Transcription of Finding Voice, #98
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Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 98, Finding Voice. Airing for the first time on Sunday, July 28th 2013. Today’s guest included Judith Cornell, teacher of the Alexander Technique and Cathy Plourde, founder of Addverb Productions at the University of New England.
When we lose our voice physically, the tractus spleen, a touch of laryngitis and we’re forced into a state of semi-whisper working hard so that others might hear us. When we lose our voice metaphorically, others may not realize it at all. Until one day, we start talking again. At that point, it can be painfully loud or at least loud by comparison. Then people are startled.
Our newfound voice isn’t always welcomed. It can be hard for others to want to hear. Sometimes others are more than willing to hear us. We just need to find the right audience. Then gaining strength from an appreciative audience, we’re able to use our voice anywhere at any time even if our voices danced uncomfortably in the ears of those around us.
If we have the strength to keep using our voice, we may have a chance to use it as a tool with which we may help others. Perhaps others who have no voice or perhaps others whose voices are not like ours. Our voice after all is part of who we are. It has been given to us by the energetic life force that some call God.
Our voice is our gift. As we find tune in our voice, the fact that this gift may become clear. We may use our voice in song or in poetry. We may use our voice in defense of the voiceless. We may use our voice in praise or adulation. Then our voice is not merely a means by which we communicate. It is an instrument through which the breath of the world might flow.
Our voice is not merely ours. It is the voice of many. It is the voice of the life spirit. As such, it must be allowed to find its way from the depths of our physical bodies so that we may be heard; so that we may join in the glorious cacophony and madness and joy created by the voices of our fellowmen so that our words may be welcomed back into the world.
We hope you enjoy today’s interviews with Judith Cornell, teacher of the Alexander Technique and Cathy Plourde, founder of Addverb Productions at the University of New England. We hope that in hearing their voices, you may be inspired to find your own. Thank you for joining us.
Dr. Lisa I’m sitting across the microphone from Judith Cornell who is a certified Alexander Technique teacher here in South Portland, Maine. She handed me a brochure. The front of which says, “Change involved carrying out an activity against the habit of life.” It’s a quote from F. Matthias Alexander.
This is very appropriate for our radio show because we’re often talking about change. We’re talking about how one changes. It really is about trying to figure out how to go against things that you’ve been so habitually doing over time.
Judith: That’s right. Alexander Technique is one means of accessing change, not the only way you can do it. It’s absolutely fascinating if you find you enjoy finding more out about yourself, how you handle your daily activities whatever they are. If you have run up against problems, physical pain, or debilitating conditions in the body, how you happen to get that way.
Alexander is a means of improving how you handle your body. How you move, how you react to everything that’s around you; a means toward change, a means of achieving balance and pose.
Dr. Lisa: Why did you become interested in the Alexander Technique yourself? I know that you have a background actually as a singer.
Judith: I’m a musician, a classically-trained soprano. Alexander himself was an actor from Tasmania, an island off of Australia. The Alexander Technique has been known, it’s a hundred years old and been known primarily to performing artists as a means of helping them get out of their own way when they do their art.
The world is full of singers who try too hard and get tight and sound like chickens or a violinist with tight shoulders and who have to give up playing because of the pain. I heard about Alexander through singing circles, people who had tried it. A former teacher of mine, a voice teacher who is very much in favor of Alexander work. I was very curious but there were not teachers in Maine.
I succeeded in getting a teacher to come up from New York and give a workshop at Bowdoin where I was teaching voice. I found it a startling experience. One, I didn’t know what it was exactly but to find in the middle of a workweek when you’re really tired that someone can help you to float as you walk down the hallway for example or get out of a chair really easily was fascinating.
Later on, I decided to train as an Alexander Technique teacher. It’s a three-year teacher training program. The nearest one was in Cambridge, Mass. I went there for three years and trained and started teaching back here in Portland in 1992.
Dr. Lisa: As I’m talking with you, I’m noticing that you do have a very open posture. We ask people to come into the studio and sit on these high stools in front of a microphone. It’s not always easiest thing to do. You somehow manage to relax your shoulders back and your hips are a little open. You just have this very comfortable feel about you.
Judith: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: Does these have something to do with the work that you’re trying to get others involved in?
