Holistic Therapy #11: WATER

Finding water in nature, like I mention in my previous blog entry, is important! But water is also essential to being found WITHIN each and every one of us as well!

Chronic dehydration is really an epidemic in our modern culture.

People choose drinks like coffee, tea, sodas, etc., even so called "healthy" sport waters, and really THINK that they are getting water.

Yet in fact, anything other than water requires that the body receives MORE water to compensate for the digestive and/or detoxing outcomes of whatever ingredients are IN each of those drinks!

I used to think that as long as I drank these things without dairy additives or sweeteners, then it wouldn't be t too hard on my body to process them.

However, I have since learned by experience that even the skin on my face is brighter when I stay away from those other drinks and consume more of that crystal clear water from our generous Earth.

When I am dealing with a person who has trouble focusing, however, and that person chooses to zone OUT instead of IN, it can often be difficult for them to "remember" to drink water, much less notice when they are thirsty instead of hungry.

So I literally "scheduled in" on Claire's calendar times for drinking water, placed full stainless steel water containers on her desk, and made sure that she had consumed all of the intended water by the end of the day.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As time has gone on though, I have found that what determines her daily intake is still totally dependent on, you guessed it, ME!!! So you're going to have to wait for a few more posts of mine to hear about how I am handling THIS ongoing issue.

As a preview though . . . it may have to be that Claire not only learns to respect water more, but also learns that she deserves to GIVE these simple "gifts" to herself!

But . . . all in good time. Have I mentioned lately that patience needs to be the first lesson of everyone involved?

Holistic Therapy #10: OUTDOORS/NATURE

I think that the outdoors provides answers for MANY issues! It seems like such a simple fix, and yet it IS!!!

Rather than say too much about this, just know that to those who are “sensitive” to the vibrations of others, who are high anxious or hold a great need to “zone out” from the world . . . it seems that nature provides the BEST way of zoning IN to provide that frequency of "calm."

And, when a person can find a whole body of water, or a simple creek that flows freely in nature, to be incorporate into this experience, then these are even better sources of peace.

So we did our best to encourage Claire to go outside into the neighboring woods whenever the weather warranted. We put this on her schedule and gave a minimum of time for her to be out.

We have a small lake nearby, AND we have a flowing creek on our property.

The best part though is that we also have a dog … a golden retriever, to be exact, and this “excuse” of giving him exercise is often a great way to get Claire out the door.

Could YOU resist this face if it asked YOU for a walk???

The dog’s name is Einstein, but you don't have to be "very smart" to know that this just may be one of the EASIEST therapies that every ONE of us should take advantage of . . . every day!!!!

Holistic Therapy #9: CREATIVE EXPRESSION – Arts, Crafts, & Music

Life: My thoughts are that we get to “engage” in life by expressing something creative … whether that be through art, crafts, music, dance, cooking, gardening, building … you name it!

From the time we are born, we begin to explore our surroundings by observation. Then we become ENGAGED in our surroundings by creating our own interpretation of what we see/hear/taste/touch/etc.

This is life at its best … just as the bird sings for the sheer sake of singing … the flower blooms for the sheer “pleasure” of being … we all seem to exude a sort of “divine expression” whenever we express creatively about our lives.

Healing: So too do these creative outlets allow us to express things that we wouldn’t normally want to express to anyone else. Creative outlets can allow us to express our anger, our pain, our disgust, our fears … by shaping clay, slapping some paint on a canvas, journaling our deepest fears, or even throwing ourselves into the act of manual efforts!

We can VERY often “heal” from the simple act of “telling our story!”

Theoretical vs. Actual: Now that some time has passed though, I can tell you that my initial plan incorporated creative expression in Claire’s schedule every day. But I soon learned that it was ME who had to ASK her to “create” every time.

Is that true “creating” … or is it “busy work?”

Claire had a very creative personality by nature, yet she did not CHOOSE to do any creating when left to her own devices.

She DID seem to LOVE to create whenever it involved other people though, so I wondered if it wasn’t a greater need for her to learn other things first.

I think that creative expression is ALWAYS a way to inspire individual growth, and that opinion hasn’t changed. But at the time now, looking back on it, I saw that what she REALLY needed was to learn to love herself.

Because it was at this time when I only BEGAN to understand the depths of her fears … that she might not be perfect, that she might not be loveable, that she might be so many of the horrible things SHE thought she was!

And it was perhaps around THIS understanding that I finally began to understand more about HOW her healing could MAYBE emerge …

Holistic Therapy #8: LIFE SKILLS – Driving

At age 18 and about to turn 19, Claire had never so much as gotten her driver’s permit. Oh, she had tried and failed to pass the written test, but each time she took the computerized version at the test center, this only served to heighten her anxiety with every wrong answer she managed to type in. (The computerized test is set up to give you immediate feedback, which only frightens her more).

So I started with her INability to study for the written exam.

Now Claire is a VERY bright girl, yet she couldn’t seem to remember the facts from the driver’s manual because they had no “story” behind them! They were just a bunch of random facts!!!!

So I leaned on her other strengths of mind by showing her how to take this information and make it visual.

I showed her how to fold a piece of paper in half, write a ‘question’ on the left side, and on the right side (under the fold), she wrote the correct ‘answer” to that question.

This alone turned all that “random data” into a visual format that allowed her to make it a visual pattern that could “stick” in her mind.(She still studied for hours and hours on this, but I think it was mainly a lack of focus, as she had only just moved in with us at the time).

Happily, this “technique” worked VERY well for her. She went to take the test the next day when it would be SLOW at the driving test center. But before she entered, I told her to breathe deeply and relax in order to suppress her anxiety. And I also told her that we’d just simply come back every day if need be, until she was able to pass the exam.

She passed it with flying colors!!! She was so proud! She told everyone she could think of, and she couldn’t wait to get started to drive.

