NPI REFLECTS SUMMER 2020
Volume 10: Issue 2
A Moment of Reckoning? By Linda G. Manning, PhD
this issue
The last few months have been brutal. All of us are exhausted by the ravages of COVID 19 and the upending of our lives in response to the Pandemic. In the midst of this Pandemic, which disproportionally affects our Black community members, the nation witnessed the horrific murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. This murder was certainly not the first, and tragically not the last, such act of violence. It has, however, awakened the voices of protest all across this country. In big cities and small towns a diverse group of people, especially young people, are marching to affirm that Black lives matter. Ten thousand marched peacefully in Nashville after the call of four teenage women. They are calling for an end to police violence against Black Americans, and for an end to Systemic Racism in our country and the world. This “moment of reckoning” brings with it an intense combination of feelings. Many of us have experienced and expressed sadness, devastation, outrage, fury, fear, despair and perhaps a glimmer of hope. Many of us are confused about how to respond. We want to “do the right thing,” and we may have no idea what that means. We also know that silence is complicity. Certainly we can continue to raise our voices, and that is critically important. It is the first step, but not the last. This moment of reckoning also calls for change. For us as therapists, certain actions are required by our various codes of ethics. As a psychologist, for example, I am required to abide by the standard on Human Relations 3.01 Unfair Discrimination. “In their work-related activities, psychologists do not engage in unfair discrimination based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or any basis proscribed by law.” This is the minimum standard. The aspirational principle is broader. The more recent “Race and Ethnicity Guidelines” from the American Psychological (Continued on page 3) 1
What is NPI? The Nashville Psychotherapy Institute or NPI is a 501(c)(6) non profit, professional organization. Founded in 1985, NPI now boasts 300+ members. www.NashvillePsychotherapyInstitute.org
Inside this issue: Moment of Reckoning Linda Manning
1
Jules Seeman Fall Workshop Featuring Kristin Neff
2
MHART Update Cathryn Yarbrough
4
Break the Skin Barbara Sanders
5
On Relaxation D. Kirk Barton
6
Board Member Spotlight Linda Manning
7
Rebuilding a Life After Loss... Philip Chanin
8
Black Madonna Barbara Sanders
10
NPI Board of Directors
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2020 Jules Seeman Fall Workshop The Power of Self-Compassion October 23 - 24, 2020 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Participants of this workshop will be taught over two days in three-hour sessions online via Zoom. Each day will include small-group breakout sessions. Self-compassion involves treating ourselves kindly, like we would a good friend we cared about. Rather than continually judging and evaluating ourselves, self-compassion involves generating kindness toward ourselves as imperfect humans, and learning to be present with the inevitable struggles of life with greater ease. It motivates us to make needed changes in our lives not because we’re worthless or inadequate, but because we care about ourselves and want to lessen our suffering. This workshop will provide simple tools for responding in a kind, compassionate way whenever we are experiencing painful emotions. We all want to avoid pain, but letting it in - and responding compassionately to our own imperfections without harsh self-condemnation - are essential steps toward living happier, more fulfilling lives. Through discussion, meditation, and experiential exercises, you will gain practical skills to help bring self-compassion into your daily life. You will learn how to stop being so hard on yourself; handle difficult emotions with greater ease; and motivate yourself with kindness rather than criticism. Practices will also be introduced to help ease stress and burnout for caregivers. This course is relevant for the general public as well as to practicing mental health professionals. Specific Learning Objectives: •
Identify the three core components of self-compassion
•
Describe key research that supports the benefits of self-compassion
•
Practice techniques to increase self-compassion in everyday life
•
Use self-compassion in caregiving settings to reduce burnout
ONLINE REGISTRATION OPENS FRIDAY, JULY 31st $159 members/$199 non-members Member Discounts & Scholarships Available
www.NashvillePsychotherapyInstitute.org
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Special Guest Presenter: Kristin Neff, PhD Kristin Neff is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, conducting the first empirical studies on self-compassion over fifteen years ago. In addition to writing numerous academic articles and book chapters on the topic, she is author of the book "Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself," released by William Morrow. In conjunction with her colleague Dr. Chris Germer, she has developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful SelfCompassion, which is taught by thousands of teachers worldwide. The Mindful SelfCompassion Workbook is now available by Guilford, as well as Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals. For more information, including a self-compassion test, research articles, and examples practices, go to www.selfcompassion.org. The application for APA credit for The Power of Self-Compassion to be held virtually on October 23 & 24, 2020 has been submitted to the Vanderbilt Division for CME for a maximum of 6.0 CE credits. No partial credit may be awarded. This course is jointly sponsored by the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute.
