Inside Hypnotherapy

Orca's New Video Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:02:00 +0000

THe Orca Institute has a new Video Web Site at www.hypnotherapycertification.com

Thoughts On Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:10:00 +0000

by Serge Kahili King

My younger brother died of cancer in his early thirties, and my mother died of complications involving cancer when she was in her eighties. And I have had the opportunity to work with many people suffering from that disease. In every case I am familiar with, and according to many medical experts, cancer has both physical and emotional aspects. The strength of each of these can amplify the other, and the healing of either of these can help to heal the other.

My brother had lung cancer. He was a heavy smoker and had a lot of stress in his life. In addition, he fit the personality profile observed in almost 1000 lung cancer patients by Dr. David Kissen of Southern General Hospital in Glasgow: before he was fifteen one of his parents died (our father); there were marital difficulties; and there were professional frustrations. Naturally, a very large number of people may have these particular experiences, but what Dr. Kissen considered significant was how many of the cancer patients reacted to them. Typically, they held in emotional expression and denied conflicts. This certainly described my brother.

My mother had lung cancer. She also lost her father before the age of fifteen, and had her share of marital difficulties and professional frustrations, too. And, she held in emotional expression and denied conflicts as well.

Similar relationships between emotions, experiences of loss or frustration, and all forms of cancer have been noted in many medical studies (two good sources for this kind of information, if they are still available, are Psychosomatics, by Howard R. and Martha E. Lewis [Pinnacle Books, 1975} and Who Gets Sick, by Blair Justice, Ph.D. [Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1988]).

The common thread of emotional response in all forms of cancer (and, I suspect, in all disease), is a frustrated desire to control experience in some way. There is a wide variation in what people are trying to control. Some are trying to control their own behavior; some are trying to control the behavior of others; some are trying to control past, present, or future events; some are trying to control it all. It is not surprising that cancer is often associated with symptoms of depression, but it not always clear whether the depression is associated with the cancer, or with something else that the person cannot control.

In my own experience with and observation of people with cancer, I have noted that the most successful recoveries seem to be strongly associated with major mental, emotional, or physical behavioral changes among the people with the illness. What is major for one person, of course, may not be the same for another. Some people get results from radically changing their whole lifestyle, while others get results from forgiving a longtime resentment. I know of one success where a woman left her family, took up a different religion, changed her clothing and diet, and moved to a different country. Maybe she needed all of those changes and maybe not, but overall it worked for her. I know of another person, a man, who simply stopped trying to outdo his father, and that worked for him.

My brother, however, didn't change his reactions or his life. And my mother, right to the very end, refused to give up grudges she had held for many years against many people. If you want to change something, you have to change something.

Whenever we try to control something by mental, emotional, or physical means, and whenever we fail to control it to the degree that we want, we increase the tension in our body. The more often we try and fail, the greater the increase of tension. Not everyone gets cancer because of this since the specific outcome of excess tension depends on so many different genetic, environmental, and mental factors, but I believe that healing the control issues can be of tremendous benefit in helping to heal cancer and, probably, everything else that needs healing.

The need for control is based on fear, and fear itself generates tension. Control, then, is merely a technique for trying not to feel afraid. Maybe a good place to start the healing process would be to stop trying to control fear, and do something to change the fear reaction, instead.

It is an experiential fact that you cannot feel fear if your body is totally relaxed. However, even though there are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to relax, such as massage, meditation, play, laughter, herbs, drugs, etc., that does not always solve the problem. The real problem lies behind the tension, and behind the fear. The real problem is not even the idea that something is fearful. The real problem is that you feel helpless. When this problem is solved the fear disappears (not the common sense, just the helpless fear), the need for control disappears, and a huge amount of tension disappears.

Fundamentally, what I'm really talking about is confidence, a kind of core confidence not related to a specific talent, or skill, or behavior, or experience, or piece of knowledge. Lots of teachers and lots of merchants offer ways to get this kind of confidence, and my own works contain many ideas about it, so rather than limit your possibilities by suggesting a particular technique, I'm only going to share a couple of Hawaiian words for confidence whose root meanings may point you in the right direction:

Paulele - "stop jumping around"

Kanaloa - "extended calm"

There is no quick and easy fix I know of that will produce this kind of confidence. It takes internal awareness and one or more internal decisions, but even that will only work if it results in a different way of responding to life.

Learn more about Huna at http://www.huna.org

The Little Paint Brush By Diane Auld © 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:56:00 +0000

