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Mariah & Ron Gladis Feature on Vibrant Living with Michele Iaia (YA-YA) Part 2

admin — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:57:03 +0000

LOVE CONQUERS ALS: Mariah Fenton Gladis & Ron Gladis
A remarkable couple whose LOVE triumphed over adversity. An extraordinary LOVE STORY! CONQUERING ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease!

Mariah & Ron Gladis Featured on Vibrant Living with Michele Iaia (YA-YA) Part 1

admin — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:54:31 +0000

Against All Odds, Mariah Fenton Gladis’s EPIC LIFE!
Love trumps ALS. Meet Ron and Mariah Fenton Gladis, whose courageous love and commitment defy medical science in their epic battle against Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS).

Back From California, Esalen Institute

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:45:36 +0000

I’ve just returned from facilitating two workshops at Esalen Institute, a personal growth center that offers a wide variety of educational workshops for mind, body, and spirit in Big Sur, California. The workshops dealt with confronting the emotional injuries or habits that prevent you from enjoying life to the fullest, and expanding your capacity for creating fulfilled and sustainable relationships. Both very important topics attended by 50 people interested in personal growth while deepening their understanding of the dynamics of successful relating.

My hope in these workshops is that the power of love, compassion, personal awareness and developed contact skills can change the world, one moment at a time. I want each story of transformation to serve as the center of a ripple effect on the family, neighborhood, and the emerging global community.

A 31-year Survivor

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:44:31 +0000

As a 31-year survivor of Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS), I have been truly blessed to receive the services of Fitness Trainers, a part of the Fighting Back Program. My personal trainers there have given me first-class professional and effective attention and care. They have consistently and tirelessly joined me with optimism and determination to optimize my strength and flexibility. I credit their work for keeping me on my feet and functioning at maximum potential.

I am eternally grateful to the team at Fighting Back for partnering with me in keeping both my body and spirit alive.

Mariah About Having ALS

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:43:38 +0000

I don’t know why I have lived so long with ALS, but I do know one thing. Since I was diagnosed in 1981, it is and has been critically important to stay open to the lessons that ALS has been teaching me and to pass them on. In essence, the presence of death has become my advisor, continually whispering words of wisdom. I now have a much clearer vision of what’s important and what really matters, knowing that we can be healthy one minute and dying the next, here one minute and gone the next. Embraced in this awareness, I am more able to seize the day and fully live in the wonder of the moment.

I also look at life through a very special lens. ALS has humbled me and forced me to give up the illusions of perfection and control. It has brought home how crucial it is to accept with compassion all of who I am and who you are. It has given me a prospective of how it is possible to live a magnificent life even if infinitely flawed or wounded. I share the lessons with my clients and students about the dichotomy of how fragile we are and yet how powerful and enduring we can be. I offer myself as living proof that real transformation and ‘beating the odds’ is always possible, and that hope is the engine of change.

United We Dance To Cure ALS

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:42:51 +0000

Zumba Fitness^®, the only Latin-inspired dance-fitness program that blends red-hot international music, created by Grammy Award-winning producers, and contagious steps to form a fitness-party is sponsoring “United We Dance To Cure ALS” during the month of March. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a progressive motor neurone disease that robs people of the ability to move their muscles.

You can attend a United We Dance to Cure ALS™ Zumbathon^® charity event between February 1 and March 31, 2012, and give people with this disease hope that one day they’ll move again. 75% of ticket fees from each Zumbathon^® event directly benefit MDA’s Augie’s Quest, a nonprofit research initiative dedicated to finding treatments and cures for ALS.

http://www.zumba.com/unitedwedance

Congratulations To Dr. Dori Middleman

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:41:33 +0000

The magazine, Main Line Today, has just announced that Dr. Dori Middleman, Founder of the Center for a Healthy World, has been voted one of the Philadelphia Main Line area’s Top Doctors of 2011, as voted by thousands of her peers in Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.