(Day of Reckoning, continued from page 1)
Association state, “In clinical practice, psychologists should strive to provide services free of racial or ethnocultural bias. This should include considering issues of race, ethnicity and culture in not only treatment, but also assessment. Psychologists should also reflect on how their own biases and assumptions affect the types of services they provide, and seek out understanding of indigenous and traditional healing methods, with an eye toward supporting clients who find meaning in these methods. Finally, psychologists should recognize the structural oppressions in society and within health care systems, and seek to challenge the biases and oppressions that affect their clients’ health and wellbeing.” So not only are we are asked to avoid discrimination, we are also asked to reflect on our own biases and to recognize and challenge structural oppression. All of the various codes of ethics have similar statements. The Social Justice Committee responded to the murder of George Floyd (and so many others) with a statement declaring that racism is abhorrent, police brutality is unacceptable, and by inviting interested members of NPI to continue the on-going task of examining our own biases and dismantling systemic oppression. We make these statements not only because our ethics require it, but also because our hearts require it. We believe that many NPI members feel the same way. If you are one of those members, we invite you to join us in the upcoming book discussions: August 6 on “How to Be an Anti-Racist,” and September 3 on “My Grandmother’s Hands.” We know this is just a beginning. A recent article in the Washington Post by Tre Johnson is entitled “When black people are in pain, white people just join book clubs.” We want our Black members, colleagues, and clients to know that we stand beside them in this push for change. We have begun to build Race Relations Resources on the NPI website will be adding information on addressing policy changes, especially at the local level, for those who are interested. We ask our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color members and colleagues to hold us accountable. We ask all of our members and colleagues to make suggestions. Help us to turn this “moment of reckoning” into a life-long commitment.
If you have suggestions for the Social Justice Committee or would like to be involved in its work, please contact Linda at linda.g.manning@vanderbilt.edu
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NPI Members Step Up to Support MHART by Cathryn Yarbrough, PhD When tornadoes struck Tennessee on March 2 and 3, 2020, and shortly thereafter COVID-19 arrived, Lizzie Harrigan, a long time NPI member, began to seriously pursue an idea she had been cultivating for some time. She dreamed of coordinating the volunteer spirit of Tennessee mental health professionals to serve the community. From her training and her work on the
National Association of Social Workers TN Chapter Executive Council, she knew the importance of community organizing. At the same time, Amanda Stone, working at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, sent out a request to multiple therapist groups seeking out those wanting to provide mental health support to Vanderbilt medical staff during a possible pandemic surge. Gina DelGardo, President of the Tennessee Psychological Association, reached out to the governor’s office to seek an avenue for psychologists to help with the mental health challenges of the pandemic. Cathryn Yarbrough and Cynthia Lucas of the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute were also seeking ways for their organization to respond proactively to the crisis. On April 3, 2020, this group of passionate mental health professionals met for the first time and began the arduous and exhilarating process of creating a way to fulfil their goals. They wanted to create a permanent way for Tennessee therapists to give back during this pandemic and during any future crisis. A huge amount of work allowed the project to move forward in record time. On April 25, 2020, the Mental Health Active Response Team incorporated as a nonprofit organization.
