I often reflect back on a time in my life when I was teaching classes at the Brigham City jail where they housed inmates for the state prison. I got to know a lot of those inmates quite well as they were there for at least a year. I was inspired by them. I was connected to something greater as I joined them in their search for what was real. We explored what would truly keep them in recovery and the contrast between the symbolism of prison and freedom. 

At the same time in my life I was teaching a church class of sixteen to eighteen-year old young women. I would come away from those lessons feeling completely inadequate, not knowing how to reach them, not knowing what was going on within them and not having any idea how to engage them in the discussion.

Last week I came out of my private practice and there was a biker smoking a cigarette on the curb. He was right across the street from the store where I bought my cigarettes until I quit at age 19. (Once they were legal there wasn’t as much fun in in it.) In that moment I felt safe. I felt safer there with that biker than I did going to a gathering of family and church members; People I had known for years that I had no idea how to reach, no idea how to engage, and no idea of what was really going on inside of them.

I realized where the security came from. There is something safer about a person who shows up with their shadow first…than someone who keeps it hidden where they think no one can or should see it. 

What does that mean about how we should be showing up for each other? 

I guess what I love about therapy and twelve-step groups is that people show up with their shadows. 

#RealHealing #EmoAnon

We need each other to heal our lives and our world. One-on-one therapy has a place, but it’s possible it has “displaced” the role of community. The power of group was found by those healing addictions – the solution was Alcoholics Anonymous – group recovery models. Why haven’t group recovery models been considered in the mental health arena? There is so much emphasis on confidentiality, which may have originated in deep fears of institutionalization for mental illness. Our society is moving beyond stigmatizing mental illness. We need a model that creates more open dialogue among those who are healing emotionally.

Support groups have been a culture unto themselves since Bill W. started the first AA meetings seventy years ago. Community-based healing is done in rehabs, in workshops, and in forums like Landmark. It was a marker of the millennium to find commonality and step out of our closets of shame. We commonly post our mistakes and make fools of ourselves on social media.

Go to your local gym and you will see the power of bringing people together for self-improvement. If done with the right intentions, emotional self-improvement could create connection and allow for magnification of results. We accomplish more together than we do alone.

Community is powerful in the emotional healing journey. Here are eight considerations based on the “gym model” and other group-support concepts:

1. Many of us have found exercise to be more enjoyable when we are in a group
2. We have better personal results when we have a trainer or a coach
3. It is more enjoyable and supportive to “work out” our emotions with the support of others
4. Accountability is a key to progressing and pushing through the tough spots
5. Knowing others are doing similar work with similar challenges can make us feel less alone in the process
6. It’s nice to have others to celebrate our milestones
7. It’s nice to have others to hear us when we are struggling
8. We make personal shifts when we support others and get outside of our own stuff

Eight is a powerful number. In fact, let me tell you about The Power of Eight. Lynne McTaggart, also the author of The Field, explains that we are all connected through a quantum energy field. As a result, the power of combined intention can result in dramatic, miraculous shifts. She has conducted experiments with groups of individuals (approximately eight per group) reporting thousands of miraculous healings.

I’m a personal believer in group healing. I’ve established a group model of personal transformation called Liberation Training. We keep our groups small, only 4-6 participants. This allows for a sense of privacy in addition to connection and support. Along with the 7-hour, in-person training, is a 30-day membership in group support.

It’s my hope that we will see change over the next few years that will not only relieve the burden on the mental health system, but see even better results by healing in small groups.

Would you like to be part of a Conscious Community? Join my Mighty Network for free at www.AMillionAtOne.com

Yet, life, Universe, God, knew more than I did. The path evolved step-by-step:
2009 – My client introduces me to Tara Brach, a psychologist teaching about mindfulness. Little did I know, she had just opened the door to Buddhism.
2010 – I’m pushed into yoga by a woman I sponsor. 12-Step Recovery was my SECOND spiritual path. I have 33 years of recovery.  Without yoga, I never would have gotten to stillness. Kundalini yoga was my THIRD spiritual path.
2011 – 11/11/11, to be exact, I teach a class on Awakening to Oneness where I explore and share what I learn from Doing Time, Doing Vipassana. I go on record saying, “I hope I don’t have to go to prison to learn how to meditate.”
2012 – I begin to claim my role as an Integrative Mental Health therapist, blending Eastern philosophy and practice with Western training
2013 – I run into my former 12-Step sponsor, who tells me she has followed Thich Nhat Hanh and “there’s a monk in my basement.” I consult with Nithya Shanti, a former Buddhist Monk
2014 – I continue my training with Nithya Shanti and attended my first Buddhist Sangha. I break through my inner barriers to find silence all the way to my core.
2015-2020 – I developed and researched Quantum Wholeness Meditation with individuals, couples, and families – finding the power meditation has to heal lives, marriages, and entire communities.
2020-2022 – www.AMillionAtOne.com is born and built, bringing the Eastern mind and Christian heart together in an online forum of live group intention sessions, Miracles and Meditation, and mastermind groups.
May 2022 – I return to the Buddhist Sangha with humble gratitude. I begin attending weekly, making it my FOURTH spiritual path.