"We must be willing to let go of the life we planned in order to have the life that is waiting for us."
- Joseph Campbell
Family Grit community members who choose this pathway of consulting, must first fill out this topic specific questionnaire.
After you fill out this questionnaire, Helena will contact you to schedule your appointment. Payment is due when your appointment is scheduled.
All initial consultations with Dr. Mike are $125 / 90 minutes.
Subsequent consultations are $65 / 50 minutes.
Your brain, like all human brains, is wired for story. Throughout human history, people have shared stories that describe how to survive difficult challenges, like catching wild game for food, or building a home. Stories make us feel connected, human, and alive!
Working with Dr. Mike on your personal story, and how to make your narrative communication coherent will bring richness, humor, and self compassion into view. All of us who are special needs parents can use a healthy dose of positive story in our lives. Dr. Mike has spent many years learning how to construct stories that heal, develop skills and resources, lighten heavy burdens, and restore resilience.
When you choose this pathway you will be choosing to take a personal journey into your own depths. You will write, dream, teach others, and find empathetic resources you may not have know you possessed. Along the way, you will be strengthened, and have a playful experience of what’s known as the Hero’s Journey.
What’s that? A Hero’s Journey? Me?
Yep, you. You are on a Hero’s Journey in your life as a special needs parent (as we all are in our own lives).
In case you are wondering, The Hero’s Journey is a real thing - it’s the interior structure we can find in almost all novels, movies, and television programs we see. The Hero’s Journey is visible in all these artistic forms, once you know how to look for it. George Lucas, the creator of the “Star Wars” movies has acknowledged that he explicitly used the Hero’s Journey model for all of his successful movies.
The Hero’s Journey model was first written about by the great Mythologist Joseph Campbell, in a book called “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” (George Lucas learned about the Hero’s Journey pattern in this book). Lucas and many others quickly recognized that this pattern of storytelling was an important way we learn to understand ourselves and others.
Notice how familiar each of these features of story are to you...
- A Call. As we move through our lives, we will at times, here a call. A call to do something good. A call to go beyond ourselves in service. A call to become more of who we already are. A call to create a new life when our old self understanding no longer fits reality. Like a call to be a special needs parent.
- Refusal of a call. You may recall that in many of your favorite movies, the hero of the story often tries to refuse the call. This is always an option in our lives, of course. Think of Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit. Bilbo had no interest at all in going on an adventure! When he accepted the cal, he found inner resources he never knew he had. You can too.
- Crossing the threshold. Once we make a decision to take action towards our calling, the decision itself will bring resources and opportunities, and new choices to be made. All of us in the Family Grit learning community have challenging decisions to make. It’s good to have help.
- Finding guardians. In almost all fairy tails, epic adventures, and novels, the hero (that’s YOU in you own Hero’s Journey) runs out of energy for the journey and needs help from someone who’s already been down the same path. Dr. Mike has travelled the Hero’s Journey of special needs parenting for over 25 years, and is fully equipped to accompany you as you develop your own story.
- Facing your dragons. Your dragons are your inner faults. In movies and detective novels, they are known as your "Fatal Flaw". We all have flaws, and sometimes you need to face them squarely with a strong mentor at your side. This can be a difficult part of the journey, and may be entirely unknown to you. Dr. Mike, being a fully flawed human being who has somehow survived his own errors, will stand firmly with you!
- Developing your interior core. On a Hero’s Journey, the hero is gathering herself/himself in her/his center (a metaphor for your most compassionate and empathetic self). When you enter this work in your narrative, you will likely use many resources, including healthy food and movement. In this part of the Hero’s Journey, you will begin to see your purposes clearly and consciously experience meaningful engagement at a level you may not have felt before. This is real work, work worthy of your best self.
- The return home. All great stories end with a return home. Remember in the Wizard of Oz? Dorothy finds herself as she realizes, “There’s no place like home.” Your Hero’s Journey may take you out into the world, but ultimately, your story is an ‘Inside Story’. You will return home (to your self) with a richer sense of who you are, and what you’re doing in your life.
Of course, this is a journey that doesn’t end while we are alive. And that’s part of the joy of the path. It’s your path. It’s full of treasures. There are dragons to slay and resistance to overcome.
Digging deep into your own Hero’s Journey, through exploring your personal story, is a gift to your self, and to your family.
Welcome.
Dr. Mike’s been waiting for you!