The Art of Facilitating WRAP

Hello again WRAP Community I wanted to post some creative thinking I have been doing around facilitation. Below is an article I created which helps to shed light on what it means to be a facilitator. Thanks again for visiting my blog.

Eric

The Art of Facilitating Wellness Recovery Action Plan

By: Eric C. Larson

       WRAP Coordinator, The Institute for Recovery and Community Integration

     Truly the art of facilitating Wellness Recovery Action Plan is not just in the generation of a useful plan of action, but in the art of exploring what works through group process. It is the art of navigating through life’s challenges with a different set of values and ethics. Through this value system we learn to thrive by creating a process of positive feedback through our supporters. We learn to focus on those things that help us to grow rather than perceived deficits. We begin to look for opportunity in creative solutions and problem solving because moving towards wellness does not mean moving away from challenges.

     My experience has been varied in different settings facilitating WRAP. I have had the opportunity to facilitate WRAP in the State Hospital and with a group of Case Managers. I have been blessed to assist in the creation of WRAP to those beginning their careers as Peer Specialists.  Facilitating in these environments means encouraging the natural process of peer supported brainstorming and redefining hope. In these settings I have learned to hold a space of hope even when attitudes and conditions are not necessarily conducive to recovery. Facilitating to the group of Case Managers, it was encouraging to see them discover that this tool was helpful for challenges in their personal lives and not just in the lives of the people they served. The common experience we seek in these varied settings is the same. Success comes when we arrive at the realization that we all need to take action personally to create wellness.

      Challenging our comfort zone is the role of the facilitator so we can become a Catalyst and role model for attitudinal change. I use the word Catalyst because its definition suggests that it is something that precipitates a process or event, especially without being involved in or changed by the consequences. It has been a hard lesson to learn not to force the process of facilitation. Like recovery you just need to hold Hope that it can happen, the individual does the hard work. Progress is creating a space that encourages resilience to challenge.  Facilitators must be open to experiencing strong emotions to gain insight into how people deal with life changing events. Peer specialists learn that change begins when the obstacles to progress are removed and self determination is born. My greatest realization as a facilitator has been acknowledging that I must be mindful of how my intention to help may create barriers to other’s growth. The art of facilitation could also be called the art of getting out of the way. A WRAP facilitator’s true strength lies in being self aware enough to present just enough personal experience to encourage other’s exploration of their own self determined journey.

Positive stress?

Hi WRAPSTERS,

            Its been awhile since we last chatted so please forgive . I will be doing my best to check in regularly in the coming months. My update is I have been working hard both in my career and maintaining my own personal wellness. Which to my benefit both require me to analyze how I stay well. One of the things I have been thinking about lately because of my schedule is stress. That part of life that most of us know as a possible trigger that can be destructive to our health. Recently my perspective on stress has stretched to include a healthy outlook on the value of stress. I am usually the first one to try to avoid stress and stress causing situations like conflict. However I was reading a book called Zen Guitar recently and it had a statement which I think applies to my diabetic care. The Zen statement was “ through having one illness it is easier to truly know wellness.” I am not sure this statement will help me with my guitar playing but I do know it applies to my level of self awareness as it applies to my physical health and diabetes. It seems in this case that having a stress-or such as a diabetic concern causes a different level of awareness to our health. This is the case even more than if we were under the mindset that everything in our body is working perfectly. I find this whole idea of instead of moving away from challenges that we can move towards wellness. I like defining wellness as not the absence of illness but the presence of positive self awareness and proactive care. Thanks see you soon, ERIC

Reaction to article “Loneliness Harms Health”

Hey Web friends. I recently read an article called “Loneliness Harms Health by Rick Nauert, PhD you can read it yourselves by following this link http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/09/05/loneliness-harms-health/2882.html

I wanted to say that since the beginning of my recovery I have always found the issue of loneliness to be a key and interesting topic. I think the article explores an interesting phenomena of societal structures breaking down and causing disconnection. Man I can really relate to this. My profound sense of loneliness at Penn State main campus my freshmen year in college always was a paradox to me. Here I am surrounded by thousands of people all pursuing education and I still feel disconnected and lonely. The move to Penn State had caused a dramatic change in my support system. It wasn’t untill I found a different way of relating to people through my volunteer experience at an organization called Compeer that I learned how to build a support system. Compeer taught me to relate to the whole individual by matching me up in a friendship with another individual with mental health challenges. I think the last statement in the article sums up my experience best. “Lonely people feel a hunger.” “The key is to realize that the solution lies not in being fed, but in cooking for and enjoying a meal with others.” I have always said in my work as a facilitator that the greatest lesson I have learned about loneliness is that if you want support be a support to another. Let me know what you think.

