Online Courses

I participate in a variety of online courses and conferences, has increased as a result of Covid-19.

Jul 21, 2020:

Cross-cultural definitions of counseling and psychotherapy. We will explore two-eyed or hybrid visions of counseling. We will learn about the soul wound and how it is healed. We will look for what is unique to counseling with North America’s indigenous people. Eduardo Duran will join us.

Jul 28, 2020:

Further explorations of Two-Eyed Seeing or explanatory pluralism applied to mental health. We will explore stories of Maori and psychiatry collaborations and see what this can teach us about indigenous approaches to mental health therapies. Alister Bush will join us.

Aug 4, 2020

We will look at the indigenous determinants of mental health, and explore definitions of mental health as social and personal wellbeing and these views differ from that of mainstream culture with examples from Rwanda and central Australia. We will explore how two-eyed seeing concepts can facilitate indigenous-mainstream interactions. Tim Carey will join us.

Aug 11, 2020:

We will explore how to work with trauma, both immediate and historical/intergenerational with examples from Canada. We will explore how to decolonize both mental health and trauma. Renee Linklater will join us.

Aug 18, 2020:

We will explore the specific challenges of counseling indigenous clients in medication-assisted treatment for opiate use How is this similar or different from counseling for other substance use problems? What are the Native Alaskan perspectives on counseling and on substance use disorders and their treatments? Dr. Margaret Draskovitch and friends from Kodiak, Alaska, will join us.

Aug 25, 2020:

How do we bring the body into counseling? What are the ethics, problems, dilemmas of touch therapies, and energy medicine? Can disembodied counseling approaches succeed? How do we include the body in our mental health practice? How do we combine touch therapy and talk therapy? Reggie Ceaser will join us.

Sept 1, 2020:

If culture matters, how do we incorporate it into counseling and psychotherapy and how do indigenous people relate to the dominant culture? How do we negotiate culture versus spirituality? Steve Hill from New Zealand will discuss how he integrates his Maori background into his work in the modern world of counseling. We consider the uniqueness that a Maori vision brings to his mainstream work.

Sept 8, 2020:

We will explore the concept of forgiveness and radical acceptance and how this fits into indigenous mental health therapies and how the Toltec Cultural approaches that Olivier Clerc has been teaching can generalize indigenous teachings to the entire world. Olivier Clerc from France will join us. We will ask who forgives whom and in what context.

Nov 20-21, 2021:

In this 2-day intensive workshop, we will begin by exploring a Maori approach, “Two-Eyed Seeing,” which uses the art of listening and observation without assuming outcomes to empower patients to successfully come to grips with a range of mental issues, including psychotic episodes. We will compare Native and current mainstream counseling techniques with a special focus on the concept of the “soul wound,” i.e. intergenerational trauma and internalized oppression, and how it can be healed.

Contact

Lewis Mehl-Madrona
Coyote Institute in conjunction with Rowe Conference Center
808-772-1099
mehlmadrona@gmail.com
or visit https://form.jotform.com/201734280584152
Rowe Conference Center is handling registrations.

Cost

The cost is $250
Individuals working on Reservations/Reserves/First Nations or at urban Indian Centers have a discounted price of $100.

Past Online Courses:

Winter 2021: Two-Eyed Counseling: Discovering Indigenous Practices for Social and Emotional Wellbeing

Course Description

Two-Eyed Seeing was initially presented by Elder Albert Marshall of Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton University as a means to give indigenous epistemology and knowledge equal status to mainstream scientific perspectives and knowledge. In M'iqmaq, the word is Etuaptmumk. In English, it is the idea of explanatory pluralism. Within most indigenous cultures, the mind cannot be considered separately from body, community, and spirituality, unlike the silos created in the dominant culture. Counseling cannot happen without involving the body, the community, and the spirits. In this program, we are going to use the Two-Eyed Seeing concept to explore counseling from both an indigenous perspective in relation to the mainstream evidence-based model. We are especially interested in counseling for people in medication-assisted treatment for opiate use, for people with so-called severe mental disorders, and for people who have suffered the effects of immediate and historical trauma.

This program is designed for practitioners who provide counseling in indigenous communities. We are also open to those providing counseling in other communities who want to see how indigenous practices could enrich their work. We are also open to those from other fields who wish to attend for theoretical reasons.

