The Center for Sustainable Medicine

Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870

Arise then…women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, For caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor, Nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil At the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace… Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God - In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality, May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace.

This online course and discussion group will look at how health care in small communities differs in nature from large-scale health care. It is designed for health care practitioners who are currently working in, or planning to work in small, rural towns, or other small communities, and who would like to share ideas and ask questions.

The discussion will include topics such as

• boundaries
• affordable workspaces
• in-home vs. private offices
• bartering
• advertising
• small-town social dynamics
• patient privacy vs. building support networks
• housecalls
• sliding scales

Didi Pershouse is a homeopath and acupuncturist who founded a successful multidisciplinary clinic in a town with less than 3000 residents, where she has worked for nearly 15 years. Her philosophy of fertile rather than sterile relationships between practitioners and clients has served her, and her patients, well.  To read more about her work, visit www.sustainablemedicine.org

The class will take place over a 6-week period. The class is being offered on a sliding scale of $120 to $360, and is limited to 12 participants.  For more information or to sign up, contact Didi Pershouse through the contact page, or call (802) 785-2503.

Reevaluation Counseling Class with Jesse Tichenor and Didi Pershouse starting in January 2009.  Thetford VT. Sliding scale.   For more information about the class, please contact Didi Pershouse at (802)785-2503.

Re-evaluation counseling, or “Co-counseling” has changed my life in a profound way, and helped me to understand and change some of my deepest patterns that years of therapy never touched, and I am very pleased to be assisting Jesse, one of my teachers, in this upcoming class. Jesse runs the Deep Community program at Dartmouth College.

Co-counseling–also called Re-evaluation Counseling–is a truly sustainable way to take care of your mental health, and create social change in the process. Instead of paying someone a lot of money to listen to you, co-counseling trains people to counsel each other, for free. Once you have taken the class, then you are part of this world-wide community of delightful intelligent people–and can go anywhere in the world and have a community of caring people willing to hold your hand, look deep into your eyes and really listen. Here’s how they explain it on their website: (www.rc.org)

“Re-evaluation Counseling is a process whereby people of all ages and of all backgrounds can learn how to exchange effective help with each other in order to free themselves from the effects of past distress experiences.

Re-evaluation Counseling theory provides a model of what a human being can be like in the area of his/her interaction with other human beings and his/her environment. The theory assumes that everyone is born with tremendous intellectual potential, natural zest, and lovingness, but that these qualities have become blocked and obscured in adults as the result of accumulated distress experiences (fear, hurt, loss, pain, anger, embarrassment, etc.) which begin early in our lives.

Any young person would recover from such distress spontaneously by use of the natural process of emotional discharge (crying, trembling, raging, laughing, etc.). However, this natural process is usually interfered with by well-meaning people (“Don’t cry,” “Be a big boy,” etc.) who erroneously equate the emotional discharge (the healing of the hurt) with the hurt itself.

When adequate emotional discharge can take place, the person is freed from the rigid pattern of behavior and feeling left by the hurt. The basic loving, cooperative, intelligent, and zestful nature is then free to operate. Such a person will tend to be more effective in looking out for his or her own interests and the interests of others, and will be more capable of acting successfully against injustice.

In recovering and using the natural discharge process, two people take turns counseling and being counseled. The one acting as the counselor listens, draws the other out and permits, encourages, and assists emotional discharge. The one acting as client talks and discharges and re-evaluates. With experience and increased confidence and trust in each other, the process works better and better.”

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