

 11. Vedat Sar, “Epidemiology of Dissociative Disorders: An Overview,” Epidemiology Research International, vol. 2011, Article ID 404538, 8 pages, 2011. doi:10.1155/2011/404538

 12. Mulhern, S. “Satanism, Ritual Abuse, and Multiple Personality Disorder: A Sociohistorical Perspective. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. 42(4),1994.

 13.Patihis, Lawrence. "Are the 'Memory Wars' Over? A Scientist-Practitioner Gap in Beliefs About Repressed Memory." Psychological Science. Vol 25, Issue 2, pp. 519 – 530.

 14.Anderson, MC, et al. "Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories." Science. 2004 Jan 9;303(5655):232-5.

 15.Trei, L. "Psychologists offer proof of brain’s ability to suppress memories." Stanford Report. Jan 8 2004. Accessed October 1 2017:  https://news.stanford.edu/news/2004/january14/memory-114.html

16.Elliott, D. M. Traumatic events: Prevalence and delayed recall in the general population. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 811-820. (1997). UCLA Medical Center, Child Abuse Crisis Center, Torrance, CA.

 17.Sargant, W., et al. . Amnesic Syndromes in War. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 34(12), 757-764. (1941, June).

 18.van der Hart, O., et al. Trauma-induced dissociative amnesia in World War I combat soldiers. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 33(1), 37-46. (1999, February). Department of Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

19. Cullen, K. “More than 80 percent of victims since 1950 were male, report says.” Boston Globe. 2/28/2004.

 20. Bertrand and Bertrand. Womb Awakening: Initiatory Wisdom of the Creatrix of All Life. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2017, 224-227.

The RISING TIDE OF POVERTY IN AMERICA: ITS TIME TO ADJUST THE POVERTY LINE

 Calculating who is poor is a tricky and complicated affair, despite the good intentions among policymakers to want to improve the well-being of deprived people. The official government data published by the United States Census Bureau shows that, “In 2012, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent, or just over 46.5 million people. The poverty rate is the share of people below the official poverty line. The poverty line was $22,314 for a family of four, $22,113 for a family of four with two children, and $11,344 for a single individual under age 65” (2012: 14).  However, there is a lot of controversy about the accuracy of these numbers, as they are based on an outdated poverty measure that doesn’t include alternative data. Policy efforts to reduce economic poverty may overlook important aspects of what is means to be poor. As Robert Havemen proclaims “these numbers ignore many non-economic considerations that may affect individual well-being, such as living in unsafe surroundings, being socially isolated, or experiencing adverse health or living arrangements not remediable by spending money (2009: 81).

            The current official poverty measure was developed in the early 1960s by Mollie Orshansky, and only a few minor changes have been implemented since it was first adopted in 1965 (us census). In the early 1960’s when she developed her poverty plan, President Johnson had declared a War on Poverty, and the nation needed a statistical representation of the poor. Her economy food plan was a bare minimum food plan designed for temporary use during economically challenging times. It was developed by taking the least expensive food plan developed by the Department of Agriculture and multiplying it by 3.

 According to Kathleen Short of the US Census Bureau “At the time it was developed, the official poverty thresholds represented the cost of a minimum diet multiplied by three (to allow for expenditures on other goods and services). Family resources were defined for this measure as before-tax money income.”

The Income based poverty line is an absolute measure that is adjusted each year only for changes in prices, not for changes in the standard of living.  The benefits to defining poverty in this way is that it keeps the poverty line fixed over a long period of time, which inevitably effects social policy and federal tax policy.  It also keeps the numbers relatively low, which looks good for the politicians in office. However, the absolute income poverty measure excludes a large number of people from receiving social services that they need, particularly women, minorities and children.  In keeping this outdated poverty line, the wealthy are the one’s who gain because they don’t have to pay higher taxes for social services and the poor people loose necessary services they need as a result of structural oppression.

Interestingly enough, the relatively low tax rate of the United States largely accounts for the nation’s skewed income distribution.   And despite the mammoth size of the federal budget of the United States, it is predicated on a tax base that is minimal compared to those of other industrialized nations.  “A tenant of the welfare state has been the progressive taxation of income and its redistribution to the poor through social programs; thus, the question of income distribution has become integral to the discussion of tax policy” (Karger and Stoesz, 2010: 244).  Unfortunately, research has revealed that tax policy has always contained provisions that benefit special interests. “Bending the tax code in response to lobbying is a long-standing practice in the United States, though today it is often associated with corporate influence or corporate welfare”(Karger and Stoesz, 2010: 243).  The Neo Conservatives have made it very clear that they want to completely do away with any kind of social welfare.  And keeping the poverty line lower than it should be keeps the tax rates low in the United States.  

Some attempts have been made to improve the nation’s official poverty measure.  According to Robert Havemen “In 1995, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences reported the results of a comprehensive study of the strengths and weaknesses of the official measure, and proposed a major revision designed to correct many of the criticisms that have been levied against it” (2009:82). Since that report, the Census Bureau has developed a variety of improved poverty measures reflecting the recommendations of the 1995 report.  In November 2011 and November 2012, the Census Bureau released the first sets of estimates for the Supplemental Poverty Measure. However, none of these alternatives has been adopted to replace the existing official poverty measure (Census Bureau, 2012).

I would personally modify the absolute income poverty line by using a relative measure of poverty, which increases along with the general standard of living. I would also inculcate a multidimensional approach to poverty that includes hardships that people experience in many dimensions—education, housing, food, social contacts, security, and environmental amenities.  Aside from just measuring income, another measure of affluence that I would include is assets, insofar as they are an indication of real wealth.  Consisting of savings, real estate, stocks and bonds, and related property, assets not only can be liquidated during periods of adversity, thus offering the owner a buffer against poverty. According to Karger and Stoesz “The distribution of assets is even more skewed than income distribution, with the highest quintile owning more than 80 percent. By contrast, the wealth of the lowest quintile is negative, indicative of debt” (2010: 245).

In alignment with the 1995 study by the National Academy of Sciences, I would include all the items the reform proposed, which are so clearly delineated by Robert Haveman’s article “What Does it mean to be poor in a rich society?”:

The reform proposal would involve a new threshold based on budget studies of food, clothing, shelter, and amounts that would allow for other needs to be met, such as household supplies, personal care, and non-work-related transportation.  It would also reflect geographical differences in housing costs.  The income measure would also be reworked to include the value of near-money benefits that are available to buy goods and services (for example, food stamps), and would subtract from income required expenses that cannot be used to buy goods and services (for example, income and payroll taxes, child care and other work-related expenses, child support payments to another household, and out-of-pocket medical care costs, including health insurance premiums) (2009:82).

With the implementation of the new poverty threshold, the national statistics of poverty would go up and more people would qualify for social services. However, the corruption in tax policy favoring special interest groups or corporate welfare has to change.  People are so disillusioned by the corruption of democracy and for good reason.  How are we going to incorporate social change when corporate interests rule the roost?   Furthermore, people are highly disillusioned by the way taxes are used, such as funding wars (supposedly fifty cents out of every dollar goes to military costs. If that much went into social welfare we wouldn't be having the problems that we do).

Year after year, the funding for social services dwindles.  This is perhaps the most inhumane thing we could do to the very people that are the backbone of the capitalistic system.  The system is set up for people to be poor, yet the conservative power elite wants to cut the social services for these people—this is absolutely insane! An assortment of research reveals that although there have been some governmental efforts made to reduce poverty; they are superficial efforts that don’t target the root of the problem, which is unregulated capitalism and corporate greed.  In addition, there are a number of social trends that have changed the landscape of the U.S economy, such as globalization, the middle class slide, increasing populations and the diminishing of natural resources. All of these long-term trends drastically affect the U.S. economy and the global economy as well. 

More importantly, the new poverty threshold would assist more women, minorities and children who represent the majority of the poor. The "feminization of poverty" is currently a phenomenon of great concern to social scientists and social workers.  In the United States, the fastest growing type of family structure is that of female-headed households and, because of the high rate of poverty among these households, their increase is mirrored in the growing number of women and children who are poor; almost half of all the poor in the U.S. today live in families headed by women.  Women have higher poverty rates than do men for two reasons.  First, their economic resources are often less than those of men.  Second, they are more likely to be single parents during their working lives and to be unmarried and living alone in their later years. Minority women are highly represented among the poor because of their minority status and a higher risk of single parenthood (Devine, Plunkett, and Wright, 1992). Furthermore, the poverty of women is reflected in the poverty of children.  “There are almost 13 million poor children in the U.S.: 52 percent of them live in families headed by women and the poverty rate for white, black, and Spanish-origin children living in female-headed households is 46 percent, 66 percent, and 71 percent respectively” (Rodger, 1986: 32). 

With the growing number of poor people and dwindling of social welfare, we are headed for a major social crisis, and that doesn’t include the environmental crisis looming over our heads as a result of global capitalism. Chris Farrell wrote an excellent article titled “War on Poverty: From the Great Society to the Great Recession” (American Radio Works, 2014). He discusses some of these social trends and social policies that have contributed to the rising tide of poor people, such as global competition, the decline of private sector unions, rapid technological change and the deregulation of finance, the working poor, and low minimum wages for less educated, low- skilled workers.  His article is realistic and bleak, but it is right on target.  He ends with a quote that describes our current economic, social and environmental crisis in a nut shell:

There are public policies that would improve the job prospects for poor people. But there’s little appetite to initiate or expand anti-poverty programs and probably won’t be anytime soon.  American politics is likely to be defined in the new term by rising alarm over the increasing federal deficit and mammoth government debt. Meanwhile, state and local governments are slashing their support for the poor.  If the government can’t help, the economy will end up doing the heavy lifting by default. But so far the economy is generating little job and income growth, and even when it does come back, low-skilled workers are likely to be left behind. The risk is that the tragic combination of joblessness and poverty will lead to diminished dream and social isolation which in turn, will feed a cycle of unemployment and destructive behavior.  It’s morally and economically wrong.

The war on poverty will never be a war if people are fed a bunch of faulty statistics, which cause them to believe that poverty isn’t a macro, social epidemic.   It is clear that band-aid solutions simply aren’t working anymore, particularly in a time of global crisis. The costs of social welfare are far less than the price paid for globalization in the name of corporate greed.  Unfortunately, the karmic fall out as a result of “profits over people” is causing a massive global dark night of the soul that will inevitably cause even more suffering. The wisdom that will emerge from this death is more equality, cooperation, compassion and tolerance of diversity. 

We need a massive radical humanitarian movement—a new structural social work that transforms society from the inside out.  It is not going to come from any politicians. On the contrary, it will come from the people waking up to the lies that they have been fed by policy makers and greedy capitalists. According to one of my social work heroes, Bob Mullaly, social work ideology has much more in common with the socialist paradigms than it does with the capitalist paradigms (2007). Mullaly writes “If social workers truly believe in the values and ideas they espouse, then they cannot subscribe to and try to maintain a social order that contradicts and violates these same values and ideals (2007: 206).  The time is now for social workers to unite for change.  We simply can’t sit on our laurels anymore; we must do everything that we can to speak out for social change. 

References:

Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica C. Smith. (2013). Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States. United States Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.

Devine, J.A., Plunkett, M., & Wright, J.D. (1992). The Chronocity of Poverty: Evidence from the PSID, 1966-1987. Social Forces, 70, 787-812.

Farrell, Chris (2014). "War on Poverty: From the Great Society to the Great Recession." American Radio Works, Public Radio: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/feaatures/poverty/rising_tide.html

Haveman, Robert. (2009). "What Does it Mean to be Poor in a Rich Society?" Focus, Vol.26, No.2, Fall.

Karger, Howard, Stoesz, David. (2010). American Social Welfare Policy: A Pluralist Approach. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA.

Mishel Lawrence, Bivens Josh, Gould Elise, Shierholz Heidi. (2012). The State Of Working America, 12th Edition. Cornell University Press, New York.

Mullaly, Bob. (2007). The New Structural Social Work.  Oxford University Press, Ontario,    Canada.