Judith: Everything because as teachers, one reason for studying for three years is that we have good enough use of ourselves so that we can be a good example to a student. Most Alexander work is done with one student and the teacher. It’s hands-on in a very gentle way to guide and to listen with your hands to ascertain where areas of tension might be in the student.
We want to transmit from our bodies to the student ease, releasing, lengthening and widening so it’s easier for the student to start experiencing that. Alexander Technique is experiential in the sense that if you go to a teacher planning on a series of lessons so that you can start to get a little bit of an idea of what it’s about and you felt something’s changing in yourself.
Dr. Lisa: What about this idea that people get tighter because they think it’s going to help them be more efficient and more effective. What it really does is just you said the chicken voice. It causes the singers to sound like chicken. Why do you think people get tighter in an effort to get better but then it doesn’t help?
Judith: Because the mind and the body are one and whatever you’re thinking for example, I was a singer for many years. If I looked out in their woes, not a competitor but a fellow artist in the first row, it can make you start thinking, “Gee, I better be good because so and so is watching.” It tends to make us try too hard and tense the body.
We also go away from how were things going with me, how does it feel for me to “I wonder what they’re thinking about me.” It causes a lot of trouble for performing artist. You have to stay with yourself and your best balance and ease as you go along.
Dr. Lisa: Artists tend to be very sensitive. I worked with a lot of artists of various sorts, singers and musicians. The people who are best at art are also very tuned in to their environments and thus very tuned in to the people around them. Isn’t that somewhat of a challenge if you’re a performer and you’re tuned in to your audience but at the same time your audience can come back and impact you not always on a positive way? Isn’t that somewhat of a challenge?
Judith: Yes, it is the challenge. It is the challenge. It’s difficult to be a performing artist and to stay steady within yourself. Regardless of what happens out in the audience, the reaction or people or somebody gets up and leaves, whatever it might be, you are not distracted by that but you’re able to stay with yourself. If you’re a singer, you have to keep breathing. You’ll have to keep loose around your vocal mechanism so it’s working well.
Dr. Lisa: Do people begin to feel inhibited at times? Do they start to … the idea would be something like a writer’s block but for singers. Is there an equivalent there?
Judith: Singers are very, very … I taught voice for 30 years. Being a singer all of that time have a lot of ways of self-defeating. Daring to get up with a lot people staring at you and to be free and loose enough so that your instrument works is a big challenge. Running through lists of instructions in your mind rather than being able to breathe, be balanced and just let the song come through you and to your audience.
It’s wonderful when it happens. It takes a lot of time and experience for that to start to happen. A lot of singers do take Alexander work as one means of trying to get toward that goal.
Dr. Lisa: Isn’t that an interesting oxymoron, I guess is the word I’m looking for that you have somebody who wants to be a performer and yet they have all these self-defeating thoughts. You simultaneously want to put yourself out there but are afraid of putting yourselves out there.
Judith: We’re an insecure bunch of people. Artists tend to be that way; very self-critical. There are some very great performers who have been physically ill off-stage before they come on to sing. It seems startling to the fans to know that but it’s true.
Dr. Lisa: What are some of the things when you were … You used to work at Bowdoin Bates and …
Judith: Colby.
Dr. Lisa: Colby with the music department and as an instructor …
Judith: Of singing.
Dr. Lisa: Of singing. You’ve done that. You’ve been a singer yourself. Now you have your own private practice. What are some of the things that people tend to come to you with as complaints?
Judith: Pain, something in the workplace that feels uncomfortable that’s giving them problems. It doesn’t have to be carpal tunnel but things like sitting at computers for long periods of time, neck and shoulder and arm discomfort. People who are recovering from surgery, performing artists, cases like that. Most of my students have been performers or people who had pain already. Perhaps had tried a lot of other modalities and hadn’t been helped.
Our work is to examine why do you happen to use your neck, shoulders and arms too much and cause them eventually to start talking to you and hurting. If you can identify, recognize and then change that habit, you go about your life differently.
Dr. Lisa: Are there emotional and intellectual reasons why people or social reasons why people can start to do things physically that really don’t work for them in a larger way?
Judith: Sure. That’s probably how we operate. Expectations of ourselves, what we imagine other people want from us and in our society, we’re very goal-oriented. We’re not process-oriented. We’re leaving our brains thinking, “Oh, I’ve got a deadline,” or “I’m late,” or “Somebody expects something of me and I have to deliver it.” It makes tension. Whatever you think in your mind goes into the musculature of the body and into the other systems of the body.
