About me

"The only people for me are the mad ones. The ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."

                                                                                                 ~Jack Kerouac

Curriculum Vitae: http://www.facebook.com/chrys.rosen?sk=info

                                                                 

R.E.A.C.H. Growth Workshops

a treasure trove of precious gems for transforming diseased madness to divine madness

R.E.A.C.H. Growth workshops are designed specifically for people with mental health disorders.  This program was created after I lost my job with the largest social service agency in Hawaii where I worked as a Master's level Family Therapist, or more specifically Multisystemic Therapist, an innovative, empirically designed, program of intensive, intervention for at-risk adolescents.  I was given a pink slip following a open revelation to my supervisor that I was Bipolar, which I did to make a point about a client with whom I was working.  Termination came within 48 hours of my admission on a virtually trumped up charge.  I made the decision then that I was going to come out entirely about my own mental health issues, which I had kept hidden through college, grad school and the 5 years of work with two different agencies in Hawaii.  

As a psychotherapist and a person with Bipolar I disorder, I knew I had something that few therapists have – both educational and experiential knowledge.  I needed a way to use both and the workshop idea serendipitously occurred. 

I went to the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation in Honolulu with a self-employment business plan.  Although, the worker I saw never quite saw my vision, I stayed diligent and called regularly trying to resell my ideas each time.  Finally, after many months she called me in for an appointment and her supervisor was at the meeting. I don’t know why.  But, I connected with him.  He saw where I was coming from and he “got” me.  They are financing my start up.

R.E.A.C.H. is an acronym and also a topic for each workshop - Realize, Educate, Act, Create and Help. My workshops are designed to empower, educate, and motivate.  They are based on materials, principles and techniques from psychology, education, business and sales primarily with a touch of spirituality added to the mix.

One example of the educational component is an extensive review of historical material on attitudes and treatments (History and Systems of Psychology it is called in college) dating back to the Ancients.  It has mostly been quite oppressive with a very few enlightened periods.  I liken my personal benefit from studying the topic to that of African-Americans who saw the film Roots about their history of slavery and oppression.  There is power in understanding your roots; seeing what your people have been through, where you came from, in essence.  

We have been oppressed at comparable, if not worse, levels than other minority groups.  Manacled and shackled in filthy dungeons, one reported incident in Europe cited 12 years of such treatment.  English asylums let the townspeople enter for a penny and taunt the insane with sticks as a form of entertainment.  Even in Hawaii, as recently as the 1980's the Federal government had to take over monitoring of our state hospital, the conditions were deplorable and the staff abusive.  I take some credit for that intervention.  My point is we need a hand up.  It is time.  We have been kept down long enough.  Society has some reparation work to do.  

I facilitate the personal, internal growth.  In the Create workshop I present extensive research data from studies done on the correlation between mental illness and creativity.  It is astounding and empowering.  For example, our thinking style is not the typical convergent style predominant in the general population.  It has been established we use divergent thinking, or creative thinking more frequently.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_thinking 

This understanding provides a reframe from pathological to infinite possibility and empowers a unique identity replacing the defective,

self- idea.  

In essence, the program is designed as a way to change self-perception, increase achievement and maximize mainstreaming into society at large. It is all knowledge that benefited me greatly as well which gives me the opportunity to share how or why certain techniques or understandings actually helped me change.  

Achievement, mainstreaming into versus away from society, as much as possible and expanding my comfort zone with each new step is where I received my greatest validation that I was an acceptable person and reinforcement that I could have some value to society.  I know education changed my life and I emphasize it greatly as a growth and healing tool as well as a career or vocational direction for great opportunity.  

Ideas of society about mental illness are most often based on stigmatizing myths and fear. The outside world's stigma easily gets internalized into self-stigma and shame for having a diagnosis of mental illness that we allow to inform our ideas about ourselves. It can too easily set limiting zones, beyond which we are not allowed or do not think ourselves capable. The materials include ways to alter self-perception of limitation to one of abundance and maximized potential. For example, in the Create workshop, research is presented with findings from various studies done on the correlation between mental illness and creativity. One specific gene has been identified and found to be responsible for both mental illness and creativity. Different traits shared also suggest a relationship. 

