Say no to 'diet ' drinks

Interesting links being looked at for Gulf War Syndrome and other 'mysterious' illnesses. It has been suggested that when 'diet' canned drinks are left in excessive heat the sweetener converts rapidly into formaldehyde and does not revert on cooling... think about it!

• Aspartame is the most dangerous food additive on the market today, accounting for over 75 percent of adverse reactions reported to the FDA, including seizures and death
• Even though aspartame is touted as natural it has a synthetic methyl group on one of the amino acids that rapidly breaks down to methanol (wood alcohol). The sweetness associated with aspartame is largely the result of methyl alcohol bonded to the amino acid phenylalanine
• Methyl alcohol is metabolized differently in the human body compared to other animals, and is FAR more toxic in humans which is why studies have trouble nailing down the hazards related to aspartame, because most rely on animal not human studies
• Methyl alcohol, after it is taken up by the body as a “Trojan Horse” into susceptible tissues like the
  
  brain, converts rapidly into formaldehyde,. This causes severe damage to proteins and DNA that can contribute to many serious and chronic diseases, such as cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis
• Fresh fruits and vegetables contain minute amounts of methanol, but there’s a natural mechanism that makes it harmless. Pectin firmly binds to methanol, allowing it to simply pass through your body and be excreted, because the human body does not have the enzymes to break that bond

Interested in Well Being in Schools, at Home and in the Workplace?

If you are a teacher, trainer, a social care leader or HR professional wanting to make a difference, then here’s an opportunity definitely worth looking into.

A Quiet Place Ltd. is a well established company in the fields of educational therapeutics, personal development for all and well-being in the workplace. It has a national reputation for its evidence-based, high quality service, offering effective programmes for both prevention and intervention adaptable for all ages and abilities. Deliverable in all settings – the great news is that A Quiet Place is seeking partners across the UK to enter into a franchise scheme help deliver its benefits to new clients.

If you are interested in finding out more and seeing how you or your team could join this important and growing field see here for the prospectus.

National Training Day - Reflections from the Moon

Our National Staff Training day runs twice a year. We always look forward to meeting with everyone and sharing best practice. Most recently we had some new friends who might be interested in the franchising aspects, so an unusual mix. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day despite the lack of sandwiches. Usually they make trays too many and must have decided, as we left a lot previously, this time not to make enough! They gave us chocolate muffins instead as a healthy option. I had already brought a birthday cake for Karen but she took it home. Karen had come down from Children First in Scotland and was sick poor lass, not fun to have to travel when you feel rough however at least her organisation had paid for her and this maybe a first step in the Noo.
 

Joan showed new paperwork we have done for non-protocol children. It is so important to focus on outcomes and include the children in their own therapeutic process, it is not a cold thing the way we have done it and Joan is excellent.Then I asked David to share Wild Divine, Dual Drive and Mind Wave as some haven't seen the new bio-feedback programmes only HeartMath. It certainly stirred an interest.I focussed on 'Best you can be' and working with adults so we had fun with body sculpting, anchoring whole body through posture and wilfull movement. I did a relaxation - finding your own temple and cleaning and refreshing and finished off anchoring. Nice to get back to some simple techniques. Karen Scotland said she has used it successfully already.
 

It will be the last time at the Masonic building as we have booked training rooms in new premises in future - bright and easy. The other training may take place in schools perhaps, we shall see. I want to run some psychotherapy training to get out the Domestic Violence sessions and it is too complex for our Facilitators looking at specifics when they aren't trained properly with qualification background.I will get myself organised on that eventually....

Down from the Ivory Tower: a treatise on the dissolution of concretised belief systems

One might ask, ‘what is psychotherapy?’ or ‘what is the point of psychotherapy?’ or ‘what are the outcomes of psychotherapy?’ As a traditional psychotherapist I might answer, we don't have ‘points’ or ‘outcomes’… probably!  I might simply follow my training model and work within its general fixed historical rules as opposed to looking at the unique context of particular individual’s specific situation.

Let’s consider a piece of satire – let’s call our pretend paper ‘Research for real people’ – to help explain why!

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, but not too far away, at the topmost top of a Tower made of the most beautiful and ancient Ivory,(on the back of many elephants before we knew better) there lived a very, very, very clever Professor in a room right at the top.

