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.
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.
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