Taos Behavioral Health

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Taos Behavioral Health Ready to Support You as School Opens!

Mary Gray McPhail

By Mary McPhail Gray
Board Chair

Thursday, August 15th—the first day of the school year 2019–,2020!  The buses are rolling, the teachers are finishing last minute tasks, the schools are shining clean and the administrators stand ready to meet, greet and solve unexpected problems.  Excitement is in the air as the village starts the tasks of supporting our education system.

In homes, students are excited and nervous, and parents are hurrying to prepare them with needed supplies and encouragement as the family schedule changes.  Plans are finalized for transportation and after school activities.

For all students—the new school year brings change—new teachers and friends—new academic challenges.  For some students change is exciting and rewarding, and for many, change brings anxiety and stress.  Will they feel comfortable in new classes? Will they be with their friends?  Will they find new friends?  What if someone bullies them?  Who will be there to help?  Will the classwork be too hard? [Read more…] about Taos Behavioral Health Ready to Support You as School Opens!

Reaching Out to Veterans

Mary Gray McPhailBy Mary McPhail Gray
Board Chair

“Working with veterans is a passion of mine,” declares Jacquie Arcand, one of four Taos Behavioral Health clinicians who are uniquely skilled at treating veterans. “I am a military brat and have a lived experience with military culture and family life.  My father was a WWI veteran whose PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) was never treated.”

Just as you would seek help for a physical injury, you can seek help for a soul-searing moral injury.  The wounds are just as deep and debilitating.  Most veterans have some level of PTSD—as a result of experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event/s.  PTSD symptoms may start within a month of the event or may not appear for years.   Often the individual has intrusive repetitive memories, avoidance behaviors, negative moods and thoughts and changes in physical and emotional reactions.  The veteran often experiences difficulties in social and family life, occupational instability, marital problems and difficulty in parenting. [Read more…] about Reaching Out to Veterans

We’ve Moved! New Location—New Programs

Mary Gray McPhailBy Mary McPhail Gray
NVW Board Chair

Nonviolence Works has just completed a move to a new location at 105 Bertha Suite B — across from the US Postal Center and behind Toribio’s restaurant.  We find the new space very uplifting — great colors and art — plenty of places for people to visit and work together. Our phone number is still the same (575-758-4297), and our website (www.nonviolenceworks.us) and Facebook page give you all the current programs news.

We are excited to begin our annual summer Therapeutic Camp (Familia y Mundo) with 45 enrollees and a great program of art, crafts, physical skill building, swimming, individual and group therapy, and community service activities. We offer this program to the community through the ongoing partnership with Ranchos Elementary School.

Our search continues to locate an appropriate environment for a residential treatment center for adolescent males — we will keep the community informed about those plans and our needs.

We have initiated a new Gabler Battle Back Program for veterans with unique strengths in our staff, board and our commitments to this population. The title refers to our belief that we must in good conscience help those who have sacrificed for our freedom — to be supported in their battle back to get all the way home.

There are 6,000 veterans in northern New Mexico and approximately 40% of them are in need of some form of mental health support.  In addition, far too many of the homeless in our country are from the ranks of veterans.  We see them at the roadside in our village — struggling. [Read more…] about We’ve Moved! New Location—New Programs

Nonviolence Works Welcomes Linda Sanders

Mary Gray McPhailBy Mary McPhail Gray
NVW Board Chair

When Linda Sanders walked into her therapy room at Nonviolence Works, she felt as if she was coming home—again and again!  Sanders was raised in Texas, and for her entire childhood her family spent most of their vacations in New Mexico—and Taos was the favorite place.  She loved the environment and the rich cultural traditions, and at a critical point she and her husband were determined to live here.

Sanders has had an outstanding career as a licensed clinical social worker in Texas—including ten years working with veterans and fifteen years working with adults in other critical decision-making processes.  She served for five years as a mitigation specialist completing comprehensive biopsychosocial investigations of clients referred in capital murder cases. For ten years she was the clinical director of a 100-year-old private adoption agency and for eight years was the clinical director in a family social service agency.

Linda Sanders

Linda Sanders

Sanders has often been an administrator.  The VA Medical Center in Dallas is the second largest in the country and as the Assistant Associate Chief Social Worker Sanders supervised a staff of 170.  In her first VA position she was the Suicide Prevention Coordinator at a time when Veteran’s Affairs was just beginning to recognize the need for identification, assessment and treatment of veterans at high risk for suicide.  She developed community partnerships to coordinate services and was part of a national team that developed an award-winning process to manage suicidal calls coming into all VA call centers. [Read more…] about Nonviolence Works Welcomes Linda Sanders