Dr. Lisa: Does some of what you are working on have to do with helping people understand what’s going on with them emotionally? Do you just work …?
Judith: It’s all one, emotion and body is the same thing. It can be an emotional release to free the body. I had the case of somebody who had been a dancer earlier in his life had had injury which then precluded his dancing anymore, lower back injury. We were just having him walk up and down my studio.
He went down in one direction and he said, “I’m so happy.” I said, “Good. Why is that?” He said, “I don’t know.” It’s just the feeling that came over me feeling of freedom and able to move without the pain I was used to experiencing before.” It made him happy. The emotion came.
Dr. Lisa: I understand that in the Alexander Technique there is a concept called End Gaining.
Judith: Yes, there is. It is what we were just talking about when your attention is not on what’s happening right now but on the prize. In other words, what you have to achieve down the road. You’re thinking of the end of your endeavors rather than how am I going to get there in the best possible way so that whatever the end might be, it’s going to be successful.
We call End Gaining that tendency which everybody has. Changing that focus to the means whereby which is, “How am I sitting on this stool? How am I talking? How am I breathing? How am I interacting with you?”
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Dr. Lisa: It strikes me that this is very similar to the idea of mindfulness and being fully present.
Judith: Yeah, it is.
Dr. Lisa: You offer in addition to the idea of mindfulness, which I think a lot people understand the concept. You actually offer physical ways of achieving that.
Judith: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Describe to me some of the ways that you might work with someone who is having a hard time with doing anything other than End Gaining.
Judith: We work on every day movement. If someone were to come for the first time and I would explain a little bit and answer some questions. Perhaps work on something like being seated in a chair and what are you noticing about that. It’s an everyday thing you do constantly. Bringing your attention back to what your body is doing to allow you to balance in an easy way without tension. You don’t slump. You don’t have your head falling forward. You don’t close the front of your body with your arms.
We try something a little bit different. I keep bringing their attention back to how it’s feeling, asking them what they’re noticing. Most people notice a little something not necessarily everyone. You take increments.
Dr. Lisa: What about vocalizing? Do you ever have people do anything with vocalizing and getting back to the deeper breathing?
Judith: Breathing is very important part of lessening tension in the body. Holding and compressing the body happens if we hold our breath. If we’re anxious, anticipating something bad is going to happen, it’s a defense mechanism but it’s nice if it’s not there all the time.
If we have a tough job and we find we’re holding our breath all day, this is bad. Examining breathing, how people it. If it can be loosened and opened up a little bit, let the body occupy all the space it’s entitled to not to be pulled in and down.
Dr. Lisa: This occupying of space is very interesting because there are many people who walk around believing that maybe they’re not worthy of occupying space. Do you find that that is true?
Judith: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Give me an example that someone that you’ve worked with before that you have the sense they really didn’t feel as if they deserve to be out in the world occupying the space that they were meant to occupy.
Judith: I had an older lady who was a very hardworking employee of a college. She had a lot of responsibility and deadlines and pressure. They would be worse when there an event coming up. She is in-charge of details. I know she had neck and shoulder tension. I can’t now remember if it was also headaches, may have been. Grinding of teeth, it certainly could have been. Very nice person, an older person from a different generation.
She asks if what I did might be helpful. I said, “It definitely would if it suits you. Please come and let’s find out.” She came over. We had a series of lessons, perhaps four or five. I was happy. She seemed happy. She finally told me, “I don’t think I’m going to continue because I don’t feel justified in spending this much time on myself,” which set me back a little bit.
I did not say, “But of course you deserve to,” because it was her beliefs. That was something that she’d formulated her life around. I felt sorry for that. I said, “Well, please feel free to come back if you’d like to.”
Dr. Lisa: Could that also apply to people who are perhaps have either truly been victimized or perceived themselves to have been victimized?
Judith: Physically?
Dr. Lisa: Physically or emotionally or otherwise.
Judith: Yes. Those emotions can come up if it’s something that has been held down or ignored. I can think of some examples during my training course where there were a group of us meeting everyday. We got to know one another well. Some of the younger women I remember had periods of crying because they could remember as they were trying to let go of holding and protection in their bodies where that habit had begun. In other words, it went back to unfortunate circumstances.
