CLIENTS' CONTRIBUTIONS
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent"
Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)
Dear Jo
Thank you so much for helping me to transform my life into a beautiful, peaceful garden instead of the tangled mess of weeds and thorns it was before!!! You are a wonderful counsellor and I shall continue to recommend you all over the place. In spite of all the horrible experiences I’ve had at work, I have never lost my faith in the integrity and values of people and organisations and the way Reach works has underlined this for me!!
Thanks again
Diana
“Our problem is that we make the mistake of comparing ourselves with other people. You are not inferior or superior to any human being….you do not determine your success by comparing yourself to others, rather you determine your success by comparing your accomplishments to your capabilities. You are “number one” when you do the best you can with what you have”.
Zig Ziglar (1926 - present)
Dearest Lisa
Just a note to say thank you for all your support, kindness and encouragement you have shown me.
I never realised just how challenging the journey would be when I first started. All I knew was that I would have done anything just to feel well again and to end the awful pain and despair I was feeling.
I remember the first day I met you, feeling a total mess and not believing that I was capable of being helped, just how safe and protected I felt in your company. I left that first day feeling something I had not felt in a long time “hope”. I knew, Lisa, I had made the right decision in coming to Reach and being led to you. From that first meeting with you I slowly got better (although I didn’t realise it at the time!). You helped me so much. Slowly with your wisdom and encouragement I began the task of putting the broken parts of me together again. I began to find my way back to my soul which I had felt so detached and far away from.
I could never have gotten better on my own Lisa, I wouldn’t have known how. You became my wise teacher who very gently encouraged me and provided me with the insights I needed to make such positive change in my life. You have helped me to unravel the mystery of who I am, and to get to know myself in a way that I never thought possible. You helped me to face the demons that had so pulled me down into the depths of despair. The tools you have taught me to use have become a necessary part of my life.
The biggest thing for me was facing the shame of having a hearing impairment. Facing the shame head on, and finally admitting the truth that this disability affected me so much was one of the hardest things I have had to face. Denial had kept the shame so locked in. When I finally admitted the truth I can’t describe the painful but liberating feeling I had.
Lisa there are so many ways my life has got better because of your support and guidance and the fact that I’ve never felt judged by you is remarkable. I honestly feel that you were born to this world to guide those of us struggling in the dark to find a way into the light. You are a truly special person Lisa and I’m so blessed and privileged to know such a lovely person.
I can’t believe how different I am today. When I look back to when I first came and how unwell I was, it’s a miracle! I know I’ve still got a long way to go and probably with plenty more challenges, but I believe with your support I can make it.
My hope is that Reach and people like yourself become bigger and stronger and are able to shine your beacon of light to all those souls still stuck in the darkness. It’s a heartfelt truth that there are many so desperate for support and help out there.
With love and the deepest gratitude
Love, Sally
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be”.
Lao Tzu (604 BC – 531 BC)
Dearest Jo
I can’t begin to thank you for all your guidance, support and wisdom over the past 3 years. It’s been an incredible journey and I am so grateful that you have been my teacher, my guide and my companion along the way…… P.S. I passed!!!
Claire Walker
"Believe you can, and you can. Belief is one of the most powerful of all problem dissolvers. When you believe that a difficulty can be overcome, you are more than halfway to victory over it already."
Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)
Dear Reach
I have not been fortunate enough to have access to your services personally but there literally isn't a day that I'm not on this amazing website, learning something new and expanding my mind. It's staggering how much work has gone into this amazing resource. I simply wanted to thank you both for myself and I'm sure for many others who are being saved and helped by your generosity. I just can't believe how much of what is available is free, and where you do make charges the costs are so relatively small. Thank you!
T. Clinton - Tenesee, USA
Dear Easton and Team
I've been volunteering my services in Eritrea for the last 12 months and your website has literally kept me sane. I've battled with feeling homesick and wondering whether I'm good enough to do what I'm doing. There are days when the connection is so poor and I'm unable to access the site and I really notice the difference. It's not that I'm dependent on it (maybe I am), it's just that it's an invaluable support. I've particularly found the meditation and relaxation section of great help to me. I feel like I'm learning a new skill, one that is portable, which is really useful as I have to move around a lot. I've also found myself, even though I'm not qualified, trying to pass on the beauty and the simplicity of the messages. I've been buying your calendars for many years now and they're lovely. I think this year's has been the best one with the monthly reflections, which have certainly helped me think about each affirmation more deeply. Another invaluable resource for me personally has been the bite sized insights. I think it's great how so much insight and helpful instruction is packed literally into a few minutes and being able to download them for such a modest fee has been great. They are packed onto my ipod and have become good friends to me. You must be helping literally thousands of people across the planet to find inner peace. Thank you for helping me.
From A Grateful Traveller
Jason McAllister - Eritrea
“A positive thinker does not refuse to recognise the negative, he simply refuses to dwell on it. Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually looks for the best results from the worst conditions.”
Norman Vincent Peale (1898 – 1993)
"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."
Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
My first year at university had been hell; I was determined not to have another year like it. I couldn’t work out whether I was really agoraphobic or claustrophobic as I couldn’t bear to be out of my room and I couldn’t bear to be in it either. It was torture. Even worse was pretending I was OK. After 9 months I just couldn’t do it any more. I collapsed one day and the charade was over; everyone would know – my worst fear had arrived. The sense of shame was awful. This wasn’t supposed to happen to me! I felt I’d let everyone down. I was the first person to go to uni in my family – how would I look everyone in the face, especially my Grandparents who were always overwhelmed with my achievements. The feeling of letting everyone down was as bad as the ache inside but I was incapable of addressing either. I just didn’t have the capacity – I’d used up all my fight.
