Home-Based Recovery of Mental Health, Inc.
The Windhorse Journal’s mission is to inspire compassionate approaches to recovering sanity.
We do this by creating an evolving forum dedicated to exploring contemplative psychotherapy and the creation of therapeutic environments for the wellbeing of all persons involved. We envision this to be a rich dialogue among people with lived experience, family members, psychology professionals, and anyone interested in whole person-mental health and the diverse expressions of human sanity.
Be sure to listen to Podcast below named “Samantha’s Song”
There is strong research pointing to the effectiveness of meaningful activity, employment and social involvement inthe recovery process of people with mental health challenges,and these aspects can be addressed and fostered within the Home-based services at Windhorse Community Services (WCS)as part of the Recovery Plan. In recent years, and in response to the wishes of families and clients, Community Programs (CP) was created to offer structured programs that enhance social opportunities amongst the Windhorse larger community and provide more formalized supported employment and educational services. Community Programs, with its philosophy and practices evolving from Psychiatric Rehabilitation, was initially seen as a deviation from the traditional Home-based services at the core of the Windhorse Model of treatment. In exploring the relationship between Home-based services and CP,one gains a deeper understanding and appreciation of the similarities in their theoretical foundations within their diverse therapeutic environments and approaches (see Diagram #2) . Over the years, CP has evolved into a hybrid, more fluid program, fusing together elements of Psychiatric Rehabilitation (PR), the Windhorse therapeutic approach—which has its foundations in the research and writings of Dr. Ed Podvoll and Chogyam Trungpa—and the personal supportive counseling styles of each CP staff member. [Read more…]
Chuck Knapp, Ken Pargament, Deborah Bronstein, Marta Aarli, Alan JohnsonDear Friends,
Our last entry featured an excerpt from Dr. Ken Pargament’s book, Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy. Dr. Pargament was the featured presenter at a conference organized by the Interfaith Network On Mental Illness, held May 16 – 18 in Boulder, titled Sacred Matters: Spirituality as a Vital Resource for Resilience, Health, and Well-Being. This week our podcast is of a lively dialogue recorded just prior to that conference, and includes Dr. Pargament, Windhorse Senior Clinician Marta Aarli, Rabbi Deborah Bronstein, and Reverend Alan Johnson.
Dear Readers,
As the Windhorse approach is a form of contemplative psychotherapy, it is rooted in a whole person perspective. This points to viewing a person in the entirety of their being: their physical, social, and mental-spiritual world. And as it’s becoming more widely recognized that mental health challenges are a whole person phenomenon, leaders in psychology as well as the faith communities have begun to identify the need to better integrate psychological and spiritual approaches in order to optimize conditions for recovery.
One of the national leaders in this recognition is the Interfaith Network On Mental Illness, which was co-founded in Boulder, Colorado in 2007 by Joanne Kelly and Reverand Alan Johnson. Below is a statement from their website (info@nullinmi.us):
Our mission is to increase awareness and understanding of mental illness among clergy, staff, lay leaders, and members of faith communities. We also seek to educate therapeutic professionals, family members, and the general public about simple things that can help someone struggling with a mental illness, including their spirituality/faith. We aim to help everyone, especially faith communities, more effectively develop and nurture supportive environments for persons dealing with mental illnesses, as well as their families and friends.
Another leader is psychologist Dr. Ken Pargament. He has been on the vanguard of this evolution as a clinician, teacher, and author, and his book Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy is a seminal work in this emerging area of study and practice. On May 16 – 18 of this year, Dr. Pargament was the featured presenter in a conference organized by INMI and co-sponsored by Windhorse Community Services. The conference was titled, Sacred Matters: Integrating Spirituality into Mental Health Care and Mental Health Care into Faith Communities.
Just prior to the start of the conference, Dr Pargament participated in a podcast recording that will be aired June 8th, on the Windhorse Journal. As a preparatory companion to the topics covered in the podcast, below is an excerpt from Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy (pages 342 – 345). We hope you find this as inspiring and useful as we do, and we invite you listen to the lively and informative conversation captured in our podcast.
The following podcast is the first of a four-part series on the core principles of the Windhorse therapeutic approach. These principles were articulated by Chuck Knapp in a chapter from the book “Brilliant Sanity: Buddhist Approaches to Psychotherapy.” [Read more…]
People Are Fundamentally Sane and Healthy
In 2007, Naropa University held a Contemplative Psychotherapy conference that brought together hundreds of psychology practitioners from around the world. The conference created such perspective and inspiration around how transformative Contemplative Psychotherapy had become since its inception in the mid-1970s, that some of the visionary organizers at Naropa decided to create a book. A number of conference presenters were invited to submit papers that would become chapters in that book, and I was invited to write a paper on the Windhorse Approach.
Brilliant Sanity (University Of The Rockies Press) was the resulting effort, and this week’s Journal entry is an excerpt from the paper on which the Windhorse chapter was based. This paper was also published in a somewhat different form in the book Religion And Spirituality In Psychiatry (Cambridge University Press). Shortly after Brilliant Sanity was published, it was reviewed in an unqualified positive way by the American Psychological Association, with the chapter on Windhorse receiving special mention as:
“a comprehensive treatment approach that integrates particular treatments for a variety of mental health conditions into a larger framework for helping clients cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion.”