I thought this was an interesting passage from a forthcoming book about the Australian TC pioneer, Neville Yeoman by Les Spencer:

Detox and Afternoon Tea

Excerpt from Coming to Ones Senses – By the Way

Now I’ll tell you a story called ‘Detox and Afternoon Tea’. 

Dr. Neville Yeomans was the founder of Fraser House in 1959, Australia’s first Therapeutic Community that took in addicts, people out of jail on parole, and mentally disturbed people. Neville raised the idea of having Aboriginal and Islander Elders from across the Australian Top End interested in or experienced in working with at-risk youth to come and stay for a week at Petford a therapeutic community inland from Cairns in Queensland in 1992. This Gathering occurred. 

An at-risk Aboriginal young man with drug addiction who was out on bail on drug related charges came to stay at Petford for the Gathering. A few days before the gathering this young man went with the Petford youth to see a rodeo. As an aside, Geoff’s young niece also went along to the rodeo and rode the bucking bull with every bit of the panache as the boys and stayed the time limit before being plucked off by a passing rodeo arena person on horse back. That’s what the young people learn to do around Geoff at Petford  where riding horses and cattle is a way of life for some. The youth that arrive at Petford are not of this way.

The young man out on bail absconded and was picked up by the police three days later wearing a pail blue Petford T shirt that all the boys wore to compete at the rodeo. He was having severe drug withdrawals from taking more than one type of drug that he had obtained in the town near where the rodeo was being held. The police respect Geoff’s work and returned this young man to Petford. 

Some youth worker professionals also attending the Gathering said that their standard practice was to send drug-affected youth to detox for a number of days before accepting them into their programs. 

Neville said that this was not an option for this youth as the nearest detox was hours away and everyone wanted to stay and take in the experience of the Gathering. 

All the attendees of the Gathering and the youth of Petford were sitting and standing around waiting for tea and coffee and scones to be served at an afternoon tea break. 

This drug affected youth was severely disturbed and making a lot of disturbance. Then Neville suddenly said to me very loudly so everyone could hear:

Work with Max (the disturbed youth).

And bring him back to serve tea and coffee in ten minutes.

Neville turned and said to Max:

Max, go with this man. 
Inside now. 
Be back in ten minutes. 
Be ready to serve everyone tea and coffee.

Max was quivering and shaking, in no fit state to do anything, let alone be handing out tea or coffee to over 120 people. 

He was stumbling and incoherent. Within eight minutes he walked out again, and in ten minutes he served tea and coffee to everyone without spilling a drop.

So what happened inside? 

When inside I say to Max:

You have ten minutes to.....settle down now…....sit down….and what’s it like inside you…..eh…..come on…..what’s it like in there…where is it the strongest….in here…(pointing to his head)….in here..(pointing to his belly)….in here….(pointing to his chest then his throat)….in here…(pointing to his heart)…..come on…you know….it’s your body….what’s happening…you can feel it…..what’s it like in here…(pointing to his head again)....

I’m matching his state and closely monitoring for any state change towards anger and berserk.....and he stays high charged though very confused and scattered...

I keep up a constant overloading barrage of questions asking him to tell me what is happening inside of him…and his brain has to try to make sense of my words…… and then I refer to his breathing:

And how are you breathing now…..what’s that like…….what’s breathing like?

He takes a deep breath.

.....yes......you changed…

....and you’ve been changing ever since you sat down.... 

...your heart rate has slowed.... 
....you’re shaking less.... 

.....you’re breathing more slowly now..

……..and you’re more steady….

.....you’re quieter now…

….notice this……..how you are changing now…

…..slowing down…

…..all of that is getting quieter now…

….and what’s happening up here now…(pointing to his head)...

 ……..different to before….
……and here…....(pointing to his belly).... 

….different to before…

….….and here (pointing to his chest then throat)…

.....notice how it’s all changing now…

....and what’s happening…come on…what’s happening...eh?

Finally, he says:

I’m slowing down....
	
		Yes! And what else?