Once upon a time in a land filled with white emptiness walked a very sad and tired paint brush. It had been a long walk and at times especially recently a hard journey. All through her adult life she had family and friends around her. People who loved her, yet for some reason there was something about this latest journey that made her feel alone. It wasn't that she still did not have her family and friends she just has reached a hard part of the her journey leaving her feel at time as though all the colour had gone out of her. At moments she could not find her colours and she worried that if she did not find them she would she remember or know what to do with them. Colour was so important to her. She remembered times when the colours flowed on the canvas she was painting. Reds and whites, black and green, purple and orange, blue and yellow all the colours of the rainbow. But, at this moment everything looked like a drawing that had yet to be painted. Her life felt like a huge canvas with black lines surrounding large white areas. Yet no matter how she felt he little paint brush kept walking for she was strong, kind, spiritual and wise. She knew if she kept walking she would find what she was looking for and she could bring the colours back into her life. Finally she decided to sit down and ponder her situation. She sat down on a rock and looked around; all she could see was the black and white and all she could feel was the sadness. A sadness that made her feel like she had lost a part of herself; lost her hope. Where were her colours? How could she live in a world with no colours? A paint brush with no colours. As she pondered the question and felt these new feelings a butterfly landed on the branch of a tree beside her rock; a black and white butterfly on a black and white tree. "You lost?" asked the butterfly. "I can't find my colours.", replied the little paint brush. "If you go inside you will find them", the butterfly said as it flew off. "Go inside where?" shouted the little paint brush as she watched the butterfly fly away. "Go inside where?" The little paint brush got up and walked in the direction the butterfly was flying. "Go inside where?" She lot sight of the butterfly, looking around she noticed the black and white spaces and lines looked different. The white areas were not so large, though they still lacked colour. I wonder what the butterfly meant she pondered. What was she trying to tell me? She seemed so sure that a part of me would know what it meant. As if a part of me knew, knew what I do not seem to know. Just them another butterfly landed on the bush right in front of her. "What are you searching for?" asked the butterfly. "What am I searching for?' repeated the paint brush. My colours, my colours, the light that fills me up, colours my world, paints my way and Gives me substance." I am searching for………many things. What am I searching for? "Go inside there." sang the butterfly as it took off. Go inside where replied the little paint brush as it took off after the butterfly. "Go inside where?"
The little paint brush sat down and looked around again. Everything looked different. Again the white areas were not so large and the black looked like lines. Things are changing she thought. My world looks different from when I started. Where are my colours? ………. "They are right there."……. came a voice from behind the little paint brush. She turned around to see an old tattered well uses splattered paint brush slowly making its way towards her. "They are right there." Repeated the old tattered brush as his warn out bristles pointed to the little brush. "Deep within you are all the colours, colours you know about and colours you can only imagine. My life is filled with infinite colour. Each word has a colour, each feeling has a colour even the feelings I don't understand, they are all filled with colour. Deep inside me is a place of wisdom and colour and when I take a moment I can touch that place. Some of the colours are hard to take and I don't really like them, but, when I make them go away my world misses them, so I invite them back understanding they have value, they are all a part of me. When I allow those colours to be there my world is full again. My bristles may be worn, split and caked with paint in places but I can still paint beautiful colours. In fact my worn and tattered bristles allow me to shade the colours on my canvas with a depth and skill that comes from going to the deepest places of my colours and trusting what I know……….trusting………well all our journeys are different. "Is there something that you trust?" the old paint brush asked.

"I trust me. I trust this journey I am on. I trust the love in my life. I trust…….. I trust that part of me that knows all." The little paint brush smiled. Wow did I really say that? She looked down to see a pale pink colour emerging at her heart as the butterfly flew around her head. Not the black and white butterfly but the most beautiful butterfly she had ever seen. The colour of her wings glistened in the sunlight. Suddenly the little paint brush knew where her colours were. Knew she had not lost them and knew she remembered how to use them. She felt alive again. As she looked around she realized her whole world was a canvas and she had the colours to paint it. Trees and flowers she had the colours. Fields of grass she had the colours. The midnight sky filled with stars she had the colours. Joy and pain, love and hate, anger and laughter she had the colours and she proceeded to fill her black and white world with colour and finally she understood. Finally she understood. She looked around to thank the tattered old brush for his wisdom when she heard a voice deep within say: "You are welcome". Thank yourself for I am you and you are me. We are one.

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:32:00 +0000

Byron Miki, a hypnotherapy teacher at The Orca Institute talks about why people get stuck.

Hypnotherapy Training with Sheldon Bilsker,RCC,HT

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:08:00 +0000

Sheldon answers questions that potential hypnotherapy students might have about The Orca Institute's hypnotherapy training courses. The following questions are asked by the interviewer:

1. Is there an independent hypnotherapy association with high standards that will accept the certification offered at The Orca Institute?

2. What designation does your diploma hypnotherapy course give one?

3. How does someone register for your courses?

4. What is the age and backgrounds of your students?

5. What if a student doesn't finish the course on time? Can they get an extension?

6. If a student has previous counseling and/or hypnotherapy training can they challenge on
parts of the course and would fees be prorated ?

7. Is it possible to take the basic hypnotherapy certification course first and then right after or
at a later date take the diploma course?

8. Can you give me a brief overview of what courses are available and what they entail?

9. Do you offer NLP training?

10. How many hours per week should be dedicated to the diploma course over the eight month
period?

11. Tell me about your payment plans?

orcainstitute.com
1-800-665-6722

Video shot by Jayme Cawley

Hypnotherapy with Diane Auld,RPC,HT

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:39:00 +0000

Diane Auld,RPC,HT, an Ericksonian hypnotherapy teacher at The Orca Institute is interviewed by Chantal Thome,BA about her training, teaching style and philosophy. The following questions are asked:

1. Tell us about your background and training.
2. What is your teaching philosophy?
3. What do you cover in a typical class?
4. What you enjoy about teaching?
5. Why do you have such a strong focus on Ericksonian hypnosis in your classes?

orcainstitute.com
1-800-665-6722

Video shot by Jayme Cawley

The Shadow of Change By Diane Auld

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:37:00 +0000

The Shadow of Change
By Diane Auld

Fear
Everyone can see how they have polished the mirror
of the self, which is done with the longings
we're given.
Not everyone wants to be king!
There are different roles and many choices
within each.
Troubles come. One person packs up
and leaves. Another stays and deepens in a love
for being human.
In battle, one runs fearing
for his life. Another, just as scared, turns
and fights more fiercely.
Rumi

The desire to change, the vision to see the patterns needing to be changed, the wisdom to know what to let go of, and what qualities one will need to draw upon to achieve the desired change, the courage to take the first, the next and the next step, and the strength of awareness to stay on track; all of these and more are needed to achieve change. As Counselling Hypnotherapists we walk with our clients through this process watching, supporting, offering, helping with perspective and encouraging their ability to support themselves. Often the process flows and runs into road blocks and flows again. Sometimes the struggle is exhausting for the client, one road block after another and they give up assuming that they do not have what it takes to stick to anything. We are faced with questions: Why can't I change? How come I don't have any will power? What is the matter with me? It was going so well, and then it all fell apart. These are all good questions and can lead to insights and a deepening of the commitment to the change process.
If the client stays with the process she often proceeds to the next level and runs again into road blocks, actually more that road blocks. He runs into a part of himself that seems bent on sabotaging steps forward with just the right words, phrases, distractions and reminders of past attempts.