So clever was he, in fact, with so much clever stuff filling his brain that the words in his head had begun to grow like hair which he had to plait, because the words were sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo very, verry looooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng.

The Professor’s strange hair could not even grow out of the windows of the Tower as they had been filled in, with only one tiny hole left to look out of – left so he could focus very hard on the poor people way down below. But at least his strange hair kept the walls insulated from the light and sounds below and protected him from the heat of summer and the cold winds in winter. In fact sp protected was he in his own little world he didn’t even notice the changes in the seasons! He felt very warm and safe, knowing how his every word – and indeed, though they were not only very long there were also very many of them – could protect him not only from the cold but almost anything at all!

He also used a bendy telescope, designed by his teacher before him, and indeed the one or two before that - or at any rate, a very long time ago, before people moved to towns and when they lived in the country in harmony with the seasons and weather and the turning of the moon. He could use the telescope, he told himself, to follow those poor people down below and watch them - for there was nothing he liked more than to work out what they were doing and why he supposed they were doing it! This tiny little window helped him to concentrate on one person at a time directly below. And as he was such a clever chap, he had another three windows too, one in each corner of his Tower – for, needless to say, it wasn't round but square – so he could follow the person all around the castle keep.

His servant, the faithful Acuk, brought food twice a day (though he didn't always remember to eat it) and took away his various treatises, very clever ones of course that no-one else could really understand as the words had become sooooo verrrry loooonnnngggg as to the whys and wherefores of his learned observations on the people down below. These treatises were published in learned publications that his peers read and argued and fought about; for indeed, each thought they had the answers to the world’s questions which they too had written in their own ivory towers. These treatises in their turn enabled the governors to control the poor people down below by labelling them and putting them into boxes so they could be treated accordingly. And everyone knew that that was what a treatise meant.

One day the clever man heard a muffled sound from below and felt a funny sensation on his head as if the words were pulling on his scalp. 'Ow' he said; 'Whatever could that be?' But soon it stopped and he continued his watching and writing, for that was all he knew.

Now much time had passed and he eventually noticed the land below had grown a forest in some parts and the river had changed is path - and that as a result, it was really quite hard to see the person he was studying so intently as well as before. But still, he continued to write and still the world (those in power at least) below were entranced by his clever messages and his theories as trained by his teacher and his teacher and even his teacher before that. For he knew he was right and that his entire world and all his life were given meaning via his righteous utterances on the poor people below.

Then one evening when the moon was full and bright, the pulling sensation happened again but this time it would not go away. He decided to go to look through the window, for he expected all the poor people below should and indeed really ought to be in their beds. But he saw nothing in the darkness through his bendy telescope. Then suddenly there was shuffling and a muttering as if someone was fighting their way through his plaited hair. Then to his shock, he felt a sharp tap on his shoulder. Frantically and vaguely (if you can do both together – and of course as a professor, he could), he looked around but could see nothing through the swathes of plaited words. Then, through the darkness, came a very squeaky voice.

'Excuse me Professor, for that is who I heard you were. I have come to talk to you and tell you about myself and my family. We live in the little village Grassysward, way down below.’

The Professor peered through the hair and finally saw a very small person peering back at him.

'There is no village down below', said the Professor. ‘I have been watching for many eons and I know this to be so as my teacher and his before him and even the one before him told me and they know best.’

'Oh but there is! And we all live in it. It is just round the corner, you can't see it through those peepholes, but it is there. Do you also not know about about the factory at the other side which is polluting our water and making our old folks lose their minds? Or the sweet shop, so big now and so full of goodies that many of our children are going mad with the ‘sweetie sickness’. There is no room to play and run and many of us are sad.’

‘What?!’ said the Professor, ‘are you talking about, you very silly very small phenomenological person, there are no such things. You cannot tell me anything, as I have much longer and cleverer words than you and all those other poor people. I am here to help you, for I know all there is to know about you from my years of observations and the knowledge and teachings of my teacher and his before him and even one before that, The Great Fedure, who has never had anything to do with these invisible villages and factories. How dare you question me!!'

Now the Professor had surprised himself with his anger at allowing himself to become upset by one of the poor people down below. So quickly he gathered his decorum, which he kept of course in his back pocket and looking down from his great height suggested that the poor person left how he had come, from one of the word plaits which had wiggled out through a crack in the Ivory Tower and allowed the poor person to climb up and dare to invade his sacred place of learning.