I tried being her trainer behind the wheel but couldn’t take it. (No, don't ask). So I hired a safety driving instructor who could teach her all the defensive driving tips AND the components that would comprise the actual driving test she would have to take.

After hours of instruction, Claire’s driving has improved to the point where I can now “stand” to be an instructive passenger with her. (But I fear that it may be a long time yet before I can say that I am actually COMFORTABLE with her driving!) She is learning though, and every day gives her a bit more experience.

I have noted that she really needs to watch her blood sugar. When she has not eaten recently, she is especially ‘dangerous’ with her driving decisions.

Her high anxiety response has her reacting to things with “a panic attack” that makes it very scary for her AND for the passenger.

So we are working on techniques that remind her to ‘get control’ and STAY in control, whenever she is in place behind the wheel. Amazingly, just having a conversation with her about this a few times has SEEMED to cement this in place (but it could also be that she’s simply gotten more confident with her driving skills.)

I have seen some other issues that scare me even MORE about her way of handling things, but I will address this later after I get through all of my Holistic Therapy techniques. For now, just know that we are progressing with our young driver.

And yes … we hope that very SOON she will be officially licensed.

Holistic Therapy #7: RESEARCH – DISC profile & medication history

I cannot say enough about how helpful it has been for me to learn about the things I can do personally to better “manage” Claire and her “unusual” way of processing thoughts, and the tool I used to help me with this is the DISC personality profile.

The wealth of knowledge I learned from this assessment, I admit, COULD also be because the assessor happens to be an extremely gifted person who can take whatever test results appear on a page and turn them into a practical understanding that brings it all to “life” for the “real world.”

[I recommend this DISC assessment professional without hesitation. She works by phone too, so you can find JoAnne Myers at her website of www.SunstoneCoach.com or by email at jo@sunstonecoach.com.]

What I learned about Claire from this DISC assessment is that she absolutely MUST learn how to “get herself grounded” whenever possible, for her results showed her as almost literally ready to “float off this earth!”

This means that it was essential for me to teach her HOW to get grounded, and for Claire, the best way has been for her to use Reiki techniques that teach her to stop, get centered, breathe deeply, and envision herself sending roots through her feet that go deep into the earth. This simple technique has quickly helped her to learn to calm her mind and settle her fears.

We have continued to use this constantly, and she has finally learned to now do it even in some “more anxiety provoking” situations for her. However, I admit that I am STILL constantly reinforcing it to her! But do know that the technique itself does work!

The other major things I learned about Claire through DISC are:

1. She needs a “plan” every day. She does well with a consistent schedule, so we are going to continue to use that free electronic Google Calendar for her, which we set up so that I can enter things onto it as well as she can.

2. Her primary motivation in life is to “serve.” No matter what I might do to try to steer her in life, I needed to remember to link it back to how it will serve OTHERS even more than it will serve her.

3. She needs to feel as if she’s a part of a community or team that is trying to accomplish a particular goal. She needs a high degree of contact with others. [Just as an aside: Claire in fact DOES do well on her own, but what she will DO with that time is anything that allows her to be “mindless” and “zone out,” which therefore in the end serves only to “depress” her. So it is ESSENTIAL that she gets a job that puts her out in the world in order to be happy.] She then, however, is also loyal to her community to a fault, and this can “hurt her” when she’s faced with supposed friends that are not supportive of her because it is never easy for her to “let go” of them.

4. She likes to be told what to do rather than plan it herself. This is why she needs to feel as if she is working on the overall goal of someone else’s “big picture idea.” But this is also why she doesn't make good use of her time unless she is outwardly directed! In other words, she is not a person to be “self-employed” (at least not at this point).

5. She doesn’t like conflict. Perhaps this is the other BIG THING that we found out about Claire from her DISC results. She likes “harmony” above all else! And although we technically KNEW this, her test results helped us to see JUST how important it is for her to have this in her surroundings. Harmony, to Claire, also means beauty in her surroundings … through appearances and feelings.

6. I also learned (which was often STRONGLY reinforced through my own personal experiences with her), that Claire takes directions best when the steps are NOT auditory but are converted to visual. However, Claire likes a fast pace and tends to also “jump ahead” too fast and not always slow down enough to SEE the very information on this list of steps she needs to read sometimes when you make directions visual. So … I have had to learn that it’s important to be VERY clear in EVERY way possible to help her with this. It’s exhausting sometimes. But I do find that using IMAGES and even SYMBOLS are the BEST, most EFFICIENT way for me to express things to her.

7. Feedback is best for her when it’s immediate. This is not all that unusual a trait, but it is once again helpful for me to realize that she is always going to be OUTWARDLY directed vs. inwardly. I am hoping that she will GAIN some balancing traits for this over time.

8. She doesn’t like detail. This has become even more evident to me as time has gone on. But at least now I know that it’s not her being “lazy” or “sloppy.” Detail is simply not her forte. She IS good with people though. So her friendliness, sense of empathy, and willingness to SERVE others might not always have to be with details. So now if I can only get her past her fear of those who seem to “different” from her, then we’ve got it made because she will be able to go ANYWHERE in the world and be of service. This is what she TELLS us she wants to do, but at this point in time, I know for a FACT that she would be too frightened. IF she is with a group of others LIKE her, however, THEN she will be fine

9. She doesn’t like change. This is also very indicative of a person with Asperger’s. Probably ADHD and Tourette’s are also like this. What works best for Claire is a stable and predictable environment. Even though she is intelligent and will likely need to challenge herself more over time in order to remain stimulated and engaged, she still prefers a SLOW transition into anything new. But with the right encouragement, she might be able to handle these challenges well.

