Finding Voice, #98

Judith Cornell:

program so what we would like to share with our students is how the body itself is wonderfully designed, works beautifully. We all as children, sat, ran, squatted with no pain or discomfort. Life teaches us habits, not all of them good ones, and if we can shed some of those, we come closer to the ease and freedom that we had when we were younger. And it's a wonderful feeling. Let the body occupy all the space it's entitled to.

Cathy Plourde:

It's not just people want to avoid talking about sexual assault with young people or dating violence or eating disorders with young people. We don't know how. We don't know what our resources are. And I think the idea here was to not only give people information, valuable, clear, accurate information to bust through myths and things like that, but to give people an opportunity to think about what they can do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hour and podcast show number 98, Finding

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Voice, airing for the first time on

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Sunday, July 28, 2013. Today's guests include Judith Cornell, teacher of the Alexander Technique, and Kathy Plord, founder of Adverb Productions at the University New England. When we lose our voice physically, that fact is plain. A touch of laryngitis and we're forced into a state of semi whisper, working hard so that others might hear us. When we lose our voice, metaphorically, others may not realize it at all until one day we start talking again. At that point it can be painfully loud, or at least loud by comparison. Then people are startled. Our newfound voice isn't always welcomed. It can be hard for others to want to hear, but sometimes others are more than willing to hear us. We just need to find the right audience. Then, gaining strength from an appreciative audience, we are able to use our voice anywhere at any time, even if our voices dance uncomfortably in the ears of those around us. If we have the strength to keep using our voice, we may have the chance to use it as a tool with which we may help others. Perhaps others who have no voice, or perhaps others whose voices are not like ours. Our voice, after all, is part of who we are. It has been given to us by the energetic life force that some call God. Our voice is our gift. As we fine tune our voice, the fact of this gift may become clear. We may use our voice in song or in poetry. We may use our voice in defense of the voiceless.

Cathy Plourde:

We.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We may use our voice in praise or adulation. Then our voice is not merely a means by which we communicate. It is an instrument through which the breath of the world might flow. Our voice is not merely ours. It is the voice of many. It is the voice of the life, spirit. And as such, it must be allowed to find its way from the depths of our physical bodies so that we may be heard, so that we may join in the glorious cacophony and madness and joy created by the voices of our fellow man, so that our words may be welcomed back into the world. We hope you enjoy today's interviews with Judith Cornell, teacher of the Alexander Technique, and Kathy Plord, founder of Adverb Productions at the University of New England. We hope that in hearing their voices, you may be inspired to find your own.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you for joining us. I'm sitting across the microphone from Judith Cornell, who is a certified Alexander Technique teacher here in South Portland, Maine. She handed me a brochure, the front of which says, change involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life. This is a quote from F. Matthias Alexander. And I think this is very apropos for our radio show because we're often talking about change, and we're talking about how one changes, and it really is about trying to figure out how to go against things that you've been so habitually doing over time.

Judith Cornell:

That's right. That's right. So Alexander Technique is one means of accessing change. Not the only way you can do it, but it's absolutely fascinating if you find you enjoy finding more out about yourself, how you handle your daily activities, whatever they are. If you have run up against problems, physical pain or debilitating conditions in the body, how you happen to get that way. Alexander is a means of improving how you handle your body, how you move, how you react to everything that's around you. So a means toward change, a means of achieving balance and poise.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why did you become interested in the Alexander Technique yourself? I know that you have a background

Judith Cornell:

actually as a singer I'm a musician, a classically trained soprano. Alexander himself was an actor from Tasmania, an island off of Australia. The Alexander Technique has been known. Well, it's 100 years old and it's been known primarily to performing artists as a means of helping them get out of their own way when they do their art. So the world is full of singers who try too hard and get tight and sound like chickens, or violinists with tight shoulders and who have to give up playing because of the pain. I heard about Alexander through singing circles, people who had tried it. A former teacher of mine, a voice teacher who was very much in favor of Alexander work. And I was very curious, but there were not teachers in Maine. So I succeeded in getting a teacher to come up from New York and give a workshop at Bowdoin, where I was teaching voice. And I found it a startling experience. I didn't know what it was exactly, but to find in the middle of a work week when you're really tired, that someone can help you to float as you walk down the hallway, for example, or get out of a chair really easily was fascinating. So later on I decided to train as an Alexander Technique teacher. And it's a three year teacher training program. The nearest one was in Cambridge, Mass. So I went there for three years and trained and started teaching back here in Portland in 1992.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As I'm talking with you, I'm noticing that you do have a very open posture. We ask people to come into the studio and sit on these high stools in front of a microphone. And it's not always the easiest thing to do, but you've somehow managed to relax your shoulders back and your hips are a little open and you just have this very comfortable feel about you.

