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Origin of T. K. Wolf
Ann writes…
Frustrated by our experiences that traditional addiction treatment wasn’t working, but still unaware of how serious the treatment failures were, several of us had tried to implement an improved program for addiction treatment at a college where we taught. Finally, we decided to start our own organization. I happened to have stationery named after Tasha Kiowa, a female wolf and valued member of my family, so I said, “We’ll name the organization, T. K. Wolf.” And so the organization began and—thus the logo.
One of us, Clark Inkanish, was a long time alcohol and drug counselor of more than 35 years. I’d been told that adding Native American spirituality and culture to present counseling would make the difference, especially for addicted Indians, and Clark was not only a certified addiction counselor but also an Indian elder who held sweat lodge and other ceremonies. Our new organization, T. K. Wolf, was Indian owned, but our programs were open to all races and religions from the beginning. We held workshops, classes, cultural events, ceremonies, and offered counseling.
A year later I realized that what we were doing—and it was “state of the art” for addiction counseling—still wasn’t working. Our results were terrible. At that point I didn’t realize how bad typical success rates are, since outcome statistics are hard to come by. We would later learn that four years after treatment only seven percent are sober! At ceremonies, most people chain-smoked, prayed earnestly, and returned to drinking and using again. Worst of all, I was astounded to learn that addiction counselors around us were relapsing—a little known fact, at least to me. All my theories and research on human nature seemed useless when it came to addiction. I told Clark that I couldn’t continue doing what we were doing—and charging people for, however little—when it wasn’t working. If we couldn’t get better results, we’d have to stop.
Meanwhile, our organization was popular. People liked coming to our classes. Native American spirituality is attractive to many—especially those disenchanted with their own religious traditions. People came to counseling. Clark is an excellent counselor. We co-counseled, which, by giving varied perspectives, works well. But hardly any of our clients were getting better. As a long time professor and researcher, I didn’t believe in doing anything that didn’t work. I’d pretty much left the addiction area to Clark, since that was his area of expertise. I slowly learned that for him, low success rates were just the way it is. That was why so many addiction counselors left the field.
That realization began the longest learning curve of my life. Getting my Ph.D. was nothing compared to the ground I’d have to cover and it has taken about as long. I would have to explore areas I knew nothing about, worse still, as someone who enjoyed different disciplines, these were areas I didn’t really want to know about. All I knew was that I was desperate to find something that was more successful than what we were doing—and more successful than what other addiction counselors seemed to be doing. As I attended professional meetings for alcohol and drug counselors, I got the distinct impression that we were not alone.
First came the hint. One day, when a client was in counseling, Clark, who is an expert at guided imagery, included guided imagery in the counseling session. I usually participate in the imagery along with the client. I know the general pattern, I’d used imagery in the classroom, but Clark changes the detail each time. This time, as he asked the client to go to a beautiful place, I found one I hadn’t been to before while doing imagery. This time I visited the woods I’d often walked in my younger years, located behind the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. In the imagery I was told that I’d meet someone but realized I’d never seen anyone in my walks there. Then I remembered that Albert Einstein had once walked those woods so I envisioned meeting him. When told to ask a question of the person, I found myself saying, “Please help us find an answer for alcoholism, for addiction.” In the imagery, we walked a little while together. Afterwards, I said to myself, “Einstein, energy, electricity. That has to be the answer!”
I confess that I never even took a high school course in physics. I’d avoided it like the plague, although later I had become interested in quantum physics from a philosophical perspective. About all I knew about electricity was how to turn a light switch on and off. For several months, I searched the internet like crazy using such search terms as “electricity,” “alcoholism,” “treatment,” “addiction,” but found nothing. Then, one day when I’d nearly given up, I happened to be home watching television at lunchtime and learned that a physician in Texas was implanting electrical units in the chests of patients with serious depression. I called the television station, then the physician himself. I asked him if he knew if anyone had used this treatment for addiction. He said he didn’t know but gave me the names of people in NYC who might. I called them without result. I didn’t know a lot about electricity but I did know that, other than for compliance, the electrical unit didn’t have to be implanted to work. It spurred me on. This time I found the right search terms and found that electrical treatment had been used for the treatment of addiction for decades! And it didn’t have to be implanted. Why hadn’t I—and others—ever heard about it?
Immediately, I called the researchers involved and learned that for decades there had been double and triple blinded published research studies from numerous universities and institutions on the success of such treatment. Not confident in analyzing research in this area, I sent it to two friends I trusted—one an engineer, the other a biologist. They read the research and said, “Go for it!” We quickly obtained electrical units called “cranial electrical stimulation” to try for our clients. We learned that these treatments were FDA sanctioned for the treatment of stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, addiction, and pain. By 1980, CES treatment for addiction had success rates of 80 percent after seven years! The research had been done in Europe and the US in a variety of universities and institutions. Again, the question came, “Why haven’t we heard about it?” And down deep came the thought, “My son didn’t have to die from alcoholism.”
We began using CES and keeping careful records to demonstrate effectiveness. Clients would come in, do a pre and post test, put the unit on and move into counseling. We realized they were moving successfully through counseling faster. We saw that if clients used CES, it worked! Then Barbara joined us and she had both education and experience in electrical engineering and health care.
Nearly a year later we met Ray Smith, the long time researcher of cranial electrical stimulation and he told us we also needed to learn about addiction nutrition as researched and practiced by Joan Larson, author of Seven Weeks to Sobriety. We were already having excellent results with CES but learned that people felt even better with a change in their diet. Larson’s research also gave us the evidence we needed to tell people why it was important to stop smoking along with their other addictions. We observed that people first get better on CES and then find that they can change their diets to lower their carbohydrates and increase their proteins. We also learned the importance of their having healthy fats in their diets for effective mental and emotional functioning.
We began seeing connections between alcoholism and Type Two Diabetes so often suffered by the same people. That caused us to research the relationship and publish the article, “Killing Us Slowly: The Relationship Between Type Two Diabetes and Alcoholism” (Native American Times, 2001)—now found on numerous websites. Medical school students and health professionals began to write us, asking us for more information and references.
Meanwhile, we learned more about the genetic origins of alcoholism and that due to the causes of alcoholism and addiction—related to irritable brain waves—people will need to keep using their CES units from time to time to keep their brain waves normal. Increasingly, we found people coming to us who were now addicted to a variety of drugs which had been prescribed by their physicians. And we had clients coming to us who had been failed by “name brand” addiction facilities, but now succeeded.
Many of our clients were also victims of child and family abuse, and thus of post-traumatic stress disorder. Pam Brauchi, a licensed professional counselor and art therapist joined us. Her expertise, especially with children, helps us work with entire families of abuse.
Now in 2006 we find ourselves in the exciting situation of being asked to present our cutting-edge research at a variety of conferences and giving professional guidance to addiction counselors across the country. We are involved in research projects with a variety of institutions and universities.
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