Dr. Lisa: What about the idea of shame and people who perhaps they have been in the situation where something has gone wrong and they felt deeply embarrassed or deeply ashamed. Even if it’s something they haven’t done wrong but other people have accused them of something. Does this tends to cause people to be inhibited in themselves?
Judith: Yes, because all of that is kept in the body; in the same sense that a physical injury if you’ve had whiplash, your neck will remember that. If I put my hand on the neck of somebody who’s complaining of whiplash, you can feel the rigidity in the musculature there.
Helping that person to dare let go in a safe environment where they trust their teacher can be very beneficial if they choose to do it. Of course, they have to decide to do that.
What we are going for I would like to share with our students is how the body itself is wonderfully designed, works beautifully. We all as children sat, ran, squatted, did somersaults with no pain or discomfort. Life teaches us habits not all of them good ones. If we can shed some of those, we come closer to the ease and freedom that we had when we were younger. It’s a wonderful feeling.
Dr. Lisa: You have a practice in South Portland.
Judith: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: You said you’ve treated things from carpal tunnel to pain to other various constrictions.
Judith: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: People who are listening right now, what types of things might they stick you out for in addition to those?
Judith: I’ve worked with speakers. I have worked with students who sign for the deaf, where there is tension involved in the arms and shoulders from that profession which has a lot of involvement from the hands and arms. I’ve worked with all sorts of musicians, guitarists, cellist, flute players, violinist, a little bit of everything really. I’ve been teaching since 1992 in the Portland area. I’m the only teacher in Maine.
Dr. Lisa: How can people find you?
Judith: My telephone number 772-1984. You can also access online Alexander Technique. There is a directory of teachers from our professional organization that’s online.
Dr. Lisa: You have something that you would like to read to us.
Judith: I thought I could read something that seems very clear and precise. We are designed for movement whether we are dancing, hammering a nail, working at a computer, singing a song or walking to the store. We possess and inherit capacity to move naturally. Naturalness encourages ease, flexibility, power and expressiveness.
Unwittingly, we often interfere with this design. Energy, delight and grace give way to effort, tension and fatigue. The Alexander Technique gives us a working knowledge of the principles which govern human coordination. The Alexander Technique can imbue our lives with time, appreciation and significance.
Dr. Lisa: Judith, thank you for coming in and speaking with me and with all of us who are listening today. I’ve been speaking with Judith Cornell, who is a certified Alexander Technique teacher and instructor to many artists, musicians and people around the State of Maine. Thank you for all the work you’re doing and for talking to us today.
Judith: My pleasure, Lisa. Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: We in the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast hope that our listeners enjoy their own work lives to the same extent we do and fully embrace everyday. As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marci Booth from Booth, Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marci.
Marci: The first time I listened to my voice on this radio program, I was taken back a little. “You’ve got to be kidding. Is that really what I sound like?” Fact is, I got so caught up on how I sounded that I didn’t really listened to what I was saying. “Did I make sense at all? Were my points as a business management professional coming through?” Then I considered the fact that since I have passion for helping businesses succeed through proper management, what I was saying was actually coming through.
All the years of experience, all the time working with people to make certain their businesses ran smoothly actually did give me perspective. It helped me find my professional voice. Have you been able to find your voice? I’m Marci Booth. Let’s talk about the changes you need, Boothmaine.com.
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Dr. Lisa: In the studio with us today, we have Cathy Plourde, who was the founder and director of Addverb Productions. Just now associated with the University of New England but has been a free-standing nonprofit for many years up until 2011. I first learned about Cathy through TEDx a year ago and I am very pleased to have her coming in to talk to me today. Thanks for being here.
Cathy: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Dr. Lisa: Cathy, you have a lot of different very important social issues that you’ve addressed over time. The reason you got into all of this is an interesting story. Talk about that.
Cathy: I used to teach high school and was an ombudsman for youth that were struggling with a list of issues. Some of them dealing with their rights in the administration and some of it dealing with health stuff that people weren’t paying attention to. Some of it dealing with safety, sexual assault, things like that.
I was working with a group of people that were creating a conference for girls. A friend of mine in the group, “You know what, this conference needs is a play to start the day. Why don’t you write one?” I said, “Okay.” One year when conference led to another conference and another year which led to other groups around the state creating conferences for girls, commissioning place from me or asking me to work with groups of youths to create their own play commissions and came from groups like the Maine Women’s Fund.
