Hartlepool Mind

1. "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. Anyone to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: their eyes are closed."   Albert Einstein

2. “I first saw him as a 13 year old and he floated over the ground like a Cocker Spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper.” Sir Alex Ferguson on RYAN GIGGS (winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2009) at the age of 36 and still a star for Man Utd 2010

3. Hartlepool Mind Human Givens and Spirituality

4. What is Hartlepool Mind doing? Dealing with around 1200 people a year (20% at the severe end) through its courses, workshops, recovery support, 1:1 therapy and more) Mental Health Support Network Alcohol Project TAPS - team around primary schools, with other agencies REACH OUT u5s Project, with Barnados and Patch Therapy in Children’s Centres - early family intervention Carers Project Learning difficulties Advocacy Project (re housing, finance, rights etc. Legal Services IAPT with other agencies. Staff has grown from 5 to 50 in under a decade.

5. Wellness and Wellbeing Project Bringing together the latest knowledge and expertise on how to improve your health and happiness and make the most of your life FREE COURSES: Whatever the weather – focus on bringing balance and calm into your lifestyle Paving the way – pain management course to increase resilience and coping skills for those living with persistent pain The Lifestyle Approach – addresses the emotional and psychological factor of weight management Pre-active programme – engages people who would like to become active to explore new ideas and build motivation to take steps towards a more fulfilling and active life

6. Outcomes Outcomes are measured at each session using the CORE* forms The data over two years suggest that between 60% and 70% of our clients rate a clinical improvement in wellbeing, 20% rate an improvement (not clinical) and the rest rate no change or depreciation *The CORE System (Clinical Outcomes for Routine Evaluation) has been designed in the UK for use in psychotherapy, counselling and other psychological therapies to measure outcome and provide for service audit, evaluation and performance management. See www.coreims.co.uk

7. What’s “Human Givens”? An approach, an organising idea, that offers the first (only) bio/psycho/social approach to mental health It starts from this basic fact: Every living organism has an innate genetically endowed guidance system to enable it to seek what it needs for survival; its nourishment; it has some innate knowledge, and resource to get its needs met. If it doesn’t, it becomes ill and will eventually die, and is based on what science currently tells us, and what is known from wisdom and learning over time, about Human Beings, - how we (particularly our brains) work Need for a common approach/language (there are hundreds, if not thousands of “talking therapies” and theories, not to mention theologies) Need to equip people to live with change Need for mental health, wellbeing

8. Resources - the “guidance systems” Memory- ability to learn (learning never ends?), add to our innate knowledge; long term memory Curiosity and imagination -enables us to focus our attention away from our emotions and problem solve more creatively and objectively A conscious rational mind -checks out emotions, questions, analyses, plans (left brain) An Observing self – objectivity about oneself, the centre of awareness , apart from emotion, intellect, conditioning (frontal lobes) The ability to know - unconscious understanding of the world through metaphorical pattern matching (right brain) Ability to build rapport - empathize and connect with others A Dreaming Brain-that preserves the integrity of our genetic inheritance every night by metaphorically defusing emotionally arousing expectations not acted out the previous day

9. Needs Security- need to feel safe; without undue fear; space to develop Volition, autonomy/control over what happens to us– too little leads to anger, anxiety, etc. To give and receiveattention– family, culture, - lack of this in infants leads to less well developed frontal lobes; this also relates to performance in organisations Emotional connection - who can you be yourself with? Connection to a wider community – status; being valued for who you are; our natural ability to empathise Privacy- need to reflect on our experience Status; sense of competence - self esteem, being accepted and valued in groups we are part of (work/organisations) Meaning and Purpose – work, serving others, belief systems, learning, to be stretched - our brain evolved to achieve things/ meet challenges, - the higher cortex needs to be used

10. Essentials for Mental Health It is seen that mental illness symptoms recede when needs are getting met – even with psychosis The aim of treatment is to get a life that works.. that protects mental health 3 things only prevent that (and point us to places of intervention): Something wrong with the environment (Humans) don’t know how to operate the innate guidance system (haven’t got coping mechanisms, misuse of imagination/thinking, need to learn more skills), The innate guidance system is not working properly – genetic disorders, physical damage to brain, psychological trauma can impede the working of the system

11. Spirituality Bill O’Hanlon’s definition, from Pathways to Spirituality (W W Norton & Co) 3 Components: “1. Connection, That is when people feel connected to something beyond their petty, little selves (or egos). Spirituality refers to what is beyond the “little self” or the personality. Anything that gives one an experience of “the bigger self”, or what is beyond the limited personality, can be a component of spirituality. We will detail seven typical areas in which people feel connected to that something bigger to expand on this element of spirituality. 2. Compassion. This is the place where we can feel kindness or acceptance towards others, and there is a softening of the usual mistrust, harshness, or judgmental attitude we feel. It’s a sense of “feeling with” rather than being against self, others or the world. 3. Contribution or Service. Usually this comes out of the first two Cs. When we feel connected to something beyond our petty, selfish selves and when we feel compassion, we are usually moved to make a contribution to others and to the world and to be of service.”

12. M K Ghandi: “ The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. Remember “The African Violet Queen of Milwaukee” story of Milton Erickson. Depressed and stressed people tend to be very inwardly focused spending too much time inactive and ruminating. Our HG approach emphasises the need to be more outwardly focused, active –doing, - we encourage connection through social activity, which we provide through our clinical support workers; this can lead on to volunteering and work, or joining mainstream activities. We particularly encourage education and the learning of new or forgotten or necessary social skills HG also makes use of normalising, contextualising, reframing (helping the client see the problem in a bigger picture) through calming, relaxation and guided imagery, use of metaphor, stories, and dissociation using the “observing self”.

13. 7 assumptions about the nature of SpiritualityElizabeth Tisdell in Exploring Spirituality and Culture in Adult and Higher Education Spirituality and religion are not the same, but for many people are interrelated Spirituality is an awareness and honouring of wholeness and the interconnectedness of all things through the mystery of what many refer to as The Life Force, God, higher power, higher self, cosmic energy, Buddha, nature, or Great Spirit Spirituality is fundamentally about meaning making Spirituality is always present (though often unacknowledged) in the learning environment Spiritual development constitutes moving towards greater authenticity or to a more authentic self Spirituality is about how people construct knowledge through largely unconscious and symbolic processes, often made more concrete in art forms such as music image, symbol, and ritual all of which are manifested culturally Spiritual experiences most often happen by surprise