Okay needless to say I am overjoyed and glad I Feng Shuid my home again this past couple of weeks because so many great things have happened since.  See it really does work!!!!

I have always wanted to do public speaking in the
Mental Health arena since my specialty and expertise developed from being a  Social Worker for 18 years.  My background includes Psychiatric and Medical Social Work, expertise in rehabilitating people with serious mental health challenges, particularly people with Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, Major Depression, OCD, Panic Disorder and PTSD.  I was also considered an expert at differential diagnosis and treatment for serious challenges.  I also was fortunate enough to have had a contract to see Camp Pendleton Military Personnel
from Colonels to the lowest rank and their families for 4 ½ years.  Wow that was
a rough ride but so educative and fulfilling.   I have a specialty and program
for Medication and Treatment Alliance for people with Chronic Mental and Medical
Health Challenges. 

I created social programs and intervention techniques and  prided myself on
being a "wounded healer".  For years as a LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker)
I submitted  ideas and proposals to the Mental Health Association and many other
conventions, in order to fulfill my dream of being a public speaker.  I wanted
to talk about interventions I created, really important views on healing mental
health, and to get my Medication and Treatment Alliance program out (a program
for people with chronic mental and medical health challenges who go off their
medication and have a high rate of hospital usage), but to know avail.  I never
was accepted!  Pooh!

I was able to speak for many NAMI family groups.  NAMI National Alliance on
Mental Illness http://www.nami.org/ was ALWAYS interested in my ideas and
programs.  They are a family support group for people with family members who
suffer from mental health challenges.  So I ended my career, as a
therapist/social worker of 18 years on a very HIGH note.  I felt fulfilled,
proud and grateful for a wonderfully inspiring career.  I don’t miss it because
I did everything you could do.  I worked at Harbor UCLA in the ER, on the PET
team, in an experimental program for the rehabilitating people with mental
health issues, at Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic working with children, in
home health, medical social work in hospitals, partial hospitalization programs,
a director of a drug rehab program, child abuse programs, with the elderly and
then had a 10 year private practice with two offices.  I did it all.  But I
never did get to Public Speak at big convention! Darn…..but the story does not
end there.

Recently I submitted a proposal to do a seminar for the Mental Health
Association’s 14TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE ON HOARDING AND CLUTTERING Empowering Communities through
Collaboration and Research  Expanded to a TWO-DAY learning forum! Featuring Keynotes by:
Dr. Randy Frost, Dr. David Mataix-Cols , and Lee Shuer Thursday, April 26,
2012 to Friday, April 27, 2012  www.mentalhealthsf.org/conference
The Mental Health Association of San Francisco advances the mental
health of the people of San Francisco and leads the global community in
advocacy, education, research and supports that promote recovery and wellness
while challenging the stigma associated with mental health conditions. 

I proposed a speech called Organize Your Home with a Feng Shui Template and I
was ACCEPTED.  Now isn’t that something.  Yay, Cheer, Applaud…so excited.  Jump
up and Down Excited.  Now I can clearly say a little Feng Shui goes a long
way!!

Also tonight I present at SOKA University in Aliso Viejo at 7:30pm.  Tonight
as in March 15th, 2012.  I will actually be a monthly speaker at the
school as an expert on Clutter and Disorganization.
Soka University
 Aliso Viejo, CA.
Sunset Hall 380’s 2nd floor Living Room
Come join us for a really fun and enjoyable way to GET ORGANIZED NOW! 
Marla Stone is a retired Licensed Clinical Social worker who became a Professional Organizer helping people from the inside out. Marla has her BA in Psychology and a Master’s in Social
Work. She owns I-Deal-Lifestyle Self & Space Organization Services. She assists people with getting their lives, homes and offices organized so they can increase productivity, prosperity and harmony in their lives.
Sponsored by Residential Life




　

Hoarding, collecting, getting organized and staying organized seem to be very popular subjects these days.  I subscribe to several magazines and each and every month there is at least one article about being or getting organized.  Most magazines are focused heavily on organizing one’s self, home or office. The television shows, on collecting and hoarding, portray extreme cases, actually making you feel ill watching them.  Hoarding seems to be happening in epidemic proportions. So are you a collector or a hoarder and what is the difference?  The answer is you cannot be hoarding if you have not collected, but you can collect and not hoard, so they are separate terms. 

