"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 1970's. 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 Series "Love is Letting Go of Fear"
We are pleased to announce a new focus for our Attitudinal Healing Peer Support group which for the next few months will have a book/study focus, beginning on Monday, 18 March, 2024. We will be using the book:
LOVE IS LETTING GO OF FEAR (Edition 3)
by Gerald Jampolsky M.D.
This book focuses on personal transformation and has become a classic all over the world. The narrative is a helpful guide and is comprised of twelve carefully crafted lessons that are designed to help us let go of the past and stay focused on the present. LOVE IS LETTING GO OF FEAR reminds us that the only barriers to the life we long for are the limitations imposed on us by our own minds. Revealing our true selves, the essence of which is love, is a matter of releasing those limited and limiting thoughts. The book has guided millions of readers toward self-healing with this deeply powerful yet profoundly simple message.
Jerry’s book is the motivation for this series of meetings, with the aspiration that embracing it with an open mind and a willing heart, it will guide us to a life in which negativity, doubt and fear are replaced with optimism, joy, and love.
We are offering a 12-session program via Zoom. Meetings will be held twice a month on the first and third Monday evenings of the month.
It commences Monday 18 March 2024 and concludes on Monday 2 September 2024.
Group participants will need to have their own copy of LOVE IS LETTING GO OF FEAR to refer to during and between group meetings.
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Registration is now open.
Because the groups are small, this will be on a first come-first served basis.
To register, contact Trish by email at trish@halvo.net or phone 0409 641 507.
AHWA groups move to Miller Bakehouse
Sadly AHWA's lease on our facilities at Hickey St, Ardross, was not able to be renewed after 30 June 2023 by the City of Melville, so after more than ten happy years there, we needed to find a new home for our person to person groups and events. Fortunately, and with great help from the City of Melville, after looking at a number of options, we were pleased to be able to come to an agreement with the Melville History Society to use the Miller Bakehouse for our various groups and meetings. The Bakehouse was built in 1935 and provides an historical and delightful meeting place for small community groups such as ours. It is also home to a small bakery museum. It is located in a small pocket park at 7 Baal St, Palmyra.
A hearty vote of thanks is due to the members and friends who volunteered their time and efforts on Saturday 1 July 2023 to help clear out our long accumulated property at Hickey St, and in the process relocating many of the (we think more comfortable!) chairs to the Bakehouse.
Michael Verde Visit to Perth, November 2023
Attitudinal Healing Western Australia (“AHWA)”) proudly sponsored a very successful lecture and workshop tour to Perth by Michael Verde of Memory Bridge Foundation in November last year. Michael Verde and Memory Bridge are among the world’s leaders in ending the loneliness of people with dementia and their caregivers (see mere details at [www.memorybridge.org]}.
The response and bookings to the various events were extremely good and all events were very well received by the audiences. Because of the positive response very early on, it was necessary to extend his originally planned two week visit by another week. His programs commenced on November 6 and continued through to November 24. Presentations were conducted for eighteen Local Government Authorities and workshops held for five care service provider organisations. There were over thirty separate events spread across the three weeks, largely in the Perth metropolitan area but also in the southwest regions of the state. He reached in the vicinity of 1,500 people during his time here.
One of the initial events was a screening of his documentary, “Love is Listening” at the Hoyts Cinema complex in Booragoon, which was followed by a very interactive Q&A session with Michael and Jason Burton of Dementia Training Australia.
The events for the Local Government Authorities were ninety-minute presentations on the subject of “Dementia without Loneliness” aimed at carers and families of people with dementia. He is also led a half day professional development workshop for LGPro (Local Government Professionals Australia WA).
The programs for the care provider service organisations included a three half-day training workshop for Brightwater Care Group, separate workshops at three of Alzheimer’s WA residential facilities (including one at Albany), a half-day workshop for Melville Cares (an aged care service provider) and a workshop for Dementia Training Australia.
Michael also provided three events for Attitudinal Healing Western Australia. The first was a workshop for carers of people with Young Onset Dementia and the second was a professional development workshop for aged and health care professionals, with an aim to continuing the program after Michael’s return to the US. The third event was a general workshop for AHWA members and friends, which focussed on the question, “what is calling you right now beyond your everyday life”.
