The next events are on Saturday, March 27 and April 24th at the Whole Gallery, 405 W Franklin St, Baltimore, MD at 7pm.  There is information about parking and carpooling through the organizers or their FaceBook page also.  See below.

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Open Spirit Circle Announcement:

Open Spirit Circle is a family friendly event open to all spiritual paths. Creating a sacred safe space to express ourselves through art, music, movement and silence. We drum, dance, chant, trance, sing, meditate, and manage to collectively and collaboratively find a harmony that lifts our spirits together.

We would like to encourage full group participation. Please bring your chants, poems, art ideas or any other short participatory things you feel called to share with the group.

Our events are designed so that everyone can contribute in many different ways. Feel free to join us for set-up and or take down.

If you are moved to bring sacred items to share for the night or to donate to the ongoing of events, we will be happy to accept them if brought in during set up time.
Items that we could use are tapestries, crystals, feathers, sea shells, and candles (7 day and glass enclosed preferred)

We set up a food area for nourishing ourselves during the event. Healthy easy finger foods are much appreciated. (grapes, carrots, nuts, chips, pretzels)
Be sure to bring a water bottle. We will have a 5 gallon dispenser for water.

Some art supplies will be provided for the art table and we welcome more being donated.

Each event we ask for a donation to help keep the event going monthly. We will not turn anyone away for lack of money. Your time, service, or donation of other items is also valuable to us. Suggested donation is from $3 to $10.00.

For more info contact

Ayla 410-388-1514 or Tanith 571-527-8039

We covered a variety of interesting topics — which I won’t talk about much right now because that would ruin the anticipation, wouldn’t it?  A few topics we discussed:

• Is it hard for a Pagan to find a good therapist?

• What are the criteria for selecting a good therapist?  What additional criteria might a Pagan look for?

• Do patients claiming experience strong paranormal gifts always get prescribed psych meds?

• Can a patient claiming to be Otherkin (the idea of having a soul that is either partially or completely non-human in some way) be in a healthy mental state?

• What are some guidelines a new Pagan patient should follow when going to see a therapist?

I think I came through halfway coherent and without babbling too much (we’ll see).  I will say that I gave some ways to find therapists who might be more understanding of Pagan clients.  I also emphasized that HEALTH is what matters — not a client’s belief system.

You can download their podcasts from iTunes.  Their website is at http://www.pagancenteredpodcast.com

– Michael

She states that:

“Touch Drawing is a simple yet profound process where your fingers take the place of pen or brush. Your hands become organic extensions of your soul, moving freely in response to the sensations of the moment. In this sacred space, you can open previously unused channels of expression, enabling uncensored feelings to flow forth. The act of creating with these feelings provides more than cathartic release: it unleashes vibrant healing forces which guide the psyche toward wholeness. Touch Drawing is a practice of creative, psychological, and spiritual integration.”

The first event is Saturday April 4th.

More information on the event can be found here and here.

More information on generally what Touch Drawing is can be found here and here.

I’m delighted to be co-teaching with Judy Harrow — a mental health counselor, present (or past?) President of the New Jersey chapter of ASERVIC (Association for Spiritual and Religious Values in Counseling), and Pagan elder.  She is also Chair of the Pastoral Counseling Department at Cherry Hill Seminary.

Here is the current generic write-up on the planned class:

More and more today, Pagan groups are being called on to guide the personal and spiritual growth of their individual members, minister to their needs, and counsel them through life changes. The Pagan community is a unique context for this ministry, and the PLSC Pastoral Care track will give you a base knowledge of common counseling techniques and tools to help you do so. The track will address the foundations and basic techniques of pastoral care, active listening, unconditional positive regard, reflective and additive empathy, appropriate confrontation, spiritual assessment, confidentiality and its limits, and specialized tools and techniques such as what to listen for and questions to ask. This track will equip you to develop a personalized action plan for pastoral care to bring back to your organization or group.

So I got there and — during my 4-hour shift anyway — every single other booth was staffed by a Tarot reader or a psychic. Meanwhile the organizers were assuming that everyone was doing 15 minute readings and had already started a sign-up sheet for me!

Those used to Tarot reading are likely reading this and saying “so what?”, and therapists reading this are cringing…

Anyway, I got a speed lesson in intense 15 minute coaching sessions. No divination. Just tell me your problem, tap into your creativity, and brainstorm next steps. It was fun and seemed to work quite well. Clients seemed happy. Of course, I made far less in tips than the Tarot readers and psychics — so that should be a clue to any students out there as to what profession to get into. (I donated tips to the Stepping Stones Nigeria orphanage for “witch” children.)

15 minute coaching sessions require a focus — something to pull the client right to the problem, tap their creativity, and immediately get them looking at the problem from a new angle instead of the stuck spot they came in occuping. This is where card decks become critical. There is ALOT we can learn from Tarot readers.

I have a whole workshop on using cards in counseling, but basically the story is that they can facilitate answers whether or not you believe divination is going on. The story used in psychotherapy anyway is that the mind is a meaning making engine and that a part of your mind will always try to make a meaning out of any information put in front of it. So if you think of a problem and pick a card, 9 out of 10 times your mind will supply a useful link between the card and the problem. In so doing your unconscious creativity surfaces.

I thought maybe I’d take this opportunity to list out some card decks that I use in therapy that I find very useful. Depending upon the need, I was pulling these decks out during the holistic fair:

Soul Coaching Oracle Cards — Have a simple picture and words such as Strength, Gratitude, Faith, Commitment, etc. Obviously usually used in divination but also great for the therapy situation described above where you ask the client to make a connection between the card message and their issue. I’ve also used these in “Resiliency” class at my psych rehabilitation program with a room full of folks with schizophrenia. The central lesson was that we all have resources to be strong with even if we have limitations or little money. By the time everyone drew a card and discussed their “love”, “freedom”, “grace”, etc. the room was much more upbeat and positive.