Welcome, and allow me to introduce you to the Shadow. The part of ourselves we have disowned, put so far away she has to scream to try to be heard and even then she is often not acknowledged, so he finds ways of escaping his confining prison. She emerges as sarcastic remarks, addictions, spontaneous inappropriate actions, just to name a few. Our shadow holds our darkest feelings, hidden desires, wishes and our unacknowledged creativity; undeveloped aspects of ourselves that often remain undeveloped due to their being shamed or forbidden either culturally, or within our family. As long as the shadow is allowed to remain in the dark he will plot and wait and sabotage. It is in bringing this aspect of ourselves into the light of day that relationship with self deepens and the powerful qualities hidden in the shadow can be utilized in the healing process.

A complete picture of the forces working in our clients unconscious becomes clearer when we invite, make space for and acknowledge the darker aspects of our client's nature. One side wants to make the changes and another equally as strong side is quite happy with the way things are. How do we open a dialogue? Do we want to open a dialogue? Is there really any value in opening a dialogue?

Value in facing the shadow

The shadow has two parts the dark simmering sharp fanged Shadow and the Golden Shadow. These are the places within where we often will find our creativity, our tenacity, our ability to protect ourselves, our anger and our prejudices; to name just a few pearls lurking in the underground. I say pearls because there is often gold to be found in the mud. Can we as therapists know the gold is there? Really hold for our clients that no matter what they think of themselves we know they have incredible skills and abilities and can we endeavour to love the manner in which the shadow has chosen to use the gold? Love it from a place of curiosity and invitation.

"The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves."

— DR. CARL GUSTAV JUNG

Gold in the Shadow

The Golden shadow manifests in unacknowledged talents and skills. We see in others all the wonderful qualities we know we don't have. How surprising it is to find that we could not recognize these qualities in others if we did not ourselves have them. The mud needs to be cleared and the emerging gold acknowledged and integrated into our whole being. The unconscious made conscious.

- The dark side of creativity never acknowledged, projected onto others is the story of a art critic who loves art with a deep passion, and hides a deep desire to paint, this desire buried and disowned emerges scathingly in his reviews.

- The dark side of bottled up anger is self aggression, self-harm or anger turned outward sometimes subtly as negativity, sometimes more overtly as aggression, violence or crime.

The dark side of tenacity and the ability to stick to things could manifest as controlling self and others, a refusal to change and /or possibly addictions. Although addictions will often manifest in any situation where we are burying our pain.

The dark side of setting boundaries can be found in protecting self and others from the ebb and flow of life, the good and the challenging times, the inability to say yes and the inability to say no.

These are just a few of the gold bits hiding in the shadow. Life becomes a reflection of the things we will not allow into our life. Life becomes a reflection of the bitterness we feel inside, the dark shadow part meets life with anger, jealousy and envy harbouring a deep feeling of inadequacy that we are terrified to show to the world and ourselves. The golden shadow self may see life differently yet harbour the same deep feeling of inadequacy; others are talented, creative, beautiful and loveable, not me others. The gold slowly over time becoming covered with the mud of our unacknowledged self – covered waiting for ….. waiting for…… Life.

Projections change the world into the replica of one's own unknown face.

C. G. Jung - Aion (1955)

How do we help our client form a relationship with their shadow?

The Grand Adventure or gentle story
Stories filled with all the amazing hidden talents of the client. A creative frog, turtle, a little black cloud that cannot see how colourful she is may help a client living with depression see she is not alone and others actually miss her. Characters who help the unconscious help the conscious mind build the safety for the gold to emerge in its own time.

Yes Vs No
Parts Therapy allows the client to talk to the part of themselves who is angry, hurt, stubborn, sabotaging. Asking the unconscious to allow the shadow self to emerge in trance can often lead to insights. For instance the movie editor who works at home and has noticed over the last 6 months he had missed deadlines, so much so that he is getting a reputation of being unreliable with the movie studios. In trance can we talk to this part who does not care, feels everyone should realize how good he is and just wait for him. What might emerge in trance is a deep hidden desire to act, something he has never told anyone, something his family had a strong judgement about; the shadow's deep desire to express itself crying to be heard and seen.

Art in Therapy
Painting the feelings may help a client who loves to paint who has been severely sexually abused and after years of healing has reached a point where she has many moments of peace, moments where the pain usually felt in her body has eased and allows her to enjoy life more, yet is surprised to find these moments actually cause her anxiety and she finds ways to bring the pain back, exercising too much or other forms of self-abuse. Her shadow saves her from moving deeper; moving into the places where light has never touched. Painting may help her move closer to her anxiety and build a relationship with this part of her.

Acting out the Shadow
In the safety of our office or their own home it can be very valuable to act out the qualities of our shadow we know of yet control so deeply; allowing the inner terrorist out in a safe setting, allowing the flighty disorganized party girl dance around the kitchen, allowing the little kid to finger paint a huge piece of paper on the floor and make as much mess as his heart desires – Let the shadow out, let the imagination go wild. If the client cannot then hypnosis is the perfect vehicle to create a story of someone else saying, doing, and being all these Shadow qualities in small safe bits.

Facing our Shadow

I went there

of my own free will

I went there

in my finest gown

with my rarest jewels

and my Queen of Heaven crown

In the Underworld

at each of the seven gates

I was stripped seven times

of all that I thought I was

till I stood bare in who I really am

Then I saw Her

She was huge and dark and smelly and hairy

with a lion's head

and lion's claws

devouring everything before Her

Ereskigal, my sister

She was all that I am not

All that I have hidden

All that I have buried

She is what I have denied.