On May 12, 2020, the group launched their website, mharttn.org, designed pro bono by Nehmedia. The initial MHART goal was to create an emotional support line for healthcare workers and first responders. MHART planned for volunteer licensed mental health professionals to staff the line.The launch of the website began a frantic effort to recruit and train volunteers, which was done with the help of the TN Psychological Association, TN Counselors Association, TN Association of Licensed Pastoral Counselors, TN Association of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Counselors, TN Association of Marriage & Family Therapists, TN Psychiatric Association, and many local organizations, including, of course, the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute. On May 20, 2020, Ryan O’Connell was hired as the Executive Director. Ryan brings extensive experience in project management, technology development and implementation, as well as data analysis, which he gained over the past twelve years working in consulting and healthcare firms. He has also served on the board of several Nashville-based non-profits. On May 26, through a collaboration with the State of Tennessee, the National Association of Social Workers Tn Chapter, and the Tennessee Association of Alcohol, Drug & other Addiction Services (TAADAS), the Tennessee COVID-19 Emotional Support Line for Healthcare Workers (1-888-MHARTTN) went live. On May 28, 2020, Governor Bill Lee and Marie Williams, Commission of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, announced the support line at the governor's afternoon press conference. At the same time the state website launched its page promoting the support line, tn.gov/behavioral-health/emotional-support. MHART’s purchase of an internet phone contract, initial start up support staff and salary for the MHART Executive Director are being covered by a Tennessee SAMHSA grant administered by TAADAS and through the generosity of the National Association of Social Workers TN Chapter. The MHART website, www.mharttn.org, and its sophisticated software were created pro bono by Nehmedia. In addition, MHART has raised over $100,000 in private donations, even before attempting formal fundraising. The five mental health professionals (Lizzie Harrigan, LCSW, Chair; Amanda Stone, PhD; Cynthia Lucas, PhD; Gina DelGardo, PhD; and Cathryn Yarbrough, PhD.) who created MHART composed its initial Board of Directors. They were recently joined by Charlsey Gibson, LCSW, the newest board member. Additional community board members will be added in the future. (Continued on page 5)
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(MHART, continued from page 4)
Because Tennessee has been fortunate so far in avoiding the worst of the pandemic, the support line has, in fact, not been needed to the degree initially anticipated. Often volunteers will go an entire shift without receiving a call. For many this has been frustrating, as they had cleared their schedules to be available. For this reason MHART is piloting a new system that should give volunteers more freedom while still making the emotional support line available to callers. This new model uses a pool approach that creates pools of volunteers that might be able to answer the phone during a shift. This contrasts with the current shift-based where the individual signed up for the shift is the point person for answering any calls that come into the line. In addition, volunteers will have increased flexibility to put themselves on and take themselves off of shifts, whenever they find themselves with a free hour. Even though less is asked of any one volunteer, more volunteers will have to be recruited to make this model work. Anyone interested in volunteering can do so at mharttn.org/volunteer-registration. COVID-19 cases are spiking up in Tennessee, and there is a chance that in the near future the support line could be more needed than ever. In new developments, MHART is piloting a database of Tennessee therapists offering pro bono and discounted psychotherapy
for those on the front lines of the pandemic. We will soon be seeking volunteers for this project as well. Once we know the viability of the program, it may be offered throughout Tennessee. While healthcare workers and first responders are the current recipients of these efforts, MHART intends for this to be a model that will be used again and again whenever disaster strikes. Through the devastation of tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, pandemics and yet unimagined crises, MHART will harness the power of volunteerism to quickly respond to the mental health needs of Tennesseans.
Break the Skin by Barbara Sanders, LCSW Do we squeeze the breath out of
Feeling so familiar. Violence received,
Those who distress us just by
Violence repeated, just like
Their presence, those who offend
Every generation before ours.
Us just by being themselves?