10. She does best when she can SINGLE task and COMPLETE each item before she moves on to the next. She loves to check off things on her list. She is quite conservative in everything she does, but she is willing to do ANYTHING if it will label her with others as being “easy to work with.” This is again something I need to address with her by helping her to rebuild her level of self-confidence. We are all BORN with self-confidence. It’s the things that happen to us in life that erode our confidence … one event at a time.

These are the things I took forward with me in helping her form personal goals for the SHORT term and THEN look closer into what she might want to do the rest of her life.

As for determining her history with medications, we have our appointment with her doctor on the calendar ... but THAT ... is going to be awhile!!!!

Holistic Therapy #6: EDUCATION – Energy Therapies, healthy cooking, & more

As a young woman who has dealt all her life with the labels of Asperger’s, ADHD, High-Functioning Autism, and you-name-it, Claire grew up with no real “marketable” skills. She never even had so much as a BABYSITTING job because no one felt confident with her ability to stay focused!

But when you approach Claire from another completely holistic perspective, you can see her “gifts” and skills because they stand out so much as “unusual,” even though these things STILL don't unfortunately translate easily into a darn ol' “usual” “marketable skill!” :)

So I tried to work on this differently:

I was eager to educate Claire in all the areas for which she had interest, and help her find her OWN talents and gifts AND PASSION (no matter WHAT potential direction I could see in her)!

Now sometimes this means I must think “outside of the box!” But even more importantly and usually with much more difficulty, with a person like Claire I must think outside of my "comfort zone!”

So I looked closely at Claire’s “gifts,” and her biggest is being able to perceive energies and frequencies to an unbelievable degree. Honestly, I believe she is the type who could replace an EKG machine if given half the chance!!!

So I set out to get her some training that would help her to “use” this gift – I found her a source for this Reiki training, and she loves this as well as the instructor who seems to understand her VERY well. She is going to add to this additional education on the use of crystals and gems in healing. With her love of making jewelry, this could be a great fit ... IF she is able to carry this love through to a complete overall marketable plan!

If Claire is drawn to the energy therapies over time, then I will consider getting her even more “marketable” training, perhaps even within the more “traditional” areas like Healing Touch, Massage Therapy, or Chiropractic education. These credentials would then make it even easier for her to become more mainstream.

But so far at first glance, Claire hasn’t seemed all that interested in taking this "gift of reading energies" to the next level of offering healing. Currently, she is only interested in using this Reiki training privately, to help herself to feel grounded as well as to give others an occasional “sending of Reiki energy” to help them to heal. And her gift of making jewelry means that she will also need to learn how to market her wares in a practical way.

But Claire is also “gifted” in her desire to cook. I personally teach her to cook dishes that are healthy and also encourage her to research and find RECIPES that are tasty AND healthy.

Although Claire is probably MOST interested in baking and creating sweets, I am NOT currently "allowing" her to pursue that area and have explained to her that this field would be like putting an alcoholic into the career of being a bar tender. But I COULD envision her some day being a "healthy bakery chef" of a whole foods movement or something! (But again, this is probably MY vision for her and not HER vision [... at least not yet!])

I HAVE found some local cooking classes too for her to attend. I found one on how to cook five different types of fish, taught by a relatively new chef school graduate.

Cooking classes are out there if you look for them (at least in the bigger cities). But don't hesitate to ask around for such things WHEREVER you live, as there's a LOT of interest in cooking AND in healthy nutrition!

Claire has also had a strong interest in Oriental cultures, and when her conversations have consistently mentioned that she wants to serve the world in some capacity some day, I offered her the chance to pursue learning languages through our local library resources.

I am trying to put lots of different ideas before her, but if she does not pursue any of them on her OWN, then I just let them fade away.

The thing about a person with ADHD or Asperger’s is that they will AVIDLY pursue something when it REALLY interests them. It’s up to ME then to act as her guide and help her put her passions into perspective with her own expressed BIGGER goals.

In other words, I must keep bringing her back to the question (almost every day) of: what does she want her future to look like?

And since she has been telling others that she’s “just taking a semester off” from college, then I asked her if going back to school some day IS a real goal of hers.

I took a lot of time with this dialogue, to determine if her responses were simply based on a desire to avoid confrontation with the others in her family who DID want her to go to college, or was it HER goal. (And I must admit, although she continues to say that it IS her goal, I personally think that her response is mostly due to the fact that she doesn’t have any other real “vision” for herself).

I don't want Claire to spend TOO much focus on college until she has a REASON for attending. She currently lacks the drive (typical of Asperger’s) to turn in any homework. But when she determines WHY she wants to go for further education, then she will herself be the type to do it with passion!

So . . . since Claire continues to say that this IS HER future goal, then together we discussed how to go about signing up for one class at the local community college over summer. It was explained that the class must be on the topic of a major requirement, such as math, science, or language. And we discussed that this would give her the opportunity to see how it would "feel" to do this so that she really COULD return to college full time in fall if that's what she wants.

But NOW we shall see if she actually takes the next step and DOES anything to make this happen!

Claire has other interests and gifts, but so far we have not incorporated them into an overall "education" plan for most of them seem to be based on "mindless play" that in the past would allow her to mentally "zone out."

She loves plants, which is a wonderful way for her to remain grounded, so we hope that perhaps she can get a job working at a plant nursery. She loves singing, so we hope that she can find a way to become involved with a group of others who sing, such as in a church choir. She loves dancing, so we hope that she can find a way to express this in a local class or even with a singing group that includes dancing.

But so far, it’s mainly all been the ADULTS around her finding things for Claire. I am still waiting for HER to take ownership of finding SOMETHING that she truly “loves” to do enough to DO IT!

I have continued to guide her with ideas and follow-up, but if our MUTUAL goal is for Claire to become independent, then I must say that I feel a bit discouraged in that it may be a long time before she “grows up” enough to take this path of autonomy.

