New Edition ~ $21.95 US

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

ANNOUNCING OUR NEW EDITION

In An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party researchers Tom Richards and Stan Tomandl propose that people with Alzheimer’s dementia are not spiraling downward into “mindless pathology” as commonly believed, but are human beings in deep inner states of consciousness, parallel realities, that may reveal important and meaningful experiences for them, their families, and for society.

By applying new sentient communication skills and meticulously documenting their twenty year exploration, Stan and Tom demonstrate that Alzheimer’s patients are able to work on themselves psychologically and communicate with others during all stages of Alzheimer’s with outcomes including psychological, soulful, and spiritual growth processes and healing.

This book provides pioneering and innovative research on the Alzheimer’s dementia pandemic, and serves as an intimate, intense, compelling beacon, shining light on the disease’s potential for deeper meaning and spiritual healing.

NEW: In depth interview with Tom Richards, co-author of An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party

“This book is revolutionary in providing hope and meaning for patients, relatives, friends, caregivers and professionals in the management of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

DR. ROSEMARY SHINKWIN, MD, MRCPsych
Consultant Psychiatrist, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, Ireland

Preview the Preface to An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party by Dr. Rosemary Shinkwin

*     *     *

“I strongly recommend this as an original method of understanding and dealing with people in Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

DR. ARNOLD MINDELL, PhD, Jungian Training Analyst, founder of Process Oriented Psychology, Process Work

*     *     *

“Speaking as a professional psychologist, teacher, and trainer, I highly recommend An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party as an exceptional training tool not only for professionals, but also for family members, friends and caregivers.

It is exceptional because Tom and Stan have made it interactive. They do not simply present abstract psychological concepts, but develop detailed reality based personal experiences enhanced with clear concise observations, structure, and learning.

Their style of presentation alternates back and forth between human experience and observation, all within a phased structure that sharpens the reader’s experiences even further. This technique helped me differentiate my own observations, go deeper into my own inner experiences, deeper into my learning, and added depth to my teaching.

And this style even makes it a great resource for the nonprofessional lay person who may shy away from psychology or get turned off by psychological concepts.

As a training tool this book is both timely and essential and could help transform the way people interpret and respond to patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

DR. SALOME SCHWARZ, PhD
Faculty Member and Trainer, Process Work Institute Graduate School of Portland, Oregon

*     *     *

EXCITING NEWS: An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party is now available as an eBook through the Appple iTunes Store for readers who own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using the iBooks App. Click here to go to iTunes Store. Download for $9.99 US.

*     *     *

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

• Alzheimer’s
• dementia
• delirium
• senile
• senility
• senile dementia
• vascular dementia
• confusion
• forgetfulness
• stroke
• memory loss
• coma
• communication
• Arnold Mindell
• process work
• process oriented psychology
• awareness
• sentient awareness
• sentient care
• spiritual care
• prevention

For patients and care facility residents this means the opportunity of knowing and experiencing themselves on their own terms and in their new state of consciousness; and with less physical and pharmacological restraints.

For families, friends, and caregivers this means reduced feelings of hopelessness and burnout; less fear, added peace of mind, and reduced stress; and the opportunity of being in closer relationship with the individual.

*     *     *

Read more about our research and work with states of altered consciousness

*     *     *

Read the Preface to An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party: Unveiling the Mystery, Inner Experience, and Gifts of Dementia
by DR. ROSEMARY SHINKWIN, MD, MRCPsych
Consultant Psychiatrist, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, Ireland

]]> http://www.sentientcare.com/index.php/altered-states/feed http://www.sentientcare.com/index.php/altered-states http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sentientcare/~3/7wRvWLdEWjU/interview-with-tom-richards http://www.sentientcare.com/index.php/interview-with-tom-richards#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:00:43 +0000 Tom http://www.sentientcare.com/?p=1054

Question: Alzheimer’s disease is devastating for individuals, caregivers, and families. What message does your research have for these folks?

“Our research explores the mystery, and dispels the stigma, of Alzheimer’s dementia by revealing its potential for meaningful communication, intimate relationship, and spiritual healing. We offer hope and meaning in the midst of one of life’s scariest and most difficult processes.”

