Balunu Foundation Cultural Healing Program

June 8, 2014

I love the look of this healing programme in northern Australia.

‘The Balunu Foundation Cultural Healing program delivers cultural healing programs to many at risk youth. The healing retreat and program are located in Darwin, NT and youth have attended the program from all over Australia.

Although the program was established to help address the many challenges faced by Indigenous youth, it has had as great an impact with non-Indigenous youth who have attended the program.

Balunu adopts a holistic and culturally appropriate approach to strengthening the youth with a major focus on suicide prevention, substance abuse, emotional, mental and physical trauma, intergenerational trauma, family disruption, homelessness, crime and education.

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‘Hope and Recovery: Part 2’ by Pat Deegan

November 24, 2013

rsz_beautiful-bhutan-pictures-91‘Recently I was asked to give some brief comments for a German publication.  I was asked: “Given that hope is an is an important aspect of recovery, how can professionals give hope. Have you experienced someone giving you hope? Do you remember a special situation?”  I replied:

“Professionals can’t give hope. But they can be hopeful. They can root their work in hope. Hope is different than optimism.

Optimism is shallow and trite. Optimism is false hope. Workers who are optimistic are like cheerleaders at a football match. They say shallow, unhelpful things like, “I just know you can recover. Everything will be all right. Tomorrow will be a better day.”

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Mindfulness Video Testimonial: Gareth Walker

October 1, 2013

Gareth, the founder of the Everyday Mindfulness website, talks about the benefits of practising mindfulness and how it helped him changed his life for the better.

‘The cumulative effect of not getting entangled in these stories of the mind has been an enormous benefit to my wellbeing and to the amount of peace I experience. The change in my life has been absolutely enormous.”

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‘The Past, Present and Future’ by Maddy

September 22, 2013

Unknown-1Unexpected memories can throw me off track in a second! Like today, I’ve been wondering around the Westfield shopping centre killing time before an appointment. I walked into a store that I used to work in when using and the memories came rushing back, followed by a real dip in my mood.

Suddenly, I’m sad, scared about my future, worried I’ll never be ok. Missing the buzz I had when using. The freedom from feelings. The confidence.

It’s still so overwhelming that I’m in recovery. Sometimes, I feel so lost and empty, but other times full of hope and faith.

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