Judith Cornell:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Does this have something to do with the work that you're trying to get others involved in?

Judith Cornell:

Everything? Because as teachers, one reason for studying for three years is that we have good enough use of ourselves so that we can be a good example to a student. Most Alexander work is done with one student and the teacher. It's hands on in a very gentle way to guide and to listen with your hands, to ascertain where areas of tension might be in the student. And so we want to transmit from our bodies to the student, ease, releasing, lengthening and widening, so it's easier for the student to start experiencing that. So Alexander technique is experiential in the sense that if you go to a teacher planning on a series of lessons so that you can start to get a little bit of an idea of what it's about and you felt some things changing in yourself.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What about this idea that people get tighter because they think it's going to help them be more efficient and more effective, but what it really does is just kind of. Well, you said the chicken voice, it causes singers to sound like chickens.

Judith Cornell:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why do you think people get tighter in an effort to get better, but

Judith Cornell:

then it doesn't help because the mind and the body are one. And whatever you're thinking, for example, I was a singer for many years and if I looked out and there was not a competitor but a fellow artist in the first row, it can make you start thinking, gee, I better be good because so and so is watching. It tends to make us try too hard and tense the body. And we also go away from how are things going with me? How does it feel for me to wonder what they're thinking about me? You know, it causes a lot of trouble for performing artists. You have to sort of stay with yourself in your best balance and ease as you go along.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Artists tend to be very sensitive. I've worked with a lot of artists and various sorts, you know, singers and musicians and the people who are best at art are also very tuned into their environments and thus very tuned into the people around them. So isn't that somewhat of a challenge? If you're a performer and you're tuned into your audience, but at the same time your audience can come back and impact you not always in a positive way, Isn't that somewhat of a challenge?

Judith Cornell:

It is a challenge. It is a challenge. It's difficult to be a performing artist and to stay steady within yourself. So regardless of what happens out in the audience, the reaction of people or somebody gets up and leaves, whatever it might be, you are not distracted by that, but you're able to stay with yourself. If you're a singer, you have to keep breathing, you have to keep loose around your vocal mechanism so it's working well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do people begin to feel inhibited at times? Do they start to. I guess the idea would be something like a writer's block, but for singers, is there kind of an equivalent there?

Judith Cornell:

Singers are very, very. I taught voice for 30 years and being a singer all of that time have a lot of ways of self defeating and daring to get up with a lot of people staring at you and to be free and loose enough so that your instrument works is a big challenge. Running through lists of instructions in your mind rather than being able to breathe, be balanced and just let the song come through you and to your Audience is. It's wonderful when it happens, but it takes a lot of time and experience for that to start to happen. And a lot of singers do take Alexander work as one means of trying to get toward that goal.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Isn't that an interesting oxymoron, I guess is the word I'm looking for that you have somebody who wants to be a performer and yet they have all these self defeating thoughts. So you simultaneously want to put yourself out there but are afraid of putting yourself out there.

Judith Cornell:

Yes. Where an insecure bunch of people. Artists tend to be that way. Very self critical. There are some very great performers who have been physically ill offstage before they come on to sing. And it seems startling to the fans to know that, but it's true.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are some of the things when you were. You used to work at Bowdoin, Bates and Colby Colby with the music departments and as an instructor.

Judith Cornell:

Of singing?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes, of singing. So you've done that. You've been a singer yourself. Now you have your own private practice. What are some of the things that people tend to come to you with as complaints?

