Lake House Blog

Tarot inspirations are byproduct of Tarot class

2012-01-06T08:18:00.004-06:00


Ginny's Tarot bag.

It’s always wonderful when a teacher inspires her students enough to take the next step.

Our monthly Tarot classes last year at Lake House Health & Learning Center have been a joy to teach, with receptive students coming from Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee to learn how the symbolic images of the Tarot are an amazing tool for personal growth.

Virginia Nuorala, a craftswoman and needle worker, came in one day with pretty purple drawstring bags to hold the deck of cards. She keeps alert for interesting fabrics for her distinct bags which she custom embroiders your name or other pertinent words or phrases. Since then she’s fashioned roll-up Tarot mats which have placement blocks for a simple card layout; a third idea was birthed when she designed and made mats for work with the pendulum, which many people have found another helpful tool to discern subconscious wishes.

You can find her products at the Anything’s Possible shop at 237 Main St., Racine, where I’ll be doing a program on “Introduction To Tarot: How to Navigate 2012” from 5 to 7 p.m. See more details here.

My regular Tarot class, Tarot For Self Discovery, begins on Jan. 14 and continues the second Saturday morning of each month at Lake House Health & Learning Center. Details are here.

Tracy Bernhardt, another class member, had fun recently when she made a batch of Tarot cookies for a women-only Tarot party at a friend’s home. Tracy, who is a talented soap maker and craftswoman at Labyrinth Herbals who writes an occasional craft column for the Caledonia Patch, ordered edible printed wafer papers from an artist on Etsy and put them on frosted sugar cookies.

Tracy happened across the artist’s work about two months ago, first seeing sugared replications of the Old Maid game cards, which made her think of Tarot cards. “I asked her if she'd make me some Tarot wafer papers and she did,” says Tracy. “It was a special order, but I think she liked how they turned out and is planning to list them in her Etsy store.”

At the party, a friend brought the deck that with images similar to the sugar wafer pictures. Everyone drew a card and then ate the corresponding cookie.

Classes bring from six to 12 people from all walks of life to learn about the Tarot. It is not about fortune telling. Instead, we look at the images in the cards and ponder how they apply to our lives, wishes and goals – and we always have the responsibility to make our own choices. Participants have explored every topic imaginable – relationships, parenting, career change, weight loss and more. I refer my students to many Tarot books and sites depending on their interest with art, history, symbolic interpretations or psychology. One book that I frequently recommend is The Tarot: Methods, Mastery and More by Cynthia Giles.

One thing is for sure – Tarot is a great way to stimulate creativity! And that's what it's all about.

Tracy's Tarot cookies.

We are meant to be connected

2011-08-20T14:39:00.002-05:00

In Lynne McTaggart's new book, The Bond: Connecting Through the Space Between Us, she says that nothing -- including humans -- exists independently and that we have an inherent need for belonging, agreement, giving, and taking turns.

Her views offer an entirely new scientific story is emerging that challenges our most basic premise: the sense of things as separate entities in competition for survival.

McTaggart is a best-selling author, researcher and lecturer whose work has often been described as “a bridge between science and spirituality.”

Here are some points she makes:

We are inescapably connected, hardwired to each other at our most elemental level—from cells to whole societies.

The desire to help others is so necessary that we experience it as one of our chief pleasures, as essential as eating and having sex, and we succeed and prosper only when we see ourselves as part of a greater whole.

Every conflict that occurs—whether between husband and wife, social or racial groups, or nations—is resolved only when we can fully see and embrace the space—the bond—between us.

People who fire together wire together: Whenever a group works together for a common goal, the brains of all parties begin to get on the same wavelength, strengthening the bond within the group

Fairness is more powerful than unfairness: A small group of individuals committed to strong reciprocity can "invade" a population of self-interested individuals and create a fairer society.

Once we view ourselves as a part of a bigger whole, we begin to act differently toward each other. By removing a self-serving aim from the relationship, we stop fighting nature and surrender to our natural impulse toward holism. We can easily embrace difference within that larger definition of connection.

Her site is here and and you can find a thoughtful interview about this book here. This video shares more about her books and endorsers:

Teens talk: If you really knew me...

2011-07-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

If You Really Knew Me is a MTV reality show based on the Challenge Day program, in which various high schools devote a day to examining and breaking down barriers between teens as they explore popularity, bullying, prejudice and cliques.

In one recent episode, a popular student council leader bonds with a meek freshman girl to seek a truce with a school bully. In another episode, the students address the school's rumor mill and confront each other. In another, there are the preps, jocks, jicks, emos, stoners and others at Neenah High School in our very own Wisconsin.

The series is based on the popular Challenge Day program, which uses powerful experiential methods to help young people identify the roles that they have taken on to survive life in school. They are able to risk to safely share their social experiences with their peers and make connections with each other on deeper levels than the superficial.

As a psychotherapist, I've worked with many, many adults who scarry scars of painful bullying from their school years. Invariably, they want to express their pain and feel that someone is listening. Ultimately, we work together to discover healthy ways to feel genuinely powerful in the world today.

I keep hoping there will be a movement in my home community to bring Challenge Day here. Although Challenge Day is not the all-purpose solution to feeling alone and marginalized, it certainly allows us to talk openly and learn the hearts and souls under the labels and stereotypes.

Get More: If You Really Knew Me, MTV Shows

The butterfly fable for parents and others: don't help too much

2011-06-10T15:29:00.000-05:00

A man having lunch on a park bench noticed a chrysalis on a nearby tree branch. A large caterpillar was struggling mightily to emerge from the small opening of its cocoon. Feeling sorry for the bug, the man took out his pocket knife and use it to slice a larger opening, hoping to make the exit easier for the emerging butterfly. The caterpillar flopped out, fell to the ground and died.

When the man recounted his experience later during a conversation with a friend, his friend told him that the caterpillar – in the process of leaving the cocoon, pushing against its sides and struggling to move its body forward – converts certain tissues into muscle and strengthens its wings and makes its body slim and able to exit. Only then can it emerge to its new life as a beautiful butterfly.

I think of this story when I talk with parents who love their children so much that they want to make their children’s lives as easy as possible. Invariably, these parents “help” their children way too much, and the children are never able to build and exercise the muscles they need to become responsible adults.

Are you a helicopter parent – the kind of parent who pays extremely close a child’s experiences and tries to micromanage every aspect of your child’s life?

Remember the story of the caterpillar. You have the opportunity to give your child positive emotional health and being less dependent, neurotic and less open, a slew of personality traits that are generally thought of as undesirable. More here about helicopter parents from MSNBC.

A video teaching on entering the path of inner peace

2011-05-27T16:15:00.000-05:00

Just when your thoughts are filling your head, and the stories that you are telling yourself about your life are crowding at the edges of your experiences, and giving no room for openness and presence...

Here is a lovely teaching by Michael Stone, a psychotherapist and yoga and Buddhist meditation teacher. He is the author of The Inner Tradition of Yoga: A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitionerand Awake in the World: Teachings from Yoga and Buddhism for Living an Engaged Life.

Listen, learn, enjoy and share.

Michael Stone on the Question, How Do I Enter My Life from Toronto Body Mind on Vimeo.

Contemporary psychotherapy isn't all talk

2011-04-01T18:24:00.003-05:00

Along with the growth of interest in alternative medicine, a growth in the interest about choices in alternative psychotherapy.

"Alternatives" don't just come down to herbs, massage and yoga, as valuable as they are. People can experience significant growth and change -- often in short amounts of time -- with activities that use drama, guided imagery, music therapy, art therapy, sand tray therapy and other modalities that speak to people's whole brains, not just symptoms.

When people think about seeking counseling -- or "talk therapy" as it is often called, it is important to know that there are other options available

Psychodrama -- translating from the Greek to "mind in action" -- is an action method that has been adapted to psychotherapy treatment since the early 1920s. A psychodrama director, as the therapist is called when working in this method, will assist a person in exploring an issue or problem in action, which may include experimenting with a variety of role play, working with simple props or making other active choices in the context of therapeutic concerns. It is not necessary to feel like you are an "actor" or actress but rather experiment with For more information, see American Society of Psychodrama and Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama Certification. Good book: The Living Stage: A Step-by-Step Guide to Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy.

Eye Movement and Desesensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) employes rapid eye movements and sounds to help the brain process negative memories and experinces and appears to be particuarly helpful with survivors of trauma. Good book: EMDR: The Breakthrough "Eye Movement" Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma.

Art therapy encourages expression of feelings in the making of art -- whether painting, drawing, working with clay, making collages and also three-dimensional objects. In working with an experiened art therapist, people can experience the self in new ways and gain a feeling of empowerment in expressing their creativity. Another good site here. Good book: Art Therapy Sourcebook (Sourcebooks).

Music therapy helps people express feelings and communicate with a variety of music, sometimes live and sometimes recorded. It improves the quality of life for persons who are well and meets the needs of children and adults with disabilities or illnesses. Music therapy interventions can be designed to relieve stress and reduce pain and improve memory, as well as many other documented health benefits. Good book: Acting Your Inner Music: Music Therapy and Psychodrama.

Systemic Family Constellation Work is a very leading-edge healing method coming from Germany, developed by Bert Hellinger. It has recently arrived in the Midwest through several psychotherapists in Milwaukee and postulates that trauma, pain and personal problems are often connected to the troubles of previous generations. Most often defined as a "soul healing" process, it is done in groups and works with the unconscious to explore influential trans-generational family bonds. Good book: Love's Hidden Symmetry: What Makes Love Work in Relationships.

Animal-assisted therapy involves including animals -- dogs, horses and the like -- in working with people in emotional pain as well as those experiencing physical and mental disabilities. One of many good sites is Delta Society.

January newsletter: more constellation healing groups, plus personal growth for the new year

2011-01-07T19:37:00.003-06:00

Imagine a constellation in the sky – a grouping of stars that depicts your ancestors.

Each one has an invisible string connecting one to another and to you. As you live your life, you are tethered to these people of the past. You’ve inherited some of their characteristics: Grandma’s love of baking, your dad’s eyes, Aunt May’s red hair…

But there’s more.

You also have inherited their joys and sorrows, and you may be carrying pain, guilt, anger or other burdens from past generations that impact your life today – even if you do not exactly how or why.

The “Ancestors, Constellations and Healing” groups at Lake House Health & Learning Center are a new and profound way to help you connect and correct the past so that you can move forward with a sense of inner peace. Each participant may be involved as much or as little as they are comfortable with, sharing general issues, not details.

Whether you merely observe or actively participate in this safe and confidential setting, you’ll learn a lot about yourself and how you are a part of those who came before you. .

We're adding more dates for 2011, alternating between day and evening times to accommodate your varied schedules. See calendar for more details.

This unconventional healing process of Family Constellation Work comes from Germany and I've started a web page with article links and information to newcomers and interested others.

Groups begin on Monday, Jan. 10. Your insurance may cover some or all of the fee, although a sliding scale may be available for those without insurance. Contact Karen at (262) 633-2645 for reservations or questions.

Help with constellation survey

The International Systemic Constellation Association (ISCA) is currently creating a research study on the effectiveness of constellation work. If you have taken part in a group or individual constellation session with Karen at Lake House and are willing to complete a preliminary questionaire based on your experience, please follow this link. Your input is greatly appreciated.

More on the blog

We're all about the new year. See Happy new change and A llittle ritual to say a good farewell to 2010.

Schedule at a glance

Jan. 10 Ancestors, Constellations & Healing

Jan. 13 Ancestors, Constellations & Healing
Jan. 14 Make A Vision Board For Meetup
Jan. 14 Professional Training: Make A Vision Board
Jan. 15 Tarot For Self Discovery
Jan. 19 Learn to Make Your Own Flower Essence To Ease Emotional Challenges
Jan. 20 Natural Health, Homeopathy & Other Remedies
Jan. 18-20 Homeopathy appointments with Marybeth Buchele

Services at Lake House Health & Learning Center

Psychotherapy
Coaching
Professional training with continuing education credits
Wellness classes
Personal growth groups
Homeopathy
Massage
Reiki
Feng shui
Referrals

Happy new change!

2011-01-07T18:58:00.000-06:00

It's the new year, and how are those resolutions going for you? Are you committed, motivated, dedicated to what new change you want to bring into your life?

Or has that great resolution already faded into obscurity in the first week of the new year?

I had the pleasure on Thursday to take part in the annual Whole Body Detoxification program at Roots and Legends, with the invitation of the program's originator Arthur Shattuck. The invited topic was change: how not only approach change but to sustain change over a period of time.

It's an important subject because the four-week detox program involves changes in food (no cheese), in storing foods (nuts and oils in refrigerator) and personal habits (no deodorant, aluminum pots or plastic bags.)

That's the challenge. I always refer to Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward by James Prochaska, John Norcross and Carlo DiClemente. The trio has elegantly sketched a six-stage process of change. It begins with "pre-contemplation: -- which most of us would call "clueless" -- to the final stage of "termination" -- which most of us would call "success." In the middle, there are the steps of contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.

It's those middle steps that we need to identify. We identify them because we need to know where we fit with them.

Among the first questions that we need to ask is, "Am I really serious about this change?"

Most of us hope (secretly!) that the change will happen magically and we won't have to take responsiblity for it. Other times we may be wishing for change, but the people around us don't want to change. Then we need to have a plan to pursue our goal even when other people may not approve, support or understand.

So, good luck and good contemplating and good planning to those of us in the detox program. And for you? You don't need to wait until 2012. Just figure out where you stand in the six steps of change and start again.

A little ritual to say a good farewell to 2010

2010-12-31T14:10:00.000-06:00

Thinking about the past year? Here is a way to make a good end to 2010:

Remember all of the painful and difficult experiences that took place. Write these experiences in your journal and say one by one, “I acknowledge and agree that this happened.”

Notices how you feel in your body when you make this acknowledgement.

Then remember all the joyful and wonderful experiences that took place during the year. Write these experiences in your journal and say one by one, “I acknowledge and agree that this happened.”

Notice how you feel in your body when you make this acknowledgement.

Say thank you.

Now, look forward to 2011.

Professional newsletter: January training with vision board, conference notes, more

2010-12-20T16:16:00.000-06:00

Learn to make a vision board!

It's nearly 2011! That means that Wisconsin professionals think about making our goals while also figuring out how to get continuing education hours by Feb. 28.

The January training will help you learn how to make a vision board as fun and interesting tool to help your clients, students and other learners to focus on their dreams in a positive way. The training is designed for counselors, coaches and others who work with people who may need to set goals.

In this hands-on session with Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP, you make your own vision board and you will learn:

The story behind vision board tradition
Alternatives to vision "boards" for various populations.
How to carry the process for significant personal growth so the project is not craft-oriented or busy work.
How to integrate with additioinal experiential processes including psychodrama, guided imagery and others.

From 1 to 4 p.m. with three continuing education hours for social workers, licnesed professional counselors and addictions counselors, plus psychodrama credits. Tuition is $35 for program, materials, handout and credit hours. Send check to Lake House and contact Karen at (262) 633-2645 to reserve. Details on this and other trainings here.

Here's an example of a vision board that I recently created:

Book update

I'm hard at work at writing "Integrating Psychodrama & Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions For Action Methods, Mind-Body Therapies And Energy Healing" with my co-author Ron Anderson. Our deadline is February 2011and Jessica Kingsley Publishers tells us the book will be published in August 2011.

Karen to present at psychodrama conference

Karen will be presenting "Stories Of Our Ancestors" at the 69th annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy & Psychodrama on May 1, 2011 in Clearwater, Fla. For information on the full schedule of workshops and other events, find brochure here.

Constellation conference in 2011

The U.S. Systemic Constellations Conference is planned for Oct. 28-30 in San Francisco. It brings the Constellatins community together to enhance connection, belonging and expansion. Whether you are a Constellation professional practicing or learning Systemic Constellation Work or new to this healing process, please explore the full web site for details on the many presentations and workshops.

Eating disorders resource

Gurze offers a free 48-page catalogue with more than 200 carefully selected eating disorder resources including books, DVDs, newsletters, free articles, facts about eating disorders and a list of treatment facilites. Here's the order link.

I keep this catalog available for my clients and supervisees. Gurze is offering a 50 percent discount until the end of the year to get the word out. Also, check out the newly reorganized bulimia.com web site, which inlcudes "Quick Links" on the right-hand menu bar, with topic-driven, hand-selected articles, books and information.

Sand tray training

Postive comments on the recent "Sand Tray Theatre" training for professionals, when participants had the hands-opportuonity to create a series of sand tray scenes, starting with gentle work with their hands in the sand and then continuing with various vignettes for various therapeutic and coaching issues.

We ended up with this final scene:

Among the comments on the evaluations:

"This should be a series!"

"I liked the hands-on aspect."

"I can see how I can use this with my clients."

"Great personal growth..."

This is one of the most popular trainings at Lake House, and it will be offered again in 2011 for those who requested it. Next training program: "One-To-One Psychodrama For Individual Psychotherapy, Coaching & Personal Growth" on Feb. 18. See calendar.

"Listening can be the greatest meditation"

Philosopher Eckert Tolle talks about listening to patients in this great video -- not just with words but also with presence of heart, mind and spirit. "The most important part is the energy field of listening," rather than just the story, which elevates the human interaction and avoids deletion in the helper.

Listen and watch:

December newsletter: Grateful as 2010 ends, plus tips for health, insurance, more

2010-12-20T07:43:00.001-06:00

Winding down for 2010...

As the year ends, we remember all the goodness that has happened at Lake House during 2010.

We've introduced spiritual teacher Markus Kasunich, had fun with InterPlay, and made healing art in the open art studio with artist Robin Mitchell, plus enjoyed a succesful and well-attended Health & Gift Fest.