Question: How do you do that? How do you work with Alzheimer’s patients?

“By applying new sentient communication skills and meticulously documenting our exploration, we demonstrate that Alzheimer’s patients are able to work on themselves psychologically and communicate with others during all stages of Alzheimer’s with outcomes including psychological, soulful, and spiritual growth processes and healing.

“Sentient communication skills are finely tuned observation and facilitation skills. Sentient refers to very subtle communication signals, or portals/openings, that often lead to deeper communication, relationship, and healing by following their natural flow. Sentient signals that are noticed, supported, and nurtured respond with feedback. Following the flow of positive feedback unleashes this creative healing process.

“Take the case of a dementia patient in metabolic coma: Providing positive feedback to the patient about the movement of her left foot that she is unaware of, brings back that awareness to her. She responds with positive feedback by moving her whole left leg. We follow in turn with positive feedback, ‘Ahhh, you just moved your left leg. That’s great! . . . Now you just took a really deep breath.’ As a result of following her process with positive support her eyes open and she awakens from coma.”

Question: Your results suggest that the Alzheimer’s state is not simply a vacuum. Is this true in every case?

“In our experience dementia patients are communicating at all times. Just as space is not empty, there is no such ‘vacuum’ state of consciousness. “

Question: What exactly goes on in an Alzheimer’s dementia state?

“Alzheimer’s parallels ‘normal life’ processes in many ways except for its intense inward focus and extreme detachment. The processes we have observed occurring in Alzheimer’s include: working on unfinished business; harvesting; imparting blessings; creating sacred space; meaning; and spiritual connections.

“For example: completion of ‘unfinished business’ such as resolving individual and family issues; ‘harvesting’ such as recalling and savoring life experiences; ‘imparting blessings’ by openly accepting loved ones; creating ‘sacred space’ via a secure feeling with a sense of something larger than ourselves; ‘meaning’ by exploring formative experiences and essential beliefs; and ‘spiritual connections’ such as immersing in the beauty of eternity or finding God’s love.“

Question: Can you really communicate with people in advanced Alzheimer’s states. Aren’t they just gone? Aren’t their memories really gone?

“In our experience we have found that: 1) the memories are not necessarily ‘gone’, but the desire to access them has diminished because the inner work the Alzheimer’s patient is doing takes precedence; 2) many pre-Alzheimer’s character traits do remain intact post Alzheimer’s, as in one client who maintained their ‘sense of humor’ and ‘caring nature’; 3) the inner work the patient is doing in the Alzheimer’s state can often be foreshadowed from their ‘normal life’ patterns.”

Question: There is a great deal of humor evoked in most conversations about Alzheimer’s and memory loss. But Alzheimer’s and memory loss are really not funny, especially to those afflicted. What is the humor about?

“Alzheimer’s ‘infects’ all of us. Almost everyone is afraid they are going to ‘lose it’, and we all do at times. The humor is about recognizing our own forgetfulness foibles.”

Question: You refer to “spiritual healing”. What exactly do you mean by “spiritual healing?”

“The healing of non-physical pain such as guilt, anger, depression, lack of meaning and purpose, and disconnection are some of the emotional and spiritual healing processes we are referring to. Western medicine historically deals with the human body as a mechanical device, a machine, and works to heal the mechanisms. Spiritual healing (not necessarily attached to religion) deals with the entire body, mind, soul, and spirit.”

Question: Your methodology is called Process Work. What is Process Work?

“Process Work is a relatively new awareness-based psychology that facilitates individuals, families, organizations, and communities by following the deeper creative nature of their issues.”

Question: Alzheimer’s is such a difficult and complex problem, whatever motivated you to work with Alzheimer’s?

“Prior to working with Stanley, Stan’s father, I had never heard the term Alzheimer’s or been exposed to it, or anyone with Alzheimer’s. In truth, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I was drawn into it like a moth to a flame to help my best friend and his family.

“And, if I had had conventional medical or psychological training, we would never have accomplished what we have accomplished. As Einstein so apply put it, ‘No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it’.”

Question: Why did you write this book?