Let us all gaze underneath
Do we break the skin of those
Break the Skin
Who seem different and
Our own cloaks of personable armor
Watch the blood flow
And witness those we have decimated by
All over our hands and feet?
Our thoughts, feelings and actions.
Please murmur the names of all
Only then can we each confess to ourselves
Those whom you may perceive
Atone for our mistakes and stand up bravely
To be less than human if
Preaching a new prophecy that
That is what you call yourselves.
Says STOP.
Please speak to their children,
This will not do.
To their partners and babies,
We cannot live this way anymore.
Their siblings and parents,
How can we make the necessary changes?
And tell them why.
Explore
Speak to me and tell me why
Confess
You lash out in such rage, fear,
Share
And perhaps pain. What was done
Listen well
To you, must you do to others?
Speak out
The unconscious stirs about,
And Breathe 5
ON RELAXATION By D. Kirk Barton, MD ——————— Do you think they taste like honey?
Pure One And One
If you get a good one —yes
—That is the purpose Of our sun
Time is the scent of two Floating on the sound of water Just the feeling of breathing with you
We prefer the otter’s hottest daughter
Relaxing is the hardest part —to do
If we are Quiet still and calm
Be careful what you think —those thoughts think you
The world will reveal things
———————
On and on…. ————————
Not about counting Not about death
As awake as we dare
—It’s about too many ideas
As loving as we care
—and not enough breath
Bear hunter While hunted by the bear
Living the answer
Balance the body
Forgotten the question
Balance what’s fair
Tangled up in the curves Of one’s own digestion
Imagine yourself as you are
Looking for help
Be as deep as you are far
From Perception Do you have a better suggestion?
Free to breathe Free to choose
Correction
Backyard wild enough
By reflection:
To lose our shoes
Here is more than one person There is more than one perfection
Floating on the sound of water….
————————
———————
There is water
Do you think they taste like honey? If you get a good one —yes
And here is water water.... Time is the scent of two Floating on the sound of ripples And rhyme
Just the feeling of breathing with you
Always one thought Ahead of our time
Relaxing is the hardest part —to do
There are only two numbers: One and Again…
Be careful what you think —because those thoughts think you
This is all we know of sin
——————— 6
Board Member Spotlight We are continuing our board member spotlight by featuring Linda Manning, the Chair of the Social Justice Committee. Linda has been a member of NPI since the early 2000’s, and a member of the Board for a year and a half. Although relatively new to the Board, Linda has been active with NPI and has presented at three luncheons, one Connection Retreat as a keynote and one as a co-presenter with Kenneth Robinson for a breakout session. At these events, she has addressed several of her favorite topics, including Relational Cultural Therapy, Body and Breathwork, Working with Trauma, and the Impact of Trauma on Chronic Pain. Linda’s interest in Social Justice is longstanding and one of her greatest honors was being awarded the first Movimiento Guerrilla de Diversidad Award presented by the Social Justice Committee.