We've hosted Marybeth Buchele, who's become our visiting resident homeopath, offering workshops, classes and appointments with homeopathic and natural remedies, the only homeopathic practice in Racine. (She'll be back in January!)

People have come from Illinois, Milwaukee, Racine, Union Grove, Burlington and Kenosha to take part in our new "Ancestors Constellations & Healing" groups, and particpants in our trainings for helping professionals and educators have been enthusiastic.

It's been gratifiying to have so many people embrace these new ideas and programs. Stay tuned for more. We have great programs coming up for 2011.

Keep holidays happy and healthy.

See my blog with lots of tips to stay healthy and enjoy the holiday season. Avoid overeating and overdrinking, rest and have remedies for colds and flu.

Make sure your insurance company isn't overcharging you!

Here's important news from the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers:

Insurance companies are attemping to undermine the new mental health parity bill with high co-payments. The chapter has been informed of at least three insurance companies in Wisconsin that have charged consumers specialty doctor co-pays instead of a primary doctor copay as the result of the new mental health parity law.

Federal regulations prohibit the charging of a specialty doctor co-pay for mental health services. Anyone who is charged a specialty doctor copay instead of a primary doctor copay should file a complaint with the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. You also should send Marc Herstand, execuctive director of the Wisconsin NASW chapter, a copy of any response from Office of Commnisioner of Insurance.

When people (men, politicians) cry...

Such a good blog post, we want recommend it. A little essay on crying, inspired by John Boehner, U.S. Congressman who will be the new speaker of the House.

Tune into this beautiful solstice video

Truly we are all one in this beautiful universe. Enjoy!

Happier, healthier holidays

2010-12-17T08:02:00.003-06:00

The greeting cards say, "Happy Holidays."

You can turn this phrase into reality with some thought and planning.

The key is to take care of yourself.

Many people have learned to use flower essence remedies for calming at stressful or busy times. Here's a link from educator Nancy Buono, who tells how you can pick flower remedies to keep your spirits light, avoid discouragement and deal with the chaos that is present in some families.

Make sure you get enough sleep, always a good plan for people who want to keep their emotions even. Make sure that you are eating properly and stay away from sugary and salty items if they are trigger foods for you. This is the time of year that I make a list of meals and snacks that I can eat daily and keep away from sugar, which is an addictive substance for me.

Overeaters Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous can help you to refrain from overeating and drinking if you expect to be tempted. Some communities and clubs have all-day meetings for recovering alcoholics and many find online "meetings" helpful, especially when the weather is cold, cold, cold. Use your search engine like Google to find online meetings that stretch around the globe.

Thanks to Hazelden, here is realistic advice for family members who are dreading the holidays due to someone else's drinking. The advice comes from Bob Poznanovich, formerly an interventionist, who defies the myth that the holidays are not a good time to get help.

Worried about a catching a bug? There are many natural remedies that will help build your immune system. See your neighborhood acupuncturist or natural food store for healing teas (yin chiao) and other herbs like astralagus that you can add to your chicken soup to fortify your immune system.

If you want to go the homeopathic route, natural remedies like Allium cepa helps with runny noses, colds and red watery eyes; Oscillococcinum helps with symptoms of flu, like fever, chills, body aches and pains.

Finally, remember to rest. With all the bustle, remember that your body needs rest to heal and recharge.

Should politicians like John Boehner cry -- or is there more to tears? (Yes.)

2010-12-16T08:16:00.000-06:00

Just about every news channel and every other Internet article is commenting on the tears of John Boehner, the congressman who cried on the 60 Minutes news program the other week. And just about every news commentator is analyzing those tears -- is he weak? Does he have an emotional problem -- as Barbara Walters says -- or is crying a virtue because he is showing his feelings as a sensitive man?

This bit of news brings up lots of opportunities to talk about feelings, as one blogger on The New York Times who questioned why a man -- who will be the most powerful Republican in Congress -- is tearing up while talking about opportunities for himself in the United States with has a record of two decades in Congress voting "against nearly every boost for the working stiff. "

Much of the current "debate" is focusing on when or if it’s appropriate for men in public life to cry. However, we have to be careful about jumping to conclusions about tears and what they mean, whether they are leaking out of men's eyes, or women's eyes or anyone else's eyes.

Tears, in themselves, mean nothing in particular. In counseling, we learn that everyone cries at some times, even sociopaths. Alcoholics have cried buckets of tears and then go out the next day to take the next drink, not at all mindful about the havoc their drinking wreaks for families. Abusers sob about their sorry-ness and promise never to hurt anyone again -- and then continue to batter the people they say they love while refusing to find help to address their anger. It's been reported that former president George Bush cried after visiting wounded service people and just last month when talking with NBC's Matt Lauer about facing a military family after their son's death. And, of course, we also know about the tears of Brett Farve on the day of his first retirement.

What is important about crying is the experience. Is the person -- man or woman -- actually able to actually feel his or her feelings -- or do they seem to have a life of their own, separate from our humanness and personal vulnerability? Do the feelings impact on his or her relationship with other people in a positive way? For instance, are the person's feelings able to be integrated into a sense of empathy with other people's feelings, experiences and needs? Does that empathy advance the quality of relationship because we are sensitive to the needs and feelings and vulnerabilities of others?

Crying is an important emotional release and often serves as a great stress reliever. Asked to give suggestions about whether to cry or not, I typically recommend crying -- it is entirely human. But what we really need is empathy, sensitivity and humanness in all of us -- including our nation's leaders.

December newsletter: Good cheer with InterPlay, plus Holidays, Peace & Families

2010-11-29T15:21:00.005-06:00

We had people dancing with smiles on their faces for the InterPlay programs in November! If you missed the groups with Georgia Jean Kaftan, she'll be back this weekend for more.

More fun, more joy and more opportunities to connect with self and others, that is. Enjoy the introductory program and learn how InterPlay is changing the world at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, and bring light to season at the "Re-Visioning The Darkness" at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4.

Free will donation for the Friday program; $10-15 donation for Saturday program.

New to InterPlay? More here. And read Lee Roberts' great article Body, Mind, Heart And Spirit: InterPlay participants learn to find the good in life published Nov. 13 in The Racine Journal Times.

More events in December

Thursdays through Dec. 16 Open art studio with Robin Mitchell
Dec. 2 Holidays, Peace And Families: Systemic Constellation Work with Karen Carnabucci
Dec. 4 Blessing Of The Gifts, when we'll sort, package and bless gifts for the needy in Racine County, our annual charity project.
Dec. 15 Professional Networking Women

See online calendar for details.

Make best use of your insurance benefits before Dec. 31

The clock runs out on your 2011 health insurance benefits on Dec. 31. Take advantage of your regular health insurance or other health savings accounts right now by scheduling for your health care needs, including psychotherapy. This is especially important if you've paid a big deductible throughout the year. Contact your insurance company for visit your insurance site online for details.

Need a gift? We have gifts at Lake House

Give the gift of health and well being with a gift certificate from Lake House Health & Learning Center. It won't be the wrong size or the wrong color but will say "I care" in a big way.

Gift certificates for coaching, psychotherapy and Tarot For Self Discovery personal growth sessions are available from Karen Carnabucci, licensed psychotherapist and coach.

Gift certificates for massage, Reiki, Reiki-ssage and Reiki-Reflex are available from Helene Hellesen, certified massage therapist and Reiki master. Pure bliss!

Gift certificates for feng shui consultation sessions are available from Niiti Gannon and Sea Daniel of Wind Water Feng Shui. They're good for the holidays, as well as housewarmings, anniversaries and engagements of the season.

We also have our newly published Lake House Cookbook available for just $5 with many of the healthy recipes we've enjoyed for our five years at Lake House. See web site for contact information or call (262) 633-2645.

Free housecleaning for cancer patients

If you know any woman currently undergoing chemotherapy, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning thanks to Cleaning For A Reason.

The services take place once per month for four months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her ZIP code area arrange for the service. This organization serves the entire United States and currently has 547 partners that help. Be a blessing to someone and pass this information.

Slow down and breathe...

Take a moment to slow down and breathe with this video of images and music:

Slow Motion from Fabian Mohr on Vimeo.

Health & Wellness newsletter: InterPlay, cell phones and veterans

2010-11-17T12:29:00.000-06:00

What is InterPlay?

InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body. InterPlay is easy, fun, and life changing. It is based in a series of incremental "forms" that lead participants to movement and stories, silence and song, ease and amusement. In the process, we discover the wisdom in ourselves and our communities.

InterPlay integrates body, mind, heart and spirit. Life has become so fragmented. InterPlay helps to pull everything back together so we get more of what we want.

Georgia Jean Kaftan, left, practicing the fun of InterPlay.

InterPlay teaches the language and ethic of play in a deep and powerful way. If you are convinced that seriousness is the path to inner wisdom, then you might want to look elsewhere. If you would like to become a "recovering serious person," then InterPlay might be for you.

Georgia Jean Kaftan, a retired attorney, recovering "serious person" and certified InterPlay leader, will facilitate the Nov. 19 and Dec. 3 evening introductions and the Nov. 20 and Dec. 4 afternoon "Revisioning The Dark" InterPlay programs at Lake House. Maybe she'll even talk about how InterPlay changed her. See calendar for specific info

Cell phones

How safe are cell phones? Here's a report about 10 things you can do to reduce the cancer risk of cell phones.

Veterans resources

Veterans Day was last week but every day is an important day to refocus attention on the sacrifices and needs of those who risked their lives in service to our country. Psychologist Ken Pope offers this list of resources for people in the military, veterans, veterans' families and friends and and professionals who are interested in helping veterans here.

November newsletter: Sand tray training on Friday, plus Health & Gift Fest, mindfulness

2010-11-10T19:07:00.001-06:00

Sand Tray Theatre is Friday's next training.

The use of a sand tray and miniatures offers an engaging way to work with children, teens, adults, couples and groups. Sand tray can be used to clarify and resolve the conflicting energies, motivations, values, and voices that often contribute to a sense of “stuckness.”

The process also engages people who may have difficulty in talking about their problems or life issues. In Friday's training with Karen Carnabucci, MSS, LCSW, TEP, you will learn:

What is needed to add sand tray to your work repertoire.

How to introduce sand tray processes to the people you work with.

The use of sand tray for self disclosure, identifying problems and problems solving.

Options for the use of sand tray with other creative arts

From 9 a.m. to noon Friday, Nov. 12, with three continuing education hours and psychodrama hours. Tuition is $35. Handouts and beverages will be provided; in addition, participants will have the opportunity to purchase “starter” miniatures for a nominal fee of $5.

Here's a picture of a sand tray creation with one of my clients, who was addressing personal and professional growth in embodying leadership and power. She was given the opportunity to express her vision of embodying power. At the beginning of the process, the items were spaced far apart; by the end of the process, she pulled them together in this arrangement.

She gave permission to share this picture-- take a look:

The arrangement of items looks like a mandala, doesn't it? The maker used a variety of images of women's bodies, plus ritual items such as a bundle of sage and a smudging feather.

As always, Karen's trainings offer continuing education credits for social workers, licensed professional counselors and addiction counselors, plus psychodrama credits.

Join us for Saturday's Health & Gift Fest

I'm so excited present at our Health & Gift Fest on Saturday, Nov. 13, at Lake House. We have a great group with great wares and offerings, plus a tiny sampling of how I've adapted Jungian principles with the Tarot cards for self development and persona growth. Here's the link that tells all the details of all the vendors and health professionals, plus a chance to meet Jamie Jacobs, editor and publisher of The Guide To Health, Wellness & Creative Living and get a 10 per cent discount on your ad.

Mindfulness really helps with depression

There is a body of research that shows that mindfulness meditation does significantly reduce the relapse rate of depression. This research is now being embraced by many practitioners of Western medicine – even some quite conservative ones!

With more of my clients seeking non-medication resources for depression, here's a book for laypersons that I like to recommend:

The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness by J. Mark G. Williams, John D. Teasdale, Zindel V. Segal, Jon Kabat-Zinn. Guilford Press, Through simple lessons drawn from Eastern meditative traditions and cognitive-behavioral therapy, this book demonstrates how to sidestep old habits such as rumination and self-blame that inevitably lead to despair, so people can face life’s challenges with greater resilience. Jon Kabat-Zinn gently and encouragingly narrates the accompanying CD of guided meditations.

E-books available

Check out Karen's e-books for sale at Lake House Health & Learning Center's store.

The Psychodrama Notebook (formerly Practical Psychodrama) is a great review for psychodrama certification candidates and anyone who wants an overview of the magical action method of psychodrama. Whole Person Marketing gives practical and creative ideas for building and marketing holistic practices.

November newsletter -- join us for our Health & Gift Fest, plus more!

2010-11-10T17:08:00.003-06:00

Join us for our Health & Gift Fest on Saturday!

We've been having a lot of fun putting together Saturday's Fall Health & Gift Fest.

It's 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Lake House Health & Learning Center, and it's definitely not your ordinary holiday fair. We've assembled artisans, chefs, writers, health professionals and others with beautiful jewelry, hats, purses, photographs, eco-journals and much more.

Find the whole list of artisans and events, plus pictures, here. And join us -- no admission, just a donation of non-perishable food for the Racine County Food Bank. You'll find us at 932 Lake Ave., just across from Gateway Technical College in Racine.

How to make a meaningful holiday?

Every year I ask myself, "What would make a meaningful holiday for me?" And I ask my clients. And I ask anyone else, too.

The more answers I get, the more thoughtful I can become about creating a good and positive holiday for myself.

Meaning is the antidote to chaos, worry, exhaustion and panic. Here are my thoughts for 2010 as we more toward the holidays.

You ARE worth the time.

I just discovered the work of Jan Philllips and her video, "You Are Worth The Time," and I am completely, completely charmed.

You can get a free download of "The Art of Original Thinking" here.

She says, "The act of creating is a healing gesture." I like that. I also like this video with lots of food for thought. Enjoy!

At holiday time, ask: What is meaningful?

2010-11-10T16:23:00.000-06:00

This is the time when we often feel overwhelmed with all the demands of the holiday. The truth is that many people face the holidays with dread, disgust, fear or worse – or a combination of the above.

For some people, the holidays are a time of emotional stress and financial pressure. We may feel the special loneliness as we miss important people who have departed our lives through death, divorce or residential moves. We may be stirred with feelings of regret or distress about family relationships that are filled with tension when we wish there could be love.

Yes, we need to think about this. But we must be aware of thinking too much and we need to marry our thoughts and plans with the context and gifts of experience.

The logical question that I have learned to ask myself is:

“What kind of meaningful experiences can I create at this time of year for myself and those I love?”

If I want to experience joy, I strive to give myself opportunities to put myself in situations where I will find joy – taking part in activities that are fulfilling and enjoyable and spending time with people who are healthy, warm and positive.

Although not every experience during the season can fit that assignment, my intention is that most of my decisions will lead to good experiences.

The experiences that I create will live within me.

I carry those good experiences wherever I go, just like I hold the memory of my prom date that I created as a woman in my thirties. Furthermore, I can revisit those experiences within myself that are warm and comforting – no matter what time of year they took place.

So today and during this holiday season, I wish you good experiences. Experiences that will build warm feelings and good memories.

I also wish that we can value the gifts we contain within ourselves:

The brain – which thinks and reasons – is a gift. And the body – which senses and holds much unconscious material – is also a gift.

Perhaps you are remembering a good moment, a moment of joy that you treasure that makes you smile, or a moment of logic that failed and gave you a great and important learning. Or your own discovery how your brain and emotions have successfully worked together for the good of you.

They are all gifts.

Mirror, mirror, let me see the healing so I can be healed...

2010-11-09T18:33:00.000-06:00

Have you been with a friend who's tripped on the edge of the rug -- and you felt an inner twinge as you watched that stumble?

That's because of mirror neurons, a little known but newly discovered aspect of our amazing brains. A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires when a person acts and when a person observes the same action performed by another. It seems that the neurons "mirror" the behavior of the other, as though the observer was himself or herself taking action.

This new discovery has many implications for those of us who practice psychodrama and experiential therapy such as dance therapy, drama therapy and other expressive therapies where some people watch others. This means that we "take in" the new healing image even if we are not actively participating, but simply watching other people. It also has implications about what images are imprinted in our brain and our consciousness when we watch movies, walk around in our neighborhoods and spend time with other people.

Best-selling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates mirror neurons, the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society in this funny and profound YouTube video:

Dr. Brown's wisdom on how we connect with others, feel worthy and embrace imperfection

2010-11-06T08:06:00.000-05:00

"In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen." -- Brené Brown.

Dr. Brené Brown is a researcher professor at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work and is very interested in how human beings connect.

She has spent the past 10 years studying happiness, vulnerability, imperfection and a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness, posing the questions:

How do we engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness?
How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to embrace our imperfections?
How do we recognize that we are enough -- that we are worthy of love, belonging and joy?

Brené is the author of I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't): Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power (2007) and the newest book, The Gifts of Imperfection (2010) and the upcoming Wholehearted: Spiritual Adventures in Falling Apart, Growing Up, and Finding Joy ( 2011).

Find out more about here here and read an excerpt from one of her books.

Watch and listen to her wonderful ideas about spirituality, addiction, humanness on this YouTube video:

Look who's here for Fall Health & Gift Fest

2010-11-04T09:42:00.013-05:00

Chain maille purse by Leayn Tabili

Autumn is here, and leaves are falling...

There’s a crispness in the air, and the holidays are approaching…

Lake House Health & Learning Center will open its doors on Saturday, Nov. 13, at 932 Lake Ave., for its Fall Health & Gift Fest and celebrate its fifth anniversary.

We’ll transform our facility into a cornucopia showcasing local artisans, shopkeepers, health professionals and health resources who will share their wares with the public -- just in time for holiday shopping..

