Prison ACE's educational module

Hi Brian. Much respect for what you are doing.  After you give an overview of what ACEs is then it is good to talk about where and what it is in the body. What they are is imprints in our subconscious or our autonomic nervous system that is controlled and centered in our vagus nerves. These imprints form our habits that are subconscious and what we assume is US. Like the way we walk the way we talk and the way, we feel including how we see ourselves. Our habits so to say. This is not conscious mind-stuff at all. It is subconscious automatic nonverbal and invisible. If say you walk stooped over. This is not a conscious choice it is a habit formed over time.  Even if the person knows they are walking stooped over this information is not enough. That person must practice over time walking upright. This is an act of Will Power to change the habit and replace it with a new habit. Ok this applies to feeling anxious or depressed or feeling a victim.  They are habits operating in the subconscious. Self-hatred is just a very stuck long term imprinted habit. The good news is habits can change with practice.  There is a joke about people in an insane asylum. They know what is wrong with them. They have been to many great doctors who have explained everything about their condition. In fact, the insane people know more than the doctors do yet they are still insane and still in an asylum.  Yes ? What does this tell you? Knowing and information is not enough. For change process is king. No process = no progress.  

  What I suggest is for you to learn these 4 processes yourself and know them well enough to teach them in a workshop format.  The advantage of doing this is you can teach 10 people or 50 people at a time with the same effort. And what they learn is inner-directed, not outer-directed like conventional talk therapy. This is not even therapy at all. 

ACEs IMMUNITY

https://www.youtube.com/playli...gIhMEKCry7UgVofa0J-P

Hi Brian - awesome project!  much needed.  I would also refer  you to Carole Henderson, with the Grief Recovery Institute, UK.  She and her colleagues use the Grief Recovery Method in a variety of ways to help address the myriad of "griefs" that we experience from childhood through adulthood.  The program is over 40 years in existence, available on 6 continents and is now found to be evidence-based.  You can visit the US web page at www.griefrecoverymethod.com and find the UK connection from there. 

I believe her email is carole@griefrecoverymethod.co.uk.  

The main program is 8 sessions of 2 hours each.  I know that some of Carole's colleagues are already working to use the program in correctional settings, so you may want to connect so that you don't have to reinvent all the wheels.  So glad you're working with incarcerated folks!  

glad to e-meet you!

Lois Hall

Hi Brian- Susan Lawrence, M.D.'s book: "Creating a Healing Society: ..." makes mention of the [trauma-informed] California Honor Prison, how much it saved [Calif.] taxpayers, and how admittance prerequisites of commitment to Non-Violence, renouncing 'gang membership' etc. and some of the programming that took place while it was 'operational'. Her initiative also has a website known as the Catalyst Foundation-which may avail suitable resources for your task.

The World Health Organization's "WHO ACE International Questionnaire" was available in over 100 languages, and also came with a 'User's Guide", and addresses 'their' two types of 'ACEs': Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments-which were 'noted' in a 'Grand Rounds' continuing medical education session in 2000, at [then Dartmouth, now] Geisel Medical School, by an Epidemiologist noting "52% of Detroit Metropolitan Area Schoolchildren met the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD". The EMDRIA now has the "O'Shay/Paulsen [EMDR] protocols to address traumatic events that occur 'before we begin to verbally integrate memory' [age 3-7]

Former Warden [at Auburn, Sing-Sing, and later Portsmouth Naval Disciplinary Barracks] Thomas Mott Osborne was credited with assigning prisoners 'Civic Tasks'... and has a prison reform organization named in his honor (Osborne Society)

During my ('Youthful Offender Adjudication-[reportedly] No Criminal Record ) Incarceration, I had an index card on my cell wall with a quote from George Bernard Shaw: "To Punish a man, you must Injure him; to Reform a man, you must improve him; and men are Not Improved by Injuries."

Best wishes in your endeavor - Bob

Brian Ward posted:

Hi Folks,

I work as a CBT based therapist in a high security prison in England.  I've just joined the ACE's network but have long promoted the ethos and science behind ACE's in treating mental distress and illness.  I'm currently preparing a 6 week ACE's educational module to be delivered to prisoners, and it occurs to me that other members may have some best practice or existing materials which could help me in this work?  I find that forensic populations particularly have a critical need for this understanding to make sense of their lives and actions!  Thanks,  Brian 

Hello!  I am a special education teacher in the adult male prison system in Minnesota in the US. I have done ACEs education with our offenders. I am willing to share my materials if you feel they would help you work. (send me an email at: heatherolson05@gmail.com) Also, my doctorate work in on the impact of trauma on teachers in correctional facilities. This is a much needed discussion in these settings - thanks for taking it on! :-)

Robert Olcott posted:

Hi Brian- Susan Lawrence, M.D.'s book: "Creating a Healing Society: ..." makes mention of the [trauma-informed] California Honor Prison, how much it saved [Calif.] taxpayers, and how admittance prerequisites of commitment to Non-Violence, renouncing 'gang membership' etc. and some of the programming that took place while it was 'operational'. Her initiative also has a website known as the Catalyst Foundation-which may avail suitable resources for your task.

