Reviews

What I Mean Is…

Adult Speech Therapy Book

At Last! Unique Adult Speech Therapy Books - use it with your own therapists, nurse or caregiver.

I can't say enough good things about this series of wonderful speech therapy books for adults who are higher functioning (but still need help) after their brain injury.

"What I Mean Is..." has been written by a qualified and innovative speech pathologist who sees patients every day that need this kind of help: help that until now wasn't available. Hilary, along with her colleague Anita Kess, has successfully created and designed exercises that help put our language 'back together' again. All the pieces of our language are there, waiting... Waiting for this!

There are 2 books in the series for mild to moderate level language challenges - sometimes known as BRAIN FOG. And one book for more seriously affected asphasic patients. All of these books can be used by you - together with your local speech therapist. Your visitors, partner and the nurses in your own rehabilitation program can also use this book with you. Using "What I Mean Is..." results in a significantly higher level of satisfaction and reduced level of frustration in your daily use of language and in your own ReBuilding process.

1. "What I Mean Is..." - A Structured Program to Improve Mild to Moderate Word Retrieval/Fluency Problems (3rd edition) by Hilary J Dibben BSc MSc S-LP(C) and Anita Kess BA MA Dip App Ling

This practical workbook includes hundreds of exercises and increases language flexibility and improves word retrieval for higher functioning clients, using a variety of approaches including categorizing words, synonyms, homonyms, analogies and so much more.

"What I Mean Is..." is now available in the ReBuildingYou MarketPlace. Click on any of the LuLu links and just a couple of days later your book will arrive - as shown here by my grandson Cobe! It was well packaged - almost undamageable - and so quick. Great service!

The technical name for those the book was written for (and I am part of this group) is the "higher functioning speech impaired" and we fall through the cracks when it comes to our need for speech therapy. Yes we can form words and ask for our basic needs. But we can't fully express all the thoughts in our minds. We're always 'losing' words and having trouble remembering exactly how to say what we want. We also say things we can't believe we said! Hence the title of this great new book!

With help we can get better (I have and so have other friends I know who were clients of Hilary's) and there is hope that we can express ourselves as fully as we did before. However... We need help to re-file the thousands of bits of information that have been exploded everywhere by our brain injuries.

As Hilary once said "Imagine a large bookcase, full of neatly filed papers... Then knock it over. There are papers all over the place - and those papers are pieces of your language. What I'm going to do is help you pick them up and refile them." And whilst that help has never been available before, it is now. If your hospital or neuro-rehab program doesn't have help available for higher-functioning patients, they too can use this book and we would be delighted to talk to them, should they wish.

Hilary Dibben wrote "What I Mean Is" because there was nothing else available - no other text book or workbook (other than for young kids) out there to help the thousands of us who can speak... But who are unable to express themselves in a way that is satisfying and meaningful to them. This book is the answer we've been waiting for.

"What I Mean Is..." started out as a collection of worksheets and gradually grew from there. The development of this book was completely in step with:

* the needs of the client and
* what worked.
Simple but brilliant. The perfect work-book for me, the client - and it works.

This book can be used directly by clients with some help from either their own speech therapist, an occupational therapist or other rehabilitation therapist, a nurse or loved one/caregiver. If you have suffered a stroke, chemobrain or any another sort of brain injury and need help expressing yourself fully and with ease, this book is for you. This book works best when there is a non-injured person working with the client - although I admit that I worked on parts of this book in the waiting room with the other brain injured patients in my group! That was great fun - we would catch each other out making mistakes!

I love this book! It's the one - or the contents are similar anyway - to the one I used myself in neuro-rehab at my local hospital.

I had no idea that I needed language therapy. In fact I was horrified at first when it was suggested! I knew secretly that I had difficulties but I thought they didn't show. And I was happy to ignore them. Everyone else seemed to think I was 'fine'. Before this recent round of rehab, no-one had even suggested that I seek speech therapy. I had spent nearly 20 years silently having trouble - struggling. Praying that no-one would notice. However speech therapy was part of this neuro-rehab package and not wanting to miss any potential improvements - I went to my first session. I took a simple test, to give Hilary an idea of my abilities - which I thought I would ace! I was shocked. I had no idea of the extent of my problem and it was my brain. Here was a woman who knew what was going on inside my head when even I didn't! I was speechless. As I realized how much difference this therapy made, I couldn't get ahead quickly enough.

The exercises here in "What I Mean Is..." seem simple. In reality they are very powerful. I've always been able to write my thoughts down - now I can speak my thoughts too. And I can now see clearly what my difficulties are - which is the first step to healing and real improvement. Now I know what it is I need to re-learn. And how to do it.

Here is a picture of Hilary (far right), Anita (blonde), me Julie (white blouse) and our publishing editor Marilyn at a restaurant celebrating the completion of the project.

Words and language are such a vital and important part of 'me' - being able to express myself fully was such an important part of my recovery. Thank you Hilary, from the bottom of my heart.

I wanted to check out the company - www.Lulu.com - that's fulfilling the orders for the book and make sure they are 100% reliable and that your credit card details will be safe. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that I have been blown away by their integrity and professionalism. Ordering the book was easy and quick and just over a week later (they sent me 2 emails meantime to let me know where they were in the fulfillment process) I received my book. As you can see from the pictures on this page the book arrived in a cardboard package, firmly sealed inside in a protective bubble. Quick, easy, safe, very professional.