Eric

Daily Maintenance and Spirituality

Daily Maintenance of the spiritual pursuit.

Spirituality can be a huge factor in the recovery process. I have found that spirituality is embedded in some of my mental health challenges. Lack of daily maintenance toward my spiritual pursuits can really cause me to have some challenges to my emotional wellbeing. I have met many inspiring people that have a deep practice of gratitude. In my daily life I am attempting to be more mindful of those things that are good in my life. This includes such basic endeavors as eating slower and eating less. Practicing daily meditations and trying to quiet the storm of thoughts and motivations in my mind. I have also been incorporating prayers from a book called Earth Prayers by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. It is enriching to try approaching spirituality from diverse perspectives. I also have to say that a book that has helped me look at all spiritual perspectives as a unified force rather than as divergent paths is the works by the Persian Mystic Jelaluddin Rumi one book the Illuminated Rumi and its sequel One Song offers a rich spiritual devotion to love and creation and unifies the faiths.

More on this next time,

Take good care,

Eric

 

Philiadelphia WRAP facilitators meetup

Hi folks just wanted to invite all WRAP facilitators and WRAP enthusiasts to a meetup on Monday September 15th at 3:00PM in the 9th floor conference room at 1211 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. This will be a time to network, plan, and coordinate. Our focus topic will be Hope and Changing negative thoughts to positive ones. I look forward to seeing everyone. RSVP my email at elarson@mhasp.org if you plan to attend. Seee you there.

Eric

I can, I will, and here’s my plan

Hi fellow WRAPers its time for another installment on my Weblog so here goes. This installment I would like to focus on the power of intention and planning on inner peace. Often times in my life I have dreamed of being a hermit free from the struggles of our society. I thought that if I got far enough away from the challenges of society I would be free from the storm. What I have learned is that even when I attempted to remove myself from the tribulations of others I created a void. That void becamea low pressure system that was a breeding ground for personal insecurities and self pity. So the real trick was finding peace within the storm. The Dalai Lama in his book The Path to Tranquility states that, ” It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act. There are two aspects to action. One is to overcome the distortions and afflictions of your own mind…The other is more social, more public. When something needs to be done in the world to rectify the wrongs, if one is really concerned with benefitting others, one needs to be engaged, involved.”

To see change we must mobilize our intentions in an organized direction. WRAP helps mobilize our intentions hopes and dreams for wellness. My intention is to effect positve change on myself and the world in a sustained organized manner rather then get bogged down in my own transendental paralysis created by inaction and my own mind.

In other news I wanted to invite the Philadelphia WRAP community to join me in creating a connected community of WRAPers. I wanted to begin to meet and grow partnerships between those people who have had their lives changed by WRAP. If you are one of these people and happen to live in the Philadelphia area please drop me a line at elarson@mhasp.org if you would be intersted in forming a collaborative effort to each other. See you online again soon.

 Don’t just live, thrive.

 Eric

Envisioning WRAP

All good things start with a vision or intent I suppose. Wellness Recovery Action Plan most definitely is an example of purpose and or mission. We orient our efforts toward a specific goal of wellness with the prior knowledge that we will undergo challenges in acheiving that vision. WRAP calls for awareness, purpose, and intent. It is often said be careful what you wish for. I find this is truthful because of the power of our intentions to steer our actions and our mindsets. The very act of putting thoughts, experiences, and wellness tools into action plans is a powerful tool toward change. In my study of motivational interviewing techniques as a Certified Peer Specialist, I have learned of the awesome motivational power of simply talking about change. Recording plans for change in a document takes that a step further. Looking deeper at why WRAP makes sense i’ll dig back into personal experience. At an early age I had  set some ideas of what I wanted my life to look like. Kind of similiar to the format in WRAP What I look like when I am well. More specifically I knew what I didn’t want my life to look like. Kind of like identifying triggers and early warning signs. Planning just seems to make sense even if we cannot accurately predict or envision how we are going to achieve our goals. I find those people exceptional that seem to know exactly what they want to be in life from birth and seem to rocket towards that goal without ever looking back. I know I had specific ideas of what my life would look like and then came setbacks and it looked like at the time that my goals had changed. One year an uncle of mine told me something very profound that I find holds a nugget of truth. Looking forward it may appear that our life is a collection of random events leading to some unknown destination. His insight was that if you look in retrospect at the tapestry of situational reality of your life that there appears to be an organic pathway that brings us closer to our vision of what life could look like.  So I digress. So what is my vision of this blog. My vision of this blog is to create a clear atmosphere where one can think aloud and renew passion and dedication of an intentional life. I hope that the topics will be profound and wide ranging. So I invite everyone whose life WRAP has touched to keep the fire fueled for personal change through sharing our intentions and what we have learned in our experience in this blog.

Seize the day

Eric

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