“Initially I wrote the first chapter, the story of the Surprise Party as a process of grieving over Stanley’s passing/transition. However, I had recorded and studied every interaction with Stanley over a four year period to further my study of Process Work, and to explore the potential benefits of it for Alzheimer’s patients. Stan (Stanley’s son and co-author) recognized the need to finish the book, and we collaborated on it for another fifteen years.”

Question: Your work is based on an in depth case, the case of your co-author’s father. How can you claim to extend the results to other cases and other dementias?

“We have worked with hundreds of individuals in all stages of dementia including coma. Stanley’s case is simply the most extensive, and most comprehensively documented case we have to write about. In all of these cases of altered states of consciousness including Stanley’s, the results have been the same. There is a creative life process in the background seeking expression.“

Question: The name of your book is An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party. That is an interesting twist. What is the story behind the name?

“The name has several levels of meaning: 1) the party we threw for Stanley the day before he died was a surprise party 2) the fact that Stanley was ‘home’ or ‘present’ at his party, and our research hypothesis that someone even with advanced Alzheimer’s or coma is always ‘home’ is a ‘surprise’ to the conventional wisdom about Alzheimer’s 3) Alzheimer’s itself is a kind of surprise ‘party’, full of surprises including the initial diagnosis, lack of diagnosis, or misdiagnosis. Alzheimer’s has been a mystery full of surprises for over a hundred years.”

Question: Do you have a specific writing style?

“Yes, our style is ‘intense, intimate, and urgent first person present tense’. We place the reader in the room with us in the moment, including the moments when death and/or ecstasy are imminent.“

Question: What is your favorite part of the book?

“My favorite part of the book is the conversation that Stan and I have in the last chapter. I have a vivid picture of us in my mind as we sprawled out in our office and tried to get our minds around our intense effort to record our experiences. My most touching moment with Stanley was, when in his advanced Alzheimer’s state, he said he needed me to come back.“

Question: When people are in advanced Alzheimer’s or coma and look peaceful, why do you want to disturb them?

“We know that during both ‘normal states of consciousness’ and ‘altered states of consciousness’ most everyone has experienced the tendency of being ‘stuck’. Which means that the individual is seeking new information and can’t quite reach it. With Alzheimer’s patients we support their reach. Because we are following their process, we are confident that our support will either be effective or simply be ignored, but not a disturbance in the normal sense of the word. An advanced Alzheimer’s patient is actually very powerful in one sense, and will offer no feedback, no response, if our support is in any way off the process. If we are in fact supporting them, then they will respond with positive feedback, with a noticeable response to the best of their ability.”

Question: Sometimes Alzheimer’s patients become unruly and difficult to handle. How do you handle and explain aggressive behavior?

“This is a huge and complex subject. Aggressive behavior is an altered state of consciousness linked with other altered states of consciousness: forgetfulness, confusion, high drama, agitation, delirium, dementia, and other remote states.

“Aggressive behavior is the messenger, not the message. Aggressive behavior can be the result of something as simple and ‘normal’ as a) frustration of trying to express oneself or be understood, b) fear of being touched without warning, c) upset over being told or forced to do something against your will, etc.

“Applying sentient communication facilitation to these states helps shed light on their mysterious nature, making them more useful and less intimidating to patients, family members, friends, caregivers, and the community.

“For patients and care facility residents this means the opportunity of knowing and experiencing themselves on their own terms and in their new states of consciousness; and with less physical and pharmacological restraints.

“For families, friends, and caregivers this means reduced feelings of hopelessness and burnout; less fear, added peace of mind, and reduced stress; and the opportunity of being in closer relationship with the individual.”

Question: What kind of “conscious decisions” can an advanced Alzheimer’s patient make?

“In our experience, using sentient communication facilitation there is no limit to the decisions that an Alzheimer’s patient can participate in.

“Sometimes difficulties are evoked by: a) not consulting with the patient about the specifics of their treatments and personal care regardless of their state of consciousness, b) assuming that ‘nobody is home’ thereby acting as if the patient is inert, and c) expecting the patient’s communication and understanding to conform to our conventions. Any or all of these actions removes the patient from the decision making process and robs the caregivers of valuable feedback about the patient’s personal well being.

