Adult Children of Alcoholics forst Sydney Unity Day!

There is a lot of Buzz about this Unity Day in Sydney.

ACA 1st Anniversary Unity Day

July 17, 2016, 9am - 5pm

McMahons Point Community Centre

165 Blues Point Rd, McMahons Point NSW 2196 Australia.

If you have come from any dysfunctional -less than nurturing or stressed parenting, then there could be some Gold in this fellowship

I look forward to presenting the workshop on Pia Mellody's concept of Re-parenting. It has been an essential life changing concept to know how to identify when I am in the symtoms of my trauma. To connect with the Wounded Child and learn how to nurture, support and connect instead of going to the Adaptions and criticize , abandon and neglect myself, continuing the abandonment and Toxic shaming of my childhood.

One of my favourite talks Pia has on record is titled Mapping your Recovery, and it is this talk she gave at and ACOA conference that I will be drawing on for this presentation through my own personal experience. You can purchase this MP3 from the Meadows, Treatment Center, Arizona, USA.

ACOA started with working with Adults from Alcoholic Family systems, however with what we know now about all addictions impacting the same rewards system in the brain, as an affect regulator to cope with attachment issues from developmental trauma , neglect and abuse, it opens up the wonderful tools of Adult Children of Alcoholics to be useful to all folks that grew up in a dsyfunctioning family system. Anything that gets you half an inch closer to God ( your Miracle) (Your core self) Take it. Look forward to seeing you there! Please share this post and flyer with anyone you think might benefit

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.

Gabor Mate and other men and women of greatness

I was listening to this on the way home , and was just hit by how special this man is. I have this feeling with music to. I remember hearing Neil Young's Live at Massey Hall 71, and I felt what Pia Mellody calls joy/pain. Joy at how wonderful it was, how brilliant he was at 23, and pain knowing I would never do that with the guitar. I feel the same way when I hear Gabor Mate, Dan Seigel, Bessel, Pat Ogden, Alexandra Katehakis, Allan Schore , Porges, Pia Mellody, John Bradshaw, John Lee and Patrick Carmes ( to name a few!)

One thing I will say about the resilience that can come out of early childhood trauma, I never have given up playing guitar and writing songs, and I will never give up the belief in holistic Physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual approaches to healing.

http://youtu.be/qlHIWXWDuF0