I will happily publish and factor in the ratings of every reviewer of these powerful speech therapy books for adults, as soon as I get that feedback. ORDER! your books now. And please let me know how you find them.

2. "Are You Listening" (not yet available, except by written request - come on Hilary! Shall we do an audio version?)

To hone listening, verbal working memory, and speed of auditory processing skills this book uses practical auditory exercises like verbal reasoning, oral directions, shapes and numbers, directed drawings, riddles, analogies and maps.
by Hilary Dibben BSc MSc S-LP(C)

This book will be coming later in 2010 (we hope). Become a subscriber to ReBuildingYou and read in the VillageCrier newsletter (first issue coming out soon) the moment these books are available.

3. This book for those with more difficult speech and language problems, "The Barrier Book" by Hilary Dibben BSc MSc L-LP(C), is a series of thought provoking exercises to encourage and enable the aphasic to communicate more clearly with those around him.

The very thing higher functioning clients are unable to do is to express clearly what they need - which is kind of obvious? Someone else has to point out what they can't do. (No-one could easily see it in themselves.) Honesty - not criticism though! - is needed please - and maybe that comes best from a therapist? Help is at hand. As more patients are helped we must make a loud chorus of appreciation - and a demand for the help we now know we need. Only then will the Health Authorities and Medical Insurance Companies understand and provide for this need.
These excellent speech therapy books for adults are unique and hot off the press and are available only through ReBuildingYou.
Reaching clients through other therapists proved just too difficult. But with the help of the internet, I'm hoping that this will change! We need you to forward this information on to your friends who might benefit from these books. If you are a therapist, please order a copy or two for your clinic. Librarians please make this book available in your public libraries. Family doctors please know that this book is available - and if you even suspect that speech difficulties might be experienced by your patient, recommend this book (and ask libraries to carry it...)

Clients and caregivers can now learn about these books on the internet and ask their speech therapists about them. And no-one would be happier than the professionals in the rehabilitation field to be able to help higher functioning patients with language needs to reach their potential - once they realise that this is a need. We have to ask for what we need - I didn't and no-one said to me that they noticed that there was a change in my language and that maybe I could check it out. Friends please be our friends...

I would also like to invite you to send in your experiences which will help us know better what works and how to modify the treatment that's available. This whole subject is very new and we need feedback in order to improve and progress. Your thoughts - however unimportant they may seem to you - are really important to us. (Let Hilary, Anita and I know. If I can I would like to publish your feedback - and if you would prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too.)

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warmly, Julie

SOTA Blood Purifier

SOTA Blood Purifier, Silver Pulser Zapper

How can you rise above all the issues facing you right now if you are constantly sick? I can face colds, flu and infections with confidence with my SOTA zapper. The technology is simple and I would love for it to help you to keep healthy too - it's so much easier to deal with life when you are feeling well.

For 21 months it kept me completely well even when I am with friends and clients who are unwell. And I discover that many other people who use these silver pulsers have similar experiences. They really work! Read more about how it makes a difference to real lives. Once you are part of the Sota Community you can read many similar stories to this one.

For several years I've worked with a sweetheart of a man - Humphrey - who wears one of these devices at work several times a week for an hour. I thought this was just one of his quirkinesses! In fact I didn't really believe such a simple thing could really make a difference and I scoffed at it! I was so wrong.

Survivors of major physical trauma suffer with exhaustion at the drop of a hat - almost without exception. One day, when I had been exhausted for what seemed like forever and I kept getting colds and infections and had to go to the doctor repeatedly, Humphrey mentioned that he hadn't been sick for years. Luckily I heard him and I finally asked him about his 'gadget' and started to find out about electronic blood purification. Many supplements, vitamins and exercise help but none more so than the zapper. If I had to choose just one thing to use from now on, I would choose one of these devices. If you decide to join me, you are welcome to use the ReBuildingYou code: CA50333 and get a 10% discount!

This little gadget is one of the most effective things I've had the good luck to come across. I can't believe that I didn't listen to Humphrey earlier. I guess there are so many demands on our attention and we become burned out. However, if you can spare me a few moments of your time, I would like to share the news so that you can benefit too. By sharing what we discover, we can help each other to ReBuild our lives much more quickly and successfully than we could ever hope to do alone. ReBuildingYou clients get 10% off when using this code at SOTA: CA50333 or CLICK HERE to order.

Here's the story behind my using the SOTA - you can also see how it has affected the lives of other people by clicking here...

First of all, some background so that this story makes sense. Every human body has quite a bit of 'gunk' circulating in the blood at any one time. By gunk I mean viruses, bacteria, fungi and other parasites. A healthy body and immune system can easily manage this extra load and keep it under control. Most of the time. Until we get run down...

However, ReBuilding your life from any kind of trauma is already asking your body and immune system to work at maximum output. After all, only a maximum effort will let you slowly pull yourself back up to a life that is satisfying to you. Exhausting. Something any ReBuilder can testify to. Any extra load is just too much and the result is exhaustion, candida (aka yeast or thrush), colds and sore throats, minor cuts that won't heal, more serious infections. This is similar to the general 'unwellness' and the being 'run down' which follows most illnesses.

