Suzanne Edison, MA, MFA

Poet • Educator

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2nd Writing as a Righting Journey

 

Writing as a “Righting” Journey

 

THROUGH WRITING WE CAN:

Ø    Explore the ways illness effects our lives

Ø    Find courage to go deeper, discovering new meaning or affirming values we already hold

Ø    Have an opportunity to share our lives with others and find community

 

GOALS:

Ø    Provide parents structure for giving voice to their experiences of having a child living with a chronic illness,  e.g. changes in emotional, physical and social life

Ø    Provide immediate and on-going options for writing on one’s own and in a group

Ø    Provide books, readings, (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) that speak to a variety of issues surrounding illness, healing and caretaking

 

WHY:

“One of the more common challenges parents face when managing the care of their chronically ill children is that they simply may not have the ability to cope. Generally, the research shows that when moms are depressed, adherence [to the child’s medical needs..] will go down…”

 

Research also shows that emotions are centered and experienced by the part of the brain known as the amygdala. This is part of the early brain, the limbic system. Trauma and highly charged emotions can keep us centered in that area of the brain and not allow us to use our higher centers of thinking, the frontal cortex. In order to assess and move on from being stuck in feeling, to thinking about our feelings and then move into action or decision-making, we need to connect feelings to thinking, the amygdala needs connection to the frontal cortex.  Judy Willis, a neuroscientist and writing teacher has shown that writing can do just that.

 

From both personal experience and observation, I have seen that writing can ameliorate feelings of depression, thereby increasing a parent’s ability to, cope with daily life and care for, their child.  Writing in a group can also allow one to realize they are not alone and gain support for their struggles.

 

One participant of the first WARJ group had this to say when asked what she got out of it at the end of our 6 month sessions:

“…feeling understood and not alone…[it was]…much better than a support group for me as instead of commiserating we were putting our energy and feelings into art that heals and allows for release as well as a powerful way to share with others.”

 

WHO & WHEN:

Ø    This group will be open to parents of children with a chronic illness. Any family dealing with Rheumatic diseases (JM, JRA), Diabetes, other Endocrine diseases, Gastroenterological diseases, Cerebral Palsy, Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle Cell Anemia are welcome to join.

Ø    We will meet 5-6 times over a 5 month period.

Ø    Each session will last 1.5 hours in Seattle, Washington

 

The workshop is led by Suzanne Edison, MA. She is a psychotherapist, poet and mother of a child with Juvenile Myositis. She is also the Family Support Director for the Cure JM Foundation.  She has led workshops and given presentations on the Effects of Chronic Illness on Families and Coping with Chronic Illness to parents and medical professionals.  She also was awarded grants to write and publish a chapbook of poems based on her journey with her child. A recent poem, Bloodwork, was awarded an honorable mention in the Charles Prize for Poetry contest.  For more information please see her website, www.seedison.com.


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The Healing Art of Writing

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A new anthology, The Healing Art of Writing, was published recently by the University of California Press, Medical Humanities division.  It contains essays, poems and creative non-fiction written by attendees at the Healing Art of Writing conference and workshop held in California in the summer of 2010. (Information on the 2012 workshop is not yet public but will be held July 8- July 14, at Dominican University of California).

I recommend this, not just because I have two poems in it, but because the breadth and depth of the writing is sure to reach a great many people.  I believe we need to keep articulating the feelings and thoughts we have about illness, healing, mortality, medicine, all the experiences we were never educated to express in order to expand our notions about what it is to be human in the 21st century, and beyond.  I’ll be reviewing specific pieces from this book in another blog.

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“Bloodwork” wins Honorable Mention

I was overjoyed to hear that a poem of mine won an honorable mention in a contest. While it would have been nice to win first or second place, the very fact of having a piece of poetry read and respected goes a long way in the heart and mind of a writer.  Poetry has such a small corner of the publishing world that finding readership is the proverbial hunting needles in haystack task. It is one thing to spend time writing poetry, arguably the hardest part, but another thing altogether to then search out places that might accept your work, read it, publish it.  So I am grateful to the unseen faces, to the unknown judges who decided that this poem was worth “mentioning” among 150 submissions.

In the larger context of writing about illness, caretaking and medicine, there is a growing appreciation of the role that the arts has in healing.  More on that and the new, wonderful anthology, The Healing Art of Writing, currently available, in my next blog.

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Off Meds! A few learnings…

It’s official. My daughter is off all meds. Labs, muscles, skin all look great.

In retrospect it’s been since spring of 2005 when she first showed symptoms. It was a slow decline and I aggressively sought help/diagnosis for over a year. Finally diagnosed and started on treatment in January of 2007. Many of you know our journey. Each family of a child with Juvenile Dermatomyositis and other chronic illnesses, has similarities and differences. We are all united by wanting our children to be well, to find better treatments, faster diagnosis, A CURE. I hope our story gives hope. I so desperately needed to know that kids did get through it when we first started.

The statistics were against us in the beginning. More than a year of untreated disease was not a good way to start.  There are reasons to ignore those numbers!! My child made it. At least she’s come this far. Every day is a gift.

Believe me there were dark days when I worried about everything. I felt inadequate, angry, helpless. I know you know what I’m talking about. We all have them. But we get through. With humor or faith, running marathons, or simply putting one foot in front of the other. Because we have to.

And then there are those moments of brightness. A smile from our child, an hour where they aren’t in pain, an IV started the first time vs. the 4th time, an astute remark or observation they make, a hug or kiss they give, or whatever it is that makes us realize that to LOVE is what we are here for. We need to celebrate them. Each of them. And, at the risk of sounding like the infinitely broken record that I am, each of us caretakers needs to have moments to care for ourselves. We can’t do it all alone. We do need others. Please, please do this for yourself, AND do it because you will be a better caretaker for your child too..