The World Health Organization's "WHO ACE International Questionnaire" was available in over 100 languages, and also came with a 'User's Guide", and addresses 'their' two types of 'ACEs': Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments-which were 'noted' in a 'Grand Rounds' continuing medical education session in 2000, at [then Dartmouth, now] Geisel Medical School, by an Epidemiologist noting "52% of Detroit Metropolitan Area Schoolchildren met the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD". The EMDRIA now has the "O'Shay/Paulsen [EMDR] protocols to address traumatic events that occur 'before we begin to verbally integrate memory' [age 3-7]

Former Warden [at Auburn, Sing-Sing, and later Portsmouth Naval Disciplinary Barracks] Thomas Mott Osborne was credited with assigning prisoners 'Civic Tasks'... and has a prison reform organization named in his honor (Osborne Society)

During my ('Youthful Offender Adjudication-[reportedly] No Criminal Record ) Incarceration, I had an index card on my cell wall with a quote from George Bernard Shaw: "To Punish a man, you must Injure him; to Reform a man, you must improve him; and men are Not Improved by Injuries."

Best wishes in your endeavor - Bob

Hi Bob,

Thanks very much for your informed reply - this is really most helpful.  I'm following up on all the sources you refer to and have already found that inmates I work with resonate closely with these principles - particularly where they find that they empower them to challenge the pathologizing of their past toxic life experiences.

Much appreciation,

Brian

Heather Olson posted:

Brian Ward posted:

Hi Folks,

I work as a CBT based therapist in a high security prison in England.  I've just joined the ACE's network but have long promoted the ethos and science behind ACE's in treating mental distress and illness.  I'm currently preparing a 6 week ACE's educational module to be delivered to prisoners, and it occurs to me that other members may have some best practice or existing materials which could help me in this work?  I find that forensic populations particularly have a critical need for this understanding to make sense of their lives and actions!  Thanks,  Brian 

Hello!  I am a special education teacher in the adult male prison system in Minnesota in the US. I have done ACEs education with our offenders. I am willing to share my materials if you feel they would help you work. (send me an email at: heatherolson05@gmail.com) Also, my doctorate work in on the impact of trauma on teachers in correctional facilities. This is a much needed discussion in these settings - thanks for taking it on! :-)

Heather,

Thank you so much for taking the time to contact me and making this kind offer.  I've e-mailed you as you suggested, and hopefully you have received that message.  Anything you have around ACE's group intervention work would be most useful.  I've produced some workshops already with some inmates I work with around ACE's research and concepts and have found them to be very powerful tools to empower them to challenge the pathologizing of their past life experiences.

I wish you well in this most essential work you are doing!

Best wishes,

Brian 

Lois Hall posted:

Hi Brian - awesome project!  much needed.  I would also refer  you to Carole Henderson, with the Grief Recovery Institute, UK.  She and her colleagues use the Grief Recovery Method in a variety of ways to help address the myriad of "griefs" that we experience from childhood through adulthood.  The program is over 40 years in existence, available on 6 continents and is now found to be evidence-based.  You can visit the US web page at www.griefrecoverymethod.com and find the UK connection from there. 

I believe her email is carole@griefrecoverymethod.co.uk.  

The main program is 8 sessions of 2 hours each.  I know that some of Carole's colleagues are already working to use the program in correctional settings, so you may want to connect so that you don't have to reinvent all the wheels.  So glad you're working with incarcerated folks!  

glad to e-meet you!

Lois Hall

Hi Lois,

Thanks for taking the time to contact me, - this is really most helpful!  This may well link in with bereavement work we currently deliver, and I'll certainly contact Carole as you suggest to seek her wisdom!  Thank you for your help and assistance,

I wish you well in your ACE's work and life in the US!

Best regards,

Brian

Michael Harrell posted:

Hi Brian. Much respect for what you are doing.  After you give an overview of what ACEs is then it is good to talk about where and what it is in the body. What they are is imprints in our subconscious or our autonomic nervous system that is controlled and centered in our vagus nerves. These imprints form our habits that are subconscious and what we assume is US. Like the way we walk the way we talk and the way, we feel including how we see ourselves. Our habits so to say. This is not conscious mind-stuff at all. It is subconscious automatic nonverbal and invisible. If say you walk stooped over. This is not a conscious choice it is a habit formed over time.  Even if the person knows they are walking stooped over this information is not enough. That person must practice over time walking upright. This is an act of Will Power to change the habit and replace it with a new habit. Ok this applies to feeling anxious or depressed or feeling a victim.  They are habits operating in the subconscious. Self-hatred is just a very stuck long term imprinted habit. The good news is habits can change with practice.  There is a joke about people in an insane asylum. They know what is wrong with them. They have been to many great doctors who have explained everything about their condition. In fact, the insane people know more than the doctors do yet they are still insane and still in an asylum.  Yes ? What does this tell you? Knowing and information is not enough. For change process is king. No process = no progress.  

  What I suggest is for you to learn these 4 processes yourself and know them well enough to teach them in a workshop format.  The advantage of doing this is you can teach 10 people or 50 people at a time with the same effort. And what they learn is inner-directed, not outer-directed like conventional talk therapy. This is not even therapy at all. 

ACEs IMMUNITY

https://www.youtube.com/playli...gIhMEKCry7UgVofa0J-P

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your informed reply - this is really most useful!  I've been working with polyvagal and GAS principles in psychopathology for some years now so I certainly resonate with your wisdom and insights.

I wish you well in your essential work,

Best regards

Brian