Announcements
Dear friends,
I wanted to make a few short announcements:
1. I hope you’ve had the chance to see my PBS special, “Unstuck with Dr. James S. Gordon.” We’ve had a good response so far, and I appreciate those of you who have written to tell me how much you’ve enjoyed it. Check your local station for any remaining listings (we’re coming to the end of its scheduled season) and if you haven’t been able to view it, because it’s a pledge show, it is available as a pledge gift (the proceeds of which go to support both PBS and The Center for Mind-Body Medicine) online at local stations’ websites or pledge call centers, or else we are hoping/planning for it to be aired again and on more stations in March 2010.
2. I wanted to let you know that my piece, “Care for the Caregivers: Preventing Future Fort Hoods” on the importance of supporting military caregivers as they care for troops pre- and post-deployment, is now featured in the Huffington Post living section–here’s an excerpt:
As we prepare to send a “surge” of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, we must look urgently and squarely at the mental health as well as the military and political consequences of our deployment. This means preparing American men and women to deal as effectively as they can with the fear and confusion that battle will bring and with the sometimes ambiguous life-and-death decisions . . .
Check out the whole post here! I’d love to know what you think.
3. Some of you may know I’m traveling to the Middle East this week to see the Israeli Training Center for Mind-Body Skills and to support our Gaza team as they oversee the second phase of training for 150 more clinicians, who will offer our healing model to traumatized children and adults in the Gaza strip and great expand our efforts in the region (which have already helped more than 20,000 people!).
I’m going to be blogging as often as I can during this experience, so look out for more posts this week to keep up with my travels!
All my best,
Jim
New PBS Dates!
I’m pleased to announce that my PBS special based on Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression has been picked up on so many stations, that we had to make a new calendar available! (I announced in my last post that the dates were in my web calendar here.)
I’m so excited for you to see the great show the crew at PBS put together, and for you to learn the basic biology of stress and its effect on your body and mind, and I hope you get some wonderful relief (which you and/or your family probably need, right now) through the simple mind-body techniques which I will teach you on the air.
SO–please note, the list of my PBS “Unstuck” Special dates on the calendar here is not complete. Find a more complete list here in PDF form, and now there’s also a partial list available at the KPBS website.
More dates are being announced every day, so check your local listings for the most up-to-date information, and support your local PBS station this year for all their great programming!
Prison Transformations Letter and PBS Unstuck!
Hello Friends,
Here’s a letter to the editor published in the New York Times:
LETTER
Prison Transformations
To the Editor:
Re “Fellow Inmates Ease Pain of Dying in Jail, and Glimpse New Life” (“Months to Live” series, front page, Oct. 18):
What a tender, important story. Prisoners who commit generous acts toward dying fellow inmates awaken to their own capacity for love and, in the process, come to feel regret and compassion for those they have harmed.
I have seen this again and again in groups my colleagues and I lead overseas for war-traumatized children and adults and here at home for American troops who have been maimed and bereaved by combat. Fantasies of revenge dissolve, knots of resentment loosen.
These inmates’ stories tell us that we must make such opportunities for change available to prisoners whom we have abandoned as irredeemable. The lessons these transformations teach us are priceless.
James S. Gordon
Washington, Oct. 20, 2009The writer is a psychiatrist and the founder and director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine.
Also, don’t forget that my PBS fundraising special based on Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression will be airing nationally at the end of the month!
Take a look at my calendar (right column) to see if your local station will be carrying it. More dates & stations will be added. We’ll get you more information soon! (If you’re on our mailing lists, it will be delivered to your inbox–signup box is also in the right column.)
In the meantime, here’s the website, and here’s a short trailer via Youtube.
We hope you’ll tune in and support your local Public Broadcasting Station and all their wonderful programming by calling in and pledging during your local run.
Jim
