"CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE"
Welcome to Attitudinal Healing Western Australia
Attitudinal Healing Western Australia (Inc) (“AHWA”) provides ongoing education and support services, including support groups and training, to the community of the greater Perth metropolitan area in Western Australia.
AHWA is an independent community service organisation that is a registered “not-for-profit” incorporated association under the Associations Incorporation Act 2015 of Western Australia. We are privileged to be associated with a global network of groups and individuals sharing the common goals rooted in the Principles of Attitudinal Healing under the umbrella of Attitudinal Healing International (“AHI”).
Attitudinal Healing ("AH") was founded by Dr Gerald Jampolsky.in the 1970s. Dr Jampolsky was a graduate of Stanford University and was internationally recognised in the fields of psychiatry, health, business and education. Over the past forty five years Attitudinal Healing has expanded from small beginnings in California to a world-wide network of independent centres in over 30 countries.
“At our centres we do not believe it is our function to change people or “fix them up”. We are all here for our own healing and to learn to let go of what blocks our experience of love and prevents us from having peace of mind. We believe that by first healing our own hearts and minds, we can then bring healing to the world we see. It is our absolute conviction that the most important gift we can give another person is our own inner peace and unconditional love.” – Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.
NEWS
New Attitudinal Healing group “Living Life Fully: Discovering the True Self”
"What is the difference between making a point and creating a connection; between the person who can transmit information and the one who is able to transform lives?" (Michael Verde, Memory Bridge Foundation)
Using this idea as inspiration, a new on-line Attitudinal Healing group entitled "Living Life Fully; Discovering the True Self" is to start in September 2022. It follows on from the very successful “GRIP (Get Real Inner Peace}” groups held in June and July 2022.
The new six-session series will commence on Thursday 22 September 2022 and will run each Thursday from 8:00 am to 9:30 am through to 20 October 2022. It is open to international participants and initial indications are that group members will be joining from Western Australia, China and USA.
The group will be facilitated by Geralyn Russell from the AHI network in USA and Trish Halvorsen from AHWA in Perth. It will –
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provide opportunities to consider some of the milestones, events, and crossroads that have been pivotal in our life and a driving force that continues to beckon us forward; and
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invite us to explore concepts of awareness, essence, deep listening, loss, choice, and integration.
In essence, the aim of the course is to continue discovering how to live our lives more fully and with a deeper sense of connection.
Workshop space is limited, so if you would like attend, please contact Trish ASAP at email: info@attitudinalhealingwa.org.au.
Michael Verde on-line workshop: The Lost Art of Dying
"Since love is eternal, death need not be viewed as fearful."
Date/Time: October 21, 2022 at 8:00 am
The art of dying is the art of living. What we truly love comes to life in a form that death cannot touch, much less extinguish. At the end of our biological life we feel the passage of our spirit into all that we have loved on earth. The more intimately we live with all that we know—other people, our self, the natural world, and that which transcends nature—the less death is frightening. We can say this in another way as well: The art of dying is one that we practice, or not, every day of our lives.
Join Michael Verde as he illuminates the book that has inspired these reflections on it: L.S. Dugdale's The Lost Art of Dying. The presentation will penetrate the often-superficial truisms about the meaning of life and death that circulate culturally, bringing to light deep insights into time, eternity, and the love that transform the one into the other.
This workshop is sponsored by Attitudinal Healing Western Australia and hosted by Attitudinal Healing International. It is offered on a donation basis.
Please go to AHI website to make a donation and register for the workshop.
