White Clematis I, Copyright 2011 David J. Bookbinder

A local clematis, seen at a Boston flower show.

Please support this work by contributing to my Kickstarter fundraiser:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phototransformations/the-flower-mandalas-project

The fundraiser ends September 14th. If the project is funded before then, every pledge, even $1, will receive, minimally, a unique Kickstarter-only “Fifty-Two Flower Mandalas” screensaver. If the goal is not met by September 14th, the project won’t be funded at all.

So, please help make this project a reality — and, for your generosity, also receive Flower Mandala prints, copies of the book and other products at a Kickstarter-only discounted rate.

More anon,
-David
David J. Bookbinder, LMHC
Discussion: Facebook Flower Mandalas page
Request the 15 Flower Mandalas screensaver (Windows only): Fifteen Flower Mandalas

© 2011, David J. Bookbinder. All rights reserved.
Permission required for publication. Images available for licensing.
davidbookbinder.com

The Flower Mandalas Project Needs Your Help!

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
- Carl Jung

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phototransformations/the-flower-mandalas-project

As you may know, I have been making Flower Mandalas for the last several years. At first, they helped me with inner healing and self-discovery. Later, I began to share them with others. From feedback here and on my Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/flowermandalas), I have seen how these images can be transformative. Now, I’m putting them into a form I hope will have both a broader and a deeper effect than I’ve been able to achieve so far.

But it’s going to take work to get there and I need your help to do it

FIFTY-TWO FLOWER MANDALAS BOOK

I’m creating a book called Fifty-Two Flower Mandalas. It consists of 52 Flower Mandala images, each linked to a related concept, inspirational quote, and personal essay. The book will delve into 52 fundamental aspects of the human experience. My hope is that through this project the mandalas will reach a broader audience, promoting inner harmony and peace and inspiring others to use art as a means of healing and transformation – the primary purposes it has served for me.

This is my most important artistic project to date. Through images and words, I hope to distill and convey to a broad audience what I have gleaned from 10 years as a psychotherapist, 20 years of life beyond a near-death experience, and 60 years on the planet.

From Chapter 1, “Awakening”

The book will be square format, produced in both a deluxe 12″x12″ hardcover limited edition and a high-quality 8″x8″ softcover edition. In addition to the book, this content will also be presented, eventually, as a print/multimedia exhibition, portable electronic version, and website.

P.S. As a way of saying thanks for your support, there are tangible rewards for your help. See below.

KICKSTARTER.COM

To fund it, I have launched a Kickstarter.com project. Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects from private donations. Contributors (Backers) receive rewards that are related to the projects and are proportional in value to their contributions. Project creators set the contribution levels and concomitant rewards.

From Chapter 26, “Love”

Here’s a link to a full description of the project, a list of the Backer Rewards, and ways to contribute:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phototransformations/the-flower-mandalas-project

My goal is to raise $7500 over the next 45 days. The fundraiser ends September 14, 2011.

ALL OR NOTHING!

Kickstarter is a time-limited, all-or-nothing system. If the goal of $7500 is not met in the 45 days of the project fundraiser, no money changes hands.

According to Kickstarter, about 50% of their projects get funded. I want to be in that 50%!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phototransformations/the-flower-mandalas-project

WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?

The initial $7500 will go toward:

• Taking time to select the images, match them to concepts and quotes, and write the essays.
• Designing the layout of the book, including consultation with a book designer and selecting fonts for text and headings.
• Printing samples of the book and getting them reviewed
• Creating and shipping the Backer Rewards.

Projects can be exceed their funding goals. If The Flower Mandalas Project exceeds the $7500 goal within the 45-day time limit, I will use the additional funds to support development of the exhibition and electronic versions and to pursue getting them into healing environments. (See the project description for details.)

MORE ON BACKER REWARDS

In addition to intangibles such as my gratitude, the sense that you are helping someone do something good in the world, and the excitement of being part of the Kickstarter community (it’s a truly cool idea!), there are actual, tangible Backer Rewards.

Contributions can range from $1 to $1000, with appropriate rewards for each level of contribution. Rewards include copies of the book, as well as Flower Mandala prints, greeting cards, and screensavers. I’ve tried to make the retail value of the rewards at least equal to the contributions.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phototransformations/the-flower-mandalas-project

SPREAD THE WORD!

Thank you in advance for your contributions and support. One more request: Please help spread the word!

Remember, Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing deal. If we raise the money by the September 14 deadline, the project gets funded. If not, no money changes hands and we’re back to square one.

So, please spread the word! The more people who know about this project, the more likely it is to get funded. Even $1 contributions bring the project closer to meeting its goal.

STAY CONNECTED!

Stay connected by following the project’s updates, becoming a fan on Facebook, and/or following the project here, at Behance.net, and on the Beliefnet Flower Mandalas blog. I will be releasing mini-chapters as I create them and look forward to your responses.

Thanks again!

See you in Cyberspace,

David J. Bookbinder, LMHC

Although it’s been months since I have published anything on this blog, I have not forgotten. I’m working on a presentation on ways to develop resilience that I will be publishing here soon. Meanwhile, I have also resumed my early morning meditation of walking to Independence Park near my house in Beverly, MA, and photographing the islands off Beverly Harbor. (Independence Park is so named because it was the first place north of Boston that the Declaration of Independence was read.)

