Mentors and other manly things.

I read Flying Boy in the late 80's, and the books that followed shaped my early recovery as a man. Facing the Fire, At My Fathers Wedding-all contributed to me dealing with the pain , shame and anger that was burnt into me from the mentally ill home I was raised. Over the years I have followed John, and eventually was able to access him as a supervisor for my own work.

Now as I aspire to put my own thoughts on paper, John is my rock. A more generous man of heart I am not sure I have met. I was an under fathered man, and mentors have filled that space in my life. I am truly blessed to be able to call John a mentor of mine. Spending the day with him today in Austin Texas, something I have done before, has enriched and inspired me once again to travel well on this recovery road.

When I was 22 years old and started on this path, I wondered who I would become and whether being sober, and following a spiritual path. Would I be happy, would life be a fun adventure. It has been that and much more. All I had in he beginning was the gut feeling to trust the process. It was a small piece of wisdom in an otherwise troubled mind. Thank God for the intuition to leave the old behind and welcome in the new. The other thing life has certainly been what happens when you are busy making other plans. I am glad I never gave up on the way. As they say dont give up 5 minutes before the miracle happens.

June Lake. Listen to the Music. Group Process Facilitation and Leadership

Well I just spent a week with one of Australia master Psychotherapists, Supervisors and unashamed Yalom devotee’s , June Lake, whom facilitated a 5 day intensive on Group Psychotherapy-Leadership and Facilitation. I had attended this course 12 years ago, and June has been a mentor to me for over 20 years now. Some relationships in your professional life stand alone, and this one does for me. Many an hour has been spent either in group, or in supervision and on the phone seeking advice to my latest existential dilemma. Always, once I am done, clarity and a brighter direction are the result.
 To have a mentor champion you, is a gift that keeps giving, and this last week was like Christmas.

June is passionate about the work, believing wholeheartedly in the premises ; That we are , who we are, wherever we are, and therefore Group Therapy, focusing on Process and Relationship gives us a unique opportunity to work relationally in a group setting, were all we need to know is available to us in the room, in the here and now. Therefore any intervention, develops a new skill, will reveal a growing edge, and give us access to feedback about how others experience us. All of these things can  be difficult to embrace, especially when we have come from shame based families with Developmental Trauma histories. On top of that some of us have Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or as Bessel  van Der Kolk would have it called, Development Trauma Disorder. 

One day the regulatory Psychiatric community will catch up (they just included Gambling as a disorder!) but until then, we will stand at the edge of the treatment field and keep offering support and trauma informed care. If our Fight Flight Freeze is easily activated, or we have developed personality disorders were disassociation is present at a high level, making it impossible to filter out others realities, and allowing us to have a clear sense of our own, then Yalom style process groups might not be for you immediately, but even those clients can spend some time working to develop Affect regulation skills and boundaries that allow this form of therapeutic support to be of benefit.

The week includes 5 days of Morning Didactic down loads on the philosophies, tools and skills necessary to facilitate group. Afternoons start with watching the Godfather of Group Therapy Work, Irving Yalom on film, then for the last two hours, you ARE the group. That’s right. You become a member of a group, only stepping out of the group to facilitate the group of your peers for an hour, and then receive feedback from June who supervises the group.There is simply nowhere to hide.

As a caveat, this is not the first time I have done this, as I did the course over a decade ago, but I had also spent years in a group, that June facilitated of peers in the field. We hired June to come and run the group, and in doing so teach us the finer art of running the group. It was some of the most enlightening and challenging hours I have spent in recovery. Every time I would look forward to going to group, that would be the week that my growing edges revealed themselves, I  often went home heavy carrying the gift I received, usually wrapped in sandpaper. I never regretted a moment, but there was many a time I had wished learning about yourself , and learning to communicate better, was easier. But relationships take relationship, being in contact, reality to reality. The internal spiritual crisis that Pia Mellody writes about, cannot be resolved by defences and roles, but only through being honest , where we would usually be dishonest, especially through omission.