Ereskigal*, my sister

Ereskigal, my shadow

Ereskigal, my self

*** Ereskigal from Sumerian mythology was queen of the Underworld.

***Amy Sophia Marashinsky, author, The Goddess Oracle, Mermaid Magic, Oracle of the Grail Code, Goddess on the Go and MP3 Meditations.

Diane Auld,RPC,HT is a teacher at the Orca Institute.

COUNSELLING ON MARS – Joe Solanto, PhD

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Solanto) — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:52:00 +0000

It’s late September and my wife, Lisa, and I are sitting in a little community ( pop. 600) along the east coast of Hudson Bay, five hours flight north of Montreal. We’re offering a week on “Self-care for Helpers”. I’ve been to this little northern village before, offering a total of six weeks of “training” to “frontline workers” who are coping with frequent crises, and who are providing on-going support for trauma survivours. Think of some of the most challenging conditions you have heard about or witnessed in First Nation’s communities across Canada. In many ways these conditions are more severe. The social ills of poverty, illiteracy, inadequate housing, inaccessible health care, minimal education, unemployment, rampant addictions, frequent accidental deaths, homicides, and suicides are sometimes muted before the backdrop of the harsh Arctic environment and weather. Layer over this scene the palpable prejudices and systemic discrimination that the Inuit face when having to deal with, on an almost daily basis, government agencies and workers, and you can only marvel at how these people have managed to not only survive, but are beginning to thrive in many ways.

Over the past four years I have made almost monthly trips up here, providing training in a dozen different communities in Nunavik. The experience has been mostly humbling, as I encounter my own deep-seated personal and professional prejudices, my inadequacy in making the ideas and skills that are important to me, somehow important and relevant to them, while many of my “trainees” are in the trenches every day, coping with crises far beyond the magnitude that I’ve had to face in my life or work. It’s been a regular encounter with feelings of inadequacy, frustration, anger, sadness, and nagging concerns about whether or not I’m doing “any good” up here.

When I’ve been tempted to quit, one of my colleagues up here reminds me that I’m in training in understanding the ways of Aboriginal People, and that these experiences can only make me a better teacher, and a better person. I can only hope this is true, as more of my work each year is among these people.

For now, let me try to explain some of the professional challenges I have faced, saving for a later time the stories of a more personal nature.

First, it’s important to say who my “trainees” are. For the most part they are the communities natural helpers. Women (mostly) and men who have little or no formal training in any helping field, but have been selected for paid positions called counsellor, social worker, victims assistant, justice worker, school counsellor, addictions counsellor, etc. A variety of factors including the lack of training, little or no organizational support (sometimes no organization at all), no supervision, inadequate funds, rapidly shifting community and government priorities, regular crises, professional burnout, all contribute to the short terms of employment and frequent staff turnover. In short, they tolerate conditions that would never be permitted by professionals “down South”. It’s quite rare to find someone who identifies as having a “career” in a particular helping field- a health aide yesterday, an addictions counsellor today, a child development worker tomorrow, and who knows what next month, perhaps unemployed. Picture offering a training program in weekly segments over the course of several months, during which time the faces of the participants change, and the ones who remain constant now have different jobs then they held when the program began. Picture having to keep your “training” flexible each day because of unexpected blizzards with whiteout conditions, a funeral for an Elder, a suicide of a youth, the need for all men to join a rescue team to search for a hunter who hasn’t returned as planned, an accidental drowning of a young child, the death of a family member of one of the participants, a call to the harbour to help unload the last cargo ship before the freeze up, the surprise beaching of a walrus to be killed, butchered and distributed, unexpected arrival of a caribou heard, delayed and cancelled flights, and you begin to get some idea of the teaching environment.

I don’t know where to begin explaining the challenges to making the standard theories of counseling “culturally appropriate”, largely because it’s taken me most of these years to realize how inappropriate some of these most treasured professional beliefs and approaches really are for Aboriginal People. Perhaps one of the biggest gaps between the Aboriginal perspective and that of non-Aboriginals centers around the focus on the individual and the importance of self-awareness, self-fulfillment, and personal growth that are the hallmarks of Western understanding. While this is a common observation when discussing or reading about “cross cultural” or “culturally sensitive” approaches, the realities of this need to “modify”, I believe, require us to alter the very foundations of many of our approaches to counseling with Aboriginal People, who exist, not in an individual reality but rather in complex and dynamic relationships to all people and nature around them.

Let me give one small example of how this collective orientation differs from mine. In using the tool “Creating a Safe Place”, whether in imagery or through a combination of imagery and art work, I offer that, among it’s other characteristics, this place does not have any other people there…just for you…a place where you can be alone…feeling perfectly safe and free from any harm….etc. My Aboriginal trainees rightfully ignore this suggestion and invariably create places that are filled with people interacting with them in some way. The notion of being alone anywhere, and separate from family and friends, is what makes them feel unsafe! Even when some of these other people have been abusive to them! So, “no big deal Joe”, you say. Clients will routinely dismiss any suggestions that are not right for them, and replace them accordingly. True enough. But what’s interesting to me is my rigid adherence to these standard instructions! What keeps me from altering them to something like…”gather all of your friends and family…. see them in your safe place…. doing whatever it is that makes you all feel safe together”… or something like that? I submit that it’s my difficulty in maintaining a “culturally appropriate” perspective, giving only lip service to the principles of “cross cultural counselling”, and stubbornly holding onto the notion that our way is somehow “better”, and they’ll catch on to this eventually if they would just give it a try.

