On being heard: or were we?

Yesterday I sat for a long time in a lonely BBC studio in Luton, eventually to be allowed to join in a programme on Irish Radio RTE.

We ended up being recorded, as "someone else ran on too long", and Heaven knows when (or indeed if) we will be broadcast.

The experience was unexpectedly painless:  there was skepticism, but it was founded in the usual ignorance rather then a primitive inclination to mindlessly bully (see skeptics posts below),  so there was an intelligent debate - at last!

My one wish is to be heard, not as a weirdo a fraud or a quack but as someone with a story to tell.

I go with Max Ehrmann - I will go placidly

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

The "loud and aggressive persons" have their story too, and their point to make. Largely, they are part of the 90% of the population who have absolutely no idea what  we womb twin survivors are talking about.   Sadly for us, a lot of them work in the media.  We must learn how to listen to each other.

Meanwhile I am preparing my presentation for Saturday 24th in Dublin.  If you can get there, do come, it will be a long time before I am able to come to Ireland again.

Register now, pay later 

See you there!

It was broadcast the following Thursday

Listen here:

The Dublin workshop

Getting excited by this. I am preparing a new power point presentation with lots of new illustrations that I have made for the new book and they will do very well  for this purpose.

Also a healing path  workshop: for each individual to map out a healing path for themselves that will enable them to step out of the Black Hole and move forward in whatever way best suits them.

They sent me  a press release. Here it is:

DUBLIN WORKSHOP

WOMBTWIN IRELAND: Workshop in Dublin, April 24th 2010

I will be presenting a Womb Twin Survivors seminar in Dublin on 24th April 10am - 4 pm with an additional Healing Path workshop from 4.30 - 6pm.


Download  brochure and booking form


Send us an email to register your interest or get more detail

Womb Twin Survivors - an introduction


More on the wombtwin.ie blog

See you there!

Open space Event 2009

We are on our way to a highly successful Open Space event in October.

See here.

Last year when we held our first conference at Southwell House it was held over just one day. People who came from far away wished that there could have been more time to talk to the other participants. This is why we are holding this year's conference over a whole weekend.

Also we wondered who we could have for a keynote speaker and we decided not to have one at all, but to let everyone and anyone speak out on any topic that they felt was important. The idea of OPEN SPACE is to give as many people as possible the chance to speak if that is what they wish to do, instead of everyone having to listen to just a few speakers, chosen in advance. To come into an OPEN SPACE space is to be allowed to listen only to what you find interesting and to feel free to wander between sessions or dip out altogether and go for a drink a snack or a walk.

The OPEN SPACE event concept is based on a simple observation, that conferences are as much about the social interaction as they are about learning something new. To be truly creative and enjoyable, a conference must be a free space in which anything can happen.

There will be a public meeting on Friday 30th October at 7.30pm to launch the weekend. Althea Hayton will make the presentation. This will be the first announcement of the results of the online questionnaire completed by 500 womb twin survivors from around the world. These have been analysed this summer with the help of the University of Hertfordshire statistics department. Entrance to this meeting open to all, by free ticket only. If you would like to come to this but not the whole weekend, please use this form to register your interest in the meeting and the tickets will be mailed to you.

On the Saturday there will be four spaces and four sessions of 90 mins in each space, so that is 16 chances for HOSTS to set up a group on any topic they want on a first-come, first-served basis. (The sessions are decided during the first hour of Saturday, 9.30 to 10.30.) Some people will come ready to host a group, with an existing idea of what people may want to do, such as sharing stories, or a workshop on personal issues such as gender energy or hoarding. Everyone else wil just come and go as they please.

We have bookings already from Portugal, Switzerland, Brazil and the USA. It promises to be a very exciting weekend! We do not arrange accomodation, but there are good hotels locally which can be booked online in advance here.

Meals and breaks: There are no set breaks: there will be drinks and sandwiches available on a self-service basis, but a three-course candlelit buffet supper wil be served on the Saturday evening in the school canteen - the cost of this meal is included in the ticket price which is £70 per head for the whole weekend.

Dont miss our Open Space event 2009! Book your place now!

Make your booking now.

Berlin workshop NOVEMBER 21st

Workshop in Berlin with me, my powerpoint presentation and whole lot of props for the group exercise on person Space the Black Hole and many others! Arranged by Eloise.

From Eloise:

I am excited to announce that I'm organising a Wombtwin workshop here in Berlin with Althea Hayton, bringing her over from the UK on Saturday 21st November 2009. The workshop will involve a background and medical introduction and then interactive workshop exercises to explore this topic in our lives and how we can bring about healing. The workshop is for you if this idea resonates for you, if you know you are a wombtwin survivor, if your child is or you think they might be, if you are a therapist who works with wombtwin survivors or just interested in this topic. The workshop will be in English, but please indicate if you are an interested German-only speaker to help us to know if we need to provide a translator!

