What About Bob
I believe the best way to describe who I am and how I operate is to look at the people who helped form how I think about and approach my work.
1) As an undergraduate in 1969, Dr. Ralph Lewis challenged me to identify and fine-tune the core principles and essential functions in Mental Health. He encouraged me to describe them in simple terms that led to practical application. We kept in touch for over twenty years. This has become part of my way of thinking and informed my approach to counseling, teaching and community organizing.
2) In 1970 Dr. Marion Kinget taught me to view life as an ongoing learning process of continual improvement and guided me in that effort over the next few years. She laid the groundwork for a habit of learning from my patients and students as well as day-to-day experience. This helped me learn humility and realize that each person has unique gifts and potential that can be realized with proper support and opportunities.
3) In 1972, a good friend, Phil Goold, asked me to come with him to a class about meditation and practiced with me every day for months. I lost touch with Phil after graduation but have continued regular practice to this day. I understand meditation as a way of training the mind to develop mental flexibility, to recognize and clarify “fuzzy” thinking, and maintain awareness of values and priorities when our mind is pulled in different directions. It helped me recognize when my thinking was not taking me in a helpful direction and to shift focus in order to see a larger picture and relevant details more clearly
4) I took a course in Movement Therapy taught by Peter Geiler in 1973. He introduced me to the effect of breathing and patterns of chronic muscle tension on mental and emotional functioning. Learning how to stop the build up of tension and restore physical, mental, and emotional balance facilitated my understanding of the interaction between mind, body and emotion and made it much easier for my patients and students to understand and resolve mental and emotional concerns.
5) In 1977, Dr. Marlin Roll told the newly hired psychologist (me) who was assigned to the unit where they sent everyone who had problems with violence “Don’t focus on stopping them. Ask what do you want them to do.” The shift from solving problems to seeing possibilities within difficult situations opened my mind and my heart to see the gifts and potential in people who are struggling and facing challenges.
My most significant learning experiences came from working with people who had been diagnosed as profoundly and severely mentally impaired in the late 1970’s and early ‘80’s and with the patrons and volunteers of the Hard Times Café (HTC), an empowerment program for disadvantaged persons that I initiated and facilitated from 1991 through 1999.
Establishing relationships with people who had limited or no language taught me to be open to experience without forming judgments based on information from others. Working with people who had problems with violence showed me the importance of remaining calm, grounded, and open. I learned not to place knowledge before experience and discovered that there are both broad similarities and wide differences in how each of us sees and experiences our world. I learned that being fully present was more important than data, details, or diagnosis in determining the best course of action. I understand learning as an ongoing interaction between experience, study, and reflection and learned that it is when I am most certain that I am most likely to be wrong.
HTC patrons and volunteers showed me that potential emerges in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. They also demonstrated the capacity to rise to the level of responsibility given to them when it was chosen and supported. They taught me the power of community, and with my patients and students, revealed the incredibly beauty and resilience of the human heart.
I am aware that I can never be fully aware of my own blinders. I believe that truth and understanding can only flourish in interaction with others and, to the extent that I place myself above or below another person, I diminish us both.
Bring Truth to Fear 