Alzheimer's

[merry.macke at cox.net]

Dear Anna, 
I would be very interested in your ideas regarding a funeral.  I have used rituals with friends in the past to make birthdays and transitions more significant.  My mother who is 94 is slowing down considerably and I will need to work out funeral plans.  I was brought up a Lutheran but have wandered into many faiths to find meaning.  It has usually been the charisma of the leader that has meant much to me.  I am most affiliated with the Ethical Society now, but have not been attending.  If you have any thoughts or books for me to look at, I would appreciate that.  Sincerely, Merry
---- Anna Heriot <annaheriot at iprimus.com.au> wrote: 
> Dear Peter,
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you so much for your story of your mother and your family.  I have had
> no personal experience with Alzheimers; my interest in your story is as a
> ritualist.  Your description of you all as carer auxiliaries, along with
> your enactment of your roles based on your role analysis of your mum is
> truly inspirational and very moving.  I was particularly touched when you
> described your analysis on her current functioning and the functioning of
> 'her dreaming' throughout her life.  In my presence with a very old friend
> and my cousin's partner as they died, I used my psychodramatic training in
> many ways, contributing a fineness to the work.  Those liminal times when
> death is approaching are such gateways to attending to unfinished business
> and reclaiming what has been lost.
> 
>  
> 
> I have discovered in the last few years that I am passionate about ceremony
> in daily life: living and dying as we are in each moment.  I realize on
> reading your email that I have been shy of using role analysis formally in
> my preparation and work with my clients.  I have been too private I think;
> recently I composed and conducted a funeral with a complex modern family and
> have developed more ideas on using role analysis in my preparation and use
> of metaphor in the process.  
> 
>  
> 
> I am emboldened by your story and keen to turn again to this wondrous task.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Anna
> 
>  
> 
> Anna Heriot,
> 
> Celebrant, Facilitator, Conductor of Stories
> 
> 07 5499 9606  AH  07 5494 4405  0410 233 756
> 
>  <http://www.takingtime.com.au/> www.takingtime.com.au
> 
> 
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org [mailto:list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org]
> On Behalf Of HV Psychodrama
> Sent: Tuesday, 23 January 2007 4:17 AM
> To: list at grouptalkweb.org
> Subject: Re: Alzheimer's
> 
>  
> 
> Dear Peter,
> 
> What an inspiring story. Thank you for sharing it with us. 
> 
> Rebecca Walters
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> 
> From: Peter Parkinson <mailto:peter at mentor.co.nz>  
> 
> To: list at grouptalkweb.org 
> 
> Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:40 PM
> 
> Subject: RE: Alzheimer's
> 
>  
> 
> Alzheimer''s.
> 
> Doing psychodrama with such people is one thing that I have done very little
> and with no results to report. I have. However I had the opportunity to
> direct and share in the care of my mother's final 10 years of her life. Her
> care was all based on psychodramatic principles and my wife and children and
> her professional carers were trained to be her auxiliaries. We did a role
> analysis of both her current functioning and the functioning that she
> dreamed of throughout her life. 
> 
>  
> 
> We thus worked appropriately to reduce her overdeveloped roles, expand her
> creative roles and give her opportunities that she had never had in her
> life.
> 
>  
> 
> Her overdeveloped controller was based on an assumption of being unlovable.
> So we were able to encompass her matrix of all reality to the point that one
> of her final statements was "You know dear, when you know that you are loved
> on this side (of life/death) then it makes it so much easier to move to the
> other side."
> 
>  
> 
> The overdeveloped avoider of reality led her to alcohol, other drugs, tv day
> and night, and a dominant bullying personality. We became dominant
> auxiliaries and applied cold turkey to all these, and insisted on her going
> to social and creative events every day.
> 
>  
> 
> She was met with people who could fight just as well as she could.
> 
>  
> 
> 3 months of this and her dementia had lifted, she, with a minder took
> holidays with her old friends, played bridge, resumed painting, went
> gambling and eventually launched her own 33 ft sloop, upon which, with
> assistance of a skipper/minder, she spent much of her last 10 years of her
> life with her old crew from her yacht racing days.
> 
>  
> 
> Dementia did catch up with her, as did a fractured hip or two, but behaving
> as auxiliaries towards her and keeping her role repertoire forward in
> everyone's mind together with the able supervision and mentoring of Isabelle
> Sherrard, gave my mother a most wonderful final 10 years of her life, and
> for myself the great honour of being part of it.
> 
>  
> 
> The whole tale is massive and soon I will write it up as an article or other
> publication.
> 
>  
> 
> Cheers from
> 
>  
> 
> Peter Parkinson 
> 
> Aoteoroa New Zealand
> 
> Practitioner/Educator
> 
> Physician
> 
> PhD etc
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
>   _____  
> 
> 
> From: list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org [mailto:list-bounces at grouptalkweb.org]
> On Behalf Of HV Psychodrama
> Sent: Saturday, 20 January 2007 12:06 p.m.
> To: grouptalk
> Subject: Alzheimer's
> 
>  
> 
>     This seems to be the week for discussions about very serious
> disorders/diseases/states of being. I was asked today about the use of
> psychodrama with people with early to moderate Alzheimer's. Years ago I
> worked in a day treatment for elderly de institutionalized people who had
> lived for years at Hudson River Psych Center. They got great joy out of
> enacting childhood dreams of what they wanted to be when they grew up. But
> they didn't specifically have Alzheimer's. So,...has anyone out there had
> any experience using psychodrama with people with Alzheimer's disease? 
> 
>   
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute
> 68 DuBois Road  New Paltz, NY 12561
> (845) 255 7502   hvpi at hvc.rr.com
> visit us at our website:  www.hvpi.net
> 
> 
>   _____  
> 
> 
> Grouptalk mailing list
> List at grouptalkweb.org
> http://grouptalkweb.org/mailman/listinfo/list_grouptalkweb.org
>