The body and mind can perform miracles - without a doubt. If we let them. They can move you far beyond what traditional medicine can do. My doctors told me I would never walk again, let alone be able to work. Thankfully they were wrong. Mind over matter will triumph almost every time. With support... Although our own body is the most amazing healer it needs every bit of help it can get to try and level the playing field when it's working full-tilt. That's where this little gadget comes in.

Every ten minutes or so, most of your blood makes a complete circuit of the body: it passes by every pulse point once in 10 minutes. The zapper (SOTA silver pulser) affixes over one of your pairs of pulse points - say the radial and ular arteries of your right wrist - and zaps your blood as it courses through your veins underneath the skin. This electrical current is completely harmless - except to the microscopic organisms enjoying a free ride and often wreaking havoc in our blood. In fact stimulation with certain electricity and magnetic fields has been shown to energize and increase health, regardless of the effect on the freeloaders.

Ordinarily our immune systems seek out and attack/control viruses, bacteria, yeasts, parasites and any other invaders in the body. That's a major part of their job. However when we've been sick and/or stressed for any length of time, the immune system becomes sluggish and exhausted.

silver-pulser-kit I love the fact that the SOTA blood purifier is totally non invasive. There is no medication. No nasty side effects. This gadget is completely side-effect-free! We only need to wear this gadget for about an hour at a time. Actually I use it every 2 - 5 days when I'm feeling well and if I sense a cold coming (or other 'bug') I use it more often. There are various 'protocols' recommended for various serious conditions like cancer and AIDS - ranging from 20 minutes a day. In fact the improvement to the health of AIDS patients is comparable and even better than with some of the most up to date and expensive drugs. Rather than worry about which protocol is best, I think it's important to 'just use it'. Over time you will adjust your use to what is most effective for you - many of the exact protocols are very similar. When I feel my neck glands starting to ache and swell, I make sure and use the SOTA for at least an hour and when I wake up next morning, I'm well. Preferably you would do it every couple of days and avoid any symtptoms at all (I'm afraid I sometimes forget!).

There have been reports of Herzheimers effect (caused by the dying off of a large amount of toxins) making you feel flu-like after the first few uses - and this may be true depending on your individual state of health and disease. If you do experience a Herzheimer effect, it will disappear after a few days, when the sudden increase in toxins leaving the body has regularized again. Personally I didn't have a problem and I felt slightly better after the very first use - I expect your reaction will vary.

After 17 months (in March 2010), I got overconfident and reduced the time I used it to once or twice a week for an hour. I had also started to doubt that it was the zapper that was keeping me well: I thought I was just healtheir. There was a particularly nasty bug around and many of my friends caught it. They were sick for days and missed work, some for as long as a week or more. For the first time in nearly a year and a half, I also caught this bug. The zapper seems very efficient at keeping bugs at bay but when you are full of bugs, it's difficult to get rid of them all. However, using my zapper for 2 or 3 hours every day for a few days kept me only mildly sick and I didn't lose a single day of work. So it can also make viruses and infections much less severe. In the morning I would wake up feeling sinussy and achy but after an hour of zapping each morning, I felt OK. Not brilliant. But OK. At bedtime I would use my SOTA again for an hour or two. Four days later I was fine again. I will use my zapper regularly from now on.

How To Use the Silver Pulser Blood Purifier

The SOTA consists of two little silver bars/electrodes that you slip into white cotton sleeves and put them over your pulse points in your wrist. These electrodes are moistened with salty water - the concentration of salt is not too important and the cotton should be just moist and not dripping wet. There is a black neoprene wrist strap that you then fasten over the electrodes with velcro. If the band itself gets wet, the electrodes can sting and so I blot the electrodes before I affix them. Following these instructions is important: you must use the cotton sleeves and to avoid tingling/stinging skin you have to moisten the cotton with salt water but not wet the skin or the neoprene band between the electrodes. It's also important to get the electrodes in exactly the right place by adjusting them as necessary while they're in place. Zapping should never sting although you can feel the electricity pulsing under the neoprene band.

The next step is simple... You turn on the small handset, attached to the electrodes by wires, and turn up the dial until you can feel the pulsing current. If the electrodes sting at all, turn down the current and move the electrodes until they are comfortable. When they are in the right spot, the electrodes do not hurt or sting and it's important to find 'the right spot' - however your fingers might twitch! This does not hurt at all when done properly, although it is common for the wrist to be a little red immediately after use (this goes away and you can use aloe gel to soothe and moisturize the skin if you wish).

Once the device is turned on, I put the handset into a pocket and carry on with whatever activity I'm doing. If I'm typing sometimes I have to turn down the dial because my fingers twitch and keep typing the wrong letters!

Before I used the SOTA, I caught every bug around and was sick at the drop of a hat. I also felt exhausted on a daily basis. Since using this gadget I have not had a single cold or sore throat - and I'm talking nearly 17 months here and despite sitting in a car with the windows closed (it was raining and cold) with my son who had a terrible cold. My best friend and her family had the H1N1 virus and I spent time with them but stayed well. According to my doctor and to my blood tests, I am also particularly vulnerable to illness. However... My doctor is amazed - and I am delighted - that I stay so well!

