August reply

• Welcome to a Dialogue on Whole-Scale™ Change with Kathleen Dannemiller by John Grohol, 11/14/97
  • June Musings by Kathie Dannemiller, 6/25/98
    
    

How are you feeling? Has the accupuncture helped over the long haul?

As an endorsment of wholistic and systems approaches to wellness, I have recently started on a regiment of vitamins, minerals and ammino acids all aimed at brain function. The result is a reduction in ADDish tendencies, anxiety and fear . Since I am a one rat experiment, who knows for sure. But I recommend to folks I work with to take their brain serious and feed it the right stuff, including supplements. The addicts I work with seem to have much less problems getting and staying sober when they take nutrition serious.

Systems thinking is great. I see small changes move mountains in my own life, my kids lives and in the lives of people I am honored to walk with on their journey.

Yet I also get overwhelmed with the shear volume of system influences. I get depressed when others do not see the implications of small things, like NAFTA (Ross Perot's charts aside), on the larger system. What we need in America is a few good welders and factory workers, not high paid CEOs that run companies that really only exist in other countries. I get tired of others thinking I am Chicken Little, or was it Henny Penny, running around saying the "sky is falling." I have a management degree (amoung others), I understand globalization of business, but I also see we need a foundation of workers to build the economy of this country on. We can not all sell each other insurance.

The problem I have with systems is that everything and everything and everything and everything impacts the system in some way. The detail gets overwhelming.

I also like systems because it builds a framework for understanding therapeutic interventions. I am one of those that does not believe any theory has is figured out. But if I use a systems approach, then Ericksonian approaches change one aspect of the system, thus changing over time the whole system toward health. The same can be said for Freudian therapies, cognitive, behavioral, affective, etc. All can demonstrate and justify their results, but not necessarily because they have "it" figured out, but because they address the health of one aspect of the system and that eventually affects the health of the whole system.

Pat

• Go, Pat! by Kathie Dannemiller, 10/6/98