Among the treasures you will find are jewelry, purses, photography, art, crafts, natural soap and body products, Chinese healing teas, cookbooks, cultural gift items, and gift certificates for massage, coaching, personal development sessions and other health services.

Tracy Bernhardt (Labyrinth Herbals) will offer handmade herbal infused soaps, lip balms and bath tea.
Christiana Eckert will offer photographs, with all benefits to support the work of SmileTrain, which provides cleft palate surgery to impoverished children around the world.
Leayn Tabili (Anthelion Hancrafted Jewelry) will offer a variety of contemporary jewelry including beading and chain maille as well as purses and other accessories.
Bev Schumacher (Learning Props) will offer quality educational games and books for English and bilingual preschool learning.
Barb McCloskey (Beaderella Jewelry) will offer a variety of handmade jewelry including necklaces, earrings and bracelets.
Craftswoman Marge Meyers will offer handmade purses and hats.
Craftswoman Penny Schaubel will offer felted hats for adults and children.
Harmony Botanics

Carol Smith (Harmony Botanics) will offer a line of natural body washes, body oils and lotions, lip balms, soy candles that have been scented with pure essential oils and certified organic spices.
Kathryn Rouse (MayaWorks) will offer the colorful textiles woven by Guatamalan women along with other handcrafts from this fair trade nonprofit organization that promotes economic development for Mayan women and their families.
Sara Lancaster (Re.told Journals) will offer handmade vintage book and eco-chic journals.
Humor writer Mary Tompsett (Posing As Normal) will offer a peek at her recently published novel, Whinny From The Heart, with the idea that fun and humor are an integral part of health and well being. She'll also sell a collection of her humor columns, with proceeds to benefit the Racine County Food Bank.

Ben Lehner of Circa Celeste (Circa Celeste) will bring soups and muffin mixes to purchase for gifting or for yourself to make the holidays tasty and easy for entertaining friends and family.

In addition, Helene Hellesen, certified massage therapist and Reiki master and owner of Massage Pause, will offer chair mini-massages and gift certificates.

Labyrinth Herbals

Karen Carnabucci, creative arts psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker at Lake House Health & Learning Center, will demonstrate the use of the Tarot images for personal growth and answer questions about experiential and non-traditional psychotherapy. Her Lake House cookbook will debut with natural and healthy snack, food and beverage favorites collected through the five years at Lake House.

Arthur Shattuck, practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and owner of Roots And Legends, will offer healing teas and quality medicinal chocolate, miso soup and a miso cookbook and answer questions about food for healing.

Marge Meyers creations

Michele Foy, life coach, will demonstrate her method for communicating directly with the subconscious with the use of a pendulum. She will show exactly how to achieve pain relief, stop smoking and get rid of fears that are interfering with living your life to the fullest. She will offer a free instruction packet and you may purchase a "Phone for the Subconscious," if you feel that you might need one.

In addition, visitors will have the opportunity to take a look at a full-spectrum light box that is a non-medication alternative to Seasonal Affective Disorder, sometimes known as "winter blues" or "winter depression" due to the lower level of sunlight in the winter.

Door prizes, snacks and giveaways will add an extra bit of fun, and participants will have an opportunity to pick up a free copy of the 2010 Guide To Health, Wellness & Creative Living, the regional directory to health resources, healthy food information from Eat Right Racine and learn about the new Wild Root Market.

Christiana Eckert photography

Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge to attend although visitors are encouraged to bring a donation of non-perishable food items for the Racine County Food Bank.

For more information on specific artisans and their wares as well as directions, call (262) 633-2645 or join Lake House’s page on Facebook.

Professional newsletter: How sand tray soothed distress with a healing memorial to murder

2010-10-27T13:22:00.005-05:00

This month's training

Just a couple of spaces left for our all-day women's retreat and training with Gerlinde Gelina and Systemic Constellation Work on Oct. 30. See details here.

How I used Sand Tray Theatre to remember a murder victim

Our community of Racine has been shaken this month with a brutal murder of a good-hearted community volunteer in the woods in the city's Sixth Street neighborhood. A chronic offender has been charged with the crime, but this incident has still been a common topic in the sanctuary of the healing space at Lake House as people have responded with anger, fear, worry, confusion and sadness.

I had the opportunity to use the healing power of the sand tray with a client who was was struggling to find her way out of her thoughts and feelings of grief and distress.

Sand tray, adapted from the sandplay approach of Jungian analyst Dora Kalff, is a rich experiential option for working with people when words are not enough. It's the training topic for Nov. 12 and is useful with so many populations and situations.

My client -- who has given me permission to share her sand tray image -- honored the deceased woman while also transforming her personal image of the murder site, a strip of woods near the city's Sixth Street to one of healing and honor. Her memorializing image included several sheltering trees, an open hand to illustrate the murder victim's giving nature -- one of the victim's last generous actions involved giving quarters to people in laundromats -- stones with favorite insprational words "laugh" and "imagine" and a filmy purple butterfly to signify transformation.

Here is her image:

Sand tray as a memorial to a great loss.

She arrived distressed, talking quickly and shaking and left peaceful and accepting. These are the kinds of transformations that can take place with experiential therapies that work with the mind, body and pirit

Training for Sand Tray Theatre: Using Miniatures In Action is Nov. 12 and offers continuing education credits. Fee is $35. See calendar for details; please sign up by Thursday, Nov. 11, by calling (262) 633-2645.

Trauma resources

Thanks to Dr. Christine Dunning, professor at the Trauma Counseling II class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, for these excellent resources for trauma:

PubMed comprises more than 20 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books. Use search function to find what you're looking for, including free full-text articles.

National Center for PTSD, part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, has many useful links on post-trauma responses, including the Psychological First Aid Manual.

CSA Illumina provides user-friendly searches to more than 100 databases published by CSA and its publishing partners including the social sciences.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network focuses information for parents, caregivers and a varietyh of professionals on children's issues, including many, many trauma topics, treatment facts, audio and multi-media presentations and funding opportunities.

Dealing with sticky client situations?

Even experienced therapists encounter road blocks during client sessions or have difficulty dealing with certain client situations. For example, when a client is crying uncontrollably or resists making changes or doing homework.

New Harbinger is proud to offer Quick Tips for Therapists—fast and free solutions to common sticky client situations mental health professionals encounter. Find Quick Tips for Therapists on the book publisher' site.

Karen's e-books available

Check out Karen's e-books for sale at Lake House Health & Learning Center's store.

The Psychodrama Notebook (formerly Practical Psychodrama) is a great review for psychodrama certification candidates and anyone who wants an overview of the magical action method of psychodrama. Whole Person Marketing gives practical and creative ideas for building and marketing holistic practices.

Veterans' wellness study to look at alternative health programs

2010-10-18T09:17:00.002-05:00

Men who are veterans who served for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) or Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) can help with a well-being study while earning up to $299 for their participation.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will start a Veteran's Wellness Study at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center. The study will examine the effects of complementary and alternative programs on health and well-being for recently returned veterans.

The study will take place at the the university's Waisman Center in November or December or both months. Depending on the level of their hours of participation, participants can be paid up to $299.

Veterans who are interested should e-mail at wellness@mailplus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-0803 to schedule a screening appointment.

(We don't see anything for women veterans, who also served. Maybe next time...)

Looking for a fine romance? Your intuition will help you.

2010-10-14T11:14:00.001-05:00

When we're under the intoxicating influence of love, we often miss seeing signs that pop up in our daily life to give us clues as to whether we're on the right track.

So says Judith Orloff, an intuitive practitioner and medical doctor who is one of my favorite authors and mentors on intuition and how to use it in service of daily life. The solution is to slow down enough to recognize and listen to your intuitive intelligence, it can reveal truth, warn you of danger, or help you understand people and relationship situations in new ways.

Here's her take on Five Intuitions About Love And Sex You Shouldn't Ignore from The Huffington Post, where you'll also find her video.

Ancestors are drawing the attention of many of us

2010-10-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

In the popular "Who Do You Think You Are?" television series, filmmaker Spike Lee traveled to Georgia to learn about his once–enslaved ancestors. He used census records, U.S. slave schedules dating to 1860 and historical newspapers to find answers. He was able to visit the actual land his great–great–grandfather owned after emancipation. Spike then headed to Texas to meet a descendant of his family’s former slave owner, a woman who is most likely his distant cousin.

The discoveries of Spike's journey mirrored the exciting discoveries of celebrities including Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, Emmitt Smith and Sarah Jessica Parker as investigated the roots of their family trees.

It's interesting to watch the surge of interest in genealogy, family history and ancestors with the general public as I study and practice Systemic Constellation Work, the experiential healing process that explores the invisible yet very powerful energetic connections and disconnections within our larger family systems.

In last night's session, our group worked to help a men connect with the love of his father while also strengthening the father's connection within the family system. Our summer Constellation samplers have been very well received and we are adding more groups, including a women-only retreat on Saturday, Oct. 30, and shorter programs in November at Lake House and other locations. See calendar for more details and to sign up.

Constellation Work is an experiential process that moves to a deeper level than conventional counseling. This means that the impact of this work can be more immediate and more lasting than techniques that address the mind alone.

The process reveals unconscious hidden dynamics within a family system that impact people in subtle yet important ways. There are many difficult fates and traumatic experiences in previous generations may continue to create havoc as a hidden pattern in the present generation:

Early and premature deaths
Ostracized family members
Children of separated or divorced parents
Adopted children
Abortions, miscarriages and stillbirths
Survivors of war, holocaust, genocide or terrorism

Practitioners employ principles of Constellation Work in a variety of ways. In a group setting, a person chooses members from the group to represent some of their family members. As they are placed at various points in an open space, these representatives feel the effects of the family dynamics. The facilitator works with the representatives to restore balance, respect, dignity and love between members of the family. The method was developed by Bert Hellinger, psychotherapist and philosopher.

Newcomers are welcome to involve themselves at their own comfort level. Observing, as well as participating as a representative, is equally inspiring and moving in these groups. I am working with colleague Ron Anderson to write the book, "Psychodrama And Systemic Constellation Work: New Directions For Action Methods, Experiential Therapy And Energy Healing," scheduled to be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers in 2011.

In the meanwhile, here is a message about ancestors from a Mayan elder about the Mayan view of ancestors and their message for the world:

Late October newsletter: Get ready to find joy and meaning this season

2010-10-12T10:15:00.131-05:00

The holiday season is upon us.

From the orange pumpkins that piled at the markets, to the sheet ghosts fluttering from the trees, to the seemingly endless shelves of sparkly Christmas decor, to the new year's party invitation that might be in the mail, we are regularly reminded about the opportunities to be "happy" about the holidays.

Here at Lake House, we are doing our part to help you make the holiday season spiritually meaningful.

We are continuing to offer our Constellation groups, which work with family energies to bring new meaning to "peace on earth," starting with a women's retreat on Saturday and continuing weekday groups into December.

We are creating a Fall Health & Gift Fest on Nov. 13 so you can support local and regional artisans, craftpersons, innovators and chefs while keeping healthy and finding great treasures.

InterPlay arrives in November and December to celebrate the fruits of the coming darkness and bring joy and fun to our bodies and spirits! It will be a great seasonal experience with a friend or for yourself.

Finally, there is the Blessing of the Gifts, our eighth annual holiday project on Dec. 4 that gives to the needy while bringing joy to giving.

See Lake House calendar for details.

Friends of Bill W.

Twelve-step followers have a resource for recovery, a special guided imagery from Health Journeys called Guided Imagery for the 12 Steps of Recovery. It's recommended by Belleruth Naparstek, the psychotherapist who is the founder of Health Journeys. Find out more about how guided imagery can enhance recovery here.

Resource for end of life issues

For families dealing with end-of-life issues, Tender Legal Care is a sensitive and useful free e-book that gives lots of information about organ donation, living wills, chemotherapy, life support and artificially administered foods and fluids and more. You may find and download this 50-page e-book here, from Seasons Hospice.

Insurance notes

This is the time of year when employees have the opportunity to review their health insurance plans and make changes in their levels of coverage or select an alternate plan to start Jan. 1, 2011. One insurance plan that is taking enrollment during the month of October is WEA Trust, which offers health coverage for state employers, retirees and school district employees. If you qualify, you may want to take a special look at this respected plan.

Karen is now able to take Children's Community Health Plan insurance for psychotherapy services. For the full list of insurances that are taken, see this link.

Fest gets bigger!

We're pleased to have Ben Lehner from Circa Celeste offer his delicious soups and muffin mixes for gifts at our Nov. 13 Health & Gift Fest, plus Leayn Tabili of Anthelion Jewelry, Tracy Bernhardt of Labrynith Herbals and more. Watch for full list coming soon!

Help us find new digs!

932 Lake Ave. is for sale.

We can't move until it's sold! This beautiful Victorian building in the Southeast Historical District is zoned commercial and residential and has so many creative possibilities -- an upstairs apartment, plus a lower level sauna! Realtor is Pamela Cartwright -- see all details here. Then, let us know a great place that's available for rent.

October newsletter: Problems, solutions, homeopathic programs, how art heals

2010-10-11T15:56:00.003-05:00

Do you think that when you know why you have a problem -- whoosh! -- the problem will go away?

This desire to know more about the problem -- why we have it, when it started, how big it is and on and on -- is an old and tired therapeutic illusion. The fact is that you still have the problem -- you're just really well informed about it.

The solution is not to know why you have the problem but to have the problem disappear from your life so that you can move forward, unencumbered and free. This is exactly why experiential healing, including experiential psychotherapy, becomes so important. When we are open, experiential healing assists in making shifting our experience of the problem to an experience of peace and well-being.

Our fall schedule is replete with opportunities to find experiences that are life-changing. Whether you are communing with the images of the Tarot -- and letting them communicate with you -- or participating in the new Ancestors & Constellation gathering -- or making art -- you are giving yourself permission to make a shift.

Peruse your choices:

Karen Carnabucci facilitates the next Constellation gathering at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to look at the hidden problems in families that deny us inner peace with the use of Systemic Constellation Work, the emerging healing process coming from Germany to explore problems that have been intractable. We'll also have a powerful all-day group just for women with a Constellation focus. Gerlinde Gelina, a German native who has been involved in Constellation work for more than 14 years, will join Karen. (Continuing education credits will be offered to professionals). Then watch the schedule for additional opportunities to participate in other Constellation gatherings at Lake House and at Carolyn's Coffee Connection in Kenosha.

Robin Mitchell, Milwaukee artist and bodyworker, started open art studio last week. It happens every Thursday at 2 and 6 p.m. through Dec. 16. Attend as many studio sessions as you like and experience the healing power of the expressive arts.

If you are not familiar with art therapy, we've borrowed this video from YouTube by Cathy Malchiodi, an internationally known art therapist:

Homeopathic practitioner returns with new programs

Marybeth Buchele

Marybeth Buchele, our visiting homeopathic clinician, be back for two programs – Learn To Make Your Own Flower Essence To Ease Life's Emotional Challenges and Healing Winter Colds & Flu The Natural Way. She'll also be taking 1-1 appointments Oct. 19-21. See her site or Lake House's calendar for more info.

Save Nov. 13 date for our fun Fall & Gift Fest!

We'll be celebrating our fifth year at Lake House with a fun Fall Health & Gift Fest, bringing fabulous gifts such as jewelry, natural soaps, ethnic textiles, cookbooks and more, plus health and wellness ideas and offerings. Save the date and watch this space! (We have three more open spaces; if you know of an artisan who would complement current offerings, please let us know.)

Professional training: Constellations, conferences and mirror neurons

2010-10-11T14:25:00.003-05:00

Hello!

I just returned from a five-day training in Systemic Constellation Work focusing on relationships, prosperity and success. Drawing on learnings from the retreat, we’ll take a look at various workshops at how relationships are impacted by unknown and unconscious matertial.

Dates for Constellation-related workshops are Oct. 12, Oct. 30 and Nov. 19. See more below:

Upcoming training

Every woman has a mother. Sometimes we are sisters. Sometimes our relationships are deep and love-filled, and other times we may feel regret, pain and a distance from our mothers or other female family members that we yearn to heal. In this all-day workshop on Oct. 30, we discover the challenges and gifts of the women in our families -- mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers and others -- who have impacted our lives. We also find ways to honor the feminine spirit that we carry within us.

In this workshop, Karen Carnabucci will join visiting psychotherapist Gerlinde Gelina, and both will employ the new Systemic Constellation Work from Germany to explore the heart and soul of these relationships. You will learn:

The background of Systemic Constellation Work
How this new experiential healing process was developed and how it is different from traditional psychotherapy
The approach of the method and how family rank and love are viewed
Why ancestors are important to our well-being

Fee for the day is $95 if registered by Oct. 25 at (262) 633-2645 and $120 thereafter. Partial insurance coverage may be available for the psychotherapy portion of the program, and continuing education certificate for helping professionals will be provided for social workers, addiction counselors, licensed professional counselors and others, plus psychodrama credits. Learn more about Gerlinde Gelina here.

Training date change

Sand Tray Theatre, the professional training that teaches adaptions for sand tray, has been rescheduled to Nov. 12. This has been a popular workshop in the past year and there's always something new to learn.

Schedule at a glance

Oct. 7: Open art studio

Oct. 12: Constellation, Ancestors & Healing

Oct. 20: Professional Networking Women

Oct. 30: Mothers, Sisters, Daughters And Others

Nov. 12: Sand Tray Theatre

Nov. 13: Fall Health & Gift Fest

Nov. 19: Ancestors, Constellation & Healing

Details at Lake House calendar.

Who comes to trainings?

Judy Conti, a practitioner of acupuncture in Milwaukee, has found that knowledge of experiential methods which she gained in group trainings and individual supervision sessions has helped her in her work with patients.

She told one of her longtime acupuncture patients – who already has made great progress in her health goals – about the “double” role play technique after the patient reported feeling haunted by painful past memories.