Question: What everybody wants to know is do you have any recommendations for preventing Alzheimer’s dementia?

“Yes. In our Chapter Nine summary we outline five specific recommendations for helping prevent Alzheimer’s. First, and foremost, read our book! Our book expands your awareness of Alzheimer’s and contains exercises designed to immunize you with homeopathic doses of the Alzheimer’s experience. Second, we suggest ways to create your own opportunities to explore the Alzheimer’s state, to forget, until you can learn to drop your personal agenda and be present in the moment. Third, we recommend exploring your own issues around physical, emotional, and spiritual intimacy. Fourth, we recommend completing unfinished business and dropping outmoded behaviors, beliefs, and personal history that no longer work for you. Fifth, we recommend fully exploring even the most minor episodes of forgetfulness instead of glossing over them.”

*     *     *

EXCITING NEWS: An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party is now available as an eBook through the Appple iTunes Store for readers who own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using the iBooks App. Click here to go to iTunes Store.

*     *     *

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

• Alzheimer’s
• dementia
• delirium
• senile
• senility
• senile dementia
• vascular dementia
• confusion
• forgetfulness
• stroke
• memory loss
• coma
• communication
• Arnold Mindell
• process work
• process oriented psychology
• awareness
• sentient awareness
• sentient care
• spiritual care
• prevention

New Edition ~ $23.95 US

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

ANNOUNCING OUR NEW SECOND VOLUME

This second “ALZHEIMER’S SURPRISE” helps families and professional caregivers hone acute observation skills which aid compassionate awareness of patients’ inner experience of dementia. Researchers Tom Richards and Stan Tomandl present a profound example of an Alzheimer’s patient working on himself psychologically, and communicating in meaningful ways with family and friends. They demonstrate outcomes that include psychological, soulful, and spiritual growth processes, and healing, both within the inner Alzheimer’s dementia experience, and for family, friends, and caregivers. Included are intimate, heartfelt, and intense personal experiences enhanced with concise observations, process structure, and learning exercises, making this an exceptional training tool for caregivers of people in early and intermediate stages of Alzheimer’s.

An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party Prequel: Unveiling the Mystery, Inner Experience, and Gifts of Dementia from the Beginning (Click on title to go to bookstore)

PUBLISHED IN TWO VOLUMES

Compassionate understanding, help, and hope for dementia patients, family members, friends, and professional caregivers:

Volume One ~ An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party offers new hope, exceptional insight, and practical training for working with people in advanced stages of Alzheimer’s including remote, altered, comatose, and end of life states of consciousness. Second Edition 2009.

Volume Two ~ An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party Prequel offers surprising and thought provoking insight, down to earth advice, and practical training for working with patients and their families dealing with early and intermediate stages of Alzheimer’s dementia. First Edition 2010.

* * * * *

NEW: Interview with Tom Richards, co-author of An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party

*     *     *

“This book is revolutionary in providing hope and meaning for patients, relatives, friends, caregivers and professionals in the management of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

DR. ROSEMARY SHINKWIN, MD, MRCPsych
Consultant Psychiatrist, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, Ireland

Preview the Preface to An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party by Dr. Rosemary Shinkwin

*     *     *

“Informative, practical, as well as touching and extremely meaningful . . . Thank you so much for doing this work!”

DRS. ARNOLD & AMY MINDELL, Founders of Process Oriented Psychology

* * *

“Speaking as a professional psychologist, teacher, and trainer, I highly recommend An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party as an exceptional training tool not only for professionals, but also for family members, friends and caregivers.

It is exceptional because Tom and Stan have made it interactive. They do not simply present abstract psychological concepts, but develop detailed reality based personal experiences enhanced with clear concise observations, structure, and learning.

Their style of presentation alternates back and forth between human experience and observation, all within a phased structure that sharpens the reader’s experiences even further. This technique helped me differentiate my own observations, go deeper into my own inner experiences, deeper into my learning, and added depth to my teaching.

And this style even makes it a great resource for the nonprofessional lay person who may shy away from psychology or get turned off by psychological concepts.