With the SOTA Silver Pulser my body is free to concentrate its resources and precious energy on healing, ReBuilding and staying fit.

I was only able to find a limited amount of good information about gadgets similar to this - Dr Bob Beck had done a lot of work on it and had nothing but positive things to say. One study was with AIDS patients who remained well and symptom free without expensive drugs. It's also used for cancer patients and to restore health. There were also some interesting studies of a much larger - and successful - German machine but it seem these studies must have been done before the internet. Dr Hulda Clark also has a zapper - it looks less user friendly. And this is important because to be effective, you need to be able to use this with ease regularly. It also looks more complicated and I have learned that the technical details with zappers are very much less important - luckily so, because its simplicity is one of the reasons its so user friendly. However, I will try out one of these zappers as soon as possible and report on it here.

Continuing with traditional medicine is a 'must' (only your doctor can tell you when you can reduce treatment) and concurrent physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, acupuncture – and several other therapies and devices - are also strongly recommended.

The following books are about new technology and health (including the silver pulser). The Oxygen Revolution: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: The books are 'When Technology Fails; The Natural Way to Heal and 60 Ways To Create Superior Health; The Oxygen Revolution: Groundbreaking New Treatment for Stroke, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Arthritis, Autism, Learning Disabilities and More by Paul Harch and may well be of interest to complement your interest in silver pulser technology and health:

“Princess” – Saudi Women

A Global Social Issue...
As some of you may know I was raised in the Middle East. Not in Saudi Arabia like the women in this book, but in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) - both countries mentioned in 'Princess'. I grew up surrounded by mysterious women cloaked in black. I was - and still am - fascinated by the life of extreme contrasts that are obvious everywhere in the Middle East.

When I was eight, I remember an Arab woman - a beggar - coming to our door with a snotty-faced, semi-naked daughter. My mother and I rushed around finding clothes to give her, together with some money and when she opened her abaaya to take our gifts we noticed that she was weighted down with gold jewelry and coins. Never one to keep a still tongue, I asked her why she was begging and why her child had no clothes when she obviously had such wealth hanging around her neck. I embellished my pigeon Arabic with gestures and she replied in the same way: that these jewels were 'her worth' and that she could not use them to buy food and clothing.

On another occasion, when I was seven years old and driving home from school with my Dad, a woman pushed her child out in front of our car. My Dad's car hit the little girl, who was about my age. We were both horrified. My Dad immediately jumped out of the car and tried to scoop up the child in his arms so that he could lay her beside me on the back seat and take her to the American hospital. The mother protested that 'this was Allah's will' and that my Dad should not intervene with fate. She told him that he must pay her and that her family would see to the child. To this day I cannot remember what happened next: I was frozen with horror. What kind of mother could do this? Other than a terrified one whose life was worthless? There was no question of investigation or liability. A simple tariff was in place that dictated the amount one would pay to the aggrieved owner should your car hit a dog or goat or cow or camel. Or a female child.

I became very aware of the social issues all around us, although I was confused by the adult Western women's insistence that these Arab women 'liked' the way things were. I guess women had only been 'free' for about 40 years in England and as little as 10 years in Canada so we weren't sure enough of our own status?

As a child I was bursting with questions... We were entertained in magnificent 'men's' palaces on the beach. The royal family in Kuwait was the Al Sabah family and it was a larger family than I'd ever come across before. Young princes in their late teens and early 20's almost always went to schools in England or America. And yet... On one occasion I remember they had arranged for a real formula-one racing car to be delivered - and drove it straight into a wall amid howls of laughter. Immediately I had them pegged in my mind as spoiled brats.

When we were invited to dinner one day I discovered an opulent toilet - with small fish swimming in the bowl because the water was pumped straight in from - and out to - the sea. I got into trouble for releasing a goat - bleating pitifully - that I found tethered to the gold taps of the marble bathtub in this same bathroom, waiting to be slaughtered for our supper.

I couldn't understand why there were no Arab women or children in sight. The royal princes laughed at my continual questions and tried to persuade my Dad to promise me in marriage as soon as I was old enough. Luckily he laughingly refused...

My Dad adored me and I grew up wishing that I was both a boy and yet, at the same time, sincerely believing that I could do anything I set my heart on. A very lucky belief as it turned out!

I thoroughly enjoyed "Princess" by Jean P Sasson which answered all the questions that I ever had as a child about Saudi Arabian women and all Arab women. I love the fair and balanced way this book is written - and I'm horrified that 20 years later, the rest of the world still calmly allows things to carry on in much the same way in Saudi Arabia. It seems that our leaders only champion women's rights when their own greed to oil is threatened. It's one of my dearest wishes that, with the help of Google, the world will eventually become one fair, safe and just home for us all.

For further information I found this website to be interesting and informative:

http://www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_spring03/eyeon/women.html

Bright-Sided

Bright-Sided - How the Relentness Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America

by Barbara Ehrenreich (also brilliant author of Nickel and Dimed)

I loved this book! I found myself mentally high-fiving Barbara and thoroughly enjoyed learning about a subject I've been aware of for a while but have never really found time to explore.

