The Drum Stalk working with families and addictions

Continuing from my last article on Natural Awareness and the game called ‘Meet a tree’, I wish to present to you another game which is called the ‘Drum Stalk’ this game is a lot of fun to play with your family and friends in your local woods or even when camping out, it can be played at night as well, playing in the dark produces different experiences for the participants, for example they appear to relax a lot more and are less distracted. My aim is also to describe in brief how I use it as an intervention for people with addictions. The purpose of the game is to help increase the level of awareness both internal and external for an addict seeking active recovery.

The first game is always done raw, which means they will get to the drum by using their hearing to locate it and some will be convinced that the drum moved during the game when in fact it has not, what they are experiencing is the sound of the drum bouncing of the trees giving the impression that the drummer is moving around, this is the point were I get them out of the head and into the heart by getting them to understand that not all the information (i.e. the sound of the drum) they are getting is being interpreted correctly.

The game is then played again this time in peripheral vision and in a heart space the drum now gets beaten every sixty seconds and as each game is played the time between drum beats, increases even to the point when there is only one beat to get the game started and then no more beats after that, to peoples astonishment the majority find the drum, not every group reaches this level. I judge each situation separately which is based on how the group or individuals respond to the games. I have even removed their sight-guides during a game without them being aware and the majority are still able to complete the task, for the sight-guides this raises many questions and the sceptics among them certainly have lots of questions, the game can and does bring up lots of emotions, which I and their peers, then work with them in terms of their addiction and old behaviours, there have been times when the game does not get finished because it requires that we (the group) process the emotions it has brought up for them.

The whole point of this game is to challenge their behaviour in a safe way, but in a way that it is so out of the box that it raises questions hopefully motivating them to seek the answers to their questions. I have very few rules when playing the Drum Stalk I observe how the group or individuals are responding to the game and I act accordingly with an intervention. For family and friends the game is played for fun with a level of awareness taking place, were as for addictions the game may not even finish in terms of actually playing the game to its physical completion, issues may arise which requires immediate attention which I process using the power of the group to help the group and individuals reach a new understanding of themselves and it is only done if the person wants to go there as it has to be for their higher good.

One rule I do have is that if other professionals wish to observe how Natural Awareness works. I ask that they do so by taking part and not by being passive observers from the sideline, it is important that they encounter similar experiences to what the addicts are experiencing. However if an addict does not want to take part in Natural Awareness they do not have to as it is about keeping them safe. I do however, try to encourage them to observe from the sideline as I believe they can gain as much from this experience as taking part, in fact I have seen patients later joining in Nature Awareness having either observed the first game or having seen and heard the effect it has had on their peers later on in rehab.

Natural Awareness has been shown to create a bridge between how we perceive our world and how we experience it, this opens us up to a new understanding of ourselves, and in terms of addicts if they are willing it helps them to recognise their old behaviour, thereby creating an opportunity to change, consider if you will what (Dorell, 2006) a consultant psychiatrist working in a 12-Step treatment programme for addictions had to say about Natural Awareness “it was able to create the bridge that we were unable to create… enabling them to respond to more traditional treatment methods”. Mortensen (2006) a 12-Step counsellor had the following to say “I highly recommend… nature awareness… not only in the field of addiction; I feel any part of the population could benefit from this programme”.

He continues by saying that “It works on the spiritual side of the disease, which is hard to deliver to the patients… Nature Awareness workshops have been of great help to the treatment team it has helped us to explore areas that we would never have got by conventional therapies” (Mortensen, 2006). While (Ward, 2007) an independent counsellor, referring to Jackie (her client), who had also taken part in Natural Awareness, stated that it was an “Integral part of her recovery… which focused on the here and now”. We can now see that Nature Awareness can be used in a verity of ways.

This is also a great game to play with your children and a great bonding exercise here is what one parent had to say about the game and what it meant for him and his son. “When Geoff first mentioned we was going to do the drum stalk I was intrigued, the thought of being in the woods blindfolded and devoid of my main sense, my eyesight was going to be something I have never done before! I spend a lot of time in the woods teaching bush craft skills so I feel comfortable and at ease there and the thought of having my other senses heightened by removing one was interesting to me to say the least”.

JP continues with “My self and my son Connor both took part in the drum stalk and I was amazed at how much I saw not with my eyes but with my senses, for example at one point as I walked through the wooded area I stopped as I could feel something close (you have to do it to believe it!) I saw an orange glow in front of me, sounds weird I know but stick with me! I took a couple of steps to my side and walked around the what seemed to me to be a tree, once the drum stalk had finished and we all had reached our goal, my son said how amazed he was that I stopped at a stump of a tree! I could still see the trees energy before me it was like the trees roots had not realised the tree had been felled! A most strange feeling”.