I do have hope though, that by getting a job Claire will gain some confidence and thereby be able to envision herself in a new light of comfort in her own maturity. So I needed to do my research about her to learn more about what she is capable of doing.

If there is anything I am missing here, or you found something that worked for YOU
. . . please let me know by leaving a comment or two that I can take to heart.

Holistic Therapy #5: ENERGY BALANCING – Chiropractic, Reiki, & Ondamed

If you are new to holistic therapies, you may just wonder what I mean by ‘energy balancing.’ You might recognize the word ‘Chiropractic,’ but not ‘Reiki,’ and especially not ‘Ondamed.’

No matter what level of understanding you have about the energy therapies, though, I believe it is important to learn MORE, because energy balancing treatments are now rather the “cutting edge” of science, and they are here to stay!

Although the "energies" of the body have been "perceived" for eons, they are only now being embraced by our medical system because our equipment has increased to this level of sensitivity.

Energy therapies are even entering into conventional medical facilities now, but only under “progressive” circumstances because these hospitals and medical centers are becoming aware that the public benefits from it. (Or in other words: it’s occurring in the medical facilities that are located in areas where the competition is great enough that it must do these ‘extra’ things because the customers WANT it!)

Although our conventional medical systems still approach health issues as “bodies that are broken,” using pharmacology and surgery only treat the symptoms and not the cause. This approach totally ignores the fact that the side effects of such treatments often create ADDITIONAL health issues with which to be dealt.

Unfortunately, treatments that treat the CAUSE RATHER than the symptom are not “profit driven,” so they are pushed by the wayside. It is up to the educated consumers (yes, you) to find out about them on their own.

Even THEN, the answers seem confusing. Take nutrition … should we eat LOW fat or HEALTHY fat … should we eat soy products or NOT soy products? Rather than answer these things here, I will send you to that “other” nutrition blog of mine … but bring us back on task HERE for more info on the energy balancing that I did for Claire. Sorry for the tangent, but I get very emotional about these things! [smile]

So, I knew that Claire’s energy needed balancing because she was showing us this in sooo many ways (her pacing, her high anxiety levels, her lack of focus). When one’s energy is truly balanced, he or she doesn’t experience these things.

Therefore, since I was also initially trying to determine food allergies, like gluten and dairy, I took her to a chiropractic clinic that would use kinesiology to help us determine this.

What I learned from this experience was that when she IS in balance, her body told us that she was NOT allergic to these foods. When her body is OUT of balance, however, then her body showed us that it IS allergic to these foods.

We therefore now limit the gluten and the dairy on a daily basis, but my overall goal with her is to eliminate the PROCESSED foods, and these foods are highly processed anyway, so we work hard to eliminate them. I have found that it’s been amazingly easy for her to give up the gluten and the dairy. It’s the SUGAR she has more trouble with avoiding on her own, and she is indeed VERY sensitive to sweeteners. After eating them is exactly WHEN she bounces off walls and can’t sleep at night!!!

The other interesting thing we also learned through the nervous system scan at the chiropractic visit, was that Steph shows a lot more balance in her “yin” very little balance in her “yang,” which would fit with her tendency to want to “please others” vs. her inability to stand up for herself in times of conflict.

(This was not really “new information” for me, but it was VERY nice to have this information reinforced to Claire from a professional who could “show it to her on paper.”)

Claire also received Reiki treatments from a very talented and generous friend of mine, but I will go into this with much more detail in my next blog entry.

The other energy balancing treatment we have included that I want to mention though, is Ondamed. This is VERY new in that it has taken many years to formulate the equipment, and there are probably not many practitioners out there yet … so sometimes you must travel to reach them. Again, in my field, I MEET these professionals, and so I was lucky.

I took Claire to experience her first Ondamed session, and was amazed at just how “sensitive” she is to these energies. Ondamed uses an incredible range of all the frequencies to scan for imbalances and then to “feed” the body more of whatever frequencies it is calling for. Just the first diagnostic session took about an hour and a half, but Claire participated very well in the learning about her body and got to even "receive" for a very special ending.

Sure enough, the results of the diagnostics session showed that her body was asking for more in the “category” that helps to lessen anxiety and stress.

We also learned that her body is asking for more of the frequency of iron, so we know that means she doesn't have ENOUGH iron or is simply not ASSIMILATING the iron enough.

Claire was thus offered the frequency of iron as treatment to her body, but we are also now trying to increase her levels of iron through her diet (since a person who used to eat mostly cheese and pasta probably didn’t get very much). Although we all tend to think of red meat as our best source of iron, eating more dark green leafy veggies and dried dark fruits like raisins are also a good (and possibly even a BETTER) choice.

I must say that on the drives home from every one of these sessions, I always find Claire to be AWESOMELY centered and calm. It is as if she takes in every one of these frequencies to feed her soul!

The secret of ALL these energy-balancing techniques, however, is to use them ONLY as you SUPPLEMENT and help to "retrain" the person’s ability to find their OWN sense of balance within their every day lives.

This means that we spend lots of time helping Claire to learn how to balance herself … how to use “grounding” techniques as well as “meridian tapping techniques” to help her gain control.

And then, even after she has LEARNED these things, I find that I still need to constantly REMIND her to use them. She still doesn’t have the “instincts” for her own balanced health.

I remind myself that this is a PROCESS. It’s not easy to “reprogram” everything you’ve been taught!

So I try to experience my OWN "ups" and "downs" though this with compassion and patience, and "forgive" myself when I just don't want to do this anymore. [sad smile]

Holistic Therapy #4: MENTAL – Guided Imagery with Journaling Training

If you would get to know Claire, you might observe that she is unable to multitask, focus her anxious mind, on even perform a single task without being easily distracted. You might also observe that she has an ever-present tendency to stutter along with a constant need to “pace” in her room many times throughout the day. Her pacing often sounds as if she was literally (vs. figuratively) bouncing off the walls!