Therefore, whether it being a training group, or one for your own recovery, you quickly learn there is where to hide your true nature. You are going to be revealed. Even if you chose to sit there, and contribute at a surface level, through niceness or humour, the group will quickly see that this is how you keep yourself safe, and with your consent give you the feedback of what that is like for them to experience. What fosters member participation is that this feedback is usually not your first rodeo. Because we are who we are wherever we are, it will ring in your ears, reminding you of the key relationships of your life, and how you have heard it before. We certainly can remain in denial, or be dishonest about its familiarity. But you will know it’s the truth.

A group well run, is very safe, and participates at the level the member is in consent of working at, respectful of individual boundaries. Just experiencing this level of safety to experience self and others is a revelation for some, whom have come from families where it was based on the old adage; Don’t Talk, Don’t Trust and Don’t Feel.

It will come as no surprise that the benefits of the group, as identified by Yalom himself are

1.       Instillation of Hope.

2.       Universality.

3.       Imparting Information.

4.       Altruism.

5.       The corrective recapitulation of the primary family group.

6.       Development of Socializing Techniques.

7.       Imitative Behaviour.

8.       Interpersonal Learning.

9.       Group Cohesiveness.

10.   Catharsis.

11.   Existential Factors.

As you can see this list is exhaustive in its opportunities, if you are willing to consent to take risks and share yourself in the here and now you can  grow in amazing ways personally.

After years Yalom researched the benefits from groups members themselves and they came up with the following benefits:

1. Discovering and accepting previously unknown or unacceptable parts of myself.
2. Being able to say what was bothering me instead of holding it in.
3.  Other members telling me honestly what they think of me.
4. Learning how to express my feelings.
5. The groups teaching me about the type of impression i make on others
6.  Expressing negative and/or positive feelings towards another member.
7.  Learning that I must take responsibility for the way I live my life, no matter how much      guidance and support I get from others
8. Learning how I come across to others.
9. Seeing that others could reveal embarrassing information and take other risks and benefit from it helped me to do the same.
10. Feeling more trustful of groups and other people.

For many years I have had the opportunity to run group. In treatment centres, and in private practice. As I have said , I have been part of groups. Self help, 12 step, weekend retreats, Men’s groups, Process Groups . All have met for different lengths of time, some peer driven, some didactically based and task driven. All have taught me something.

As I head towards my 30^th year of practicing Psychotherapy, I have started again to facilitate Process groups again, true to the nature of Yalom’s vision and protocols. Men’s groups and mixed groups. The opportunity is accelerated learning. Life is short, especially if you are dealing with the impact of developmental trauma. Years wasted in stressful relationships, where it felt like you were given the rules for scrabble and you were looking at the game of monopoly.

Process Groups take courage that is for sure. But we get that in recovery, when you surrender in the first step and work your way through the steps towards spiritual awakening. This awakening provides us with courage, as the serenity prayer challenges us to reflect on.

God, Grant me the Serenity

To accent the things I can not change

Courage to change the things I can

And the Wisdom to know the difference.

This courage, if exercised in a process group, with the support of a good facilitator and in the company of others travellers Trudging their road to Happy Destiny, can be a game changer. To not accept the pathology that we inherited, but to have the Courage to reveal ourselves, so we can get the feedback and support and opportunity to make the changes necessary to Thrive and not just Survive.

If you work in this field and you work with groups,  I could not recommend this course more highly. In the afternoon, we would watch Irving Yalom facilitate a group, and we would then discuss and then be in group. One thing becomes very clear when you are in the company of June Lake. You realise she is now a master in her own right. June  might have been a student of Yalom once, but her breadth of knowledge , experience and the ability to work with students at what ever level they are at, to hold them in deep regard and respect and illuminate their growing edges with clarity and compassion I think is her greatest skill.Dont miss an opportunity to learn from a world class practitioner. 