Barbara Ehrenreich has written a powerful book about a subject that is bound to be a difficult one for some people - and yet really important pivotal - with both humour and candid decency.

There is an almost insane pressure on everyone – although this book is mainly about Americans - to be positive and cheerful these days. Being positive, smiling, upbeat and (as Ehrenreich noted) shallow is 'The Secret' to success, good health and riches. Imagine it - dream it, taste it, smell it and smile a lot - and the good life will come to you. If you don't, heaven help you. Scary news - if you believe it.

Employees have been 'let go' - fired - because they don't look happy (and grateful?) enough. Cold-hearted 'wisdom' tells us to jettison spouses, family and friends who, according to the standards they will help learn, are 'too negative'. This is crazy! Perceived ‘negativity’ from our spouse and friends often points to work that we need to do on ourselves and noticing their behaviour is a valuable clue that can help us find our way.

NVC (non violent communication) aka compassionate communication states that every single one of our feelings has a vitally important role to play and to stifle them and condition oneself to smile disconnectedly through our experiences is to further alienate ourselves from our real selves. A sure-fire way to hurtle toward depression. Our feelings point us in the direction of our needs, a knowledge of which can allow us to address everything that makes us whole. To deny our true feelings and camouflage them with pink ribbons or a confident grin is a recipe for personal disaster.

Ignorance of our own needs encourages a feeling of helplessness – a precursor, I believe, to unhappiness and depression. Among the hundreds of human needs are integrity, rest, comfort and ease. And I wonder: how can we rest and enjoy ease and comfort when we are constantly worried about an uncertain future? Or when we have to be constantly on the alert for what may be unfair competition (from phoney smiling super-people or mega-corporations)?

Motivational speakers and coaches abound to help keep you on track to compete in a world that is ever more cutthroat. Peak performance will definitely earn you more success. However, performing at your peak all the time as we try to maintain our ‘spoiled’ western lifestyle - while we now have to compete with workers from other less affluent, cultures and countries - is a guaranteed way send your stress through the roof. Which in turn will make you more susceptible to unhappiness, depression and just about every physical disease and, eventually, death. (Although I suppose that supports natural selection and will weed out the less economically and mentally healthy on a global basis?)

This is a recipe for craziness and unhappiness, documented clearly and with clarity and an accurate sense of realism and the ridiculous by Ehrenreich.

Cancer patients, in particular breast cancer patients and many other women’s cancers, are surrounded by sickly sweet pink toys and coerced into insisting that their cancer has ‘rescued them from a life of meaninglessness’. Which is a huge insult, presuming that someone who becomes sick has a meaningless life?

To add insult to injury, if they don't do well on the horrendous chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, it's implied that it's 'their fault' for not ‘believing properly' somehow and they're excluded from the survivors club. If I have to have cancer, I wish it could be prostate cancer where I can just treat it as a simple disease and feel comfortable not liking it.

This book is a ‘must-read’. It will open your eyes to the lunacy of the system we live in. Which will allow you to start sending the necessary feedback to the powers-that-be to change our course to a more sane society. This is our society and our future - and that of our children. Thank God we live in a democracy and can choose the leadership we follow...

Happy reading! Julie

DVD “In Treatment” HBO

Counselling - DVD "In Treatment" (Season One)

Written by Karleen Nevery

An HBO Series highly recommended to therapists, clients and every day people who enjoy dialogue driven plots and intense character studies...

by Karleen Nevery, Professional Vancouver Counsellor

I have a new favourite HBO series! It may hold a greater appeal to those of us in the field of “helping people” through talk therapy. The program features an ongoing, fictional account of Psychologist Dr. Paul Weston as he meets with five weekly clients (or patients) over the course of nine weeks. It is filmed in Monday-through-Friday half-hour episodes, with a different recurring client each weekday.

The show unfolds like a succession of one-act plays, and each session builds into a spellbinding psychological epic. "In Treatment" is driven by words, and the images and feelings they trigger. We as viewers are invited to see into the lives of each client (a phenomenon rather familiar to those of us in the field).
I was hooked from the very first episode when I found myself captivated by the exchange between Psychologist Paul and his first patient Laura, an attractive and alluring young female doctor. She's crying, and then describes an erotic tale that would bring a blush to the cheek of many an experienced therapist. Soon we realize Laura has fallen in love with Paul, who she has been seeing professionally for 12 months. And so begins the development of an intense tale of transference and counter transference between therapist and client.
Alex is Paul's Tuesday client. He's a cocky Navy fighter pilot with an attitude, a troubled marriage and unfinished business with his father. He has entered therapy with the objective to deal with a harrowing battle experience and its fallout…and then get back to the war in Iraq as swiftly as he can.
Sophie, Paul's Wednesday client, is a defensive teenage gymnast with suicidal tendencies and a complicated attachment to her male, adult coach.
Jake and Amy are Paul's Thursday clients. They are a married couple struggling with differing views about what to do about an unplanned pregnancy. Amy may initially come across to viewers as a cold hearted career woman who was raised financially priviledged. Jake, on the other hand, is uneducated and comes from an entirely different socioeconomic background. Both are angry, and in these couples counseling sessions, Paul is kept on his professional toes in an ongoing effort to maintain some kind of healthy dialogue and connection between the pair.
When work ends at the end of the day for Paul, we peek into Paul’s personal life to learn that he and his wife are struggling in their own marriage. His wife’s perception that Paul is preoccupied with his work and his patients, appears to be a contributing factor to the breakdown.
Paul discusses his failing marital situation, his clients (mostly his attraction to Laura) and his ongoing challenges and triggers with his supervisor Gina at the end of each week. He and Gina also have a somewhat complicated professional and personal history. Personally, I found the supervision sessions the highlight of the series. They really help pull the plot together.
I recommend small groups of therapists buy the set together, and then consider organizing a regular weekly “movie night” to immerse themselves in the series. Some time for critique and feedback might be worked into the evening. Spellbinding, informative, addictive, soapy, an easy show to get hooked on.