Connor JP’s son when it was his turn to be blindfolded and to take part in the game it would appear he too had produced some amazing events as JP describes what happen “at one point he was walking towards a low branch, I quietly reached over and lifted it from his path and allowed him to continue, it was as if he was laser guided watching him pick a track through the woodland to the direction of the beat of the drum, when he reached his goal Geoff asked Connor what he had experienced he said two things that stick in my mind, he said he could see a glowing track in his minds eye and he felt it was the right thing to follow it and also at one point he saw a glowing object reach in front of him and move something from his path! Now this all may seem a little too fantastic to the uninitiated but Geoff gave me something that day, he gave me and my son the ability to trust, to trust our senses and our selves”.

In conclusion JP had this to say “if you ever get the chance to spend time actually doing and playing nature awareness games… I suggest you embrace it and take the opportunity, but go with one thing, and that’s an open mind”. I have observed many addicts encountering new experiences that helped them to either engage or re-engage with their treatment-programme, in particular with the spiritual aspect of the programme. A counsellor in active recovery had this to say about the Drum Stalk. “Nature awareness was 50% of my recovery”.

I would now like to briefly visit the issue of eating-disorders were it is generally believed that they do not do well in a wilderness setting. However Rust (2008) describes how Rosie (a client) explained how her thinking becomes stuck in the lead to a binge and then narrows when she binges, for Rosie the same issues go round and round until she is unable to find a way out, then when her frustration reaches its height Rosie stops thinking and the binge takes over. (p.76). According to Rust, what helped Rosie stay centred were her trips out into nature (external) and “…her journeys into her inner-nature” (p.77). With eating-disorders there are areas of ambiguity and inadequate evidence.

The following accounts are my own personal observations and on the experiences expressed by Mary and Janice (both anorexics) while playing the ‘Drum Stalk’ in a local woodland near our rehab centre. Mary said that for the first in her life she had listened to her body, and Janice related her experience of the frustration she felt while caught up in brambles as the same frustration she feels when she is binging (see Rust, 2008).

Because Janice had been able to get herself out of this situation, she believed the experience might help her in her recovery. In Janice’s case the initial frustration she felt in the brambles might be seen in the context of a cognitive de-construction? However, she believed, that as a direct result of her experience of getting herself out of the brambles after some considerable time, meant for her, that nature might help her get into active-recovery, this experience may have allowed for, a cognitive re-construction to take place?

According to Greenway (2000) 57% of women compared to 27% of men “… stated that a major goal… was to “come home” to nature”(p.129), it would appear that both Mary and Janice by shifting their thinking may have had a meaningful and reflective sense of awareness in fact from what they said it would appear that they increased their level of awareness rather than narrowing it. It is not suggested that Natural Awareness has the answers to this complex addiction (or indeed addiction as whole), however compared to wilderness-therapy both Mary and Janice it would seem were better placed with Natural Awareness by doing the Drum Stalk in a local woodland, were they also had the safety of their rehab-centre to process events within a controlled-environment, this is where the Field and Residential Counsellors can work together complimenting each others work for the greater good of the addict.

In Conclusion
According to Dorell (2006), “in the scientific community, experiences like Nature Awareness are still widely unknown and unexplored. I strongly believe though… this kind of experience is able to create the missing link between them and a life of emotional fulfilment”.

References:

Greenway, R. (1995). The Wilderness Effect and Ecopsychology. In T. Roszak., M. E. Gomes & A. D. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth Healing the Mind (pp. 122-135). The University of California Press.

Dorell, K (personal communication, February 13th, 2006).

Kaagman, P (personal communication, July 22nd, 2007).

Mortensen, T (personal communication, February 12th, 2006).

Ward, G (personal communication, June 26th, 2007).

Rust, M. (2008). Nature Hunger. Eating problems and consuming the Earth. The British Psychological Society: Counselling Psychology Review, 23, (2), 70-79.

Venue

I am looking for a venue to run my tracking and natural awareness courses from, if anyone knows of one near to me in North Devon or within a reasonable distance please do drop me a line.

Thanks

Geoffrey

Germany: Ringing Spotted Flycatchers...

During my time in Germany I often went ringing with my German friends, on this one occasion I was helping to ring spotted flycatchers at the Kur Park near Lippstadt.

I was left on my own, while my friends went to check on some of the many nest boxes we had placed around the park. While I was ringing a flycatcher, this dear old German woman came up to me waving her umbrella and shouting at me to stop being cruel to the birds.

With my limited German, I tried in to explain what it was that I was doing.

Suddenly she looked at me and said your not German. I said no I am British and I am stationed here in Lippstadt. Her whole demeanour changed, she smiled at me and said, "I think it is really wonderful that foreign people come here to ring our German birds"...

Enough said I think.

