Professional Testimonials
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SUSAN M BARNS, National Training Manager, Australian Correctional Services (ACM) Detention Centre.
I am forwarding this reference to you in relation to work that Graeme & Gayle O'Brien and their team from Phoenix Rising provided for Australian Correctional Management (ACM) Detention Services P/L during 2002 for our staff and refugees.
Up until 31 December 2002, I was the National Training Manager for ACM Detention Services, and in fact, it was at my request that the Company engaged Phoenix Rising to provide Trauma Debriefing Services for the entire staff complement of Port Hedland IRPC (approximately 70 men & women).
It is not my intention to breach company or personnel confidentiality here, but if I could just indicate to you that, in nearly twenty years of working in Correctional and then Immigration Detention environments, I have never experienced the depth of disintegration of morale, the levels of sick leave/ Workcover cases, and the hopelessness that was in evidence in the staff at Port Hedland IRPC last year when we sent the Phoenix Rising Team in! If you have been following the news reports over the past 2-3 years, and are aware of the number of violent, mostly riotous, incidents in the Centres, particularly Port Hedland, Curtin and Woomera, then you will probably have just some indication of what these officers had lived through. The Port Hedland staff had always been the first emergency response support for Curtin IRPC, as well as managing their own centre. Many have been on Rotations to Woomera IRPC during major incidents there as well.
Essentially for me, as a Manager and as an experienced front line officer, I had been struggling with the deficiencies of all the well meaning Debriefing/ Defusing' professional & psych. Services that we had been sinking thousands of dollars into for many years, all with very limited effectiveness. These environments are well considered the most emotionally challenging in our society for good reason, and no amount of preparation can always meet the needs arising from the traumatic and damaging results of responding to very frightening and physically violent situations. Hence my deep interest in the work of Graeme and Gayle O'Brien and the results that they have demonstrated consistently over twenty years.
It is not an easy thing to describe the actual nature of the dynamic that Graeme and Gayle create during their sessions, but it's definitely the results that can leave one breathless! They work in (preferably) large groups with support workers in a ratio of about 1 to 5 or 6 people, and consciously, deliberately and very actively bring out the full range of intense emotions prevalent within the participants. In my experience, many other professionals expend a lot of energy trying to do the exact opposite. This dynamic, led and carefully guided as it is, allows for extraordinary levels of emotional defusing, deep connections between participants based on shared understandings and recognition of sameness in vulnerability, and quite remarkable shifts in self-awareness!
The results of the workshops that were delivered in Port Hedland are the singular most remarkable success I have ever witnessed in twenty years in the business. Without breaching confidentiality, we had staff members that had essentially been written off by psychiatrists/psychologists, sack their doctors and come back to work under their own volition (they demonstrated remarkable sensibility & soundness); staff who had resigned applied to come back; the majority of the staff (only 40% had been showing up for work) turned up to work on the very next day for their rostered shifts, and this continued until my departure in December; marriages were saved and directly attributable to this program [you may consider it beyond the scope of your company to want to support staff and their spouses, but I seriously recommend this inclusion, as families continue to be the casualty of pressure & stress in these environments]; every participant wrote a letter of gratitude to Graeme, Gayle & the team members; about seven wrote letters to me thanking me for making the opportunity available, and describing personal insights that had been life-changing; several staff members wrote to our most senior executives and the Managing Director expressing gratitude! Given the deep anger and outrage being expressed as withdrawal of labour two weeks prior, this was considered extraordinary!
I could go on, but I believe that the above facts demonstrate beyond doubt the effectiveness and long-term benefits derived from this program in a trauma/ defusing scenario. The cost of delivery of this series of workshops even flying-in and accommodating a team of five for some ten days in addition to fees, was recovered tangibly in Workcover savings and overtime reductions within three months!
I cannot speak strongly enough in support of this team and their professional services to any business or corporation where challenges and trauma are detrimentally effecting their workplace and business operations. Phoenix Rising can also deliver effective programs in the area of Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Competence, Emotional Effectiveness, Change Management and Personal Development. I have no pecuniary interest in Phoenix Rising, and am happy to be contacted to further verify or clarify any comments I have made above.
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PROF JEREMY EVANS PhD, Canberra University
Graeme O'Brien's extraordinary life experiences and native talent, together with many years of running person development workshops, have enabled him to develop both his ideas and skills in a novel and remarkable direction. His own personal charisma and warmth make an important contribution to the power and effectiveness of his work. He is able to touch people at an amazingly deep level, achieving outcomes for his clients which are often as profound as they are suprising.
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NEIL McLEAN, Prime Television
The life blood of any organisation is its people and its success depends heavily on the way they communicate with each other. Often when teamwork breaks down it is because people have stopped talking and allowed stress caused by fear to hold them back from achieving thier full potential. Building, nurturing and bonding a group of individuals into a cohesive team is not easy, but when it happens the results can be spectacular. Greame O'Brien and his team show people how to get the best out of themselves. I personally recommend Graeme as a man who is almost magical at helping people transend their fears, bond together and tap into thier intrinsic power. It is an exhilarating and liberating experience to discover your own personal power. Enjoy the wonderful journey of discovery that Graeme will lead you on.
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STEVE ALEXANDER - Managing Director, Success 2000 Pty Ltd, Sydney
As a senior executive in two multi-national corporations for over ten years, I was doubtful that Graeme O'Brien's seminars would teach me much. In short, they changed my life dramatically. I came to see some of my inapropriate belief systems and the emotions associated with them. My communication is now more open, my life is more harmonious and my business performance levels have increased significantly. Graeme's seminars are one of the few services available in the world which can genuinely bring about positive change in an organisation and its individuals.
