Hi,
My name is Sebastian. I am a 36 year old Canadian, father, partner, and friend. A recent family intervention for a relative with an alcohol addiction has opened my eyes to what I should be doing for work. I've decided to leave my current career behind and in September 2014, I am starting school, beginning a 6 year process to become an addictions counsellor.
Since deciding to go into this career I have been researching and reading a lot of books to develop a good picture of what I am up against. In short, the bad news are the low recovery rates expected and accepted by many in this field. Also, reading between the lines, old ways of thinking have been stagnating new ideas from emerging to tackle addiction. The current models being used in this field have remained relatively untouched since they were created in the 30's and 40's. The recovery rates are low. I want to integrate knowledge and healing from other parts of the world to help bring these numbers up.
I have the opportunity to study for three months with a Shipibo Plant Healer, at a healing centre in Iquitos, Peru. This man comes from a long line of healers going far back into the mists of time. He has over 40 years of experience utilising native plants' potent capacity for healing. His culture has worked with plants as medicines for the last 5000 years! Their approach to healing people is very different from what I will be learning in college and I am really looking forward to integrating the two disciplines. It seems about time. As old ideas meet the new, it is natural that they run into each other a little bit before melding and helping each other get stronger. I wish to be a part of this process, to make it happen. So before September, I plan to go to Peru for three months and start my apprenticeship with the plants and learn how they can be used successfully in the treatment of people with addictions. The more that I can learn and apply, the better I will be at helping in this line of work.
I cannot stress how important it can be to retain old knowledge such as the knowledge these people have harboured in there cultural memory. It is a far more valuable resource than all the trees, minerals, and oil in the whole Amazon. Cultural knowledge cannot be restored once it is wiped out. It is something that takes tens of thousands of years to nurture. I feel responsible trying to support this culture and retain some of their treasure in me and my family, and share it with those that wish to learn. To expand on that idea, I feel this is my path of being a responsible, accountable human being.
What I Need & What You Get
So I need $10000 Canadian Dollars.
$2000 for travel... 2 flights, meals, and two safe cab rides. Plus or minus $200.
$6800 for Shipibo healing centre.
$600 for local Spanish translator
$600 for Paypal/Indiegogo portion.
The healing centre I will be staying at is not for tourists. It is for those who want to learn. The cost will cover tuition, as well as meals and accommodation for my three months. I have already begun working on learning Spanish, but I am not yet adept enough to go without a translator there with me daily.
If I do not reach the entire goal I will enlist for a shorter amount of time, and learn what I can. Either way I will have a follow up video when I get back.
CHECK OUT MY PERKS! They are unique, tasty, and have value to the donors. I have spent 20 years scrambling about the rain forests of my home identifying and consuming the plants of this island paradise. Here are some of the fruits of my labour, freshly wild harvested and lovingly prepared. I am happy to share this harvest with you, in trade, to deepen our relationship with nature. These mushrooms are a culinary delicacy, flavourful, and highly sought after when in season. Feel free to email about questions in regards to recipes. The tea blend is quite nice. It's calming, great for toning the blood and balancing blood sugar levels Even the locals don't know about this lovely mix.
Here is a video of my son helping me pick some of the mushrooms you might be getting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Fu7YXN6uU
The Impact
This project is valuable on many levels.
In researching job opportunities for my new field of work I found everywhere that people in the industry were saying they are overworked, case loads are piling up, and they see the problem getting bigger. Growing up in Canada, I've seen problems with addiction all around in my community, and in my family. In many cases it has become normalised to the point of acceptance. It is far from okay or normal.
Families and communities are being ripped apart by addiction. Often the person with the addiction is lucky to have any caring relationships left. Whole families can be shut down by this nightmare.
Doing volunteer work in emergency shelters and food banks I am often amazed at the people with addiction problems, and the stigma they face. They are not much different then you and I. A few unfortunate turns in life can send anyone down the wrong path. I'm thankful that I am on the path that I am, and I am hopeful. These people don't love their addictions. They just do not have the emotional tools to claw their way out of the mess they are in.
The tools that are around for dealing with addiction work very well for about 5-8% of the people who receive them at detox centres or in certain programs. It is a rather dismal outlook for those working in, and hoping to receive help from, these programs. I feel this is a number that has to be improved upon and can be. A type of cynicism permeates these places and I have seen this first hand as a kind of thick skin develops when fewer than one out of ten people you help, successfully gets clear of their addiction.
The thing is, there have been better programs in the past! Plant medicine was used with significant success on patients with addiction issues. The creator of the 12 step program is one of them- he was a patient at a clinic in Saskatchewan, Canada. He received plant medicine, in conjunction with talk therapy... had a religious experience, went on to never drink again and created the basis of the 12 step programs used today (though strangely, lacking the medicinal plant aspect- maybe it should have been the 13 or 14 step program?). This program ran for years, publishing success rates of over 50%, and other programs duplicated their methods with the same success all over the world! Unfortunately for this program, the 1960 drug culture came about, and these kinds of programs became political pariahs. Funding dried up despite the miraculous success rates...
However time has a way of forgiving and healing. It seems just in time. The plant medicine I have the opportunity of learning, is far deeper than ingesting a plant and being healed. It is not about getting 'high' either. It is true some of the plants I will be learning about do have a perception-altering effect, but these are a few plants out of thousands I will be working with. I am excited to be concurrently learning both schools of thought and seeing how they can fit together and compliment one another in treatment.
More than anything though, I am excited to help more than 8% of my patients. There are just so many preventable tragedies out there that we need take seriously, and be open minded about how to deal with, to make real progress in healing. Families losing members to addiction is unacceptable when there are other options to explore.
My long term goal is to create a platform for this teaching in the form of a healing/detox centre based around plant medicine and nature. Bringing those that need help into the quiet folds of life outside of the domain of humans.... back where we are from. Through this gentleness combined with workshops and diets, I hope to help people realize that what they will see and love in nature is in themselves. Not only to heal themselves, but then to also send them back into the world with their love and reverence for the natural world restored and returned to where it should be for all humans, in balance. I am in this for the long haul. This is more than a 'job' to me. I want not only for people to recover... I want to turn them on to the wonders of existence, and have them leave as a renewed friend and lover of this thing we call life. I care for people, and I want to help. Never before has a path been so clearly laid out for me.
FINAL NOTE
I feel the information that I will be learning is in the category of 'endangered'. Ancient cultures and their wisdom are one of the most valuable resources on this planet. Not the rubber trees, coal or oil. These branches of knowledge that we lose when a culture's flame goes out can never be rekindled. The Shipibo people have a relationship with plants, and how they heal, that we know goes back five thousand years. This is not something we cannot afford to lose. Acceptance of their wisdom's potency will bring value to the Shipibo, who are under threat from modernization and industry, helping preserve their eroding perch in the Amazon.
My personal pledge is that I will learn, retain, and share this knowledge with those that also wish to learn. I will teach my son and share with my family and keep the fire of knowledge burning. Also through this process I will continue to go back to Peru to keep learning, bringing them love and friendship, and building community. Through the process of schooling in Canada and my new career I will do my best to validate this knowledge and do what I can to get it accepted in mainstream treatment processes.
Other Ways to Help
Hey, if you cannot donate please share with those that you think would help my campaign. Thank you. Here's the link. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/improving-on-addiction-help/x/5006495
Things you could check out:
A little about art created by the Shipibo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRsAbM0IwOc
A video about the current A.A. style rehab programs being used 93% of the time. Its rather dry, but full of information. http://youtu.be/uZ_6flmLysc
Another listing common criticisms of 12 step programs
http://youtu.be/Sw-7bUxqO7E
