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Enhancing Physical Wellness: Lunch Presentation

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:36:00 -0500

Greetings everyone!

We have the pleasure of announcing that on Monday, February 22, 2010, the Community Services Network and Fellowship Place will host a special lunch presentation for all clients and staff. The event will start at noon with a healthy (free) lunch, followed by an hour long presentation by Lydia Chwastiak MD, MPH, Asst Prof, Psychiatry and Medicine, Yale Univ. Dr. Chwastiak will present "Enhancing Physical Wellness: Live Healthy, Feel Better". This consumer directed event is presented as part of the CMHC/CSN 2009/2010 Performance Improvement Goal designed to promote health and wellness among CSN clients and staff. Please invite the clients served by your agency to this important and educational event. Please refer to the attached flyer for more details. We are looking forward to seeing you on the 22nd.

Fellowship Place Presentation

Career Services Presentation

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:12:00 -0500

Career Services/Professional Development Presentation by Kathy Forkin, Director of Career Services at the University of New Haven Tuesday, February 9th 10-11 am Dixwell Newhallville Community Mental Health Services Conference Room. Coffee and doughnuts will be served! Attendees of the presentation will be invited to select an outfit from the DNCMHS Professional Clothing Closet! Please sign-up at front desk by Monday, February 8th.

EMDR Training Friday, March 12

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:53:00 -0500

Please join us at Southern Connecticut State University for a seminar on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing techniques. Please read the full post for more details.

Dixwell Newhallville

Community Mental Health Services

Urban Trauma Center

Sponsoring:

EMDR Level I Training

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

The EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program

Friday, March 12, 2010 Questions: Call Donald F. deGraffenried, LCSW

Saturday, March 13, 2010 Clinical Coordinator, Dixwell Newhallville

Sunday, March 14, 2010 Community Mental Health Services

Location: New Haven, SCSU 203/776-8390 x 211

Engleman Hall A & B

Online Registration

EMDR is a complex approach to psychotherapy that accelerates the treatment of a wide range of pathologies and self-esteem issues related to upsetting past traumatic events and present life conditions. This interactional, standardized approach has been empirically tested with patients evincing a considerable range of presenting complaints, including, loss of a loved one, rape, sexual molestation, Vietnam combat and natural disaster.

EMDR is a specialized approach that requires supervised training for full therapeutic effectiveness and client safety. The training will consist of lecture, live and videotaped demonstrations and supervised practice. The format of this workshop has been designed by the originator of EMDR, Francine Shapiro, PhD.

If you are ready to register for the EMDR HAP Level I training, Register Now. If you have registration questions please call Hope Payson, Training Coordinator for the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program at 203/288-4450.

Lupus Foundation of America First Annual Author Symposium

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:38:00 -0500

Please join us on Saturday February 6th, 2010, 10 AM at The Water Club in New Haven Connecticut for what is sure to be an exciting event! Our two key note speakers will be Donna Jackson Nakazawa and Bernie Siegel. Other special speakers include Dr. Joseph Craft and Wendy Battles Plasse.

First Annual Author Symposium

Come hear Donna Jackson Nakazawa, author of The Autoimmune Epidemic! Her book focuses on how to protect your immune system while exploring possible causes and potential cures for nearly 100 autoimmune diseases including Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Crohn’s Disease, Type 1 Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis and other autoimmune related diseases like Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome! THE AUTOIMMUNE EPIDEMIC combines up-to-the-minute research emerging out of dozens of today’s cutting-edge scientific labs with the front line perspective of autoimmune sufferers.
Also presenting is bestselling author Bernie Seigel, M.D., author of Love Medicine & Miracles in which he shares his experience with exceptional patients and how powerful the will to live can be and the physical benefits derived from accepting one's mortality and healing your life. The idea of unconditional love as being the most powerful stimulant of the immune system is a common theme in Seigel’s work.
Dr. Joseph Craft, Yale University School of Medicine Professor of Medicine and Immunobiology, Chief of Rheumatology Section, and Director of the Investigative Medicine Program, directs a research laboratory devoted to understanding T lymphocyte differentiation and function in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus) will also be presenting at the symposium. His research has been continually supported by the National Institutes of Health since 1985, where he is a current NIH MERIT award recipient, and he is the author of over 140 scientific publications.
Last, but my no means least, clean living coach and owner/founder of Healthy Endeavors- a health coaching and consulting firm, Wendy Battles-Plasse, MA, HHC will be speaking on a nutritional approach! Her teleseminar “Money Saving Meal Planning: Quick, Healthy and Delicious Meals on a Budget” taught individuals a simple system to change their mindset about meal planning and how to plan weekly meals that are both healthy and have an eye on the bottom line. Along the way, Battles-Plasse shares a multitude of resources, tools and forms to make meal planning systematic week after week. She has also developed a simple Money Saving Meal Planning Home Study Course.
Coffee and light snacks will be served in the morning followed by lunch in the afternoon.

