Attn Watchman.

[Mr Punch]

If you're still around... I mean c'mon, you're always lurking right?! :D

You ever write that book? If so can you tell me the title (by PM if you don't want to put it on the board). Cheers.

edit: in case you write lots of books, it was one you were cowriting and you once put an exert on here about peripheral vision in fighting... maybe 2001/early 02.

[rogue]

Dang blam it, I haven't talked to Mulletman in a loooong time. If his doublewide still has a connection to the internet I'll drop him an email to see what's up.

Darn nice fella.

[Mr Punch]

LOL @ Mulletman, those were the days... I'd just started lurking on the forum bout... jeebers 5 years ago. Some of those threads were ****ing funny... there was a minor Duty of Care every week!:D

Thought he pooped by not long ago? Anyway, cheers Rogue, I'd appreciate it, or if anyone else knows whether he actually published that book or what.

[Stranger]

ttt for the picture of the Mullet guy with the car parked on top of trailer

[rogue]

I'm trying to contact him by email. I did notice that he had been working as a director of a foundation for battered women. I know that subject meant a lot to him.

[Watchman]

ttt for Mulletman

[Mr Punch]

I meant popped of course.


ttt for MulletmanHalf of kfm looks around...

So is the Mulletman in the house..., er trailer?

And hello Watchman sir, did you publish that book? If so, could you give me the details please? I'll increase your readership by at least, hmmm, one for starters, maybe even a meteoric two or three in a while!

[Watchman]

Hey Mat,

Sorry, I wasn't being evasive with my last post. I have been insanely busy, but wanted to give the thread a ttt to let you know that rogue pulled me out of the trailer court with his email.

The textbook I am co-authoring hasn't been published yet. At present I have it printed in manuscript form for my students, and for some private therapists in my local area who use it with their clients. This thing has been a work-in-progress/labor of love for quite a while, and I'm not sure when I'm going to feel "finished" with it.

The state of Utah completed a sexual violence research study last year, so I want to incorporate the new data into the text. Also, I have been getting trained in some new treatment and teaching models that I have created new material from. This stuff is much more effective for the purposes of my course than my old approach, so a "rewrite" is in order for the text.

In addition to that project I am working on a dissertation proposal for a research study I want to do on hardiness/stress response training for elementary school age children that uses martial arts to teach the psychophysiology skill-set component. There are some funders who have expressed some interest in the proposal.

Besides those two things, the only other writing I have been doing has been a few pieces here and there for a local magazine, and a weblog just to keep my skills sharp.

Anyway, it's nice to be remembered around here.

[rogue]

In addition to that project I am working on a dissertation proposal for a research study I want to do on hardiness/stress response training for elementary school age children that uses martial arts to teach the psychophysiology skill-set component.

Reads, scratches head, comtemplates his bowl of Apple Jacks and why call them Apple Jacks if they don't taste like apples

[Watchman]

Sorry, that was pretty jargon-ridden. I barely understand those terms myself. :rolleyes:

The idea goes that kids who experience trauma walk around in a constant over-stressed state because of what has happened to them. Their nervous system kind of hums at a higher pitch. I want to teach these kids how to control their anxiety and learn how to be happy in light of what they have experienced.

Practicing martial arts a certain way helps to teach them how to do that.

[rogue]

Thanks Watch, that was clear enough for a mutton head like me to understand, and a great idea. :cool:

Now onto the Apple Jacks question...:D

[Matrix]

I want to teach these kids how to control their anxiety and learn how to be happy in light of what they have experienced.Watchman, Thank you for the work that you do.
It sounds to me like you're making the world a better a place. Kudos. :cool:

[Mr Punch]

Thanks for the reply Watchman.

I guess this is teaching grandmother to suck eggs but the book will never really feel finished: seldom do authors really feel they've finished books, so maybe set yourself a goal to get it done after you've incorporated the new data. The world needs books like that!

On another side note, I've been working recently starting to get a book translated into English about Morita therapy. I think its general principles have a lot of relevance to what you've just said about your work, and fits in nicely with the MA aspect specifically. Check it out. There are a couple of informative websites out there.

