WHY?

After finishing a conversation on the phone with someone who wanted me to teach a four day course in one day! I find myself pondering her question:
 "Why do you need to give that  amount of information?"

And indeed WHY?  should  always be the question! But NOT in this context!  

I do get really fed up with skimming the "surface" training, treatments and interventions, doing as little as necessary rather than as much as possible.Trying something randomly to see if it works, like throwing mud at a wall to see if it sticks!

Also I get fed up with people keeping hold of knowledge, that would profoundly help others, creating a sort of "elitism" and disempowering people further.

Many  want to keep the "magic" to themselves, so that others are bound to seek their help, and become dependent.They know that  often people are  looking for  a "magic bullet", a one off fix that will make everything alright, and every time something seemingly new comes along they will cling to it for dear life. 

They will soon realise, of course,that there is no such thing, and if there were any kind of magic wand we would all be waving it and every one would live happily ever after! Would that were so.

That is the reason we have always gone into everything we teach in great depth, We are not "training"  performing seals, we teach adults with many existing skills, who really do need to know WHY we do what we do.The skills we teach are not  party tricks, but valuable adjunctive treatments, so we should not only be clear about their efficacy, but also be able to  explain exactly WHY. 

When we teach it shouldn't be to hear the sound of our own voices, but because we understand and can evidence WHY we are saying what we say.

More importantly, we CARE very deeply about the eventual recipients of our teaching,the addicts, people dealing with a mental health issue, and survivors of sexual abuse, all very close to my heart. They deserve the very BEST, not  "that will do".

Survivors of abuse already have difficulties surrounding self worth, having had their self esteem destroyed by their criminal abusers. So they will often settle for second best, grateful for any small crumb thrown at them, all of those meaningless "apologies", the derisive compensation, because they feel that is all they deserve. NONSENSE !  They deserve the very BEST. 

Addicts and people with mental health conditions already feel lower than a snake's belly in the grass, the very last thing they need is to be made to feel less important than those helping them!

These damaged wonderful people are increasingly seen as a commodity, a "cash cow" , a never ending supply of vulnerable people to be used by organisations to keep those organisations in work!

There's no doubt it certainly would be easier to just show people "how" to do something rather than tell them WHY they are doing it! But it would be  exploitative and lacking in integrity, and MY students, their clients, and MY fellow addicts and survivors of abuse must  not to be disempowered any further.

Knowledge needs to be shared properly otherwise we create that dreadful "elitism" that for me has no place in this area of work.  
So although we welcome, these days the media talking more about "statistical propensities" "Vulnerability to damaged immune systems" and "shortened life spans", it simply is NOT enough.  

We will always go a bit deeper, as deep as we can, to explain exactly what happens physically to make these stats a reality  and teach exactly WHY!?

www.battleoftheabusedbrain.website
www.suecox.website
www.smart-uk.com