Starting A Non-profit Therapy Group

[crazytrain]

Hi, I am not sure if this is the proper space for this, but it seemed to fit the description.
I have started the paperwork on a non-profit group that is designed to focus on non-traditional therapeutic methods. This will include, but not be limited to, music therapy (mostly drumming!), exercise equipment and training, art therapy, massage therapy; all at no or very low cost to the client. I have an office space I am going to use, although I need to do some significant improvements before I can move into the space. All in due time, though! I hope to be up and running in a few months, tops. I hope to have a website up before then, too!

Can't wait to get started! Wish me luck!

 

[Meadowsweet]

I wish someone would start something like that near me. Good luck with it.

 

[Hashi]

Good luck!

This sounds fantastic, I'm sure it will be well-used and appreciated.

The website sounds like a great idea as well. Can I PM you about this? I'm creating one for a very specific purpose and would find it helpful to make contact with someone else creating a site.

Hashi

 

[anthony]

Goodluck with your venture CT, but please remember the rules of this forum about self promotion.

Websites... from a person with significant marketing experience, let me add my two cents. A website for a local group is not the best idea, because a website stands alone and then must be marketed and such to even get scope even locally.

Local groups are better of with local marketing methods, such as flyers, mailbox drops, local paper advertising, etc. If you really want to use the www, then social media is the better method, such as having a twitter account for the local group using its locality and group name, the same with a FaceBook page, also using the locality and group name, which will drive those two mediums into Google for local finding when searched. More importantly, it allows everyone in the group or interested in the group to join in any and all discussion online, without any restrictions.

Websites are a waste of time and space for local groups. Being a non-profit, then it may serve a little purpose for basic information about the organisation, though even fund raising is going to need be done locally and through approaching local business, as International and corporations don't typically give to small non-profits with no proven history of effort first.

I hope that helps from a marketing perspective and experience in marketing, to help your non-profit strive in the future.

 

[EloiseLandau]

FB might be a better way to promote a business

 

[cat]

This sounds like a great idea Crazytrain. Good luck!

 

[crazytrain]

Thanks all for the tips and encouragement, and apologies again to Anthony for once again posting incorrectly! I basically suck at this kind of stuff but am trying to learn on the fly.

Some interesting things I have learned so far, though:
1) I live approximately a mile from the National Center for PTSD, which is based in White River Junction, Vermont of all places. It is based out of the Veterans Administration (VA) (for non-Americans, or in case you were wondering!). Anyway, these people are the leaders in PTSD research in this country, although admittedly they are concentrating on combat-PTSD. Regardless, as we know, the symptoms and causality are very similar; trauma, after all, is trauma. I do not believe that the human body distinguishes one from another, although statistics seem to indicate that personal trauma (rape, sexual abuse, etc.) is more likely to cause PTSD and related disorders. 2) There is very little research that has been done (or at least mainstream, that I have found) on using alternative therapies for PTSD treatment. The only one I found, from the VA website, is the use of acupuncture, which has been met with some real success. Let me try and get the link for you so you can visit the website yourselves if you haven't already. There are also online courses you can take; I took three of them today!
Here's the link: www.ptsd.va.gov/
It's an interesting place to visit, if nothing else.

Thanks again,
CT

 

[anthony]

Yes, the NCPTSD has excellent tutorials and such for you to take. If memory serves me correctly, they also have physician level in depth video's, which anyone can watch and learn from. They contain some excellent information.

Also, you should not exclude ISTSS, as they are pretty much the leaders in everything trauma, not the NCPTSD, who as you say, concentrate on military only. ISTSS focus on all, thus their data is quite robust and varied across trauma types. Even better, anyone can join ISTSS, not just professionals, thus you get online access to one hell of a lot of traumatic based information, assessments, journals, etc etc.

behaviors

 

[Promicarus]

Crazytrain-I'm not sure how you're defining "Alternative Treatment". That covers a lot of ground. There have been studies related to both Equine Therapy for trauma-related symptoms, as well as "Rescue Animals" as therapy for same (which I think in the opinion of most would fall under "Alternative").

I've had similar ideas for a long time, as a matter of fact. Glad to see you're putting it in motion, especially as the gov. is pretty much constrained by having to use only "Academically Supportable", peer reviewed approaches (and even then, at a staggeringly inadeqate level).

Is your program going to accept both veterans as well as non-combat trauma survivors? I ask because very different approaches are often required for the two distinct groups-for a myriad of reasons 1) Combat Veterans often have difficulty relating to others with less acute, dramatic forms of trauma (to the point of difficulties in interaction), 2) Combat trauma is often far more severe both in symptoms as well as consequences of mismanagement than are other forms of trauma related symptomologies. 3) Combat Veterans often benefit from close relations and interactions with each other, as they have been inculcated into the "warrior culture" of the armed forces, which emphasizes the mutual reliance of soldiers upon one-another, while often sufferers with C-PTSD and other forms of trauma-related symptoms have just the opposite instinct, suggesting approaches tailored to each, individually.

Often, returning veterans require medical supervision, at least initially. As you appear to be educating yourself as to trauma in general, you've likely been made aware of this fact, though. Just something to keep in mind.

Drumming seems as though it would be a good "Grounding" exercise-to encourage trauma sufferers to "drop in" to their bodies, through a positively expressive, diversionary activity (rather than the more mundane, "stock" techniques of tapping feet, etc)