I recommend something like this exercise to many of my clients — a regular activity that helps to counteract, in a predictable way, a tendency they want to change. In my case, I’m prone to depression, and there is a feedback loop for me between depression, staying inside, and doing photography: When I am moving in the direction of depression, I tend to stay inside in the morning and do not take pictures. The antidote is to do the opposite of what depression tells me to do: go outside as early as possible and take pictures. Then this early warning sign of depression, like the early morning clouds and mist, lifts.

This image was shot on the morning of November 14, 2009.

More anon,
David
© 2009-2010, David J. Bookbinder
davidbookbinder.com

Here’s a summary of some of the ways I use creativity in counseling:

Writing Techniques

Memoirs of Addiction and Recovery (working with addicts, writing, and the Hero’s Journey)

I often find that addicts are creative and sensitive people who grew up in the wrong place. Addiction is often a way of coping for them, one that leads, generally, to further trauma. Art, had they grown up in a different environment, might have been a way they had instead chosen to deal with their more sensitive take on the world.

I can help bring them back to the art and the energy that has been sidetracked into addiction: to redirect this energy into something that feeds rather than depletes them, heals rather than retraumatizes. A future they might not have had opens up because they learn to re-channel this energy. I see them as people who were, or could have been, on a creative or spiritual path who got diverted because of trauma, and I see addiction as the “spell” that held them there. I help them get back on their main path through letting them experience highs from being creative instead of from addictive, self-destructive behaviors.

One way I combine creativity and addiction is in writing groups I call “Memoirs of Addiction and Recovery.” I create a temporary writing community that helps addicts feel accompanied on their recovery and broadens their ability to overcome discouragement and shame and to recover their true selves. I also sometimes work with clients individually, using writing in a similar way. The framework I often use is Joseph Campbell’s monomyth of the Hero’s Journey, which not only rescues from shame the dark period of the clients’ lives, but gives them a path to go forward on where they will eventually obtain a true boon to themselves, others, or both.

Wounded Child/Inner Healer two-hands writing technique

Imagine yourself walking in a familiar place. In the distance you see someone walking toward you. When the person gets closer, you see it’s a child. When still closer, you see that it is your younger self. Imagine that this child is feeling a confusing or disturbing feeling that you, yourself, are feeling. Notice how old the child is, how the child looks and acts. Imagine, as well, that you are feeling at your most compassionate and empathic. With your dominant hand, write what you would say to this child. With your non-dominant hand, imagining yourself to be this child, feeling what is bothering him or her, respond. Continue to go back and forth between dominant and non-dominant hands until you come to some resolution.

Visualization techniques

Breaking the Trauma Re-enactment Triangle

Imagine three parts of yourself: the injured child (victim of abuse), the abuser, and a non-protecting bystander. Re-enact the trauma re-enactment triangle of abuser, victim, non-protecting bystander. Now, imagine a true protector who intervenes on your behalf, defending you against the internalized abuser. Work through this re-enactment, calling on whatever forces are needed to render the abuser harmless and the injured child self safe.

Psychodrama techniques

Sometimes I work with client to develop a “character” that is able to do or be or feel something that the client, in his or her everyday life, cannot. I work with the client to create the background, the voice, the mannerisms, the style of dress. We may even do a therapy session or part of a session with the client acting as that character. The goal is for the client to be that character in his or her life, allowing the client to do what, inside, he or she actually wants to do.

Splitting Ambivalence (a variation of Gestalt)

With a client ambivalent about something, I will often effectively divide the client into two parts (or more) and have the client move around the room, from chair to chair, speaking as first one part then the other. We treat this as a debate and it continues until all sides have fully had their say. Then, we imagine another part of has been watching this debate. That part reflects on the points each side has made, then sees if it can help the “others” come to a resolution that satisfies all sides.

Splitting Ambivalence (a variation of Focusing)

Here, the client divides into two parts, each of which has two halves — one half that wants something for the client, the other half that doesn’t want the client to have to experience something. We use Focusing to work each half of each part, until they come to a potential resolution.

When I work with artists I pay attention to the ways they use art to deal with their issues. I harness the skills they already have in dredging from their depths something unclear but important and creating from it something meaningful to help them re-imagine and recreate their lives. I point out that they, too, are on a hero’s path; that simply by choosing to be artists they have already veered out of safe territory and into the unknown or uncreated. As with addicts, I help them find models for moving forward, help them find their place in the monomyth, and then invent the steps they need in order to move forward. I often use the Miracle Question, borrowed from brief, solution-focused therapy, as a way to put them temporarily into this more full life and more realized version of themselves.

One way I work with artists or with people who are hoping to develop more creative lives is with groups I call “Cultivating Your Creative Self.” I create a temporary, supportive co mmunity in which people envision the lives they want to live and use the power and imagination of the group to get there. See the “Groups” page of my website for more information on “Cultivating Your Creative Self” groups and related workshops.