Purchase Tickets Online

EMAIL: office@lupusct.org
PHONE: 860-269-6240

We look forward to seeing you there!!

Hannah Gray Community Home opens its doors.

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:40:00 -0500

Happy Holidays!
I'm pleased to announce that the Hannah Gray Home, Inc. is accepting applications for its beautifully renovated residential care facility. Hannah Gray (d.1861), a remarkable African American woman, laundress and seamstress, bequeathed to the Dixwell community and greater New Haven a legacy of generosity and compassion. Her compassion and generosity live on at 235 Dixwell Avenue New Haven, CT.
Please view the video to learn more about the home.

Hannah Gray Home website:
http://hannahgrayhome.com/

Warmest regards,
Robert

Homeless Tent City Thursday November 19th

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:11:00 -0500

Dear Friends,

As you know, the city last year cut the Homeless Overflow Shelter from its budget. Many organizations and individuals worked together to replace that lost money, so that the 100 homeless men who depend on the winter shelter had a place to go. Kika Matos, the Community Services Administrator for the city led the way by organizing a symbolic tent city on the Green that raised over $40,000. Now, Dr. Chisara Asomugha, her successor as C.S.A. is putting together another tent city a week from now on Thursday, November, 19th to raise money again for the Overflow Shelter. Thanks to the federal funds that the city is passing through to the Overflow, it is now open and there is enough money in place to keep it open until the end of February. But we can't let it close then at the height of the winter, so we must again reach deeply to fund the money to get through the winter.

I am attaching both a poster and an explanation of the city's efforts. We would be profoundly grateful for your sponsorship of a tent or a cardboard box shelter or any other funds that you and people you know could contribute. We apologize for the short notice, but the need will not end on November 19th, so anything you can contribute after that will go entirely to providing shelter for the homeless. Thank you for your generosity.

Night On the Green Pamphlet

Tent City On the Green

EMDR & Working with Children & Parents: A Thursday Evening Case Consultation

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:18:00 -0500

Greetings from Dixwell/Newhallville.
I'm excited to announce that Ana Gomez will be with us next week for an EMDR consulation.
She's flying in from Phoenix to do two consultations: the first will be a more intimate gathering of practitioners interested in how
EMDR works with children (which says something about clincal work with adults).
I would like to extend you an invitation to this small, speciality focused group as a special treat:

EMDR & Working with Children & Parents:

A Thursday Evening Case Consultation

with

Ana M. Gomez, MC, LPC

EMDRIA Approved Consultant

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Registration: 4:45pm

5:00pm to 7:00pm, Consultation

Dixwell Newhallville Community Mental Health Services

660 Winchester Avenue, New Haven, Ct. 06511

Conference Room – Lower Level

There's a nominal fee of $50 for the consultation and you may count the time toward your post level II consultation hours.

Hope you're able to join us,
Robert

Survivors of Homicide - Program Services

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:50:27 -0400

I am pleased to inform you that Dixwell Newhallville Community Mental Health Services now offers an innovative program to support and provide trauma treatment with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for individuals/families that have survived a homicide.

Our Urban Trauma Center, located at 660 Winchester in New Haven is working closely with the Connecticut Office of Victims Services (OVS) to offer timely, strength based, culturally sensitive and trauma desensitization oriented services for individuals or families that have lost a love one through a homicide.

This is a statewide service and individuals who are treated at DN CMHS, can live anywhere in the state of Connecticut and receive services at the agency. Services are provided through a grant from the Connecticut Office of Victim Services and clients are offered ten (10) appointments at no charge. Services include assessment, individualized trauma treatment, case management, group treatment and psychiatric consultation.

If you have questions about this community service or would like to make a referral, you may contact me at (203) 776-8390 x 211. Please see the attachment, for additional information about services that are available at the Urban Trauma Center, located at Dixwell Newhallville Community Mental Health Services in New Haven, Ct.

A Call To Serve: Hannah Gray

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:20:55 -0500

Nearly 150 years ago, Hannah Gray, an African American seamstress, laundress, supporter of the abolitionist movement and homeowner bequeathed her home to shelter, warm and nurture indigent, elderly African American women. Today her legacy of service continues. Her call to serve echoes down through the ages to the voices of servants like Collin Powell, First Lady Michelle Obama, you and me.
Join the call to serve, to shelter, to warm and nurture with a monetary donation for the purchase of bedding, cooking ware, laundry supplies, and other home goods for the Hannah Gray home and its residents.

The Hannah Gray Home is a residential care home that seeks to provide low-income housing, supervised care, and supportive services to elderly individuals in the Dixwell and Greater New Haven communities. It aims to foster an environment in which residents not only feel a sense of belonging but also feel connected to the cultural and spiritual roots of their community.

