The Healing Power of Positive Language

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Callid

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

By Jane Feinmann 

Producer, Metaphor For Healing 


When Jan Alcoe was diagnosed with a difficult-to-treat cancer three years ago, she was shocked by the frightening metaphors that doctors and nurses would use to describe the treatment she was to receive.

"The words were overwhelmingly negative," she recalls.

"My oncologist said my skin might not cope with the onslaught. The cancer nurse came round to my house to read out the side effects of my treatment – using words like 'toxic' and 'burning'.

"I wanted the life-saving treatment but I felt strongly these images were not helpful."

Jan told the nurse that she did not want to know about the side effects of her treatment and instead developed her own detailed metaphorical landscape located in a favourite bluebell wood – a refuge from the fears, anxieties and frustrations that accompanied her hospital treatment.

Here, the chemotherapy became "a beautiful golden liquid which my veins opened up to receive with gratitude", while a metaphorical pool of water cooled her skin after radiotherapy.

At the very least, she says, developing these positive metaphors made a difference to her ability to endure her treatment.

"One of the worst times was having to lie on a table in an uncomfortable position under a revolving radiotherapy machine for several hours every day for six weeks.

"It was a tough place to be. But I was in the bluebell wood, and every buzz of the machine felt like a ray of sunshine coming into my body, feeling good and healing me."

 

Negative imagery

Jan is not alone in seeing the need to put a positive spin on health care.

A growing number of clinicians believe that, speaking directly to the unconscious, metaphors have a potent therapeutic impact and should be handled with care.

Dr Grahame Brown, a musculo-skeletal specialist at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham, claims he is able to save hundreds of patients from the need to have spinal surgery every year simply by "reframing the negative metaphors that have been unwittingly used by their doctors that can lead to a destructive and self-fulfilling cycle".

Many of the patients he sees have been referred for surgery after becoming convinced their spine is 'crumbling' or that they have 'degenerating' disc disease, when in fact they have a prolapsed disc or other normal wear and tear that is common in most people.

Yet anxious patients latch on to these suggestions and become convinced that things are only going to get worse.


'Corrupt software'

Dr Brown, who has trained in the metaphor-based Human Givens therapy, claims that nine out of ten of his patients no longer require surgery after undergoing linguistic treatment.

"I tell patients who work in computers that I've examined their hard drive and it's functioning well but that the software is corrupt and needs to be deleted and replaced with a new, more positive programme.

It's a wonderful metaphor that makes them laugh out loud – and say, 'yes of course, why did no-one explain this to me years ago?'" he says.

Another favourite metaphor he uses for people with unexplained pain involves him showing the patient that even a light touch on the skin can cause an agonising response.

Dr Brown then goes on to liken this response to "a country that has gone on red alert to defend itself against a terrorist attack and then, months later, has maintained this inappropriate hyper-vigilance, long after the threat of attack is over."

"I'll say to them, 'The threat has passed, this part of your body can stand down now'.

"And quite quickly, they'll understand this complex phenomenon that is still not fully understood even by pain biologists. And this helps them progress, to find a more constructive and enlightened way to deal with their symptoms and respond to treatment because you've changed the whole way they are thinking about the problem."


Self-belief

Elsewhere, life coach Matthew Critchlow uses Roger Bannister as a metaphor to inspire people to improve their lifestyle.

"Bannister broke the four-minute mile because, as a doctor, he didn't believe it wasn't possible," he says.

"And once he'd broken that barrier, a flood of runners did it too, not because of a leap forward in evolution but because they suddenly realised it was possible.

"That story is a powerful metaphor for losing weight or giving up smoking by getting people to think about how much their own self belief might be the thing that is holding them back."

Jan Alcoe has now retrained as a hypnotherapist based in Brighton, and has recorded a CD, including the bluebell wood script, to help others dealing with serious illness.

She cannot say for sure whether eliminating the negative and accentuating the positive really did help her beat cancer. But she had a large tumour and after just two chemotherapy sessions, her oncologist could not see it on the scan.

"He was a man of few words but as he was examining me, he was muttering: 'This is amazing, this is amazing'."


The film Metaphor For Healing was  broadcast on Tuesday, 27 October, at 2100 GMT 2009 on BBC Radio 4. 