Short, Kathleen. (2011). The Supplemental Poverty Measure: Examining the Incidence and Depth of Poverty in the U.S. Taking Account of Taxes and Transfers in 2011. The United States Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, Washington, D.C.

Rodgers Jr., Harrell R. (1986). Poor Women, Poor Families.  New York: M.E. Sharp.

The Global Dark Night of the Soul and/or The Apocalypse ? Should Hope be tossed out the window?

In this current time of social unrest, hope seems to be fading with each species that goes extinct. Upon reading and getting mentorship from several psychotherapist whom I respect and admire, most of them agree that our sense of hope for humanity will be shattered in the dark night of the soul. However, this does not mean that we can’t still give ourselves permission to feel joy. I have counseling numerous clients that are end of life and they experience a full range of emotions from complete despair to elated bliss and ecstacy. Thus, don’t let anyone fool you that you don’t have permission to feel hope and joy. However, you need to also be very weary of those who fall prey to fake positivity, which is a false sense of positivity in the midst of dire evidence based scientific research. I am leary of overly optimistic people, particularly those who have never worked in the trenches of our communities and witnessed the dire reality of what is happening in people’s homes as a result of neoconservative values about humanitarian aid.

Carolyn baker believes that their will be people who choose to be in denial up to the very end. And we are sadly seeing this with our own president and numerous climate deniers in government. In some respects we have to expect that some people are simply too fragile, or, have a neurosis of keeping themselves insulated from the truth of an assortment of social problems, not just climate change.

Numerous social scientist, environmentalists, mystics, and new paradigm scientists agree that we are on the brink of the 6th mass extinction of humanity and millions of species due to global warming.  This is a human extinction, which is a result of a multitude of factors such as unregulated capitalism, rapid population growth, an insatiable appetite for materialism, frivolous conspicuous consumption, pollution and exploitation of the earth, rampant social problems due to social inequality and oppression, overconsumption of fishing, abhorrent wasting, greed, pride, vanity, narcissism, arrogance, denial, and long histories of war. 

According to Edward Edinger, who wrote a book titled Archetype of the Apocalyse, we are in the midst of a monumental cultural change that will end the world as we know it. This is the result of the increasingly powerful force of our collective unconscious, the Apocalypse archetype. “This archetype manifests itself through various signs: the drama of international relations, the breakdown of social structure, and the widening gap between political, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic groups, in science fiction and New Age books, TV, and movies. The public's preoccupation with natural disasters and the rise of religious cults and survivalist sects are other indicators.”

 We are now in the midst of a massive global dark night of the soul that is evoking massive social upheaval and changes in our deeply held values and beliefs. For example, our deeply held societal values of progress and growth have been under scrutiny for a long time now, particularly with postmodern sociologists and environmentalists.

The radical changes are also invoking trauma associated dissociation.  Some of these behavioral symptoms include; cognitive fragmentation of the psyche, memory loss, insomnia, anxiety, depression, forgetfulness, and amnesia. These dark night of the soul symptoms will not only drastically affect our personal lives, but our work places, families, and communities.  

It is time to remove the blinders of collective denial and come to the horrific understanding that we need to shift into a mode of “hospicing of humanity.”   

Climate Scientist Guy McPherson and Carolyn Baker PHD (Psychotherapist) released a book in 2015 called The Extinction Dialogues: How to Live With Death in Mind.  I ordered this book hot off the press in 2015 and my life was forever changed. No one who truly reads this book will ever be the same afterward.  I was just finished up graduate school at Portland State University and was vulnerable financially and living alone. I felt completely isolated and had to endure dark night of the soul symptoms pretty much by myself. I had anxiety attacks at night a few times and had to seek support from mentors.

The global dark night of the soul is inevitably going to bring up an assortment of negative emotions such as existential despair, grief, hopelessness, rage, anger, and suicidal ideation. Tragically, we are already witnessing suicide rates increase on a daily basis in Southern Oregon, all of which has been on the local news stations. And larger social trends reveal higher rates of teenage suicide in the United States.  

Southern Oregon has massive social problems that sociologists and social service organization have been known about for over twenties years and still have not been solved—such as, the dire shortage in low-income housing, the shortage of funding for people in crisis, the shortage of transitional housing, homeless shelters, the lack of living wage jobs, the lack of services for the mental ill, and the lack of services for addictions…..this is a short list of the longer list i have compiled.    

As a sociogist and social scientist, I have read social research that reveals that funding for social services is the lowest it has ever been, despite social needs being the highest (particularly among the poor and working poor.) This is mainly due to a neoconservative political agenda that wants to completely do away with social services and humanitarian aid. It is also the result of unregulated capitalism and the corruption of our democratic political system by the corporate elite. This exposure of the power elite was addressed in the 1970’s by a brilliant sociologist by the name of C Wright Mills (see book Power Elite).

Another social trend is the rising gap between the super wealthy 1 % of our population and the 45 million people who are in poverty in America. We have also been experiencing the larger social trend called the “middle class slide.” The overarching economic narrative is the idea that life for the middle class has grown more difficult due to inflation, rising fuel and food prices, falling house values, impending recession, and turmoil in the financial and mortgage markets.

For the past four years, I have been a home health medical social worker. I have a dual masters degree is Sociology and Social Work. I have been working in the trenches in Southern Oregon serving people with chronic diseases, physical disabilities, an assortment of mental illness, high rates of addiction to various substances, homelessness, unemployment, and social/economic oppression.

I have had the honor of working with several modern day heroes who quietly serve without any accolades or awards.  While numerous celebrities have been acknowledged for their generous humanitarian aid, these modern day heroes may not make a lot of money, but they are doing some of the most critical work in our communities of Southern, Oregon. I am excited to be recognized these true leaders in a TV episode I am working on for PBS.

 Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of these celebrities people for donating their money in times of great social need.  However, I find it ironic that some of the greatest American leaders and heroes work quietly in the trenches serving some of the most down and out folks. Our worshipping of famous people, or idolatry, is something that has completely repulsed me. This is just another example of how capitalism has completely distorted our evaluation of heroes. In America athletes that profess to be sex addicts are worshipped and considered modern day heroes, yet our caregivers (who are doing some of the most important work) not only get paid shit wages, but have to deal with the negative stigma of doing this kind of work.

I have seen it all folks……and I am appalled that our so-called conscious community has continued to sit on it’s laurels in regards to preparing for these tidal waves of social problems. We have had plenty of time to address these problem in Southern Oregon. I understand how deeply entrenched things are, but we have not allowed our true authentic leaders to speak in this community. I believe that I have a unique perspective on things and I empowering myself to speak up. I received a 3.7 in my undergraduate work at SOU, majoring in Sociology. I also received a 4.0 in my master of Sociology and NAU. I also worked my butt off doing minimum wage jobs to get me through a MSW degree at PSU, 3.8 GPA.

I worked a lot of back breaking minimum wage jobs growing up in Southern Oregon. I worked as a house cleaner , caregiver, Baker, waitress, landscaper, house painter, and even a dishwasher. And while these jobs built character, the negative stigma that pink collar workers are faced with can not only lower your self esteem, but cause deeply entrenched poverty consciousness and an undercurrent silencing that makes one feel small. And if someone works these kinds of jobs for a life-time, there is a continuum of mental health problems that can occur such as trauma, anxiety disorders, and health problems .

I pride myself on having the courage to work despite the shame I felt at times; however when you are in survival mode one has to do what they can in order to survive in southern Oregon

The author of this article, Barbara Ehrenreich wrote an amazing book about the working poor called "Nickel and Dimed." As a journalist she decided to work several minimum wage jobs and write about the dehumanizing experiences she had.

I am always amazed by people that have never really had to work labor intensive jobs yet they judge others for working minimum wage jobs. They can often have an undercurrent judgment of poor people that is hard to detect, but I felt it all the time. I really get pissed off by the elitist attitudes that some people in Ashland hold for working class folks in medford and Ashland.

I worked really hard to receive an education so I could help oppressed people have a voice and get access to resources. I have massive student loan debt and am barely able to pay off my debt due to ridiculously low wages for social workers. I am currently on an income sensitive repayment program because their are few work places that offer the student load repayment plan for social workers that are helping low income and disadvantaged people.

In my evaluation of leaders— I want to know if they have done any social service work or volunteered to help the community in any way: have they had the courage to get out of the comfort of their own homes to help vulnerable and oppressed people or did social activism work. I am sick and tired of self proclaimed leaders that are so self absorbed and self righteous that they can’t get out of their own navels to do what they can to help.

I understand that there are many ways to serve but I am sadly disappointed at how few people do service work.

The current state of our communities in Southern Oregon are completely fractured and fragmented.  People are totally traumatized and deeply wounded by unregulated capitalism, social isolation, social oppression, and social stratification. We are more divided than we have ever been due to religious exclusivism and rampant competition.

 MORE TO COME>>>>>>>

Thoughts on The Global Dark Night of the Soul

Oh my …..these times are dark!  I have been through many layers of grief regarding numerous social problems and environmental crisis.  It is clear that this crisis--this dark night of the soul-- is creating a massive awakening on a global scale.   While we see neoconservative and corporate agendas stifling the growth to healthier systems, we are also witnesses major positive shifts globally--in social democracy, environmental protection, human rights, and protections to the earth and all living beings on this planet. It has been inspiring to see how effective the youth climate strike has been; however, they also know they are up against centuries of exploitation of the earth and  people under the  unregulated corporate capitalistic system. 

There has been a lot of debate around how much time we truly have to make global changes and if it is even possible. All of this will be known in the near future. It is my hope that we can all unite for change, but I have a healthy skepticism as a social scientist. When we have continually marginalized visionary sociologists for centuries, it doesn't make me very hopeful.  We have now passed the tipping point, which is what Al Gore spent his entire life educating various countries about.  I am appalled that his book An Inconvenient Truth, was not made mandatory reading by all global citizens. 

We have to be utterly realistic about the facts, but also try to find some hope to keep us motivated each day. We are being forced to surrender to the unknown right now, which makes people uncomfortable as we have to sit with all the difficult emotions of facing our individual and collective shadows. The damage done to the earth is unprecedented and some think it is impossible to restore the damage done to our home (Gaia).  There is a lot that is NOT being said by our politicians.  It think they know that in order to rally for change, we need to accept the sobering facts, but also lead with fierce radical humanitarian and ecological values.  As a social research, I embrace evidence based research, but also deeply understand how political spirituality is.  The new paradigm is a harmonious relationship and mutual respect of science and mysticism; however, so many are oblivious to the shadow of old paradigm science. 

As a therapist that works with vulnerable and traumatize people, resilience and full recovery is not always possible. And we are all very confused about how long we have on this planet as GAIA is already showing signs of massive imbalance in equalibrium.  People need some inkling of hope that we can unite for the Earth and our ability to live on this beautiful planet. It is great to see so many minority women in congress, but particularly advocating for underprivaleged populations and indigenous peoples having more clout in environmental policy.  

It is also inspiring to see how many change makers in various disciplines are debating and envisioning The New Systems Shift on a global scale.  I have been doing a lot of research myself in regenerative cultures, which have been theorized by numerous social ecologists, environmentalists, sociologists, and economists for centuries now. However, we are now in a postmodern era with complex social problems and never before have we been up against the possible reality of a mass extinction.  While many of the problems have been occurring for awhile now, there has been a lot of complacency, anomie, and ignorance. 

However, everything is being radically exposed now--we are finally seeing that our democracy has been corrupted and is one of the first things that needs to be repaired.  It is amazing how long it takes for social systems to change, particularly when it is benefitting a corporate power elite who doesn't want change to occur and they own all the vital natural resources. We have given our power away for too long now and we are in a global crisis in every way. This reality has created a multiple of dark night of the soul symptoms which includes higher rates of depression, anxiety, mental illness, addiction, trauma, and suicide. 

Working in the trenches of our communities, I see the suffering that people are experiencing up close and personal. The band aid solutions to larger structural change clearly aren't working and we all know radical changes need to be made.  So many people are falling through the cracks in our social system, particularly vulnerable people such as mentally ill, disabled folks, and senior citizens.  I won't go in to all of these social problems now as most of us have been inundated with them--one crisis after the next.