It appears that along with the struggles of living with mental disorders, there may also be an up side, a creative gift that is unique. A thinking style shared with creative types, a divergent mode that is used predominantly. It makes it possible to look at a situation or problem and arrive at multiple interpretations or conclusions. Thinking outside of the box, with unique associations and connections others do not see. That is a gift few realize they have. It has served me in a multitude of ways that are explained, that I understand in retrospect knowing what it is now and why it is different than most, as well as one reason I felt so unusual and strange in comparison to others. 

The goal of the program is to empower and reframe negative self-identity to one in which the uniqueness of experience can be embraced. As well as, furthering the expanse of possibilities for achievement and contribution. When it possible to have a new view, attitude and belief for a better future, it allows for greater participation with others in mainstream society making it easier and a much more rewarding experience. Even when others know.

Workshops will be available locally Summer 2013 again.  Available online by the year's end with manuals that include support materials, techniques and exercises that are a separate, but related and more in-depth which all be downloaded. 

I believe it is our time to come out of the closet.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/12/opinion/saks-mental-illness/index.html

In search of evidence

I was not actually convinced that I was his soulmate until only recently after seeing the movie he wrote in the 1970's called Gas Pump Girls.  It shows a profile to me of his ideal woman, at least in terms of traits he values like willingness to go to any length necessary to meet a challenge. 

The women all had moxie and were savvy at devising counter offensive schemes against the competitor across the street who was using every devious means possible to try and put their uncle's gas station out of business.  

Since he wrote the film in the 70's, prior to feminism as a mainstream model, he chose to make the girls beautiful, sexy blondes in minimalist clothing with maximal exposure of T and A.  They successfully fight off multiple attacks planned by the devious competitor. They use their brains as well as sex appeal, like talking a biker gang into helping them because they knew they needed more strength. The girls with their own cleverness are able to defeat the competitor and his business closes.  The End.  It didn't win an Oscar but it does speak to the things he values.    Since I am probably the only person on the planet that got anything from Gas Pump Girls, it must have been written just for me.  :)

From Plato's Symposium - The lover now pursues his love. As he gets closer to his quarry, and the love is reciprocated, the opportunity for sexual contact again presents itself. If the lover and beloved surpass this desire they have won the "true Olympic Contests"; it is the perfect combination of human self control and divine madness, and after death, their souls return to heaven. Those who give in do not become weightless, but they are spared any punishment after their death, and will eventually grow wings together when the time comes.  A lover's friendship is divine, Socrates concludes.

Bashert, (Yiddish: באַשערט), is a Yiddish word that means "destiny".  It is often used in the context of one's divinely foreordained spouse or soulmate, who is called "basherte" (female) or "basherter" (male). It can also be used to express the seeming fate or destiny of an auspicious or important event, friendship, or happening.

The idea of soulmates comes from statements found in classical rabbinic literature. A proverb that "marriages are made in heaven" is illustrated by a story in a midrash collection:

A Roman matron, on being told by R. Jose ben Ḥalafta that God arranges all marriages, said that this was an easy matter, and boasted that she could do as much herself. Thereupon she assembled her male and female slaves and paired them off in couples; but on the morrow they all went to her with complaints. Then she admitted that divine intervention is necessary to suitable marriages.

Letter to President Obama

I messaged this to Van Jones on Facebook.  I consider him my inside the Administration man. At least, a person with Obama's ear and email address. I forward him relevant materials. Preserving Medicaid was the most recent issue that I asked for his help prior to the debt ceiling increase and the threats to funding.  

I kept him abreast of situations in different states with examples of individuals affected by State cuts already.  I asked Facebook and Twitter friends to message me their stories.  It is devastating in many cases.  Since Van is a civil/human rights attorney and advocate, I am hoping to elicit his support for our cause. We are denied our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if we do not receive the accommodations as outlined by Federal law under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
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The massive mental health service sector cutbacks (most always the first thing to be cut when governmental budgetary problems arise) jeopardize not just our rights but our lives.  Many of the most vulnerable are already dying in the streets without needed help or medications.  Those of us with mental health disorders, especially the more serious disorders, are the American version of the East Indian, untouchable caste. Isolated, unwanted, underfunded, considered to hold no value to society.     

I asked Van to email this to President Obama.  That's audacity and hope, right?  

