In addition to my regular blog posts this week, I added three YouTube films to the Film section and four posts to the Healing Section of the website this week (one also appears as a blog post. Here are all the week’s new posts on the website:
Women: Drinking and Recovery by Dr David McCartney: David describes a research paper that examined 23 published studies focused on women’s pathways into dependence and then into recovery. Four major themes were identified.
Factors Facilitating Recovery: A Summary: Provides a summary for each of 11 factors and links to my earlier blog posts describing each of the factors. Taken from a chapter of my eBook Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction.
On the Nature of Healing: Judy Atkinson: The first step in healing is to establish a culturally safe environment to do the deeper work, which enables people to change their lives. The next step is to find and explore, both individually and collectively, the stories that make people who they are and which contribute to how they live their lives. [Appeared in Blog and Healing sections.]
Learning About Addiction Treatment: Part 6: My visits to BAC O’Conner starting in 2004 taught me a great deal about treatment and recovery. The Centre provided rehabilitation to people with a drug and/or alcohol misuse problem in their own community via an abstinence-based, structured day care programme, which involved a central role of supported housing for some clients.
Learning About Addiction Treatment: Part 7: ‘The beginnings of a Community and Reintegration Plan were developed, which included: benefit and welfare needs; housing needs; disability needs and requirements; employment, voluntary, educational needs, and integration back into the community needs.’
Alcohol Dependence: The alcohol dependence syndrome was seen as a cluster of seven elements that concur. It was argued that not all elements may be present in every case, but the picture is sufficiently regular and coherent to permit clinical recognition.
Oprah Winfrey & Dr. Bruce Perry in Conversation: Oprah Winfrey and leading child psychiatrist and neuroscientist Bruce Perry, MD, PhD explore the impact of childhood trauma on who we become, the decisions we make, and how healing must start with one question ‘what happened to you?’ as described in their new co-authored book of the same name.
Recovery from Mental Disorders, A Lecture from Patricia Deegan: Patricia Deegan PhD is a psychologist and researcher. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teeenager. For years, Patricia has worked with people with mental disorders in various ways, to help them get better and lead rewarding lives.
Voices in my Head: Eleanor Longden: To all appearances, Eleanor Longden was just like every other student, heading to college full of promise and without a care in the world. That was until the voices in her head started talking. Initially innocuous, these internal narrators became increasingly antagonistic and dictatorial, turning her life into a living nightmare.
What is Healing to Me?: Aboriginal Healing Foundation in Canada: ‘… healing is an active, not passive, process: it is something you do, not something you think or that is done to you. In this sense, healing is work, it is ongoing and requires dedication. First and foremost, it requires commitment from the individual. No one can heal you or make you heal. Personal agency is stressed above all else.’
What is Healing to Me?: Australian Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation: ‘It [healing] meant knowing where I fitted in the world. It was about being accepted and about belonging to someone or something. It meant feeling at peace, at one with the land and then within the family.’
Describing Healing: Professor Helen Milroy: Healing is not just about recovering what has been lost or repairing what has been broken. It is about embracing our life force to create a new and vibrant fabric that keeps us grounded and connected, wraps us in warmth and love and gives us the joy of seeing what we have created.
The photograph used in this blog post is by Sandro Schuh and has come from Unsplash, a great resource of free high resolution photographs.