Hoarding is a negative behavior if the hoarding is creating an impoverished way of life.  Collecting seems to be a much kinder way to look at the situation, yet it is the necessary key element and beginning act to hoarding. When someone has boxes, papers, collectibles, food products, gifts, animals and so much stuff it takes up their precious living space, until the point that they cannot even enjoy or use the stuff, it called Impoverished Wealth.   You have so much stuff, stuffed in your home, you cannot even use or enjoy it.  The money or time you spent collecting items, has now taken up your space for living, moving about and enjoying a fulfilled lifestyle.

Collecting, on the other hand, if done as a hobby or for a purpose and does not turn into cluttered mess, can be quite enjoyable.   I enjoy collecting art, artistic objects, books on decorating, Feng Shui, alternative health and herbal medicine.  I have a place for everything.  When I buy more then I have space for, I eliminate something and replace it with something I like better.  The minute your stuff starts to fill entire rooms, garages and walk-ways you are probably collecting and hoarding too much stuff.  Whatever is eliminated may go to family, friends or sold on Ebay.com or esty.com.   Anything left from your purging can go to charity.  Your taste in fashion and design changes about every 7-8 years, and so go to Town and get some new stuff, go ahead and collect and keep it around until it doesn’t please you aesthetically any longer. 

People who have a very difficult time letting go of “things”, even when the “things” are making their life impossible to enjoy, and who cannot stop bringing home “things”, that serve no purpose for them, are considered to be hoarding.  I don’t like to call people “hoarders”, because they are not “hoarders”, they are PEOPLE who have a hole inside of them and they think they can fill up that hole with stuff.  Generally I have found that people with collecting and hoarding behaviors have lost something, and they have not processed loss, therefore they have found some “things”, “items” and food or pets, which give them pleasure and fulfillment for that very moment.  People with collecting and hoarding behaviors are generally the kindest, most loving and considerate people that live in our world.  They have been wounded and they are licking their wounds with things that make them feel warm and fuzzy inside.  I see people barricade themselves into their homes, and that is exactly what all the boxes, books, papers and stuff is, a barricade.   People that create a barricade are people who have been wounded and hurt.  The barricade is a sign that they have been violated, and had their boundaries crossed by intrusive, often times violent, and disrespectful people.  Some people who hoard and barricade learned it from their childhoods, and many, at first, spent years working on being clean and orderly, yet ultimately fell into the same mire as their parents.

When someone, with no background in helping people with collecting and hoarding behaviors, gets involved and starts to clean up or take power and control of the “things”, most people, that suffer from their collecting and hoarding, become VERY upset.  I have seen people become very hypervigilant, depressed, angry, violent and sometimes psychotic if their property is even slightly disrupted.  But what you have to remember is those “objects” that they have collected, and piled up, have been the replacement for what they already lost.  The mind of a person who collects and hoards is very sharp, and calculative.  They had to form that mind in order to function despite being hurt and wounded.  Helping people who hoard, purge their obsolete and purposeless stuff, can be like playing chess, where if you cannot keep up with their diversions and desire to keep all of their” kings and queens”, both of you will lose and end up in a vicious cycle of hamster in the wheel.  When you move highly charged stuff, the person has a relationship with, it is as if you are taking their mother, father, child, pet, husband, and wife or loved one that they lost all over again.  A person will start to feel as if they are unraveling and will often start to, finally, process their loss.  When this occurs you must, as the helper, be prepared to be supportive, loving and kind.  Take a break and have the person fully realize their catharsis.  You must tread lightly but firmly with someone who has strong relationships with their stuff!

The first step is that the organizer and the client develop a relationship.  Both people must agree that the time is correct, and that the person with collecting and hoarding behaviors stop collecting and hoarding.  A verbal contract is a good idea.  Second the person with collecting and hoarding behaviors must acknowledge that they are emotionally ready for the feat of sorting and clearing.   And third a plan of how they will sort, clear and fill the space with beauty and harmony must be made.  It is a very difficult and strenuous prospect, when homes are filled to the gills, but it can be done and completed within a short period of time.  So get prepared to Get Organized Now!  Call 949-709-7000 for a free 30 minute consultation if you are ready for some help.  Also look on www.i-deal-lifestyle.com and read the blog and all about the staff who will help you get and stay organized.