To register without making a donation, please contact Trish Elllis at trish@ahinternational
Dementia and the Meaning of Life/Michael Verde webinars and workshops
AHWA is extremely pleased to announce it has successfully applied for a Community Grant from the City of Melville to present a series of webinars and workshops entitled "Dementia and the Meaning of Life". The webinars and workshops are designed for carers of people with dementia, both family and home carers, as well as for carers in agencies and aged-care facilities. The program has two phases. The first phase is four 90-minute interactive webinars held weekly over four weeks. The second is three individual workshops held over the next 18 months. The webinars will be led by Michael Verde of Memory Bridge Foundation with two facilitators; Trish Ellis from AHI and Trish Halvorsen from AHWA. The webinars will comprise a 30-minute presentation by Michael Verde followed by 60 minutes of facilitated break-out groups. The subsequent three workshops will feature the Michael Verde video presentations from the webinars, with facilitated breakout groups for sharing and discussions. Each of the three workshops will be stand-alone. Registrants will not need to have participated in the earlier webinars or workshops. The overall purpose of the project is to provide carers with conceptual and practical tools that offer more effective communication with people with dementia. In doing so, the target is to reduce emotional isolation and its attendant negative health impacts of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and lessening resistance to stress related conditions. The presentations are inspired by Viktor Frankl's book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”. “Those who have a “why” to live can bear with almost any “how”’, writes Frankl. This idea encapsulates the principles and methods to be taught and exercised in this course.
The webinars will be held weekly on Friday mornings starting on 26 August 2022, with the
the following three on 2, 9 and 16 September 2022. Two of the three subseqent workshops
will be held in 2023 and the third in the first part of 2024.
For further information, please email: info@attitudinalhealingwa.org.au.
BABWA Group at RAAFA Bull Creek to re-focus activities
COVID uncertainties and the consequent complexity of access restrictions at the Alice Ross-King (ARK) facility have made it very difficult for volunteers to visit their companions on a a regular basis. As a result, the Be a Bridge WA (BABWA) group at RAAFA Bull Creek will - temporarily only, it is hoped - refocus its activities. The volunteers have been meeting and training over the last four years to in effect be “Bridges”, and providing companionship, to residents in the ARK who live with dementia or who otherwise live with loneliness or isolation. It started after a visit by Michael Verde of the Memory Bridge Foundation in 2018. The group is very keen to continue meeting monthly, which they do in the Meg Oliver Room at RAAFA and a program developed around "Health, Wellbeing and Mindfulness" and “Living in Community” will be run.
The group coordinator, Trish Halvorsen, said “Whilst it is disappointing not to be able to visit our companions over the next few months, it is wonderful to be able to meet and have time to further explore how our attitudes and ways of communicating impact our relationships and our perspectives on the world around us”. New members from the RAAFA estate or in the local community are always welcome. If you are interested, please email your name and phone number to info@attitudinalhealingwa.org.au.
Get Real Inner Peace (GRIP) - a new on-line Attitudinal Healing group
Trish Halvorsen from AHWA and Geralyn Russell from the AHI network, Florida USA, are jointly facilitating a new online Attitudinal Healing workshop series, "Get Real Inner Peace" (GRIP). It commenced on 17 June 2022 with an initial two-hour workshop, and subsequently continues on a weekly basis with six one-and-a-half-hour-long peer support groups. It winds up on 29 July 2022. The course is primarily aimed at how to experience inner peace, regardless of what is happening on the outside. In other words, you leave the story behind, and take the feeling of peace with you, essentially ending the cycle of “renting too much mental space” to past events or future situations which may or may not occur. You can experience a freedom and an inner equanimity which allows you to focus on what really matters to you today.
By choosing peace intentionally, we now know we can change the neural pathways in our brain, so our choice has a lasting effect. We begin to choose peace more often and recognize peace as a choice we can make, moment by moment. Our lives become more peaceful as does the world around us. We can choose to have peace of mind as our only goal.
The limited places for the program have been fully booked, with participants from Perth, US and China.
Women's Group Resumes
After a pause in March and early April because of COVID precautions, the Women's Peer Support Group resumed its meetings at Hickey St, Ardross, as from 26 April 2022. The normal meeting schedule of the second and fourth Tuesday afternoons of the month is back in place.
The Men's Peer Support Group continued throughout using meetings by Zoom but will resume meetings at Hickey St in the near future on a date to be advised.