	I am not shaking so much....

		Feels better?

	Yeh....getting better.....

		And what’s ya head like inside?

	Head aches...
		
Where?

	Everywhere (points to his forehead).

What’s happening in the front of ya head (pointing to his forehead)?
	
It aches.
	
What about round the back (pointing to the back of his head).

	Na, just the front.

	And really notice that now…….what’s happening now....

	It was dull ache. Now it’s thumping.
	
So it is still changing in there.....
....and how fast is it thumping?

He does a fist gesture indicating rhythm.

	Notice what happens to the speed of the thumping.

	It’s getting slower......

And what happens to the sensation in your forehead …….when…….its getting slower now?

	It’s not so bad....
	
And what’s happening in ya belly?

	I feel crook.....

	What’s that feel like?

He does a hand gesture of his belly churning in a clockwise direction at a certain speed. I mirror this gesture back to him as I say....

And notice how that goes round and round inside ya belly…what’s happening to that now?
	
It’s slowing down now.
	
Feels better as it’s slowing down now?

	Yeh. Feeling better.

This last part about the turning sensation in Max’s belly is discussed by Bandler, and by the Andreas’ in their books on sensory submodalities (Bandler 1985; Andreas, S. & Andreas, C., 1987).

…….and all this is reminiscent of the Scorpion Mandala Story…….and slowing down is also reminiscent of the impatient van driver in the T intersection story…….

Notice that Max is non-consciously giving me signals as to what’s happening inside of him....and I’m being guided by and using these signals as clues as to what to say and do next.... 
Examples are underlined in the following:

Head aches
		Where?

	Everywhere (points to his forehead).

What’s happening in the front of ya head (pointing to his forehead)?
	
It aches.
	
What about round the back (pointing to the back of his head).

	Na, just the front.

	And really notice that now…….what’s happening now....

	It was dull ache. Now it’s thumping.
	
So it is still changing in there...and how fast is it thumping......

He does a fist gesture indicating rhythm.

	...and notice what happens to the speed of the thumping.

	It’s getting slower.

..and what happens to the sensation in ya forehead when 
its getting slower now...

	It’s not so bad.

	...and what’s happening in ya belly....
	
I feel crook.

	...and what’s that feel like...

He does a hand gesture of his belly churning in a clockwise direction at a certain speed.

And notice how that goes round and round inside ya belly…what’s happening to that now...

I do a gesture that mirrors what he’s doing with his hands. It is highly unlikely that Max is aware that he is giving me these signals with his hands. Max is unconsciously informing me about what to do next. I use these unconscious signals to guide me in guiding him as to what to be aware of in his changing experience.

This pattern of drawing Max’s awareness to his inner experience is by definition for him an altered state. Initially my interaction paced his manic quality. I was fast and jerky. I jumped his awareness around very fast. Once he started to change, I paced him in my speech and actions as he changed to become more slow and steady. I am drawing his awareness to his changes. 

Now for some of the metacontexts - the context of the Petford context where Max is challenged to serve afternoon tea. Max knew Neville was a psychiatrist and a key figure at the Gathering. He also knew that I was a key figure in the Gathering; the one who had arranged the funding and who had engaged with his mother to have him fly from Northern NSW up to the top end of Queensland and get a lift out to Petford. He also knew that I was directed by Neville in front of all of the attendees, including over ninety Aboriginal Elders at the Gathering from communities across the Australian Top End to have him fit to serve the afternoon drinks in ten minutes. Shame was a large factor.

Neville uses Ericksonian patterns in speaking to me and Max, using a series of short commands similar to what Jesus was said to have used to the lame man – ‘pick up your bed - and walk!’ 

Neville says to me:

Work with Max…..(the disturbed youth)….and...bring him back to serve tea and coffee in ten minutes.