'Before I go,' said the poor person, tugging his forelock (a key identification of poor persons). ‘We know that your research is important to help make generalised rules for us poor folk to live a good and dutiful life. For which, much thanks! But when these rules and labels apply to an individual they cannot be true, for we aren't in a bottle in a laboratory, no-one can possibly know all the multitude of effects on one person – those aspects that make that individual unique, mysterious and wonderful. This must be the case and you don't acknowledge that nobody can possibly be completely objective with regard to the observed, the human being. Think of the new science of physics. Stop pretending that you can be completely objective and accept that all research with regards to human beings is going to be, at best, flawed.'

'How very dare you. What do you know of such things when I have never heard of them?' said the Professor. 'You are making it all up. I am in power and you must follow me and my words.'

'Sir Professor, please listen to me. Why don't you include us and ask us and our friends and family what we want, then? Why do you stare at us through windows and then say we are not good enough to even offer us your treatment. How do you think that makes us feel? When you do give treatment we want it to work, we don't want to be in therapy for years, we want to live our lives and to be happy enough. Is that too much to ask? Why don't you take into account the pollution and the unnatural diet and the fact that we don't exercise and our society makes us too busy to spend time with those we love? Why do you have to give us drugs so that the chemical factory which is polluting our brains can get richer and richer?

‘You are so deeply protected in your word-hair that you can't even look round the corners and see how we relate to each other. There's so much in the world and we are not rats in a maze but humans and you really should be a-mazed-at… how extraordinary we are. Humans are not all the bad things that you are always looking at and putting us in your forensic boxes. I am going to put you in one of your boxes - as someone who can only concentrate on one thing. You don't like that do you, well neither do I nor my friends. Don't you dare try and put us in your box until you have walked a mile or two in our boots!'

At this, he handed some rather worn-out boots, more holes than leather, to the shocked Professor.

'Get down now from this Tower and have the decency to ask us what we want from your illustrious help, instead of putting your teacher from the past and his teacher before him who told you what was right on a pedestal. I am sure they helped people in the past, but when people remember what great teachers have said, the life has gone out of it. The idea ceases to live and breathe anymore; it has become a structure, fossilised even in time and space, with every person following either watering down the initial idea until it becomes so frozen and fixed that it batters people to death – or so watered down it is just a wishy washy nasty-tasting mess of meaninglessness!

‘Our dear Abbess in the monastery sits and listens to us every day in the village green, rain or shine, winter or summer. She knows about the plants and helps us at birth and death and through all the stages of our lives. She has asked me to come and would love to talk with you about how to help us live, not be kept as victims and 'interesting' phenomena to observe. How would you like that?'

At the mention of the Abbess, the Professor remembered his childhood and sitting round the fire listening to tales of the abbess, before he had become so very, very clever. He was then all of a sudden a little afraid, for he knew what everyone knew that when you peer into the Abbess then she will surely peer back into you…

So endeth this sorry tale. The next exciting episode is up to you!

At A Quiet Place, we are tuned to the individual, their particular needs, wants and circumstance. We also look to nature and value the simple and universal concerns of good food, clean and healthy environment, physical exercise and human relationships. We are aware of excellent theories like bonding being crucial to developing relationships and families need to work together but we don’t make people feel even worse than they do already. In order to achieve change we have our ACE theory

• Awareness-they need to be aware of the specific behaviour
• Choices-they need to know there are other choices and have support in trying them out 
•  Energy to make those changes-stress chemistry often means inertia, people can be so exhausted they find their only choice is to do nothing-they need process and support to finding that energy. Otherwise feeling blamed equals anger which turned inwards is depression-no energy there at all and a waste of time for those who profess to help.

That’s as much ‘theory’ as we go in for – and why our holistic psychotherapy is attractive and inclusive to those who choose to enjoy it! 

10 dogmas debunked

Interesting talk from Rupert Sheldrake on The Science Delusion, freeing the Spirit of Enquiry. He claims 10 dogmas of the scientific creed and I was applying it very much to the ethos and values of A Quiet Place based on 'first do no harm' and second does it work?