When June facilitates group, she regularly implores you to listen for the music, not just the words.
 When you watch June in action, it is music. Beautiful Music

Please contact June Lake for all training course. Details on the flyer. Contact me if interested in joining a Process Group.

The rumors are true. I am leaving SPP, with a grateful heart.

Well, by now most have heard already but I will make it official. I am leaving South Pacific Private , and heading off into the wild blue yonder of life and recovery. I have enjoyed my time immensely, but the demanding tasks and time being the Program Director of Australia’s leading treatment centre were in conflict with being a father of now three beautiful boys, and I have decided to make my family the central focus of my life. You cannot teach Pia Mellody’s wonderful model and then not be there for your own children. So the decisions made, I imagine I will always be around in some way, just not as Program Director

.

I can't remember when I really started working about SPP, but it sure has been a ride! Here are my ruminations on the journey.

 It all started when I joined the 12 step fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous in 1986, after being lost in drug addiction, and even though I was clean, and doing all the suggested things I was not happy. It was a relationship issue that led me to the co-dependent model of Pia Mellody through a counsellor I sought to help me. This counsellor as well as doing Family of Origin work with me, sent me to Codependants Anonymous. NA was where I got my life back. CoDA was where I found my Soul. Both gave me a Spiritual Awakening as a result of working the steps.

 It was at CoDA that I first met Bill and Lorraine Wood. We were from the different side of the tracks. They the silver tails from the north Shore, and me the rough diamond from the western Suburbs. But we had a common language, the language of Recovery. I loved the 12 step fellowships. Right from my first NA meeting, I heard people telling the truth. It was so heart-warming. Words can never convey when what it’s like when you first start hearing he truth after so long a time experiencing the old family rules of Don’t Trust, Don’t Talk and Don’t Feel. It was in CoDA that I started to hear people talk honestly about the abuse and trauma of growing up in less than nurturing and abusive homes. Also around this time started to read and listen to Pia Mellody, John Bradshaw, Bob Earl, Terry Gorski, Claudia Black and my mind was blown. Healing the Shame that Binds you, book and especially the audio version, was killer. John Bradshaw’s the Family series was an epiphany! Around this time Bill and Lorraine let go of the Chairperson role of Coda nationally to start SPP, and I took it over. I loved to give back to the fellowship that gave so much to me. I attended the International service conference in Arizona. Memories I cherish.

When South Pacific Private Hospital opened, a friend of mine started work there, and I visited, and I was very jealous! I knew it was a good place and I loved the model. I had been working as a drug and alcohol counsellor after graduating University in early recovery, and started to put together my story in workshops titled   Window to a Journey, which was Music, Poetry and Storytelling about my recovery journey. It was inspired by the men’s workers Robert Bly, John Lee, Sam Keen James Hill with Michael Meade. Robert Bly’s Iron John was majestic, and opened a doorway in me creatively as a man that has not closed. John Lee’s Flying Boy, At My Fathers Wedding and Facing the Fire healed my heart as a wounded man and helped me deal with my rage, to know him and call him friend now is an Honour. 

Window to the Journey workshops were the first thing I started to run at SPP. On a Saturday I would roll in, Guitar, Poetry book and my story. For a few hours I would pour my heart out. I recorded three albums over 5 years, and when I listen back to these I am amazed at how open my heart was. I shared everything!

 It was opening an event that SPP hosted for John Lee, a Texan in recovery and bestselling author for recovery literature. I introduced John, with drumming and a prayer and that bought me to the attention of Bill Woods. He invited me to attend a Mens Group at SPP with him and a handful on men, some Americans they had bought over to teach the Pia Mellody model to us Aussies. At the end of that meeting in the foyer of the Hospital, he shook my hand and offered me a job. I was excited and scared, I always wanted to work there, but I knew It was a tough job. I rang my mentor, John Falcon and asked him what to do. He said treat it as three months training, and the rest will be cream. Well all I can say as I look back now I received a hell of a lot of cream!