More reflections to come….

Loss and Love: Heart Wisdom on Grief

Welcome all of you tattered and exquisitely beautiful souls. Thanks for receiving this offering and showing up for one another in our deepest grief and existential despair. It takes courage to show up in your vulnerability and rawness, so I commend and honor you.

 We are all experiencing the collective trauma of the environment crisis, but also rampant social problems. It has been an endless and horrifying barrage of abuse and while I know the human spirit is strong, our flames are weak.

 We gather here today to honor our individual and collective grief.  And the need for our community to come together and support one another in our collective trauma.

The intention is to cultivate more reverence for the sacred process of grieving.  Our deep grief is not something to simply “get over.” On the contrary,  it is something to learn to appreciate and value as a necessary part of life.  We need to have just at much reverence for loss as we do for love.

Another intention is to get out of mind and into our hearts—our emotions, our bodies, and our soul.  In the west there is an overemphasis on “rationality” and “rational modes of knowing.”  We see a championing of the mind over the emotions— and are literally taught to live in our minds and devalue the wisdom of our emotions, bodies, and spirits.

It is also our intention to offer a safe, nonjudgemental, healing ground to release any deep grief you have been suppressing and any further support you might need in the future.

 We truly are all in the same boat and things are very dark and bleak right now.  We will most likely be experiencing this darkness for awhile now. However, we must find a way to unite in our love for the earth, in our love for the diversity of species on this gorgeous planet, and in our love for one another.

 With all the loss and collective trauma in the world today, we need to offer support to one another as so many are feeling silenced, marginalized, isolated, alone, and wounded.  I want to honor all of the people who are so paralyzed in their pain that they can’t leave the house. I work with a lot of these people in my job as a home health social worker. You would not believe how many vulnerable people are feeling isolated and terrified right now.

It is common to isolate when one is experiencing deep depression and despair.  However, I don’t recommend isolating for long periods of time as it can lead to a downward spiral to suicidal ideation and even suicide.

We all know the pain and wounds are deep. WE have all been terribly wounded by capitalism—particularly those who have been horribly discriminated against due to race/class/gender/and not to mention LGBTQ concerns.The system of social inequality is continuing to get worse, and we are more divided now than we have ever been due to social inequality, fierce competition, and hyper individualism (every man for himself).

 However, there is also another larger social trend happening at the same time.  We are evolving at a rapid pace, which feels like the quickening. The veils are being lifted and there is a massive tidal wave of awakening occurring.The new paradigm has been emerging for awhile now, but it has been stifled by corruption of the power elite and the corporatocracy that our political system has sadly become

We are witnessing the merging of science and mysticism, new humanitarian social systems, and regenerative agriculture. We are also witnessing the reclaiming of indigenous wisdoms and a renewed connection to the earth. We all have a direct access to the spirit world and literally possess a universe in our own minds.

I truly believe that the indigenous peoples hold the deep wisdoms for our individual and collective healing. The purification times are here, as they have prophecised.

And while the scientific facts are undeniably daunting and fatalistic, no one really knows what is going to happen.  We all know on a soul level, that the apocalypse is and archetype deeply embedded in the collective unconscious and it is emerging now. The meaning of apocalypse is “A Lifting of the Veils.” As Karl Jung purports, the universal occurs in the collective unconscious and we all have access to it.  

 The human mind has always been ignorant, and limited in its ability to conceptualize the brilliance of the Infinite Universe.

 It is our greatest hope, that in going thru the dark night of the soul, there will be the possibility of new life, redemption, and possibly a new golden era on earth.We also need stay open to the upleveling of humanity, which is equally possible if we can unite in one common goal, which is the survival of the species and living in harmony with the Earth.

 It is possible to experience rapid changes during the quickening. We are seeing this change happen now all over the world. It is my hope and prayer that this continues to escalate, as our time is short.

 I would also like to say that the environmental grief that we are experiencing is totally different than personal grief as it involves the potential death of human species and most species on planet earth.

We have experienced problems in the past, but not at the epidemic levels we are experiencing now. We are all suffering from some kind of modern day neurosis—anxiety, depression, ADD, fragmentation of the psyche.  This neurosis is NOT something to pathologize…it is normal to be experiencing an unraveling of the psyche in a time of chaos and social unrest.

 This global dark night of the soul will inevitably stretch all of us beyond our comfort zone and will continue to do so in the near future.  It will trigger a full range of negative emotions, such as utter rage, deep despair, shame, confusion, and apathy.  

 We are being called to surrender to the dark void of transition—to be the mystery at the crossroads. 

It will be incredibly difficult for us to befriend our individual and collective pain as it feels totally overwhelming, doesn’t it? When you love with all of your heart, you loose with all of your heart. And this loss, as many of you know, is a painful death of the ego and even hope. Having the courage to grieve is sitting with the most horrific shadow and allowing it to utterly transform you.

 We all must be committed to our own personal grief work and the many layers of grief that will unfold in the future. We most likely will be grieving for many years, particularly if we are indeed in a hospicing phase of humanity.  Hospice therapist and author, Elizabeth Kuebler Roth, worked with hundreds of people who experienced profound grief and loss at the end of their lives. Her research on grief revealed stages that all people go through in the grieving process (Stages of grief—denial, anger, grief, acceptance).  

 Most are still in the denial and anger phase, which is normal. One can’t force something through the process, nor can one force someone to grieve. We don’t have to do it all at once. It will occur in layers and stages.  And I personally think that we can regress to previous stages.  For example,  after three years of coming to terms with the reality of the ecological crisis, I have moved to a place of more acceptance.  However, I find that I can cycle back through to the anger and grief phases at times.

 Another thing I want to say about grief is that we all grieve in our own unique way. One is not better than the other. There is no pressure to cry if that is not want comes for you. Some may feel the need to make sounds or moans, which is welcomed. You might also choose silence.

For those of you who have been through your own dark night of the soul, you know there are gifts that come in the void of uncertainty. What do you think some of these gifts might be?

 1)   It challenges us to be in the present moment—to get in touch with our intuition and direct access to spirit.

2)   It challenges us to surrender to the Great Mystery. To learn how to sit with the void of the unknown and be OK with not having a plan of action.

3)   There is wisdom that comes in the complete shattering of the ego—radical humility and equality with everything.

4)   Challenges us to re-evaluate our values, beliefs and priorities. (family, friends, earth)

5)   Challenges us to practice non-attachment and letting go

6)   Asks us to practice radical forgiveness of self and others, reaching out to the community for support.

Doing this deep work is a practice of reverence for the death process.  Nature is such a profound teacher of the cycles of life and death, love and loss.   Humans have a lot of attachments, don’t we? Grief is also an honoring of our deep love for the good in humanity, as it is ultimately LOVE that will heal our jaded, broken hearts.  Love is the light that seeps into the cracks of the dark underworld.

 We know the power of this love and we must NOT forget the promise of INFINITE LOVE and GRACE on the earth plan and in the spirit world.  Our connection to the spirit world will literally be our life line and meditation will be a way for us to stay grounded and sane during the great turning. So will cultivating community and finding your own medicine offering for healing.

 There is no doubt it is difficult for humans to stay in a place of hopelessness.  We need to move into inspired action and find the motivation to do what we can in our own personal lives, but also in service to positive social change. It is incredibly healing to get out of your own suffering and assist people who are incredibly vulnerable, whose suffering is much greater than yours.

 There is a tremendous amount of redemption that comes when we start serving others.  There is much work to be done, my friends. And honoring our grief is a necessary part of the humbling and healing process. So pat yourselves on the back because you are stepping up to do some of the most important work of our time.

Intuition in the Formation of Identity and the Scientific Questioning of Intuitive Knowing

 “…because we live in a culture that doesn’t respect intuition, and has a very narrow definition of knowledge, we can get caught into the trap of that narrowness. Intuition is another kind of knowledge—deeply embodied. It is knowing just as much as intellectual knowing.”

Judy Luce, 1989

There is no doubt that the formation of identity is a creative process in which intuition plays a major role, although the question of how much one can rely on intuition underlies and fuels much of the concern regarding its functions as a valid source of self knowledge. Traditionally, western science has tended to stress the importance of empirical data and objective reality (sensation) on the one hand, and a systematic, impersonal method (thinking) on the other hand. As a result, feelings and intuition have been under-emphasized as a valid source of knowledge because they have been perceived as antithetical to the notion of science since they are vague, inherent, subjective qualities of thinking (Krieger, 1991; Jaggar, 1997; Shepherd, 1993).

In fact, “some extreme materialists see intuition as the foe of reason, or as a kind of quackery, and eschew as superstition anything they cannot measure with the five senses” (Shepherd, 1993: 221). This belief holds that “there is an authentic division between intuition and intelligence, where intellect wears the white hat and intuition the black hat, or no hat at all” (Laughlin, 1997:23).

Although there is no doubt that intuition occurs in all of us all of the time and is fundamental to the formation of identity, the experience of intuition is private, which makes it an unverifiable or ineffable kind of knowledge that can’t always be quantified and tested over time. The unpredictable, spontaneous, and subjective nature of intuition, coming as sudden flashes, can’t always be broken down into its component parts to be studied. In addition, just as an excessive reliance on too much rationalism can misconstrue reality, so can an excessive reliance on too much intuition. Like any quality carried to an extreme, intuition has a tendency to distort reality.

Carl Jung stressed that we must never passively accept the revelations of our intuition as absolute truth, but rather we must interact with them, raise questions, and present objections (Jung 1958). In other words, both reason and intuition have the tendency to distort reality when they are in isolated positions. Linda Shepherd writes, “neither sensation nor intuition are relational or evaluative functions. Sensation gives us information about the world and intuition reveals possibilities and provides insight about the nature of things. But neither can be isolated or substituted for the other because they work together as a whole” (1993: 213).

There is now evidence that modern society is moving beyond a purely either/or perspective on the issue of valid knowledge (Boucouvalas 1997). Researchers have asserted the indispensable unity between reason and intuition in all creative acts (Koestler 1959; Bastick 1982; Jung 1971). Some have even argued that science itself, with all its supervaluation of left brained deductive reasoning, could never have proceeded without the creativity of intuition (Bastick 1982; Jung 1971; Vaughan 1979). Carl Jung acknowledged the important functioning of intuition in the creative process as well as in the development of self. He maintained that:

It is almost absurd prejudice to suppose that existence can only be physical. As a matter of fact, the only form of existence of which we have immediate knowledge is the psychic. We might well say, on the contrary, that physical existence is mere inference, since we know matter in so far as we perceive psychic images mediated by the senses (Jung, 1958: 12).

Various feminist scholars have also acknowledged the value of intuition in the creative process, particularly its ability to provide a connected and holistic understanding of ourselves and the world around us (Chodorow, 2000; Luce, 1989; Kreiger, 1991). For example, Linda Shepherd writes, “the acceptance of intuition can give us greater access to information, augment the limited perspective of the five senses, and prompt us to transcend our linear view of time and space. Intuition can help bridge the boundaries that seem to separate us from others and from nature” (1993:223). In other words, when we deny the validity and importance of intuition, we are essentially denying our sense of relatedness to others, to nature, and to our inner selves.

In our age of diversity, it seems essential to transcend the either/or way of thinking that previously juxtaposed in an antithetical manner the rational and intuitive modes of knowing. Perhaps now with all the current research on intuition, outer knowing, with no need to further prove itself, can take its rightful place as a partner alongside inner knowing. Still, a total acceptance of the validity of psychic phenomena by the scientific community has yet to be established and will most likely require us to redefine and expand our current understanding of physics and psychology. The study of intuitive phenomena calls for a different approach to research that has yet to be determined. New methods need to be found that handle reports of subjective experiences to cope with the difficulty of replicating psychic phenomena and to deal with the uniqueness of individual experiences.

Exerpt from Thesis Research: Women Artists: The Transformation of Identity as Self Created and Socially Contructed, 2001.