8 months on from that awful time of complete fatigue and utter despair, I’m much, much better. The most healing for me was in being understood. The more I realized many others had shared this kind of experience, the more my shame faded. The love and support of my family was lovely but strangely it wasn’t enough. For a time it made me feel worse as I didn’t feel I deserved their love after letting them down. It was talking and reflecting that helped me the most and learning how to help myself. I’ve learnt so much in such a short time. Most of all I’ve learnt that there is no benefit in pretending because whatever’s wrong will overwhelm you in the end. Face your fears if you can – that’s what my work with Reach helped me to achieve and I’m so grateful! I will now finish my degree that had seemed impossible when I finally broke down. Thank you Easton for introducing me to The Story of Health; the concept has literally changed my life.
Claire Patterson
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
I’m a 49 year old Professor in a prestigious university and regrettably as I know I’m likely to be judged unfavorably by my superiors and peers my contribution is delivered anonymously. It’s terrible that such prejudice still exists for those who eventually find the courage to seek help. My journey still continues and I’m hoping one day I’ll not care how the world views me. For now I’m just so grateful to be over the anxiety and panic attacks; they were so debilitating. I’ve done a lot of create visualisation and deep relaxation work in my sessions and used the CDs and MP3s frenetically. This has been a very powerful combination for me. What’s also been helpful is the advice around diet and nutrition and understanding the importance of water in mental health and the role of breathing in the correct way. For the first time in over 20 years I feel I’m being myself. This mind-body-spirit and environment approach is so obvious and yet I’ve not come across anything offering this mix in this way. I highly recommend it to those who are quietly suffering and are unhappy with their lives.
Anon
“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
I’d been punched, kicked and battered for 13 years before I found the courage to do something about it. It took me a year after deciding to make the call to actually make it. Every time I rang, as soon as it was answered I’d hang up - I just couldn’t do it. The day that changed my life was when my 8 year old daughter heard me crying and was doing her best to comfort me. Looking back now I feel ashamed of that. It’s my job to be comforting her. She asked me how I got the bruises on my back; I cried even more. And lied again. I decided in that moment that would be the last time I would lie to my children.
After 18 months of looking honestly at my life and searching my mind, I’ve learnt about the power to choose. The most important thing said to me at the outset is “your thoughts create your reality”. At first I felt insulted, as if this was a disguised negative judgment of me and I thought “but I’m not choosing this madness”. I slowly realized I wasn’t being accused of anything, I was simply being helped to understand that our realities are determined by the way we think. 5 or 6 people witnessing or experiencing the same thing all react differently because they see it or feel it through their own thoughts and experiences. This has been a very helpful insight to me as I realized I thought I didn’t deserve any better so I tolerated and accepted the violence until it was all I knew. I didn’t even question it any more. Now I feel like I’ve come out of a really bad dream. Thank God I’m free.
The practical and legal battle continues but I’m winning because I’m choosing hope over fear. I’ve promised myself I won’t be a victim any more, both for my two daughters and myself. Understanding The 3 Aspects of Consciousness has really helped me to see things differently. I try to practice it as much as I can. Also coming up with a set of ‘non-negotiables’ really helped me. When Elaine first suggested it, it was an alien concept. I’d never made myself the focus of my life, so deciding on a list of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ that would ensure my growth was very odd but they really helped me to build my self-respect. The Reach resources are quite unbelievable. Any time we would talk about something, Elaine would pop up with another handout on that subject. I used to ask her if she was telepathic :) How did she seem to always have what I needed!?! However, none of these resources would have been enough without Elaine’s generous and kind spirit. Thank you for always really seeing me. I now feel safe.
Grateful Mother of Two
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) |  |
I first contacted Reach because of the breakdown of my marriage and was desperate to get rid of the pain, the rage and the fear I was feeling as a result of being left alone with three small children to look after by myself. I felt completely isolated, without friends or family anywhere near by. It took some time to come to terms with what had happened - before I was ready to let go of these feelings, and I was very skeptical that I ever would. It is a miracle to me that I no longer fight daily with myself, punish myself in my mind for my failings as a woman, a wife, as a mother and as a person. My journey with Reach showed me that all aspects of my life depend upon how I feel about myself. There was great resistance to the idea that I could even like myself a little bit but I am really starting to feel that I can create a better life for my family and me. Having understood that it’s not what you know it’s what you do that counts has really changed me life. Thanks Jo! I finally got it. I finally realized that I needed to practice taking care of myself in all kinds of different ways and if I could just be consistent in this practice then positive change would be the result. I’m still trying and it’s working.
Jennifer Hutchinson
Contributions Page introduction....
Reach began its unique way of working in 1990. Since that time we have touched literally thousands of people’s lives through our individual work, work with couples, families, groups and countless workshops. We have produced in that time 100s of written resources and over 30 audio and visual recordings and these have travelled across the world, largely driven by personal recommendation. They have also brought immeasurable change to many. On these pages is a snap-shot of what people have thought, felt and gained from their therapeutic contact with us via the various media we offer.
Also included on this page are some inspirational thoughts and writings from those clients, borne of their personal journeys with Reach. We've also added insightful quotes from some of the great minds both past and present.
We hope you too will be inspired....