The ten are:

  1.   The universe is mechanical, everything is a machine and brains are like computers. This is a useful metaphor but loses the wonder and richness of humans

  2.   All matter is unconscious, human consciousness is an illusion created by electrical/chemical activity in the brain. Can't remotely find this useful, inner life of humans and who knows what animals and plants remains a mystery but is demonstrated everywhere

3.   The total amount of energy and matter is always the same (except the Big Bang of course!) - that is a theory and as we move on in time other theories come out from our new knowledge base, organic development surely must be reflected in everything..'as above..so below'

4.   Laws of nature are fixed, a constant. Who says?

5.   There is no purpose to nature, no goal or direction, everything has evolved by accident. How can anyone still believe that when we see so many connections, spiralling coincidences, numbers and sacred geometry all around?

6.   All biological inheritance is carried in the DNA. That has been disproved since the discovery of the genome didn't let us into every secret of mankind...hands up in amazement!

7.   Minds are inside our brains and everything is inside your head. Maybe our interpretation is in our head but we don't really know that we are purely an invention of our own figments!

8.   Memories are stored in the brain as material traces, absolutely unproven and they have tried hard to find memory banks..they are wiped out at death. One of the latest theories I heard was that memory is stored in the water within our body and that is estimated between 70-85% of our makeup depending on the scientist you listen to. Sounds good to me! Think of heart transplants and memories transferring in the blood, why is it anathema in some belief systems not to have other people's blood?

9.   Unexplained phenomena are all illusory or trickery. There is so much anecdotal information as well as scientific if any sceptics want to really look

10. Mechanistic medicine is the only kind that really works. Tell that to different cultures and people who have used complimentary medicine successfully. Even the medics are now beginning to use placebo effect, remembering that they are supposed to be 'healing' practitioners, and indeed I know some very good ones but... interestingly enough the net is helping open minds rather than be purely influenced by big pharmaceutical companies and find days out to hear the latest pill without connecting it to the side effects on the rest of the body

So open minds, a little humility and basic common sense should be the rule knowing the only real constant is change and new information comes on through time, I just mention that there still is a flat earth society, probably according to some, a CIA conspiracy that the earth is round!

Anyway good for Rupert for challenging these laws even when it is uncomfortable, my teacher, years ago said, ‘if you hold your hands out for truth some b..... will knock nails into them'.

Ouch!

A Quiet Place reminder that according to Carl Jung “Liverpool means The Pool of Life”.

Carl Jung dreamed he came to Liverpool and flying over the city, he saw a huge magnolia tree growing from a pool of light in the centre. The branches stretched across the city with fragrant flowers dropping petals onto the ground and its roots spread deep underneath bringing creative energy from the earth for the people of Liverpool. Looking at this beautiful sight he realised that,

In celebration of Jung’s vision of Liverpool A Quiet Place^® invited all Liverpool Primary Schools to think about what The Pool of Life means to the children of Liverpool and then create a piece of art that best represents Liverpool as The Pool of Life. 

                                         

The awards were presented by Roger Phillips of BBC Radio Merseyside at St Anthony of Padua the winner of the 1st Prize a £20 book token for the individual plus £1,000 of A Quiet Place^® Self Management programme including resources and training for their school. The second prize went to St. Paschal Baylon and 3^rd Prize to Lister Drive Infants. Well done to all the children who entered in Liverpool and their teachers who organised the art work in a busy timetable.

A  Quiet Place^® - What is it?

We are a small not for profit company that supports well being programmes for individuals, groups of children and young people, their families and communities in schools and other organisations. 

               

A Quiet Place Ltd

26 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BX     Tel: 0151 708 6910  Fax: 0151 703 9207

karen@aquietplace.co.uk

Well Being In The Workplace

About 500,000 people are believed to be suffering from work-related stress or depression in the UK and they take 6.5 million days off sick every year.  

According to new research by the Health and Safety Executive, nearly 150,000 workers have taken at least a month off sick because of stress-related illness, costing British industry an estimated £370m a year.

The HSE believe that "work-related stress is a huge occupational health problem, inflicting a heavy toll both in terms both of financial cost and human suffering."

Penelope is an experienced teacher and trainer who has delivered workshops in Europe, Australia, India and USA. She has had over 30 years  experience in business as well as the public sector.

She developed  ‘A Quiet Place®’ as a concept, initially for mainstream education in schools, Family Centres and supporting children, families and staff across the U.K. This is now a nationally recognised programme with a very rigorous academic and qualitative evidence base.