Max hears this. It was said with absolute authority and carried the implication that this can be done and will happen. This is another example of speech acts. 
It also has Max’s brain going into a future world to make sense of this strange thing Neville has said – a world where he is normal and able to serve drinks. And at some level, Max’s bodybrain accesses states of ‘being normal’ and ‘being able to serve drinks’ in order to access this future world in making sense of Neville (Feldenkrais, 1972).

……..and speaking with authority is reminiscent of Alex talking to the two ‘boys’…….

Max’s nervous system is already in state change from what Neville had said. Neville also links the two parts of the sentence with the conjunction ‘and’. This in turn supports my ‘working’ with Max with the time-bound state change, ‘bring him back to serve tea and coffee in ten minutes’.

Then Neville turned and said to Max:

Max, go with this man (simple command).

Inside now! (simple command). 

Be back in ten minutes (time bound simple command). 

Be ready to serve everyone tea and coffee (simple command with implication of change).

Max is a very literal kind of fellow……and he’s drug affected….and knowing this…….Neville keeps sentences short.......literal......and specific …..and my language in talking with Max is similar……..and also saturated with Ericksonian patterns using suggestions...……presuppositions…...… implications and other patterns. 

When I’m inside with Max I too keep my sentences short.......literal......and specific...

Examples:

.....yes......you changed…

....and you’ve been changing ever since you sat down.... 

...your heart rate has slowed.... 

....you’re shaking less.... 
.....you’re breathing more slowly now..

……..and you’re more steady….

.....you’re quieter now…

And each of these short specific literal observation statements draw Max’s attention to changes that are already happening...and in this process...contribute to further system changes............Max is in drug withdrawal.....and awareness of change is further dissolving his state (Feldenkrais, 1972)....and he is now also overloaded with all of what has been happening....and with him suddenly being the focus of everyone’s attention including over 90 Aboriginal Elders attending the Gathering. I am using sequential stacked interrupt.

Once inside I grab his attention and focus his awareness on jumping it quickly between noticing how he feels in different parts of his body. Initially he is confused, though I insist on him doing this by constant requests for him to notice. As said above, I place an alternate demand on his perception – one that collapses his brain-addled state and has him entering an altered state of being aware of his awareness, and then to begin to notice differences as his body changes – as it invariably does when you begin noticing it. I then added suggestions for further change. 

I sense this activates changes in neuro-chemical cycling at Max’s synapses - the discharge, release, interaction with receptors, and re-storage or metabolism out of the neurochemical recycle loop so that external drugs (exogenous drugs) and excess internal ‘high as a kite’ chemicals are fast-tracked out of the system (Rossi, 1985; Rossi & Cheek, 1986).

To take this a little further, I understand neuro-chemical systems at the synapses have a lot of control points - whether or not the neurotransmitters are released from storage, whether the neuro-chemicals enter the synaptic cleft, whether they interact with receptors, whether they are either reabsorbed by the presynaptic cell, and then repackaged and placed into storage for future release, or else broken down metabolically and discharged from the body. Perhaps the interrupt processes I used quickly cleared out, or simplified the mix of internally and externally produced ‘chemical soup’ within his synapses. Within five minutes he is almost ready to serve drinks. 

The remaining few minutes is used in clearing away the ‘cobwebs’ so he is not only steady in his body and confident he can serve, he is going to be the pleasant sociable character that he is very capable of being. Max has no re-occurrence of any drug withdrawal symptoms that afternoon, or during the following week.

The discussion about simplifying the mix of internally and externally produced ‘chemical soup’ within his synapses is resonant with the story of Jogging on the Spot at the Front Door. The residual chemicals of that anti-anxiety drug was possibly broken down metabolically and discharged from the body. It took a few repeats, as some of the chemicals were perhaps reabsorbed by the presynaptic cell, and then repackaged and placed into storage and then released again into the system. 

The repeated process ‘washed’ the chemicals out of the body just as the state of ‘getting on with my life’ replaced the collapsed the state of ‘anxiety’ out of the woman at the front door....




Rowdy Yates
Senior Research Fellow
Scottish Addiction Studies
School of Applied Social Science
University of Stirling
Scotland
 
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