Judy, who is also a registered nurse and has other trauma training with University of Wisocnsin-Milwaukee, used the double technique in a simple way to provide containment of emotions and followed with an acupuncture session to address post-trauma stress. She reports:

“She absolutely loved the PTSD treatment and the containing double. Over the course of the summer, she has come back for four more treatments, and I told her yesterday I have never seen her look so serene. I think this containing double is awesome for some people. It really validated her and seemed to strengthen her from the inside. I thank the group and, of course, Karen especially for the learning of this safe and very healing way of helping people.”

A big oops!

I misspelled the link for Kerry Tharp's mosiac art studio in the previous newsletter. See her beautiful art and information about her work at Mosaics By Kerry.

Conference invite -- you too!

Karen Carnabucci is pleased to have been invited to present Stories Of Our Ancestors at the annual conference of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy & Psychodrama April 28 to May 2, 2011 in Clearwater, Fla. See conference info and registration details here.

Conference

Interested in drama therapy, a cousin of psychodrama? The National Association of Drama Therapy will have its annual conference Nov. 4-7 in Chicago, Ill. See NADT conference info here.

Mirror neurons and why they're so important

For years, I've been preaching about how what we observe is damaging or helpful -- important distinctions when we discuss health and healing. Now science is showing that mirror neurons in the brain determine what feelings and actions we observe when watching others will "download" into our own brains and affect us strongly. It also appears that these mirror neurons help create empathy within us.

Enjoy this enlightening and fun video:

E-books available

Check out Karen's e-books for sale at Lake House Health & Learning Center's store.

The Psychodrama Notebook (formerly Practical Psychodrama) is a great review for psychodrama certification candidates and anyone who wants an overview of the magical action method of psychodrama. Whole Person Marketing gives practical and creative ideas for building and marketing holistic practices.

Tons of ways to get to sleep without medications

2010-10-07T07:14:00.003-05:00

"I have insomnia. How do I get to sleep without medication?"

This common question is asked regularly, and I can tell you there are lots of people who are Sleepless in Racine. Plus, Kenosha and other points, west, south and north.

Deciding to find sleep without medication --which many people find has limitations anyway -- means some effort on your part. There are actually lots of choices, but you will have to decide which ones you are willing to try.

You'll have to make an investment and maybe even consider new ideas.

Prepare for bed with bedtime rituals. You will want your rituals to be comforting and able to slow you into dream time. Calming music, turning down the lights, a warm bath or shower, an inspirational reading, prayer or other simple practices will help you relax.

Attend to issues of physical pain. If you are in pain, it will be hard to relax enough to sleep. Get a physical examination if necessary and discuss with health professional.

Avoid stimulating beverages -- coffee, tea, chocolate and other caffeinated drinks and foods -- that perk you up rather than calm you down. Many people find sugar and salt also stimulate the body rather than calming it.

Also, avoid over-stimulating movies, books and television shows at night, including the news, which tend to topics of trauma and distress, and other shows with violent or disturbing material. Reading material should focus on quieting thoughts, rather than accelerating them.

Consider herbs such as valerian, melatonin, passiflora that are generally considered safe and non-habit forming. Check with your doctor if you are taking medications of any kind to be sure that there will be no harmful interactions.

Homeopathy remedies are available over the counter at health food shops and other alternative shops and online that help with improving sleep. Remember to refrain from substances that counteract the remedies, such as tea tree oil, mint, coffee, menthol and eucalyptus. If you are sleepless for a longer term, consider a constitutional remedy by the homeopathic practitioner.

Exercise and movement earlier in the day will help you release energy that will keep you awake at night.

At night, try a few calming yoga postures if you know them. If you don't know yoga, try simple stretching and breathe as you stretch.

Acupuncture helps balance energy meridians and calms and soothes the nervous system. If you don't like needles, try acupressure.

Journaling. Studies by psychologist James Pennebaker shows that people who regularly make journal entries about their thoughts and feelings feel less depressed and their immune system is better. You can write about your day

Refrain from panicking. If you absolutely can't sleep, just allow yourself to close your eyes and rest. Give yourself a face massage or put one hand on your heart and one hand on your forehead, another calming posture, while laying down.

Know what you can't control. If you are struggling with a personal issue or worrying about the next day's weather, it will be important to recognize that where your influence ends and come to peace with it. Some people have found that writing down a word or two what they can't control and putting it in a box dubbed "God Box" is a good way of letting it go.

Give yourself a foot rub. You will relax the nerves that end in your feet and soothe your feet which have the responsibility of carrying you around all day.

Stop your computer use early in the evening. Working at the computer activates the brain, and there is some belief that the light of the computer screen activates brain functions rather than calming them. Experiment with shortening your computer use if this may be a problem.

Finally, you may have to consider addressing those issues that keep you awake at night -- internal struggles that aren't solved by teas, pills or foot rubs but need to be clearly seen and sorted through with professional psychotherapy.

Gerlinde Gelina is co-leader of women's retreat

2010-09-28T13:02:00.000-05:00

Growing up in Germany, Gerlinde Gelina discovered very early that she had two passions - the creative force and a desire to understand the essence of human beings. Following a family tradition, she earned her master's degree and became dental lab technician. She satisfied her longing for creativity as she shaped new smiles for people. To explore her curiosity for the human soul, she studied Gestalt psychotherapy.

Gerlinde will be joining Karen Carnabucci for the all-day retreat Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Grandmothers And Others on Saturday, Oct. 30, at Lake House Health & Learning Center, Racine. See more details here.

A graduate of the Gestalt Institute of Cologne, Gerlinde's coursework included the study and application of a broad range of psycho-social issues and Gestalt techniques. During this time, Systemic Constellation Work became her focus.

Gerlinde has been involved in Gestalt and Constellation work for more than 14 years. She has been leading workshops and working as a Gestalt therapist, utilizing the approach of Bert Hellinger, since 2001, and she co-founded the Gestalt Study-Group in Cologne.

Having progressively refined her technique, Gerlinde has trained with many of the founders and leading facilitators of Dynamic and Systemic Constellations, including Bert Hellinger, Dr. Wilfried Nelles, Dr. Victor Chu, Jacob and Sieglinde Schneider and Stephan Hausner.

In October 2005 she presented a workshop on systemic dynamics of career issues at the first U.S. Conference on Systemic Constellation Work.

Unlocking the possibilities of homeopathy for emotional and physical health

2010-09-21T06:43:00.000-05:00

Marybeth Buchele

George Washington, the father of our country, died of a chill after riding his horse in the rainy countryside.

He most probably would have lived -- if he had been treated with homeopathy.

Instead, he was "bled" of three pints of blood by the doctors of his day, a practice that weakened his already fragile health.

Marybeth Buchele, a master homeopathic practitioner, shared many stories about this proven alternative medical model of treatment in August when she visited Lake House Health & Learning Center for the first time. She's returning Oct. 19-21 to provide more good health information on gentle flower essences and healing Winter colds and flu. See calendar for details.

Homeopathy -- little known in the United States but very popular and well respected in Europe and India -- is good treatment for so many maladies, from bee stings and backaches to asthma and anxiety.

Medicine -- made from minute amounts of herbs, minerals and other things -- come in forms of tinctures and tiny pellet-like pills. Unlike the traditional medications from the Western model of treatment, there are virtually no side effects and significant changes may be experienced within months.

As a psychotherapist, I like the concept that emotional conditions respond well to these treatments, and have begun suggesting homeopathy to the people I work with, especially those who have found that conventional psychiatric medications have not been helpful.

Here are some snapshots from Marybeth's August presentation:

People interested in simple homeopathy can begin by experimenting with basic homeopathic remedies for skin irritations, bruises and other aliments. These remedies are typically available at health food stores and other shops that sell natural medicines as well as online.
It is not suggested to self treat chronic conditions, such as allergies, such as inflammation, gastric and intestinal disorders, stomach or head pain and many more ailments.
Substances such as coffee, mint, eucalyptus, camphor and tea tree oil will prevent homeopathic remedies from working properly. You will need to find alternative toothpastes -- must of which contain mint -- and read labels carefully while being treated.

Marybeth will also give a special presentation for Mind Body Spirit Wisconsin Meetup members on Oct. 20. To join the Meetup group, click here.

September newsletter: adult education begins Friday for fifth year

2010-09-20T11:33:00.004-05:00

Yes, it’s time for new beginnings. Now that the kids are back to school, what do you want to learn?

We begin our new Midwest Training Series on Friday, Sept. 24, with the training program, Endings And Beginnings: Using Action For Significant Transitions.

Learn how to bring action and simple rituals to working with groups and individuals who are beginning or ending relationships, jobs, careers or other kinds of transitions. In this professional training program, taught by Karen Carnabucci, MSS, LCSW, TEP, you will learn:

How to evoke memories of past important events and experiences
Notice when you are the “bridge” of change.
Take appropriate action to acknowledge endings and transitions.
Honoring the new and the unknown.

Trainees will become acquainted with the basics of action methods including techniques of doubling, role reversal, mirroring and soliloquy and effective experiential process.

The training is 9 a.m. to noon; fee is $35 and includes handout and three continuing education credits and psychodrama hours for social workers addictions counselors and licensed professional counselors. Register now: contact Karen Carnabucci at (262) 633-2645 to reserve your space by Thursday morning, Sept. 23.

See below for the remainder of the 2010 schedule and watch for 2011 training dates.

Schedule at a glance

Sept. 24

Training; Endings & Beginnings: Action Methods For Significant Transitions

Sept. 25
Tarot for Self Discovery

Oct. 7 and ongoing
Open Studio

Oct. 9
Tarot for Self Discovery

Oct. 12
Ancestors, Constellation & Healing

Oct. 19-21
Homeopathy appointments with Marybeth Buchele

Oct. 19
Learn How To Make Your Own Flower Essence

Oct. 20
Professional Networking Women

Oct. 21
Healing Winter Colds & Flu The Natural Way

Oct. 22
Professional Training: Introducing Action In 1-1 Settings For Counselors, Coaches, Others

Oct. 23
Tarot for Self Discovery

Oct. 30
Mothers, Daughters, Grandmothers & Others (CEUs available)
(also available on Oct. 29 if there is interest)

Nov. 5
Professional Training: Sand Tray Theatre

Nov. 13
Fall Health & Gift Fest

Nov. 17
Professional Networking Women

Nov. 19
Ancestors, Constellation & Healing

Dec. 4
Blessing Of The Gifts

Dec. 15
Professional Networking Women

Find more details and updates at Lake House's calendar.

Who comes to a class?

We’re pleased to celebrate our fifth year at Lake House Health & Learning Center along with our fifth year of the Midwest Training Series. We estimate that more than 150 trainees from throughout the Greater Milwaukee area and throughout the upper Midwest (Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio) have taken part in these adult education programs which teach experiential and group skills to social workers, helping professionals, addictions counselors, educators, artists, attorneys, group leaders and others.

Like who?

Like Kerry Tharp, a licensed clinical social worker and self-taught artist who teaches adults how to make mosaic art. She also shows at regional art exhibits and enjoys the opportunity to express her creativity. She integrates her new experiential skills at her studio in Belgium, Wis.

She says: “The learnings color my interactions every single day, including my teaching. I work to be respectful of others, to take much more time to 'listen' in many ways -- through experience, not just talk.” She adds: “I definitely have an appreciation for the vulnerability in individuals and my responses to students. I am cautious to not consciously push too far with what I see as therapeutic teaching moments. I trust that students intuitively know how far they feel safe going."

See her art and learn about her classes at Mosiacs By Kerry.

Contact info

Call Karen Carnabucci at (262) 633-2645 to reserve a training seat, request a mini-demonstration for your organization or group, book a training or retreat or request in-person or phone supervision, case consultation or coaching.

Our September newsletter - Tarot, Homeopathy, Women's Group, Fall Gift Fair

2010-09-20T08:29:00.056-05:00

There’s something about the first subtle whisper of autumn that shows up at this time of the year.

It’s a reminder about the importance of listening to those tiny clues that speak of intuition and wisdom in my own life.

And I like to help others learn to listen for the subtle whispers in their own lives. Fall is transformation –a good time to ponder how our own lives are transforming – and what seeds we want to plant for next year.

~ Karen Carnabucci, MSS, LCSW, TEP

You’ve been asking about Tarot...

And we have Tarot. Karen Carnabucci will teach three Tarot For Self Discovery classes starting this Saturday, Sept. 25. Then there's more on Oct. 9 and Oct. 23. Take one or all -- please bring our own Tarot deck.

Our homeopathic programs with visiting practitioner Marybeth Buchele in August have proven successful. She'll be back for two programs – How To Make Your Own Flower Essence To Ease Life's Challenges and Healing Winter Colds and Flu the Natural Way in October.

Robin Mitchell, Milwaukee artist and bodyworker, will offer an open art studio starting Oct. 7 through December. Attend as many studio sessions as you like and experience the healing power of the expressive arts.

And -- more Constellation groups through the end of 2010 including a powerful all-day group retreat just for women, Women, Sisters, Mothers and Grandmothers on Oct 30. Gerlinde Gelina, a German native who has been involved in Constellation work for more than 14 years, will join Karen. It will be great! (P.S. If enough women are interested, we'll present the retreat on Friday, Oct. 29, instead.)

Finally, save the date for our Fall Heath & Gift Fest on Nov. 13 as we celebrate our fifth year at Lake House and promote local shopping with local artisans and health professionals. Our own Helene Hellesen will give chair massages, and crafters will have jewelry, soap, purses, cards, photographs, gifts and many other cool things.

Lots more info here at Lake House's calendar.

Schedule at a glance

Sept. 24
Training: Endings & Beginnings: Using Action Therapy For Significant Transitions

Sept. 25
Tarot for Self Discovery

Oct. 7 and ongoing
Open Studio

Oct. 9
Tarot for Self Discovery

Oct. 12
Ancestors, Constellation & Healing

Oct. 19-21
Homeopathy appointments with Marybeth Buchele

Oct. 19
Learn How To Make Your Own Flower Essence To Ease Life's Emotional Challenges

Oct. 20
Professional Networking Women

Oct. 21
Healing Winter Colds & Flu The Natural Way

Oct. 22
Professional Training: Introducing Action In 1-1 Settings For Counselors, Coaches, Others

Oct. 23
Tarot for Self Discovery

Oct. 30
Mothers, Daughters, Grandmothers & Others (CEUs available)
(Also available on Oct. 29 if there is enough interest)

Nov. 5
Professional Training: Sand Tray Theatre

Nov. 13
Fall Health & Gift Fest

Nov. 17
Professional Networking Women

Nov. 19
Ancestors, Constellation & Healing

Dec. 4
Blessing Of The Gifts

Dec. 15
Professional Networking Women

Find details, directions and discussion here. Trainings and programs for 2011 will be announced shortly.

Resources for you

Bless All Who Serve: Sources of Hope, Courage and Faith for Military Personnel and Their Families, a new pocket-size book of readings and songs from many faith traditions, plus reflections by veterans and military chaplains, is available free to military chaplains, ministers, and enlisted men and women of all faiths.

Chaplains and ministers should email here. Military personnel and their families may email here. Others, purchase book for $8 and see sample prayer from online book store of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Overcoming Perfectionism - The Key To A Balanced Recovery by Ann Smith, one of my mentors at Caron Treatment Centers in Wernersville, Pa., is available as a free download on Amazon's Kindle only until Wednesday, Sept. 22. Click here for details.

Still online: Karen's e-book Address Your Stress, Stay Healthy And Calm"available for download courtesy of Educators Credit Union.

Sounds True is wonderful resource for people seeking audio books and DVDs. Right now the organiztion is offering free downloads -- The Power of Meditation and Healing Sounds if you sign up for its free e-mail newsletter.

932 Lake Ave. is for sale -- help Lake House move!

Our building is for sale but we can't move until the building sells. Here's how the the real estate agent describes it: Queen Anne Victorian two-story home in the Historic District boasting gorgeous lake views! Home can be used as a residence or for business purposes. Residence features: 5 bedrooms. 1.5+ baths, beautiful entrance, fireplace, french doors, hardwood floors and a partially finished lower level with additional living space, beautiful brick walls, additional bathroom and sauna!

See full listing here. Then help us find new rental digs!

InterPlay comes to Racine to play and have fun

2010-07-11T19:04:00.000-05:00

We're pleased to welcome InterPlay, an internationally known organization that promotes play and fun as a route to health, spiritual discovery and well being, to Racine and the Lake House Health & Learning Center on the evening of Tuesday, July 13.

The organization is based in California and was co-founded by Cynthia Winton-Henry, who will preside at a book signing and special program on Monday, July 12. A two-day intensive with Cynthia is planned at the DeKoven Center on July 13 and 14. See Lake House event here and the full schedule in Racine here.

Here, InterPlayer Cynthia Winton-Henry explains the "Hoopla!" ritual for times of transition.

Image a healthy body, free of cancer and pain

2010-06-22T12:35:00.000-05:00

In the last post, we discussed food as an important healer with cancer, as well as healthy eating as a way to prevent cancer.

Today we discuss guided imagery, a type of relaxation exercise designed to engage your mind, body and spirit, which many people have found extremely helpful for reducing stress and pain, acclerating healing and changing negative thoughts. I like the Health Journeys imageries by Belleruth Naparstak (shown at left) which you can order as CDs or downloads from her site.

However, there are a number of quality imagery sessions online that you can listen to and download for free that the Kaiser Permanente health site. When you click on the link, scroll down to look for topics of radiation, healthy immune system and successful surgery.

Belleruth also talks about her husband's bout with cancer and the valuable lessons that she learned with that experience.

If you don't have cancer, you'll notice many other topics that are helpful for stress reduction, pain relief, healthy sleep and many other health issues.

