“I was kind of a pessimist, and I think that comes just from being in the environments that I was born and raised in and not having the advantages that some other places offer,” says Gurley, now 28. “I would say that I thought pessimistically about some things, especially in regards to that school. And she gave me some hope and drew on some of my strengths and let me know that I control basically how I feel about a situation. And I learned to remain in control about how I feel about a situation.”
After the Discovery of Self course, Gurley chose to start applying himself in school. Soon he was moved out of Harrison and placed in a mainstream school. The first member of his family to go to college, he graduated and now is back in north Minneapolis (the neighborhood with the highest rates of crime and violence) as a mental health worker teaching life skills to kids that have been diagnosed with ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder, as well as children on probation. He also serves as a football coach with Minneapolis Parks and Recreation, and works with Barrash as an associate teacher with the Discovery of Self program.
“I use the things that Jane discusses in her curriculum, and I use them a lot in preparing kids for football games, and helping them prepare for job interviews,” says Gurley. “I tell people to imagine on a daily basis things going good. I tell ‘em, ‘Let's not focus and give the energy to what can happen negatively, but give the energy to what can happen positively; what good can happen.’”
Discovery of Self
Now taught in a variety of formats and curriculum lengths, Discovery of Self programs have been found to be equally effective for people in minimum and maximum security prisons, homeless shelters, regular schools and in corporate and medical settings.
Discovery of Self emerged from a partnership project with the Minnesota State Department of Education in 1984. Barrash, who currently heads up Continuum Center which was founded in 1979, started at Continuum when the two-year project, called Whole Mind Learning, was launched. WML trained 300 public-school teachers around the state in the background research and classroom applications of imagery, biofeedback, self-regulation and self-relaxation strategies. Gordon Wrobel, a school psychologist in the training, was working at Harrison Secondary.
“He saw how kids whole lives were in turmoil and they perceived that they had no control over anything,” says Barrash. “He realized that using biofeedback and self-regulation strategies to control heart rate, blood pressure, respiration - those sorts of things, was a way to break into the prison of their thinking. When they found a way to create a place of internal refuge… that was a profound experience for them. Seeing that they had significant control over physiological functions when they otherwise felt absolutely no control, combined with this ability to create this quiet, safe refuge, really put these kids in a different place.” Next > 1 2 3