I give it an A plus. I hope you enjoy!

Karleen Nevery RPC, Vancouver BC

Thanks for this great review Karleen - I enjoy your tastes and respect your opinion and so will definitely give this a try! Julie - Victoria and Online Registered Counsellor

My Stroke of Insight

A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey

Written by Marilyn Carr-Haris

Rating: *****

Don't miss the free video clip below - one of the most inspirational I've seen. This is a rare account where the author is both doctor and patient and takes us on a incredible journey. In her interesting and beautifully written memoir, My Stroke of Insight, brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor reflects on her recovery from a massive stroke, which helped her understand the power of thoughts and their role in creating a balanced brain. Her unique book provides readers with both a scientific and personal account of what happens to the brain after it experiences a stroke, and the relationship between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

What I Mean Is... is an excellent workbook for those of us whose language was damaged by stroke or brain injury and who want to get back to 'excellent'. I include myself (when I say 'us') because without it in my recovery, my ability to use the language I love and to find the words I needed in everyday conversation was seriously compromised. And I had no idea.

My Stroke of Insight - an excellent book - also available as an audio-book.

On December 10, 1996, Taylor woke up with a sharp pain behind her left eye. She had a stroke that caused severe hemorrhaging in the left hemisphere of her brain. Her left brain, which processes language, thought and memory, became dysfunctional, while her consciousness shifted to the right brain. As her left brain deteriorated, she began to lose her sense of individual identity. However, her sense of well-being and intuition grew as her right brain became dominant.

Taylor’s scientific and personal account of her journey reveals the existence of a euphoric and mystical centre in the right brain. During her rehabilitation, she reclaimed the power of thought that originates in the left brain, while retaining the sense of wholeness and euphoria from her right brain. The stroke taught her that by “stepping to the right” of our left brains, we can uncover the feelings of well-being and peace that are often overshadowed by our left-brain chatter.

As a person recovering from a spinal cord injury, I found this book inspirational. Through her personal experience with stroke, Dr. Taylor made a conscious effort to retain her intuitive, passionate, right-brained self while rebuilding the circuits of her left brain. She demonstrated that we can choose the value systems and thought patterns of our left brains and take responsibility for our lives. Like Dr. Taylor, I attribute my successful rehabilitation to maintaining a harmonious balance between the different aspects of my self.

This idea of balance ties into the theme of the RBY website: the need to balance our emotional, physical, cognitive, practical, and joyous aspects of our selves. A brilliant book, audio book and video...

In this video clip Dr Jill Bolte Taylor talks clearly and vividly about her own experience of stroke – what a gift to us non-brain-scientists. Another gift for me is Jill herself: she has made an incredible (if difficult) recovery. She is an amazing speaker and it’s hard to believe that not so long ago she had lost all of her language and cognitive abilities… Rating: *****

What I Mean Is... is an excellent workbook for those of us whose language was damaged by stroke or brain injury. I include myself because, without it, my ability to use the language I love and to find the words I needed in everyday conversation was seriously compromised - and I had no idea.

FREE VIDEO CLIP: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Still Alice

Lisa Genova

Written by Julie Taylor

Rating: ***** Another great book...

One of the best novels I have read for a while - I would love to see books like this one be required reading in English/real-life classes in our schools. Still Alice is beautifully written and is a wonderfully healing book. The subject is one that, sadly, many of us will encounter in our lifetimes.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova gives us an insightful window into the private thoughts - and struggles - of a woman in her prime who has to come to terms with a dianosis of Alzheimers Disease. I very rarely cry during movies - let alone when reading a book - but this novel proved to be the exception. There was one place in particular where the story prodded at my own experiences and tears poured freely down my cheeks. My own grandmother had Alzheimer's and my father died before he would have shown symptoms (I suspected he had the beginnings of it?). I also have a brain injury and at times my own experiences are strikingly similar to those that Alice describes at the beginning of the book. I struggle with the thought that it will be almost impossible for me to know for sure if and when my symptoms have jumped rails and switched from brain injury to Alzheimer's? Something which is not beyond the realms of the possible given that not only do I have it in my family but I've also experienced brain injury, which is said to be another 'risk factor'.