Center for a Healthy World (CHW) is a training, therapy, and service cooperative, designed to bring a healthy world through people giving and receiving free service.
http://www.mainlinetoday.com/Main-Line-Today/December-2011/Top-Doctors-2011/index.php?cparticle=19&siarticle=18#artanc

Congratulations, Dori! We’re proud to work with you.

I Hear You And I Care

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:40:06 +0000

The numbers are staggering. On average, sexual abusers harm 100 children before they are caught and children must tell 7 adults before someone takes action. Lost in the background of the serial sexual abuse that our society seems to tolerate are these victims. Given the numbers, it takes a great deal of courage for a young sexual abuse victim to report his or her abuse to anyone, even those closest to them, much less go public. So, let us not forget the Penn State nine kids who have been willing to shed light on this travesty. What do they need?
As a psychotherapist for over 35 years who has worked with hundreds of sexual abuse victims, I know the depth of the inner drive for justice and protection that these innocent children/adults carry. I have heard cries of human agony—gruesome accounts of incidents that have severely damaged people’s lives. They always stun me, and I am momentarily suspended in denial that we humans can inflict such pain on one another—often to the ones we are supposed to love the most.

When children are sexually abused, it rips to shreds everything good they have ever believed about people and the world. I have seen people whose entire lives were impacted by a single incident of childhood sexual abuse. Their innocence is stolen, along with their trust, self-esteem and sense of safety in the world. Many, if not most, blame themselves and often harbor the secret, initiating a pattern of isolation and self destruction that can last a lifetime.

Men and women with histories of sexual abuse often develop serious eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia or obesity, and resort to self-medicating through drugs or alcohol to mask their fear and shame. They often live lives of chaos and underdevelopment, hiding these addictions and distancing themselves from friends and family. They can be filled with pangs of intense emotions, including fear, anger, and sorrow. Or they can present themselves as numb and half dead, devoid of any feelings. They hide the truth, terrified of being authentic, and often run from intimacy, not knowing how to deliver or receive love.

If you were sexually abused, you need and deserve help. Keeping secrets not only prolongs your suffering, it also delays your healing. Initiate a campaign of healing by telling someone you can trust about your abuse. Then find excellent professional help in your hometown or travel to it if need be. Those who succeed reach out for the help they need and surround themselves with support.

Though it is often a long journey, you can take your tragedy and turn it into something useful in your life. I have seen that for those who repair enormous trauma, it’s like climbing a mountain; the higher the climb the more able the climber. Those who reach the summit have an enormous reservoir of skill, strength and wisdom.

To assure your success, I urge you to begin today to build an encouraging, compassionate, loving and forgiving relationship with you. Promise yourself that if you fall, that you will be the first one there to pick yourself up. Each time you express these words of loving support to yourself, you breath life in. Having a close, supportive relationship with you makes it possible to begin the journey ahead.

I know there is abundant possibility that you can heal these deep wounds and have a life that is productive, fulfilled and loving. Though you may have had moments of hopelessness, I bear witness to the fact that people can and do heal all the time.

Mariah Fenton Gladis, LCSW, BCD

Licensed Psychotherapist

pagestalt@comcast.net
Member – Justice4PAkids

Joining Justice4PAkids!

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:38:49 +0000

Recently, our Foundation has joined Justice4PAkids, a coalition of child & victim advocates, lawyers, mental health professionals and concerned citizens. We are looking for people to interview about childhood sexual abuse in order to develop written testimonials to heighten awareness and empathy in Pennsylvania legislators to pass legislation eliminating the Pennsylvania statutes of limitations for childhood sexual abuse.

As you know, over many years we have worked with people who have been sexually abused by parents, family, friends, coaches and clergy. You are, I’m sure, extremely aware of the possible traumatic effects of this kind of violation. The consequences of this abuse are varied, from depression, anxiety and promiscuity, to self-mutilation, suicide, addiction and health problems. Sexual abuse is a heinous crime that robs children of their hearts, minds and souls, and impacts their entire family.

To see more about Justice4PAkids go to http://justice4pakids.com/