Hannah Gray Website

Please consider a monetary donation to help reopen the doors of Hannah Gray’s home for twenty-five residents. March 2009 is the scheduled date for the first residents to take occupancy, with your help.
Click on the yellow donate button below or send your donation to:

Community Loan Fund
Hannah Gray Home Fund:
171 Orange Street
New Haven, CT 06510
(203) 789-8690

Healing the Generations: First Annual Family Violence and Child Trauma Conference

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:09:28 -0500

"Toxic Stress," "Adverse Childhood Experience," "PTSD" ... no matter what you call it, the bad things that happen to our Connecticut children can cause health problems, interfere with school and affect the quality of their lives. We know the effects of trauma are passed from generation to generation. The time to do something is now. Please join us for a two day conference designed to investigate the effects of trauma on children and families.

Co-sponsored by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Clifford W. Beers Guidance Clinic

February 5 & 6, 2009

Foxwoods Resort and Casino Grand Ballroom Ledyard, Connecticut

Hear Experts in the field of child traumatic stress present in some of the following topics:

The Neurobiology of Trauma
Helping Parents Who are Trauma Survivors
Cutting Edge Evidence Trauma Based Practices and Implementation Strategies
Obesity and Trauma in Children
Working with Traumatized Children with Problem Sexual Behaviors
Child Development and Community Policing
Collaborative Approaches to Domestic Violence
Many More ...

To register, click here.

EMDR & Working with Children & Parents: A Community Mental Health Approach

PRESENTERS
Friday February 6th 2pm - 4pm

Ana M. Gomez, MC, LPC
EMDRIA Approved Consultant
Robert Page, LCSW, BCD
Executive Director DN Community Mental Health
Donald deGraffenried, LCSW
EMDRIA Approved Consultant
Clinical Director DN Community Mental Health

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is an innovative, effective, research based, outcome oriented and strength based trauma treatment for both children and parents. This workshop will describe the EMDR method, discuss its effectiveness with children and present an innovative treatment model designed to engage both children and parents in the healing and recovery process from major trauma. This presentation will include lecture, a child treatment video and discussion

Please Register Now!

Donald deGraffenried's Enhanced Safe Place

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:01:35 -0500

An effective and detailed safe place helps to build client comfort and trust early in the EMDR treatment process. This Enhanced Safe Place contains client preparatory information, physical relaxation guidelines, multi sensory imaging, progressive relaxation, simple hypnotherapy techniques and is written in a detailed script format. Using these skills practitioners are able to practice and learn the three stages (Preparation, Beginning and Debriefing) and to create a highly effective and individualized Enhanced Safe Place. Watch the video here.

Thank You for Attending!

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:27:50 -0400

Senator Toni Harp, Robert Page LCSW, Bob Gelbach, Francine Shapiro PhD., Gail Ford

We are grateful that Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., was able to cut the ribbon, and formally mark the opening of our Urban Trauma Center. EMDR offers hope and relief for the victims of violence and we are pleased to be able to offer this innovative treatment to the residents of the Dixwell/Newhallville community. Our thanks to Dr. Shapiro for her tireless efforts to reduce human suffering and her dedication in helping all people heal from the impact of trauma.

Besides the great coverage from the New Haven Independent e-magazine, please enjoy the video of the event below as well as Slideshow1 and Slideshow2 kindly provided by Ficklin Media Group

Urban Trauma Center Ribbon Cutting with Francine Shapiro, PhD

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:22:04 -0400

You're invited...

It's been an amazing 25 years: individual counseling, family therapy, group therapy, food pantry, energy assistance, summer camp, referral, case management and community organizing. Please join us to celebrate over two decades of Community Mental Health Services and Family Support Services with the ribbon cutting of our Urban Trauma Center, with Dr. Francine Shapiro Friday, September 19, 2008 @ 1 PM.

Francine Shapiro, Ph.D, is the originator and developer of EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), which has been so well researched that it is now recommended as a front line treatment for trauma in the Practice Guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association, and those of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Dr. Shapiro is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, Executive Director of the EMDR Institute in Watsonville, CA, and founder and President Emeritus of the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs, a non-profit organization that coordinates disaster response and low fee trainings worldwide.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) integrates elements of many effective psychotherapies in structured protocols that are designed to maximize treatment effects. These include psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centered therapies, which DNCMHS has employed since inception to help individuals and families from the community with their recovery from emotional and psychological difficulties. WithEMDR, DNCMHS has made more accessible an effective from of treatment that has made a significant difference in the recovery the lives a many individuals.

The Ribbon Cutting ceremony with Dr. Shapiro marks this auspicious occasion with the community spirit with which the agency was founded over 40 years ago by community members from theNewhallville area who open the original counseling center on Thompson Street.

