PPU Research/
H {ope} (Circle) H}ow {O}pe } N
We must make the difference between success and
​failure, understanding and ​confusion, hope and despair, for our children.
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This Article "Creative Circles of Active Hope" confirms our own creative title that manifests similar thoughts. "{H}ope {N}ow {O}pen" Our site is asking all to get more involved with " humanity's" mental health issues especially Children's!
Our definition (A person’s/Child's condition about their psychological and emotional well-being. Sample: "all this pressure seems to be affecting our mental health" )
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HOW DO WE GET STARTED? WE MUST HAVE THE CONVERSATION FIRST!
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A circle is one way to start a healing + relational process. Our site is asking, suggesting, and providing information.
H } OW { O } PE } N ​
ARE WE to rigorously intervene in changing Mental Health situations for our Children?
What Are Some Causes of Mental Health?
Fact Sheet for Conversation Circles
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PPU's Healing It Up
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Edutopia
Using Circle Practice in the Classroom
Circle discussions foster community and intimacy in a classroom and can serve academic and social and emotional purposes.
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Sheila Washington Warren
Portland Parent Union
Example of A Circle Process ​
January 19, 2021
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Dancing First.: Like any other physical activity Dancing releases the neurotransmitter, endorphins (also called happy hormones), which serve to reduce stress and cause our bodies to feel calm, happy, and optimistic.
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This exercise leads to Telling Our Stories​
​We will start by building relationships through Edifications. (called "People Celebrating People")
When we gather we will practice the Importance of Telling (and Listening) to the Story, Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS, FACETS and Sheila Washington-Warren​ (Restorative Listening Dialogue).
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References:
The Importance of Telling (and Listening) to the Story Journey of Hearts
A Healing Place in CyberSpaceTM
The Importance of Telling (and Listening) to the Story
Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS, FAAETS
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At the most basic level "Telling the Story" is a means of transmitting ideas from one person to another. [1] Storytelling is a part of life, intrinsic to most cultures. They help people make sense of the world--life’s experiences, dilemmas, and hardships. Stories can educate, inspire and build rapport. They are a means of communicating, recreating, and helping preserve cultures [2] by translating memories into a more concrete manner that can be handed down verbally or in written form. Telling the story can provide the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of one’s experiences and oneself.
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Each person has a unique story, unlike any other. These stories are constantly changing and being rewritten, reconstructed, even discarded from the moment we are born until we die. [3] Stories help make sense of the insensible. Stories can help people explore other ways of doing, feeling, thinking, and behaving. [4] Forming a story about one’s life experiences improves physical and mental health. [5] Storytelling can be regarded as one of the oldest healing arts; it has been used for centuries as a universal, useful way for the grieving person to cope with loss. [6]
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Ways of Using Stories
Communicating
Educating and Informing
Building rapport
Establishing connections
Inspiring and Encouraging
Preserving cultural identity
Recreating and Entertaining
Clarifying emotions
Remembering
Translating memories into stories
Coping with death, illness, tragedy
Healing from loss
Leaving a legacy
Honoring the dying person’s final journey
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We use loss or illness as the subject matter here, but can use this format for any other subject matter, like Mental Illness in Children.
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​Creating circles of Active Hope: Pt I
A community-centered approach to moving through dark times.
​How do we ‘human’ in these times?
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Benefits of Telling the Story
1. Stories are a way of translating memories into a more concrete manner that can be handed down verbally or in written form, helping preserve culture.
2. Stories help us explain the world, making sense of the insensible.
3. Storytelling is considered one of the oldest healing arts; it has been used for centuries as a beneficial way for grieving people to cope with loss.
4. Stories provide the mechanism by which physicians and patients communicate, look for the meaning of their illness, and discover ways of coping with it. For many patients telling their story is what helps them to cope with or heal from their disease.
5. Dealing with loss involves creating a private personal story and then confiding the story to others to assimilate the loss.
6. Telling (or writing) the story about one’s life experiences has been shown to have beneficial effects on illness symptoms and is associated with improved physical and mental health.
7. Life stories are rewritten to make sense of, find meaning in the loss & reassemble shattered lives. Losses and significant life changes become incorporated into a person’s life story as the loss is assimilated.
8. Grieving individuals should be encouraged to tell their story of grief as often as needed so the reality of the loss becomes real.
9. Personal stories of loss can inspire and provide hope during dark times.
10. Listening to a patient’s story of loss or illness is central to grief support; it can be beneficial for a grieving person in integrating, healing & recovering from the loss.