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Dr. ROSIE SAXTON M.B., Ch. B., FACRRM, Dip. SOC, Dip Comm. Serv. (casework)
As a rural GP, I see many people in emotional pain for a variety of reasons. Helping them is a part of my job, and is enormously challenging and satisfying. When my own life became increasingly difficult with pressures of work, a failing relationship and distressed children, I also needed help. Attending Phoenix Rising Workshops has made a profound difference to my life.
Graeme and Gayle O’Brien have spent many years distilling the best of a wide range of techniques, refining and improving on them. Their philosophy is impeccable and they work with consummate skill. The emphasis throughout is for individuals to heal their emotional injury and to then take responsibility for their own life using the skills they learn. This is achieved in a totally supportive atmosphere at each individual’s own pace.My training is in conventional medicine so Phoenix Rising is at first glance a radical departure. I have been fascinated by the ways it has challenged my professional beliefs and humbled by the truly holistic nature of the work. I believe that this is the way medicine is heading and that the O’Briens are trail-blazers.
I am embarking on a new phase of my life, strengthened with the skills I have learnt through Phoenix Rising, for which I am deeply grateful. My children have absorbed a great deal while playing at workshops and their confidence in communicating has clearly improved. They love to attend workshops and have made many friends as I have done.
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JENELLE LANGHAM, Registered Nurse, BA; (Hons); MappSc
As an adolescent, my curiosity for what made people tick led to me combining my interest in psychology, with my desire to be a nurse, and I began my four decade long career, and passion for healing in the mental health area by becoming a psychiatric nurse. In the years that followed I read, studied and attended workshops in many different therapies, as well as philosophy. I explored yoga, Buddhism, epistemology, ethics, Gestalt, psychodrama, Transactional Analysis, group therapy.
Like many healers, I carried my own inner wounded ness which played out in my life and relationships in major ways. For most of my life I can admit now I was profoundly unhappy, disconnected and numb. My seeking was in love and learning, but I didn't know what to do with it even when it came to me. My inner sense of worthlessness and inadequacy fuelled a destructive streak in my life that not only affected me, but all who loved me.
The year I turned fifty felt like the end of my life to me. I had yet another short term relationship behind me, my mother had just died, I was made redundant, I had lost my dream home on the beach and had to return to a town I hated to gain custody of my son.
At that time I was a sincere humanist with no spiritual beliefs beyond a belief that human beings could achieve higher consciousness and awareness, but that we were alone in the Universe, an incredible, mysterious, but ultimately random accident. I felt sympathy towards the poor souls not courageous enough to realise this, who looked for a god outside whether through established or new age dogmas. I joined the Australian Sceptics Society to help support rationality and human intellectual dignity. Two weeks later, my daughter introduced me to Phoenix Rising Workshops!It is such a cliché, but I have to say it: that changed my life forever. For the better. It changed it immediately, irrevocably, comfortably, and joyously. I went from being a sceptical, withdrawn, reserved woman to one more open to people, life, experiences, myself.
Along with the healing that took place within my psyche, an inner connection to life which can only be described as numinous occurred. For this I am profoundly and eternally grateful.Of course, it didn't all happen in the first weekend workshop, but more happened there (I believe) than had in four years of weekly psychotherapy with a well-qualified, competent and very nice psychiatrist.
I now know that it was all the things I was running away from that I really hated: all my 'failures', all my inner demons.That year, Phoenix Rising Seminars found me, in more ways than one.
If this has now found you, consider giving yourself, and someone you love the most precious gift of all: inner peace.P.S. And we just have the best fun doing it!!
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PATRICIA BRANSEN, Registered Nurse, RM, Ba App Sc (Nsg)
In the same way that the mythical phoenix rises from its ashes to begin another cycle of life, so too, do I now experience a renewed cycle of life.
My old cycle consisted of issues including childhood sexual abuse, family and domestic violence, betrayal, abandonment, self loathing, guilt and anger.
During 2000 I attended workshops with Phoenix Rising.
The supportive and nurturing environment of Phoenix Rising has enabled me to confront my issues in an active manner that has yielded amazing results. The friendship and camaraderie coupled with the highly professional expertise of Graeme and Gail O'Brien, has given me the security to revisit many areas of my life that previously had remained sealed. Their unique approach allows past experience to be relived, dealt with effectively, and completed.
I have found these workshops to be the most confronting experiences of my life, but also the most rewarding. I have achieved a sense of purpose and acceptance of self through this work that is reflected in all aspects of my life. My relationships have all benefited, a new career has begun, and an inner sense of peace has been attained that is priceless.
I would highly recommend Phoenix Rising to people of all ages. The wide range of age groups present only adds to the effectiveness of the processes. I have made many new friends during this time and have been exposed to many different types of people. This factor has also allowed me to grow immensely.
I am aware that my growth is in no way complete, and will continue to examine my life and make adjustments as they become necessary. I also choose to share my growth with others by contributing my time to Phoenix Rising as a facilitator. If the story of my journey can contribute to another's growth, then the cycle begins again.
For further information contact:
Gayle O'Brien
0438 888 486Jayne Young - National Co-ordinator
0448 888 486
Phoenix Rising Australia ABN 48 010 395 936
www.phoenixrising.com.au