Diet does affect cancer and food can be your healer

2010-06-17T12:51:00.002-05:00

Nearly 2,000 people walked Racine's Relay For Life route the weekend of June 12 to call attention to the disease of cancer and raise funds for research, as The Racine Post reported here. The good news is that this local fund raiser gathered a whopping $205,000 to research cancer.

But there's other news, too. Cancer devastates many families. Friends and coworkers suffer as they helplessly watch the illness progress. In my circle of friends, family and acquaintances, I've counted more than enough sad events where people suffered with cancer; some died, despite giving the illness their best fight. Within my therapy practice, I often hear of the emotional toll that cancer brings to patients and families as they try to find a pathway out of pain to health.

In a recent Huffington Post article, How Diet Affects Cancer, medical doctor Keith Block questioned some of the common instructions that Western medicine gives to patients, including directions to eat "well," including many fats and meats. He notes, instead, that:

Diets high in fat and refined carbohydrates make you more likely to become overweight, which in turn increases your risk of tumor recurrences. Obese men are at significantly greater risk of developing more aggressive prostate cancer.
Dietary fats can impair the body's anti-cancer defenses by depressing the activity of natural killer (NK) cells, while a low-fat diet markedly increases NK activity. Natural killer cells play a key role in preventing metastasis.
Obese breast cancer patients are two to four times more likely to experience a recurrence than women of normal weight.

A new book, Anticancer, by another medical doctor David Servan-Schreiber -- who experienced cancer not once but twice -- discusses the standard American diet -- with its meats, fats, oils and processed foods -- that appears to stimulate and feed cancer cells. He also provides thoughts about how psychotherapy, especially experiential therapies, offers another dimension of healing.

Mercedes Dzindzeleta, a local massage therapist and health educator, has been researching cancer and legitmate health care alternaties for some time; an earlier blog listed two attractive cookbooks that she found useful. Today we bring more research, including what appears to be the well known "FOCC" dish, which blends flaxseed oil and cottage cheese. The two ingredients appear to make the the mixture more powerful and more able to be metabolized in the body.

Here is a video which shows how this simple recipe is constructed:

FOCC comes from what is known as the Budwig Protocol, which is based on studies from Dr. Johanna Budwig, a German biochemist and expert on fats and oils. Dr. Budwig, who died in 2003, held a Ph.D. in Natural Science and was schooled in pharmaceutical science, physics, medicine, botany and biology. She is best known for her research on the benefits of flaxseed oil combined with sulphurated proteins in the diet, and published several books on the subject, including "Cancer--A Fat Problem," "The Death of the Tumor," and "True Health Against Arteriosclerosis, Heart Infarction & Cancer."

Dr. Budwig had a 90 percent-plus success rate with this protocol with cancer patients during a 50-year period. A vegetarian, she continued to work with patients in Germany from the 1950s through 2002, while in her nineties. She was healthy and mentally sharp, writing and lecturing. One letter from a patient who met with her in October 2000, commented on her energy and vitality, saying she looked and seemed much younger than her age.

The Budwig diet is a health supplement that is best incorporated in a general diet plan. Flaxseed oil should be purchased from the refrigerated section of a health food store, never in capsule form and never from the shelves. Since degradation begins as soon as the container is opened, the oil should be kept refrigerated and used within the recommended time of eight weeks.

Her ideas are discused in detail on the Cancer Cure Foundation's website and on her own site here. There's also a Yahoo discussion list, an online support group, where posters share experiences and questions. Proponents say her diet -- which involves more than just the cottage cheese mixture -- also helps with arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other serious ailments.

Here are other sites which may be helpful:

The Budwig Diet Protocol: The Healing of Cancer and Other Diseases
Transition diet to the Budwig Protocol
The Budwig Diet For Cancer Treatment

Books include:

“When you change the way you look at things, things change.”

2010-06-14T13:53:00.001-05:00

When you change the way you look at things, things change.” – Wayne Dyer.

Conventional wisdom says that we have to “fight” illnesses like depression, cancer, heart diseases and drug addition to become healthy.

There’s a story that Louis Pasteur, the famous French scientist who developed pasteurization to protect milk form germs, admitted on his death bed that he agreed with another prominent scientist who said that our body isn’t attacked from outside by germs; rather, our cells are changed within by what we eat, our thoughts, our emotions and what we create inside ourselves

More recently, Candace Pert, a researcher and innovator acclaimed for her pioneering work in the area of psychoneuroimmunology, has concluded that our thoughts and emotions change the body’s molecules and affect our health. She is more popularly known for appeared in the 2004 film “What the Bleep Do We Know,” speaking as a serious scientist to the notion that we create our own reality

Her book, “Molecules of Emotion” contends that the brain, glands, and immune system are in constant communication which gives us real reason to observe our thoughts, notice our environment and wonder what we are feeding ourselves.

All this gives pause to consider how we change and what influences changes within us.

Looking at your experience with new eyes?

2010-06-08T19:48:00.002-05:00

In a recent blog, we explored the challenges of experience and how we can interpret experiences to advance our personal development.

Now, there is a little bit of caution here. Sometimes we interpret an experience so narrowlly that is not to our benefit. In other words, the story that we made for ourselves ends up diminishing ourselves and our lives rather than enhancing our understanding of ourselves and our world.

An example:

I know a woman who lived in a small town and decided to leave the town and her family to move across five states to find a good job in a big city.

Her family was important to her. She tried to stay in touch with the family members who lived more than 500 miles away, but it wasn’t easy to make that long drive on a regular basis, especially after children arrived and the travels became more complicated. She always was the one to visit and very few members of her family traveled to visit her.

She came to the conclusion that they didn’t care about her and that their lives and families were more important than her and her family. Many years passed, and her contact with them diminished to the bare minimum – exchanging cards at Christmas with barely a note inside, just the names.

But I saw a different conclusion, a different story. She was the adventurous one – the one who bravely left home and hearth for a new life in a strange town -- full of courage. The ones who were left behind were hardly adventurous at all. They preferred to play it safe and stay in their hometown, even though opportunities were very limited.

The truth is the woman loved her family members and missed them. Rather than “experiencing” the sadness and the yearning to connect more with her family, she quickly made up a story that they were self-centered and too interested in their own lives to pay attention to her.

What might happen if you look at one of your experiences with new eyes and a different way of thinking? Ho might you change?

An experience about change to provoke your thoughts

2010-06-04T15:44:00.002-05:00

I can talk for an hour about the challenges of change. In our conversation, we might admit that change is often difficult and scary -- although sometimes exhilarating and necessary.

But anything that I say will not give you the full experience of change. So, let's have an experience that will allow you to experience change that will lead to understanding yourself and an idea much more deeply than I can ever explain.

First, let’s put our hands on our laps. Then give attention to our hands on our laps. Without looking, interlace the fingers on your right hand with the fingers on your left hand.

Good. Now take a moment to glance at your hands and notice how your hands look, how your fingers are laced and where your thumbs are placed.

Notice if your right thumb is placed over your left thumb – or vice versa. It’s OK – whatever way your thumbs have intersected is just fine. We just want to notice what happens and we want to notice how this feels.

Now, slowly and with awareness, lift the thumb that’s on the top. Move your other thumb to allow the top thumb to go underneath and then put the remaining thumb on top.

Now, let’s take a moment to notice what your experience is like.

Odd? Strange? Different? Uncomfortable? Awkward? Or something else?

This is an experience – admittedly, a very simple experience – about change. Notice that one way is not right and the other way is not wrong. They are just different. And in just a few minutes you have an experience about change that goes much more deeply into your being than I could ever explain, even if I talked about change for the next 100 days.

Now, we also want to notice what you DO with the experience. Do you decide, without thinking very hard, that the second way is much too difficult and that you want to quickly return to the old comfortable way?

Do you notice that you are intrigued by the difference of the two experiences and start overlapping your thumbs in various configurations to learn more about how this feels?

Are you able to consider that change involves some level of discomfort and are you willing to figure out how to tolerate the discomfort while you are approaching or in the midst of change?

Notice that the experience comes first. Once we have the experience, we can begin to find the context about how the experience fits in our lives.

It's never too late to experience a happy childhood

2010-06-03T05:05:00.002-05:00

Long before I was a psychotherapist, I decided it was never too late to have a happy childhood.

A personal experience:

I never attended my high school prom. I was too nerdy, too shy and too lacking in social graces to enjoy this highlight milestone of high school.

Later, when I was in my 30s, I had the good luck to work as a reporter and editor for the morning newspaper in Lancaster, Pa. I decided to assign myself to attend a high school prom and write an article about the experience.

I had girlfriends who went “prom dress” shopping with me, giggling and waiting patiently as I finally picked a filmy gown with a peach colored sash and pearl buttons. I found Jerry, a wise-cracking and adventurous male friend who agreed to be my date, resplendent in a borrowed black tuxedo. My good friends, Patti and Joe, lent their house for the big evening. Other friends bought their children for pictures and silliness. An elderly neighbor man showed up to play the kind grandfather role.

Everyone cheered and clapped as I dramatically descended the staircase and – YES! – took pictures of me and my companion in front of the fireplace, my fluffy and flowery wrist corsage in full view. Friend Joe, in his role as "Dad," mock-sternly asked my date what time he would return me to home.

Then we went off to the prom, finishing the evening with an early morning breakfast at a local diner. It was a wonderful evening, and I love the warm memories that I hold within me today, more than 20 years later.

In my psychotherapy sessions, I sometimes challenge my clients to identify an experience that they did not have the opportunity to have in their own lives, something that shadows their days with the sad feeling of "missing out." Then we explore how we can consciously create that experience in safe, positive and healthy way so that it becomes a part of their lives.

What have you missed? What ideas do you have to repair that experience?

"If it feels good, do it." Really?

2010-05-27T22:24:00.002-05:00

Remember the bit of advice from the 1960s -- if it feels good, do it?

Well, we might know a teenager who just got pregnant because sex “felt good” but who will have to deal with the consequences of tending to an actual needy and noisy infant.

Or an alcoholic or drug addict who said that first drink or drug felt good but now the eighth drink and ninth drug spiraled to compulsive and out of control behavior.

Or — maybe you have a story like this, one that you just can't explain, no matter how much you try to wrap your brain around it.

The truth is:

We need to value both feelings AND thoughts. One is not more important than the other.

The truth is:

Logic is important and good. It is a gift.

But experience is necessary. It is a gift.

The understanding of the complexity of our brains is the main reason that I have been attracted to experiential psychotherapy and immense value of experience in our lives and how it fits with logic and intellect. It is the reason that talk therapy, as valuable as it is, has its limits.

A (very) short lesson in brain science:

We have a complicated brain with a number of parts that have specific jobs. And our brain has two hemispheres, the right brain and the left brain.

The left brain is the logical side of the self. Logic examines general forms that arguments may take, which forms are valid, and which are fallacies. It is one kind of critical thinking. It is the part of the brain that puts words together, allowing me to speak and you to listen and make sense of what I am saying.

The right brain is focused on emotions, intuition and sensory experience. Your right brain loves colors and textures and pink, purple and red – with sparkles and fringe, even if it doesn’t match! Your right brain loves the picture on this blog page more than the words. This side of the brain is the storehouse of feelings, and feelings are not logical, they just are. And if you think that you can explain your feelings through logic, then you might be rationalizing and denying – or just making stuff up!

The logic and intuition of our brains is meant to swing back and forth so that we are able to constantly switch between these two valuable ways of being in the world.

Here’s another interesting tidbit:

We also know that experiences change our brain. In trauma studies, for instance, scientists have actually been able to monitor how there are cellular changes within the brain when the person experiences a trauma such as abuse, combat or another horrifying event.

However, there’s other good news:

People who are survivors of trauma can heal when their brains change. This means that extremely painful or scary experiences can change the brain for the worse and that positive experiences can change the brain for the better. This is called healing.

Common sense says the brain isn't always useful

2010-05-21T10:32:00.009-05:00

Logic doesn't always make sense. I know this. I am by profession a psychotherapist, coach, and educator and most people who seek my help and advice arrive when logic doesn't work.

Typically, when we speak of problem, it is suggested that we think and talk about the problem and apply logic to solve it. When people are struggling with a dilemma, decision or problem, the conventional suggestion involves thinking -- using common sense to figure out the problem:

Think before you speak.
Think it through.
Think out of the box.

Now, thinking is a good thing. We can remember times when we have used our brains. We made lists of pros and cons about a certain decision and followed a plan of action that sounded really good in our heads.

There was just one problem – when the logical solution was applied to real life, it didn’t work very well.

We have an idea about how wonderful it would be to go on this vacation or have that romatic partner or purchase this great new outfit. That’s the logical mind speaking. We can have lots of reasons to back up the rightness of our desires.

In my own life, I’ve had the opportunity to relearn this concept many times, and I am sure that you have as well. Remember that wish that you really, really wanted to come true. Maybe it was that perfect job that turned out to be a nightmare bcause you were't prepared for the 12-hour days? Or that gorgeous big house that seemed like a really great real estate investment until the bottom fell out of the ecomony and you strugged to pay your mortgage?

That brings us to another old piece of advice:

Be careful what you pray for.

It seems that many times when we get what we’ve been wanting, the experience we receive is quite different. A loyalty to logic presumes that we have control over our world. It further presumes that we can predict everything that will happen:

Such as: 2 + 2 = 4.

However, life is not logical. For instance:

How is it that a woman who claims to be a loving and caring mother buys heroin with her son, teaches him how to use the heroin and uses the drug with him?

How is it that a man says he wants to be healthy but eats a double cheese pizza every day followed with a chaser of three doughnuts?

How is it that a woman is terribly abused but does not leave her spouse – even when financial help and refuge is offered?

When we ponder these questions, we see that there are limits to logic, just like there are limits to our control over the word. For some people, the logic of the solution – follow me on this – lays in other kinds of advice:

Follow your heart.
Listen to your gut.
Go with the flow.

But this advice is bare of real content and direction during the decision-making process, especially one that will have repercussions for a long time to come.

What does it mean to follow your heart? And how do we separate what we “want” from what is really “right” for us – if there is anything that is really right for us?

Walking between the brain and the heart is truly a spiritual challenge that call us to examine our inner yearnings. In the next blog post, we'll examine this idea of logic more closely.

Lois Wilson's story tells the story of Al-Anon

2010-05-21T09:11:00.013-05:00

Did you catch the recent tele-movie about Lois Wilson, the co-founder of Al-Anon?

It's a brilliant telling of the story of how families are affected by alcoholism and a reminder that you don't have to drink to suffer from alcoholism.

The recent tele-movie is "When Love Is Not Enough," is based on the newly reissued biography by William G. Borchert. It reveals the trials and triumph for co-founder of Al-Anon, whose alcoholic husband, Bill Wilson, was a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is the moving story about how the couple rose from a life of despair to institute one of the twentieth century's most important social movements, and how Lois created a legacy of hope for millions of families devastated by addiction through her uncommon love and unshakable faith.

A college-educated young woman from an affluent family, Lois married Bill in 1918, after his return from duty at the end of World War I. While Lois worked as an occupational therapist, Bill struggled to find his niche. Lois strongly believed that Bill was destined for greatness, and despite noticing an increase in his drinking habits, she showered him with love and support. By 1927, Bill was a lucrative securities analyst on Wall Street and the couple was living a luxurious lifestyle.

Despite Lois' countless efforts to control his drinking, Bill's addiction to alcohol spiraled out of control until his job, their lifestyle and dreams were gone. In 1935, after years of unsuccessfully struggling to cover for Bill and manage his disease, Lois saw him take control of his alcoholism. However, his sobriety was not the result of Lois' help but through the support of a fellow recovering alcoholic, Dr. Bob Smith.

As Bill and Bob attained sobriety and started Alcoholics Anonymous, Lois began to question the value she had in her own marriage. After devoting 17 years to healing her sick husband, Lois felt isolated and resentful that he was sober without her help. Lois eventually discovered that she was not alone. She slowly engaged the wives of the men in Bill's program and came to realize that while Bill was addicted to alcohol, she was addicted to him - and that the family and friends of alcoholics are, in some ways, as sick as their loved ones. Lois gained the necessary understanding needed to repair her fractured relationship and to help millions of others do the same. She co-founded Al-Anon in 1951.

Read many stories here about how Al-Anon is still very much helpful to distressed family members in the 21st century.

Here's a dramatic clip from the tele-movie:

Drippy nose? Irritating behavior? Consider food allergies.

2010-05-07T17:00:00.004-05:00

Are you or your child restless? Nose drippy? Or is there some other irritating health or behavior problem?

What did you eat, drink or touch? I've been receiving calls about food and other allergies and how they may affect behavior -- a problem that medications just won't help. Some medical doctors think food allergies are a bunch of hooey and won't order a blood test for the potential problem.

Dr. Doris Rapp is dedicated to sharing important information about harmful environmental factors that can affect how children and adults feel, think and act in our high-tech, high-stress, high-profit world. The "progress at any cost" mentality is rapidly overwhelming our bodies as we attempt to cope with our increasingly polluted environment.

In her breakthrough best-selling book "Is This Your Child?" Dr. Rapp identifies the major symptoms of potentially unrecognized allergies in children and adults, suggesting possible sensitivities to dust, mold, pollen, foods or chemicals. Allergies are much more than high fever, asthma and itchy skin. It is possible to identify allergies by simply looking at someone. At times it is surprisingly easy to find and eliminate the cause.

The typical clues of allergies and environmental illness can include any combination of the following: rubbing nose upwards -- to wipe drippy nose -- eye wrinkles, dark eye circles, sudden aggression, scarlet earlobes, a spacey look, extreme activity changes, wiggly legs, red cheeks and a mottled tongue.