Cheers Rogue, for the heads up.

[Watchman]

Rogue, you're the least mutton-headed dude I know, but go ahead and keep playing the part. :D

Thanks for the kind words Matrix. I won't take full credit for the effort, though - I've recruited some pretty capable folks to the project that are helping me fill it all in.

Mat, you are absolutely correct about the never feeling finished issue. I've set a goal to have the new material done over the summer, and the text privately published for the fall semester. From there, we'll see how it goes.

Can you give me a rundown on the Morita therapy?

[Mr Punch]

Can you give me a rundown on the Morita therapy?Probably not an especially good one... all the commentary in my head on this one is in Japanese... until we get further with the translation!

But...
Basically it's a therapy based on encouraging people to see through 'torawase' (the gulf between their real condition and their ideal 'healed' condition) and thus to accept 'arugamama' ('the way things are'). Even more basically, to accept reality. Therapists encourage the use of keeping journals and encourage first the recognition of what the condition is, then the recognition of what the ideal is in relation to the real, and finally acceptance of the real.

This doesn't mean the patient is bottling up anything: the journal helps them to recognise when their frustration naturally bubbles over.

Neither does it mean they are left to believing there is nothing they can do about their situation, just accept it. It's more that it encourages them to recognise what is probably not possible for them to achieve and to accept that attempting it will cause them more damage. This also gives them day-to-day goals in achieving a longer term goal.

It has it's base in zen as you may have realised, but without the koans and the difficult stuff, or the semi-mystical flotsam that's become associated with zen in the west. Morita was a trained psychoanalyst but thought that concentrating so much on the past was not so useful in overcoming everyday obstacles and getting on with your life.

It's really a lot more simple than I've just made it sound!

Think it'd fit particularly well with trauma victims esp of domestic violence/bullying... and especially the mindset should fit in with MA practise - I've used similar approaches with a reasonable of success to bullied kids and kids with no self-confidence or self-awareness before when teaching aikido, and I'm not offically qualified for anything of the sort.

edit: just googled this (http://www.morita-therapy.org/nature_truth.html)as an English site... just briefly looked over it and it seems a reasonable intro.

...and just thought, although the book is excrutiatingly new-agey and made me want to chew my own head off, you might want to try 'In Search of the Warrior Spirit' about Richard Strozzi Heckler's experience teaching marines 'inner warrior consciousness' in a classified programme in the late 80s (?). He was a marine and is a psychologist and aikido teacher, and although the book isn't directly relevant it may have some useful bits and bobs for you in it. Put it on your (probably already substantial!) reading list!
Here's (http://www.fearlessbooks.com/NewHumanNature.html#rsh)an interview that's probably closer to your line...

[Watchman]

Mat,

Thank you very much for the information. From your description, the Morita therapy sounds similar to the concepts of "integration" and "reintegration" from the field of psychology I am being trained in. And yes, I agree that what you are referring to would fit well with the treatment concepts for trauma victims that I am working on.

I actually read Heckler's "In Search of the Warrior Spirit" close to ten years ago, and still happen to have it on one of my bookshelves. I'll have to skim through it again.

To reciprocate the reading suggestion, have you come across any of William Reed's books on Ki training? I have two of his works on awareness training using Aikido that are really good.

I'd like to hear about your teaching experiences using Aikido to train kids in self-awareness/confidence. Drop me a PM when you have a chance.

[Mr Punch]

I'm not sure I can help you, as you're already streets ahead of anything I've done...

As for the PM, again, as I wasn't qualified and was really playing it by ear (and it was about ten years ago!) I don't think I can help you but I'll give it some thought, and try a write up in the next week or so.

Probably more rambling than use!

Never heard of Reed, but I'll look him out. Cheers.

[Watchman]

Definitely check out Reed. The works of his that I have are "Ki: A Practical Guide for Westerners" and "Ki: A Road That Anyone Can Walk".

I've used a number of the excercises from both books in my course at the college here to really good effect with the students.