In life, what counts is how you walk through the fire.

 

SAVE THE DATE:  Book Reading and Demonstration

Thursday, 6 November 2014 at 7:00 pm

In recognition of Veterans Day,The White Rose, a great bookstore 
in Holyoke, is hosting a reading and demonstration by Tom from his book Combat Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Holistic Approach (Levellers Press, 2012).
 The book is based on Tom's teaching Aikido to combat vets with
PTSD and his development of Keganin No Senshi Aikido (KNSA), 
a form of Aikido specifically for combat veterans with PTSD and
anyone who wishes to study without the potential dangers inherent
 in most marital arts.
   
Discussion and refreshments following the reading.  

Please help spread the word - though emails, social media, old-fashioned phone calls, etc., and do, please, join us for an interesting evening.


Holyoke Class Resumes

After a summer hiatus, the KNSA class at the War Memorial Building in Holyoke has resumed with a growing group of vets attending.  Classes meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm and are open to all vets and their families.  Rolling admission means that folks can join the class at any time.  Come check it out.


KNSA Participates in Veterans Expo in Springfield 
 

More than 400 vets attended the 2014 Western Mass Veterans Expo at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield on 9 October to learn about a wide range of services, programs and opportunities available for those who served.  KNSA was one of the more than 200 resources providing information.  We were also asked to conduct two demonstrations during the course of the Expo. We had some great conversations with many of those attending.  Congratulations to the organizing committee for a great day.


Aiki Extensions Conference

KNSA has been invited to conduct a day-long training at the Aiki Extentions National Conference in March 2015.  Details will be included in future newsletters as they are confirmed.


Workshop Planning

Planning discussions continue with folks in several locations across the country who are interested in hosting Train-the-Trainer Workshops as a step in starting a KNSA program. They include New Orleans, Louisiana, and Waco, Texas, where a clinical social worker at the VA facility there has found Tom's book so helpful that he is making it available to many of the vets in his program.

 

Research opportunities

Qualitative and quantitative research analyst graduate students: We would also be very interested in working with a graduate student[s] interested in researching the effects of Aikido on people with PTSD. One of the sources of resistance to getting recognition from the VA and other major sources of funding is the lack of objective data. There is a wealth of anecdotal evidence and subjective reports supporting Aikido’s effectiveness, but hard evidence from well structured, scientific research is lacking.