Here's a well-viewed video with Dr. Doris Rapp, who is talking about children's allergies to food and environment. The show aired in 1989 on television's popular Phil Donahue Show:

To spank or not to spank?

2010-05-02T07:54:00.003-05:00

Every so often, a parent asks me about the wisdom of spanking a child.

Now, I'm not a fan of spanking. Spanking teaches kids that it's all right for big people to hit little people -- or anyone else -- and that a sign of "bigness" is that they get to hit people too. It also teaches that hitting and hurting are legitimate repsonses to anger and that punishment, rather than teaching ways to maintain good behavior, is the focus.

Time has published a good essay about spanking in the current Time magazine in an article titled, The Long-Term Effects of Spanking, which reports on a researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest evidence yet that children's short-term response to spanking may make them act out more in the long run. Of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were much more likely to be aggressive by age 5.

It's better to practice alternative ways of guidance -- the key word rather than punishment -- with time-out periods, redirection and other positively oriented responses. Now, hitting is easy. Changing behaviors to parent effectively takes time, motivation and intention. If a parent finds that anger and other emotions prevent the learning and use of these activites, then it may be important to address issues relating to the self.

Addiction field is finally embracing holistic treatment

2010-04-09T14:10:00.001-05:00

There was a time not long ago when addiction professionals would chuckle upon hearing a colleague talk of providing “holistic” treatment. Or when a treatment center would provide an hour of yoga for the newly recovering addicts -- mostly to keep them busy while the staff planned the next talk therapy session.

Today, it would appear that some of the most prestigious treatment centers can’t move fast enough to be associated with the term, now that more are seeing how complementary therapies can help improve upon the success of traditional treatment strategies. Later this month, about 1,000 professionals are expected to attend a conference in Las Vegas called “Holistic Treatment: Changing the Way We Look at Recovery—Body, Mind & Spirit.” A state conference, sponsored by the Wisconsion Association on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, is titled "Science, Treatment & Wellness in Collaboration for a Holistic Recovery" and is coming up May 10-12 in Middletown.

Holistic treatment is here for sufferers of addiction in a bigger way than ever before. And although recovery people have long preached the three-part nature of the bio-psycho-social affliction, most of the focus was still on talk therapy and Twelve-Step meetings.

Now acupuncture, massage, yoga, nutrition and other complementary methods are included in the treatment mix as authentically healing. I want to say a good word for alternatives to talk therapy which are much more inclusive of the whole self -- and include mind-body therapies like psychodrama -- it's been around for a while but now with many new innovations -- plus tapping, Systemic Constellation Work, Somatic Experiencing, EMDR and others.

Foods and delicious recipes that fight cancer

2010-04-07T08:24:00.000-05:00

We already know that the quality and selection of food affects our weight, energy and emotional health. Now there is a resurgence in natural care options, including diet, that are available for people with cancer.

I just received these titles from Mercedes Dzindzeleta, a Racine massage therapist and bodyworker who has been researching alternative cancer treatments and adjuncts to cancer treatments. Her discovery of several cookbooks for cancer survivors and patients is worth sharing.

These new cookbooks are attractive and show wholesome and healthy foods of all kinds. I had the opportunity to taste the resuilts of one recipe, a soft-as-a-cloud sponge cake sweetened with maple syrup -- delicious!

The queen of these cookbooks appears to be Rebecca Katz, author of "The Cancer Fighting-Kitchen" and "One Bite At A Time." Both focus on immune-building recipes with easy-to-find ingredients that stimulate appetite and address treatment side-effects including fatigue, nausea, mouth and throat soreness, and low blood counts.

Another new classic is "Foods to Fight Cancer: Essential Foods To Help Prevent Cancer" by Richard Beliveau.

Ed Tick on the traumatic wounds of war

2010-04-06T07:28:00.001-05:00

"The traumatic wounds of war take over the entire consciousness." -- Ed Tick, author of "War and The Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."

Here is a video worth watching:

True stories of the need for the new health care law

2010-04-02T10:02:00.003-05:00

One question that I've been asking myself lately:

How can people be angry about more people recieving health care?

Watch the newspapers, the blogs and the evening news, and we learn that many are not only angry, but violently and extremely angry, about the passage of the new health care bill. In many cases, the anger is focused toward misinfomration -- ideas about what the health care bill does and doesn't do -- that aren't even correct.

As a health professional myself, I have had front row seat for more than 20 years to see people who are denied care for many reasons -- insurance companies who do not cover pre-existing conditions:

Insurance companies who do not think a diagnosis is "serious" enough to merit treatment. People who through no fault of their own lose their jobs and therefore lose their insurance. People who cannot find a full-time job with benefits, no matter how hard they look. People who have amazingly high deductibles of $3,000 or more before any reimbursement is considered. People who are limited to number of psychotherapy sessions they may receive for the year.

I can't share the names and details due to my professional pledge of confidentiality but I can share the story of a close friend whose young adult daughter will be covered by the new law. See the Associated Press story, 2 Million Eager For Health Care On Parents' Plans.

The new law isn't perfect and there is discussion about the best way to implement it. But it demonstrates progress and inclusion and makes our country healthier.

As the for the extreme reactions, I remember, as a psychotherapist, that the left brain logic is currently on vacation while the right brain fear takes full stage. I pray that the right brain of all those who are panicked can be soothed.

Trauma-informed care is newest trend

2010-03-08T14:57:00.004-06:00

I'm gratified to receive lots of positive comments about Saturday's training program for professionals on "Treating & Healing Trauma With Action Methods," which you'll see in my next e-mail newsletter.Watch for more training dates for experiential modalities for addressing trauma.

News of best practices of addressing trauma is rapidly growing, as we understand more about the brain and how it is impacted by traumatic experiences, whether abuse, war or natural catastrophe. Now there are new laws about the importance of current education.

The National Center for Trauma-Informed Care was created in 2005, and it is funded by the Center for Mental Health Services. It assists publicly-funded agencies, programs, and services in making the important cultural shift to a more trauma-informed environment — an environment that is intended to be more supportive, comprehensively integrated, and empowering for trauma survivors.

In addition, the NCTIC has facilitated a Facebook Group called Trauma-Informed to promote dialog about trauma-informed care and to foster the sharing of knowledge and resources through this social marketing network.

When you're riding the roller coaster, you don't think about stupid

2010-03-03T19:53:00.009-06:00

Stupid?

That’s what lots of people have been saying when they found out that former Racine mayor Gary Becker purchased a batch of girlish-sized lingerie just two weeks ago.

If he hadn’t purchased the lingerie – or at least hadn’t been recognized and reported for the purchase – he might have walked away with probation at Wednesday’s court sentencing.

However, when the presiding judge found out about the lingerie purchase, he decided to revise his sentence to three years in prison, accompanied by extended post-release supervision. The former mayor was sitting before the judge, charged for his plan to meet and have sex with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl – but who turned out to be an undercover agent setting him up for an Internet sting.

Stupid?

As the judge noted, it’s not a crime to purchase women’s underwear at a department store in the local mall.

However, this man isn’t just any shopper. This is a man who was charged with a serious sex-related crime and had attended an expensive treatment center to address what is most surely a situation of compulsive sexual behavior. Within the context of this scenario, this purchase brings up a number of flags – flags that the judge appropriately noted and then questioned this man’s ability to adequately address and control his behavior.

All addictions – whether they involve alcohol, drugs, compulsive overeating, risk-taking sexual activity, gambling or whatever – are self destructive. The risk-taking behavior typically flares even higher during times of stress, when the rush of terrible excitement overrides the underlying slow-brewing anxiety.

Let’s put it this way: When you’re flying up and down the roller coaster’s steep curves, you don’t think about mowing the back yard, if you remembered to take the garbage out or the amount of the balance in your bank account.

Though we have no way of knowing Becker's exact reason for his choices, here are some general points to consider:

The person doesn’t consciously plan to be self destructive. The person isn’t even typically stupid. But he or she isn't able to manage the extreme pain and inner stress in what we would consider healthy and appropriate ways. In this case, we can imagine that a person would be rightly anxious to walk up the steps of the county court house, walk into a court room and face the judge who would determine the next chapter of a person’s life.

Many, many people who suffer serious addictions and compulsions are able to make significant changes and enjoy lives of peace and productivity with motivation, willingness, humility, support and the right treatment options. And others struggle and flounder. If there is anything good about this unsavory situation, it is the opportunity to learn more about how people use self-destructive behaviors to escape the reality of their inner world and how challenging it is to make changes.

Stupid?

More accurately, a painful and sad situation for all concerned.

A fresh new look at what we're eating on March 2

2010-02-22T12:05:00.002-06:00

A special shout out to endorse “Fresh - New Thinking About What We’re Eating,” a movie by Ana Sofia Joanes, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, at the Gifford Elementary School, 8332 Northwestern Ave. (Highway K) Racine. The movie will be followed by a presentation by Will Allen of Milwaukee’s Growing Power who was recently named one of “100 History Makers in the Making.”

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the program is sponsored by Eat Right Racine, a new lively non-profit started by a group of health-oriented mothers who want to encourage everyone to pursue good nutrition. Keep in mind that good nutrition not only nourishes our bodies, it also helps our minds, thoughts and feelings function at their best, giving us good mental health.

Download poster here to share with others.

You are more musical than you think! Sound healing shifts your vibration for the better

2010-02-21T14:32:00.004-06:00

We are now learning that sounds -- which are really vibrations that go deep to our core -- can heal or disrupt.

Sound healing is among the newest forms of energy healings, with practitioners creating sounds with Tibetan singing bowls, tuning forks, the voice and and other means. Hope V. Horton and Gabrielle Laden, whose business Sound Accords focuses on the quieting qualities of sound (what may seem like an oxymoron at first read), will teach a workshop, titled Singing Metals, March 19-21 in Madison, Wis.

Here are 10 simple ways to change your energy with sound, excerpted from their larger article on Turning Into the Big Picture with Sound, Vibration and Music.

1. Make spontaneous sounds throughout the day. If something hurts, say "ouch." If something pleases you, laugh out loud. If you have to sneeze, do it as loudly as you can. These kinds of sounds help our bodies to release and re-balance. Stifling them adds to the build-up.

2. Notice the sounds in your environment. What effect do they have on you? What can you do to minimize sounds that make you feel on edge and maximize sounds that nourish you?

3. Use music with more awareness. Notice how you are feeling. Are you stressed? Tired? Irritated? How would you like to be feeling? Choose music that will help promote the desired state.

4. Sing in the shower. Making sounds first thing in the morning can help us to clear out old energy and make space for something new and fresh to enter. Besides, it’s fun!

5. Play an instrument, any instrument. Have you been told that you have no musical talent? Get a drum and play along with your favorite CD. Strike a singing bowl, or a pair of tuning forks. Start to experiment. See what happens to your joy and creativity in life.

6. Be quiet. Spend some time in silence, just listening to yourself. Do you hear your heart beating, your nervous system singing, your stomach gurgling, your breathing moving in and out? How does it feel to just listen to your own sounds?

7. Choose your words carefully. Words are sound, too. Are you creating harmony or discord by what you say and how you say it? Really listen to yourself. Is that what you want to put out? If not, stop and change it.

8. Listen to others. Are there people that you just can’t hear? Relax and experiment with finding the places in you that resonate with them. Be gentle and compassionate with yourself, and them.

9. Get moving to music. Feeling stuck? Then MOVE. Put on some fine, time-tested music. Really listen and start to let the music move you. Notice your own resistance and start to play with it. After a few minutes, you won’t be the same.

10. Hum where it hurts. If you have a pain in your body or are experiencing an uncomfortable emotion, hum into it softly and very gently, with lots of love. Feel the vibrations caused by your own voice. Allow the pain to relax and start flowing again.

No diagnosis, little story -- but rather, what gives person strength

2010-02-15T10:04:00.003-06:00

In many cultures -- including many Asian countries -- ancestors are honored and revered. In the United States, we might not even know the names of our grandparents. Feeling disconnected from our ancestors and our larger family system has implications for both our physical and emotional health.

Systemic Constellation Work, an unconventional method of healing which views the family system as an important component of our heath and ability to function in the world, is today's topic at Roots and Legends, 3209 Washington Ave., Racine, as we recognize the passing of our Valentine Day holiday and the start of Chinese New Year.

Systemic Constellation Work holds some very different outlooks from traditional mental health concepts. There is no theory. There is no pathology, at least not in the way we think of it according to the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. There are no diagnoses. There is even not very much story about the event that is encouraged.

What is of great interest is what (1) gives a person strength and (2) what allows love to flow within a family, even when it seems on a conscious level that there is no or little love.

Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherpist and former priest, originated Systemic Constellation Work. He started with the person who is wanting healing to arrange representatives of the self and the other people in the situation within a space in a room without any logic or story. Then he noticed what natural physical movements and words appeared to stimulate feelings of calm in a system or grouping of people where anxiety, threat and/or pain were originally present. These groups of people were not the actual people involved in the issue but representatives of the people, including the client.

"As long as our ancestors are still suffering within us, we cannot be truly happy. If we make a step with awareness...we do this for all the past and future generations. Then all arrive at the same moment we arrive and we all find peace at the same time." -- Thich Nhat Hahn

Through these observations, Hellinger came up with the standards of “orders of love,” which identified the importance of the family soul, which may also be described the energy of the family system, rather than the energy of one person.

Belonging. This is the strongest and has to do with our very survival. We often do whatever we must in order to continue to belong to a group, especially our family, even though it may not be best for us. These struggles to leave or stay within a group are often deeply felt. Our families are one "group" we cannot leave, and balancing the "rules" of our family of origin within our adult lives can be a source of a great deal of difficulty. Hidden and unconscious loyalties often govern our actions more than we realize.

Balancing give and take. When we receive or take from another, we feel a debt and some discomfort. When we give back we feel a freedom and a sense of innocence. If giving and taking are out of balance in some way, then we may feel guilt, and sometimes hiding that guilt, we feel anger or other emotions. This can be very apparent between couples and between parents and children.

Social order and place. That is, following the rules of the social group we belong to, the backbone of communal living. It also includes a sense of having a right place in the groups we belong to. This provides a sense of safety and stability. We know where we belong relative to the other members of our group. When this is not clear in a group a great deal of chaos can arise.

It is in telling the “soul” truth that there is love, even when there is pain, that people are able to feel the relief and find the calm and the peace within what appear to be logical contradictions when thinking or talking about it. A key point is that the truth is not some cookie-cutter kind of parroting of certain “ideas” but the individual truth that resonates deeply for that person and that system.

In the time that I have been acquainted with Constellation work -- starting in about 2001 or 2002 -- and in the past two years wheb I've been s studying advanced work in this method., I've seen great healing with this profound method and have experienced many sessions myself. I have been integrating Constellation into my work for some time.

A poetry-in-slow-motion video that speaks of love, not fear...

2010-02-09T20:08:00.004-06:00

Here's one very cool and low-budget video from the United Kingdom. It's called "Embrace Life," and it's poetry in slow motion, advocating safety and seat belts -- not a very sexy subject -- but a necessary one. And it reminds us of love, rather than fear, which is always a good thing when we're encouraging change. Enjoy.

Investing in love? Tips on relationships from Ben Stein, love expert

2010-02-04T13:49:00.002-06:00

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought you'd like some thoughts on love and relationships from that great relationship expert -- Ben Stein.

(Huh?)

Yes, that Ben Stein, economist, attorney, writer, former television show host and sometime character actor on the classic "Ferris Buller's Day Off."

Stein cleverly offers a number of concepts of love based on economics in a recent New York Times article. Although I wouldn't use exactly the same words, here are his tips:

The returns in love situations are proportional to the amount of time and devotion invested. The amount of love you get from an investment in love is correlated, if only roughly, to the amount of yourself you invest in the relationship.

High-quality bonds consistently yield more return than junk, and so it is with high-quality love. Stay with high-quality human beings. Once you find you that are in a junk relationship, sell immediately. Junk situations can look appealing and seductive, but junk is junk.

Research pays off. An appealing and seductive exterior can hide the most danger and chance of loss. For most of us, diversification in love, at least beyond a very small number, is impossible, so it’s necessary to do a lot of research on the choice you make.

In every long-term romantic situation, returns are greater when there is a monopoly. If you have to share your love with others, if you have to compete even after a brief while with others, forget the whole thing.

The returns on your investment should at least equal the cost of the investment. If you are getting less back than you put in over a considerable period of time, back off.

Long-term investment pays off. The impatient day player will fare poorly without inside information or market-controlling power. To coin a phrase: Fall in love in haste, repent at leisure.

Realistic expectations are everything. If you have unrealistic expectations, they will rarely be met. If you think that you can go from nowhere to having someone wonderful in love with you, you are probably wrong.

When you have a winner, stick with your winner. Whether in love or in the stock market, winners are to be prized.

Have a dog or many dogs or cats in your life. These are your anchors to windward and your unfailing source of love.

Read the complete article here.

Top health 7 trends for 2010

2010-01-13T13:20:00.003-06:00

This is the time of year when everyone's making lists, including what to watch got in 2010. Here's my list of top health trends in 2010 -- the tiny trends.

I call them "tiny" trends because I'm not privy to the newest medications, surgeries or health procedures that razzle and dazzle, but I do listen and observe the people in my world. These tiny trends relate to simple but important issues that touch our daily lives, whether or not we are admitted to a hospital, suffering a serious illness or taking medication.

Here goes:

There will be skyrocketing interest in stopping nicotine use. With costs up to $80 a carton – and sometimes more – smokers have already been taking a look at stopping. Now that Wisconsin law says that smoking in all restaurants must end in July 2010, there certainly will be even more attention to nicotine use, and its harmful effects and a variety of methods to stop.

We can expect greater focus and greater penalties on drunken driving in the state. That will mean that these stiff penalities will bring greater attention to and discussion about alcoholism and people who just can't stop drinking. Of particular interest will be alcoholism among people who are highly functioning, rather than focusing on the classic image of the skid row drunk.