I was excited to accept the position as Primary Therapist, and that was the beginning of what's been along an amazing journey.

 My first day on the job started in true SPP fashion. I was sitting waiting in the then small staff room, for the therapist who I was to sit with for the week. I was starting in Changes, then called Survivors. I was sitting there waiting in the first day for my orientation begin when your Joanne Hanson, one of the Wood’s daughters came in and asked me” do you know anything about co-dependency?” I said “yes I do”.  She said “could you do a lecture on it right now?” I said “I could but it might not be the lecture you would usually do.” Joanne stated it did not matter, the therapist is running late, and the group needs to start. So I lectured for the first time on co-dependency as a therapist at SPP.  Over the years I have certainly learnt that you need to be ready and willing and able to do any job and anytime, anywhere and I must say that suited my nature. Not only have I jumped in to run Family or Changes at a moments notice , I have chased clients down the street, done therapy in the gutter, been called out to local pubs and clubs looking for clients that have been booked in, but just couldn’t make it past that last pub!

Once in the mountains a young man that I knew was struggling with depression as well as addiction, wasn’t turning up to group. One day I went around to his unit before group. Rang the buzzer at the front door, but he didn’t answer. He lived on the first floor, and I could see I could climb up to his lounge room window, so I did. I knocked on the window, he eventually came to see who it was, and as he opened it, I jumped through, said good morning, groups about to start, and before he knew it he was sitting in my car heading back to the rehab! It’s not a magical power. It’s just as Narcotics Anonymous states, “The therapeutic value of one addict helping another is without Parallel!

 As my understanding of the Model grew, I was able to share more and more. With the incredible burst of knowledge from the new ability to track the effects of attachment trauma and just how the brain has been damaged as described in the Polyvagal Theory of Dr Stephen Porges, and the work of Dr Allan Schore giving us clarity of the early damage to the brain, has changed the way we treat the trauma work, but this early work of Pia’s paved the way. Her concept of the wounded child reflects Schore’s work directly, and the Adult Adapted Child is well described at the extreme with the Polyvagal Theory. I had the pleasure to finally meet and talk with Pia last year. It was a dream come true and she was everything that I had hoped a hero would be. I have listened to her tapes over and over for 25 years. I was inspired by her sharp mind, and she shared with me about her new book, and its focus being on the disconnection from your soul that happens form the spiritual nature of developmental abuse. I can’t wait to read it.

The therapist that was running late that first day was American Wes Taylor. He had worked at the Meadows with Pia Mellody. I have since had the pleasure of facilitating Survivors/Changes , and training quite a few therapists myself over the years to run it. What Wes showed me that very first time though, I had never seen anything like it. It was back when trauma work involved Cathartic emotional release and shame reduction. Batarka work, and it would get loud and physical. Over the years that I have worked with the trauma, that first experience will still remain with me. I can see it now for the archaic old-fashioned way that was, but at the time it was cutting edge. The deep way people processed toxic fear and shame and pain, dealing with the carried feelings and share their stories that they had kept secret for a lifetime.

People thought it was a magic then, but they came to know and I came to teach others that this is just what happens when you unlocked all that pain within the body, trapped inside. All the talk therapy we know now cannot come close to the healing that happens when the body gets involved in this way. Changing the narrative and the paradigm. Giving back shame not only released trauma from the body and feeling states, but it opened the door for clients to be accountable for their own recovery. Healing was their responsibility, the abuse was not!

To me and the others experiencing it, it was a revelation.

Earl Cass, another American and a Primary therapist, who was to become a Clinical Director   was to orientate me in my Primary Therapist role. I was in awe as I watched him run group. He had also come over form the Meadows. Watching him keep all those plates spinning, keeping the clients busy, working on their two recoveries at the same time. Recovery from their history, and recovery from the addictions and mental health issues that bought them to SPP. As they say an addict alone is in bad company and I believe that's true for the co-dependent because co-dependency is a core result of all the complex trauma. The inability to regulate, and the need to rely on survival skills which Pia had identified as Primary Symptoms in her Model. There is a call of these days to build practice that is developmentally trauma focused when working with individuals or in group, and not just address their health issues and addiction issues but to look underneath and to invite people in that relationship themselves.

