Labryinth As A Spiritual Experience

The patients at Cottonwood de Tucson built a labyrinth recently on a Sunday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and the group was excited to get out-of-doors and play a while in the desert.

From a pile of rocks and a design drawn in the dirt, they pieced together a seven-circuit labyrinth that measures 21' in diameter. A walk into the center and back out again covers a distance of 56 yards.

The labyrinth design is 3,200 years old, originating on the Island of Crete. After the construction was finished, the group learned how to incorporate a labyrinth walk into their spiritual practice. The labyrinth walk can be used for prayer, meditation, or just plain-old-fashioned relaxation. We walked the new labyrinth in silence, amazed how a light sprinkle of rain fell on us as we began.

A few days later a patient reported seeing a double rainbow while walking the labyrinth. As he reports it: "My therapist suggested I walk the labyrinth to help me work on finding my Higher Power. First I see the rainbows. And then it rains, and minutes later, the sun comes out. So, I just threw my hands up and said, "OK. I get the message!"

Charles Gillispie, MFA, LISAC

Cottonwood de Tucson

4110 W. Sweetwater Drive

Tucson, AZ 85745

(800) 877-4520

Email: cgillispie@cottonwoodrecovery.com

www.cottonwoodrecovery.com

Sober Holidays From Cottonwood de Tucson

A recent article in the New York Times, It's the Holidays. How About Just One?, (Jim Atkinson, December 8, 2008) caught our attention. The author, an alcoholic with 16 years of sobriety, describes the cultural discourse that supports and encourages the over-use of alcohol at most events during the holidays. The readers, in this case two family therapists at Cottonwood Tucson, were interested to better understand why people continue to drink, or go back to drinking, despite seriously devastating consequences (Vicki) and for a perspective on moderation versus abstinence (Dan). Atkinson addressed both issues.

According to Atkinson the same social message heard by the addicted and non-addicted brain is interpreted differently. The fundamental struggles of alcoholics, he believes, include the euphoric recall of drinking and the tendency to use the moderate drinking versus total abstinence arguments to support the alcoholic's denial. It was a well-written article combining research and anecdotal information. While we did not come away with therapeutic strategies guaranteed to guide alcoholics safely through the holidays, we did come away with respect and awareness.

Jim Atkinson's courage to address the elephant in the room is to be respected. The most difficult family experiences occur when addiction is present and unidentified. The family members walk around the issues without naming the root problem. The feelings and difficulties become chaotic despite efforts at a cover-up; the addiction exerts great influence on interactions. Atkinson addresses that elephant by saying that our culture promotes irresponsible drinking during the holidays. He explores how people understand their own addiction, the addiction of others, and the dilemma of whether a recovering alcoholic can ever have "just one." What he doesn't say is that once an individual is engaging in inappropriate drinking the same culture that encouraged drinking in the beginning is quick to condemn and shame individuals for their lack of "judgment." It is easier to point fingers when we deny our part in the responsibility of promoting irresponsible drinking.

I (Dan) was struck by the author's perspective on the need for total abstinence. Rationalizing one drink is not an option for him. His experience is that when he begins rationalizing moderation he will have increasing difficulty in maintaining moderation. It supports the current thinking of my colleagues and I that alcoholism is a progressive disease that does not stay at a minimal use level; recovery is an all or nothing choice, even during the holidays.

There is comfort in a community of others who understand the disease and have found their own systems of surviving the holidays and maintaining their sobriety. We appreciate all of the bloggers, many of whom present themselves as persons in recovery, who contributed their own experience, strength and hope to the discussion. It provides safety; a community available and willing to support progress, and a community where struggle is accepted and not judged. The unique and unpredictable trajectory of alcohol for each alcoholic is clear from Atkinson's work. For many people, parties and alcohol go hand in hand, blurring alcohol consumption and the social quality of the gathering. Many of the bloggers talked of needing to differentiate the alcohol from the social gathering. Separating holiday parties and alcohol can be difficult, yet necessary for sobriety and ultimately recovery. People discover their own path. Cottonwood Tucson uses a holistic approach to recovery, evaluating each individual and addiction, and any co-occuring disorders at intake, so that a comprehensive program takes into account those individual differences. And personal accounts such as this article by Atkinson provides the information that research does not typically include; information from the front line. In the end, the alcoholic is a critical member of the treatment team. Personal awareness of one's own best way to achieve stable sobriety is the best guide for getting safely through the holidays.

