Holistic Self-Empowerment: Sustaining Recovery through Mind-Body Skill Building
An 8 Week Program (Tuesdays)
Self-care is at the heart of real health and well-being. Join Dr. Deanna Burleson and Dr. Rita Anita Linger in a mind- body medicine skills program to discover and learn self-care techniques to improve your health, well-being and resilience. In addition to learning mindfulness techniques, you will also gain an understanding of the physical and mental benefits of these powerful but simple tools for self-care.
Ideally, groups are composed of 10-12 people and meet weekly for 2-hour sessions. Other schedule options can be arranged as the need is determined by a group. Day-long and weekend sessions can be planned as requested by your group.
This program is beneficial for any type of group including those seeking or in recovery, treatment and recovery service providers, veterans, healthcare workers, family members, care givers, and any organizational work group.
During the sessions we will explore the BENEFITS of mindfulness and meditation activities. The benefits may include:
- Beneficial changes in brain wave activity
- Cardiac – heart variability and decreased Blood Pressure
- Autonomic nervous system
- Change in neurotransmitter chemical levels
- Increased serotonin (helpful for sleep), beta-endorphins, melatonin (also helpful for sleep), acetylcholine, cortisol (increases during stress)
- Decreased pain
- Decreased frequency and intensity of Asthma Attacks
- Improved mood
- Decreased anxiety
Meditation can be many types of activities, not just sitting still and being quiet. The three major types of meditation activities that will be used during these sessions include:
- Concentrative (focused awareness on an object, word or activity such as breathing)
- Mindfulness (relaxed and aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations as they arise)
- Expressive (chanting, dancing, rapid breath work, etc.)
List and Description of each Mind Body Medicine Skill session
Each session is 2 hours and includes the following format:
- Opening Meditation
- Check-In/Introduction
- Mini-talk on the listed topic
- Meditation practice related to the topic
- Closing meditation
Your Facilitators:
This process is based on the work of Dr. James Gordon, creator of the Center of Mind Body Medicine located in Washington, DC. Dr. Gordon is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and professor at Georgetown University who has been practicing and refining this process for more than 20 years. He has taken this process to war-torn countries around the world with significant success. He is actively and successfully supporting our troops who return from conflicts with symptoms of anxiety, PTSD and depression. Recently he has taken this work into a healthcare system to teach staff how to care for themselves creating a healing environment for the patients and families they care for on a daily basis.
Dr. Deanna Burleson is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force and a member and active partner of RCNC’s Health and Wellness initiatives. She is a trained Center for Mind-Body Medicine facilitator and facilitates healing groups throughout North Carolina and Washington, DC. Her experience also includes clinical expertise in the areas of Emergency Care, Intensive Care, Home Care, Information Technology. Dr. Deeanna is a Health Strategist, Registered Nurse, Energy Medicine Practitioner and a Recovery Ally.
She has many years of experience working within several health and organizational sectors that include private, non-profits, US Military and the Department of Veterans Affairs. She has diverse experience in complex healthcare systems and working with their multi-discipline professionals. Her passion is developing health and wellness initiatives to serve the goals of patient centered care as well as bringing modalities of healing and wellbeing to the communities she serves. She is the chair of the UNC Charlotte School of Nursing Advisory Board and a member of the Ashe Health Alliance Steering Committee. She also offers Healing the Troops sessions to Veterans and their families.
Dr. Linger is the Executive Director of Recovery Communities of North Carolina, a recovery ally/advocate, a family member of a husband in long term recovery and a mother who has lost children to the cycle of addiction. She is a Certified Mind-Body Skills Facilitator and Practitioner, Faculty/Supervisor for the Center of Mind-Body Medicine, Certified Duke Integrative Health Coach, Licensed Bio-feedback Provider and Therapist. Her expertise includes Integrative Health and Medicine, Meditation, Mind-Body Medicine Modalities, Contemporary Neuroscience, Psycho-
Physiology, Therapeutic & Integrative Counseling and Coaching, Addiction Recovery and Health, Chronic Pain Management, Trauma and Resilience and Policy Advocacy. She has worked for decades with those suffering from substance use disorders and co-occurring conditions, chronic pain, depression, general stress and PTSD, including veterans, their families and other support systems.
Dr. Linger has served as one of the first Directors of Patient Quality Care in the country while working at Governeur Hospital in Manhattan, New York in the early 1980s; ensuring the provision of holistic services to poor and indigent patients. She is a mixed methods researcher and a published author. Her research includes but is not limited to research on integrative modalities, chronic illness, addiction and recovery. She has served as a Policy Advocate in several states including New York, Arizona and North Carolina. Dr. Linger teaches for and consults with several universities including, Columbia, Cornell, UNC Department of Integrative Medicine and Rehabilitation – Chapel Hill, William Peace, Meredith (Leadership program) and Atlantic University. She sees her biggest accomplishment in her work as a Social Justice and Health Advocate. Helping people find and sustain recovery, reduce trauma, stress and assisting to enhance the quality of life for others, helps her make sense of her personal losses.
PROGRAM LOGISTICS:
Attendees to the 12 sessions should plan on attending all sessions if possible as the sessions build on one another. Reduced cost to attend each session is $10.00 per session. For those who are RCNC program participants in or seeking recovery, there is no charge. For paying participants who cannot afford the entire 10.00, please contact us. If you can afford more than 10.00 per session please feel free to help someone else attend by contributing beyond the 10.00 for your session. Mind-Body Skill sessions of this magnitude are usually 50.00 a session. We welcome your participation to increase your personal health and wellness, sustaining your recovery and creating a greater quality of life for yourself and your loved ones.
Come Reduce Stress, Build Resilience and Heal with Us!
Please contact: Terri Conyers at: tconyers@rcnc.org to register and if you have any questions.