Then strange things like the Knox County Coalition Against Tobacco, a commission plan tobacco cessation. Financial literacy to sexuality to all over is that where it started.
Dr. Lisa: You spend some time before getting really into Addverb. Going back in exploring your roots in the rating world, you were at Bread Loaf in Vermont. It’s a big detour.
Cathy: Not really because I had gone to Bread Loaf on a special institute. It was an NIH summer institute in theaters specifically which is why I went there and did playwriting and directing and some acting and performing there. Was introduced by some of the folks there, Carol Mcvey, Allen Mcvey, couple of other folks whose names I’m not remember about using theater and pedagogue and using it specifically as a tool for teaching and using that to breakthrough.
Whether you’re teaching science and the circulation system and the body or if you’re trying to teach a social issue or a new one, theaters are really amazing tool regardless of the age. It’s where it started for me was in Bread Loaf.
Dr. Lisa: Playwrights traditionally have run the gamut from people who are providing something that’s simply entertaining to people who really are approaching social causes. You could have gone for easy but you chose to go for more challenging.
Cathy: Yes, somebody went to ask me when I was workshopping the play You’re the Man, why I did this instead of real plays. When I tucked myself back into my chair, I explained that in fact these were shows that were not sitting in a drawer wishing someone else would produce them. This was a DIY situation where people were not dealing with issues.
To be fair, it’s just people want to avoid talking about sexual assault with young people or dating violence or eating disorders with young people. We don’t know how. We don’t know what our resources are. Since Addverb began and even before these works are beginning before Addverbs inception in 2000. The idea here was to not only give people information, valuable, clear, accurate information and to bust through myths and things like that but to give people an opportunity to think about what they can do.
I was workshopping the Thin Line back in, it must have been 1998. A group had asked me if I would remount one of the conference shows from the spring. I said, “No,” because that was 10 teenagers in the middle of July in Camden. “They’re busy. It’s not going to happen. How about a workshop in my new play?” I said. They said, “Oh, great.” Of course I hadn’t written it yet. This is really fantastic for me having a deadline, an audience in advance. That’s very much of my amuse in that regard.
The workshop is a piece on eating disorders. A young woman was in the audience. Her friend was the actor I’d roped into being the performer in that situation. She gave me a gift. Her gift was, “So what? We know our friends are dealing with this but we do not know is what to do about it.” That really became the litmus test for all of the work.
I’m not saying we’ve hit that mark everytime but that’s been the goal. It’s not enough to know that you need to create … it’s hard for youth who are struggling with their gender identity or families who are struggling with their gender identity. They’re perfectly fine with it. How do we get people to a place where they know what to do or what to say? Things aren’t simply prescriptive or they’re often unique to an individual or situation. How do we give people the tools to even begin communicating about it?
That’s what I love about theater is that you and I, let’s say I’m your kid and you’re my mom. We go to a play and we see this thing about dating violence together. We can talk about that. “That what happened in the play, does that happen to your friends? Do you think that was realistic? Are you seeing any of that?” You can have that conversation with me in a way that it’s not as threatening. “What are you doing on Saturday night? What are your friends doing?”
It’s a softer approach and paradoxically because the approach you get closer and it gets more personal and deeper quite quickly. It’s an effective emotional experience that is shared. That’s what we want. We don’t want to leave people in a puddle. We want people to really think about, “Wow, I understand this in a new way,” and “Wow, I see I need to do something,” and “Wow, I actually know where my resources are.”
Dr. Lisa: This is in fact what you or someone has written on the back of this book, Out and Allied: An Anthology of Performance Pieces written by LGBTQ Youth and Allies. This comes out of Addverb Productions. You’ve written, “It is not enough to just raise awareness, we have to do something and we need others around us to join in.” What is this interactive piece as joining in that you’re discussing? Some people think about play just I watch, you do. There it goes. Wait.
Cathy: Most of the time, anybody that comes to see an Addverb production or if young people are using the scripts from Out and Allied, the people in the audience have not purchased a ticket. Most of the time, they’re what I call a captive audience. For some reason, they are compelled to be there. They probably would not have chosen to do that on that particular moment in time.
There’s respect for the people in the room. There are people in the room who are connected to the issues. Whether we’re talking again eating disorders or dating violence, sexual assault or gender spectrum issues, there are people who know the issue way too well and personally and have a connection to it. To propose that a play is going to have the answers and to solve it all and make it perfect and we’re all going to walk away feeling moved and happy. That’s not how it works.