Yet at times in her past when she had been sent off to summer camp, I had observed that she was much more calm and able to converse in a more mature manner after spending those weeks with lots of structure and no TV.

One of Claire’s addictions is the enticing world of “zoning out” with technology’s many forms of offered distraction. From “regular” TV, to video games, and various computer activities, Claire is quite capable of escaping from her “inner turmoil” by using these things as her chosen “drug.” And honestly, I was glad that she had not chosen anything worse!

When she and I discussed this “need” of hers to “escape,” along with her chosen form of drug to numb her response, she was fortunately at an age where she was able to discern all this too.

So we began our journey to discuss many deep topics with great understanding (even though I had to accept the fact that changes were NOT occurring spontaneously from these chats … even when they came with the epiphany of deep understanding!).

I learned early on through my efforts with Claire, that we both needed to approach all this with great patience, and maintain these holistic therapies with great faith over a very-much-unknown period of time!

Now guided imagery is a very “old” therapy in that it has been used for centuries as a way to envision health. It’s nothing more than invoking the imagination, except that someone’s voice is used to GUIDE the imagination intentionally vs. allow it to go off on its own random tangents.

Since I teach guided imagery certification to many medical professionals, I have many of these resources available and planned to take advantage of them. Guided imagery is best when it is combined with journaling, so I set out to explain to Claire how she should approach this as a “packaged” therapy.

Every day of the week, Claire is to pick one of the different guided imagery CDs I had put before her. She is to take whichever one she feels drawn to, except that I had asked for her to START with the one CD called “Begin Again” and continue on with that one daily until she was bored.

This particular recording of “Begin Again,” takes an “inexperience” listener of guided imagery to a relaxed state, where they are then led to envision the assembling of their own healing team that has come together in order to be able to offer their gifts and skills out of love and compassion. It’s a beautiful imagery that Claire enjoyed immensely from the very first day.

The “routine” I taught her is very simple, (although with Claire’s initial lack of focus, this would sometimes occupy her for HOURS!!!)

This routine, which take place in a location that is quiet and will not offer interruptions, while being certain that she is also a location that will not lend itself to her falling asleep, involves the following three steps:

1. Journaling to Purge. Using a pen that offers smooth and easy writing, and paper that she can throw away afterwards if she wishes, Claire writes down all her fears, feelings, angers, concerns, etc, of that moment. Anything perceived as even slightly ‘negative’ is to be expressed here so that she can get it OUT and symbolically ‘purge’ it, so that she can even ‘rip it up’ afterwards in order to be done with it! The ‘secret’ to successful purging is to be without fear that someone else will ever read it!! Over time, a person gets better and better at saying thing they would normally not express to ANYONE else! And this is exactly the purpose of Clair’s journaling to purge: to be able to express things to herself because she is finally learning to become her own best friend! Then you, as the caregiver, must honor and protect her complete right to privacy! Anything less is inconceivable and actually detrimental to her overall improvement toward health!!! (Technically this should take only 5 to 10 minutes, but since Claire was not restricted in any way, so she usually took much longer with this step … although it SEEMED that a major part of her time was due to the many “distractions” that came with such thoughts).
2. Receiving. Claire then places a guided imagery CD into her player (which happened to be her computer), using headphones to help her eliminate outside noises so that she can better listen to the voice inside her own head. (Each guided imagery recording has a duration of about 20 or so minutes).
3. Journaling to Cement. Now using paper that Claire intends to KEEP, this segment of journaling is when she captures all of her guided imagery experience … noting what she “saw” and “felt” during her time listening to the imagery. This is to make it more real and help it “come to life,” for this step is to change neurons, body chemistry, etc … in other words, rewiring the brain! Journaling to REINFORCE these changes taking place in the bodymind is the reason that this second time with pen and paper is never to be ignored! (This step too should take only 5 to 10 minutes. But again, since Claire was not restricted in any way, she usually took more time for this one too. I also always gave her the option to DRAW or work with clay for this capturing of her experience, but usually [and surprisingly] all she ever wanted to do was simply write).

Guided imagery is a wonderful tool to bring about change. It's not expensive either! But it IS important to follow the above schedule consistently and with duration.

So to help this process run smoothly, I gave Claire the following SEVEN guided imagery recordings to choose from, in whatever order and number of times she wanted to repeat them throughout the seven days of the week:

1. Begin Again; creating your healing team; $9.99
   
2. Imagine: Peace from Anxiety; setting healthy boundaries; $9.99
3. Imagine: A Gift for the Caregiver; there are times when it's okay to just 'be'; $9.99
4. Imagine: Lifting Up; in times of sadness and grief; $9.99
5. Imagine: A Focus on Wellness; all that you envision health to be; $9.99
6. Imagine: Freedom from Pain; connection is at our very core; $9.99
7. Your Body, Your Mind, & Their Link to Your Health; (book with CD) $15.99

Feel free to contact me directly if you wish to discuss the needs of your own particular situation, client, or loved one.

But just know that with any guided imagery that RESONATES, a person can simply enjoy it for it's own sake … for I think that guided imagery is no different from some much needed self-pampering!

It's like taking the time to experience the pleasure of what I call a “mental massage!”

Holistic Therapy #3: SUPPLEMENTATION – WHOLE food Supplements

Supplements, although important (especially in today’s world of limited nutrients in the soils and rushed-to-market meats), are still intended ONLY to be supplements!!!

It is FAR better, in fact, to learn how to COOK with some of the naturally dried forms of seaweed, for they are WONDERFUL in home-made soups!!!

So in the case of Claire, I focused most on what her overall diet consisted of; and of course I addressed this as best I could in the blog entry of "Holistic Therapy #2."

