Reading feel-good stories is a part of life that helps us appreciate life. I had to smile while reading about Iris. [LINK HERE] She is apparently a successful teen despite a rocky beginning in school. The stories always include the people that helped them along the way, and Iris had a teacher who engaged her. I had mine, certainly very influential role models at a time when I needed them. They guided me in certain ways. But they were not a part of any close relationships. They were adults and authority figures. We move on with other relationships and learn along the way.
But what stands out with Iris? For me, it’s her parents' relationship with her. My colleague, Heather Larkin Holloway, a professor at SUNY Albany, introduced me to the Restorative Integral Support Model (RISM). I was immediately taken with it. I contacted her by email and formed a correspondence relationship to learn more about the model. What struck me are the four quadrants for development for a healing model and how we can use it to restore our health with appropriate supports. Because those supports were not there for us when we were young, finding a way to develop them is crucial to a healing model. Iris doesn’t sound as if she had the deficits that affect high ACE children and teens, but she has a support model that is enviable, at least it would have been for my life. Here is a quote from an article on Heather’s approach to addressing homelessness by combining ACE research and RISM.
"The goal is for agencies to transform services to help homeless people recover from their childhood traumas -- like the death of a parent, alcoholism of a parent, or physical abuse," said Larkin. "The agencies are then in a position to help them to rebuild a support system so they can leave the shelter, find a job, and a home."
For more information on RISM, here is a link to one of Dr. Holloway’s papers. [LINK HERE] Rebuilding the support system is key, and a foundation for what I refer to as The Restoration to Health Model I have written about since 2009. Building on my understanding of Heather’s model, I focus on healing the brain (Quadrant 1-what happens in the brain) through the use of nutrition and the type of spiritual healing Iris uses, meditation. It works, in a lot of venues. I wrote about the use of meditation in prisons (too few of them, unfortunately) and how rates of violence went down by 20%. That’s a significant reduction. Can you imagine using meditation for reducing domestic violence? A 20% reduction would be unprecedented. Imagine combining that with nutrition supports. Research, again in prisons, found a 37% reduction in violence for those who took Omega 3 supplements. If the results could be translated to people engaged in domestic violence, we have the potential for a substantial reduction.
Quadrant 2 are results of what happens in the brain. If we have ACEs during our childhood, we have two risk pathways: impacted behaviors (positive, neutral and negative) and health risks (often decades later). In Quadrant 2, knowledge and behavioral change are the two main factors I believe need to be influenced, often with the support of Quadrant 3, family, together with external social and cultural supports. Quadrant 4 represents the overlay of public laws and policy. That’s for another day.
So what does this mean for Iris? It sounds like all of the appropriate supports have been in place for most of her life and that she will do extremely well. What does it mean for the high school dropout, someone who didn’t find the supports or have good guidance?
What I think it means is a total restructuring of our society. And a lot of changed attitudes.
There are lessons to be learned from Iris. Good family, support systems and spirituality can keep a young person healthy. It certainly helps them build supportive networks and friendships. Our goal, what I refer to as a future state for everyone, is to have a life where you are able to learn lessons from your parents similar to what Iris learned. Be yourself. There’s no idea too big. Work hard. Learn people skills. But remember. It’s harder for traumatized kids because they don’t have the supportive culture. That’s our future state, and that’s the promise of RISM.
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