"Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you - all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are."
-- Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
The quote beneath my photo on the homepage by John Buchan helps to explain what I have come to believe is the "magic" of fishing and fly tying as rehabilitative therapy. I have been quoted frequently saying that what we do that so many others seem to have difficulty with in trauma, psychological, and substance abuse rehabilitation therapies is that we help our participants learn to lean forward into lifeTM again.
The way this happens isn't really "magic." If you fish, it's common sense. It is the almost imperceptible but ever-present anticipation of a fish taking your bait, lure, or fly - of you setting that hook and reeling him in - and that small, simple hope rewarded and repeated again and again that begins to condition the participants to think positively and to expect positive results. And this breaks the cycle of depression and intellectual negativity in which they are trapped. Armed with this fresh paradigm, they approach all aspects of their rehabilitation with fresh vitality and optimism. We provide the "spark" that therapists and other healthcare providers simply wait...and dare i say hope...for.