But for additional impact on her diet, I introduced the following list of supplements into Claire’s morning routine, where she agreed to take all of the following supplements in the morning right before breakfast, with LOTS of water. Her dosage of Spirulina and GABA are divided into TWO "servings" per day. She always saves the “second half” for the evening meal.

Here is what her list of supplements consist of:

Supplement	Size	a.m.	p.m.
Vitamin D-3 Softgels	1000 IU	1
Wild Yam Root Capsules	400mg	8
Kelp Capsules	325 mcg.	4
Spirulina Tablets	500 mg	8	8
GABA with B-6 Capsules	500 mg	1	1
Cod Liver Oil Softgels	650 mg	2
Krill Oil Softgels	500mg	2
Chlorella Tablets	1000mg	2
Probiotic Capsules		2

Living in the Midwest in the winter means especially low Vitamin D blood levels, so I didn’t even bother to test Claire before starting her on Vitamin D3 or the other oil supplements.

But if you REALLY want to play it safe, you SHOULD technically have a person tested for this before automatically adding it to their diet; because this is one Vitamin that IS stored in the body and can be OVER consumed.

Overall, however, Vitamin D levels tend to be low in our culture; and Claire was not exactly the type to be outdoors in the sunshine very often, which is where one acquires their Vitamin D naturally (and it also cannot be overdosed this way). I felt MORE than safe adding these various oils to Claire's list of supplements without testing.

All the rest of these supplements can be given without fear of “overdose.” They’re technically all just "foods" … although the oils HAVE been “separated” from the WHOLE food.

If I had a choice, I would ALWAYS rather a person eat the seaweed and the whole cod fresh from a safe, uncontaminated ocean, but . . . oh well. These supplements will just have to get us by until then.

If you are familiar with some of these supplements, you might even notice that the kelp and spirulina dosages mentioned above are much higher than what are traditionally “prescribed” on the bottles.

But these two are both seaweeds, and thus are VERY safe. They in fact possess the nutrients that her body has literally been “starving for” for a very long time.

It is most important that these supplements are taken with LOTS of water. This came easy for Claire because she doesn’t much like taking pills.

So every morning, she patiently takes EACH and every tablet and capsule with quite a large mouthful of water. By the time she makes it through the entire group, she has consumed quite a BIT of wonderful water, an added benefit that fit in nicely with MY goals! [smile]

Holistic Therapy #2: NUTRITION – Simply say “no” to processed foods and “yes” to live foods

I have a fancy-sounding master’s degree in nutritional biochemistry, so everyone always thinks: “Wow, I wish I had YOUR knowledge of nutrition, and then I could DO this!”

But the fact is, we ALL have this “knowledge” of nutrition when it comes to knowing what is best to eat! Just focus completely on the foods that Nature GIVES us!!!!

This is NOT complicated!

If it comes in a box or a wrapper, then it is NOT “live” food. “Live” food is where the nutrients live.

And for people with Asperger’s, autism, ADHD, Tourette’s, etc., think of it like this: Although we ALL do better on “live” foods, these individuals are “sensitive” to anything BUT live foods!

To be sensitive is similar to being allergic to a food, except that the reaction occurs much LATER in the digestive process.

Picture what happens to food you eat: all foods digest by breaking down into Smaller Units in the gut. But the Smaller Units of “processed” foods are different from the Smaller Units of “live” foods; and these Smaller Units are actually harmful (and addictive) in a body with a “food sensitivity!”

These harmful Smaller Units are quite often crossing over the blood-brain barrier into the brain and cause autistic symptoms such as obsessive thoughts, brain fog, food addictions, high anxiety, and many others. We with “normal brains” experience this too to a certain degree, but when you possess a food sensitivity, your experience of this is MUCH more pronounced and problematic!

The ONLY way to help a person with food sensitivities is to STOP eating (or severely limit) all “processed” foods.

And YES, this means that it’s best (and easiest in the long run) to stop them all at once, “cold-turkey,” so to speak, no matter HOW much resistance you get from the person with these sensitivities!!!!

Foods taste different when one is hungry, and the body WILL NOT LET itself starve! So in fact, the bodymind gets to this point of “opening up the mind” for more food choices after hunger sets in. Let this process work in your favor as to WHEN you introduce new foods. (I personally think it helps if you all pretend that you have moved to a foreign country where the foods are ALL “different” and you can no longer access your “old standbys!”)

So that’s it! This is your new holistic nutrition therapy plan! As “simple” as that! Ha ha.

Here are a few “practical” suggestions to all of this . . .

With Claire, I knew of her “addictions” to the “whites” of sugar, pasta, and breads; so of course those were the first foods that had to go.

Instead, we now serve meals with brown rice. And although we limit the grains overall, we still serve foods with oats, barley, millet, and lots of seeds and nuts that are usually able to be substituted for the traditional grains.

We have increased the vegetables . . . the oh-so-wonderful world of SO many vegetables! We not only chop up the many colors of them into all of our meals, I also have a juicer, so I quickly introduced her to the “comfort food” of a fresh vegetable juice with the added sweetness of one piece of fruit (although it is still ME that has to “think” of the vegetable juice as a comfort food for her)!

We have also increased Claire’s consumption of proteins.

We add whole eggs (freshly and lightly cooked) into her diet, with a few hard-boiled for a quick meal or afternoon snack. We use freshly cooked meats instead of processed lunch meats. We use beef from a cow that came from our local animal fair, which we butchered and then stored in our freezer (but only after we knew it was raised by a young Boy Scout who was very proud of his work). And we use fish and seafood whenever we feel it is free of mercury contaminants, (but yes, we are very aware of how difficult THAT is)!

We do NOT use much soy as a protein source, however, because soy acts as a “sponge” of many healthy nutrients so that they are no longer available for YOUR use. We include some fermented soy food products, like tempeh and miso, because fermenting breaks down the enzyme in soy that is causing the “sponging.”

