InProcess Newsletter
The Process Work Institute
Autumn 2007, Volume 3
In This Issue
Announcements & Upcoming Events
Global News
News From The PWI Student Affairs Committee
What ProcessWorkLive Has To Do With A Diaper Company
Crisis Intervention Training With The Portland Police
Non Omnis Moriar-Not All Of Me Shall Die
Coma Communication
Quick Links
Process Work Institute
Greetings!

Naming of the Newsletter
In the spring edition of the PWI newsletter, we asked folks to vote on a new name for our publication. The choices were InProcess Newsletter or The Tao Times. While Tao Times brought in 5 votes and was close to many people's hearts, InProcess was the favorite, winning out with 13 votes!

Contribute to the InProcess Newsletter
The InProcess Newsletter will be published quarterly. If you have news from your neck of the woods and want to share it, or know someone who's doing something interesting with Process Work in their life, work, family, or relationships, let us know. Please send your submissions, photos, etc. to Brooke Noli at  process-news@earthlink.net   The next issue will be out in January.

Become A Member Today!
Become a member of Process Work Institute, and help make deep democracy and awareness part of the global conversation. Members receive a 10% discount on all classes at PWI. To become a member click here or contact the Process Work Institute office at 503-233-8188 or pwi@processwork.org
Announcements & Upcoming Events
PWI Community Party
On Monday, October 1st at 7:00 pm there will be a community party at the Process Work Institute. This event is scheduled to occur while the new Diploma student cohort will be in Portland for their first residency, so, besides being a fun event, it will also be a great opportunity to meet and welcome the new students.

Diploma Graduation
On October 7,  at PWI from 5-7pm, there will be a combination community meeting and graduation celebration for 5 new diplomates.  The graduates are David Bedrick, Joy Brown, Kasha Kavanaugh, Heiko Spoddeck, and  Katje Wagner.  The community meeting will be from 5 - 6:15 and the celebration will follow. Please join us in focusing on community and honoring  our new diplomates.

The New Diploma Program!
We're excited to announce that our newly revised, limited residency Diploma Program has been launched! The first cohort is made up of 14 new students. They are in the midst of their initial residency (September 22-October 3), which began with a five day seminar at Mt. Hood, at the Blue Pines Lodge right on the mountain (see photo above). The second cohort is made up of 15 transfer students (transferring from the old diploma program), and they will have their first residency in late fall.The program continues to accept applications for future enrollment, so for more information on the program, go to: www.processwork.org/diploma.htm


The First M.A.C.F. Graduation
Congratulations to the first 10 graduates of the Master of Arts in Conflict Facilitation and Organizational Change. A graduation ceremony was held for them on June 14 at the Process Work Institute in Portland. If you would like to read the graduation speech written and presented by Dawn Menken please click here: graduation speech
Global News
Australia Blak-White: Who Are We? What's Happening?                 
by Penny Watson

In Brisbane, Australia, on September 18, a group of us organized a forum in response to the current climate of confusion, opinion, and debate occasioned by a radical shift of government policy regarding Aboriginal communities. Our aim was to help grow a deeper understanding of the peoples and the complexities involved in what we experience as a national-wide deterioration of the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

Firstly, I'd like to say how fantastic it was to be part of this team, which was made up of Shar, Pam, Siobhan, Trish, Samia, and myself. Now that we have made this giant step into the public arena, we are looking forward to holding many more community gatherings.

Our reflections and the feedback we received from others gave us a sense that the forum was a significant experience, that it was truly appreciated by the group, and that it can be build on it in the future. We helped to begin a potent conversation about racism - about oppression and freedom, hate and fear, anger and desensitization, belonging and not belonging, internalized oppression, and white guilt and privilege.

To read more click here . . .


Worldwork In Chiapas Mexico


Dearest PW Friends,
With great pleasure and joy, I announce to you that the community of PW in Mexico is growing. We have just finished a two year program, and, some days ago, we had a Worldwork seminar. If you would like to read testimonies byVassiliki Katrivanou and Elena de Hoyos about their Worldwork seminar experience, please click on their names and link to their articles.
Love, Leticia Mendoza Abascal


 
 
Process Work In The Midwest United States                                                     by Monica McCarthy

Greetings from the Midwest!  The prairie grasses are stirring out here.  We recently had a community gathering and group process in Minneapolis MN (including participants from Madison and Milwaukee). There was excitement and enthusiasm about reconnecting and we did a lot of processing. There was interest in continuing and having future gatherings. There will also be a Midwest (Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Madison) community development weekend in November, in Dodgeville WI, facilitated by Salome Schwartz.  Planning these events has been part of my first internship in the MACF program.