 The Meadows driven by Pia were leading the field in this approach and after Bill went there in recovery to address his history, and Lorraine went and experienced Family Program, and then the full program, they wanted Australians to have access to this way of recovery. It was not popular in the beginning and they worked very hard to make SPP as reputable as it is today. It was that kooky little rehab on the beaches that use to be criticized for when you walked in with one addiction, you walked out with three! And we always talked about your childhood! Addiction and Trauma Specialist Dr Patrick Carnes has the conclusive research now that states due to addiction being a brain reward system disorder, that if have one addiction you have an 86% chance of having 2 or more. Also the research of Centre for Healthy Sex in Los Angeles Alex Katehakis states that 100 percent of sexaddicts have developmental trauma. This information just proved what we already knew, the program of Pia Mellody’s, that Bill and Lorraine bought downunder was ahead of its time and our practices are seen as best practice now.

 Joanna Mills was the Program Director at the time of my orientation, and partner of Wes Taylor. She had also worked closely with Pia Mellody. Joanna led with compassion and generosity. It is something that I'll always remember. I think I tried to carry a piece of her into my leadership roles in the hospital. I'm not the sort of person that has the ability to strategize away from a person, then devise some scheme that will motivate them, carrot and stick style. In sport I played soccer, and was the goalkeeper. You stand at the back and you have a perspective that others don't have. From here you see the big picture and give the team encouragement and advice along the way. I always felt more comfortable leading it this way. Also, to be able to do anything that you were asking others to do. I have loved being taught to do every clinical role at SPP. To be able to facilitate, every group, present every lecture, give any presentation to professionals. This has been invaluable to me as a clinician. Same with staff supervision and Module training. What an opportunity to grow and learn.

With Joanna Mills you could just go in her office and tell her anything and I did! (sometimes directly out of my group room in the office and put myself down and tell her exactly how I was struggling with the group, and seek her advice, returning to group and put it into practice, only to then return and debrief it all.) I was grateful for her ruthless support. I felt so given to by that style. To be able to be so honest and feel safe at work, knowing you had her trust to go and put it into practice. What a gift.

With Wes Taylor, and John Falcon, who was to become my next Clinical Director and mentor, the other side project that came as a result of knowing and working with these men, was that we started to practice indigenous spiritual practices. John Falcon, who is Hopi Indian had taught us the pipe ceremony and we were also sweat lodging regularly. Wes joined us on these practices. He played an American Indian flute. When he returned to the USA, he gave me his flute as a gift, I still have it. Exploring this world took me to Arizona and under the instruction of Annie Whitefeather, and it was a wonderful time.

Also over the years I had continued to facilitated weekend retreats. I had initially started these with Merrick Baily, whose daughter Christina Towler (Bailey) was one of the first Primary Therapists at SPP. Her husband, Robert was the first handymen that worked there. SPP has had some wonderful men look after the place. Robert certainly started that tradition. He was also a pipe carrier and sweated at the lodges regularly. Long term recovering addict now, and still surfing! I then had the pleasure to run retreats with Earl Cass and John Falcon and then for many years solo. Mens retreats, spirituality retreats, sweat lodges, Co-dependency retreats. I have incredibly fond memories of this time and still carry the talking stick staff form the Men's retreats. I am committed to carry it for my lifetime.