The ever-growing interest in alternative health continues. More people are checking out acupuncture, yoga, herbal treatments, massage, tai chi, qigong, Reiki and other alternatives for everything from infertility to chronic pain to nicotine use (yes, see above!) to keeping their immune systems strong and healthy. People will also be willing to investigate various counseling alternatives beyond the traditional cognitive behavioral psychotherapy and psychiatric medication.

People will talk about and trade their favorite home remedies in person, in the press and online. Thanks to newspaper columnist Dr. James Gott, Joe and Teresa Graddon of The People's Pharmacy, who recommends mentholated oinment for nail fungus, and the sad state of our health insurance coverage, more people are experimenting with old-fashioned home remedies. Of course, not all remedies are good – some really are old wives’ tales. Check on Snopes, a great place to separate the truth from the rumors and urban legends.

Gardening and grow your own will grow bigger, so you'll want to take a look at the gardening catalog this winter. Home gardening is not only thrifty and convenient, it is also generally organic because you can generally avoid pesticides and herbicides in favor of simple solutions like fencing, scarecrows and combination planting. Even if you're just planting a couple of pots of herbs on your back porch, you'll have herbs for stews, salads and teas.

More interest and recognition of autism is coming. Wisconsin’s 2010 budget includes a new mandate requiring insurance companies to cover the provision of services for treatment of autism disorder. Licensed clinical social workers, certified independent social workers and certified advanced practice social workers are among a number of qualified providers who can provide this service under supervision.

Learning about health will become entertainment. Doctors like Dr. Mehmet Oz and others are showing that health information can be engaging and interesting. With big screen graphics, health challenges and lots of permission to ask questions from viewers, he actually makes learning fun. Better yet, he's a Western M.D. that gives attention to complementary and alternative medical care and regularly recognizes the value of psychotherapy.

Proud to have a certificate in Systemic Constellation Work

2010-01-07T12:46:00.000-06:00

I'm proud to annouce that I received a certificate following a one-year advanced training course in Systemic Constellation Work with Heinz Stark (with me, below) on Dec. 21. The training was offered by the Hellinger Institute of D.C., with the Orders of Life Association and the Stark Institute for Systemic Integrative Therapy.

Heinz, one of the world's leading trainers in Systemic Constellation Work, is the founder of Stark Institute, Germany. In addition, a second certificate recognizes completion of Jichu Gong of the Biyun Method of Medical Qigong. Learn more about the Hellinger Center of D.C. here.

Dan Booth Cohen explains Constellation healing as a tribute to our ancestors

2010-01-04T19:23:00.002-06:00

Dan Booth Cohen, Ph.D., talks about the new approach of Systemic Constellation Work in this interview with Patricia Ruskin’s “Positive Living” show on VoiceAmerica.

During the wide-ranging interview, he talks about how Constellation work can heal and restore what is in the past. Further, he gives examples about how relationships become strained because of what is missing in the ancestral background of one person’s life – creating loneliness and disconnection.

He also talks about alcohol as a pain killer and and how there is increasing physical and scientific evidence is now showing that the effects of traumatic experiences are passed on from one generation to another. So he may ask: "Is the problem older than you are?"

His recent book, “I Carry Your Heart In My Heart,” is filled with the stories of his experiences leading monthly Systemic Family Constellation circles with life prisoners in a Massachusetts prison for five years. It also describes Family Constellations’ roots and philosophy which is based on the observations of Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherapist who is considered one of the most innovative and profound thinkers in the past 25 years.

We can carry the pain of our ancestors in our hearts and we can release the pain to find joy. "Anyone can be in prison and anyone can find freedom," he has discovered.

Cohen, who is based in New England, offers workshops throughout the United States and has a wealth of experience in the art of peace-making and creative problem solving. He has had a diverse career as a business owner, corporate executive, author, peace activist and counselor over the past 30 years. Dan was the co-founder of Pequod Associates, Inc., a founding member of the City of Cambridge Peace Commission and the co-director of the Boston Children of War Program.

Will 2010 be lucky for you?

2010-01-01T13:03:00.008-06:00

Believe it or not, a lot of luck is up to you.

Richard Wiseman, a British psychologist, has studied why some people are lucky and others are not. He found four main traits that lucky people have that help them to be “lucky”:

They create, notice, and act upon chance opportunities that come up.

They make good decisions using a combination of intuition and logic.

They have positive thoughts about the future.

They don’t let “bad” luck get them down – they find a way to turn it into good fortune.

Take the idea of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people don't.

Wiseman created a simple experiment to learn more. He gathered a group of people and gave each of them a newspaper, requesting they look through it and report how many photographs were inside.

He had secretly placed a large message in the newspaper saying: "Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250" – a very nice prize of about $400 in U.S. currency.

The unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.

It seems that unlucky people are generally more anxious than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected. As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else.

They are the kind of people who go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs.

Wiseman asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. They were expected to spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck.

One month later, the volunteers described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 percent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.

Perhaps this is the year that you’ll be open to new experiences, rather than stuck in rigid thoughts and a strict routine. When anxious people notice something new – if they notice it at all – they want no part of it. Lucky people are comfortable enough to check out new opportunities and are willing to take risks.

Here's an opportunity: you may download Wiseman's e-book on The Luck Factor.

I am beginning a luck diary for 2010—how about you?

Proud to collect and bless 175 gift bags for the needy and forgotten

2009-12-09T20:02:00.002-06:00

Thanks to the generosity of many, many people, we have had the opportunity to package and bless 175 gift "stockings" for the forgotten, poor and needy for Christmas.

Yes, 175! Most packages were delivered to the Women's Resource Center, Bethany Apartments, SAFE Haven, SAFE Passage and HALO on Monday, with the last of the stockings going to Southern Oaks Girls School and Focus On Community tomorrow. Any late-arriving donations will be delivered to HALO, the local homeless shelter, which we understand is bulging at this very moment with 66 men and 57 women and children.

Here's a picture of most of the group who put it all together at Lake House Health & Learning Center on Saturday, adding their blessings of love, strength, health, protection, friendship, prosperity and more:

Donations came from members and friends of the Olympia Brown Unitarian Univeralist Church, the CNH Campus Connection, Lake House Health & Learning Center and many generous community members who read about our project in the Racine Journal Times.

We are also pleased to have collected more than 60 pounds of food to the Racine Food Bank, collected during the recent Lake House presentation of “Practical Application of Spiritual Principles -- Making The Universal Laws Work in Everyday Life” on Dec. 1.

We'll continue to collect food for the Racine Food Bank until Dec. 23. Please call (262) 633-2645 before dropping off donations.

Blessing Of The Gifts blesses everyone for the holidays

2009-12-03T07:47:00.009-06:00

Every year for the past eight years, I’ve joined friends, church members, colleagues and others who have participated in a program that we call Blessing Of The Gifts.

Like many other organizations in our community, we collect various simple gifts for the forgotten, poor and needy in our community.

There’s more. After the donations are sorted and packaged, we mound them in the center of the room in a great big pile and give the packages our blessing – all the goodness and love and strength that we can muster.

The gifts, after all, are only a token. It is the love that we send that’s important. At this time of year, we all want to feel as if we have something valuable to give and can make a difference in our world. When we do, it feels good.

This idea – that charity has wellness benefits – is beginning to be documented. A recent Canadian study found said spending as little as $5 on others helped change mood and feelings about self. For instance, staff who got bonuses and spent some of the extra money on others were happier than those who spent their bonuses on themselves, the research found.

The gifts will be sorted, packaged and blessed at a special program from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 5, at Lake House Health & Learning Center, 932 Lake Ave. All are welcome to participate; please bring donation for the project or a donation of non-perishable food for the Racine Food Bank, if you are able. (The picture is a sample of just a few of the gifts that have been donated, with one bow-decorated "stocking.")

Co-creators of this project include members for the Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church, corporate people at CNH Campus Connection, clients and visitors to Lake House Health & Learning Center and friends, family and neighbors. I’ve been told by several people that this annual event – we are now in our eighth year – has become a meaningful part of their holiday.

When each donation bag and box arrives, it feels like a mini-Christmas. I open the bags and find treasures. I am sure that I get as much excitement from opening the donations as the recipients do.

If you’d like to contribute, or start your own project, these are the kinds of gifts we accept:

Toiletries, hotel and regular sizes

Cards, stationery, stamps

Journals and calendars

Bookmarks

Socks, slippers and scarves

Journals

Small gifts

Plastic net bags

Yarn

The gifts are packaged in recycled plastic net bags -- the kind that are used for citrus fruits and onions -- that are used as "stockings" and distributed to the Southern Oaks Girls School, HALO, Women's Resource Center, Bethany Apartments, Focus On Community, SAFE Passage and SAFE Haven before Christmas.

Spiritual ideas, real life, gratitude and other universal laws

2009-12-02T19:49:00.002-06:00

Markus Kasunich, a spiritual healer from Laguna Hills, Calif., visited Lake House Health & Learning Center on Tuesday to speak about his personal spiritual journey and spiritual ideas and their applications to everyday life.

The title of the presentation of this kindred spirit who was the topic of a previous blog: “Practical Application of Spiritual Principles -- Making The Universal Laws Work in Everyday Life.”

Kasunich’s story is compelling. He grew up in Canada and suffered abuse as a young person. He tried to numb his feelings with drugs and alcohol and later became a seeker of learning and personal understanding, first at a three-year college of alternative health in Montreal, Quebec, where he learned energy healing and other approaches.

He became disillusioned with some of the so-called “new age” trappings that he found in many people and places and ventured alone into the deep forests in the wilds of rural Canada – where he quipped that American draft dodgers still live – to find his purpose in life.

Getting very physically ill after several months, he returned to civilianization to quickly stumble across the name of a master teacher at an ashram in California.

Though the past 10 years he has studied and learned from a number of teachers of mind, body and spirit approaches, including Reiki, cranialsacral therapy, pressure point therapy and energy work, among others. He spoke of one teacher whom he desperately wanted to study with; the teacher said he would take Kasunich a learner only if he agreed first to take baths every day for three weeks.

Kasunich didn’t understand, or even like, the assignment, but he gamely gave it a try. The first day he sat grumpily in the bathtub, watching the clock. On the next day, he decided to make the experience more interesting, adding a sprinkling of bath salts. Next time, he put on music he enjoyed and relaxed and listened. On another day, he added candles, slowly realizing that the teacher’s lesson focused on the importance of caring for and nurturing the self.

During Tuesday night’s informal presentation at Lake House, participants asked his views about after-death experiences, reincarnation and other spiritual questions that have been debated for centuries.

Kasunich asked instead, “What do you think?” and “What do you believe?” Rather than handing over a line of dogma, he encouraged each person present to walk on his or her own spiritual path and discover what is “right” for them.

Here’s quick snapshot of his gifts to the group:

Gratitude is a powerful prayer in itself.

Be grateful for misfortunes in life – the illness that you have, the spouse who left, the fender-bender car accident – as all carry important life lessons.

Identify the “fear filters” that keep you stuck and paralyzed.

Practice self care. Keep in mind that “self care” means self-nurturing and is different than “self-indulging.”

Study with and learn from many teachers – not just one – each may have a different way of communicating important ideals in a way that you can hear and integrate.

Energizing ideas as the days get darker and winter is coming

2009-11-10T16:09:00.003-06:00

Yes, you can become more energetic without caffeine and sugar. As the days grow shorter, our bodies may feel sluggish. It may feel difficult to wake up in the dark mornings, for instance, or you may feel tired after added responsibilities of holiday preparation.

Here are ideas that you may wish to try:

1. Yoga and especially the classic yogic breathing activity called, “The Breath of Fire,” which involves very fast breathing in and out of the nose – pant like a dog, some say. You can observe a teaching demonstration of this technique on YouTube.

2. Eating foods that are whole foods, rather than processed foods, including quality protein to keep your body well nourished. Just regular portions of protein -- about the size of a deck of cards for meat, or a handful of nuts, or just an ounce or two of cheese -- will keep your brain alive, alert and active.

3. Therapeutic-grade essential oils can give you a lift – a number of oils are especially energizing to the brain, including basil, rosemary, orange, peppermint, lemon.

4. Practice qigong, an Asian exercise that is similar to – but much easier – than tai chi. Qigong's very simple exercises will reorient your body's energy; it's especially good to practice in the morning to begin your day. Tai chi is also very good for balancing and giving energy so make sure that you give it a try if you're interested.

5. Reduce use of computer, especially at night before bedtime. You'll sleep better.

6. CD guided meditations and imageries, or imageries on your own. When I’m not creating my own imageries for my clients, I suggest the wonderful CDs from Health Journeys.

7. Bioenergetic exercises, which are body exercises that are often amazingly simple and easy. One exercise, simply stamping your feet (left, right, left, right), can reduce anger, lift mood and give energy.

8. Rest. There's no substitute.

9. Drink water. When plants don’t get enough water, they wilt. You will feel like wilting too, when you don’t give your body enough H2O. And drink water, not tea, soda, so-called “energy drinks” or alcohol.

10. Spend time with people you like, people who are positive, caring, fun and supportive.

How various professions use role play, sometimes by other names

2009-11-10T08:55:00.001-06:00

Sometimes people think they know a lot about role play. Sometimes people question the value of role play. However, role play -- a relative of improvised theatre which has its roots in the method known as psychodrama -- is everywhere.

Not everybody who does role play has received actual training in the technique, and thereby is the problem. But there are groups that value and use role play in their work and standardize its use.

You'll find mentions of role play in various disciplines, although it sometimes goes by other names in its documentation.

There is a group called the Association of Standardized Patient Examiners, for example. The group trains using role play, otherwise known as simulations, helping nurses, doctors and others improve their skills. Some firms train attorneys using simulations -- Trial Lawyers College is a leader in this work in the legal profession-- and the U.S. military could not function without it.

Gregory Ford, a well-known psychodramatist in Washington, D.C., offers these resources:

Here's an example of exploration of the use of role play in training in the medical profession.

For a history of the Standardized Patients methodology, you'lll find information here.

The organization that governs the licensing of people who teach using simulation in the medical profession is here.

Researchers who are interested in doing more research on the efficacy of role play might look under the specific discipline area in which which the training is to take place and then look under training and then look under simulations or role play.

Expressing the experience of mental illness -- and empowering people who suffer

2009-10-28T14:25:00.003-05:00

The Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation offers a spectacular program to address the stigma about mental illness with the help of people who have suffered mental illness. The program, known as Photovoice, puts cameras in the hands of individuals and asks them to produce statements of pictures and words that communicate their experience.

This empowering tool enables people at the grassroots level without access to decision-makers to represent and define issues of concern, areas of strength, and targets for change—all of which are routinely defined by health specialists, policy makers, or professionals. Amazing changes result, including education, empowerment, connection and hope.

Take a look at Beyond The Shadows Of Stigma, an eight-minute video that shows the ways that people are benefitting from expressing their experience with these digital projects. And wonder what such a a program might offer to young people, gang members, cancer patients….

A newsletter about the process is available here.

Facebook, change and other little life lessons

2009-10-27T16:47:00.004-05:00

Change isn't easy. It especially isn't easy if you're a Facebook devotee and your Facebook page is suddenly showing up with new tabs and links and other strange stuff that clutters up the screen.

Problems with change are not a new concept for me. I'm a psychotherapist meeting with people daily who want to have a different kind of life than the life they have. They come in with stress, pain and problems and lay them down before me. What what they are saying -- in not so many words -- really is: "Take this problem away from me."

Somewhere along the line, it becomes clear that the problem won't magically disappear. There is some sort of change that needs to take place in the person's life to deal with the problem. It may be helpful to make a change in behavior, in perspective, in taking a positive risk or to otherwise address the problem in a new and fresh way.

But change isn't all that easy, even when you're a psychotherapist trained to understand change. I experienced this myself the other day when I logged into Facebook and noticed that lots of things on my page looked odd and unfamiliar.

I wasn't the only one to suffer. MSN even reported on the change and the backlash, and there's nearly one million people surging forth to join Facebook groups like Facebook: SWITCH BACK TO THE OLD NEWS FEED!!!

A Facebook friend sent instructions on how to return to the "old" display and I jumped on this information like a summer fly on a tasty picnic. I tapped in few key strokes and returned my page to the familiar view. Ah, yes. Then, feeling like a heroine and wallowing in my newly regained comfort, I shared my precious bit of knowledge with 200 of my closest Facebook friends. Judging by the number of posts that followed, I knew I wasn't the only subscriber rattled by change and relieved by familiarity.

Another sharp-eyed friend noticed that the return to the old display didn't pick up the new links that were added. So right now, I'm going with the "new" change and remembering that all change is really a challenge for us to discover new resources to meet it.

Sometimes those resources are friends and sometimes those resources are within ourselves. Sometimes they are both. Sometimes the life challenges are teeny and sometimes they are immense. However, all times we have the capacity to meet change and learn about ourselves.

The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun

2009-10-16T08:59:00.004-05:00

There's a lot of turmoil and distress in the world. How about a little fun? (Yes!)

I just found The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and must share. Take a look at it -- and start a conversation about what is fun and how much you pursue fun in your life.

A psychodrama session with Zerka Moreno

2009-10-15T16:20:00.003-05:00

Zerka Moreno masterfully conducts an actual psychodrama session with a group of experienced psychodrama practitioners. The protagonist "Frank" has been having great difficulty completing his doctoral thesis on psychodrama. Zerka directs him in several powerful scenes, including role reversals with his unfinished thesis as well as with his grandfather.

Frank’s head is full of what he knows – but “being” the other allows for powerful shifts within the person that is not possible just by thinking about it and talking about it.