Free The Children:  Bruce Scott's New Book

Bruce Scott has been involved with and practicing Process Work since 1986 and has just published a new book called, Free The Children. The book is about parenting and fostering a cooperative, productive relationship between parent and child. This is not a how-to book on parenting, but rather a brief, true journey into the hearts and souls of children everywhere that allows our adult minds to remember what is real and true in all relationships. Arnold Mindell writes, "Bruce Scott breathes fresh air into our understanding of children. He has written a profoundly personal, practical, and dreamlike book with a global message." If you are interested in buying Bruce's book, please click here.
News From The PWI Student Affairs Committee

The PWI Student Affairs committee is made up of Jan Dworkin, Ayako Fujisaki, Vassiliki Katriavani, Herb Long, Elva Redwood, Rhea, Leslie Shipley, and Sonja Straub. We are excited to report on the following new activities initiated by the committee:

Student-Faculty Retreat
On July 29, we hosted the first ever student-faculty retreat at PWI, attended by about 30 faculty and students. We spent the afternoon sharing personal stories, processing deep issues around our (dual and multiple) relationships with one another, and eating, drinking and merry-making.  Most people agreed that it was an important time for deepening connection, and that we should continue these events. We missed many people who could not attend and hope  to host the next retreat  at a time when more people are available.

"Stammtish"
The Dean of Students, Jan Dworkin, hosts a regular "Stammtish." This is a roundtable or tribal gathering that takes place in the Ram's Head, a local pub near PWI in Portland. It is a time for students and faculty to come together informally to share dreams and visions for ourselves, for each other, and for the PWI programs.  It is also a time to complain, gossip, grumble, praise, criticize, adore, and admire one another. If you have concerns or ideas you would like to share, and you cannot attend a Stammtish, please don't hesitate to contact Jan  at dwork@igc.org. 

Ombudsteam
There is an Ombudsteam (supportive facilitation team) available for students who have issues or difficulties with faculty that they would like assistance in processing, especially if the issues are around multiple role relationships.  If you need someone to talk to, contact Rhea at rhea@igc.org,  Ayako Fujisaki at ayakofuji@mac.com,  or Jan Dworkin at dwork@igc.org

Graduation
On October 7,  at PWI from 5-7pm, there will be a combination community meeting and graduation celebration for the new diplomates (David Bedrick, Joy Brown, Kasha Kavanaugh, Heiko Spoddeck and  Katje Wagner).  The community meeting will be from 5 - 6:15 and the celebration will follow. Please join us in focusing on community and honoring  our new diplomates.
What ProcessWorkLive Has To Do With A Diaper Company                           by Kate Jobe

We get a lot of junk mail in our house. Most of it lands in recycling without hitting the dining room table where the real sorting happens. One day, an advertising magazine from Costco snuck through to the table. I grabbed it to toss it out and it fell open to an article about a diaper company making a podcast.

"What a great idea," I thought without thinking, "a podcast about people using Process Work in the world!! We could make a place to showcase Process Workers and projects; where a name could turn into a voice!!! An informal, publicly-accessible, international setting where we can experience and inspire each other!!! It would be a way to communicate with 'outside' people curious about what we do!!!! I could be the Terry Gross  of Process Work!!!!!!" (Terry Gross is the host of Fresh Air, a popular NPR interview format radio show).

Then came the thought:  What's a podcast? How do you make them? And - GET REAL about the Terry Gross thing!

Well, I'm no Terry Gross, but, we do have a podcast called ProcessWorkLive. A podcast is like a radio show that, when you subscribe, downloads each episode onto your computer. You can listen to it there or put it on your mp3 player and go mobile.

So far we have 3 episodes: Jytte Vikkelsoe discusses her work at Kaospilot, Joe Goodbread and I talk with Michal Duda about students training in a mental institution in Poland, and an interview with Julie Diamond about Crisis Intervention Training with the Portland Police. This winter we'll have Arny Mindell's keynote speech from the IAPOP conference in London. If you have or know of a project of interest please contact Terry oh, ah, Kate at kate@katejobe.com.
To subscribe to ProcessWorkLive, search the iTunes Store under podcasts for processworklive or kate jobe. You can also find it at www.katejobe.com and click on podcast or go to www.processworklive.com. If you have problems, please contact me.
Crisis Intervention Training With The Portland Police                                 by Julie Diamond
Julie Diamond and Liesbeth Gerritsen received a medal of commendation, together with other members of the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) team for their work developing a new training for Portland Police on responding to people with mental health crises.