Photo: Colour ringed spotted flycatcher, we used colour rings so that we could identify the bird without re-trapping it and putting it under more stress than necessary.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker does it still exist?

What a great picture I just had to put this in as woodpeckers are my favourite birds.

Picture by: Tomasz Cofta

Working with Energy...

I recently had the opportunity to work with a young man taking him through the process of self awareness out in nature, it was great because he was open to expanding his experiences of life, and this allowed me to move him further along with his awareness.

I used two items to help illustrate to him that there is more to experience than people realise. Without him actually knowing I first placed a stone in his path which he had to walk towards. He was instructed to stop when he felt it was right to do so. This he did, stopping right on top of where the stone was placed.

In the next exercise we worked with a stick, which I had marked with a knife and again without him seeing where I had placed it, he was asked to walk towards me and again to stop when he felt it was right to do so.

The interesting thing about this exercise was that he did stop, but on the spot where I had first marked the stick with my knife. I asked him to carry on; he then stopped some twenty feet further on. I asked him to stand still while I reached down to the front of his feet and pulled a stick out from the ground which I had buried there, it was of course the stick I had marked.

While seeming far fetched this is not the case, it is something we can all do, if we but open ourselves up to it. Sensing energy can help us in many ways, for example.

· Working with an addictions

· Helping to find someone who may be lost

· Helping us to sense danger

The main thing is that by becoming aware of greater events taking place around us, we become open to other possibilities. Here is what the young man had to say about his experience of Nature Awareness and his awareness of himself in nature.

“I think it has made me realize that you can be in tune with yourself and nature and that the idea of doing so isn't actually that absurd as many people think today. I think if I applied the concept of what we were doing to everyday life I could be a better person whose awareness is heightened thus for example enabling me to see situations as they are.

The skills you taught me are very valuable and could save my life Geoff, and I'm grateful for the times we had. One thing that you "opened my eyes to" was that many people are closed off from the natural world and I think that if you are someone who enjoys nature and respects it then in ways you are rewarded in life, like having a peace of mind and being able to deal with situations in a positive way.”

When asked how he felt about the exercise this was his response...

“I still remember that purely, just because of the sheer bizarreness of the situation. You really freaked me out that day and opened my eyes when you hid the stick and did that thing with the stone. Huh...

I was just so freaked out like, no... That did not just happen.

You know what I mean! Pretty cool stuff!”

Boy did she jump, in more ways than one...

While working in a rehab I had one of my usual sessions of nature awareness, on this occasion we played a game called animal tag. This game involves many aspects but it primarily works with the energy of the group, in an attempt to show them on a physical level how our thoughts and energy can affect the outcome of others.

The other important aspect of the game is to get people to take on the role of an animal and in my experience when they truly do this and become the animal, their barriers drop, and they are no longer themselves, they are the wolf, the fox, the deer or the rabbit, or whatever role you have given them to play, one might call this shape shifting.

At the start of a game I get everyone to form a circle and from this I choose individuals to play the game, while the others in the circle may not get to play, they do however have to observe what takes place and often will they see themselves in the animals. During the game, I am not just watching those in the middle playing, I am also observing the rest of the group in the circle.

I am watching their body language and their energy. this helps me to decide who to choose for the next part of the game, and it may be that a person may not be in a good space to play the game, therefore to put them into the middle may cause them stress and in these cases I have found letting them remain in the circle is exactly what they need. While others are so resistant that I need to introduce them gently to the game, which often turns out not to be what they think is expected of them, they then tend to get more involved either during that particular session or the next time we are involved in nature awareness.

During one of my sessions of animal tag, I placed one of the women into the middle of the circle, her brief was to get into peripheral vision and her role was that of a fawn (young deer) and she had to remain perfectly still responding only to her feelings and acting on them.

As I walked away to get the next person to play the part of a predator like a fox or a wolf, I realised I had forgotten to tell her the signal I use to start the game with, so I turned around and headed straight for her with the intent to get the job done. As I approached to within a few feet of her, she suddenly jumped up and ran off at full speed, leaping over the heads of the group who were by now sat down in the circle and she was off, with me calling after her, “the game has not started yet”.
It is really worth noting that she was blindfolded at the time.

During each stage of the game we processed events that took place and what she shared with us was that she sensed not heard, but sensed fear and that she was in danger, so she decided to make a run for it. When asked by one of the group could she see them sat in the circle, she replied no I just knew I had to jump then.

I would also try and investigate if the events that took place could be related to their behaviour as addicts and we often do find a connection, either to how someone may think or feel prior to using etc.
So, hopefully in a brief way I have been able to illustrate how our energy and indeed our thoughts can affect someone’s outcome, no words need to be spoken. When you think that speech is only 7% of our communication, addicts can begin to see that there is much more going on. This is because the games take them out of their world and introduce them to other possibilities that may help them get into active recovery.