Workshops, Classes, Seminars

Windhorse offers a Workshop Series at various times here in Northampton and at major conferences throughout the year. Our belief and experience is that recovery from extreme mental states is possible when favorable conditions and an environment of sanity are put into place. In these workshops, we will share the principles and practices that we have found to foster recovery from mental disturbances.

Most approaches to recovery from psychological disturbances focus on addressing internal states of mind. Yet it is a well-know fact that the quality of our environment has a significant impact on our state of mind and behavior. In this workshop we will identify environmental factors that influence the process of recovery, especially the home environment. We will also explore ways to increase environmental awareness and care that promote psychological health. Whether working on one's own recovery or assisting others, this workshop will offer ways to work "from the outside in".

Basic attendance is the Windhorse therapeutic approach to cultivating genuine mindful, helping relationships with persons recovering from psychiatric disturbances. It is "basic" because it deals with the most fundamental of situations: synchronizing body, mind, and environment within the ordinary activities of life. It is "attendance" because our intention is to be of compassionate service to someone during the process of recovery from mental disturbance. Basic attendance is primarily used in assisting those in extreme psychological distress, and can also be applied to a wide variety of human service needs and activities.

The focus of this workshop will be five guiding principles for families that lead toward family healing and recovery. The principles enable us to give our family member the support and nurturing he or she needs, to set limits which protect everybody in the family, and to find the space to nurture ourselves - all necessary requirements for a family to regain hope and to function for the benefit of all its members.

When we come together with others on behalf of a person in distress, we create a micro-culture. Whether we are part of a professional interdisciplinary team or some other helping group, this micro-culture can either hinder or promote recovery. This workshop will offer some principles and practices for effective teamwork, such as: strengthening communication, coordinating and integrating roles, engaging in open dialogue, and facilitating team learning.

Anyone who attends a person in recovery from extreme states of mind also needs attendance. In this workshop we will explore the Windhorse approach to clinical supervision that involves a holistic presentation of the client and oneself in terms of "body, speech, mind, and environment". This approach also facilitates awareness of empathic resonance, or "exchange", with the client. On the basis of exchange we have a deeper sense of what is needed and how to be helpful to others and ourselves.

Windhorse Integrative Mental Health, established as a private, non-profit, nondenominational health care organization in 1993, offers clinical services and programs for persons suffering with extreme states of mind. Clinical teams attend to the environmental, physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual well-being of all members on the team, working towards integration and balance.