This eight-part program will be led by Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, himself a noted medical doctor with experience of working in indigenous and dominants communities, and author of several well-regarded books on Native American culture and healing modalities, and by Barbara Mainguy, MSW, a psychotherapist working with the tribes in Maine. Each week, they will be joined by distinguished mental health practitioners from around the world. Joining us will be Dr. Alister Bush, a New Zealand psychiatrist who collaborates with Maori healers in mental health; Olivier Clerc from France, who has studied and implemented Toltec practices; Dr. Renee Linklater from Canada, whose book is Decolonizing Trauma; Dr. Eduardo Duran, formerly with the Indian Health Service, and now a consultant in Montana and author of Healing the Soul Wound; Dr. Tim Carey from the University of Rwanda in Kigali and hopefully some of his Rwandan colleagues; Steve Hill, a Maori therapist from New Zealand; Dr. Margaret Draskovich and friends from Kodiak, Alaska, who will talk about Alaskan traditions; and Reggie Ceasar, Chief of the Matinecock Tribe from Long Island, New York, and also a massage therapist.

While it is not necessary to read anything to participate in the course/discussion group, we will post material each week for those who have the time and inclination, and, of course, reading the papers will stimulate our discussion. For those who wish to read further, we recommend: Eduardo Duran, Healing the Soul Wound, 2nd Edition; Renee Linklater’s book, Decolonizing Trauma, Olivier Clerc’s book, The Gift of Forgiveness; Alister Bush’s book, Collaborative and Indigenous Mental Health Therapy: T taihono – Stories of M ori Healing and Psychiatry (written with David Epston, and Wiremu NiaNia); and Lewis’ book, Coyote Healing. All these are easily found on Amazon or Google Books.

We will use google classroom for posting readings and for discussion about the topics when we are not live on Tuesday nights. We will use zoom for the live meetings. Coordinates and passwords will be provided after registration. Recordings are generally posted on the google classroom by the next morning for review by those who could not attend the live session.

We are applying for continuing education credits for all categories of practitioners. If this is approved, credits will be available at an additional fee.

PAST ONLINE COURSE: NARRATIVE MEDICINE

Narrative Medicine is an area increasing in importance in health care. What does it mean? Medicine often forgets the importance of listening to the patient’s story. There is great power in listening attentively, reflecting on what is communicated in life stories of illness and suffering. This technique helps the patient see his or her illness and problems from a different perspective. Narrative medicine helps the patient hear and understand his or her own story, and how illness has become part of the story and the identity. Doctors, nurses, social workers, and other therapists can improve the effectiveness of the care they provide.

Course participants will:

1. Enhance their skills for listening, reflecting, and discussing with patients and colleagues

2. Understand the relationships between illness and personal lives; the importance of uncovering the emotional, sociocultural, psychological and political components that often are the deepest roots of illness.

3. Develop an enriched understanding of empathy.

All health care professionals and trainees in medicine, nursing, dentistry, social work, and psychology are invited to join.

We also welcome scholars in other fields. This course integrates material from literature, psychology and anthropology. Examples will be drawn from the United States, Canada, and beyond.

How do stories move us?
How do patient stories affect us?
How do they change our practice?
How do they affect who we are as healers?
How do they affect how we feel about our work?

Readings

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., Ph.D., Healing the Mind through the Power of Story: The Promise of Narrative Psychiatry. Publisher: Bear and Company, Rochester, Vermont
Leslie Marmon Silko, Storyteller, Arcade Publishing, 1989
King, Thomas. A Short History of Indians in Canada. Harper Collins Publishers, 2005.
Lieblich, A., McAdams, D., Josselson, R. (2004). Healing Plots: The Narrative Basis of Psychotherapy. Washington: APA
Thomas King, The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Univ Of Minnesota Press; 2008.
Cruickshank, J., Sidney, A, Smith, K., Ned, A. (2008). Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Elders. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Mattingly, C. (1998). Healing Dramas and Clinical Plots: The Narrative Structure of Experience Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Spring 2019: Narrative Approaches to Medically Unexplained Symptoms

In this course, we will look at how people work with those who suffer physically without a medical diagnosis. We will review types of approaches used including, of course, our own Coyote-style Narrative Therapy, which is what Lewis and Barbara do. We will have readings that can help us focus. We will post papers on the following topics to organize our discussion each week. The total length is 90 minutes. We generally discuss the readings for 45 minutes and then talk about people's clinical cases for 45 minutes. A limited number of scholarships are available. Contact us for details at info@coyoteinstitute.us or call or text 808-772-1099

All events will be recorded for later viewing and we will have a discussion board on the google classroom website.