Judith Cornell:

Pain. Something in the workplace that feels uncomfortable, that's given them problems. It doesn't have to be carpal tunnel, but things like sitting at computers for long periods of time. So neck and shoulder and arm discomfort. People who are recovering from surgery, Performing artists, cases like that. Most of my students have been performers or people who had pain already and perhaps had tried a lot of other modalities and hadn't been helped. So our work is to examine why do you happen to use your neck, shoulders and arms too much and cause them eventually to start talking to you and hurting? And if you can change, if you can identify, recognize and then change that habit, you go about your life differently.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Are there emotional and intellectual reasons why people or social reasons why people can start to do things physically that really don't work for them in a larger way?

Judith Cornell:

Oh sure. I think that's probably how we operate expectations of ourselves, what we imagine other people want from us. And in our society we're very goal oriented, we're not process oriented. So we live in our brains thinking, oh, I've got a deadline or I'm late or somebody expects something of me and I have to deliver it and it makes tension. So whatever you think in your mind goes into the musculature of the body and into the other systems of the. Of the body.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So does some of what you are working on have to do with helping people understand what's going on with them emotionally or do you just work?

Judith Cornell:

It's all one emotion and body is the same thing. So it can be an emotional release to free the body. I had the case of somebody who had been a dancer earlier in his life, had had injury which then precluded his dancing anymore. Back, lower back injury. We were just having him walk up and down my studio and he went down in one direction and he said, I'm so happy. And I said, good. Why's that? And he said, I don't know. It's just a feeling that came over me, feeling of freedom and able to move without the pain I was used to experiencing before. So it made him happy. The emotion came.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I understand that in the Alexander technique there is a concept called end gaining.

Judith Cornell:

Yes, there is. And it is what we were just talking about. When your attention is not on what's happening right now, but on the prize. In other words, what you have to achieve down the road. So you're thinking of the end of your endeavors rather than how am I going to get there in the best possible way so that whatever the end might be, it's going to be successful. So we call end gaining that tendency which everybody has and changing that focus to the means whereby, which is, how am I sitting on this stool? How am I talking? How am I breathing? How am I interacting with you?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It strikes me that this is very similar to the idea of mindfulness and being fully present.

Judith Cornell:

Yeah, it is.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But you offer in addition to the idea of mindfulness, which I think a lot of people understand the concept, you actually offer physical ways of achieving that.

Judith Cornell:

Yes, yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So describe to me some of the ways that you might work with someone who is having a hard time with doing anything other than end gaining.

Judith Cornell:

We work on everyday movement. If someone were to come for the first time and I would explain a little bit and answer some questions, perhaps work on something like being seated in a chair and what are you noticing about that? So it's an everyday thing you do, constantly bringing your attention back to what your body's doing to allow you to balance in an easy way without tension. So you don't slump, you don't have your head falling forward, you don't close on the front of your body with your arms. We try something a little bit different and I keep bringing their attention back to how it's feeling, asking them what they're noticing. Most people notice a little something, not necessarily everyone. So you take increments.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What about vocalizing? Do you ever have people do anything with vocalizing and getting back to sort of the deeper breathing?

Judith Cornell:

Well, breathing is a very important part of lessening tension in the body. Holding and compressing the body happens if we hold our breath. If we're anxious, anticipating something bad is going to happen. It's a defense mechanism. But it's nice if it's not there all the time. If we have a tough job and we find we're holding our breath all day, this is bad. So examining breathing, how people do it, if it can be loosened and opened up a little bit, let the body occupy all the space it's entitled to, not to be Pulled in and down.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This occupying of space I think is very interesting because there are many people who walk around believing that maybe they're not worthy of occupying space. Do you find that that is true?

Judith Cornell:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So give me an example of someone that you've worked with before that you had the sense they really didn't feel as if they deserved to be out in the world occupying the space that they were meant to occupy.

Judith Cornell:

I had an older lady who was a very hard working employee of a college and she had a lot of responsibility and deadlines and pressure and they would be worse when there was an event coming up. She was sort of in charge of details. She had. Well, I know she had neck and shoulder tension. I can't now remember if it was also headaches, may have been grinding of teeth. It certainly could have been very nice person, an older person from a different generation. She asked if what I did might be helpful and I said it definitely would. If it suits you, please come and let's find out. So she came over. We had a series of lessons, perhaps four or five, and I was happy. She seemed happy. She finally told me, I don't think I'm going to continue because I don't feel justified in spending this much time on myself, which kind of set me back a little bit. And I did not say, but of course you deserve to, because it was her beliefs and that was something that she'd formulated her life around and I felt sorry for that. And I said, well, please feel free to come back if you'd like to.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Could that also apply to people who are perhaps have either truly been victimized or perceive themselves to have been victimized physically, physically or emotionally or otherwise?