I want the play to be a starting point. There’s a sense of having respect for the people in the room. Respect for their difficulty in approaching the issue. Respect for in every room when “You’re the Man” is performed, there are survivors. It may not be dating violence but it might have been childhood sexual abuse or it may have been dating … the person who’s abusive to them or who has sexually assaulted them might be in the room.
How do we have this conversation as a community and create safety in the room as well as in the individual seats for everyone. That’s what we want to do at Addverbs is think through a large process of engaging a community, galvanizing local resources. The play is a play. The actors are actors. They are going away. I don’t put either myself or the actors or the play itself ahead of what’s really important and that people’s lives need to be saved.
Dr. Lisa: In Out and Allied, there is a piece called What Makes a Man? This person writes, “I am not gay but because I stand up for equality, people will assume I’m gay. That’s just how society is these days. It just seems as if everyone’s chief here is being accused at being gay as if it were some sort of Salem Witch trial. The difference here is that being gay isn’t a bad thing and neither are supporting gay friends and family.” Why are straight men so afraid of being called gay?
Is that part of it that people don’t want to be … they don’t want to stand up because they don’t want to somehow be associated with a group that has been marginalized.
Cathy: You’re tapping into that issue of voice really clearly. People are afraid to use their voice. There’s a list of reasons why we’re afraid. It might not be safe. There might be something lose. There might be some consequences whether it be resistance from their own family or their own cultural norm. If they’re in a locker room and someone’s making noise, it might not be the right time to interject. We have to honor that.
With this writing, this young man actually lives here in Portland. He was an intern with us and help with the manuscript together for the book, Michael Melafont. With this, we’re offering an opportunity for people to voice. The play is not going to give everybody story but they’re going to give that opportunity for us to hear the other stories.
If we’ve made it safe in a community to talk about sexual identity or orientation or sexual assault or dating violence or eating disorders, we’ve made it safe to talk about lots of things. It’s partly, this idea of empowering people to use voice is in part empowering a community to support hearing and meeting people who are using their voice and have things that they need to say.
Does that make sense?
Dr. Lisa: Yes, it makes a lot of sense. I’m glad that you’re also bringing the work that you’re doing to the medical community. I understand that you’re working with the University of New England in their Medical School.
Cathy: That was really a lovely match made in heaven. I’ve actually had board members over the years who were UNE employees. At the end of Addverbs’ existence as a nonprofit, I told my board, “Look, I’ve got about two more years here. That it’s hard. It’s a peel.” Frankly, we never recovered from the recession in 2008. So much of our funding was fee for service. We’ve been relying on grants and donor support. I can keep doing this for two more years or there’s an opportunity.
One of our board members worked at the University of New England. He’s an associate dean at the Westbrook College of Health Professions. He said, “You know, we’ve been working together all along.” I had gone into his classes numerous times. “If you look at your mission of theater for health and wellness education and you look at the University of New England’s mission of health and wellness education, there’s a beautiful fate here.”
It’s been wonderful to take on, it sounds so strange, to take on domestic violence issues with the medical community or the folks who are training to be our health professionals with these issues that are not easy for them. They’re just like anybody else.
Why would it be easier for a doctor or a nurse or somebody to take on and start talking about domestic violence? How many times have I heard the story of, “Yeah, yeah. A nurse screened and she said, “Well, oh, we have to ask. You’re not in a violent situation home, are you?” They have communicated in a way that clearly says, “This is how you’re supposed to answer this question?” I’m not willing to hear yes.
Dr. Lisa: What is that healthcare professional afraid of?
Cathy: In the yes. They’re afraid that they won’t know what to do. They’re afraid they won’t know how to fix it. They’re afraid that in the lovely restrictive healthcare system we have right now that in the eight and a half minutes they have to talk to somebody. They can’t really serve the person. If you can’t serve them, let’s not open them.
The other issue here is that people are coming to health professions like anybody else with their own histories and own stories. Part of what may get in the way of them wanting to hear yes is they haven’t dealt with their own stuff on this. We have found that when we’ve presented the work on domestic violence to the students training as health professionals, that there’s been surprise, surprise and uptake in the counseling services and their notation of reason for seeking services: history with violence.