Dreaming in Color Deck — Emotional and spiritual states linked to artwork. Good for pulling emotions out of people stuck in their head. I’ve written about these before — click here.

Planning on Purpose Deck — A boring-looking, badly-printed deck by a career counseling center that is absolutely the best informal tool around for figuring out what your life priorities are. It’s supposedly geared towards career but the conversation can quickly become existential as the client figures out what matters in life. Using them is deceptively simple — clients sort the cards (with phrases such as “Nesting, creating a home”, “Sports, sports”, and “Leaving the World a Better Place”) into piles of low and high interest. Then they rank order the most important pile. Then you discuss how to bring their life into accordance with their top rank-ordered values. Good for helping break depression.
Healing the Mind and Spirit Cards — Advice for living with positive affirmations to change your thoughts. Good for when someone needs an “answer” and hope.

Hudes Tarot Deck — I almost never use Tarot cards. If I do, its in the context of architypal work. Along the lines of “find the cards that remind you of parts of yourself”. Useful in this way for helping people come to appreciate and be aware of all of the parts inside them. Usually the client is already familiar with Tarot or I find another way to work. This is one of my favorite decks.

Thanks,

Michael

I’m told I’ll have a presentation slot at the Northern Virginia Pagan Pride Day celebration on September 7th. More information on the festival at http://www.openhearth.org/paganpride/nova.shtml

Not sure what time I’ll be speaking — I assume not opposite Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone!

I’m looking to set-up an info booth at the festival too. In addition to info on my practice, I’ll have some flyers and be available to talk about my experiences a few years ago with Cherry Hill Seminary. More info on them at http://www.cherryhillseminary.org/

Here’s my topic:

Trauma and Magic: Diagnoses, Groups, and Beyond: Often times folks drawn to the unusual and the occult are re-discovering themselves after a difficult past. That past history can lead to a variety of symptoms that friends may not realize are psychological in nature. These symptoms can effect covens, groves, and other working groups. This workshop will start by covering some of the symptoms of persons with trauma histories. We’ll briefly cover the spectrum of trauma disorders and discuss how such may effect the groups you are a part of. We’ll wrap up with a speculative discussion on the links between abuse and psychic or trance abilities. Time permitting we may range into the differences and similarities between psychosis versus psychic or magical capabilities.

Michael Reeder, MS, LGPC operates a counseling practice in both Baltimore and Washington, DC. His primary interests are Tarot, developing Neo-Pagan “pastoral” counseling methods, and the overlaps between magic and psychology. He holds a Masters degree in Clinical Community Counseling and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Spiritual and Existential Counseling from Johns Hopkins University. Michael has presented workshops for the Mid-Atlantic Pagan Alliance Beltaine Festival, Free Spirit Gathering, and the Pagan Leadership Skills Conference. His blog can be found at http://www.pagantherapy.com

All in all, I thought it went well.  I was pleasantly and well-received, and if anyone thought I was a crackpot for being Pagan they fooled me.  The group was genuinely interested in the topic.  Another Pagan therapist was there who proved very helpful in educating the group on Paganism.

A few thoughts:

• I barely got to my planned material on how to counsel Pagans, topics Pagan clients are likely to bring up, etc.  Really — the heart of the presentation.  We spent most of our time on what the heck is Paganism and Wicca.  I sometimes forget just how far we have to go in educating the community at large.
• The “do you sacrifice…” question DID come up.  It is NOT too basic to keep reminding people that we are not involved in dark plots to sacrifice babies, etc.  I went ahead and gave Voudun and Santeria a plug by explaining why chicken and goat sacrifice might not be so horrible, although Neo-Pagans we generally don’t do that.
•  This was the first professional situation in which the other Pagan therapist had been out of the broom closet.  I suspect we have lots of Pagan therapists afraid or unable to be open professionally.  I think she had a positive and affirming experience.  Part of the reason therapists are not out with their religion is that, in many contexts, its considered inappropriate.  This is a whole seperate topic we could discuss.  However, spirituality IS a part of holistic healing and the trend in counseling is towards allowing discussion of the spiritual.  The trick is when to discuss the client’s spirituality (without revealing your own) versus when to announce your own spirituality in order to attract clients comfortable with the therapist’s religious/spiritual orientation.  Medical model clinics seem to have the most problems with spirituality being allowed and that’s too bad — there IS preliminary evidence of spirituality being effectual in healing.  Surely even within the medical model spirituality will become allowable if evidence of its usefullness is presented, right?
• While most of the room agreed in principle with the idea of operating from within the client’s worldview (such as allowing the client to talk to goddesses for example if it seemed useful to the client), they never thought such would work within their own agency.  That is, the therapists in private practice could see working with client’s Pagan beliefs, but the therapists at medical clinics, state-run organizations, and large agencies were quite sure that the client would be sent straight to the psychiatrist for a medication increase.   A few therapists in the room gave examples of not noting unusual beliefs and perceptions in clinical notes for fear the psychiatrist would try to medicate them away.  I find this very disturbing.  One implication of this is that, even if we succeed in educating counselors about Paganism, we will end up with a two-tier system.  Pagans with quality insurance or cash will go to private therapists for well-educated help.  Poor Pagans and the severely mentally ill will end up in institutional environments where their spirituality will be mistaken for psychosis.  It also suggests an ugly division in treatment teams wherein the therapists have different beliefs and goals than the psychiatrists.  This is bad for the patients and terrible for the mental health of the therapists themselves working in such environments.