This leads me to the challenges of exploring the notion of “boundaries”, personal or professional, with Aboriginal People. The idea that we need to set boundaries in our personal relationships, and must adhere to appropriate boundaries in our professional relationships with clients, and that this ensures healthy interactions, often mystifies my Aboriginal trainees. They exist in a world where “co-dependency” is not a disease, but rather a state of relationship to be aspired toward. Our notion of boundaries and empathy often sound like uncaring, arms-length ways of distancing from “the other”. For a counsellor to not reveal as much about him/herself as the client is willing to do, for example, would interfere with the development of a trusting relationship. The client would stop sharing, and probably stop coming.

Another example is the ethical caution against “dual relationships”. This is an impossible ethical stance to maintain in a community where you have multiple relationships with almost every other member of the community. I was supervising a counsellor whose client was the man who had previously murdered the counsellor’s sister! Believe it or not, he was doing an excellent job!

Yet another challenge surrounds the fact that confidentiality is never assumed, as it is almost non-existent in all relationships. Everyone knows everything about everyone else, and, in many ways, their very survival depends on this. So how do we revise our discussions around ethical principles that we have taken as “givens”, but they see as unsuitable, undesirable, and unworkable in their world?

Further, our understandings of health, balance, and change are so individual-focused that they stand the risk of being rejected outright as not being consistent with the time- honoured values of these people. This comes back at me almost every day in my work here as I naturally assume a more Eurocentric (read “White Man”) stance. Their profoundly collective orientation that places relationship first, for example, explains in part how someone is selected for a job in the community. Let’s say a job is posted for an Early Childhood Worker at the daycare centre. In our world we would assume that this position would be filled by someone with some background, and at least some training in the field, perhaps a certificate or even a degree. Here the job is more likely to be offered to a close relative of the person in charge of hiring, and under the guidance of a family Elder or community leader. The person chosen may not have ever thought of doing work such as this, but the opportunity to work is now being made available, and it’s not to be turned down lightly. The person is selected because he/she needs the job, rather than the job needs them. While we may hire based on the principle of “the best person for the job”, up here the strategy would be to find the best job for this person. (I recently met an “addictions counsellor” who was the community radio announcer previously struggling with his own addictions. He improved greatly over time.) Sometimes the decision is based on sheer economic considerations. The person needs a job to support a family. But more often it’s because this job will be good for this person in some way. It’s assumed that training and competencies will be acquired along the way, or someone else will be assigned. The responsibility to do well in this position is far greater than merely achieving some personal goals, but rather to fulfill the family’s plan, and to be a productive member of the family and the community. Now before you scream “nepotism”, let me assure you that this system often works. The individual chosen is likely to work really hard, to take their job very seriously, perhaps even give up some prior addictions, to make this job work. Given that, it’s especially sad to see them struggle with so little support, and minimal resources.

And yet to be among these caring, hard-working, unaffected, generous, light-hearted people is an honour, and a truly uplifting experience. They have so much to teach us if we can take off our cultural filters for a time, and rather than judging them, make an effort to see the wisdom in their ways. So I keep going back.

JOE SOLANTO, PH.D.

Before coming to B.C. in the early 90's Joe Solanto served as a School Psychologist in the public
schools of New York for eighteen years. He then completed a doctorate in psychology, and for
seven years was the Director of a multi-disciplinary outpatient treatment centre for addictions andtrauma that utilized the services of over 20 professionals, treating the full range of mental healthrelated problems. Since coming to Canada, Joe has been teaching a wide variety of courses at the Justice Institute of B.C. focusing on trauma counselling, assessment and treatment utilizing the DSM system, restorative justice, and adventure-based learning, as well as offering training in counselling-related topics at other post-secondary institutes. He has also served as a consultant for the Federal Department of Justice as well as for Corrections Services Canada. In the past few years he has been working in First Nations communities in B.C., the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, as well as with the Inuit of Northern Quebec, and Labrador, assisting with the healing from residential school trauma, and training front-line staff to respond to the high incidence of violence, suicidal, addictive, and other self-harming behaviours within their communities. His work is featured in the DVD, A Healing River, available from Simon Fraser University’s Department of Criminology, as well as his presentation on Intergenerational Trauma available through Heartspeak Productions’ web page. Joe is also known for his work in the mid-90’s as the Director and Expedition Leader for the Vancouver Ocean Challenge Society, which provided groups of at-risk youth challenging marine and wilderness adventures in a therapeutic milieu. This program was nominated for the 1997 Violence Prevention Award. In November 2007 and 2008, Joe was a Keynote speaker and youth-focused workshop
presenter at the Western Canadian Conference on Addictions and Mental Health. His
topic was Trauma and Addictions. Again, in June 2008 he was the Keynote speaker
at the Aboriginal Justice Forum in Vancouver. His topic was Intergenerational Trauma
and Healing. In March 2009, he was the Keynote speaker at the Aboriginal Justice
Strategy Conference sponsored by the Department of Justice. In 2010 he presented
a training workshop to IRS frontline workers sponsored by the Atlantic Policy
Congress of First Nation Chiefs Secretariat on Intergenerational Trauma and Community Healing. In 2009, Joe was the recipient of the Instructor of the Year Award at the JusticeInstitute of B.C.He currently provides consultation and training to a variety of organizations throughout Canada.
Counselling on Mars - Part Two
September 23, 2009

It’s near the end of September and the beginning of new contract, this time in Labrador. I’m embarking on a 10-month training with members of the local Inuit government (Nunatsiavut) mental health and addictions counselors. We’ve designed it such that they will shadow me as I travel to the various coastal communities offering workshops on trauma and addictions to the local frontline service providers. The goal is to offer mentoring and supervision to this team so that they will be able to continue this work into the future.

I’m also approaching my 68th birthday and reflecting on what keeps me going. When I was in my 50’s I was already tired and longing for “retirement”. Back then I was slowly burning-out, partly from vicarious trauma, partly from personal factors, and largely from a growing questioning of the value of my work. …. I was becoming dis-spirited.