Facilitator Mentoring Program
As a follow up to the AHI facilitator training series earlier this year (see item below), Trish Halvorsen from AHWA and Geralyn Russell, a senior AH facilitator from Tallahassee, Florida, have jointly been presenting an AH facilitator mentoring program by Zoom. The program is for people who completed the AHI faciltator training program. Participants from USA, UK, China and Australia registered for the series. It consists of eight one and a half hour sessions over eight weeks commencing (Perth time) Thursday 7 April 2022 and concluding Thursday 26 May 2022.
The focus of the program is on deepening participants’ skills of facilitating AH peer support groups through practice sessions that were experienced in the AHI facilitator training series. It will provide support to further develop the skills, attitudes and practices that lead to the feeling of safety, love, compassion and connectedness needed in the peer support groups, as well as in participants own lives, relationships and in the community.
AHWA Facilitators complete AHI Online Facilitator Training
Six facilitators from Attitudinal Healing WA (AHWA) recently completed Online Training arranged by Attitudinal Healing International (AHI). The training was given in six two and a half hour Zoom sessions over six weeks from 18 January through to 22 February 2022.
The course had nearly eighty participants and was offered by an international team of Attitudinal Healing (AH) trainers led by Trish Ellis, AHI’s International Training Coordinator. The ten-member training team included Trish Halvorsen from AHWA with the others from countries as far and wide as Brazil, Canada, China, Dominican Republic and the United States.
Contents of the course included the review and application of AH concepts and practising AH facilitation skills. The course was based on the award-winning AH peer facilitation model developed by noted American psychiatrist Dr Gerald Jampolsky. This adaptable model has been used in schools, hospitals, communities and workplaces throughout the world, supporting people of all ages to navigate the challenges of life with resilience and peace of mind.
Themes of the course included the role of an AH facilitator, group dynamics management, the AH peer support model, facilitator teamwork and timekeeping, active listening and facilitative questions.
All AHWA participants highly praised the course, were very appreciative of the learning experience and strongly believe the skills learned will be extremely valuable to bring to all our AHWA peer support groups.
Michael Dillon, one of the AHWA participants commented, “Even though I have been involved with AH for many years I found the course very helpful and rewarding. Meeting people from all around the world was inspiring, Jerry certainly left a great legacy”.
Hickey St Lease continuation secured
AHWA is very pleased to have been able to enter into a new Hire Agreement with the City of Melville in February 2022 to allow AHWA to continue to conduct programs at 6 Hickey St, Ardross. The Agreement covers the main meeting room and associated facilities. The initial term of the new Agreement is until 30 June 2023. AHWA has been fortunate enough to have been able to use the Hickey St premises since 2012 and absolutely appreciates the heritage building and its picturesque setting adjacent to the bushland environment of Wireless Hill Park. It serves as a perfect location for support group meetings and presentations. The building itself originally served as accommodation facilities for staff of the Wireless Telegraphy Station that was constructed at the top of Wireless Hill in 1912.
Michael Dillon receives Order of Australia Award
Well-deserved congratulations are due to foundation AHWA member Michael Dillon who recently received the Order of Australia award. He is pictured with the Western Australia Governor, Kim Beasley, at the investiture ceremony held on 26th August 2020 at Government House in Perth.
Michael received the award for his service to the pharmacy profession, as well as his service to the community, particularly in regard to his involvement in Attitudinal Healing. Michael has been involved in Attitudinal Healing for more than thirty years.
He was afounding member of AHWA in 2010 and served as Vice-President until 2013. He continues his longstanding involvement as a facilitator with the men's peer support group and as volunter with AHWA's Build a Bridge program at RAAFA Bullcreek.
He was a founding member of Attitudinal Healing Western Australia in 2010 and served as Vice-President until 2013. He continues his longstanding involvement as a facilitator with the men's support group and more latterly as a volunteer with AHWA's Build a Bridge WA project at RAAFA Bull Creek.
Our Association has been very fortunate to have Michael as such a hard-working member and in having the benefit of his wide-ranging experience, business acumen and general wisdom in helping guide AHWA in its vision.