Judith Cornell:

Yes, yes. And those emotions can come up if it's something that has been held down or ignored. I can think of some examples during my training course where there were a group of us meeting every day. We got to know one another well. And some of the younger women I remember had periods of crying because they could remember as they were trying to let go of holding and protection in their bodies, where that habit had begun. In other words, it went back to unfortunate circumstances.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What about the idea of shame and people who perhaps they've been in a situation where something has gone wrong and they felt deeply embarrassed or deeply shamed, or even if it's something they haven't done wrong but other people have accused them of something. Does this tend to cause people to be inhibited in themselves?

Judith Cornell:

Oh, yes, because all of that is kept in the body in the same sense. That a physical injury. If you've had whiplash, your neck will remember that. If I put my hand on the neck of somebody who's complaining of whiplash, you can feel the rigidity in the musculature there. So helping that person to dare let go in a safe environment where they trust their teacher can be very beneficial if they choose to do it. But of course, they have to decide to do that. So what we are going for, would like to share with our students is how the body itself is wonderfully designed, works beautifully. We all, as children, sat, ran, squatted, did somersaults with no pain or discomfort. Life teaches us habits, not all of them good ones. And if we can shed some of those, we come closer to the ease and freedom that we had when we were younger. And it's a wonderful feeling.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have a practice in South Portland?

Judith Cornell:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you said you've treated things from carpal tunnel to pain to other various constrictions?

Judith Cornell:

Yes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

People who are listening right now, what types of things might they seek you out for? In addition to those, I've worked with speakers.

Judith Cornell:

I have worked with students who sign for the deaf, where there is tension involved in the arms and shoulders from that profession, which has a lot of involvement from the hands and arms. I've worked with all sorts of musicians, guitarists, cellists, flute players, violinists. So a little bit of everything, really. I've been teaching since 1992 in the Portland area. I think I'm the only teacher in Maine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And how can people find you?

Judith Cornell:

My telephone number, 7721984. You can also access online Alexander Technique, and there is a directory of teachers from our professional organization that's online.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you have something that you'd like to read to us?

Judith Cornell:

Well, I thought I could read something that seems very clear and precise. We are designed for movement. Whether we are dancing, hammering a nail, working at a computer, singing a song, or walking to the store, we possess an inherent capacity to move naturally. Naturalness encourages ease, flexibility, power and expressiveness. Unwittingly, we often interfere with this design. Energy, delight and grace give way to effort, tension and fatigue. The Alexander Technique gives us a working knowledge of the principles which govern human coordination. The Alexander Technique can imbue our lives with time, appreciation and significance.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, Judy, thank you for coming in and speaking with me and with all of us who are listening today. I've been speaking with Judith Cornell, who is a certified Alexander Technique teacher and instructor to many artists, musicians and people around the state of Maine. So thank you for all the work you're doing and for talking to us today.

Judith Cornell:

My pleasure, Lisa. Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We and the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast hope that our listeners enjoy

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

their own work lives to the same

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

extent we do and fully embrace every day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth, Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here are a few thoughts from Marcy

[Unidentified voice]:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

In the studio with us to Today

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

we have Kathy Plourde, who is the founder and director of Adverb Productions, which is now associated with the University of New England but has been a freestanding nonprofit for many years up until 2011. I first learned about Kathy through TEDxDirago and I'm very pleased to have her coming in to talk to me today. Thanks for being here.

Cathy Plourde:

Good morning. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kathy, you have a lot of different, very important social media issues that you've addressed over time. The reason you got into all of this is an interesting story. Talk about that.