Claire happens to enjoy cooking, so I like to engage her with the online research of coming up with lots of new ideas. (But yes, it is usually ME who finds the HEALTHIER ones [wink, wink]).

That said, though, we do enjoy letting Claire uncover some “sweet treats” that are SO MUCH better for her sensitive body than the “old familiars!” She is learning to work now with agave nectar and sweet fruits, for example, and she is having some amazing results!

I also had to teach Claire the importance of WHEN to eat. She used to skip breakfast and almost starve herself with a “healthy salad” during the day so that she could then eat her one heavy meal of pasta, breads, cheese (and of course desserts) later in the day.

This eating pattern had caused her body to go into “storage” mode, so that her body was no longer the svelte, athletic body that she had experienced as a child. In the days when Claire had been on Ritalin to help her with the focus of her mind on school work, she was told by the doctors to eat all the sweets she wanted so that she would GAIN weight!

Of course, don't ask me NOW what I think of THAT solution!!!

So our new routine for Claire is to eat a full breakfast, lunch, mid afternoon snack, and a healthy but lighter dinner and NOTHING ELSE within four hours of bedtime. She quickly lost 10 pounds in four weeks and is very happy about this!

But I don't want to forget to tell you about perhaps the MOST important “food” of WATER!!!

Water is the often overlooked ESSENTIAL “food” of our time. Claire is now scheduled to drink water (just plain water) throughout the day, and can drink various teas too as long as they are NOT sweetened with ANYTHING – not even honey or that agave nectar I mention above!

It is important to find drinks that are enjoyed without any sweeteners or dairy – not even (and ESPECIALLY NOT artificial sweeteners)! Claire’s favorite seems to be hot peppermint tea with a pinch of cloves! And of course now she has ME drinking it too!!! YUM!

Speaking of dairy though, I WOULD let her have dairy if I could go back to my resource for it that I could buy in the form of RAW milk. Raw milk, when safely monitored, is handled completely different by the body from pasteurized milk.

But since my raw source has since “dried up,” I have introduced Claire to the many substitutes of cow’s milk (like PLAIN/UNSWEETENED versions of almond, oat, and/or rice milk – but NOT soy milk) and her favorite of those seems to be almond milk.

The “secret” of helping a person to LIKE (and thus transition into the use of) these milk substitutes, is to make sure they are served COLD the first time, as well as put on or in something “loved” like a smoothie or a bowl of cereal. After that, the “fear” goes away and they just begin to use it like they once did the jug of “regular” milk.

Do NOT get caught into the belief that you must start with the sweetened or the chocolate versions in order to get an individual's “buy-in” on a “different” kind of milk. This is NOT true and will instead create another whole addiction (to the sugars)!!!!

One more important bit of information on the BEST foods for individuals with Asperger’s, Tourette’s, Autism, ADHD, etc., is . . . “FATS are your FRIENDS!!

HEALTHY fats, when consumed through HEALTHY preparation, are NOT the problem with ANY of our chronic health issues.

It is the PROCESSING of any and all fats that are dangerous!

I am saddened by the fact that so many people fear fats. And I am even MORE saddened by the fact that they are eating even the HEALTHY fats in ways that are making them DANGEROUS.

But read on! Again, this is NOT complicated!

Simply understand: Many of our healthiest fats (like olive oil) are FRAGILE, and should NOT be used for cooking. They should only be WARMED right before you serve them guilt-free on your dish.

Other fats that are also healthy are the “saturated” fats!!!! They were once PROCESSED by being “hydrolyzed” and got a bad name for themselves. But the fats that come “naturally” in free-range eggs, coconuts, walnuts, seeds, and many other sources such as these, are GREAT for your body because they digest SLOOOWLY . . . as long as you don't eat them with SUGAR, FLOURS or similar FAST digesting foods!

So EAT these foods in your home-made recipes! Or by themselves! I have Claire even adding chia and/or flax seeds to her common, everyday meals. They are filled with healthy omega-3 fats. AND the part she liked most was that I told her they were the "secret" to healthy weight loss!

Eat LOTS of foods “in the buff” and you will find that you are treating your body with the most NATURAL form of medicine given to us by Mother Nature Herself! And if you have more questions, you might try looking through my postings on my Nutrition Blog that I devote only to nutrition issues.

ENJOY ALL "real foods"!!! I sure do!!! And I am happy to report that Claire is enjoying them all TOO!!!

Holistic Therapy #1: EXERCISE – begin training for a 10K Fun Run

I will explain more about each of these holistic therapies for you. But first, let me give you a little background on Claire that may help you relate to your child with these same issues:

Claire's personality is that she LIKES structure! So I knew that it would be best to put everything onto a calendar, so that she could check off her list and feel GOOD every time she accomplished a task.

Since her writing is scratchy and relatively illegible (also typical of Asperger’s and ADHD), the free electronic calendar provided by Google works perfectly for us. We can both view and add to it whenever we wish, yet it is also completely private from anyone else.

So here are the things we placed on her calendar from the very beginning. Here is our holistic plan for her overall health . . .

EXERCISE – begin training for a 10K Fun Run:

We are fortunate to live in a community where there “just happens” to be a BIG 10K “Fun Run” each year. This Fun Run also “just happens” to be nine weeks away from the date when Claire first moved in to my home. Nine weeks is about perfect for a training that can take an individual from couch potato to 10K without too much effort so I searched for one that I could tweak and placed it on her calendar.

Now, I know that Claire is by no means a “couch potato!” Yet I also know that she doesn’t like to “push herself” very hard UNLESS it’s something SHE likes to do! (Well she IS a teenager, isn’t she?)