As a training tool this book is both timely and essential and could help transform the way people interpret and respond to patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

DR. SALOME SCHWARZ, PhD
Faculty Member and Trainer, Process Work Institute of Portland, Oregon

*     *     *

*     *     *

Keywords:

• Alzheimer’s
• dementia
• delirium
• senile
• senility
• senile dementia
• vascular dementia
• confusion
• forgetfulness
• stroke
• memory loss
• coma
• communication
• Arnold Mindell
• process work
• process oriented psychology
• awareness
• sentient awareness
• sentient care
• prevention

As caregivers we have the chance of connecting with people who are
differently responsive, by following verbal and nonverbal minimal
cues, and being cognizant of our own inner spiritual states. We can
help facilitate people, families, and medical systems around
processes at end of life, coma, dementia, delirium, vegetative state,
and memory loss. By using minimal cues and deeply positive attitudes,
we can to enhance relationship with our loved ones, family members,
and patients. Our heartful presence helps relieve guilt and grief,
and gives the gift of greater engagement and meaning, during the
poignant moments found in profound and joyful stages of our living
and dying.

Learn practical tools to engage with the shifting of palliative care
from focusing primarily on the body to caring for the whole person -
spirit, mind, and body. This shift offers hope and advocacy for a new
ethical sensitivity, which recognizes meaningful processes throughout
out-of-the-ordinary experience. This course addresses issues relevant
to working with patients, families, caregivers, and the medical
systems involved in patient care.

*     *     *

Superb new article by Harriet Tramer ~ ALZHEIMER’S: Fear Surrounds the Disease But So Do Mysteries

*     *     *

Background Conflict Facilitation: What Works — What Doesn’t

Telephone Conference Class: through Process Work Graduate School

Stan Tomandl, MA assisted by Ann Jacob, BEd
Tuesdays, May 10, June 14 and July 12, 10am-12pm
Cost: $120

How do process oriented conflict facilitators operate when
we are not designated facilitators in: work situations,
community meetings, and in family gatherings? We will
discuss the lessons we’ve learned the hard way and from
our mentors: when and how to do inner work; attitudes and
metaskills; and how to act without attracting blame or
taking credit for facilitating hotspots and resolution.
Distance Learning ~ Teleconference only
*     *     *

FOR MORE INFORMATION or the FLYER ABOUT ANY OF OUR OFFERINGS
CONTACT:Ann Jacob & Stan Tomandl  250.383.5677
annstan@comacommunication.com
TO BE PLACED ON OUR MAILING LIST write annstan@comacommunication.com
Thank You!

*     *     *

FORGETFULNESS AND DEPRESSION ~ Early and Midstage Dementia
Phone classes starting again in January.

Learning from the comfort and convenience of your own home.
Telephone conference training and consultation open to everyone.
Dates:  January 11. February 8, March 8, 2011
Time:   10-12 pacific time zone
Price:  $120
Registration is with the Process Work Institute
503.223.8188    pwi@processwork.org
Help for families, friends, and caregivers who work and live with,
and learn from folks in states of forgetfulness. Beneath the
difficulties and grief of memory loss can be: deep love, spiritual
seeking overdue retirement; definitive divorce; detachment from
family and friends; social activism; creative expression, and more.

New resource: An Alheimer’s Surprise Party:Prequel, co authored by
Tom Richards and Stan Tomandl helps open unexplored areas of meaning,
purpose, and relationship for people in early and midstage
forgetfulness.
*     *     *

BUILDING BRIDGES: Communication and Connection Near Death
Process Work Institute Summer Graduate Program.
Date: July 5-8, 2011
Place: Portland, Oregon
Information: Ann & Stan  250.383.5677
Registration is with the Process Work Institute
503.223.8188     pwi@processwork.org
CEU’s available

We can connect with people who are in different states of
consciousness, who thus respond differently, by following verbal and
nonverbal minimal cues. States like these are most often found in
people: at end of life, in coma, dementia, delirium, vegetative
state, or with memory loss. By using minimal cues, we are able to
enhance relationship with our loved ones, family members, and
patients. This work’s heartful presence, helps relieve guilt and
grief, and gives the gift of greater engagement and meaning, during
the poignant moments found in altered and profound stages of life and
death.