Cathy Plourde:

I used to teach high school and was a ombudsman for youth that were struggling with a list of issues, some of them dealing with their rights in the administration, and some of it dealing with health stuff that people weren't paying attention to, and some of it dealing with safety, so sexual assault, things like that. And I was working with a group of people that were creating a conference for girls. And a friend of mine in the group said, you know what this conference needs is a play to start the day. Why don't you write one? So I said, okay. And so one year, one conference led to another conference in another year, which led to other groups around the state creating conferences for girls, commissioning plays from me, or asking me to work with groups of youth to create their own play commissions. Then came from groups like the Maine Women's Fund, and then strange things like the Knox County Coalition Against Tobacco commissioned play on tobacco cessation. So financial literacy to sexuality to all over it. That's where it started.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You spent some time before getting really into adverb, going back and kind of exploring your roots in the writing world. You were at Bread Loaf in Vermont. Yeah, that's kind of a big detour.

Cathy Plourde:

Not really, because I had gone to Bread Loaf on a special institute. It was an NIH summer institute in theater specifically, which is why I went there and did playwriting and directing and some acting and performing there, and was introduced by some of the folks there, Carol McVeigh, Al McVeigh, a couple other folks whose names I'm not remembering about using theater in pedagogy and using it specifically as a tool for teaching and using that to break through. So whether you're teaching science and the circulation system in the body, or if you're trying to teach a social issue or nuance, theatre is a really amazing tool, regardless of the age. So that's where it started for me, was in Bread Loaf.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Playwrights traditionally have run the gamut from people who are providing something that's simply entertaining to people who really are approaching social causes. You could have gone for easy, but you chose to go for more challenging.

Cathy Plourde:

Yeah. Somebody once asked me when I was workshopping the play, you, the man, why I did this instead of write real plays. When I talked myself back into my chair, I explained that, in fact, these were shows that were not sitting in a drawer wishing someone else would produce them. This was a DIY situation where people were not dealing with these issues. And to be fair, it's not just people want to avoid talking about sexual assault with young people or dating violence or eating disorders. With young people, we don't know how. We don't know what our resources are. And I think since Adverb began and even before this work sort of began, before adverb's inception in 2000, the idea here was to not only give people information, valuable, clear, accurate information, and to bust through myths and things like that, but to. To give people an opportunity to think about what they can do. I was workshopping the Thin Line back in. It must have been 1998, and a group had asked me if I would remount one of the conference shows from the spring. And I said no, because that was 10 teenagers in the middle of July in Camden. They're busy. It's not going to happen. How about I workshop my new play? I said. And they said, oh, great. Of course, I hadn't written it yet, so this is really fantastic for me, having a deadline, an audience in advance. And, you know, that's very much my muse in that regard. And so I workshopped this piece on eating disorders. And a young woman was in the audience. Her friend was the actor I had roped into being the performer in that situation. And she gave me a gift. And her gift was, so what we know, our friends are dealing with this. What we do not know is what to do about it. And that really became sort of the litmus test for all of the work. And I'm not saying we've hit that mark every time, but that's been the goal. It's not enough to know that we need to create, you know, that it's hard for youth who are struggling with their gender identity or families who are struggling with their gender identity. They're perfectly fine with it. But how do we. How do we get people to a place where they know what to do or what to say or. Because things aren't simply prescriptive or they're often unique to an individual or situation. How do we give people the tools to even begin communicating about it? And that's what I love about theater, is that you and I, let's say I'm your kid and you're my mom, and we go to a play and we see this thing about dating violence together. We can talk about that. And that what happened in the play, and does that happen to your friends? Do you think that was realistic? Or are you seeing any of that so you can have that conversation with me in a way that is not as threatening? You know, what are you doing on Saturday night? You know, what are your friends doing? It's a softer approach and paradoxically because of the approach, you get closer and it gets more personal and deeper quite quickly. It's an affective, emotional experience that is shared, and that's what we want. We don't want to leave people in a puddle. We want people to really think about, wow, I understand this in a new way. And wow, I see. I need to do something. And wow, I actually know where my resources are.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is, in fact, what you or someone has written for the back on the back of this book, out and Allied, an anthology of performance pieces written by LGBTQ youth and allies. This comes out of Adverb Productions you've written. It is not enough to just raise awareness. We have to do something, and we need others around us to join in. So what is this interactive piece, this joining in that you're discussing? Because some people think about plays as I watch you do. There it goes. Right.