I carried on reading, gripped by the sensitive and very real way that Lisa Genova takes Alice from pre-diagnosis to full-blown Alzheimer's, somehow managing to preserve grace and humanity every single step of the way. I learned so much - about Alice, her family, my grandmother, myself, people. I couldn't believe how little I knew about this disease when my own grandmother - we - lived with it for at least a decade. I was sad that I hadn't known the facts of what I learned in these pages but what saddens me even more is the deep loss I feel that we don't know more about the lives of the so-called 'disabled' among us. Our existence is so enriched by their often amazing perception and gifts to us all.

This is Ph.D neuroscientist Lisa Genova's first novel and, I hope, just the first of many. She is also a columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Lisa managed to create a hitherto completely unvisited Wonderland for Alice with a distinctly human and kind Mad Hatter.

The Brain That Changes Itself

by Norman Doidge MD

Written by Marilyn Carr-Haris

An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable.

We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole; blind people who learn to see; learning disorders cured; IQs raised; aging brains rejuvenated; stroke patients learning to speak; children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace; depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated; and lifelong character traits changed.

Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential. The Brain That Changes Itself is one of those books from which we learn effortlessly - I know you'll enjoy it!

And of course to really keep your brain in trim, play www.freerice.com - a FREE wordgame online sanctioned by the United Nations whereby with every answer you get right, 10 grains of grice are donated to ease world hunger. Sharpen your brain and help someone in need at the same time!

The Living Matrix

The Living Matrix DVD Review is a movie that I almost missed and I am so glad I didn't.

Every month the Positive Living Centre holds a movie night for exactly this sort of film. For some silly reason I had put off seeing The Living Matrix for several months - as my business partner Martin Guay would tell me, nodding wisely and smiling, “Ah, this is the Conflict of the Sheep, my friend”. I was determined to watch at least part of this film to at least prove the steadfastness of the poor old sheep.

This morning I watched the movie again - I ignored the phone and the list of other jobs I had to do. I was speechless. And there was something else in my heart... A sadness. I decided to write this review and urge you to watch this movie too, in the hopes that even one person might reach out and seek healing, that their life might be restored to them. It is a wonderful movie. A clear, well set-out ‘document’ that proves its case beyond any reasonable doubt. The case for mind over matter, that I know so well, personally.

Lynne Taggart, author of ‘The Field’ explains how ancient civilizations and native cultures believed in a holistic universe of which we were part. Epigenetics is fast becoming accepted as the leading research field in our own universities and hospitals - the results of which research will likely not be made available to the sick for decades. There are 30,000 different variations for every gene, which is indeed a blueprint that controls proteins. The human genome project has shown that we humans are essentially the same as chimpanzees. But are we? If I gave you concrete and bricks and glass, how many different designs of house could you come up with? The genes are the concrete and bricks and glass. The thousands of designs are the epigenetics.

I'm confused? Chronic disease is rampant and there is often very little that Western (allopathic) medicine can offer. We know that. We know well that the answer does not lie with our family doctor or the hospital. And yet we hang on to this possibility and spend millions of dollars on it. We keep doing more of what we've already done. Even though it fails. We refuse to explore the not-so-new ‘new’ (it’s been around for over 80 years) alternative medicine. Part of me is very frustrated: surely my friends and family who have lived with me and seen for themselves my recovery from supposedly ‘permanent’ sickness would at least want to explore the alternatives for themselves when they are sick? Part of me is just hurt. And sad. To see such long and painful struggles.

The Reconnection by Dr Eric Pearl are two of the books whose authors appeared in this movie. They are both excellent writers and I will be reviewing their books - although there are ample reviews (click on the book icon) already linked to here through Amazon. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown is an excellent novel by the author of The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons.

Try an alternative ‘energy’ medicine (for example Acupuncture or Reiki, among many) or ‘informational’ medicine (TOT, NLP or Total Biology therapies, among many) in addition for complete healing. Seek out alternatives after the acute phase of the disease is treated and when Western medicine no longer has the answer.

Sometimes there are no answers in Western allopathic medicine. This is a fact. A simple fact. We humans are much more than Descartes and Newton decided that were. They successfully ‘sold us’ in the belief that we were the sum of many parts that could be reduced to molecules and chemicals and that this would explain our whole existence and provide answers to every disease. This just isn’t the case. But somehow we want to make this true - we were so successfully ‘sold’. We continue flogging a horse who can barely struggle up the multi-million dollar road that we built for him.

For over 25 years I have known, for sure, that there was more than simple parts. At least in me. I experienced first-hand a healing that flew in the face of Western medicine. I recovered beyond any expectation: except my own. I never doubted my own healing. I believed totally. Gradually hundreds and thousands of similar examples have come to light: this is not ‘just me’. It could so easily be you too...

Take my hand - I’m offering it to you - and step out into the fabulous world described to us in The Living Matrix. I am a ‘safe’ bet. I was the baby girl who, although I could walk well, turned around and climbed safely down the curb, backwards so that I could hold on. I am also the baby girl who grew up hearing, over and over, that the mind is stronger than the body and belief alone is strong enough to ensure health. I believed it. And I healed.

Keep the Western medicine that you know and add new alternative therapies to create healing. This is the equivalent of negotiating the curb by climbing down backwards.