My second major tour of duty at SPP came when I came across John Falcon walking down the King street in Newtown, he asked me what am I doing. I had been back in Sydney after working in a treatment centre in the Blue Mountains.  I had job at another treatment centre for adolescents, in Sydney, but I did really fit their philosophy. He said “I need you at SPP” and before I knew I was back there running group and then was promoted to Clinical Coordinator. I enjoyed supporting the staff as I had been supported. Also, it was the beginning of the newest science coming through in regards to the effects on the brain and the limbic system from Developmental trauma and it changed everything. Also as part of this tour I started to present on Television and radio and write articles for the press, and I enjoyed this addition to the role. It seemed that wherever I could spread the message of recovery, I was there.

John  showed me a resource by Thomas Hedland on Healthy versus non Healthy Communication. I remember watching it and thinking, my God , I need to learn this for me first before I can take it and teach it to the clients! This happens a lot with therapists and Nurses at SPP. You cannot teach our Model and have ghosts of trauma, addictions and mental issues in your closet brought to life. They will get triggered and start haunting you. It was going deeper in my own recovery, as this new information that has grown into the Interpersonal Neurobiologist school of thinking. Shifting the focus from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to Body Focused Therapy for Complex PTSD. We are not there yet, as was shown when Bessel Van Der Kolk led the proposal to the DSM 5 committee for Developmental Trauma Disorder to be added to the tool. But the DSM is a slow mover, (They only just added Gambling as a disorder!) Fortunate while they argue it out, clinicians have an enormous amount of options at our disposal now to work with the symptoms of trauma.

I did get humbled though. I thought I was invincible, I was young had energy, and little did I know it then but my first child hero, worked himself to burnout after John Falcon left. I couldn’t see it then but I was in my co-dependency, and it made me sick. I ended up going part time, then had to step out and have a break.

I was sad to see the passing of John Bradshaw. He was such a powerful force in recovery. John Bradshaw said he stood on the shoulders of Giants. He truly was to become a Giant in his own right.

Recently I was I was talking to a colleague and she said it's a shame a lot of the recovery heroes are getting old and there is no one coming through to replace. I said, no, that’s not the case. There are many that are coming through, all working with Trauma in a magnificently efficient way. Thank God though for the pioneers. They had the courage to save themselves and then make a map for the rest of us to follow. Dr Patrick Carnes and all his work in the sex addiction field is Nobel prize winning worthy in its outcomes. I cannot wait till the Certified Sex Addiction Training coming up in August at SPP.

The new school of thought which has been called the Interpersonal Neurobiology, has some amazing people attached to it. Dan Siegel, Allan Schore, Bessel Van der Kolk,  Ed Tronick, Peter Levine, Pat Ogden, Stephen Porges are giving us evidence based research that has been a major game changer. I have been overwhelmed myself with the quality if information that is at our finger tips.

I feel as though my work is just beginning as I bid SPP goodbye. My passion to work with Trauma and Addiction is at an all-time high. I am excited to be working with Brainspotting, and Radical Exposure Therapy. Two techniques that got directly to the mid-brain, and create relief for Complex Trauma sufferers. 

I have been divinely inspired by so many and my recovery is strong and I am as passionate about Narcotics Anonymous as I have ever been.

I would like to thank the board and Lorraine Wood for the faith they showed in me to lead the Clinical Therapy Team Also getting the opportunity to train every staff member at SPP, what a privilege. Before I got into recovery and started in this field I use to be a boilermaker. I did not love that that job, I got it because I got kicked out of school for a prank I pulled to get a carton of beer. Alcoholics do this sort of thing. As a boiler maker I would be welding, which is done in isolation and I would fantasise I was packing groceries so I could have a conversation with anyone. Little did I know that I would have the privilege for many years to the lecture and train, clients and staff. Most people these days know I just can’t shut up about recovery, especially Pia’s model.

 In my role this time around I have loved developing Webinars and presenting them, as well as presenting at for conferences about the good works that were going at SPP. Most of all though it was walking and talking with my colleagues as we grew together. There will always be therapists and nurses lining up to work at SPP. I am grateful for the friendships I have found there that have inspired not just my work, but my life.  South Pacific, God bless you and the statement expect a miracle, well I certainly got one and more.