Cathy Plourde:

Well, most of the time, anybody that comes to see an Adverb production, or if young people are using the scripts from out and Allied, the people in the audience have not purchased a ticket. Most of the time, they're what I call a captive audience. For some reason, they are compelled to be there, and they probably would not have chosen to do that on that particular moment in time. So there's that respect for having. There's respect for the people in the room. There are people in the room who are connected to the issues. So whether we're talking, again, eating disorders or dating violence, sexual assault or gender spectrum issues, there are people who know the issue way too well, too personally, and have a connection to it. And to propose that a play is going to have the answers and solve it all and make it perfect, and we're all gonna walk away feeling moved and happy. And that's not how it works. I want the play to be a starting point. So there's a sense of having respect for the people in the room and respect for their difficulty in approaching the issue. Respect for, you know, in every room when you. The man is performed, there are survivors. It may not be dating violence, but it might have been childhood sexual abuse, or it may have been dating the person who's abusive to them or who has sexually assaulted them might be in the room. And so how do we have this conversation as a community and create safety in the room as well as in the individual seats for everyone? That's kind of what we want to do with Adverb is think through a large process of engaging a community, galvanizing local resources, because, you know, the play is a play. The actors are actors. They are going away. And I don't put either myself or the actors or the play itself ahead of what's really important and that people's lives need to be saved.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

In, out and allied. There is a piece called what Makes a Man. This person writes, I am not gay, but because I stand up for equality, people will assume I'm gay.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's just how society is these days. It just seems as if everyone's chief fear is being accused of being gay, as if it were some sort of Salem witch trial. The difference here is that being gay isn't a bad thing, and neither is

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

supporting gay friends and family.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So why are straight men so afraid of being called gay?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is that part of it that people don't want to be? They don't want to stand up because they don't want to somehow be associated with a group that has been marginalized.

Cathy Plourde:

Yeah, you're tapping into that issue of voice. Really, really clearly. People are afraid to use their voice. There's a list of reasons why we're afraid it might not be safe. There might be something to lose. There might be some consequences, whether it be resistance from their own family or their own cultural norm, or, you know, if they're in a locker room and someone's, you know, making noise, it might not be the right time to interject. And I think we have to honor that. But with this writing, this young man actually lives here in Portland. He was an intern with us and helped put the manuscript together for the book Micah Malifont. With this, we're offering an opportunity for people to voice. So the plays are not going to give everybody's story, but they're going to give that opportunity for us to hear the other stories. And if we've made it safe in a community to talk about sexual identity or orientation or sexual assault or dating violence or eating disorders, we've made it safe to talk about lots of things. So it's partly, I think, this idea of empowering people to use voice is in part empowering a community to support hearing and meeting people who are using their voice and have things that they need to say. Does that make sense?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes, it makes a lot of sense. And I'm glad that you're also bringing the work that you're doing to the medical community. I understand that you're working with the University of New England and their medical school.

Cathy Plourde:

Yeah, that was really a lovely match made in heaven. I've actually had board members over the years who were UNE employees and sort of at the end of ADVERB'S existence as a nonprofit. I told my board, look, got about two more years here. This is hard. It's uphill. You know, frankly, we never recovered from the recession in 2008, so much of our funding was fee for service. So we've been relying on grants and donor support. And I can keep doing this for two more years or here's an opportunity. One of our board members worked at the University of New England. He's an associate dean at the Westbrook College of Health Professions. And he said, you know, we've been working together all along. I've gone into his classes numerous times. And if you look at your mission of theater for health and wellness education, and you look at the University of New England's mission of health and wellness education, there's a beautiful fit here. And so it's been wonderful to take on. It sounds so strange to take. Take on domestic violence issues with the medical community or the folks who are training to be our health professionals with these issues that are not easy for them. They're just like anybody else. You know, why would it be easier for, you know, a doctor or a nurse or somebody to take on and start talking about domestic violence? How many times have I heard the story of, yeah, yeah, a nurse screened and she said, well, oh, we have to ask. You're not in a violent situation at home, are you? And they have communicated in a way that clearly says, this is how you're supposed to answer this question. I'm not willing to hear yes. And what is that healthcare professional afraid of in the yes. They're afraid that they won't know what to do. They're afraid they won't know how to fix it. They're afraid that in the lovely restrictive healthcare system we have right now, but in the eight and a half minutes they have to talk to somebody, they can't really serve the person. So if you can't serve them, let's not open the can of worms. The other issue here is that people are coming to health professions like anybody else with their own histories and own stories. And so part of what may get in the way of them wanting to hear yes is they haven't dealt with their own stuff on this. And we have found that when we've presented the work on domestic violence to the students training as health professionals that there's been surprise, surprise, an uptick in the counseling services and their notation of reason for seeking services, history with violence. With this, we're educating our staff and faculty at UNE that if a student is having Some problems, you don't just nod your head empathetically, you do something about it and you offer to listen to them, you offer to connect them to the resources on campus. So there's this whole shift in helping people understand we've got to deal with this issue. And what is amazing is the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, which was a study by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, 18,000 people. And the idea here is that, huh, there's a correlation between adverse childhood experiences such as abuse and long term health effects. It's kind of a no brainer if you think about it. They've also found that the higher the cluster, higher the number of these adverse experiences, the higher the incidence of chronic illness and long term health effect. So if you know as a healthcare provider that your patient has some issues with depression and if you know that they are someone who has a history of violence or has it going on in their life right now, you need to really take a closer ear to this. And we've moved from, I don't mean to be dismissed by this, but sort of garden variety depression to higher incidents of suicidality and suicide ideation. So you've got to step in in a whole new way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is to help make connections between