© BBC 2011

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Preparations Continue for One City, One Prompt

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Callid

What is One City, One Prompt?

One City, One Prompt is a series of hosted writing, performance, and community-building events across the country. Through One City, One Prompt, communities can come together to create writing, stories and other arts, and through the process of writing and speaking together, cultivate greater civility, deeper dialogue, and sense of purpose. Each community, working with writers, storytellers and performers with extensive facilitation experience, will write on one theme of importance to that community.

Each experience is unique but collectively threads ideas towards a shared understanding of our greater national community, allowing participants, through the power of poetry, to begin to bridge partisan political views and engage in a civil discourse on community values. These events will culminate through an extensive, interactive website that will share participants' writing, experience, and each participating city's communal discoveries about itself through a variety of media, including the written word, audio recordings, photography and film.

We hope you will consider facilitating or participating in a One City, One Prompt event in your community. These events will take place between August 11 and November 11, 2011, in any community where a Transformative Language Arts practitioner is willing to organize and facilitate an event.

Each community as its own collective voice, and in this spirit, One City, One Prompt doesn’t tell you what participants should write about, but instead, offers a process and some possibilities for choosing a topic of relevance to each community.


How Do I Develop a Prompt for One City, One Prompt?

TLAN is currently developing a handbook to provide facilitators with the essential information they need to hold a successful event, from background information about Transformative Language Arts and the Transformative Language Arts Network, to facilitation guidelines, to templates that can be adapted to publicize each community event.

In the meantime, here are some points to consider in designing an event for your community:

All events must be free of charge.

Events aimed for a general audience should be held, as much as possible, in a safe, accessible, well-lit place with good parking.

Facilitators can brainstorm topics of relevance for their community and choose one to focus on.

Alternatively, at the actual event, the facilitator can present participants with two to three potential topics and have people vote (use little slips of paper with all the topics listed — this way, no one is put on the spot).

The topic should be broad enough to embrace many viewpoints, but not so broad as to mean absolutely everything (such as “write about life”). The topic should be open-ended so that people may approach it as they wish. For example, if your community’s topic is freedom, participants may write about personal freedom, “freedom’s just having nothing left to lose” (or other quotes), historic struggles for freedom in your community, spiritual or political or social freedom, benefits and dangers of freedom, and the like. Finally, the topic should help lift people up (e.g. avoid topics such as “despair” or “degradation”).

Consider the community’s ecology, geography, history, social challenges and potential, growth or change. For example, a town in the Rocky Mountains might want to write about “Living vertically,” a town that was a Civil War site might consider “Freedom,” a community rebuilding after economic devastation might do “Recovery,” a place which recently dropped in population might consider “Open spaces,” an area known for growing or making certain kinds of food could write about that food (or food in general).


Confirmed locations for One City, One Prompt include:

Brooklyn, NY

Emporia, KS

Ft. Kent, ME

Lawrence, KS

New York, NY

Philadelphia, PA

Plainfield, VT

Portland, ME

Rochester, NY

Tucson, AZ 

 

See more information about One City, One Prompt events here. 

View a video about One City, One Prompt, and contribute to the cause here.

Please contact the TLAN Coordinator if you have any questions, or to add your community to the list. 


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Making a Living From TLA

Posted on February 11, 2011 by caryn

This was recently posted in the TLA Resources center as a new page:

Many who ask about how Transformative Language Artists make a living can find a bevy of inspiration in both an interview with TLA founder Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at AStoriedCareer.com, and through these websites of people who have gone through or are going through Goddard's Individualized MA with a concentration in TLA. (Note: "mother or "father" are noted when that is a current main vocation/avocation of the person at the time, so as to honor those whose workdays are focused on parenting.)

