{"id":26,"date":"2018-06-20T16:51:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T16:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/?p=26"},"modified":"2018-06-20T17:04:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T17:04:16","slug":"christine-holland-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/2018\/06\/20\/christine-holland-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Christine Holland \u201815"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christine
Christine Holland \u201815<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christine Holland made a special talking piece for the healing circle she co-facilitates at the Cheshire County Jail. A wild turkey feather embellished with beads, its quill bound in leather, the talking piece gives the person who holds it the right to speak without interruptions. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt we needed something that felt sacred and grounded in the natural world,\u201d says Holland, a nontraditional Keene State student who has been leading inmate groups at the jail all year as a practicum for her psychology major. <\/p>\n

As they discussed the talking piece, Holland said to the women in the group, \u201cRemember, as you take this talking feather from the person beside you, that the one who\u2019s passing it to you is also passing a piece of herself. As you will to the person you pass it on to. Thereby, we\u2019re all connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holland, who has Blackfoot heritage, structured the group on the traditional Native American healing circle. \u201cI think that my role at the jail is to help in healing the spirit, a person\u2019s spirit. That\u2019s what I want to do. I want to help the spirit heal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to be viewed with empathy and humanity,\u201d adds Holland. \u201cThey have to have their humanity given back to them. We\u2019re incarcerating a population that has a disease \u2013 addiction. Incarceration in itself is traumatizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holland knows that first hand. She has a history of substance abuse that goes back to her teenage years and that escalated after she was prescribed OxyContin following back surgery. \u201cI ended up a heroin addict,\u201d she says, \u201cand because it\u2019s all about doing anything and everything to acquire your drug, I ended up in jail.\u201d Four months at the Cheshire County Jail gave her time to get the drugs out of her system and to start thinking clearly \u2013 and making some decisions about her life. What she decided was to go back to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was released on June 28, 2011,\u201d she says, \u201cand I started at River Valley Community College that September.\u201d A year later, she transferred to Keene State, where she has learned much about psychology, about addictions \u2013 the focus of her health science minor \u2013 and also about herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe degree?\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s just a bonus. I\u2019ve learned so much here about me. Just so much selfdiscovery as far as some of the choices I\u2019ve made and how they occurred.\u201d Her goal, after she graduates in December, is to take what she\u2019s learned and help others \u2013 specifically, inmates \u2013 to make changes in their lives as well.<\/p>\n

One of the groups she facilitated this year at the county jail focused on restorative practices. \u201cThat\u2019s about helping people find their own humanity,\u201d she says. \u201cOnce you have your own humanity, it\u2019s easy to look at others with humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of finding one\u2019s humanity permeates the other groups, too. In the healing circle group, in which inmates share their experiences and emotions, Holland works to build trust. \u201cThey have to trust that I\u2019m not going to pass judgment. That\u2019s not my job. Who am I to pass judgment? I\u2019m trying to help these women and men heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, given her own past, she\u2019s also showing the inmates a new path. \u201cIt\u2019s good for them to see somebody get out, make changes, and then try to give back,\u201d Holland says. \u201cThat\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christine Holland made a special talking piece for the healing circle she co-facilitates at the Cheshire County Jail. A wild turkey feather embellished with beads, its quill bound in leather, … Continue reading “Christine Holland \u201815”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ksc-psychology-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.keene.edu\/psyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}