Dixwell/Community Mental Health Services, Inc., a member agency of the Community Service Network, is funded by the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Department of Social Services, Office of Victim Services

Anna Gomez comes to New Haven for EMDR Children Trainning Saturday, Aug 23

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:09:55 -0400

This one - day advanced workshop will provide step by step strategies that will assist clinicians in following the EMDR principles and procedures while meeting the developmental needs of children and adolescents. Participants will be able to develop the skills and strategies that are necessary for case conceptualization and the effective implementation of the standard EMDR protocol with children and adolescents.

This workshop is available to all EMDR trained clinicians. The workshop fee is $85.00 which covers registration, materials and break. Registration is done on line via EMDR HAP

Saturday, August 23, 2008

8:00 – 5:00 pm

Registration 8:00 to 8:30 am

Lunch on your own

The workshop will be held at Southern Connecticut State University, Engleman Hall, First Floor, Rm. C112, Crescent Street, New Haven, Ct. 06511. EMDRIA credits applied for and pending. The HAP Bookstore will be available during the workshop, for purchase of books and materials.

Questions: Call Donald F. deGraffenried, LCSW, Clinical Director, Dixwell Newhallville Community Mental Health Services, 203/776-8390 x 211

Ana M. Gomez: is a licensed professional psychotherapist in private practice in the state of Arizona. She specializes in the treatment of children and adolescents with a history of abuse, trauma, and loss. She has served as a practicum instructor at the Educational Psychology Department at Northern Arizona University. She has been a presenter at the EMDRIA conference and she presents advanced workshops nationally on EMDR with children. Ana is the author of the Dark, Bad Day - Go Away, a children's book about trauma and EMDR. She is a facilitator for the EMDR Institute, a specialty presenter on children and an EMDR-HAP trainer-in-training. Ana is also an EMDRIA approved consultant.

EMDR Level I Training in October 08

Tue, 27 May 2008 09:57:38 -0400

I am pleased to announce that Dixwell Newhallville Community Mental Health Services in conjunction with the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program is sponsoring a EMDR Level I training on October 24-26, 2008 in New Haven, Connecticut. Please see the enclosed announcement.

This three day intensive training is available to clinicians in practice at a community mental health agency or any non-profit agency serving clients. The training is offered at a significant reduced fee of $300.00, for the three days.

If you would like to register please go to the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program website. All registration for this event is done on the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program website.

If you have questions about the training or EMDR, please feel free to contact me at 203/776-8390 x 211. See you there!

National Association of Social Workers Connecticut Chapter May 9th 2008 Conference

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:49:49 -0400

I'm pleased to announce that DNCMHS will make an appearance on the NASW Conference this Friday. Please stop by our booth to learn more about the agency and participate in our raffle.

You can view our presentation here.

American Identity Dialogue: A Third Opponent in the Democratic 2008 Primary

Sun, 04 May 2008 12:48:11 -0400

There are two insightful articles found in the NY Times today that shed light on ethnic and racial identity conflict in contemporary America. I would also urge your reading of Barack Obama's written comments in reply to Reverend Wright's "alleged" sermon (YouTube Video). I am taken by Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd for NOT acquiescing to simplistic, antagonistic, if not overly primitive notions of something as complex and wonderful as human identity. In response to Dowd's article This Bud's for You, I replied:

Maureen,

I appreciate your Obama insights. They invite and stimulate a much needed American identity dialogue. Obama's a quintessential personification of race matters in contemporary America, topped with other complex statuses such as gender, poverty and wealth, sexual orientation and religious affiliation. One of my colleagues, an African American psychiatrist who has made a study of ethnic identity in dominant white culture settings like Yale University, puts the Obama identity dilemma in perspective: "It's like tap dancing on water." If Obama can, as you say, "Figure out how to unwind with a Bud, and rewind his life," he will personify "tap dancing on the murky waters of racial, ethnic and religious conflict" in America. There is indeed a Third Opponent in the bid for the Democratic presidential hopeful. We are a better country, better communities and better citizens with the recognition that human dignity is synonymous with human identity. Your reflections and those of Frank Rich move us closer to an open and meaningful dialogue regarding difference as celebrated, not the simple target of political and personal castigation.

EMDR Consult - Camp Lejeune - March 21, 2008

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:26:08 -0400

I am please to announce a joint project between the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Program and Dixwell Newhallville Community Mental Health Services to provide EMDR consultation training to 24 clinical staff at the Marine compound at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. We see this as a critical consultation given that as many as 1/3 of returning veterans may present with combat related post traumatic stress disorder. The Marines attending this training have all completed their EMDR Level II training and are actively working with veterans. Please check the attached agenda for more information. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the consultation.

New DNCMHS Website Launched

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:30:16 -0500

Welcome to the new and updated DNCMHS website.