We see our joint work as “tending” the network of relationships that surround the client the way one tends a garden – carefully and regularly. How is it that tending relationships promotes recovery? Recovering from serious mental disturbance requires great courage and motivation. Love, acceptance, nurturing and respect all evoke motivation and courage. As the network of relationships surrounding the disturbed person is tended, more of the energy required for recovery is available.
We have seen that the client’s struggle to grow and recover is stimulated by the following: a cheerful and hopeful atmosphere; unconditional acceptance; real exchanges of friendship; honest feedback including expressed appreciation of who he or she is in the present moment; the maintenance of realistic limits for the protection of everyone; and social support.
These are the same things that everyone needs from significant others to grow and flourish, so we take these principles as the basis of our work at all levels within the Windhorse community. We see this as the challenge, as the gift that comes along with the suffering involved in these difficult states of mind. For in meeting this difficult challenge, family members (as well as professionals) have the opportunity to find the best in themselves and by expressing it, to live freer and happier lives.