With this, we’re educating our staff and faculty at UNE that if a student is having some problems, you don’t just nod your head empathetically. You do something about it. You offer to listen to them. You offer to connect them to the resources on campus.
There’s this whole shift in helping people understand we’ve got to deal with this issue. What is amazing is the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study which was the study by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, 18,000 people. The idea here is that, “Huh, there is a correlation between adverse childhood experiences such as abuse and long term health effects.”
It’s a no-brainer if you think about it. They’ve also found that the higher the cluster, higher the number of these adverse experiences; the higher the incidence of chronic illness and long term health effects. If you know as a healthcare provider that your patient has some issues with depression and if you know that they are someone who has a history of violence or has it going on in their life right now, you need to really take a closer ear to this.
We’ve moved from and I don’t mean to be dismissive by this but a garden variety depression to higher incidence of suicidal outbreak and suicidal ideation. You’ve got to step in in a whole new way.
Dr. Lisa: The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is to help make connections between the health of the individual and the health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.
Ted: Years ago, when I go would go out in the desert with my shaman, I studied with him for four years in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. We would go visit the Grand Mother Therese or we’d go visit the stone people. We would name those places and we call those places out. It’s important in your own landscape to call those places out, to name those places, to give it a name.
Once you give something a name, it stays with you forever. It has a deeper and richer meaning. There are areas on your property that can be called out and named as well. I do that often with people. I’ll even put it in their designs. I’ll name it for them sometimes. The name sticks. Years later, I’ll go back and I’ll say, “Oh yes, we’re going to go out to the place, the Worship Garden.”
I called it out as the Worship Garden and they remembered that. Just name areas of your property and call them out. You’ll find it to be quite meaningful. Put a piece of art, put a piece of sculpture out there. Do something that gives that place recognition.
I’m Ted Carter. If you’d like to contact me, I can be reached at Tedcarterdesign.com.
Speaker 1: We’ll return to our program after acknowledging the following generous sponsors: Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedics Specialists in Falmouth, Main. At Orthopedics Specialists, ultrasound technology is taken to the highest degree. With state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment, small areas of tendonitis, muscle and ligament tears, instability and arthritic conditions can be easily found during examination. For more information, visit Orthocareme.com or call 207-781-9077.
Dr. Lisa: At the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we believe we are helping to build a better world with the help of many. We’d like to bring to you people who are examples of those building a better world in the areas of wellness, health and fitness. To talk to you today about one of these, fitness is Jim Greatorex, the president of Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical. Here is Jim.
Jim: Did you watch the Olympics last year and see the athletes wearing that funky tape on their shoulders and wonder, “What the heck is that deal?” It’s called Kinesiology Athletic Tape and it works like an orthopedic brace without limiting range of motion. It provides stability for muscles, joints and tendons and helps reduce pain while maintaining flexibility for better support and increased endurance.
If you have knee, shoulder, ankle or foot pain or have that one muscle that just glares up after increased hand activity, come in and have our staff help you out. We’ll have you performing like an Olympic beach volleyballer in no time.
I’m Jim Greatorex, President of Black Bear Medical. Come on in and see our trained staff down at 275 Marginal Way and at www.blackbearmedical.com.
Dr. Lisa: It does seem interesting to me as we’re talking that a lot of these topics are interwoven where if you’re somebody who has a history and not always but if there is someone who has a history of violence in the home or dating violence, it’s possible that they’re more likely to have an eating disorder or …
Cathy: Absolutely, yeah.
Dr. Lisa: Just a lot of these things that are adverse childhood events and even adult events. They’re all interconnected.
Cathy: Very much.
Dr. Lisa: When you open this Pandora’s box and you see that all of these things are crawling around, what happens next?
Cathy: Naming it is often the first step, being seen, having your voice heard. It comes right back to it, the voice. We’ve got to consider the “So what?” Like that young woman said to me many years ago, “So what are we going to do about it?” In fact, there is a social and even a moral accountability here to not turn a blind eye.
Even just naming it and telling somebody, “I see this.” is … There’s a woman for example who I worked with for many, many years who does domestic violence work. She shared with me not too long ago a story of having been in the ER for injuries brought on by abuse and nobody in the hospital said a thing. Then as she was leaving, she was out almost at the parking lot, this guy ran out and said, “Here’s a number. I want you to call him if you would, please because he saw it.” That she said was the beginning of her being able to take a step for herself for her to find her own voice.