Learn more about shifting the field of palliative care from focusing
primarily on the body to caring for the whole person - mind, body,
and spirit. This shift offers hope and advocacy for a new ethical
sensitivity, which recognizes meaningful processes throughout
out-of-the-ordinary experience. This course addresses issues relevant
to working with patients, families, caregivers, and the medical
systems involved in patient care.

Faculty: Stan Tomandl, MA & Ann Jacob B.Ed. Ingrid Rose, PhD.
Dr. Pierre Morin

*     *     *

Coma Communication: Healing the Unconscious
with the Anamcara Project and Sacred Art of Living and Dying
Information: Ann & Stan 250.383.5677
Registration: www.sacredartofliving.org

~     2010 CLASS SCHEDULE ~

PLACEBOS OR NOCEBOS: The Use, Misuse, and Overuse of Medications in Palliative Care (Telephone conference training and supervision class)

Tuesdays 10:00 am to 12:00 pm noon pct
September 14, October 12, November 09, 2010
Cost: $120.00 US
Information: 250.383.5677 ~ annstan@comacommunication
Registration: 503.223.8188 ~ pwi@processwork.org

~ Join us for an in depth exploration of the physical, ethical, political, and financial sides of placebos and nocebos; and process oriented methods to deal with all these facets of life:

Hello again dear colleagues and friends; we hope this finds you summering beautifully in the northern hemisphere or wintering beautifully in the southern hemisphere.

Ann and I are still (even more) excited to offer a class series on a very difficult and essential issue for our elders and many others: the use, misuse, and overuse of medications. Elders in care homes are taking on average 12 meds. In our experience with clients and our own
families, some of these drugs are necessary; some may not be; some may be harmful. Some meds were necessary for a time, and then only complicate patients’ symptom pictures when not necessary anymore. Sometimes side effects cancel or even overshadow benefits of
medications. Ann and her sister worked very hard to reduce their mother’s everyday meds to two, with other medications given on an occasional as needed basis, with tremendous results for awareness and communication, relationship and love.

We will also offer case consultation and coaching for any and all situations around palliative care, as we have in past classes.

Summer blessings,
Stan & Ann

Placebos or Nocebos?
Process Oriented Palliative Care & Medications

How are elders and others in palliative care situations affected by
off label psychotropic drug prescriptions? How effective are the
three main Alzheimer’s drugs? Are our care facilities administering
placebo drugs (I will please.) that turn into nocebos (I will harm.)?
What can we do to boost resident centered care in care home
situations? How can process oriented palliative care augment usual
fee for service medicine in our nursing homes and hospices?

–
Stan Tomandl, MA, PWD, Ann Jacob, B.Ed
educators ~ counsellors ~  process work ~ following somatic wisdom
http://www.comacommunication.com

***specializing in working, learning and teaching about altered consciousness
that comes during life’s joys, grief, creativity, illness,
trauma, memory loss,
remote states, delirium, coma and other tender and strong
moments in our
living and dying***

Coma Communication ~ Process Oriented Facilitation
#502-620 View Street   Victoria, BC, Canada   V8W 1J6
250.383.5677   annstan@comacommunication.com
~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~
“The purpose of life is to know the divine, to be with it and connect
it somehow with other humans, so love is something that organizes
everything we do. Love means openness to all states of consciousness.
Love means openness to a person in the midst of dreaming and coma.” ~
Arnold Mindell Ph.D, author of Coma: Key to Awakening

ELDERSHIP AND ADVOCACY:

Exploring Personal Barriers

to Social Action and Spiritual Healing

in Palliative Care Situations

Presented by Tom Richards

International Association of Process Oriented Psychology

IAPOP 2010 Conference

Description of Transcript

This Process Work research paper inspires eldership and practical advocacy in senior care situations and institutions; chronicling facilitation experiences, dilemmas, ghost roles, breakthroughs, and practical recommendations. Personal barriers may include:

● working with a senior on a symptom, relationship issue, or deep inner state of consciousness in semi-public settings;

● facilitating visits with loved ones in doctor’s offices, emergency rooms, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, intensive care units, family homes, and hospice facilities;

● mentoring and facilitating doctors, nurses, therapists and caregivers along with their diagnoses, treatments, medications, care giving procedures, institutional policies, and the Medicare/Medicaid bureaucracy;

● fear of being around aging and death, and the related planning;

● the end-of-life processes including intimacy, grief, thankfulness, forgiveness, love, and spiritual healing.