Interpersonal Neurobiology, Attachment Theory, and the Use of Self in Psychotherapy

There have been a number of psychological theories that have influenced the Social Work and Counseling Professions.  However, I will only discuss some of the primary concepts of Interpersonal Neurobiology and Attachment Theory.  In addition, I will explain my “use of self” as the therapist in each theory, which relinquishes the social worker as an “expert” and replaces it with a more collaborative approach that involves using one’s self as a reparative object. Being able to be present therapeutically on behalf of another person requires a range of skills and abilities, including the intentional and disciplined use by the counselor of his or her experience, relational skills, and knowledge/wisdom in the benefit of the client. 

Interpersonal Neurobiology:

Interpersonal Neurobiology is an interdisciplinary field which brings together many disciplines in science including but not limited to anthropology, biology, linguistics, mathematics, physics and psychology to determine common findings about the human experience from different perspectives. Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. is a pioneer in the field called Interpersonal Neurobiology, which seeks the similar patterns that arise from separate approaches to knowledge.  Aside from Siegel, some of founding theorists are Stephan Porges, Edward Tronick and several more.

One of the primary concepts of interpersonal neurobiology approach is “Integration,” which ultimately promotes a flexible and adaptive way of being that is harmonious as opposed to chaotic. The brain is always in a process of working towards integration. According to Dr. Siegel, integration is viewed as the core mechanism in the cultivation of well-being and healing.  He writes:

In an individual’s mind, integration involves the linkage of separate aspects of mental processes to each other, such as thought with feeling, bodily sensation with logic. For the brain, integration means that separated areas with their unique functions, in the skull and throughout the body, become linked to each other through synaptic connections. These integrated linkages enable more intricate functions to emerge—such as insight, empathy, intuition, and morality. A result of integration is kindness, resilience, and health. Terms for these three forms of integration are a coherent mind, empathic relationships, and an integrated brain (Siegel’s website, 2014).

Another major concept in the emerging field of Interpersonal Neurobiology is the concept of “neuroplasticity,” which entails the rewiring of the brain through the use of mindfulness practices, or, what Dr. Dan Siegel refers to as “Mindsight.”   At its core, interpersonal neurobiology holds that we are ultimately who we are because of our relationships. We simply can’t grow and evolve without intimate relationships (Seigel’s website, 2014).  

Some of the assumptions of the nature of the problem are similar to attachment theory, such that the lack of early childhood attachment with a caregiver leads to an insecure attachment, which inevitably causes neural disintegration—a chaotic or fragmented sense of self and mind.  According to IPNB, the nature of the problem is both biological and social. An individual is born into the world with a genetic imprint (DNA); however, in the process of human development one can either experience secure attachments with very little trauma’s, or, insecure attachments with several stressors and trauma’s in early life and throughout one’s life span.  If the later occurs, an individual’s brain has a greater risk of becoming wired in a way that is unintegrated and may hold dissociated traumas, losses, and chemical loads that are toxic to the growing brain.

According to IPNB, our relationships have the potential to literally change the brain, particularly the most intimate ones, for example, with our primary care givers or romantic partners. While it was once thought that our early experiences defined who we are (social constructionism), interpersonal neurobiology holds that our brains are constantly being reshaped by new relationships.  This offers tremendous hope to all trauma survivors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and their patients. Thus, positive relationships produce positive changes, which yields healing for those who have suffered from trauma (Badenoch, 2010).

Integration requires the implementation of a practice referred to as “mindsight,” another major concept of IPNB.  According to Dr. Siegel’s website, “Mindsight describes our human capacity to perceive the mind of the self and others. It is a powerful lens through which we can understand our inner lives with more clarity, integrate the brain, and enhance our relationships with others. Mindsight is a kind of focused attention that allows us to see the internal workings of our own minds” (Siegel, Website). What is particularly fascinating is that when an individual develops the skill of mindsight, they actually change the physical structure of the brain.  And we can grow these new connections throughout our lives, not just in childhood.

The emerging field of neurobiology is also changing the way in which therapist think about therapy, what they think happens during therapy, and how they think they should engage in the joint project together.  Bonnie Badenoch’s book Being a Brain-Wise Therapist, brings IPNB into the counseling room, weaving the concepts of neurobiology into the ever-changing flow of therapy.   She uses examples from her own therapeutic practice, which involves inculcating mindfulness practices into therapy.   Implementing the use of mindfulness practice aids in the building of neural intregration and mental health.

In the book she clarifies her “use of self” as a reparative secure attachment in the therapeutic process with clients.  According to Bonnie, one of the unfolding processes in therapy is the reactivation of the attachment system, often accompanied by anxiety and vigilance, since for most patients, the initial attachment process did not go well.  

In the therapeutic process, attachment seeking behaviors are activated.  As the longing for attachment dawns, therapist have the “precious opportunity to help their patients mend/rewire even the earliest relational fears, adding the new information of compassion, care, safety, stability, and warmth that is our contribution to the interpersonal system. ” (Badenoch, 2010: 54).   Supposedly, human’s neurologically regulate each other right brain to right brain. The Therapist acts as the central nervous system regulator, which allows for the healing to take place.

Bonnie further explains that “The very heart of secure attachment is contingent communication, which involves receiving people’s signals (nonverbal more than verbal) and responding in a way the lets them “feel felt” (Badenoch , 2010: 57). It is important to commit deeply to going into a patients world, no matter how painful. Being able to provide a sense of safety for patients is central to providing regulatory experiences.  Bonnie writes “When this wish to comfort is accompanied by streams of accurate empathy, the stage is set for profound healing. This kind of connection is at the heart of helping our patients develop balance through dyadic regulation (which leads to the capacity for self regulation” (Badenoch , 2010: 92).

Through repeated experience, the client will internalize a warm, caring presence that can comfort them when the therapist is not physically available.  This builds confidence and self-reliance in the client. According to Bonnie there is an increased neural integration as a result of the comfort, empathy and bonding in the therapeutic alliance. Overtime, the patient moves from insecurity to an earned secure attachment (Badenoch, 2010).

Attachment Theory:

Attachment Theory is focused on the relationships and bonds between people, particularly long-term relationships including those between a parent and child and between romantic partners. According to attachment theory, “the presence of a principal attachment figure as a source of emotional security significantly affects human development.  During infancy, the caregiver’s role is to provide a secure base from which the child can explore his/her surroundings. The caregiver’s response to this need will affect the child’s attachment behaviors” (Bettman & Jasperson, 2010: 98).   

The theory of attachment was originally developed by John Bowlby (1907 - 1990), a British psychoanalyst who was attempting to understand the intense distress experienced by infants who had been separated from their parents. Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life. He suggested attachment also serves to keep the infant close to the mother, thus improving the child's chances of survival.  (          )

The central theme of attachment theory is that humans grow and evolve through forming attachments at an early age. Infants need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for the child’s successful social and emotional development, and in particular for learning how to effectively regulate their feelings. Primary caregivers who are available and responsive to an infant's needs allow the child to develop a sense of security. The infant knows that the caregiver is dependable, which creates a secure base for the child to then explore the world. If the caregiver is unstable and unreliable, this creates an insecure attachment, which causes severe anxiety and depression. (    )

The assumptions of the origin of the problem are due to faulty socialization, insecure attachment and the development of an insecure working model (theory matrix). Attachment theory is not a developmental theory as there are no stages one must go through in order to achieve health. There is a critical attachment period that occurs between 0-3 years of age.  If bonding doesn’t occur from 0-3 a secure attachment becomes more difficult to attain (Theory Matrix).  Another assumption in attachment theory is that the same motivational system that gives rise to the close emotional bond between parents and their children is responsible for the bond that develops between adults in emotionally intimate relationships.  The later assumption was formulated by later researchers who further developed the theory, one of which is Mary Ainsworth.

Expanding greatly upon Bowlby’s work, a psychologist by the name of Mary Ainsworth performed a study titled "Strange Situation" (1970’s) that revealed the profound effects of attachment on behavior. Ainsworth found that children will have different patterns of attachment depending primarily on how they experienced their early caregiving environment. Early patterns of attachment, in turn, shape – but do not determine - the individual's expectations in later relationships.

In the study, researchers observed children between the ages of 12 and 18 months as they responded to a situation in which they were briefly left alone and then reunited with their mothers. Based upon the responses the researchers observed, Ainsworth described three major styles of attachment: secure attachment, ambivalent-insecure attachment, and avoidant-insecure attachment. Later, researchers Main and Solomon (1986) added a fourth attachment style called disorganized-insecure attachment based upon their own research.

Attachment styles also have an impact on behaviors later in life.  For example, Children diagnosed with oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD),conduct disorder (CD) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently display attachment problems, possibly due to early abuse, neglect or trauma. Clinicians suggest that children adopted after the age of six months have a higher risk of attachment problems. (      ).  On the other hand, those who are securely attached in childhood tend to have good self-esteem, strong romantic relationships and the ability to self-disclose to others. As adults, they tend to have healthy, happy and lasting relationships.

The therapists “use of self” is an integral part of helping the client to move towards more health and integration.  For attachment theory, the “use of self” is similar to Interpersonal Neurobiology.  The therapist acts as a reparative secure attachment figure and provides a safe container that allows the client to regress to the ruptured attachment. The therapist responds with attunement and repairs attachment ruptures.  Through the practice of empathetic listening, facial expression, eye contact, tone of voice, tempo, breathing, the therapist creates a kind of wordless but dense and charged felt presence, which permeates the being of both therapist and client.   At some point in the therapeutic process, the client internalizes and “earned secure attachment” and will hopefully generalize it to other relationships.

This paper identified some major concepts and assumptions in Attachment Theory and Interpersonal Neurobiology.  It also clarified several ways in which the therapist uses themselves as a reparative object for healing trauma’s and insecure attachments.  Both theoretical perspective draw from similar roots, but are different in their approach.   What is fascinating to me is how they are completely transforming the way in which therapy is done and what is occurring in the brain of both the therapist and client during the therapeutic process.  Interpersonal Neurobiology is taking Psychotherapy to a whole new level by scientifically proving things that have always been doubted by pragmatic Behaviorists.  For example, Wylie and Turner’s article The Attuned Therapist, explains the “seemingly immense divide between psychological and biological sciences and how Interpersonal Neurobiology has been a new “integrative bridge” which includes the whole human system—mind, brain, body and relationship. 

According to Wyle and Turner, “Psychology was dominated by a behavioral model during the ‘60’s and ‘70s, then by cognitive models in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and now affect and psychobiological processes are taking center stage” (2011, 48).  

For many years there was little knowledge about the biology of emotion and feeling—what they were, where they were in the brain, what caused them, how they influenced behavior.  However, according to Wyle and Turner, for the past 15 years, neuropsychological scientist and therapists claim that we are in the throes of an “emotional revolution,” that is more integrative and validating of the power of the emotions and interpersonal relations to change the physical structuring of the brain (2011).   

After decades of cognitive and behavioral therapists purposely seeking to put emotions out of sight and out of mind, they’re being forced to relearn the ancient emotional systems have a power that is quite independent of neocortical processes.  She writes, “In our increasingly technological world, therapy seems to be directing our attention to the very core of our primeval being, the ancient emotional systems that are the source of love, hatred, rage, desire, compassion, of our unquenchable need for connection with others of our own species.” (      49).   I am particularly fascinated by the cutting edge work of Nancy Chodorow who wrote book called The Power of Feelings.  Not only is this work challenging dominant paradigms in Sociology and Psychology, but it is changing and improving the way in which we do therapy.

 References:

Badenoch, Bonnie. (2008). Being a Brain-Wise Therapist: A Practical Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology. W.W Norton & Company, New York, NY.

Bettmann, Joanna and Jasperson, Rachael. (2010). Anxiety in Adolescence: The Integration of Attachment and Neurobiological Research into Clinical Practice. Clinical Social Work Journal, 38:98-106.

Wylie, Mary Sykes & Turner, Lynn. (2011). The Attuned Therapist. Psychotherapy Networker, March/April.