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the health of the individual and the health of the community.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.

[Unidentified voice]:

Years ago, when I would go out into the desert with my shaman, I studied with him for four years in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. We would go visit the grandmother trees or we'd go visit the stone people. And we would name those places and we'd call those places out. And it's important in your own landscape to call those places out, to name those places, to give it a name. Once you give something a name, it sort of stays with you forever and it has a deeper and richer meaning. And there's areas on your property that can be called out and named as well. And I do that often with people and I'll even put it in their designs and I'll name it for them sometimes and the name sticks. Years later I'll go back and they'll say, oh yes, we're going to go out to the place, the worship garden. And I called it out as a worship garden and they remembered that. So just name areas of your property and call them out. I think you'll find it to be quite meaningful and put a piece of art, a piece of sculpture out there. Do something that gives that place recognition. I'm Ted Carter and if you'd like to contact me, I can be reached@tedcarterdesign.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

At the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, we believe we are helping to build a better world with the help of many. We like to bring to you people who are examples of those building a better world in the areas of wellness, health and fitness. To talk to you today about one of these fitness is Jim Greaterix, the president of Premier Sports Health, a division

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of Black Bear Medical.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here's Jim.

[Unidentified voice]:

Did you watch the Olympics last year and see the athletes wearing that funky tape on their shoulders and wonder what the heck is that deal? Well, it's called Kinesiology Athletic Tape and it works like an orthopedic brace without limiting range of motion. It provides stability for muscles, joints and tendons and helps reduce pain while maintaining flexibility for better support and increased endurance. So if you have knee, shoulder, ankle or foot pain or have that one muscle that just flares up after increased activity, come in and have our staff help you out. We'll have you performing like an Olympic beach volleyballer in no time. I'm Jim Greatorex, president of Black Bear Medical. Come on in and see our trained staff down at 275 Marginal Way and at www.blackbearmedical.com.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

it does seem interesting to me as we're talking that a lot of these topics are kind of interwoven where, you know, if you're somebody who has a history and not always, but if there is someone who has a history of violence in the home or dating violence, it's possible that they're more likely to have an eating disorder.

Cathy Plourde:

Absolutely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Just a lot of these things that are adverse childhood events and even adult events, they're all kind of interconnected.

Cathy Plourde:

Very much, very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So when you open this Pandora's box and you see that all of these things are sort of crawling around, what happens next?

Cathy Plourde:

