Family Therapy Programmes

Registered Charity Number 1121315

2006 programme

21st June - 27th June

with Bill & Nowdla Keefe's Wild Dolphin Adventures
 www.wilddolphins.com

PARTICIPANTS FOR 2006 PROGRAMME

Doussin family from UK

Comments from Denise and Frederik Doussin prior to the programme:

Benoit, our son, is a loving, sensitive little boy who is very active. He needs much more structure and guidance than others of a similar age. Since he was born, he has had to overcome many difficulties including deafness due to glue ear, severe delays in speech and language and learning difficulties compounded by poor concentration. Benoit has been found to have his cranium so compressed on his head that it does not allow his brain to develop properly. Despite many visits to many specialists over the years, the cause for his difficulties has never been recognised by the traditional medical professionals. In view of this, we have sought help privately from the alternative medical sector including speech therapists, homeopath and a cranial osteopath among others.

For several years now Benoit has had a dream to swim with wild dolphins and now after all this time it has become a reality. We have been invited by ‘Operation Sunshine’ (a charitable organisation) to join them on a visit to the island of Bimini in the Bahamas for a family holiday and to swim with wild dolphins.

We wish with all our hearts to give Benoit the freedom and ability to live and choose his own life so that he can realise his own potential – probably the most sacred wish of all parents.

To date, Benoit has surpassed all expectations possible and it has certainly taken a lot of courage, energy and determination to have even got to this point.

Family from Japan

Shoei is the mother of Minga. Minga is 13 year-old girl who is called autistic. Shoei calls Minga her angel/dolphin and says “Minga has always been my guide and she is the one who really connected me to all the dolphin people”.
Shoei is also the closest partner of a priest in Kyoto, who opened the Dolphin Healing Centre inside his temple. The priest will be joining us in Bimini with Shoei and Minga

Comments from Shoei prior to the programme:

We were told that Minga was mentally retarded when she was 3 and later we were told she was autistic. We were shocked and depressed at the beginning and did not know what to do. But of course, later we learned somehow to conquer this situation; or I should say, we all learned that there are meanings for everything. And we learned to be positive about every situation, but it did not happen over night, it took a long process. We had heard about Dolphin Therapy for autistic people. When you have a special-need child in the family, you would want to do anything to improve his or her ability. So I decided to take Minga to Hawaii and swim with wild dolphins. We were taken to the ocean by Terry Pinney, who had been working with special need children and dolphins.

I knew that children who did not speak at all, would say "Ah" or "Oo" after the encounter with dolphins but my daughter Minga had voice, so I did not know how she would change. She used to love to watch videos so she was able to sing some kid's songs. She could only sing them by skipping words or sentences, and never perfectly. After a week session with dolphins, Minga started to sing all the songs she knew very clearly, which surprised all of us! Not only Minga, but I myself, after swimming with dolphins, had a deep change mentally and spiritually. I could not say how exactly, but many things that mattered to me changed. I felt like I only knew about such a small part of the world, and there was definitely some other worlds beyond what I knew. Meeting dolphins is a great experience for special need children and people. After the encounter with dolphins, my life changed completely. I started to meet all the dolphin related people throughout the world, and learned a lot about spirituality. It completely changed my life, and I can only thank my daughter Minga for being my guiding angel.
 

Having a special need child is a challenge, but also a great gift. I learnt that through the process which dolphins connected for me. I greatly appreciate the "Operation Sunshine" program. I will get to meet other families with autistic children on this trip, and I know all the families will benefit greatly from it. We will also be meeting the people/children on Bimini Island, and I know this encounter will benefit all of us as well. Thank you, "Operation Sunshine" ! Thank you for those who came up with this wonderful idea and thank you for those who make this trip possible for families like mine.

Eve Hanf-Enos from USA

Attending a dolphin healing conference at Regents Park in 1996 was Shizuko Ouwehand and Eve Hanf-Enos, who was 25 and autistic. She could not speak, but vocalises in grunts and noises and communicates through a computer keyboard, with the help of her mother, by a process known as facilitated writing. Eve and Shizuko had met three years earlier in Santa Fé, where Shizuko discovered that Eve was a gifted writer, expressing her thoughts in poems and prose with unusual but powerful juxtaposition of words. A book of fifteen of Eve’s poems, written in 1985 - 1991 is available from the IDW Dolphin Shop £5 + 50p p&p.

Before the conference, Shizuko had given Eve a copy of Horace’s fictional book Dilo and the Call of the Deep. She felt that Eve needed a challenge, and so she suggested that Eve should lead a group to help others who are autistic. Eve responded immediately and typed the words 'Dilo Group'. When she asked how she would do it the answer again came back instantly on the keyboard: I would like to give the gift of laughter to other people... I don’t know how — I feel groups should be about humour and dipping into mind ideas.

Eve, her Carer and Guardian along with Shizuko look forward to joining us in Bimini.

IDEAL

Working with Ashley Saunders and the Bimini School children, we plan to include IDEAL (Integrated Dolphin Educational and Learning) into our programme. Education and learning should be connected with joy and easyness for everyone. IDEAL is a concept developed by Dr. Horace Dobbs – scientist, dolphin researcher and visionary – who wanted to share the experiences and amazing discoveries of his research with parents and educationalists. His aim is to show the possibilities of using the positive effect of dolphins on children, by stimulating their learning motivation.

Of course it is not possible or desirable to integrate wild dolphins into regular lessons. However, you can obtain a similar effect by appropriate teaching materials (such as books, pictures, films, etc.). The method developed by Dr. Dobbs has turned out to be especially effective with children with special educational needs and/or learning difficulties.

IDEAL is a concept to support and enrich holistic and interdisciplinary teaching methods. It is connecting modern tried and tested teaching methods with new subjects and provides an easy and stress-free access to learning. IDEAL can be adapted and integrated within every educational concept. For further information click here http://www.idw.org/html/ideal.html.