Dan Siegel’s Website. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.drdansiegel.com/about/interpersonal_neurobiology/website

La Clinica Website. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.laclinicahealth.org/

Personal Interview with Valerie Barnum. (2013). Client at La Clinica School Based Health Center, Phoenix Elementary School.

WHAT NOT TO SAY TO TRAUMATIZED PEOPLE

Beloved community…..we all very hypersensitive right now and are having to hold space for a lot of difficult negative emotions. And because we are trying to communicate via Facebook, there is a lot of miscommunication and false assumptions being made about people.

Someone asked me if I would write a short tidbit about “What Not to Say To A Traumatized Person,” This is what I came up with which comes from my own personal experiences and professional experiences working with some of the most traumatize individuals in the rogue valley.

1) Why can’t you talk about the incident with me?

Trauma informed therapy is intended to “Go to where the person is at” emotionally. It also doesn’t delve into one’s past history as that could potentially trigger someone into past trauma’s. The goal is to help people set up small and realistic solutions, not overwhelm them. They might be totally disconnected from themselves and their bodies due to dissociation. There is a period of disbelief that occurs and that can last for a period of time before one is ready to move into anger, grief, and finally acceptance. This process of grief and loss will be processed differently by each individual.

Some people aren’t VERBAL processors of their emotions, thus, inquire about their unique way of processing. We often unconsciously project our own biases, values and beliefs on to others. We also project our own sensitivity on to them too, particularly if one is a highly sensitive person, or, empath.

Don’t overwhelm them with too much talking or information. They might be hypersensitive to noise and chaos, as well.

2) Don’t you think this is an opportunity for you to practice your spiritual practice of nonattachment?

The Buddhist spiritual practice of non-attachment is a spiritual law that exists in micro earth-based spirituality and in universal principles. We all know that we can’t take our personal possession with us; however, as humans we get attached to our material possessions, our animals, our gardens, and other humans. The concept of non-attachment can feel very cold, much like one is being asked to turn their emotions on-and-off like a faucet.

We are multidimensional beings—we form deep emotional bonds and attachments. Furthermore, our bodies require a certain balance of equilibrium that has completely been disrupted as a result of loosing one’s home. In Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” the first level of basic survival has been disrupted, which will disrupt one’s ability to feel balanced and have the privilege of experiencing spiritual illumination which is at the top of the pyramid.

3) Everything happens for a reason. Can you see the silver lining in this?

The fire was a random chance phenomenon and we are victims of such occurrences in our lives. One doesn’t need to be told when they are emotionally traumatized that this phenomenon was a part of their “life contract,” and thus, they should consult with their higher self about that. Furthermore, they did not create their own reality either via negative thought patterns. Nor should they be told that this is some karma they are burning off. Most people don’t know how to grapple with the stressors in their own life, much less, karmic patterns from other lives. It can take years for someone to see the silver lining in a traumatic event, and they may never come to this point of resolution.

4) I have experienced a trauma in my life; thus, I know what you are going through.

It is really important to hold an empathetic space for traumatized individuals. It is important to ask someone if they are open to receiving a story about your personal experience. It not only has to be relevant to the person’s life, they need to be in a space to receive it. More often than not too much information is hard due to inability to focus, retain information, fatigue, and memory loss. What I say to my clients is “This is my experience, you may or may not resonate with it, and I am not attached that.”

5) Why can’t you have a sense of humor about this? While humor can help to free up some intense energy, one can be easily offended due to hypersensitivity. I generally don’t use humor until I have built up a rapport with someone. IF they are sleep deprived, they most likely are not even going to be able to grasp the humor anyway.

Tune yourself in to the person emotionally. Don’t shame them for being spacey, unorganized, brittle, or emotionally intense.

PRACTICE RADICAL FORGIVENESS OF YOURSELF AND OTHERS RIGHT NOW.

SOME TRAUMA ADVICE FOR THE COMMUNITY

It is endearing to see so many people offering support to those who have lost their homes, material possessions, and animals.  We are all directly experience various levels of trauma just by living in Oregon right now, as it has been declared a state of emergency by Kate Brown.  However, some of experiencing more extreme levels of trauma, particularly those who have histories of trauma due to sexism, racism, and economic poverty.

 We are all feeling the survival urge to respond, which is normal and needed. We all need to rise and offer what we can to help.  However, it is important to be humble about your training, particularly when working with traumatized people.  While empathy, gentleness, and generosity are welcomed, please don’t attempt to offer trauma therapy to your friends. Emotional support is one thing, but trauma therapy is something that requires training and professional experience in a clinical setting.

 There are numerous qualified therapists in the rogue valley who are now offering their services pro-bono, or, at reduced rates.  I am currently offering free 30-minute social work consultations, a trauma informed support group at the Elks lodge, crisis support, and therapy via zoom. Please contact me via my website, Victoria Christensen, M.A., MSW: www.guanyinhealingarts.com

 As a trauma informed clinical social worker who has been working on the frontlines all over Southern Oregon with a team of integral medical professionals, I wanted to offer some professional advice to our beloved community, as I know there are many stellar humans who have really good intentions. 

 However, I have had several trauma victims contact me expressing frustrations about friends who are trying to step into the role of therapist when they really shouldn’t be.  While friends can be a source of emotional support, assistance with basic caregiving, and material donations, they really can do more damage to a traumatized individual if they aren’t properly trained.

 There are books written on these subjects and therapists spend months in intensive training and clinical internships. Not all therapists have trauma training or expertise, but they may have a general understanding of how to looks for trauma symptoms and effective ways to approach traumatized individuals.

 The first thing to understand is what is happening in someone’s brain when they have been through a traumatic event.  This is called the neuroscience of trauma. The hallmarks of extreme traumatization are often considered to be PTSD, which is categorized as a trauma or stress related disorder.

 Some individuals might have histories of trauma (which they are private about), and the new traumatic event (a fire) can trigger the individual’s past traumatic memories, particularly if they have not worked with a trauma informed therapist who helped them to desensitize the traumatic event.  However, not everyone has to motivation or financial resources to do so. More often than not they use medication and not therapy, which is typical in our dysfunction health care model. 

 When someone experiences a stressful event, the amygdala, an area of the brain that contributes to emotional processing, sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus. This area of the brain functions like a command center, communicating with the rest of the body through the nervous system so that the person has the energy to fight or flee.

The hypothalamus is a bit like a command center. This area of the brain communicates with the rest of the body through the autonomic nervous system, which controls such involuntary body functions as breathing, blood pressure, heartbeat, and the dilation or constriction of key blood vessels and small airways in the lungs called bronchioles. The autonomic nervous system has two components, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic nervous system functions like a gas pedal in a car. It triggers the fight-or-flight response, providing the body with a burst of energy so that it can respond to perceived dangers. The parasympathetic nervous system acts like a brake. It promotes the "rest and digest" response that calms the body down after the danger has passed.

After the amygdala sends a distress signal, the hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system by sending signals through the autonomic nerves to the adrenal glands. These glands respond by pumping the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into the bloodstream. As epinephrine circulates through the body, it brings on a number of physiological changes. The heart beats faster than normal, pushing blood to the muscles, heart, and other vital organs. Pulse rate and blood pressure go up.

The person undergoing these changes also starts to breathe more rapidly. Small airways in the lungs open wide. This way, the lungs can take in as much oxygen as possible with each breath. Extra oxygen is sent to the brain, increasing alertness. Sight, hearing, and other senses become sharper. Meanwhile, epinephrine triggers the release of blood sugar (glucose) and fats from temporary storage sites in the body. These nutrients flood into the bloodstream, supplying energy to all parts of the body.

All of these changes happen so quickly that people aren't aware of them. In fact, the wiring is so efficient that the amygdala and hypothalamus start this cascade even before the brain's visual centers have had a chance to fully process what is happening. That's why people are able to jump out of the path of an oncoming car even before they think about what they are doing.

People are going to be exhibiting and assortment of trauma related responses, which I have outlined here:

 Types of Post-traumatic responses:

 Complicated or traumatic Grief:  Grief is a normal response to loss and often can resolves naturally over time. However, when the loss involves a sudden, traumatic, and violent death or disruption of an individual’s life, however, this response may become more complicated and may be associated with lasting health and mental health problems.

 Major Depression:  grief associated with a traumatic loss also may lead to major depression. Some symptoms of depression (insomnia, loss of interest in formerly enjoyable events, and a decreased ability to concentrate) overlap with symptoms of PTSD. 

 Anxiety: because trauma involves the experience of danger and vulnerability, post-traumatic outcomes often involves symptoms of anxiety (generalize anxiety, panic attacks, and post-traumatic phobias.

 Stress Disorders:  the hallmarks of extreme traumatization are often considered to be PTSD or ASD, watch of which is categorized as a trauma and stress related disorder.

 Symptoms of PTSD:  Post-traumatic stress disorder is the best-known trauma specific diagnosis in DSM-5.

 Symptoms of PTSD are divided into four clusters:

 a)     Re-experiencing the traumatic event: flashbacks and intrusive thoughts and/or memories of the trauma.

b)    Avoidance of trauma relevant stimuli: avoiding or suppressing upsetting thoughts, feelings, or memories. Efforts to avoid external reminders.

 c)     Numbing, negative cognition and mood:  emotional and cognitive numbing, also diminished interest, detachment, and amnesia, persistent negative beliefs and emotional states.  

a.     Dissociative symptoms: Persistent experiences of feeling detached from one’s mental processes, or, body. Feeling as though one were in a dream: feeling a sense of unreality of self or body or of time moving slowly.

d)    Hyperarousal and hyperactivity:  Keyed up nervous system, insomnia, “jumpiness”, hypervigilance, hypersensitivity to noise, stimulus, etc. irritability, sleep disturbance, self-destructive behavior, or attention/ concentration difficulties. Reexperiencing symptoms of PTSD are often the first to fade over time, whereas hyperarousal symptoms typically are more enduring.

If you see some of these symptoms in recent victims, please be humble.  If you are not a therapist with a master’s degree, step up to plate and help set up apt. for them with a trained therapist, particularly who has training in trauma and professional clinical experience.

Be safe, be kind, and be humble.  We have a massive job ahead of us.

FIVE TIPS FOR TRAUMA

With the recent Alemeda fire in Oregon, several expressed advice about how to handle trauma symptoms in themselves and others. Here are five tips that might be helpful:

1)     Lower expectations of yourself:  it will be difficult to function cognitively due to short term memory loss, insomnia, difficulty organizing and planning, inability to retain information, and a keyed-up nervous system.

2)    Take things one step at a time, one day at a time, and one breath at a time:  traumatized individuals get easily overwhelmed by information, or, become stressed about all the things they need to do. It will be difficult for them to do small tasks; thus, please let others help and ask for help when you need it.

 3)    Let go of needing to control:  Individuals who have lost everything will experience a sense of chaos in their lives—both psychologically and in their external world. In order to counterbalance the chaos in their external world, they will be hyper-obsessed about control and needing to keep things organized in their lives. It is difficult for really competent people to experience trauma symptoms and will feel like they are on the edge, they need to be reassured that they will heal in time. They need to be reassured that they will have a support system; thus, friends, family and extended community needs to show up for these people for extended periods of time.

4)    Sitting with negative emotions, but knowing how to identify unhealthy downward spirals of negative thinking that leads to unhealthy isolation, suicidal ideation, and severe depression.   Depression and anxiety are symptoms of PTSD and every one deals with their emotions differently.  However, if you have a tendency to isolate when you are in crisis, reach out to someone for help (a trauma informed therapist is ideal), or, get into a grief and loss support group.

 5)    Set up a self-care plan and limit your exposure to stress.  It is ok to focus on yourself and give yourself the time you need to heal.  Everyone’s path of healing is unique; thus, routinely schedule healthy coping skills such as exercise, meditation, yoga, journaling, reading, listening to music, doing art, moving your body, and eating healthy meals.