Vicki L. Loyer-Carlson, Ph.D., LMFT
vloyer-carlson@cottonwoodrecovery.com

Daniel Cook, LMSW
dcook@cottonwoodrecovery.com

Cottonwood Tucson
4110 W. Sweetwater Drive
Tucson, AZ 85745
(800) 877-4520
www.cottonwoodrecovery.com

Here is a link to the article:
http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/its-the-holidays-how-about-just-one/?emc=eta1

The Use of Journal Writing As a Recovery Tool

"In this poor body, composed of one hundred bones and nine openings, is something called spirit, a flimsy curtain swept this way and that by the slightest breeze. It is spirit, such as it is, which led me to write. . ."
Basho

Basho was a traveling poet and student of Zen meditation. He is most famous for a travel journal he wrote in 1689, Narrow Road to the Interior, which describes a trip he took to Northern Japan:

"In which year it was I do not recall, but I, too, began to be lured by the wind like a fragmentary cloud and have since been unable to resist wanderlust, roaming out to the seashores."

Basho's book is full of brief paragraphs, often followed by very short poems, which describe the people and places he encountered, as well as his own moods and perceptions:

"Autumn---even birds and clouds look old."

With a little guidance and encouragement, we can all benefit from journal writing. Like Basho, we can celebrate and record our journey into the "interior"---the landscape of our struggles, hopes, insights and experiences.

Therapeutic Journal Writing

James Pennebaker, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, reports that writing, in-and-of-itself, is not necessarily therapeutic. In fact, many of his clients who suffer from anger and depression report feeling worse after writing in journals. The process of writing about feelings, without any direction or structure, seems to exacerbate suffering instead of providing relief.

Dr. Pennebaker notes however, clients do report relief from journal writing under specific conditions. For example, clients who record events and thoughts as well as emotional experiences report greater relief after writing. Combining these three elements of daily life into a cohesive narrative is an essential component of therapeutic journal writing.

Additionally, Dr. Pennebaker notes that clients who write for at least twenty minutes a day for three days in a row report greater emotional comfort after writing in their journal. People in recovery can utilize these findings to receive more benefit from writing.

The Use of Sentence-Stems and Repetition

Dr. Nicholas Mazza, founding member of the National Association of Poetry Therapy (http://www.poetrytherapy.org/), believes that structure is an essential component of therapeutic journal writing. Structure can help us explore uncomfortable feelings while providing a positive direction. Dr. Mazza favors the use of sentence-stems and repetition to create meaningful poems or paragraphs.

The following journal entry is copied, with permission, from the journal of a young woman in treatment for substance abuse. It represents the use of sentence-stems and repetition. It was written after the young woman agreed to end a romantic relationship, over the phone, that had been extremely abusive and destructive:

"I used to trash my emotional wreckage onto those who neither deserved nor understood
But now I peel off the layers and stand naked in the responsibility of my grief
I used to stab the dagger into my heart and demand any willing boy to pull it out
But now I'm stitching up the wound and reflecting on the scar tissue
I used to play on words to be a puppet for applause
Now I am down on my knees in amends for my guilt
I used to die in the apocalypse with every mistake
But now I live in the moment with every experience
I used to crave the bittersweet lingering of the past
But now I'm driven by the desire to savor the curiosity of tomorrow
I used to see God in the pleasures I was granted
But now I see God in the ironic challenges I face
There was a time when I let go of the past for him
And now, finally, I let go of all of this for me."

The author reports that she used the sentence-stem and repetition with great reluctance in her journal. She thought the structure would mute her voice and her range of emotions. However, she discovered that the structure helped her stay clear of the habitual thoughts and feelings toward her boyfriend and opened a new avenue of hope and strength. In fact, she reports being surprised by the power that comes out in the entry. She sees a quality of self-esteem she would like to experience more.

Considerations for Practice

Journal writing, as a recovery tool, provides a number of advantages. First of all, the journal is immediately available to us, whenever we need it. As we practice therapeutic journal writing, we can develop much needed skills in mood management and regulation. Hopefully, as we become proficient in the use of specific structures, we will discover important information about our barriers to recovery. This material, when uncovered, can deepen and enrich the counseling experience for both clients and counselors.

Perhaps most importantly, the therapeutic journal can become our record of progress in recovery. In the tradition of Basho's travel journal, the therapeutic journal becomes a mirror reflecting our spiritual struggle, our spiritual accomplishment, as well as our spiritual need.

Charles Gillispie, MFA, LISAC
Cottonwood de Tucson
4110 W. Sweetwater Drive
Tucson, AZ 85745
(800) 877-4520
cgillispie@cottonwoodrecovery.com
www.cottonwoodrecovery.com

Note: This article by Charles Gillispie was previously published in Arizona Together.