That there’s this interesting connection between what does it mean to empower somebody. What does it mean to allow voice? A part of it is just being witness and letting people know that. A wonderful thing, another woman from the Domestic Violence Community said to me once is that, “If you say nothing, you have actually chosen to stand with the abuser or the bully,” or the whatever here. That in fact there’s a complicity in silence.
That’s really what’s behind Addverbs’ work is to break that silence, A but B, to add if you will the verb, to add the action. What are we going to do about it because it’s really, really not enough to just raise awareness.
Dr. Lisa: You and I had a conversation about perhaps art or plays that somehow opened up a wound but then leave their nowhere to go. People can be deeply impacted by something that they see or they hear and really shaking. It’s not really a safe way of having these feelings because when they leave, say they leave the play and what do you do with that?
Cathy: An artist is an artist. They have whatever creative reign and license they wish to have. Addverbs’ work is almost exclusively captive audience. In that case, I feel I have more of a responsibility to respect the fact that they may not have had a choice to be there. I don’t wish to dump on them. Sometimes people use theater and arts in a magical, wonderful way to move them through an issue.
They are giving voice to that abuse or that story or that … however big or small it may seem to anybody else, it doesn’t matter. It’s their own journey and their own story. Honestly, some of that probably should either stay in your diary or stay with your therapist or invite a close group of friends who are confronting and are okay holding witness in that space. There is stuff that sometimes abusive on audience. I’m uncomfortable with that as an artist myself.
Dr. Lisa: Cathy, how can people find out about Addverb?
Cathy: Addverb is spelled with two Ds. You should know that because it’s adding the verb. We’re at the University of New England. We’re at the une.edu quick link page. I’ve got a blog that I’m keeping up with right now which chronicling our translation of the play “You’re the Man” into Australian. It’s about to be used down under in a statewide initiative in Victoria which is very, very exciting. Yes, it meant I had to go there.
Online is a great place to find us. You’ll find some great book trailers that students have created about Out and Allied and they’ve got lots of resources. Please come find us, volunteer, get on our mailing list, send us money, whatever you like.
Dr. Lisa: They can also watch the TEDx that you go talk.
Cathy: Yes. That’s kind of embarrassing but yes you could.
Dr. Lisa: I’ve watched it. I think it’s worth paying attention to. I know you have your talk and then you also have a bit of I guess it’s a portion of one of the plays that you do.
Cathy: Yeah, two plays are featured in there. It’s embarrassing because that work is meant to be without me. I’m not used to putting myself front and center. I stand at the side of the work and monitor it. It’s really not about me.
Dr. Lisa: We thank you for joining us today because today it is about you and it is about the work that you’ve done with Addverb. Like I said, I appreciate the spotlight that you’ve been able to shine on issues such as domestic violence and eating disorders.
Cathy: Thanks.
Dr. Lisa: I encourage people to go take a look at what you’re doing.
Cathy: Thanks. We’d love to take a show to anybody’s community. Let us know.
Dr. Lisa: You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 98, Finding Voice. Our guests have included Judith Cornell and Cathy Plourde. For more information on our guests and extended versions of their interviews, visit doctorlisa.org.
I’d like to let you know about a special event coming up on August 1st and 2nd at the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor. This is Artworks to Benefit the Land and Garden Preserve. The Land and Garden Preserve, a nonprofit organization on Mount Desert Island committed to maintaining and preserving woods and trails in that area will be hosting an art sale at the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor.
The land and gardens of the preserve have inspired area artists for over 50 years. They have invited a select group of current artists to create original work for this special two-day exhibit. The purpose of this event is to raise funds for the preserve, encourage artists to experience wonderful landscapes and provide an opportunity for the public to enjoy their original images and reflections in one setting. Proceeds from the sales will equally benefit the artists and the preserve.
For more information on Artworks to Benefit the Land and Garden Preserve, visit Gardenpreserve.org.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and wellbeing on the Bountiful Blog, bountiful-blog.com.
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This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that you have enjoyed our Finding Voice show and hoping that you will be encouraged to find your own voice. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary by Design, Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage, Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes and Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street in Portland, Maine. Our Executive Producers are Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Audio Production and original music by John C. McCain. Our Assistant Producer is Leanne Ouimet. Become a subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details. Summaries of all our past shows can be found at doctorlisa.org.