Zerka collaborated in the development of psychodrama with her late husband, Dr. J.L. Moreno. I had the great privilege to study with her at Boughton Place in Highland, N.Y., and it was she who encouraged me to become certified as master trainer. Now in her 90s, Zerka still conducts sessions in the living room of her home in Charlottesville, Va. She is an inspiration!

Now is the time to fortify your immune system

2009-10-15T08:59:00.016-05:00

Now is the time to build up your immune system.

Seasons are changing and our immune systems are adjusting. I’ve heard more than a few sniffles when several clients are regretfully calling to reschedule appointments while they cough into the phone.

With so much talk about the flu vaccine (should we or shouldn’t we?), it’s good to pay attention to the system in your body that keeps you strong. And there are lots of actions that you can take to make your immune system healthy.

I like to sip herbal teas -- some are already formulated with tea bags, like Traditional Medicinals' Cold Care P.M., and Echinacea Plus-- and you can also find loose teas at various herbal shops and natural health food stores. When I make chicken soup, I also put a slice of astralgus root into the broth while it is simmering to stimulate the immune system.

Remember to wash up properly – after handling pets, before eating, after visiting the bathroom and after contact with someone who’s sick. Also wash your hands while you’re preparing food – especially if you’re working with several kinds of foods – raw meat and vegetables, for instance. Here’s a video that tells you how to really wash your hands -- worth watching

What you eat and drink will also affect the strength of your body to fight germs and other nasties. Here's a good review of 10 tips to keep your immune system strong.

Last year's Lake House blog also has some good tips worth repeating so I'll give you the link again here.

Keep hand sanitizer close by. Use bleach wipes to wipe doorknobs, phones, counters, yoga mats, wrestling mats and other frequently used objects where people may transfer germs from one place to another.

If you don’t want to use harsh chemicals, you can make cleansing wipes with pure essential oils like tea tree oil, a natural antibacterial agent, and eucalyptus. If you wish, add lavender, which will offer a pleasant smell. One recipe that I found online:

To prepare a roll of paper towels to become cleansing wipes, cut the roll in half so you have two short rolls. Remove the cardboard center. Place a short roll in an airtight water-proof container (like an old baby wipe box or tightly lidded plastic container).

Make a solution of:

1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1 drop lavender pure essential oil
12 drops pure tea tree essential oil
12 drops pure eucalyptus essential oil

Pour the solution over the towels. Put the lid on the box and turn it upside down so the solution is absorbed. The solution could be kept in a jar and cloth towels dipped in it. Make sure that you label the solution clearly according to its use and keep out of the reach of children.

A playful and real body image video!

2009-09-27T15:09:00.005-05:00

Swimming season is all but over in Wisconsin, but I thought you'd like to see Cindy Willick's playful and real video about body image. Cindy, who has a real woman's body, goes live on location on a beach in her bathing suit, something she says she would never have been caught doing just a few years ago. She dares you to consider if you are living or just looking:

Welcoming home Wisconsin's Vietnam veterans

2009-09-22T17:27:00.003-05:00

A wide-reaching statewide effort to honor Wisconsin Vietnam War Veterans will culminate in a weekend of recognition and celebration of their service and sacrifice for veterans and their families.

This healing news comes from Monica Wahlberg, development officer at the Wisconsin Historical Foundation in Madison. Monica has an interest in veterans' stories and we met last week at Edward Tick's excellent"War and the Soul" retreat at the Siena Center.

The May 21-23, 2010 events – LZ Lambeau: Welcoming Home Wisconsin’s Vietnam Veterans – will feature a special evening celebration inside Green Bay’s Lambeau Field that will honor and thank Wisconsin’s Vietnam Veterans, while offering a warm welcome home that many never received.

Named for the Landing Zones that Vietnam Veterans were often deployed to and inspired by the interviews with Vietnam veterans from the forthcoming Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories documentary project, LZ Lambeau is a partnership of The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Public Television, along with an extensive group of veterans organizations statewide.

The May 22, 2010 evening event in Lambeau Field will feature special speakers, recognition, music and premiere segments from the Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories documentary.

Other events planned for the weekend include the presence of the Vietnam Moving Wall, opportunities for veterans to reunite with their fellow service men and women, a new original exhibit featuring artifacts, photographs, and other items from the vast Vietnam War collection of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and educational exhibits from the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, a book signing of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories book with co-authors Sarah A. Larsen and Jennifer M. Miller, Vietnam-era military vehicle displays, tailgating and fellowship opportunities and more. Plans also include a cross-state motorcycle ride from La Crosse to Green Bay prior to the weekend events.

Other aspects of the yearlong Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories project include a companion book to the documentary published by the Wisconsin Historical Society, a centralized project Web site, a traveling gallery portrait exhibit, a school curriculum and veteran listening sessions coordinated by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

Similar in format to the award-winning Wisconsin World War II Stories and Wisconsin Korean War Stories, the Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories documentary and book will allow Wisconsin veterans to tell their stories in their own words, sharing experiences and memories from the war and their return home.

Funding for expanding the programming and educational components of LZ Lambeau and Wisconsin Vietnam War Stories continues. Individual and corporate contributions are welcome.

To learn more about the weekend, to sign up for regular updates and for information about LZ Lambeau, visit here.

Here's a video from the site:

The best motivation video!

2009-09-04T08:08:00.002-05:00

Sometimes we experiences success and sometimes we experience failure. Each is part of our experience, not who we are. A colleague just shared this motivation video with me, and now I share it with you:

A movie critic's reflections about Alcoholics Anonymous

2009-08-30T18:22:00.004-05:00

Movie critic Roger Ebert writes about his 30 years of sobriety and his feelings and observations about the self-help group Alcoholics Anonymous in today’s issue of the Chicago Sun Times. Because he is an excellent journalist, he also links his personal experience of recovery to the portrayal of alcoholics in the movies through the years including "The Lost Weekend," "The Days of Wine and Roses" and "Clean and Sober." He also talks about community, the questions of being a "cult" and The God Word. The readers' comments online are fascinating sharing.

YouTube videos, too:

Making rain is a lot of fun

2009-08-28T14:13:00.007-05:00

When was the last time you had fun?

You know, real fun. Fun that makes you laugh out loud and feel good, and doesn't take half of your bank account for a simple dinner and a movie. Fun that doesn't involve winning or losing, but includes everyone. Fun that spells j-o-y.

When I worked as psychotherapist at Caron Treatment Centers from the late 1980s through the 1990s, we had a list of non-competitive games that we taught our clients in between our more serious therapy groups. One of them is a gem called Rain. I was delighted to find a version on YouTube the other day:

Ruby is inspiring women to journal as she loses weight

2009-08-26T17:06:00.004-05:00

Many people are finding inspiration in the story of Ruby Gettinger, the woman who once weighed more than 700 pounds and has been sharing her weight-loss journey on the Style Network’s show “Ruby.”

Ruby has her own page online where she tells her adventures and challenges – including her current sadness following the death of her father and a favorite pet – and shows readers how she is using journaling to lose weight and make important life changes. Her past journals have been fashioned into a book, Ruby's Diary, which is coming out next month.

I often suggest journaling to my clients who are motivated to make changes in their lives. I really believe that journaling is an amazing tool that can help people change more quickly; Research studies have show that people who journal before going to bed often sleep more soundly because they’re not thinking about distressing issues; they often feel less stress or depression due to this outlet.

People may journal on various topics as they move through the psychotherapy process. Sometimes I give specific assignments and sometimes I just say: write about what is important to you.

One valuable journaling exercise is The Feelings Journal. The Feelings Journal is actually a three-part list where you can observe a specific feeling, the situation in which your feeling shows up, and the action you take to deal with that feeling.

For instance, you might notice a feeling of sadness welling up within you. The situation is a movie that you are watching about two characters that are in the process of divorce. The action that you take is that you cry. Or you walk to the refrigerator to look for a snack. Or you tell a joke to your roommate that has nothing to do with the movie.

After keeping The Feelings Journal during a period of time, you’ll begin to notice valuable patterns about what feelings you have, in what situations and what you tend to "do" with your feelings.

Ideas for journaling

Comment on your insights, feelings and “aha” moments after a psychotherapy session or another healing-oriented session.

Set a personal growth goal and comment on your progress toward that goal on a daily basis.

Read an inspirational reading from a spiritually oriented book and write how you personally relate to the reading.

Read a self-help book about a topic that interests you and journal how you relate to each chapter at the end of each
chapter.

Discuss a current problem that you are experiencing and identify possible solutions and ways of dealing with it.

Journal in the morning to record your night time dreams, plans or goals for the day, food plan and other thoughts.

Journal in the evening to observe how you met your goals, your important feelings and experiences that day, the blessings that you received for the day, amends that yiou may need to make to others or issues that are troubling you.

There are many books on journaling that give more specific ideas on journaling. Some focus on specific topics such as grief and loss and others are general guides to making the most of journaling for personal growth. There are also hundreds of online resources that will give you more ideas.

Change your breathing, change your asthma, sleep apnea, stress

2009-08-23T13:21:00.003-05:00

We all know that a couple of good, slow breaths are calming.

There’s more. Learning simple changes in breathing patterns can significantly help people suffering asthma, sleep apnea, snoring and other breathing disorders.

In the late 1940s, Russian medical student Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko made an observation that has changed the management and lifestyle of thousands of people with breathing disorders. He noticed that the condition of patients in the acute respiratory ward deteriorated when their breathing rate increased. He also noticed that those who reduced or normalized their breathing rate began to recover. This fact had been noted before, but Buteyko's research and application of these observations allowed him to develop the breathing techniques that bear his name today.

His work lives today with the Buteyko Institute, which has demonstrated this method throughout the world. Additional applications have been documented to calm children in school settings. In Glasgow, Scotland, where the Buteyko program was utilized in whole schools, the cycle of stress was nearly completely eliminated and students’ progress and social skills and attendance improved.

You can find more info at Sleeping All Night, which is designed to provide concise information on Buteyko with particular attention given to addressing asthma, sleep apnea, snoring, insomnia, nasal problems, anxiety and general health improvements.

For more, see this YouTube video – one of many online – for a very simple piece of advice for everyone to improve their health that will cost you nothing.

Healthy Lives, Healing Journey open house and book sale

2009-08-13T12:58:00.019-05:00

Just a quick reminder of our upcoming open house and book sale at Lake House Health & Learning Center:

Sunday, Aug. 16, from noon to 3 p.m. at 932 Lake Ave., Racine. Watch for the colorful flag!

Lake House practitioners and friends will gather to speak, demonstrate and share important information about starting you on a healthy journey – or helping you move ahead to your next step of personal growth and change.

If you want to make changes in your life – or are seeking second opinion – or looking for some good bibliotherapy -- or just want to gather with kindred spirits, join us.

Here are the practitioners you'll meet and their specialties:

"Psychotherapy as Experience: How It Creates Real Change" with Karen Carnabucci, LCSW, TEP, psychotherapist, coach and psychodramatist.

"Animal Reiki" with Judy Warner, nationally certified massage therapist and Reiki master.

"Pet First Aid" with Michele Safcik, owner of Little Pals, a pet-sitting and pet care service.

"Stress Relieving Yoga" with Marie Boyum, certified yoga teacher, meditation teacher and wellness coach.

"Chiropractic Care for Improved Posture and Reduced Pain at Work" with Dr. Scott Sheriff, chiropractor.

"Spiritual Guidance" with Karen Aiken, spiritual teacher and raw foods consultant based in Lake Geneva.

Plus, Laura Sebastian, Feldenkrais practitioner and macrobiotic cook, will circulate within the open house and answer questions about her work.

We’ll have stacks of affordably priced health books on topics ranging from parenting to self-help to mental health to recovery, plus healthy refreshments, printed information – including the 2009 Guide To Health, Wellness and Creative living in Southeastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois – and discount coupons and door prizes.

Call (262) 633-2645 for more information.

May Creative Souls inspire you

2009-08-13T11:23:00.002-05:00

Every so often, I like to check out other people’s blogs. It’s a nice diversion from many of the topics that I deal with every day as a helping professional and my own blog (this one!) which sometimes can become quite serious.

Just today I discovered a beautiful site called Creative Souls, which allows people to share and exchange photos, ideas and examples of their creativity. Since I like looking at change as a challenge for creativity and courage, I love this idea and what it represents.

The fact is that creativity is the antidote to pain and the reward of inspiration. It is also a joy. So, enjoy! May you be inspired to create something good.

Visit Creative Souls

Breath of Fire is yoga's substitute for cup of coffee

2009-08-07T16:11:00.006-05:00

Are you looking for a way to reduce your use of coffee and learn how to energize yourself naturally?

I like “Breath of Fire,” a dynamic breathing technique from the practice of Kundalini Yoga. Here’s a YouTube video by Gurmukh teaching this technique which offers a huge list of benefits, including opening energy pathways in the body, detoxifying the system and increasing vitality. It can change your energy and mood in as little as one minute -- no caffiene involved.

There are many variations of this technique – the version that I learned comes from Joachim Mayer who teaches Kundalini Yoga in Racine. When I sometimes teach it to clients, it involves keeping your mouth closed and breathing in and out rapidly through the nose. I don’t use the sticking-out-the-tongue part. Sometimes the hands are at rest on the knees and sometimes they are raised above the head.

Here’s another version with Anmol Mehta who has many videos on YouTube. Try it. Coffee’s lure will never be the same.

"How do I make someone stop drinking, drugging, smoking...?"

2009-08-06T12:33:00.021-05:00

Here's the scenario:

You have a person who is drinking, drugging, pill-taking, smoking or -- fill in the blank -- in your life. The person is someone you care about and you clearly see that this compulsive or addictive behavior is hurting the person and affecting others -- including you.

One of the most common questions that I receive is, "How do I make someone stop?" This question has recently become more frequent due to news coverage about entertainer Michael Jackson's extreme prescription drug use, which led to his death in late June. The current Associated Press report that increasing numbers of women are drinking dangerously adds urgency to the question.

Well, you'll never MAKE someone stop. But what you do, or don't do, can have a serious effect on the well-being of the other person -- as well as your own level of sanity and ability to function in your world with the drinking, drugging, pill-taking person.

Ultimately, you will have to learn how to support, not to "fix." This isn't easy. People naturally want to make things better for other people, especially people they care about, and the word "support" is so vague that it has come to mean just about anything.

Here's what doesn't help:

Blame, nag, scold, shame, criticize, threaten, beg, plead, yell, swear, name call, use sarcasm, hit, scream, manipulate, cry, pout, judge, give guilt trips, pressure, accuse or put down. Not only are all of these actions non-productive, they create an adversarial relationship with you and the person you're trying to help.

Purchase, supply, offer or use mood-altering chemicals for or with the person who you think should quit such use.

Dismiss the seriousness of substance abuse or addiction by sending e-mails, greeting cards or gifts to the person that make drinking, drugging, binging, -- fill in the blank again -- amusing, normal or permissible.

Speaking to the person about his or her addiction when he or she is intoxicated or high. It's not productive.

Excusing the person's behavior, putting the actions to stress, life difficulty, childhood pain, economic struggles and the like. Although it is understandable that the person may turn to mood-altering chemicals and activities to relieve the emotional or physical pain, many others have these experiences and do NOT abuse substances or practice dangerous compulsive behaviors. If they do, they have the responsibility to address this brain illness.

Here's how you can support change and abstinence:

Speak to the person when he or she is not intoxicated. In as calm a voice as you can manage, mention your concern. Speak about the person's health and the way that you are affected by the person's behavior. You can also say, "I love you and want you to be healthy and enjoy life."

Educate yourself about substance abuse and addiction. It is a brain illness, in which the brain has been taught to crave the mood-changing substance, despite the person's conscious wish to stop its use. Books, publications, online resources and community groups like Focus will help you learn more.

Allow learning from natural consequences and permit the person to face the reality of his or her use. If health, legal, occupational or other problems result due to use of mood-altering chemicals, that person should take responsibility for these matters. This may mean paying fines, getting repairs for the OWI-damaged car, spending savings for an attorney or even going to jail.

Plan an intervention. Interventions are carefully prepared and rehearsed meetings of family, friends, professionals and others who are willing to directly and lovingly speak the truth about how someone's chemical use is damaging their lives. You will also need to identify what you will be willing to change about your behavior if that person does not change. A helpful book about interventions is "Love First: A Family's Guide To Intervention."

Support the person's ongoing involvement in 12-step groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Nicotine Anonymous, Pills Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and other self-help groups or programs that teach people how to live without mood-altering substances.

Support the use of psychotherapy and other appropriate health-enhancing choices for the addict. Offer to help in researching options and resources and be willing to take part in family or couple counseling sessions.

Offer to provide transportation, funds, child care or other specific resources that help the person attend meetings, treatment programs, therapy appointments and other positive self-care and health-care activities.

Attend self-help groups for yourself. This is critical. Groups like Al-Anon, Nar-Anon and O-Anon and many others offer a structured program to learn how to change behavior patterns that are enabling, destructive or otherwise counter productive. You will also learn how to practice detachment with love, step away from the person's issues and get support for yourself.

Ask the recovering person, "How can I support you?" and encourage the person to be specific.

Stop using mood-altering substances yourself. If the thought of stopping your use to support someone else become sober and clean panics you -- even for a short time -- then you may have a problem that you should address.

Work on yourself and your own personal growth and understanding as you find ways to care for yourself and enjoy and improve your life. Find a psychotherapist, coach, other helping professional or sponsor to guide you.

If you or your children are in personal danger due to a person's use of chemicals, make plans to protect yourself and leave the situation if necessary. In Racine, you can call 211 Racine or the Women's Resource Center, which assists abused adults and their children.

Remember that the outcome of another person's life is not in your control. But you do have the opportunity to learn how to make healthy choices for yourself and your family and many times those choices impact the other person.