Next? Well, naming it is often the first step, being seen having your voice heard, it comes right back to voice. But I think we've got to consider the. So what? Like that young woman said to me many years ago, so what are we going to do about it? And in fact, there is a social and I think even a moral accountability here to not turn a blind eye and even just naming it and telling somebody I see this is. There's a woman, for example, who I've worked with for many, many years who does domestic violence work. And she shared with me not too long ago a story of having been in the ER for, you know, injuries brought on by abuse. And nobody in the hospital said a thing. Then as she was leaving, she was out almost to the parking lot. This guy ran out and said, here's a number, I want you to call him if you would, please, because he saw it. And that, she said, was the beginning of her being able to take a step for herself, for her to find her own voice. So I think that there's this interesting connection between, you know, what does it mean to empower somebody? What does it mean to allow voice? Part of it is just being witness and letting people know that. A wonderful thing another woman from the domestic violence community said to me once is that if you say nothing, you have actually chosen to stand with the abuser or the bully or the whatever here. That in fact, there's a complicity in silence. And that's really what's behind adverbs. Work is to break that silence. A, but B, to add, if you will, the verb to add the action. What are we going to do about it? Because it's really, really not enough to just raise awareness.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You and I had a conversation about perhaps art or plays that somehow kind of pick open up a wound, but then leave there nowhere to go. People can be deeply impacted by something that they see or they hear and

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

really shaken, but it's not really.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's not really a safe way of, you know, having these feelings because then they leave. Say they leave the play and what do you do with it?

Cathy Plourde:

Yeah, well, I think an artist is an artist, and they have whatever creative reign license they wish to have. Adverb's work is almost exclusively captive audience. And in that case, I feel like I have more of a responsibility to respect the fact that they may not have had a choice to be there. And I don't wish to dump on them. Sometimes people use theater and art in a magical, wonderful way to move them through an issue. You know, they're giving voice to that abuse or that story or that, you know, however big or small it may seem to anybody else, it doesn't matter. It's their own journey and their own story. And you know, honestly, some of that probably should either stay in your diary or stay with your therapist or invite a close group of friends who are consenting and are okay, sit hard holding witness in that space. There's stuff that I think sometimes abuses an audience, and I just, I'm uncomfortable with that as an artist myself.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Kathy, how can people find out about adverb?

Cathy Plourde:

Well, adverb is spelled with two Ds. You should know that because it's adding the verb. And we're at the University of New England, so we're at the Une Edu. Quick link page. I've got a blog that I'm keeping up with right now chronicling our translation of the play you the man into Australian. It's about to be used down under, a statewide initiative in Victoria, which is very, very exciting. And yes, it meant I had to go there. And so, yeah, online is a great place to find us. And you'll find some, some great book trailers that students have created about out and allied. And we got lots of resources. So please come find us, volunteer, get on our mailing list, send us money, whatever you like.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And they can also watch the TEDxDirrego talk.

Cathy Plourde:

Yes, yes, that's kind of embarrassing, but yes, you could.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I've watched it. I think it's worth paying attention to. And you have your talk and then you also have a bit of, I guess it's a portion of one of the plays that you do.

Cathy Plourde:

Two of the plays are featured in there. And I guess it's embarrassing because the work is meant to be without me. I'm not used to putting myself front and center. I sort of stand at the side of the work and monitor it, but it's really not about me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we thank you for joining us today because today it is about you and it is about the work that you've done, done with the, with adverb. And I appreciate all of the. Well, I guess I appreciate the spotlight that you've been able to shine on issues such as domestic violence and eating disorders.

Cathy Plourde:

Thanks.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I encourage people to go take a look at what you're doing.

Cathy Plourde:

Thanks. We'd love to take a show to anybody's community. So let us know.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 98, Finding Voice. Our guests have included Judith Cornell and Kathy Plourd. For more information on our guests and extended versions of their interviews, visit drlisabelisle.com I'd like to let you know about a special event coming up on August 1st and 2nd at the Astaku Inn in Northeast Harbor. This is Artworks to Benefit the Land and Garden Preserve. The Land and Garden Preserve, a non profit organization on Mount Desert island committed to maintaining and preserving woods and trails in that area, will be hosting an art sale at the Astaku Inn in Northeast Harbor. The lands and gardens of the preserve have inspired area artists for over 50 years and they have invited a select group of current artists to create original work for this special two day exhibit. The purpose of this event is to raise funds for the preserve, encourage artists to experience wonderful landscapes and provide an opportunity for the public to enjoy their original images and reflections in one's setting. Proceeds from the sales will equally benefit the artists and the preserve. For more information on Artworks to benefit the Land and garden preserve, visit gardenpreserve.org the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E. Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and well being on The Bountiful blog. Bountiful-blog.com we love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that you have enjoyed our Finding Voice show and hoping that you will be encouraged to find your own voice. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.