Linda G. Manning, PhD
Linda loves to tell her students and colleagues about the benefits of membership in NPI. She first became a member while she was the Director of the Margaret Cunninggim Women’s Center at Vanderbilt. She states that “The Women’s Center was my first and only administrative job that did not involve direct clinical work. Meeting with NPI and its wonderful members helped me to stay connected to the clinical heart of my profession. It also allowed me to co-sponsor speakers such as Maureen Walker and Judith Jordan - two of my heroes – for a Spring Workshop.” Unlike many NPI members, Linda has never worked primarily in private practice. Her NPI connections, however, helped her to learn about an opening at the Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health (now the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt) and led to a ten-year-long career there. Now that she is retired from the Osher Center, she continues at Vanderbilt as faculty in the Human Development Counseling Program, teaching a course on “Trauma: Impact and Intervention” every Spring semester. As a result, she now has more time to offer to the Board. Like Lindsay (highlighted in the last newsletter) Linda is also very grateful for the opportunity to listen to, and meet with, wonderful speakers over the years. She has been particularly impacted by speakers such as Louise Silverstein and Beverly Green (multicultural therapy), Laura Brown (trauma and memory), and Bonnie Badenoch (interpersonal neurobiology). Wisdom from all of them has made it into her work with clients, her teaching, and her mentoring. In this and so many other ways, NPI has deeply influenced her professional life. Linda states that she is very excited to be involved with the Social Justice Committee. She hopes that the committee will continue to provide education related to Social Justice and offer information and support to NPI members who want to pursue Social Justice in their work and lives. In the forward to Advancing Social Justice Through Clinical Practice (2007), American Psychological Association President George Albee wrote: “Those of us who believe in the importance of the bond between mental health and human rights must come together in alliance with groups everywhere who share this belief. We must come together to help students in our field learn the importance of this connection and find the courage to oppose the mainstream that stresses adjustment to the status quo.” If you have suggestions for the Committee or would like to be involved in its work, please contact Linda at linda.g.manning@vanderbilt.edu 7
Remarks for my 50th Amherst College Reunion: Rebuilding a Life After Loss and Despair (Prepared for a panel discussion entitled “No Easy Life: Stories of Adversity and Resilience) By Philip Chanin, Ed.D., ABPP, CGP Board Certified Clinical Psychologist Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center www.drphilchanin.com ~ philchanin@gmail.com
“I think it’s a given that, one way or another, virtually all of us have suffered trauma and loss. As men, most of us have been socialized to keep those experiences to ourselves. But it is nothing short of transformational to own our vulnerability and our dependency and share those feelings. My experience is that doing so grounds our authenticity and connects us deeply.” (personal email from Amherst College classmate Doug Clark, 11/3/2019) In his seminal book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell describes the steps in what he calls “The Hero’s Journey.” He writes that these steps are evident in the myths of cultures all over the world, going back thousands of years. A chapter in his book is titled “The Belly of the Whale,” recalling the biblical story of Jonah’s being swallowed by a whale, with no idea if he will ever survive. Campbell writes, “The hero…is swallowed into the unknown, and would appear to have died.” (p. 74) My own personal “belly of the whale” period began with the deterioration of my first marriage. I was living on the grounds of the Northfield Mt. Herman School in western Massachusetts, where I was married to the Head of the school. I was working as a psychologist in private practice in Keene, New Hampshire. As I could feel my marriage crumbling, I became profoundly depressed. I made a plan to end my life. I would park my car in our garage, get a hose, and die by carbon monoxide. But the morning when I planned to carry this out, I realized that my 14-year-old step-daughter, asleep in the house, might be the person who would find my body, and I could not bring myself to do this to her and, potentially, emotionally destroy her life.