Julie and Liesbeth worked on a team led by Lieutenant Sara Westbrooke, who was assigned to create a new training by Police Chief Rosie Sizer in the wake of the tragic death in custody of James Chasse last year. Chasse was a schizophrenic man whom police officers chased and detained by force, believing was a threat to safety. Following that incident, Chief Sizer mandated mandatory CIT training for all officers. Until Chasse's death, the training had been voluntary, but in its aftermath, the community called for more education for the police in responding to mental health crises.

The challenge of creating a mandatory training for police officers in a highly charged political climate is described in an interview with Julie conducted by Kate Jobe and Joe Goodbread. The interview is available through Process Work Live, and is one of Kate Jobe's podcasts exploring new applications and developments in Process Work: www.katejobe.com/podcast. A  fuller story about the new mandatory training program can be found at www.portlandonline.com and an interview with the team leader, Lieutenant Sara Westbrooke is at http://www.streetroots.org
Non Omnis Moriar - Not All Of Me Shall Die: An Earth Based Unfolding.                by Susan Kocen

April 2007, Portland OR
I dream I am in Poland, trying to leave the airport. I become frustrated and run out into the street.  As my feet hit the pavement, a ghost bursts up out of the earth. Each step, each impact on the soil, an ancestor leaps up to run alongside me.

May 2007, Krakow Poland
I visit Poland, the first of my family to visit after 'we' are all lost to the Holocaust. All except for my father.

For a week, I walk the earth of my ancestors, and they appear beside me, accompanying me from place to place. They are in the land. They are everywhere.

Day six, I go to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have visited my fathers birthplace, the ghettos he was in and the apartment where he was eventually hidden. Now I visit where family was murdered.

It is unbelievably sad. The place. The buildings. The space around the buildings. Tears are here. There are tears here.

I ask the earth, "why?"  Why here?

I study the ground, pick up stones, hold them in my hands, in my pockets, weigh myself down. I place stones around Auschwitz, on ledges, signs, plaques.
I visit the gas chamber. First time, I cannot stop, cannot breath. I sit outside, on the grass.

Next time I go in I am alone.

A voice inside, "now is the time to explore, to deepen". So I do.
There in the gas chamber I hear Amy's voice, and follow it.
· "Go deep into the body, find your center, locate it" - my lower abdomen, yes, below the belly button.
· "Once you have that, feel it, start to move around the 'room' and notice the pull to a spot, find your place" - I move, my spot is dead center. I look up; the open shaft where Zyklon B was dropped is directly above me. I start to cry.
· "Notice now, anything, notice anything that comes up." - my hands lift, dart upwards towards the shaft, like a prayer opening, hands separate and dart upwards.
· "And follow what happens: movements, visions,  sounds, a message?" - I move, see a firework, fireworks, gigantic. Their light fills every corner; everything is illuminated, corner-to-corner. I move, take the movement further, dance,  spin, arms aloft, and then there it is, a voice: "Burn bright, Susan! Burn Bright! And never, never forget death!" - around me I feel the pressure of people, of bodies, dense, together, we are all together in this room, this space, this mess, the pressure of bodies. "Burn bright, Susan! And never forget death."

I return to the sunlight, ecstatic from the message, grateful for the work. To dance in the gas chamber, to meet the ancestors and hear their voices.
Who would have thought it possible?
Only the earth.
Only the earth.
Coma Communication
& The Anamcara Project                        
by Anne Jacob & Stan Tomandl
 
Over the last 10 years, we have been blessed to teach one of our Process Work passions, Introductory Coma Work. We have taught this course through the Sacred Art of Living Center,The Anamcara Project (compassionate companions in life and death), Hospice Conferences, and other venues to several thousand people including nurses, social workers, counselors, chaplains, physicians, medical directors, hospice staff, volunteers, music thanatologists, body workers, families, and friends.

Bless the heart of our PW community that values, explores, and teaches about altered consciousness.  Amy, Arny, and colleagues have made evolutionary and timely expansions on traditional and current practices around the care of clients, family members, friends, and care facilities.  We find people to be curious, grateful, awe struck, and relieved, as well as, at times, saddened that they didn't have this information in time to use it with their own loved ones.

We love teaching this work where we are invited to do so, and we appreciate the ongoing sharing of information and insight in this developing area. We are also grateful to be in the PW community that follows the pathways of altered states.

Photo: Stan and Ann demonstrating Coma Work techniques with Toko as our fabulous translator !  Tokyo, Japan   May 2007

For more information, please visit Stan Tomandl and Ann Jacob's website at www.comacommunication.com or The Anamcara Project at www.sacredartofliving.com
We hope that you have enjoyed this issue of the  InProcess Newsletter!

Sincerely,
The Process Work Institute