Well being in the Workplace programmes developed from this original work in schools and is designed to be educational as well as therapeutic emphasising the rights and responsibilities of  both the employer and the employee in a partnership approach.

The environment both physical and personal is key to A Quiet Place’s programmes. The approach and ethos encourages employees to work to their full potential within the community of work. Staff who are confident and positive think more clearly. A workforce who feel valued and supported by an emotionally intelligent management will work positively and more efficiently thus benefitting the employer at every level.

Bespoke service:

An initial consultation to identify the unique needs of an employer takes place. A plan is made and delivered according to the needs audit and budget of the organisation.  They include such options as:

• Stress awareness training

• Communication skills including N.L.P. and basic counselling

• Self Management bio feedback programmes including HeartMath

• Staff audit with personal prescriptions

• Training for in house staff to deliver some programmes and resources

• Mindfulness meditation

• U-Yoga– gentle stretching and  breathing exercises for everyone

Penelope Moon

CertEd, PGDHP, FNHPC, NRHP (H)
UKCP Registered Psychotherapist, BRCP Senior Therapist

For further information  please contact: karen@aquietplace.co.uk


A Quiet Place Ltd 
26 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BX
Tel 0151 708 6910, Fax 0151 703 9207
www.aquietplace.co.uk

What Is Your Class’s Vision Of Liverpool – ‘The Pool Of Life’?

Merseyside children compete to paint their own Jungian dream vision

He felt himself flying over the city, in the centre of which appeared a bright and shimmering pool of light. From the island in the centre of the pool grew a huge magnolia tree. The branches of the tree stretched across the city, with fragrant flowers dropping petals onto the ground and the roots spread deep underneath, drawing creative energy from the earth for the people of Liverpool.

Looking at this sight “of unearthly beauty,” he realised at once that “Liverpool was The Pool of Life.”

In 1927, the Swiss psychologist and explorer of the unconscious Carl Jung, dreamt he went to Liverpool - an experience he summed up in his dream-diary as revealing to him that the great port was no less than “the pool of life; it makes to live”.

Now we, not-for-profit organisation A Quiet Place, an organisation that provides well-being programmes for individuals, groups and communities, has launched a competition to celebrate Jung’s vision of Liverpool – and we want your school to take part!

We are inviting primary schools across Merseyside to enter a free artcompetition to create a piece of art inspired by Jung’s striking night vision of the city. Children are being asked to think about what ‘Liverpool is The Pool of Life’ means to them, and then create a collage, drawing, or painting, to best represent this. Each school can submit up to three individual or class entries. 

Winning schools will have the chance to win some valuable well-being resources and training, plus book tokens, plus attend an awards ceremony on Saturday 30th March; prizes will be presented by Roger Phillips (BBC Radio Merseyside).

A selection of 30 pieces of pupils’ work will be short-listed and displayed at a public gallery space.

The art competition is, we feel, very appropriate as a way both of responding to Jung’s dream and as expressive of the group’s aims of developing individuals’ sense of personal well being. (It’s worth remembering that Jung himself founded the whole idea that Art can be used as therapy.)

To enter, schools must first register their interest by sending their details to A Quiet Place by Friday 9th March 2012; please send your school’s name, name of Headteacher, telephone number, a direct email address and postal address. You can also contact us by post (26 Hope Street, L1 9BX), fax us on (0151) 703 9207 or email us at karen@aquietplace.co.uk.

The competition prizes are:

1st Prize A Quiet Place® Self Management Programme for your school worth £1,000, including resources and training plus a £20 book token for the individual (or class if preferred)

2nd Prize: An AQP Creative Class Workshop. plus a £15 book token

3rd Prize: An AQP relaxation kit of oils & music, plus a £10 book token

Remember completed pieces of artwork must be received no later than Friday 16th March, 2012. Good luck –  and be inspired!

Do you want to improve? Find A Quiet Place

Do you want to improve:

Behaviour?

Attainment?

Motivation?

Increased Well-Being

Increased Resilience

Improvement in attainment, attendance and relationships

A Quiet Place^® Self Management Programme is a value added service that supports children, young people and adults of all ages and abilities with learning and behaviour techniques. The programme can run alongside and within the general curriculum to support learning by the management of the arousal system.

What is it?

The Self Management Programme techniques consist of:

Bio feedback programmes (including HeartMath em-wave) that recognises and helps manage the arousal systems.