Codependence Camp, Spring 2017 at Vine Cottage in Natural Bridge, VA

Yes, let it be said that Codependence Camp has happily landed at Vine Cottage on the Forest Oaks Estate in Natural Bridge, VA, USA! After a decade of successful Camps in Abingdon, VA, we have moved to this new location. Like most change, this move - which was prompted by the sale of the house we used all of those years - had its challenges and invited us to practice many of the tools we teach at Camp: flexibility, patience, open-mindedness, creativity, faith, cooperation, and mindfulness.

We have just completed our 22nd Camp which was on Detaching, Energy, Family Influences, and Fun. What a wonderful group of campers, sharing their personal stories as they wish and asking good questions which keep us all on this continuing journey to a Healthy Self.

Yes, that is what Camp is all about: cultivating Your Healthy Self.

Curious about our content? Some of our core work is at my website here. Go to downloads and you can see our little "camp manual" entitled Your Healthy Self: Skills for Working with Codependent Behaviors.

Curious about what else Camp can offer ? Drop me a note through Contact on this website, and I will be glad to answer your questions.


Next Camp: September 29 - October 1, 2017 at Vine Cottage. Topics include Energy, Conflict Resolution, and Grief.

Today, May 18, 2016 at 3pm (ET), my work will be given the opportunity for a national forum thanks to the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC) here in the US.

Last November they selected my presentation for a webinar entitled Your Healthy Self: Skills for Working with Codependent Behaviors. Those of you familiar with my work know that I created this electronic booklet in the summer of 2015 for the Virginia Summer Institute for Addiction Studies, and it has been available here on my website under Downloads for anyone's use.

Tomorrow I will be offering a 90 minute presentation on this work.To either attend the event or to look at it at a later time, here is the address: http://www.naadac.org/codependantbehaviors.

I have also been busy since this March converting this electronic booklet into a physical book. All year I have wanted to create what I am calling Nancy's "little book" which you can see above. As I am saying, it reads in 30 minutes and takes years to work. The book is $10.00 and is only available through me. I have not figured out how to move it out further yet, but if you are interested in a copy or more, let me know through this website and we will see what is possible.

The book, whether electronic or paper, is to be both quick reference/quick study and fun in its simultaneously introductory and comprehensive ways. I believe that cultivating our healthy self can be the same: both studied and fun.

I hope you will take a look at my "little book" in any of these ways - the webinar, this website, the paper book - and see what may be useful for you.

My time in Williamsburg at the Virginia Summer Institute for Addiction Studies was wonderful: excellent sessions in which I learned a great deal and inspiring colleagues and conversations. A special thank-you to all who attended my session and participated in the inauguration of Your Healthy Self, my new electronic board book available here at my website under Downloads.

Whether I am working with my clients, teaching others, or working with my self, I am over-and-over brought back to the basic importance of mindfulness in my life. More and more I understand that the work I am doing is about this development of a healthy self, and without the awareness and ability to quiet my self and come to the present moment, I am not able to connect with my self in the ways that help my growth.

Haiku continue to come to me these days. They are such a magical delight - their presence in my life - and they often express succinctly my experiences. Here are several I choose to share with you now.

Always moving on

with so much goodness waiting

to be noticed now.

Life gives me the chance

to catch up with my sweet self

and still I push on.

Summer's orchestra
is all coming together
with rich sights and sounds

Each of us have a present moment right now.

I have a moment.

Here and now invites me to 

notice and attend. 

Woman Bathing Her Feet in a Brook

Camille Pissarro

1984/1985

The Art Institute of Chicago

The time has come for me to return to my blog and to return to the Virginia Summer Institute for Addiction Studies in Williamsburg this coming week - July 13-15, 2015 - http://www.vsias.org/. I am very fond of this conference. I have learned a great deal there and have been invited to present several times. I will be presenting at VSIAS this Tuesday, July 14th.

My session is entitled, "Your Healthy Self: Skills for Working with Codependent Behaviors." The presentation is a new one, and the theme of the conference invited us to use technology in our work.

This invitation prompted me to create a power point book on this topic of codependency. It reminds me of the board books we enjoyed as children. The exciting news for me is that it is available to you and anyone here on my website. It takes about 30 minutes to read, and as I add, years to work. It is under the Downloads tab which is a new feature on my website. I want to be able to share more of my presentations with you.

So check out my downloads. There are four of them now. I will be adding more from work I have done over the past 10 years. I am glad to pass them out into the world and stimulate conversation and growth on this important topic: Your Healthy Self.