Download Transcript

*     *     *

“Insight on how to open our minds and hearts to the person who is suffering from the disease is invaluable.”

*     *     *

“My future visits (to my husband) will be more meaningful because of your explanations.”

*     *     *

“I was struck with the thrill of the Flow, which is always there, waiting for us to pay attention. ~ Your prose flows naturally in a friendly, unpretentious style. ~ Yours is a lovely book of great warmth and I will be returning to it.”

*     *     *

“The urgency and poignancy and intimate connection revealed between the two of you caught me by surprise. ~ Your writing is so alive I felt like it was happening in the moment. ~ Thanks for showing how to honor our elders, speak to those in altered states and follow the end of life/separation process.”

*     *     *

“My father died of Alzheimer’s and reading your book was very comforting.”

*     *     *

“The presentation of your self-reflection during your time with Stan’s dad, and while reviewing the video is very insightful and honest. Stan’s self-disclosure about his own edges, hesitations and moving closer and farther from his father are rare in their frankness and simplicity.”

*     *     *

“Absolutely fascinating! I was captured by it… very emotional content . . . it is a common mistake to forget the humanity of these situations . . . that’s what you’re retaining the humanity of it.”

*     *     *

“I have always been afraid I would get Alzheimer’s … like the scary aunt we visited when I was a child. Reading your book was the first time in my life I haven’t been afraid of it . . . and if I get it, I want Thyra to take care of me.”

*     *     *

“I think the message you are putting out is that Alzheimer’s patients are all there . . . Stanley’s the man here.”

*     *     *

“Alzheimers is going to teach us a lot!”

*     *     *

“We the readers can empathize with each of you . . . the anguish and ecstacy you experience trying to stay in relationship to the man who is in and out of remote states”

*     *     *

“I laughed and cried through the whole book.”

*     *     *

“The more I think about it the more I realize that Stanley really knew how to live.”

*     *     *

“Speaking as a professional psychologist, teacher, and trainer, I highly recommend An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party as an exceptional training tool not only for professionals, but also for family members, friends and caregivers.

It is exceptional because Tom and Stan have made it interactive. They do not simply present abstract psychological concepts, but develop detailed reality based personal experiences enhanced with clear concise observations, structure, and learning.

Their style of presentation alternates back and forth between human experience and observation, all within a phased structure that sharpens the reader’s experiences even further. This technique helped me differentiate my own observations, go deeper into my own inner experiences, deeper into my learning, and added depth to my teaching.

And this style even makes it a great resource for the nonprofessional lay person who may shy away from psychology or get turned off by psychological concepts.

As a training tool this book is both timely and essential and could help transform the way people interpret and respond to patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”

DR. SALOME SCHWARZ, PhD
Faculty Member and Trainer, Process Work Institute Graduate School in Portland, Oregon

AZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION RECOMMENDED RESCOURCE

Dementia is a loss of mental function in two or more areas such as language, memory, visual and spatial abilities, or judgment severe enough to interfere with daily life. Dementia itself is not a disease, but a broader set of symptoms that accompanies certain diseases or physical conditions.

Well known diseases that cause dementia include Alzheimer’s disease, multi infarct dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, Pick’s disease, AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, and Lewy body dementia. Alzheimer’s accounts for approximately 60% of people with dementia, vascular dementia accounts for approximately 30%, and all the rest account for approximately 10%.

*     *     *

Read the Preface to An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party: Unveiling the Mystery, Inner Experience, and Gifts of Dementia
by DR. ROSEMARY SHINKWIN, MD, MRCPsych
Consultant Psychiatrist, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, Ireland

*     *     *

“PREVENTION” ~  Please refer to Chapter Nine ~ Summary of An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party: Unveiling the Mystery, Inner Experience, and Gifts of Dementia for our  prescription for helping with dementia “prevention.”