Exploring The Death With Dignity Act

 Exploring The Death With Dignity Act

Victoria Christensen

Physician-assisted suicide has become increasingly controversial over the past two decades.  Only eight states, have legalized the practice, despite hard-fought campaigns in several other states to legalize it as well.  In 1994, Oregon voters approved the Death With Dignity Act (Ballot Measure 16) by a vote of 51% to 49%.  It became effective in 1998, surviving court challenges and a repeal effort, to make Oregon the first state in the country to legalize physician-assisted suicide.   The Oregon Death With Dignity Act allows an adult who is an Oregon resident and is suffering from a terminal disease that will cause death within six months, to terminate his or her life through the use of medication.  To do so, the person must express voluntarily his or her wish to die, must make a written request for the medication, and be found by the person’s attending physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease.  The Death With Dignity Act is important for social work, particularly medical social work, because it directly affects an individual’s right to die, which in many ways contradicts the medical communities oath to keep people living as long as possible.  The DWDA enables qualified patients to avoid unnecessary suffering, to die with dignity, and to respect those patients’ right to autonomy or self-determination.  While there is no way I can address the complexity of this issue in this article, I will describe the social problems being addressed by the policy, discuss the history of the Act, provide a thorough description of the goals of the Policy and discuss the current status of the policy in Oregon.  

The Death With Dignity Act addresses the crucial social problem of allowing dying patients the right to control their own end of life care.   It is common knowledge that the aging population is increasing globally.   As a result, there is a pressing need for physician-assisted suicide across the globe; however, the notion of suicide stirs up a number of ethical issues about the choices people should or should not have with regard to death.  There are conflicting opinions by multiple groups; such as religious organizations, the medical community, and consumer groups.  Marjorie Zucker’s book The Right To Die Debate: A Documentary History (1999) examines the many voices in the debate and explores the controversy in depth.  In the introduction, she lays the foundation for the debate and explains why the ethical social problem has emerged in response to the way death in America has changed in conjunction with the progress of medical technology.

While modern medicine has made great technological strides in the Twentieth century to save and improve lives, physicians can and frequently use this technology to prolong the dying process.  She writes, “As physicians became increasingly adept at using developing technology and justifiably dependent upon it, they began to be uncomfortable with the notion that some patients ultimately could not be saved.  Medical professionals received a great deal of positive reinforcement for refusing to ‘give up,’ and many looked upon the death of a patient as a failure of their own” (Zucker, 1999, xxvi).  In response to the way death in America has changed, many health care professionals, lawyers, educators and members of the public began raising ethical and public policy questions; such as, when does the use of technology become overuse or abuse? When in the course of an individual’s illness should technology be focused on providing comfort rather than prolonging dying?

When is enough enough?   These questions have led to considerable controversy and a national conversation known as the right-to-die debate (Zucker, 1999).

The arguments in favor of a legal right to physician-assisted suicide are strong and varied.  The debate is often portrayed as a battle between social or religious conservatives who oppose the practice and liberals or progressives who support it. Those who support the Death With Dignity Act argue that death can be dreadful with high-tech medicine.  Patients who endure intolerable suffering ought to be able to end his/her life before her human capacities are irreparably damaged.  Furthermore, there ought to be a legal right to physician-assisted suicide in order to respect the patient’s moral right to autonomy and self determination.

There is research that has documented the most common reasons why someone might want to hasten their life. According to a report about DWDA by the Legislative Committee Services (June, 2010) “Physicians and families reported that patients have several reasons for requesting lethal medication.  These include concerns about losing autonomy, losing control of bodily functions, a decreasing ability to participate in activities that make life enjoyable, and physical suffering.  Also, many family members added that patients wanted to control the manner and time of their death” (p. 2).  

Assisted-suicide advocates often base their arguments on the moral conviction that each individual has an inherent right to determine his or her own destiny.  Thus, the right to life includes the right to end life, and it is as wrong to deny that right as it is to deprive a person of any other liberty.  They say that suicide is already legal in all states; only assistance in carrying it out is at issue (Zucker, 1999).  It is for these reasons and more that the terminally ill wish for a dignified death, and for these reasons that supporters of PAS wish to enable caregivers to provide it.

Death with Dignity is not only a legal issue, but a cultural and spiritual issue, too. Some faith traditions have embraced Death with Dignity as an ultimate act of compassion, and others reject it is as morally bankrupt practice.  Some opponents of legalizing physician-assisted suicide believe that intentionally causing the death of someone, even one who is dying, is morally unacceptable.  Sylvia Engdahl writes that “Most religions have traditionally held that all human life is sacred and that suicide is therefore immoral.  Christians believe that life is a gift from God so only God should determine when it should end; some of them believe that they would be punished in an afterlife for taking their own lives” (2009, pg. 65).

The main objection to the legalization of assisted suicide, apart from religious grounds, is that is may be a “slippery slope” issue.  In other words, one thing might lead to another—once a small concession is granted, the door is opened to larger ones. Opponents believe that such laws might extend to people who suffer from chronic illnesses or disabilities that are not terminal, but are costly and life debilitating—perhaps eventually even to the mentally ill.  Another argument is that if assisted suicide is legalized, sick people may be pressured into requesting it if they cannot afford medical care to relieve their suffering. Adrienne Asch, a noted bioethicist and authority on the rights of the disabled writes “Disability-rights activists fear that availability of assisted suicide will sway the public Into thinking that some people’s lives are not worth living, and that the ill and disabled may be led to feel that they have a duty to die rather than burden society with their care” (2005, p. 31). In other words, there is a fear that individuals disabled by a terminal illness would be discriminated against because Oregon law would no longer protect their lives in the same way it protects the lives of healthy Oregonians.

Opponents also argue that it is difficult to determine whether or not the patient has six months or less to live. In addition, there is a concern about the psycho-social condition of the dying patient. Daniel Callahan, M.D says that “the most common hazard of legalizing assisted suicide is the possibility that the patient is suffering from a clinical depression in the face of his or her illness and anticipated death.  Since depression is potentially treatable, a physician contemplating assisting in suicide must be very much aware of this possibility (1997, 71).  In other words, it is common for terminally ill patients to have some degree of depression, and that it is often difficult for some health care providers to detect as they don’t specialize in mental health issues.

            Prior to the Death With Dignity Act, there were no previous social policies that addressed assisted-suicide at the end of life.  However, prior to the 1950’s there was the beginnings of a Euthenasia Movement.  During the 1940’s the Euthanasia Society was formed with the intention to spread it’s message as widely as possible in speeches, on the radio, and in articles for magazines.   The society also wanted to promote legislation permitting voluntary euthanasia. Marjorie Zucker thoroughly documents the Euthenasia movement in her book The Right to Die Debate. She documents the impact of changes in medical care on end of life issues. The increased ability to maintain the life of mortally ill patients created a dilemma for physicians:  When, if ever, should they stop treatment?  While Euthanasia was highly controversial, medical professionals and educators realized the need for continued education.  Marjorie writes:

During the period 1953-65, the Euthanasia Society of America functioned as an educational organization, providing speakers to organizational meetings and on the radio.  No further attempts were made to pass legislation in this field.  However, the increased ability to maintain life in mortally ill patients provided a new impetus to the discussion of euthanasia.  Two influential books published in the mid-1950’s contained chapters on euthanasia.  One of these books was entitled Morals and Medicine, by Joseph Fletcher, professor of pastoral theology and Christian ethics at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusettes, who was in favor of voluntary euthanasia (1999, pg. 64).

            As medicine became more advanced and increased peoples’ life spans, most were living to a reasonably healthy and comfortable age.  But for some, life became miserable, and for patients who were unconscious, it became meaningless.  As a result, the wish to control one’s fate, especially when one could no longer speak for oneself, led to the development of living wills or advance directives, or, documents that leave instructions for one’s treatment.  A man by the name of Luis Kutner, a Chicago human rights lawyer who promoted his strong beliefs in human rights in several ways, conceived the “living will,” a term that he coined.  A living will is a document that states one’s wishes about medical treatment at the end of life if one is unable to communicate them directly. Supposedly Kutner spoke at a meeting organized by the Euthanasia Society of America in 1967 and they drew up a living will in response to his proposal and distributed a quarter of a million copies to various medical professionals (Zucker, 1999). 

The Act began as a citizen initiative petition in 1994.  Ballot Measure 16 was approved by voters by a 51 to 49 percent margin in 1994. Despite the measures passage, implementation was tied up in the courts for several years. A legal injunction delayed initial implementation of the Act until October 27, 1997, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction. The 1995 Legislative Assembly referred Ballot Measure 51 (authorized by House Bill 2954) to voters on the November 1997 ballot, which would have repealed the Death with Dignity Act. Oregon voters chose to retain the Act by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent. (Oregon Legislative Policy and Research Office, 1997)

Oregon and Washington are the only two states in the union that allow physician-assisted suicide. However, there is a long term goal to assist other states with the implementation of the policy. According to the Death With Dignity National Center Website, there has been a growing support of the Movement:

 With the 14 years of data showing Oregon's Death with Dignity law is safe and utilized the way it was intended with no evidence of a slippery slope for vulnerable Oregonians and since our win in Washington in 2008, bills which seek to improve end-of-life care have been introduced in state legislatures around the country.

State legislators have the Oregon and Washington laws to use as a guide. While many bills are drafted each year, the majority fail. Some consider it a failure that most bills do not end up becoming law, but we view these bills as a testament to the growing support of the Death with Dignity movement, the will of the public, and the strength of Oregon's and Washington's model legislation.

 Measure 16 is regarded as one of the most controversial ballot measures in Oregon’s history. As a result, various agencies are required to do long term research studies that document the progress and issues that arise.  The Oregon Health Division is required to annually review a sample of medical records of patients who requested a life-ending prescription.  In addition, they generate and make available to the public an annual statistical report of information collected under the Act.

The status of the policy in Oregon is good.  Oregon Public Health Division released it’s annual report for 2011, which reflects statistics from the 14th year of implementation, and encompasses data from January 7, 2011- February 29, 2012.  Peg Sandeen, MSW and policy advocate of the Death With Dignity National Center provides a concise summary of the report:

Consistent with information from prior years, the data show Death with Dignity is a rarely used option for a small number of terminally ill Oregonians. The report indicates the process was implemented, in every instance, under the strict guidelines written into Oregon law and the established medical standard of care that has evolved since implementation.

During the 13 months covered by the report, 114 qualified patients received a prescription under the provisions of the law. Approximately 62%, or 71 terminally ill individuals, died as a result of ingesting medication prescribed under the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. Sixty-two different physicians wrote prescriptions under the law. According to the Health Division's report, in the 14 year history of implementation, 935 prescriptions have been written and 596 individuals have ingested medication and died using the standards spelled out in Oregon law.

Similar to prior years, most of the qualified patients who used the medication to hasten death were over 65, had a terminal diagnosis of cancer, and received palliative care service through hospice. Additionally, participants tended to be well-educated (48% with a four year degree or more), had access to some form of insurance (96% with public or private insurance), and died at home (94%). The most commonly reported end-of-life concerns were: less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable (90%), losing autonomy (88.7%), and loss of dignity (74.6%) (2012).

It is important to note that the use of the term “Assisted Suicide” has been called into question by the American Public Health Association as it has negative connotations.

While “physician-assisted suicide” is an accurate and descriptive term, it should be replaced with the advocacy-phrase “aid in dying.”   Activists needed to make an attempt to redefine the crime of assisted suicide as a legitimate “medical treatment.”  Rita L Marker, an attorney and executive director of the International Task Force on Euthenasia and Assisted Suicide revealed that the term has negatively affected the Assisted Suicide Movement.  She writes, “In the more than ten years since the passage of the Oregon law, state after state has considered legalizing assisted suicide.  Each time, there was early support for the measure.  Yet, in each instance, when the official vote was taken, support had evaporated and the proposal went down in defeat” (2009, p. 121). 