President Obama,

Aloha from Hawaii!! 

I have been an avid supporter since the start.  You showed the world that oppression is an option.  By becoming the first African-American President of the United States of America, with your message of audacity and hope, you proved that anything is possible.  

It is my belief that your influence and willingness to go around the globe delivering powerful speeches to different nations lead to an explosion that resulted in the global upheaval we have seen from oppressed people in Arab nations bonding together to seek freedom from tyranny so they, too, could be set free and rise up as you did.  I gain great inspiration from you.  Thank you. 

I have lived a surreal life. I am completely convinced that it was for a specific reason. My higher destiny is calling me loud and clear.

Socrates had obviously observed and identified people that seemed possessed or acted differently than others, yet did great things or had special gifts and talents beyond the norm.  He said, "In reality, our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness, which indeed is a divine gift." He also separated divine madness from diseased madness. In my case, it appears God gave me both.  I have also been able to turn my own madness from diseased into a more divine, or productive and functional, type madness.  I was considered hopeless in my 20's.  

Our Judeo-Christian tradition throughout the entire Western world is based on these brilliant observations from the Ancient Greek philosopher's finding as they identified the mysteries of their, not yet explained, new-found world.

Aristotle was the greatest and most prolific. From him we received the concept of "politic" or community and "ethics". He believed that they should be linked. He writes of it in the Nichomachean Creed.  Right now we are far away from what he thought should be the appropriate connection between the two.

In Washington D.C., ignorant and under-educated Tea Party congressional members have invaded the Republican party as you know only too well.  For purely selfish and political reasons they are intent on destroying the link that has always existed between the two concepts of the political and the ethical.  Those with mental health disorders, stand to lose the most because we have the least. It is a mass genocide that is proposed, with cuts in entitlements, rent subsidies and Medicaid that are all essential, for many people. 

I envision a movement of people with mental health disorders that rise up and show their value to society. It is possible for us to channel the gift of madness from the diseased to the divine as identified by Socrates long ago  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates   We can and will contribute more to the world while living more fulfilling lives simultaneous.  

My story has been written for me already by simply living a Master planned life. I have been a vehicle. Now, I am ready to tell my story with as much genuine authenticity as I can command.  To tell the world that there is a better way and we need help.

The last advocate for the mental health movement to impact social consciousness about mental health was in 1908. He witnessed a great deal of abuse while he was hospitalized multiple times for depression. He nearly committed suicide after graduating from Yale. Clifford Beers told the world when he wrote about it in A Mind that Found Itself. His legacy was great. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Whittingham_Beers

We need a new champion for our cause with an expansive reach to change fear that causes stigma and poor policy decisions into hope for outrageous possibility. We are your creatives. We are mad and possessed to serve a higher purpose. Our energy must me channeled.

New medications are needed with less restraint. I have some ideas on that as well. It will change the way the brain is understood thereby creating new research on the chemistry of the brain. Current medications hit receptor sites that suppress creativity, productivity and gifts.  

When you put it all together it is clear that a mental health revolution is about to take place. Of this I am certain. I have been to the mountaintop.  I have seen the dream. 

Best regards and Aloha,

Chrys Rosen, M.A.

A promise to my friends

Walking through your fear is possible when you want what is on the other side badly enough that the temporary discomfort of feeling insecure or doubtful is no big deal. ~Chrys Rosen

A Promise to my Friends

We are not monsters, baby eaters, untouchable or morally corrupt. Not lazy, untalented or devoid of ideas. We don’t want all of your limited resources or public funds. But we have to stand strong and we insist upon some. You won’t be sorry I will make sure they know that. I’ll show long lists from the arts, sciences and industry too that will surprise them, because they just never knew. They will leave wiser than they were before entering through the door. With mental pictures reframed from the insights they have gained.

But please don’t hold back your gifts until others come around, find a place where your passion is aroused and ride it around. Be true to yourself, even if you see yourself strange, to be different can also be reframed, with words like novel, innovative and new. Make 'don't hide' your motto and be willing to walk through your fear. We have to come out now without shame or fear. So, please don’t hide, cut, or otherwise abuse. The impulses and thoughts pass quickly just let them dash right through. Together or alone our strength can endure. Silenced by shame no more.

Chrys Rosen 5/11/2011