*     *     *

• Alzheimer’s
• dementia
• delirium
• senile
• confusion
• forgetfulness
• stroke
• memory loss
• coma
• communication
• Arnold Mindell
• process work
• process oriented psychology
• awareness
• sentient awareness
• sentient care
• prevention

Please value feeling skills or meta-skills (feeling attitudes that you bring with your deeply centered presence) as much as skills.

There are no firm procedures and may never be any fixed rules in working with people. Everything is a process; it depends upon the moment, people, belief systems, and feedback processes.

See Stan Tomandl’s Coma Work and Palliative Care, and Amy Mindell’s Coma: A Healing Journey, A Guide for Family Friends and Helpers, and Arnold Mindell’s Coma, Key to Awakening for more.

I. About Medications

At the appropriate time, when someone is nearing death, ask them if they prefer a lucid state (minimal drugs) in which they can track their experiences or a less lucid state (more drugs). Left to themselves, the majority of people do not seem to use their lucidity in comatose or near coma-like states. This may be due in part to the lack of education about death and dying and the culture someone is living in.

Giving more drugs to make the client feel “better” can be a good idea. Although the person may prefer minimal drugs, so they can access the creativity trying to happen which may enrich and facilitate the whole end of life process. Medications and awareness can work together. Drug levels may vary depending on patient’s wants and needs from day to day or within the same day.

II. Effects of Lucidity

Everyone should know that, as a general rule, more lucidity will help complete people’s processes, and be more restful and best for patients, family, and care providers.

For a description of some types of “processes” refer to Dr. Rosemary Shinkwin’s Preface to An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party.

III. Precision

For those “clients” choosing the lucid path, be absolutely precise as a helper and notice little tiny things and feed them back by repeating them verbally, by touch, or movement.

IV. Wait and Notice

What you don’t know, don’t fill in with your everyday mind; wait for answers to happen. Only after positive feedback to what you have done, go on with what you are doing. Especially in coma work and in general, if the client asks you to play a part in their process, then you can or must use your own experiences as part of the overall process. You are needed as you are! Your presence and your reactions are part of the overall dreaming field of your client and in learning how to make your reactions useful you will be guide by feedback from your client.

V. Agitation Just Before Death

To the surprise and terror of many helpers, clients near death seem to get agitated and try to fly or walk or even run from their bed. Helpful methods to work with this are to tell them you are going to fly or walk for them, and to ask them to “choreograph” you, if possible. Or, you can move their body or legs for them and ask them to imagine where they are going and what they are doing. Some folks tell you they are flying into the air, or reaching for the sun etc. (Actually helping someone out of bed is a very radical procedure and needs great care and expertise.)

VI. Respecting Death and Dying Is Very Important

Perhaps even more important however is respecting the process that is not necessarily time or space bound, here or there. Connecting with “the other side”, or past or future times may be important.

VII. About Attachment

If you are normal and attached and can’t let go, then act that out, put on a little theater, show it to the other, and then you might be able to show letting go. Many feelings we have mirror submerged feelings the client has and is shy about showing.

VIII. What to do Next?

Remember, you are the other. If your friend or client asked you to be there at the end, and you don’t know what to do, ask yourself what you would want in a given moment.

IX. Special Situation: Young Children

When dealing with very young children, especially under the age of two, we have had good responses by playing very fast and/or very slow music and simultaneously, gently tapping on their feet in rhythm with the music. Depending upon the situation, half an hour, twice a day could be helpful.

Edited by ANN JACOB, STAN TOMANDL, and TOM RICHARDS from DRS. ARNOLD & AMY MINDELL, www.aamindel.net, 2006 .

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Example:  Recovery from Stroke and Metabolic coma

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Example:  Coma Work ~ One Family’s Experience with Structural Coma

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Coma Work and Paliative Care ~ Communication Skills Manual

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Contact Tom Richards at 847-486-8349 in Chicago, Illinois, USA

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Contact Ann Jacob and Stan Tomandl at 250-592-4928 in Victoria, BC, Canada