As a result, assisted suicide proponents, particularly Compassion and Choices, searched for some way to improve their position.  Thus, they commissioned research and polling.  They found that people have a negative impression of the term “assisted suicide,” but, if euphemistic slogans like “death with dignity” or “end of life choices” were used to describe the same action, response was relatively positive. They embarked on a mission to replace it with kinder, gentler language.   In addition, they wrote press releases to the media, the state of Oregon and major public-policy organizations claiming that use of the term “assisted suicide” demonstrated insensitivity to dying patients and to the physicians who assisted them (Marker, 2007).

 References:

Zucker, Marjorie. (1999).  The Right To Die Debate:  A Documentary History. Greenwood Press: London, pg. xxvi.

Taylor, Bill. (2010).  Oregon Death With Dignity Act, Legislative Committee Services Report, Salem, Oregon, June 2010, pg 2.

Engdahl, Sylvia. (2009).  Assisted Suicide: Current Contraversies, Greenhaven Press: MI, pg. 65.

Asch, Adrienne. (2005).  “Recognizing Death While Affirming Life,” Hastings Center Special Report, November-December, p. 31.

Callahan, Daniel. (1997).  “Self-Extinction: The Morality of the Helping Hand,” Chapter 3, in Robert F. Weir, ed., Physician-assisted Suicide, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 71.

Long, Lori. (1997). Basics on Ballot Measure 51, Oregon Legislative Policy and Research Office Report, Salem, Oregon.

Sandeen, Peg. (2012). Oregon Death with Dignity 2011 Report. Death With Dignity National Center.  Retrieved from: http://www.deathwithdignity.org/2012/03/07/oregon-death-dignity-2011-report

Marker, Rita. (2007). “When Killing Yourself Isn’t Suicide,” National Review, March 5, 2007,pg. 121.

Loss and Love: Heart Wisdom on Grief

Welcome all of you tattered and exquisitely beautiful souls. Thanks for receiving this offering and showing up for one another in our deepest grief and existential despair. It takes courage to show up in your vulnerability and rawness, so I commend and honor you.

 We are all experiencing the collective trauma of the environment crisis, but also rampant social problems, and the narcissistic injury that president Trump inflicted on us since his election. It has been an endless and horrifying barrage of abuse and while I know the human spirit is strong, our flames are weak.

 We gather here today to honor our individual and collective grief.  And the need for our community to come together and support one another in our collective trauma.

The intention is to cultivate more reverence for the sacred process of grieving.  Our deep grief is not something to simply “get over.” On the contrary,  it is something to learn to appreciate and value as a necessary part of life.  We need to have just at much reverence for loss as we do for love.

Another intention is to get out of mind and into our hearts—our emotions, our bodies, and our soul.  In the west there is an overemphasis on “rationality” and “rational modes of knowing.”  We see a championing of the mind over the emotions— and are literally taught to live in our minds and devalue the wisdom of our emotions, bodies, and spirits.

It is also our intention to offer a safe, nonjudgemental, healing ground to release any deep grief you have been suppressing and any further support you might need in the future.

 We truly are all in the same boat and things are very dark and bleak right now.  We will most likely be experiencing this darkness for awhile now. However, we must find a way to unite in our love for the earth, in our love for the diversity of species on this gorgeous planet, and in our love for one another.

 With all the loss and collective trauma in the world today, we need to offer support to one another as so many are feeling silenced, marginalized, isolated, alone, and wounded.  I want to honor all of the people who are so paralyzed in their pain that they can’t leave the house. I work with a lot of these people in my job as a home health social worker. You would not believe how many vulnerable people are feeling isolated and terrified right now.

 I have felt the depths of despair myself, particularly when I first learned of the environmental crisis in 2015. I was just finishing graduate school and I just released the first edition of my book Feminine Mysticism in Art. I reached out to Andrew Harvey for an endorsement, which he obliged.   And on his website I saw some interviews that he posted. I listened to an interview he did with Guy McPherson and Carolyn Baker—they had just released a book called “Extinction Dialogues: How to live with Death in Mind.” Guy is a climate scientist and Carolyn Baker is a phenomenal psychotherapist and author of multiple books on the decline of global capitalism. I immediate purchased the book and was forever changed.

It looks me six months to read it.  I felt terribly alone and isolated. At the time, I was finishing graduate school and there were only a few people in this community that knew about the devastating reality of global warming. I reached out to these people and continued to seek guidance from personal mentors. I had many sleepless nights—panic attacks in the middle of the night, despair, low grade depression, spaciness, inability to focus, memory impairment.  

 It is common to isolate when one is experiencing deep depression and despair.  However, I don’t recommend isolating for long periods of time as it can lead to a downward spiral to suicidal ideation and even suicide.

We all know the pain and wounds are deep. WE have all been terribly wounded by capitalism—particularly those who have been horribly discriminated against due to race/class/gender/and not to mention LGBTQ concerns.The system of social inequality is continuing to get worse, and we are more divided now than we have ever been due to social inequality, fierce competition, and hyper individualism (every man for himself).

 However, there is also another larger social trend happening at the same time.  We are evolving at a rapid pace, which feels like the quickening. The veils are being lifted and there is a massive tidal wave of awakening occurring.The new paradigm has been emerging for awhile now, but it has been stifled by corruption of the power elite and the corporatocracy that our political system has sadly become

We are witnessing the merging of science and mysticism, new humanitarian social systems, and regenerative agriculture. We are also witnessing the reclaiming of indigenous wisdoms and a renewed connection to the earth. We all have a direct access to the spirit world and literally possess a universe in our own minds.

I truly believe that the indigenous peoples hold the deep wisdoms for our individual and collective healing. The purification times are here, as they have prophecised.

And while the scientific facts are undeniably daunting and fatalistic, no one really knows what is going to happen.  We all know on a soul level, that the apocalypse is and archetype deeply embedded in the collective unconscious and it is emerging now. The meaning of apocalypse is “A Lifting of the Veils.” As Karl Jung purports, the universal occurs in the collective unconscious and we all have access to it.  

 The human mind has always been ignorant, and limited in its ability to conceptualize the brilliance of the Infinite Universe.

 It is our greatest hope, that in going thru the dark night of the soul, there will be the possibility of new life, redemption, and possibly a new golden era on earth.We also need stay open to the upleveling of humanity, which is equally possible if we can unite in one common goal, which is the survival of the species and living in harmony with the Earth.

 It is possible to experience rapid changes during the quickening. We are seeing this change happen now all over the world. It is my hope and prayer that this continues to escalate, as our time is short.

 I would also like to say that the environmental grief that we are experiencing is totally different than personal grief as it involves the potential death of human species and most species on planet earth.

We have experienced problems in the past, but not at the epidemic levels we are experiencing now. We are all suffering from some kind of modern day neurosis—anxiety, depression, ADD, fragmentation of the psyche.  This neurosis is NOT something to pathologize…it is normal to be experiencing an unraveling of the psyche in a time of chaos and social unrest.

 This global dark night of the soul will inevitably stretch all of us beyond our comfort zone and will continue to do so in the near future.  It will trigger a full range of negative emotions, such as utter rage, deep despair, shame, confusion, and apathy.  

 We are being called to surrender to the dark void of transition—to be the mystery at the crossroads. 

It will be incredibly difficult for us to befriend our individual and collective pain as it feels totally overwhelming, doesn’t it? When you love with all of your heart, you loose with all of your heart. And this loss, as many of you know, is a painful death of the ego and even hope. Having the courage to grieve is sitting with the most horrific shadow and allowing it to utterly transform you.

 We all must be committed to our own personal grief work and the many layers of grief that will unfold in the future. We most likely will be grieving for many years, particularly if we are indeed in a hospicing phase of humanity.  Hospice therapist and author, Elizabeth Kuebler Roth, worked with hundreds of people who experienced profound grief and loss at the end of their lives. Her research on grief revealed stages that all people go through in the grieving process (Stages of grief—denial, anger, grief, acceptance).  

 Most are still in the denial and anger phase, which is normal. One can’t force something through the process, nor can one force someone to grieve. We don’t have to do it all at once. It will occur in layers and stages.  And I personally think that we can regress to previous stages.  For example,  after three years of coming to terms with the reality of the ecological crisis, I have moved to a place of more acceptance.  However, I find that I can cycle back through to the anger and grief phases at times.

 Another thing I want to say about grief is that we all grieve in our own unique way. One is not better than the other. There is no pressure to cry if that is not want comes for you. Some may feel the need to make sounds or moans, which is welcomed. You might also choose silence.

For those of you who have been through your own dark night of the soul, you know there are gifts that come in the void of uncertainty. What do you think some of these gifts might be?

 1)   It challenges us to be in the present moment—to get in touch with our intuition and direct access to spirit.

2)   It challenges us to surrender to the Great Mystery. To learn how to sit with the void of the unknown and be OK with not having a plan of action.

3)   There is wisdom that comes in the complete shattering of the ego—radical humility and equality with everything.

4)   Challenges us to re-evaluate our values, beliefs and priorities. (family, friends, earth)

5)   Challenges us to practice non-attachment and letting go

6)   Asks us to practice radical forgiveness of self and others, reaching out to the community for support.

Doing this deep work is a practice of reverence for the death process.  Nature is such a profound teacher of the cycles of life and death, love and loss.   Humans have a lot of attachments, don’t we? Grief is also an honoring of our deep love for the good in humanity, as it is ultimately LOVE that will heal our jaded, broken hearts.  Love is the light that seeps into the cracks of the dark underworld.

 We know the power of this love and we must NOT forget the promise of INFINITE LOVE and GRACE on the earth plan and in the spirit world.  Our connection to the spirit world will literally be our life line and meditation will be a way for us to stay grounded and sane during the great turning. So will cultivating community and finding your own medicine offering for healing.

 There is no doubt it is difficult for humans to stay in a place of hopelessness.  We need to move into inspired action and find the motivation to do what we can in our own personal lives, but also in service to positive social change. It is incredibly healing to get out of your own suffering and assist people who are incredibly vulnerable, whose suffering is much greater than yours.

 There is a tremendous amount of redemption that comes when we start serving others.  There is much work to be done, my friends. And honoring our grief is a necessary part of the humbling and healing process. So pat yourselves on the back because you are stepping up to do some of the most important work of our time.

The RISING TIDE OF POVERTY IN AMERICA: ITS TIME TO ADJUST THE POVERTY LINE

 Calculating who is poor is a tricky and complicated affair, despite the good intentions among policymakers to want to improve the well-being of deprived people. The official government data published by the United States Census Bureau shows that, “In 2012, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent, or just over 46.5 million people. The poverty rate is the share of people below the official poverty line. The poverty line was $22,314 for a family of four, $22,113 for a family of four with two children, and $11,344 for a single individual under age 65” (2012: 14).  However, there is a lot of controversy about the accuracy of these numbers, as they are based on an outdated poverty measure that doesn’t include alternative data. Policy efforts to reduce economic poverty may overlook important aspects of what is means to be poor. As Robert Havemen proclaims “these numbers ignore many non-economic considerations that may affect individual well-being, such as living in unsafe surroundings, being socially isolated, or experiencing adverse health or living arrangements not remediable by spending money (2009: 81).

            The current official poverty measure was developed in the early 1960s by Mollie Orshansky, and only a few minor changes have been implemented since it was first adopted in 1965 (us census). In the early 1960’s when she developed her poverty plan, President Johnson had declared a War on Poverty, and the nation needed a statistical representation of the poor. Her economy food plan was a bare minimum food plan designed for temporary use during economically challenging times. It was developed by taking the least expensive food plan developed by the Department of Agriculture and multiplying it by 3.

 According to Kathleen Short of the US Census Bureau “At the time it was developed, the official poverty thresholds represented the cost of a minimum diet multiplied by three (to allow for expenditures on other goods and services). Family resources were defined for this measure as before-tax money income.”

The Income based poverty line is an absolute measure that is adjusted each year only for changes in prices, not for changes in the standard of living.  The benefits to defining poverty in this way is that it keeps the poverty line fixed over a long period of time, which inevitably effects social policy and federal tax policy.  It also keeps the numbers relatively low, which looks good for the politicians in office. However, the absolute income poverty measure excludes a large number of people from receiving social services that they need, particularly women, minorities and children.  In keeping this outdated poverty line, the wealthy are the one’s who gain because they don’t have to pay higher taxes for social services and the poor people loose necessary services they need as a result of structural oppression.