In the The Living Matrix, Greg Becker and Harry Massey masterfully build a clear history for us, so we can see how this new energy/information medicine fits into our lives. They show us real examples from ordinary people - one of them just a young child - so that we can see for ourselves the results of Reconnective Healing and the work of Dr Eric Pearl. We hear from acknowledged expert after expert and see with amazing clarity - and the help of first-class cinematography - exactly how and why this new paradigm works.

This was a beautiful film that helped cement my own understanding - just a little, because I am not a doctor. It also reminded me of the urgency, on an individual level, that this medicine be shared. My mom went today, November 20 2009, to the hospital to have a cortisone injection in her knee, which has been so painful that she has been unable to move out of her chair. At the weekend I was urging her to at least ‘try’ healing with Martin Guay and myself, after she had her injection. And she agreed, which was wonderful. Although I'm not confident that she'll actually want to do it. Interestingly, The Living Matrix also told of an experiment where a large group of patients with arthritis were divided into two. One group was operated on in an accepted way to improve arthritis in the knee. The other group was operated on - at least the scars looked identical. But nothing was touched inside the knee. Both groups had exactly the same relief from further pain. The placebo effect has long been accepted, by doctors and patients alike.

To sum up? An impossible task - other than to urge you to see the film for yourself! There are a few points I want to pull out - and there are so many... These are some of the important take-aways that I recognized:

Belief is everything.

Take total - total - responsibility for your own health

Choose the thoughts you think - some are conducive to healing - and remember, -ve thoughts hang around us like a net

The gene is subordinate to the epigene

Go from a disease centered model to a healing centered model of medicine

Information medicine and energy medicine are the same thing

Belief works

Hold on to your allopathic medicine (climbing down the curb carefully). Allow Western medicine to help to reduce active disease, where it can do so much to help and without which you may not survive.

A few months ago a traditional Native Healer, White Thunderbird, singled me out and declared that he clearly saw in me “the woman who stands in the light. A healer.” He also told me that I should not be afraid of “my light” and I should “step into it”. I was fascinated - and indeed I do feel unsure and shy of what I intuit are my abilities? More and more I'm learning and I will step into my light. Thank you. I want to do this.

Remember, to believe is essential...

You're welcome to check out my other website, www.HealingRevealed.com where, with my business partner Martin Guay, I explore further into energy or informational healing.

Warm wishes, Julie

Year of Magical Thinking

The Year of Magical Thinking - How To Overcome Grief by Joan Didion (casts a personal window on how to overcome grief)

Knowing how to navigate our way through grief, how to stop grieving and how best to support someone we love who is going through grief - is the subject of many self-help books. Grief is such a painful place to be and when we or someone we love is in that place, obviously in so much pain, our desperation to understand how to overcome grief and 'do it right' is palpable.

I remember feeling downright desperation when I had to stand by and watch my husband go through horrible pain when his brother was killed in an avalanche. Loss is always difficult to bear let alone the sudden loss of someone young and healthy. I sought advice on how to overcome grief and what to do to best support my husband from doctors, counsellors, psychologists and friends. No-one really had helpful answers for me. What are the best things we can do in a situation like this?

As a counsellor here in Victoria, these are questions and a subject that I've since explored - and I have never seen it expressed better than when I saw the play in 'The Year of Magical Thinking'. I've never heard expressed that there is no tangible way to help... But that your presence is nonetheless vital and saying nothing is often 'the right thing'.

Everything written and taught about how to overcome grief tries to 'understand' and 'make sense' of a period of time that is, quite honestly, without sense and impossible to understand. After severe loss - or trauma - there is at least a year when the thinking of those involved is nothing short of 'magical'. There is no predictability, rhyme, reason or logic involved here.

How can we help someone we love to go through the terrible period of grieving? All we can do is stand by our loved one, listen to repeated eulogies or complaints, accept whatever feelings they experience - and know that it may take a year - or even 2 - before our loved one starts to function normally again. They need us just to love them, as unconditionally as possible. Allow them to follow their intuition, say nothing, listen deeply and just love them. Encourage them to stay with their grief - because within that experience are the pieces you need to rebuild.

We can offer some tools that encourage staying in the experience of grief and meditation, journaling and poetry fall into that category. All types of meditation are helpful - both for the bereaved and for those who have to stand by helplessly. Meditation is 'time spent with yourself' and therefore time spent going over that which you're grieving. Trust that within you are all the answers you need. Along those lines grief journaling is also a very good idea - a chance to thoroughly debrief the experience or connection you are grieving.

Reading about the experiences of other people is often not interesting when you're grieving but writing your own grief and loss poems may well be. These are often poignantly beautiful and helpful reminders to those in a help role.

Psychological theory surrounding grief has been addressed by many, perhaps most famously the Kubler Ross stages of grief which are outlined here. Stages of grief are no longer popular - see 'The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After Loss' by George A. Bonanno Ph.D. which is featured here along with Kubler Ross's book 'On Life after Death, revised by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Caroline Myss in 2008

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Reviews

Adult Speech Therapy Book

SOTA Blood Purifier, Silver Pulser Zapper

Counselling - DVD "In Treatment" (Season One)

A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey

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