The impetus of this book began with a personal search of mine for support groups for families of those with mental illness. I had a brother with Schizophrenia. I was also finishing up my graduate degree in Social Work (back in 1982). What these groups for families of the mentally ill “supported” concerned me. What I typically found were dysfunctional groups supporting negative and even hostile mindsets. Most of them encouraged a victim mentality to the surrounding culture and to the mental illness. When I considered using other group processes such as the 12 Steps, it didn’t convert well enough to help family members struggling with a loved one’s persistent and chronic mental illness. I also recognized that mental illness happens within the context of a family – not just the individual. Too often these groups focused on the mentally ill person at the expense of the family’s over-all own mental health and the health of other family members. I discovered in my research that how the family responds to the mental illness will either be part of the antidote or continued problem. In any give difficulty we are either part of the problem or part of the solution. I intended to offer a means for family members and friends to be part of a solution. Furthermore, families and their individual members are all personally affected by the disruption and difficulties brought on through living with mental illness. Those living with mental illness secondarily through a loved one also needed an aggressive healing path to help them live with (and sometimes beyond) the mental illness. So, I developed the Eight Stage Healing Process. My combined personal and professional experiences contributed to the chosen Stages. Furthermore, I researched what works and what doesn’t work in such support groups. When securing a publisher for the book I insisted that “coping” be left out of the title. Everyone is coping – the Eight Stages takes one beyond just coping with mental illness and the surrounding family dynamics and helps individuals and families heal. Twenty years later I still find, along with thousands of other family members that the Eight Stages is an authentic healing process that benefits all family members. The Eight Stages are; Stage One: Stage Two: Stage Three: Stage Four: Stage Five: Stage Six: Stage Seven: Stage Eight: The Eight Stages can be used individually or within a group context. If in a group, I have available the Facilitator’s Manual to use as a guide: Title here. Now the Eight Stages is the most used program for families in Australia and used throughout Canada and the United States.
AAbout the Author
Julie Tallard Johnson is a licensed psychotherapist who maintains a private healing service, Healing Services Overlooking the River, established in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, in 1995. Here she offers the Wheel of Initiation course, spiritual journaling classes, and one-on-one transpersonal counseling. Her studies and investigation into cognitive-behavioral therapy, mind training, Buddhist philosophy, transpersonal counseling, and group dynamics lead to her development of the Wheel of Initiation and a year-long Initiation course, which she has facilitated since 1998. She employs a multicultural approach in her work, knowing that each person has to find a spiritual practice that is personally relevant for them. In 2008 the land adjacent to her practice was opened up so that others could enjoy its Three-jewel labyrinth, one-acre prairie spiral, and 40 acres of nature paths as a place for meditations and writing retreats.
Julie obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she had a double major in sociology and social work. In 1982 she began her career as a social worker and case manager of a program in Minneapolis for those with chronic and persistent mental illness. She soon became supervisor of a new program where she designed and coordinated "friendship circles" for the mentally ill.
While in graduate school at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, she researched self-help and support groups and could not find one that was set up for siblings and adult children of the mentally ill. As a result, she designed and authored The Eight Stage Healing Process for Families and Friends of the Mentally Ill. This book was published by Doubleday in 1989 and Julie toured the United States, Canada, and Australia teaching the eight stages and offering instructions on how to set up a healthy self-help group. She founded the National Siblings Network in the United States through the Alliance of the Mentally Ill, and Australia adopted her eight-stage protocol, incorporating it into their primary national program for families of the mentally ill.
Julie has studied neurolinguistic programming (NLP), cognitive behavioral and rational emotive therapies (RET), as well as mind training. Through her continued studies she came to value narrative therapies (storytelling) in helping others to heal, and she has integrated this dynamic into her own work.
In addition, she is a teacher of Vipassana meditation, which she has also practiced for many years. She took instruction in Rebirthing Breathwork as well as Shamnic Breathwork, Bindu Breathwork™. Along with this she studied and applied mandala work and the healing power of circles, wheels, and mandalas in the transformative process.
Julie is the author of nine books, two for adults and seven for youth.
They are:
Hidden Victims Hidden Healers: An Eight-Stage Process for Friends and Family of the Mentally Ill
Understanding Mental Illness: for Teens Who Care About Someone with Mental Illness
Celebrate You: Building Your Self-Esteem
Making Friends Finding Love
The Thundering Years: Rituals and Sacred Wisdom of Teens
Teen Psychic: Exploring Your Intuitive and Spiritual Powers
I Ching for Teens: Take Charge of Your Destiny with the Ancient Chinese Oracle
Spiritual Journaling: Writing your Way to Independence
The Wheel of Initiation: Practices for Releasing Your Inner Light
Julie has also self-published a manual for group facilitators of the Eight Stage Healing Process. She has received many positive reviews and awards for her books including three Roundtable awards, Best Youth book from New York Library, and the Independent Book award for best multicultural book for youth for The Thundering Years: Rituals and Sacred Wisdom for Teens (His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote a piece for this book). Her Teen Psychic: Developing Your Intuitive and Spiritual Powers book received a Star Review in Publisher's Weekly and remains one of her most popular books with young readers.
Julie has a monthly blog that she updates regularly, offering readers a means for spiritual inquiry through journaling and meditation. She also writes a column on spirituality for a local newsletter, From the Spirit. She lives with her husband, Bill, and daughter, Lydia, in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