Places are limited to 30 people, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Location: Body Mind Institute, Schlesische str. 38 2.Hof 1.OG, 10997 Berlin Kreuzberg (U-Bhf Schlesisches Tor, S-Bhf Warschauer Str)

Price: €70 for full day Saturday 21st November 2009 from 10am - 6pm. Payment in full is required to register your place.

Tea and cake will be provided and we advise you to bring a snack for lunch.

There is an option for a Sunday morning extension to the workshop, from 10am - 2pm, for those who have attended Saturday and would like to explore the topic further. The cost for Sunday is an extra €30, payable on the day.

Reserve your place today

wombtwin workshops ( 1) PORTUGAL

Well, a bit of a gap in these postings but it has been busy in May!

To start with, a series of workshops in Portugal. I learned more about how to balance the presentation, rich in medical detail about the lost twin and also showing some of the research results to far, and the group workshops, which allow people to contact their feelings about their own lost twin and begin to find a way forward.

It seems to depend on the audience: if there is a room full of wombtwin survivors, they will probably be anxious to get on with a workshop, but if there are a lot of psychologists, social workers etc who are not wombtwin survivors themselves ( or if they are they dont want to consider that possibility) then they will be happy to stay theoretical. At the workshop in Lisbon this became clear: we stayed theoretical because there were not all that many wombtwin survivors, but we did have some time for exercises - emptiness; being alone; being abandoned.... among other things. The exercises ended up as a kind of dramatherapy mixed with dance and ritual-I make it up as I go along because this is something we have to explore intuitively rather than be too proscriptive. The survivors found it helpful and the observers were amazed at the strength of the feelings engendered by the exercises- it would seem to be good for both groups to mix them, after all.

The main idea that came forward from this delightful weekend with wonderful people was to help the young children who are wombtwin survivors. We heard a seven year old tell the story of her own lost twin in simple ideas and words, and this seems to be the perfect thing to do: to make a simple story book with lovely colourful images using this simple story.

We know that wombtwin survivors benefit from knowing why they feel as they do, but its very hard for parents to broach the subject with their child. A story book would seem to be the answer. Claudia (who will be known to you from the forum) is masterminding this project, so comments please either here or on the forum.

Portugal April 24th-26th

There are to be a series of three talks about Wombtwin Survivors in Portugal, over the weekend 24-26th April 2009. I will show my powerpoint presentation, which will convince you that wombtwin survivors are far more common than anyone ever realised, and I will explain what the characteristic psychological profile is of a wombtwin survivor. Lots of time for questions and stories, sharing and fun. I will speak in English because I am stupid at other languages. Claudia, who is arranging this and is of course extremely clever, will translate as we go.

It will be great fun. E-mail Claudia in English or Portuguese and she will send you the details of what is happening where. claudia.pinheiro@wombtwin.com.

If you can get there, do come - this is a unique opportunity to hear the story at first hand, told by myself. I won't be back for at least a year, so seize the opportunity now!

Other workshops: get your brochures here!

New York City 16/5 click here

Gent 2/5 click here

The Wombtwin project comes of age

Well, I have just about emerged from a spate of activity, and have now delivered workshops in Dublin and St Albans, England. It has been an interesting journey but I do believe that at last I know enough about wombtwin survivors to deliver a soundly-based presentation, facilitate some useful workshop exercises and be able to anticipate and answer almost all the questions that arise.

As from next year, I will be charging a fee for my workshops and seminars, because I am reassured that I can deliver a professional service now. The presentation needs work, but with the fees I am earning from the workshops I should be able to afford to buy licences for the scientific images I need to be able to use them in public and also on leaflets and brochures. It should not matter so much, but somehow the idea that I now have a means of earning money from this project makes me feel as if it has in a way grown up. Its like the project and I have come of age, and we are both now more likely to be taken seriously.

I got back from Ireland a few days ago ( 55 people, lots of questions, laughter, fun, new friends - a wonderful time!) fully intending to take some time doing something completely different and ended up building two new websites! You see, the work of Wombtwin.com Ltd, the new non-profit organisation I set up in 2007, is now quite separate from what I am doing individually. That means that I ought to have my own personal website for my own work and the organisation should have a site of its own. So I have built them.

I have taken myself to my study upstairs and the two websites are now almost finished. The next note will be to say they are uploaded, like fraternal twins, suspended in cyberspace. They are both held for the moment on my own hosted space, but one day we will rent some space for the organisation website and then I will have cut the ties completely, let it all go and cut myself off, leaving Wombtwin.com Ltd to grow on its own. That feels very important to do.

It really does feel like growing up!