Even when [or maybe especially because] she is a teen who is very PASSIVE about expressing dislike for something, she tends to deny or avoid it vs. show outward conflict about it, trying to have her way by simply hoping that no one will notice!

This is why I thought it best to make the exercise easy so that she would begin to feel the results before she would feel the boredom, and decided that it ALSO wouldn’t be a bad thing to make exercise the FIRST to-do therapy on her calendar!

So every day Claire begins with her 10K training, and her one day off each week is reserved for Sundays. I must say that I have been amazed at how well she does with the consistency of this in her schedule.

The ACTUAL holistic "treatment" for a teen with Asperger's, Autism, ADHD

So, WHAT does my "holistic" approach for a person with Asperger's Syndrome, high-functioning autism, or ADHD consist of?

Well in the case of Claire, here is what she and I agreed upon together (the list of which is not listed in ANY particular order of sequence or importance):

1. Exercise - begin training for a 10K Fun Run
2. Nutrition - reduce processed foods, gluten & dairy
3. Supplementation - WHOLE food Supplements
4. Mental - guided imagery training with journaling
5. Energy Balancing - Reiki, Chiropractic, & Ondamed
6. Education - various skills, including Reiki training, healthy cooking, & more
   
7. Career - begin applying for jobs that fit her skills (which are very limited)
8. Life Skills - get driver's permit and safety driver?s training
9. Creative Expression - mold clay, time for flute, piano, dancing & singing
10. Outdoors/Nature - walk the dog for 45 minutes when possible
11. Water - drink lots of water, other drinks can have no sweeteners
12. Research - determine learning style, DISC profile, & medication history
    
13. Emotions - learn "appropriate" balance through discussions and real life situations
    
14. Spiritual - find a church or "community" that supports her goals and gives her a sense of "belonging"
    

Be patient with me . . . I will take time in multiple postings to explain each of these things listed here in greater depth so that you will be able to do them too.

But first, know that EVERY treatment plan is best when it is customized to meet the needs of the individual! And the buy-in for meeting the individual's goals is MOST important!!!

So before DOING any of these things that I SO KNOW HOW to do, I needed to sit down with her and ASK her all about what SHE wanted out of life.

What I heard from Claire is that she is passionate about helping others, doing something that fits in with her talents, although she has no idea what that might actually be.

She wants to have a sense of "family" around her no matter what it is that she does.

She wants to travel the world, although at this point, she has MANY fears that would truly hold her back. The fears amazed me as I heard her speak of them. But listening with NO judgment was my goal, so I ENCOURAGED her to talk about everything!

Once she was done, I then showed her my list of "holistic concepts" and asked her if SHE was up to the commitment of doing ALL of these things on the list . . . just as one would do when attending a health spa.

I let her know that my goal was to help us all find the AUTHENTIC Claire . . . NOT the Claire who to this point had only tried to please everyone else.

I told her that we will adjust this "treatment plan" as we go, to determine more about what is and is not working for HER and her overall goals.

We agreed to SHELVE the whole college idea until she FOUND this Authentic Claire. For WHY spend good time and money on chasing someone ELSE's dream!!

Our task is now before us. Commitment from ALL parties has been obtained. So now YOU get to be a part of this journey and learn from the gift of getting to know Claire!

Helping a teen holistically who has Asperger's, ADHD, & autism

I have been given a rather Divine Opportunity to "re-integrate" an 18-year-old teenager, (diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, high-functioning autism, ADHD, as well as a few other "labels" that were NOT quite as "flattering") into adulthood.

What a wonderful opportunity to see if all the holistic training from which I have been educated (and some new to even me) can make a difference in the outcome of her life.

How has this "opportunity" come my way?

Well, out of a certain amount of respect for her privacy, I will simply call her Claire; and to answer that question . . . let's just say that all KINDS of blessed events happen to me, even if they don't always seem so grand at the time that they occur!

Claire has always struggled to "fit in" with the rest of the world, and is finding it no different now that she is beginning to mature.

But all of Claire's "tools" have been through the more "traditional" avenues: she's been on ALL kinds of medications since at LEAST the age of seven!

Claire needed to move in with us rather unexpectedly after all her other "options" had been taken from her. She was no longer welcome in her mother's home after "flunking out" of a semester of college. (Claire had been told that college was her "last chance.")

Anyone could have predicted this so-called "failure" of college, however, for all signs pointed to it. She lacked the ability to study, turn in homework, focus, multitask, or even acquire healthy friendships that were supportive of her as an individual.

Once Claire moved in, however, I became aware that her biggest issues turned out to be that she lacked confidence and approached ANY and ALL new (or even SLIGHTLY stressful) situations with a great amount of anxiety that was close to panic.

Claire is an incredible friend to a few people her age, but unfortunately those who end up being attracted to her are . . . like a moth to a flame . . . friends because they need someone to lean on as they live from one trauma to the next. They too are typically the "outsiders" in many ways . . . and Claire always aims to make them feel good.

Claire is one who manages to find a peaceful solution for everyone else, while her own mind is FILLED with tumultuous self doubt. Along with that trait, however, comes the fact that no one ever gets to KNOW the "authentic" Claire, as she is always too busy making sure that everyone ELSE gets to hear what makes them happy!

Although I know this process of "re-integration" won't be easy and that I will have my work cut out for me, I still KNOW that I can make SOME difference . . . even if it's just from a nutritional standpoint! This girl came to me addicted to sweets, pastas, cheeses, and breads . . . all processed foods that have proceeded to put some weight on her. While she was once overly thin from the intake of Ritalin, she is currently not very happy with her figure.

And there is ANOTHER important piece to these traits that I know is going to help me: she is the most delightful and caring person that I have ever had the opportunity to meet.

Now if I can only get Claire to love HERSELF as much as I have the ability to love the person she REALLY is, then I know that TOGETHER we will be able to make a miraculous difference!