I’m sitting in the kitchen of a small mental health building in Nain, Labrador. The participants and my training team are all new to me, and yet I know them well. They are very much like the people of Nunavik with whom I’ve worked in recent years, and very much like the First Nations people I’ve met across Canada. Being in their presence is what keeps me going.

The history of these people is scarred by the traumas wrought by the forces of colonization. And while trauma is in their stories, survival is in their genes. These remarkable people have endured direct and indirect attempts to annihilate them. The government and the churches have tried for generations to wipe out their culture, remove them from their land, appropriate their resources, and marginalize them in every way possible. And it nearly succeeded. A generation ago, stripped of their self-worth, torn from their spiritual centre, relocated from their traditional lands, numbed by alcohol, they were “dying off”.

Yet today, I sit among these people and see them as role models for my own life and work. In recovery, reclaiming their traditions, standing firmly on their land, feeling empowered enough they are resisting the ongoing efforts to assimilate and annihilate them. Most of us would be quickly overwhelmed by their lives, and by their workloads, by their continuing family crises, and by the 24-7 on-call nature of their roles as community helpers. When they introduce themselves and tell you of their work, for example, one person might say, “I’m the youth addictions counsellor, lead the crisis response team, work part-time in the school as community liaison, coordinate the addictions self-help programs, direct the summer youth camps, and serve as grief counsellor for my church group.” This person is often a single parent and raising his/her own kids, as well as fostering some children from other family members who have died or are otherwise unable to provide care for their children. In a typical day they see up to a dozen clients, over the course of a week probably 50 or more, many of them related to them in some way. And yet they find time to show up for every important family and community event, usually organizing and cooking for these.

“What is it”, I ask myself that accounts for their survival and for the fact that they are thriving against all odds. The answers are complex. The best I can relate to it is to describe their lives as living and working in a “therapeutic community”. I remember attendance at intensive training programs where everyone came ready to “do their work”. Where guidance and support came not only from the top but also from your peers. Where stories were told, tears were shed, hands were held, hugs were frequent. Where blame and judgment had no place, and acknowledgement and validation prevailed. In these settings people were “real”. They left pretense at the door, spoke about themselves with openness and humility, committed to on-going growth, and, as the saying goes, not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. This is what I find in these small villages. Growing numbers of healthy individuals, banding together to create healthier families, and healthier communities.

Our days begin and end with a prayer, usually recited spontaneously by a respected Elder. With bowed heads we are asked to thank the Creator for another beautiful day (no matter what the weather), express gratitude for the opportunity to be together to do this work, pray for the strength to face the hard choices that it will take to remain in balance, and to ask for special blessings for those who are still in the grip of addictions, suffering from past trauma, not yet ready to walk on the road to healing. We express appreciation and ask for the continued understanding of our mates, children and others who sometimes share the burden of our work. We pray for the instructor, that his teachings will come from his heart, that we will be open to new learning for the good of the people, and especially for the welfare of the children and grandchildren. We are reminded that all healing comes from the Creator, and that we are simply imperfect messengers who have been chosen to do this work. We express gratitude for the support that we give one another.

During our time together they share stories in the first person always owning their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. They speak of great harm done to them and by them, and they ask for the strength to find forgiveness. They thank each other for listening and not judging them.

When they ask a question they reveal its personal significance in their own lives and they shine brightly when they find self-understanding in the material we are covering.

There’s always lots of laughs, lots of tears, lots of good food. We sit together, often on the floor, sharing “country food” from common pots. There’s goose, ptarmigan, fish, moose, caribou, berries, seal, walrus, whale meat. They love their traditional foods and so meals are full of joy. These times remind me very much of my youth in my large Italian family. I’m strangely at home in this very unlikely place.

Today in the middle of an important class activity a young man, not realizing that the building was closed, knocked repeatedly on the door. When he was let in he stood before us, shaking and crying, saying, “I’ve come to get help.” He was not told that the Mental Health Office was closed for staff training, he was not told to come back tomorrow, and he was not made to feel like an intruder. He was invited in like a welcomed guest, offered a cup of tea, and gently escorted by one staff person to a back room, amidst good wishes from all. When he left sometime later he looked proud as people called out “thanks for coming”, “hope to see you again”. The staff person, who then had missed a good portion of the afternoon, was immediately asked how she was doing, and how could they help her to catch up.

This evening I was the honoured guest at a monthly dinner meeting celebrating abstinence. Seventeen members of the community arrived, all with local homemade foods to share. We had arctic char, cod, smoked salmon, caribou and vegetable soup, and delicious deserts made from the plentiful berries found in the hills. Conversations flowed, jokes were made, and teasing predominated. It’s said that Aboriginal People show that they like you if they tease you…. I must be loved. I come home full in the stomach, and full in the heart. Another remarkable day among these beautiful souls. My spirit is being filled. Retirement ?? Feels more like “refirement”.

JOE SOLANTO, PH.D.

Before coming to B.C. in the early 90's Joe Solanto served as a School Psychologist in the public schools of New York for eighteen years. He then completed a doctorate in psychology, and for seven years was the Director of a multi-disciplinary outpatient treatment centre for addictions and trauma that utilized the services of over 20 professionals, treating the full range of mental health related problems.

Since coming to Canada, Joe has been teaching a wide variety of courses at the Justice Institute of B.C. focusing on trauma counselling, assessment and treatment utilizing the DSM system, restorative justice, and adventure-based learning, as well as offering training in counselling-related topics at other post-secondary institutes. He has also served as a consultant for the Federal Department of Justice as well as for Corrections Services Canada. In the past few years he has been working in First Nations communities in B.C., the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, as well as with the Inuit of Northern Quebec, and Labrador, assisting with the healing from residential school trauma, and training front-line staff to respond to the high incidence of violence, suicidal, addictive, and other self-harming behaviours within their communities. His work is featured in the DVD, A Healing River, available from Simon Fraser University’s Department of Criminology, as well as his presentation on Intergenerational Trauma available through Heartspeak Productions’ web page.