  • Suzanne Adams, founder of "All About You" workshops for girls, offered through Artreach, treasurer of TLA Network, Houston, Texas
  • Taina Asili, musician, singer-songwriter, writer and workshop facilitator working with people of color, immigrants and women, New York (upstate)
  • Tiffany Monique Beard, writer, columnist, performer, Washington, DC
  • Anne Bergeron, English teacher at Blue Mountain Union school and yoga teacher, Vermont
  • Patricia Boissevain, writer, expressive writing and arts wowrkshop facilitator, artist, Maine
  • Sharon Bray, founder of Wellspring Writers, author, teacher and facilitator, San Diego, California
  • Jennifer Cross, writer and performer, workshops focusing on reclaiming the erotic, embodiment through writing, and healing, membership vice president of TLA Network, San Francisco
  • Cyndi Crisel, in addition to pursuing her doctorate in Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integrated Studies, is Student Support Specialist at Arkansas State University.
  • Carol D'Agostino, geriatrics addictions program director, Rochester, NY
  • Heather Davis, Development Director of The Telling Room, writer and workshop facilitator, mother, Maine
  • Minna Dubin, writer, and teaching artist at WriterCorprs, San Francisco
  • Suzanne Ehst, Assistant Professor of Education at Goshen University, Maine
  • Favor Ellis, director of SMYRC (Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center), writer, Portland, OR
  • Benb Gallaher, blogger of Good Ideas on Paper, father, Brunswick, Maine
  • Becci Goodall, author and writer (speculative fiction), Florida
  • Patricia Fontaine, writing workshops, writer, author and activist, Shelburne, Vermont
  • Deborah Hensley, singing, performing, voice recovery workshops for K-adult, continuing education, and recordings, Maine
  • Julie Johnson, workshops and development of program to work with batterers and abusers, Michigan
  • Andrea Kleinhenz, writer, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Amanda Lacson, currently developing workshops for girls on mythology and TLA, New York City
  • Yvette Hyater-Adams, professional and life coach, workshops and more, NJ & Florida
  • Gayle Johnson, theatre in Door County and Washington Island area of Wisconsin
  • Vanita Leatherwood, founder of Living Well Transformative Arts, offering workshops and retreats, and works at NAMI, Baltimore, Maryland
  • Danielle LaFleur-Brooks, adjunct at Champlain University, writer of medical language books, and mother
  • Heather Mandell, writer and facilitator, storyteller and tutor, San Lorenzo, California
  • Carolyn Miller, founder of The Great Game of Story, writer and consultant, Lakewood, Colorado
  • Nancy Morgan, Arts and Humanities Director, George Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • Kathleen (Kitty) Nesbitt, founder of Writing Across the River, and facilitator of workshops for vets and other populations, Chicago
  • Rhonda Patiza, photographer with numerous photos in The Sun, writer with articles in Trivia and mother, Voices, Pella, Iowa
  • Stacey (or Anastasia) Pricco (Ginsburg in program), host of many blogs (Power of Story, and more) including latest on birthing stories, and preparing to have a birth story of her own, Boulder, Colorado
  • Clarissa Rogers, writer, activist, and program coordinator of the A Space (Anarchist Community Center), Philadelphia
  • Stephanie Sandmeyer, founder of Kairos Narrative Facilitation, offering audio portraits, workshops, archiving, memoir and biography consulting, and bellydancer, Portland, Oregon
  • Lynn Shattuck, writer and grief counselor, mother, Portland, Maine
  • Gillian Sinclair (Gordon in program), founder of Hypnosis for Transformation center
  • Anne Smith, founder of One Little Window, selling vintage patterns for sewing and knitting, blogger, and new mom, Maine
  • Brian Sunset (Moore in program), founder of Cascadia Arts Center, healing self, community and nature through expressive arts, Eugene, Oregon
  • Debra Thornley, director of Transformational Writing Center, workshop facilitator and writer, new grandmother, Tucson, Arizona
  • Emily Van Strien, actress in Portland Playback Theatre, writer and documentary-maker, Portland, Maine
  • Jame Vincent, adjunct faculty, Antioch West, focusing on interdisciplinary language, and writer
  • Scott Youmans, community and men's writing workshops, writer, Philadelphia
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Transforming the Stories of Adolescent Girls — Suzanne Adams

Posted on February 10, 2011 by caryn

Suzanne Adams, founder of Write to the Center, as well as "It's All About You" workshops for girls offered through Artreach, just had her article  "Transforming the Stories of Adolescent Girls," printed in Radical Psychology (vol. 9, issue 1). Take a look at this wise article that speaks to freeing up all silenced voices, in which she writes,

When women choose to come together in relationship with young girls in a meeting of voices and truths and willingness to speak in anger or conflict, a new paradigm is formed.  It has the potential to squash society’s false directives while encouraging the emergence of a song never performed in full chorus—the resonant sounds of wholeness in women’s relationships, of awareness and validity of women’s thoughts and feelings, of the power of women’s knowing—refusing to be silenced.