See you all on the Recovery Road.


Regards,

Steve Stokes

MOvember and MOVEmber-Time for a chnage

Tomorrow I start my MOvember Campaign( Growing a MO to raise awareness for Men's Health) and MOVEmber ( Moving everyday to raise awareness of the importance of Physical fitness and a healthy Body and Mind!)

The first one is my vocation and passion, I have been working in the Mental Health ,Addictions and Men's Work field for nearly 30 years.

The second one, well, that's been a life's journey of ups and downs. At 52 I am someone who needs to confront my own issues regarding , health and middle age and work/ life / family/ passion balance and the resulting stress and relying on caffeine and sugar to cope and for energy to keep going when my own boundaries go awry. 

Being in Recovery has given me some quality problems. Problems that have been the gifts I would have only received being on the recovery road. Bustling loving family, exciting challenging heartfelt work, opportunity and creativity of being a poet, musician and playing music in a band, making records and touring. Also my own personal Therapy, spirituality and recovery program, to maintain and grow all takes time and effort.

When my father got ill and deteriorated over a year, and little Maverick was born, and I moved more into my vocational work and put the band off the road, the year seemed to trigger an anxiety I had not felt for along time. Now that it is nearly two years since dad has died, I have struggled to overcome that feeling, and food and caffeine gives me that false energy, but now it's costing me so much more than it's giving. I am an older father, and I want to be around for along time, fully fit and active for my boys. This means there needs to be change.

I became aware that it was becoming the patriarch in my Family. My work ,my role as a father and provider and my music had created a response in me I didn't expect. Archetypaly I understood it as a move from the Warrior energy into the King energy. It was literally taking my breathe away. Now it's time to face it and embrace it. MOVEmber is an opportunity to embrace a healthier life balance.

Please follow along my journey, donate please to a good cause, men's health. My MOvember campaign is outlined below.

Movember Campaign

Steve Stokes

http://mobro.co/stevestokesspp

I am excited to not only be MOvembering, I am also MOVEmbering!!!

The

first is to be growing and sporting a MO

to raise awareness of Men’s Mental Health issues , and my participation in MOVEember is to everyday day though increasing physical activity and improving my nutrition and lifestyle to raise awareness that the Mental Health issues or men can result in broader health issues , suicide and pre-mature death.

Check out the above page for daily blogs, pic’s and videos of my journey,  event details that I will be hosting and interviews with other men on the recovery road, sharing their insights and Tools

of the Recovery Trade

Events:

1.       Webinar: Title: Men , Mental Health Awareness and  Tools of the Recovery Trade!:  

When:  Wednesday 11^th Nov  : Time: 7.45 pm Who: All Welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!

A man dies from Suicide every minute on this planet,  1 in 8 Aussie men will experience depression and 1 in 5 will experience Anxiety. Drug and Alcohol use, Pornography, Gambling , Nicotine, are all Mental Health issues in the form of Addictions and are on the increase. Childhood Trauma and its Post Traumatic Symptoms can cause a great deal of men to be unwell personally, and all of the above effects our ability to be Fathers, Sons and Husbands. In this webinar we will look at Tools for the Recovery Trade. How to identify, treat and heal from Mental Health Issues, and get our life back.

1. Inpatient Men’s Group South Pacific Private: Title: Facing the Fire: Men and  Anger.

Time: 2.30PM  4PM. Who: Inpatients Only

This group will look back at the resource Facing the Fire by USA John Lee and will present techniques to identify stress and feelings when they are building, and learn feel  to express our anger in healthy and safe way.

3.   2. Daily Blogs for MOvember campaign and daily Video blogs for MOVEmber. Check out my Movember page daily to donate, request information and content on Men’s Mental Health and have  be informed about all the antics my MO and MOVE is getting up to. I will be linking resources for mental health, books, webinars, YouTube lectures, covering diverse mental health subjects.