Joe is also known for his work in the mid-90’s as the Director and Expedition Leader for the Vancouver Ocean Challenge Society, which provided groups of at-risk youth challenging marine and wilderness adventures in a therapeutic milieu. This program was nominated for the 1997 Violence Prevention Award.

In November 2007 and 2008, Joe was a Keynote speaker and youth-focused workshop presenter at the Western Canadian Conference on Addictions and Mental Health. His topic was Trauma and Addictions. Again, in June 2008 he was the Keynote speaker at the Aboriginal Justice Forum in Vancouver. His topic was Intergenerational Trauma and Healing. In March 2009, he was the Keynote speaker at the Aboriginal Justice Strategy Conference sponsored by the Department of Justice. In 2010 he presented a training workshop to IRS frontline workers sponsored by the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs Secretariat on Intergenerational Trauma and Community Healing.

In 2009, Joe was the recipient of the Instructor of the Year Award at the Justice Institute of B.C.

He currently provides consultation and training to a variety of organizations throughout Canada.
Counselling On Mars – Part III

March, 2010.
I’m here again in a small community in northern Labrador (pop. @200). There are no trained counsellors, no hospital, one nurse (working 24/7), one child in kindergarten, and 4 in 12th grade. I look at the list of names in a directory of community members. There are six surnames shared by about 90% of the people, and only a handful of other names. The community had a long history of self-sufficiency until the cod and salmon stocks dwindled, the fishery closed, the wild game became scarce, and the bottom fell out of the sealing industry. Now there’s little work, and little to do if you don’t have money. The Elders are quickly vanishing. These voids have been filled for many by alcohol and drugs.

I’m sitting with “frontline” workers. Folks with little or no training in the helping roles they play every day. They are hearing stories of violence, depression, abuse, addictions, intergenerational trauma, suicide, grief, mental health problems, and anything else that community members may need help with. I’m thinking about how limited Western counselling principles and tools are in these circumstances. The things that we take for granted have little or no place here. I wonder for whom those counselling theories are meant, and how we have assumed their universality.

While sitting in the airport on the way up this trip I met a gentlemen who had been “sent” here by a well-meaning service organization from down south to conduct a workshop on “self-esteem”. He was a former educator, administrator, and executive HR leader. A very nice guy, actually. He had a canned program that was successfully used in many other settings. He had never been here before, and had not learned much about the people before his arrival. He made all kinds of erroneous assumptions as he described to me what he would hope to accomplish during the workshop. He clearly was here to “enlighten” the poor natives, and build their self-esteem. (Aboriginal people do not generally focus on self-esteem and self-worth in the way that others do. They do not value making choices for their own benefit, but rather for the benefit of the family and community.) I tried to give him a crash course, but he felt confident and enthusiastic. His cup was already full. He’s just one of many among the legion of folks sent here, and into many Aboriginal communities, who believe in the “rightness”, and therefore efficacy, of their points of view, and skill set. This group unfortunately includes medical personnel, mental health professionals, police, and educators; employees, and the clear beneficiaries, of what some Natives call, “the Indian Industry”. They come. They do their thing. And they bemoan the lack of responsiveness of their clients, who they often see as too “damaged” to benefit from their services.

I met this same fellow briefly on the way back home. He had a dazed look. He wasn’t as exuberant, or as talkative. I didn’t get to hear how it went. But I have some guesses.

I think, too, about our codes of ethics. We place a high value, for example, on the idea of “confidentiality”, as we should. Strangers come to our office seeking our services. We have probably never met them before, and may never see them after our service ends. Perhaps no one else knows that they are coming to see us, and they may never tell anyone. Right off, we assure them of the confidentiality of our sessions (with notable exceptions). Sometimes it’s a challenge for us, but we probably don’t know anyone in his or her life. If we do speak about them to colleagues or supervisors, we can avoid identifying information, and thus secure the confidence. We have a certain freedom to discuss them anonymously when necessary, and they have a certain freedom to tell us anything they choose. This practice builds trust in our clients and our relationship develops strength and resilience allowing them to go as deep as they need.

We also think carefully about boundaries and avoiding dual relationships. We understand how this protects the clients, but also keeps us in ethical balance with those we counsel. We can discuss this with clients as we need to, and we can be flexible as the situation dictates.

These valuable principles are part of the time-honoured behaviours we counsellors have evolved in order to ensure our neutrality, the effectiveness of our work, and the safety of the client. And they are very important….. in our world.

But here, the world of the client and the helper is different. The clear-cut principles of confidentiality and dual relationships are impossible to adhere to. Consider these factors:

If someone chooses to seek counselling they will most likely come to a building that is a multifunctional facility. Their child may be in daycare in the next room, the nurse treating a relative is down the hall, and the patients are in a common waiting area. It may also be the one day that that the dentist or the eye doctor is also there. There are administrative offices, clerical, custodial, and maintenance staff housed here as well. In other words, your client’s presence and purpose are immediately obvious to all, and will surely be announced in conversations throughout the day. But it doesn’t really matter because everyone in the community already knows about his problems!! No surprise that he’s here to visit with the addictions counsellor, or the child protection worker, or the stop the violence coordinator. What does the counsellor say to assure confidentiality? Perhaps, “Whatever is said here won’t be repeated by me. Even when:

-your spouse calls me tonight to ask about you, or

-when I go sealing with your mother tomorrow and she asks how you are doing, and

-our uncle knocks on my door to tell me about his worries concerning you, and

-my employer, who is also your employer, asks if you are fit to work, and

-when your brother and I go fishing, and

-when we meet outside these sessions and I see you in the community or hear about you from others, I will maintain my silence even though I will not be in my counsellor role……..