Many of you are familiar with the story of Carol Kearns, our classmate Bob Bingham’s wife, who lost her 7-year-old daughter to a freak wave on the Oregon Coast. Carol became a psychologist so that she could help other parents who had lost a child. In her book Sugar Cookies and a Nightmare, Carol writes, “This idea of the essential vessel—the ‘core self,’ the ‘essential you,’ the person you really are’—is the one part of us that remains after tragedy empties us out. But if there is any benefit to grief (and for years I would have sworn there was none), it lies in the possibility of building a new and even fulfilling life from the ruins. We learn that when we’re young, we may not give much thought to the decisions we make, because if we’ve made a mistake, we live with it and go on. But later, something happens—a death, a loss, a tragedy—that leads us to ‘unpack’ or reexamine our choices and see if we’re on the journey we’ve always wanted. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (with whom Carol worked in therapy for many years) used to say it was unfortunate that human beings don’t learn when they’re happy. Most of the time it takes a huge, life-altering event to teach us life’s hard lessons. But once we discover what truly matters, life can start anew.” (pp. 122-123) In a recent article in the New York Times (4/12/2020), entitled “I’m Grieving Now. You May Be, Too.,” novelist R.O. Kwon describes her own plunge into deep despair: “The last time I suddenly found myself in a state of deep grief, utterly unable to go on as usual...the world I’d known shifted, cracked open and fell apart…for some time I felt as if I might be the loneliest person alive.” Like Kwon, I felt in my own grief as if the world I’d known had “cracked open and fallen apart.” While I’d struggled to fully utilize personal psychotherapy in the past, I was now much more able to benefit from it. I contacted a psychiatrist I knew in Keene, who prescribed an antidepressant for me. I changed therapists, to someone who helped me to extricate myself from the marriage. I moved out of our marital home, stayed briefly with a dear friend, and then found a one-bedroom apartment in Keene. I relied on old friends for support. I worked diligently with my therapist to decide where could I go, in 1991, at the age of 43, to start a new private practice in a larger city. The cities I knew best were Boston and Philadelphia. Eventually, I decided to move back to Nashville, Tennessee, where I had gone to high school and still had family. (Continued on page 9)
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(Amherst Reunion, continued from page 8)
Four years later, in the letter I submitted for our 25th Amherst College reunion, in 1995, I wrote, “Amherst College changed my life. In fact, for 25 years, I thought I had changed so much that I could never again be happy living in the South, and so I did not seriously consider returning home to Tennessee. I could not imagine that I wouldn’t find the intellectual environment stultifying, and the religious climate oppressive. Moreover, as I entered my forties, I did not think I’d be able to develop the quality and depth of close friendships, particularly with men, that had sustained me through 25 years in New England and Philadelphia.” “Then a series of circumstances forced me to reconsider. My marriage ended, managed care tightened its grip on the southern New Hampshire town where I was in private practice, and I could see that the hospital where I consulted half-time might soon go under (within a year it closed, laying off all 100+ employees). I sought escape from the loneliness of single life in small-town New England, to a city where I might build a new practice and a new community.”
This coming October will be the 17th anniversary of my second marriage. My wife and I live in the beautifully renovated home that my parents bought in 1967 when we were all at Amherst College. I have seen good therapists for my own personal psychotherapy and I have made deep friendships. I have built a thriving private practice, 5 minutes from my home. I enjoy my involvement on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where I work with the psychiatric residents. I mentor many young Nashville psychotherapists and assist them in building their own private practices. I particularly enjoy my work as a group therapist. Each week I lead a women’s group, a men’s group, and a group for the Vanderbilt psychiatric residents. In 1975, in the summer after finishing my doctorate at the University of Massachusetts, I enrolled in an intensive five-week Buddhist meditation course at Naropa University, in Boulder, Colorado, in which we meditated 3-4 hours a day and all day on Sundays. This was a transformative experience, and, ever since, Buddhism has informed my life and my psychotherapy practice. One of my teachers at Naropa, Jack Kornfield, in his book A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life, writes, “In a spiritually informed life, the inevitable difficulties can be the source of our awakening, of deepening wisdom, patience, balance, and compassion. Without this spiritual perspective, we simply bear our sufferings, like an ox or a foot soldier, under a heavy load.”
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Black Madonna By Barbara Sanders, LCSW Battering black and brown bodies,
Food, fuel, garbage, and outhouses,
Her listening to that snake,
Enslaving human beings for over 400 years.
Poisoning creeks and mountain streams.
Leaving the garden and exploring this
White men, women and children treating
(Where were we to put our waste?)
Planet Earth
Darker people worse than animals.
Are humans the cause of these horrible woes?
While just being human.
Black Madonna ponders this world
Black Madonna considers,
Or, was leaving the Garden prophesied too,
That she helped to create.
“Maybe I did not know upon creating
A healthy growth for us as we
Black Madonna rages, sending us fires,
Humans that they would evolve like this.
Adventured around this wide earth?
Tornadoes, hurricanes and floods.
I did not prophecy that their brains would grow
Just as all beings are who and what they are.
She takes our money and burns it freely.