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Thin Places: A Pilgrimage Home — Excerpt by Ann Ambrecht

Posted on February 8, 2011 by caryn

Ann Armbrecht wonderful memoir blending creative writing, narrative, pilgrimage and anthropology, Thin Places: A Pilgrimage Home, is now available in paperback. Here's an excerpt, examining women's lives in rural Nepal, particularly focusing on "…what these women's ways of living have never let them forget."

Raj was plowing when I walked down to the field, and as he greeted me, he looked at the mud on his clothes and at his bare feet. “You don’t plow like this, in your country, do you?” he asked. “You use machines, and don’t have to muck around in the mud. Isn’t that right?”

I was as embarrassed by his questions as he was by the mud on his arms and hands. I answered as I always did when asked questions like this: yes, we farmed differently, but that did not necessarily mean that what we did was better. I said something about soil erosion from mechanized farming and then told him that I had come to help with the planting. He nodded and went back to plowing.

I took off my sandals, which were too heavy for the ankle-deep mud; climbed over the edge of the field into the muddy water; and asked his mother how I could help. She handed me a clump of seedlings and told me to plant next to Altasing’s wife.

I waded through the mud and began to plant as quickly and as carefully as I could. Altasing’s wife greeted me and immediately started to ask questions. As soon as I answered one question, she asked another. In between questions, she told me to plant closer to the edge, or Raj’s mother would yell at me.

We worked steadily for some time, interrupted every now and then by Raj’s mother coming to see how we were doing. She shouted at her daughter-in-law to spread the mud around the terrace more thoroughly. She ordered her husband to get to work. And she yelled at me to plant the seedlings closer to the edge.

Raj’s mother scared me. Whenever I visited Raj Kumar's house to speak with Raj, she offered me jad only after Raj had insisted. This beer was thick and slightly sour. It was the only beverage the family drank. Offering it to guests was the hospitable thing to do. As Raj’s mother handed me a bowl, she always commented that all I did was talk and write; that I did not have to “work,” as they did; and that I had not done anything to deserve this beer. I always accepted her words and the beer without comment. She was right. My work was a luxury to the villagers, especially the women, who hardly ever had a chance to sit around and talk. There was nothing for me to say. This was the first time I had gone to help in the family’s field, and I wanted to prove that I was able to do her kind of work.

After what seemed to be a long time, Raj’s mother called us over to the edge of the field, where she had prepared some jad. We gathered in a small circle on a huge boulder. The women talked about how many terraces still had to be planted and where they would work the following day. Raj’s mother passed me a bowl of jad, along with everyone else. She urged me to drink it so she could fill it again.

 

I often joined the women in the fields, helping with digging and planting and cutting and carrying, doing whatever I could to create something for us to share. Although I was slower and clumsier than they, they welcomed the free labor and the novelty of having me around. During breaks in the work, when we gathered on a rock or under a tree, the women, old and young, would reach for my hands and rub their fingers slowly across my skin. They would turn my hands over and feel the palm, pull the fingers up to their eyes, and comment about how smooth and white they were. Then they would hold up their own hands and feet, which were tough and dark, next to mine. They looked at one another and shook their heads. They lived by their hands, they would say, and I lived by my head.

The women in Hedangna want skin like mine. They want some padding in their lives, want to be able to stay inside for a while and let their bodies become smooth and white and soft. I want skin like theirs, dark calloused skin that lets them walk through their lives barefoot, enduring, not avoiding, the sharp pain encountered on the way.

I was raised in a world where what was valued was what I could know with my mind. I was educated away from my home, taught that there was more to be gained by moving forward than by staying put. I left my home to understand what it took to stay at home, went halfway around the world because I wanted to learn what it meant to live with my hands and my feet and my heart—to remember what these women's ways of living have never let them forget.

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