Everyone knows everything about everyone. Facebook and Twitter can’t possibly compete with the fine-tuned community gossip network functioning in these communities. Generations before them depended on the principle of total knowledge of the details of every member’s life. Survival depended on having this knowledge as it helped to maintain balanced community living. “Gossip” was a social tool to help remind one another of the rules of proper behaviour, and served as a shaming sanction against violations. Gossip is in their blood. It’s hard for many to understand the value of keeping “secrets” from the larger community. Counsellors find themselves struggling daily to uphold confidentiality, as they have been told they must, to explain its value over and over, and to deal with the anxiety and suspicion that it may cause. The more they espouse these beliefs, the more they may be viewed as “outsiders”.

On the flip side, consider the potential benefits. Have you ever worked with a client whom you suspected wasn’t being fully truthful about how he/she was doing outside your sessions? Well, here it’s very hard to keep information from the ears of the counsellor. He or she will know about a relapse, a fight with a spouse, or re-offending, and even the client’s opinions about the counsellor, almost immediately.

And consider this. How does a counsellor self-disclose (a high value in traditional healing) when it would be helpful to the client? Aboriginal clients will not easily trust a helper who doesn’t also deeply disclose. And they learn best when hearing the details of another’s efforts toward wellness. The client can’t be expected to maintain confidentiality, however. Counsellors find that their personal life stories, over the course of time, become part of the “public record”. Your life is an open book, every eye in the community scrutinizes your behaviours, and you never know when you might say or do something in your private life that may jeopardize your employment.

It seems there’s a need for a drastically modified code of ethics for counsellors in Aboriginal Communities. Right now the discrepancy between what they are presented and the realities of their work leave them without guidance, often doubting their instincts about how to perform their jobs. Perhaps that partly accounts for the incredibly high turnover rate in these roles, as well as the high job vacancy rates. Some communities have been waiting for a mental health counsellor for years. Want a job?

Don’t get the wrong idea! I love working in these settings. The challenges are enormous, but the hearts and spirits of these folks are also enormous. My team is growing in number and capacity. They are creating amazing programs and services in almost every community. They are committed to articulating the teachings of their ancestors and using these to guide their work as helpers. They are working hard to de-colonize themselves and others. And I have no doubt that they will be successful. I remind them that trauma may indeed be in their history, but survival and success are in their genes.

JOE SOLANTO, PH.D.

Before coming to B.C. in the early 90's Joe Solanto served as a School Psychologist in the public schools of New York for eighteen years. He then completed a doctorate in psychology, and for seven years was the Director of a multi-disciplinary outpatient treatment centre for addictions and trauma that utilized the services of over 20 professionals, treating the full range of mental health related problems.

Since coming to Canada, Joe has been teaching a wide variety of courses at the Justice Institute of B.C. focusing on trauma counselling, assessment and treatment utilizing the DSM system, restorative justice, and adventure-based learning, as well as offering training in counselling-related topics at other post-secondary institutes. He has also served as a consultant for the Federal Department of Justice as well as for Corrections Services Canada. In the past few years he has been working in First Nations communities in B.C., the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, as well as with the Inuit of Northern Quebec, and Labrador, assisting with the healing from residential school trauma, and training front-line staff to respond to the high incidence of violence, suicidal, addictive, and other self-harming behaviours within their communities. His work is featured in the DVD, A Healing River, available from Simon Fraser University’s Department of Criminology, as well as his presentation on Intergenerational Trauma available through Heartspeak Productions’ web page.

Joe is also known for his work in the mid-90’s as the Director and Expedition Leader for the Vancouver Ocean Challenge Society, which provided groups of at-risk youth challenging marine and wilderness adventures in a therapeutic milieu. This program was nominated for the 1997 Violence Prevention Award.

In November 2007 and 2008, Joe was a Keynote speaker and youth-focused workshop presenter at the Western Canadian Conference on Addictions and Mental Health. His topic was Trauma and Addictions. Again, in June 2008 he was the Keynote speaker at the Aboriginal Justice Forum in Vancouver. His topic was Intergenerational Trauma and Healing. In March 2009, he was the Keynote speaker at the Aboriginal Justice Strategy Conference sponsored by the Department of Justice. In 2010 he presented a training workshop to IRS frontline workers sponsored by the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs Secretariat on Intergenerational Trauma and Community Healing.

In 2009, Joe was the recipient of the Instructor of the Year Award at the Justice Institute of B.C.

He currently provides consultation and training to a variety of organizations throughout Canada.

Welcome to Inside Hypnotherapy!

noreply@blogger.com (Sheldon Bilsker) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 03:56:00 +0000

Welcome to Inside Hypnotherapy, moderated by Sheldon Bilsker, HT,RCC, Director of The Orca Institute

A bit about my background:

I am a Counseling Hypnotherapist and Registered Clinical Counselor with 30 years experience in private practice in Vancouver, BC, Canada and have trained students in Hypnotherapy and Counselling since starting my school, The Orca Institute in 1986. I am President and Founder of the International Association of Counseling Hypnotherapists.

A bit about The Orca Institute:
www.orcainstitute.com

The Orca Institute was founded on January 3, 1986, due to the growing need for such a school in British Columbia. We are Canada’s oldest and BC’s only PCTIA accredited hypnotherapy school.
The school's program was conceived and developed in response to the desire of many practitioners to achieve a high standard of hypnotherapy practice in British Columbia. The Orca Institute aims at promoting such a standard by offering professional hypnotherapy training of the highest quality. Our teaching approach is strongly influenced by our belief in the natural ability of each individual to heal themselves given the appropriate support and tools.

This blog was started to allow knowledgeable contributors to give their views on and impart thought provoking information on a wide range of topics relating to hypnotherapy and counselling. The format can include articles, video, anecdotes, etc. We hope you will enjoy taking part in this enriching and stimulating subject.