This will be an 8-week course. It is a benefit to raise funds for our Medicine for Ceremony program for June and July 2019.

We will also draw from Lewis' and Barbara's book, Ramapping Your Mind, to draw out a more narrative and therefore indigenous friendly approach to this work.
The format will consist of Lewis or Barbara presenting for 45 minutes followed by a group discussion with opportunities for group supervision of cases. Anyone else is welcome to present if they wish.
The topics are as follow:
Week 1: The association of violence with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and how do we engage people with these type of problems in doing healing work together.
Week 2: Bodymind and bodywork approach to MUS.
Week 3: Cost-effectiveness of MUS interventions and group supervision efficacy.
Week 4: Identity struggles and MUS and the suffering that comes from not having a diagnosis.
Week 5: Internet-based interventions and negotiating the feeling of disconnectedness.
Week 6: The Life Stress Interview for MUS and managing MUS in primary care.
Week 7: Epistemological and methodological paradoxes with MUS and the application of objectivity to embodied
narratives.
Week 8: Autoethnographic study of MUS and the role of emotion in psychotherapeutic change f

Audio Only Week 1:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QT4-LlS0hrTTveX5a6EeBEAQ6AhRs_3m/view?usp=sharing

Week 2:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vGnhavksqh8BHWmlNKtrAPMJC2zASaui/view?usp=sharing

Week 3:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s4XmHhDuw2NFaOqUXaduA5zHEKSqGAqQ/view?usp=sharing

Week 4:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kiz7i8d0bHBPqk_McRMNgsp4JgfDtve2/view?usp=sharing

Week 5:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cc3wUfBwVWCvgGcTfTngytaV7vO4e52d/view?usp=sharing

Week 6:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lQYeymA6B8tHP7tMOHESpoVHM6JLd5RH/view?usp=sharing

Week 7:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xHuTTqJA6SdPJoJacuPeyXrLQNJQcIUM/view?usp=sharing

Week 8:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-5KrQT6LNP3IBhF7DXCkzYXLWUoNjCmP/view?usp=sharing

Video

Week 1:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17LYmdeJIxT-5DMBCRV_UthGScuBuNvfZ/view?usp=sharing

Week 2:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Od7VoCnEabLFZDWRbVR77KNotWsDZ7jH/view?usp=sharing

Week 3:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AeYmQ6mEqBlyX_ryilgIwYGucmm92wnt/view?usp=sharing

Week 4:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l_BUIBnRSQ-PVbRlZHqgqh5eZEFk9lfB/view?usp=sharing

Week 5:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cIc5H7J21w2iOX2rFHy6erHagYMLTF3r/view?usp=sharing

Week 6:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mGoWtgwyRmj50RjGcJzt3j82jqeeNJ7M/view?usp=sharing

Week 7:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1isib1K3v2ulvCkXyK62--FQjUohSi-yC/view?usp=sharing

Week 8:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yFgdSwgC_7K08_4RwwO2REpFUlJ7-YV_/view?usp=sharing

Bringing Creativity and Intuition to Medicine and Psychology

It is well known that creativity involves two processes – divergent thinking in which we throw all practicality out the window and just let ideas flow, and then evaluative thinking in which we look at what we have generated and ask if it actually works. These processes are important for our healing work with others. We often need creative solutions for our clients that challenge our thinking processes. We need to think outside the box to find metaphors and ways to challenge habitual behaviors and ingrained beliefs of our clients.

In this course, we are going to look at the literature on creativity and consider how we can apply these ideas to therapeutic work in medicine and psychology. The areas in which we can be more creative include the stories we tell people, the imagery we use in hypnosis and visualization, the use of the creative arts in psychotherapy, and our ways of speaking and relating to people. We will look at how artists find inspiration and use that inspiration creatively and how we can do this for psychotherapy and hypnosis.

Week 1: Cultivating creativity

Week 2: A vision of life as play and possibility

Week 3 Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation

Week 4: Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discover and Invention

Week 5: Scoping an Audience

Week 6: Crafting an artistic self and expressing an artistic attitude

Week 7: Sourcing Inspiration

Week 8: Choosing a mission and measuring success,

Week 9: Art as Imaginative Expression within Narrative Healing Arts

Week 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kzI7YppthMY5y9Qmepd4J9P58FRGD4wX

Week 2: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HwmPfN-3T43m1w1Z0Ok95y0O8_DaVOpr

Week 3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LPp3EMx7HEbdUABF5NJEeyPYGwGdPUnH/view