Resurrection After Rape Community Group
Discussion, question-and-answer, general social support, and journal processing for progress-oriented rape survivors. No crisis, no damaging or triggering conflicts--this is for individuals who want to contribute to collective, cooperative action toward the goal of making actual PROGRESS through rape trauma. Much of this work is based on the book "Resurrection After...
Well, I'll be darned! Me and Patch Adams have become pen pals! I wrote to him and shared my story and my ideas, and asked him a couple of questions, and that resulted in him send me books, essays, and letters. He included a long hand-written letter to me encouraging me in what I'm doing and supporting my personal values about treatment and care for others. I shared with him how my values (namely, the importance of relating personally to others in the course of treatment and healing) and the constraints of bureaucracy had become irreconcilable, and he understood and wrote that he has no regrets, "no bad moments," in his own battles with his professional critics, because he has made a choice to "live each moment" and to stand up for his beliefs even when they have cost him. Oh, and we also have IDENTICAL politics, too!
He's invited me to keep writing and said he hopes to continue our conversations. And, he adds, he was honored by the Cree Nation as a symbolic chief at a powwow; this is meaningful because the Cree and the Ojibway are sibling tribes!
I am so excited that I had to share this.
He's invited me to keep writing and said he hopes to continue our conversations. And, he adds, he was honored by the Cree Nation as a symbolic chief at a powwow; this is meaningful because the Cree and the Ojibway are sibling tribes!
I am so excited that I had to share this.
It must feel great to have him give you this validation for your work . I imagine you floating on air right now :D
Basically, Dr. Adams rejected the traditional strictures of clinical training because it emphasized the wall of separation between physician and patient. Doctors were directed to remain emotionally detached, and to simply treat disease. Adams found this to be obscene, and openly advocated for a more emotional congruence--a bond--between physician and patient, because human suffering cannot be relieved when the sufferer feels alienated. Adams was accused of all sorts of scandal by his professional authorities, who attacked him for his open acknowledgment of warmth and love in the healing process. Meanwhile, Adams opened his home to patients, treating them without any regard to their ability to pay.
Adams began a new philosophy of healing in which humor, affection, relationship, and compassion are the driving forces of the work, not managed insurance profit for assembly-line clinical commerce. Adams is taking on the profession of psychiatry now, critiquing its de-evolution into a system of "get them in/medicate them/get them out." Gone are the days when a therapist could do such radical things as visit the home of the patient, engage in touch (hugs, pats on the back), give and receive gifts, and engage in mutual disclosure and concern--all of which used to be founding principles of the work (but are now regarded as scandals). Adams chairs a group that represents "psychiatric survivors"--former patients who were treated as disturbed problems to be solved, medicated, and moved on. Adams' alternative is a system of compassionate care--a "love platform"--in which healers and patients are co-equal and in which humor, warmth, and commitment are defining attributes of care.
This is not some rogue dreamer, either. Dr. Adams is considered a marvelous innovator, the "Hawkeye Pierce" of medicine. He has build the Gesundheit! Institute, a place where treatment of patients is offered without any regard to profit, and in which humor and love are included in the treatment plans. Dr. Adams has been a thorn in the side of bureaucratic Boards, having been "attacked" by his professional foes for nonconformity to medical traditions.
The woman who most helped me deal and overcome the rape allowed me to lay back in her arms and I felt the love replace what had been there before... it's magic. It's as if he never pinned me down.(I don't say that lightly and just want to express how powerful love is) Except for of course the life decisions I made before I meet her and healed from that part which I think still effect me. However she's an energy worker and that is different. Love heals.
I mean obviously I still have "issues"! But I guess I just know what works on the things and levels that have healed.
Congrats to you :)
You don't own a clown nose do you? :P
The guy is a nut. He has Grey hair that he occasionally turns blue and wears in a long braid, and he wears bizarre clothes, and...oh hell, just look for yourself:
http://members.fortunecity.com/joergdao/patch.jpg
http://www.caring-institute.org/trustee_Padams.htm
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/EthanHurd_&_Patch_Adams.jpg
Actually this is SO you in maybe 5 years time ;) Try to be a little original though, maybe a different hair dye slighly shorter hair. You dont want ot look like a child dressing up in parents clothes..will totally negate your powerful aura :)
One of the two can be done easily
I would definitely suggest you rent the movie. It's poignant and very, very fun.
Also, no, I don't have a clown nose, except for this honker that God gave me.
They clearly think a lot of the members as well as you! Grr
Also, I would never make a comment about someone's nose etc. Matt bashing doesnt have to be personal :) Dress sense and possible future grooming tips..okay range. Picking out specifics that is just mean.
Do you need to essay out your nose stuck point? What makes you most shameful about your nose? What does this cause you to believe about yourself?
Remember..allow yourself to FEEL and do not type..serious faux pas and it alerts RAR cult police who make you pray for hours on end to the eagle god.
Do you watch the Biggest Loser? They do train the trainer sessions which are funny to watch because it is like payback time..in friendly competitive way :) I am sure I am not alone in wishing we had an equivalent in our cult. :D