So convoluted and large that they would create
Just as birds fly and snakes slither.
She sends us a new virus we cannot
Manufacturing and technology, making
We are just being human beings
Control nor withstand, but
Cars to drive and raising animals
Once formed and released. Then we
Her black bodies die first. Why?
Just to eat.
Black Madonna
Black Madonna cries, wails, wrenches her
Maybe I shouldn’t have rested
By Barbara Sanders
Neck gazing at all the ghastly people
On that seventh day, but I didn’t know.”
Grew up and made a mess of the world,
Who do horrible things to each other.
Maybe all the gods and goddesses like
Killing off people, plants, animals and
She feels betrayed, angry and sorrowful
Black Madonna, created us or
Finally, the planet and ourselves.
That these humans she helped to create
Maybe a Big Bang happened and
Why?
Act terribly at times, scared and rageful themselves,
Formed life itself, cells dividing.
Maybe just because
Black Madonna
That is what we humans do.
By Barbara Sanders
Can we now turn the tides,
Maybe even divine beings could not have
Wind back the clock
Imagined that evolution would bring us here.
Undo what we have done?
We humans compete and fight
Or, can we move forward and if so,
In our fear and hunger for power,
What kind of world will we now create,
Our greed and gluttony overtaking us.
With the Divine help of whom?
We have enslaved other humans,
We cry out and pray for forgiveness,
We have caused harm to all living and
For guidance and support,
Breathing beings and to ourselves,
For this new world that we shall
Just to provide food and riches for some of us.
Build differently than before,
If Adam and Eve had only eaten other plants,
Without knowing all the pitfalls,
Rather than that darned apple,
Just like before.
Maybe life would be different.
We beseech Black Madonna.
If the snake had not seduced and opened
Will she hear us and help us create a
Eve’s eyes, maybe we would have stayed in
World with a "peace that passeth
The Garden. Maybe the mistake was
All understanding," this time around?
Striking out at underdogs, those they despise. She questions this creation and Her own life, wondering whether She should banish herself? Raising the veil that shades Her dark eyes, she wonders. “What have I done? I helped to create lands, seas, trees, Flowers, the weather, animals, insects, Black Madonna By Barbara Sanders And, humans. What went so wrong?" Humans have polluted the lands and the Atmosphere wiping out so many special species. People have used rivers and oceans for
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Nashville Psychotherapy Institute
P. O. Box 158626 Nashville, TN 37215 npinashville@gmail.com www.NashvillePsychotherapyInstitute.org
2020 NPI BOARD OF DIRECTORS Cathy Yarbrough, PhD; Chair John Nichols, MS, LPC/MHSP; Chair-elect/Development/Newsletter Sonya Thomas, LCSW; Immediate Past Chair Lindsay Vaughn, PsyD; Hutton Historian Glenn Sheriff, MA ; Treasurer D. Kirk Barton, MD Robert DeSalvo, LCSW; Website Bobby Bracks; Student Member Emily Ector-Volman, LPC-MHSP (temp), NCC; Communications Kristin Finch, LPC-MHSP (temp), NCC Linda Manning, PhD; Social Justice Patrick Nitch, LPC/MHSP; Fall Workshop/Speaker Research Hannah Reynolds, LPC/MHSP; Fall Workshop/Social Justice Melissa Vickroy, MS; Executive Coordinator
WANT TO GET MORE INVOLVED IN THE NASHVILLE PSYCHOTHERAPY INSTITUTE? We have several committees that you can join! If you are interested in becoming a more active member of NPI, visit our website at www.NashvillePsychotherapyInstitute.org or email us at npinashville@gmail.com
NEWSLETTER CREDITS Editor: Layout & Design: Printing:
John Nichols, MS, LPC/MHSP Melissa Vickroy, MS PrintNetUSA
***Editor’s Note: The content and opinions expressed within this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute, the Board of Directors of the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute, or the Editor of the newsletter. 12