During his visit, AHWA provided event coordination, facilitator services where needed, volunteer transport and accommodation. This is the fifth time AHWA has been involved in bringing Michael to Australia; the first time being in 2015.
Attitudinal Healing Peer Support Group
Starting in early 2023, a new on-line Attitudinal Healing Peer Support Group is being held on the first and third Monday evenings of each month. The group uses the Principles of Attitudinal Healing as tools for learning, personal transformation and peace of mind. In this group participants and AHWA facilitators work together to create a safe and trusting environment that supports honest self awareness, as well as authentic and heartfelt communication. Typically participants explore together the question"What does it take to experience inner peace now, given the circumstances life is presenting?" The online format of the group is by Zoom, between 7:00 pm and 8:30 pm WST. If you would like further details with a view to joining the group, please contact Trish on mobile 0409 641 507.
Dementia and the Meaning of Life/Michael Verde webinars and workshops for City of Belmont
Following the sucessful City of Melville program in 2022, AHWA was again very pleased that an application to the City of Belmont's Community Contribution Fund was successful to once more present Michael Verde's "Dementia and Meaning of Life" webinar series and follow-up workshops. As for the City of Melville program, the webinars and workshops were designed for carers of people with dementia, both family and home carers as carers in agencies and aged-care facilities, but this time for carers in the City of Belmont environs. Once again the webinars were lead by Michael Verde of Memory Bridge Foundation, supported by facilitators Trish Ellis from AHI and Trish Halvorsen from AHWA. The four webinars were held weekly from 30 May 2023 through to 20 June 2023 with about eighteen participants. The first follow-up workshop was held on 25 July 2023 with others to come in the coming months.
Attutudinal Healing Group: Sacred Awareness, Embracing Life
A series of on-line Attitudinal Heaing groups "Sacred Awareness; Embracing Life" was sucessfully concluded on 31 May 2023. The series comprised six meetings held over six weeks commencing 26 April 2023. The groups were co-faciltated by Trish Halvorsen of AHWA (Perth) and Geralyn Russell of AHI (Tallahassee, Florida). Around fourteen on-line participants joined the meetings from Australia and USA. Feedback received from those participants was very positive and as a consequence similar series are likely to be held in the future.
Dementia and the Meaning of Life/Michael Verde webinars and workshops for City of Melville
AHWA was extremely pleased to be awarded a Community Grant from the City of Melville in 2022 to present a series of webinars and workshops entitled "Dementia and the Meaning of Life". The webinars and workshops were 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 had two phases. The first phase was four 90-minute interactive webinars held weekly over four weeks. The second was three follow-up Zoom meetings with interested participants from the webinars together with a follow-up workshop at the City of Melville. The webinars were led by Michael Verde of Memory Bridge Foundation with two facilitators; Trish Ellis from AHI and Trish Halvorsen from AHWA. The webinars were held weekly over four weeks in August and September 2022, with the follow-up meetings held via video link in October, November and December,2022. The follow-up workshop was held on 17 May 2023.
Michael Verde on-line workshop: The Lost Art of Dying
AHWA was pleased to sponsor an online workshop for Attitudinal Healing International (AHI) entitled "The Lost Art of Dying". It was lead by Michael Verde of Memory Bridge Foundation and co-facilitated by Trish Halvorsen of AHWA and Trish Ellis of AHI. It was held on 21 October 2022.
The content theme was based on the art of dying being 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.
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, an on-line Attitudinal Healing group entitled "Living Life Fully; Discovering the True Self" was held with very positive feedback in September 2022. It followed on from the similarly very successful “GRIP (Get Real Inner Peace}” groups held in June and July 2022.
The six-session series commenced on Thursday 22 September 2022 and ran weekly through to 20 October 2022. It was attended by an international group of participants from Western Australia, China and USA. The group was co-facilitated by Geralyn Russell from the AHI network in USA and Trish Halvorsen from AHWA in Perth.
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, jointly facilitated 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 continued on a weekly basis with six one-and-a-half-hour-long peer support groups. It wound up on 29 July 2022. The course was 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 was fully booked, with participants from Perth, US and China all providing positive feedback on the series..
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.
Postscript: As of 1 July 2023, the venue for both programs is the Miller Bakehouse meeting room, 7 Baal St, Palmyra
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”.
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 a founding 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.
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.