Interestingly enough, the relatively low tax rate of the United States largely accounts for the nation’s skewed income distribution.   And despite the mammoth size of the federal budget of the United States, it is predicated on a tax base that is minimal compared to those of other industrialized nations.  “A tenant of the welfare state has been the progressive taxation of income and its redistribution to the poor through social programs; thus, the question of income distribution has become integral to the discussion of tax policy” (Karger and Stoesz, 2010: 244).  Unfortunately, research has revealed that tax policy has always contained provisions that benefit special interests. “Bending the tax code in response to lobbying is a long-standing practice in the United States, though today it is often associated with corporate influence or corporate welfare”(Karger and Stoesz, 2010: 243).  The Neo Conservatives have made it very clear that they want to completely do away with any kind of social welfare.  And keeping the poverty line lower than it should be keeps the tax rates low in the United States.  

Some attempts have been made to improve the nation’s official poverty measure.  According to Robert Havemen “In 1995, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences reported the results of a comprehensive study of the strengths and weaknesses of the official measure, and proposed a major revision designed to correct many of the criticisms that have been levied against it” (2009:82). Since that report, the Census Bureau has developed a variety of improved poverty measures reflecting the recommendations of the 1995 report.  In November 2011 and November 2012, the Census Bureau released the first sets of estimates for the Supplemental Poverty Measure. However, none of these alternatives has been adopted to replace the existing official poverty measure (Census Bureau, 2012).

I would personally modify the absolute income poverty line by using a relative measure of poverty, which increases along with the general standard of living. I would also inculcate a multidimensional approach to poverty that includes hardships that people experience in many dimensions—education, housing, food, social contacts, security, and environmental amenities.  Aside from just measuring income, another measure of affluence that I would include is assets, insofar as they are an indication of real wealth.  Consisting of savings, real estate, stocks and bonds, and related property, assets not only can be liquidated during periods of adversity, thus offering the owner a buffer against poverty. According to Karger and Stoesz “The distribution of assets is even more skewed than income distribution, with the highest quintile owning more than 80 percent. By contrast, the wealth of the lowest quintile is negative, indicative of debt” (2010: 245).

In alignment with the 1995 study by the National Academy of Sciences, I would include all the items the reform proposed, which are so clearly delineated by Robert Haveman’s article “What Does it mean to be poor in a rich society?”:

The reform proposal would involve a new threshold based on budget studies of food, clothing, shelter, and amounts that would allow for other needs to be met, such as household supplies, personal care, and non-work-related transportation.  It would also reflect geographical differences in housing costs.  The income measure would also be reworked to include the value of near-money benefits that are available to buy goods and services (for example, food stamps), and would subtract from income required expenses that cannot be used to buy goods and services (for example, income and payroll taxes, child care and other work-related expenses, child support payments to another household, and out-of-pocket medical care costs, including health insurance premiums) (2009:82).

With the implementation of the new poverty threshold, the national statistics of poverty would go up and more people would qualify for social services. However, the corruption in tax policy favoring special interest groups or corporate welfare has to change.  People are so disillusioned by the corruption of democracy and for good reason.  How are we going to incorporate social change when corporate interests rule the roost?   Furthermore, people are highly disillusioned by the way taxes are used, such as funding wars (supposedly fifty cents out of every dollar goes to military costs. If that much went into social welfare we wouldn't be having the problems that we do).

Year after year, the funding for social services dwindles.  This is perhaps the most inhumane thing we could do to the very people that are the backbone of the capitalistic system.  The system is set up for people to be poor, yet the conservative power elite wants to cut the social services for these people—this is absolutely insane! An assortment of research reveals that although there have been some governmental efforts made to reduce poverty; they are superficial efforts that don’t target the root of the problem, which is unregulated capitalism and corporate greed.  In addition, there are a number of social trends that have changed the landscape of the U.S economy, such as globalization, the middle class slide, increasing populations and the diminishing of natural resources. All of these long-term trends drastically affect the U.S. economy and the global economy as well. 

More importantly, the new poverty threshold would assist more women, minorities and children who represent the majority of the poor. The "feminization of poverty" is currently a phenomenon of great concern to social scientists and social workers.  In the United States, the fastest growing type of family structure is that of female-headed households and, because of the high rate of poverty among these households, their increase is mirrored in the growing number of women and children who are poor; almost half of all the poor in the U.S. today live in families headed by women.  Women have higher poverty rates than do men for two reasons.  First, their economic resources are often less than those of men.  Second, they are more likely to be single parents during their working lives and to be unmarried and living alone in their later years. Minority women are highly represented among the poor because of their minority status and a higher risk of single parenthood (Devine, Plunkett, and Wright, 1992). Furthermore, the poverty of women is reflected in the poverty of children.  “There are almost 13 million poor children in the U.S.: 52 percent of them live in families headed by women and the poverty rate for white, black, and Spanish-origin children living in female-headed households is 46 percent, 66 percent, and 71 percent respectively” (Rodger, 1986: 32). 

With the growing number of poor people and dwindling of social welfare, we are headed for a major social crisis, and that doesn’t include the environmental crisis looming over our heads as a result of global capitalism. Chris Farrell wrote an excellent article titled “War on Poverty: From the Great Society to the Great Recession” (American Radio Works, 2014). He discusses some of these social trends and social policies that have contributed to the rising tide of poor people, such as global competition, the decline of private sector unions, rapid technological change and the deregulation of finance, the working poor, and low minimum wages for less educated, low- skilled workers.  His article is realistic and bleak, but it is right on target.  He ends with a quote that describes our current economic, social and environmental crisis in a nut shell:

There are public policies that would improve the job prospects for poor people. But there’s little appetite to initiate or expand anti-poverty programs and probably won’t be anytime soon.  American politics is likely to be defined in the new term by rising alarm over the increasing federal deficit and mammoth government debt. Meanwhile, state and local governments are slashing their support for the poor.  If the government can’t help, the economy will end up doing the heavy lifting by default. But so far the economy is generating little job and income growth, and even when it does come back, low-skilled workers are likely to be left behind. The risk is that the tragic combination of joblessness and poverty will lead to diminished dream and social isolation which in turn, will feed a cycle of unemployment and destructive behavior.  It’s morally and economically wrong.

The war on poverty will never be a war if people are fed a bunch of faulty statistics, which cause them to believe that poverty isn’t a macro, social epidemic.   It is clear that band-aid solutions simply aren’t working anymore, particularly in a time of global crisis. The costs of social welfare are far less than the price paid for globalization in the name of corporate greed.  Unfortunately, the karmic fall out as a result of “profits over people” is causing a massive global dark night of the soul that will inevitably cause even more suffering. The wisdom that will emerge from this death is more equality, cooperation, compassion and tolerance of diversity. 

We need a massive radical humanitarian movement—a new structural social work that transforms society from the inside out.  It is not going to come from any politicians. On the contrary, it will come from the people waking up to the lies that they have been fed by policy makers and greedy capitalists. According to one of my social work heroes, Bob Mullaly, social work ideology has much more in common with the socialist paradigms than it does with the capitalist paradigms (2007). Mullaly writes “If social workers truly believe in the values and ideas they espouse, then they cannot subscribe to and try to maintain a social order that contradicts and violates these same values and ideals (2007: 206).  The time is now for social workers to unite for change.  We simply can’t sit on our laurels anymore; we must do everything that we can to speak out for social change. 

References:

Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica C. Smith. (2013). Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States. United States Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.

Devine, J.A., Plunkett, M., & Wright, J.D. (1992). The Chronocity of Poverty: Evidence from the PSID, 1966-1987. Social Forces, 70, 787-812.

Farrell, Chris (2014). "War on Poverty: From the Great Society to the Great Recession." American Radio Works, Public Radio: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/feaatures/poverty/rising_tide.html

Haveman, Robert. (2009). "What Does it Mean to be Poor in a Rich Society?" Focus, Vol.26, No.2, Fall.

Karger, Howard, Stoesz, David. (2010). American Social Welfare Policy: A Pluralist Approach. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA.

Mishel Lawrence, Bivens Josh, Gould Elise, Shierholz Heidi. (2012). The State Of Working America, 12th Edition. Cornell University Press, New York.

Mullaly, Bob. (2007). The New Structural Social Work.  Oxford University Press, Ontario,    Canada.

Short, Kathleen. (2011). The Supplemental Poverty Measure: Examining the Incidence and Depth of Poverty in the U.S. Taking Account of Taxes and Transfers in 2011. The United States Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, Washington, D.C.

Rodgers Jr., Harrell R. (1986). Poor Women, Poor Families.  New York: M.E. Sharp.

Coping with Life Changes Caused by COVID-19

The pandemic has changed life for virtually everyone, whether it’s dealing with losing a job, adapting to stay-home orders, or learning to cook for yourself. Some major changes are by choice—choosing to adhere to travel restrictions and cancelling vacations, for example—while others are by force, such as being laid off. Regardless of the change, there are both challenges and benefits that come with transitions.

 Adapting to changes:

As the threat of COVID-19 transmission became clear, people were forced to abandon or postpone weddings, travel plans, and events. While difficult, these changes have been necessary to slow the spread of the virus. Many people experience a sense of grief through sudden changes, so it’s important to focus on self-care as you deal with the disappointment. And if you need extra support, Guan Yin Healing Arts specializes in affordable therapy and can teach you mindfulness practices to ease feelings of stress or depression.

 However, there have been some creative adaptations in lieu of events and travel, as people find ways to celebrate together via video chats, drive-by parades instead of birthday parties, and live-streamed “living room concerts” by musical artists who had to forego their touring plans.

 If you’ve been laid off as a result of the pandemic, it may be difficult to adapt to being home all the time with no work to keep you busy. This can be a great time to reassess your career path and think about whether it may be time to change your focus. As you spend time at home, do some research into fields that interest you, and see if you can find free online courses that may help you get more insight into different industries.

 For those who were considering getting a pet, the pandemic provides the perfect opportunity because you’ll be home more often to help train your new dog or cat. And if you live alone, your new companion will ease feelings of isolation. However, be sure to think about the long-term effects of having a pet before you adopt. If you have a job that will require you to eventually spend long hours at the office, you may want to consider how to care for your pet when you go back to work. If you’re feeling idle at home and looking for ways to stay busy, consider planting a garden to get some exercise and fresh air.

 Another challenge is learning how to battle the pandemic shag; depending on how long you’ve been isolating, your hair is likely in need of a cut. With many barbershops and salons still closed or open for reduced hours, it’s becoming more common that people take their haircuts into their own hands. Before you start hacking away at your locks with a pair of kitchen scissors, research tips and invest in tools, such as hair clippers, so you can make the most of your COVID cut.

 Plans you can’t change:

While many life plans can be changed, there are a few things that can’t wait. For example, if you have to buy a new car, there are ways to do it safely right now, with many car dealerships offering special services such as car deliveries and no-contact showings. Call around to local dealerships to see if you can test-drive a vehicle, but be sure to ask them about their cleaning protocol.

 Pregnant women can’t press pause on their pregnancy and will have to deal with challenges of giving birth during a pandemic. Families expecting a baby can mitigate the risk of contracting COVID-19 by shifting to a midwife clinic instead of a hospital.

 For those who need to buy a house during the pandemic, be sure to take advantage of technology and inquire about virtual tours and 3D walkthroughs. Many real estate agents have precautions in place for the pandemic, so find a touring option that limits your exposure to germs.

 The pandemic has forced everyone to adapt to life changes, from being laid off to cancelling travel plans. While the disappointment may be hard to handle, there are things you can do to mitigate the stress such as planting a garden, taking online courses, and adopting a new pet for companionship. Some things can’t change despite the pandemic, so if you have to buy a new car or a house, research ways to do it safely and reduce the spread of the virus.

 Article written by:

Jennifer Scott

 For more information about Jennifter, visit her blog at spiritfinder.org.