Dear Terrence: The Shulman Center on the move and in the news… May 1, 2015– Mr. Shulman is quoted in two recent articles–one in SafeBee.com on hoarding disorder at Hoarding and one on shopping addiction for Luckyshops.com at Shopaholics AND in 15-minute mini-documentary on super-consumerism on YouTube.com called “Buy It Now!” at Buy It Now! June 6, 2015–Launch party for Unsteal.org non-profit organization which facilitates safe and anonymous financial retribution from those who have stolen to those they have stolen from. Launch party evening of Saturday June 6, 2015 in Los Angeles, California at Avalon-Bardot Club at 1737 Vine St. in Hollywood. All welcome. June 11 and 12, 2015–Mr. Shulman presents on hoarding disorder at the annual Ohio Chief Probation Officers conference in Columbus. June 18, 2015–Mr. Shulman presents on hoarding disorder at The Community House in Birmingham, MI. 7-9pm. $26 fee. July 21, 2015–Mr. Shulman presents on hoarding disorder at The Berkley, Michigan Public Library 6:30-8pm. Free July 24, 2015–Mr. Shulman will present on social worker ethics from 9am 12noon and on cultivating honesty and integrity in our children from 12:30- 3:30pm at Jewish Family Services in West Bloomfield, MI. Either 3 CEU seminar$45 registration; both for $90 (6 CEU hrs credit / includes lunch). Must reserve. Please Follow us on Twitter @terrenceshulman or @TheShulmanCenter and Facebook at The Shulman Center. NOTE: If you’re a therapist, please consider contacting us to enroll in our brief, affordable local or virtual training to become more proficient at assessing and treating compulsive stealing, spending & hoarding disorders.See Shulman Center Training.
THE MOTHER OF ALL OUR ISSUES by Terry Shulman (reprinted from May 2014) Mother’s Day is around the corner and the holiday often brings up strong emotions which may triggers relapses into addiction. So be prepared and be on guard! The relationship between mother and child–no matter how old we are–is likely the most important, primal and fundamental relationship we’ll have. I can’t tell you how often in my counseling practice that clients’ “mother issues” are at the very root of their addictions and relationship problems. This is not to blame mothers, per se, as no mother is perfect. But it is important for us to acknowledge, understand, and do our best to heal old (or newer) wounds and to develop a healthier relationship with our mothers whether they are actively in our lives or not. Some of the most common reasons both men and women have mother issues include the following: 1. a mother died early in a child’s life or committed suicide; 2. a mother was addicted and/or mentally ill and was not able to be physically and/or emotionally present and attuned to her child; 3. a mother was overtly/covertly seductive/sexual with her child; 4. a mother appeared to favor one of her children over another; 5. a mother needed rescue, help, or companionship and her child played the role of partner or parent; 6. a mother held unrealistically high expectations of her child and the child became inauthentic to receive mother’s love/approval;
7. a mother was physically, emotionally, and/or verbally abusive toward her child; 8. a mother had little natural or cultivated interest in being a mother to her child; 9. a mother betrayed her child’s confidence in some way; 10. a mother was “perfect” and modeled this in a way her child felt unable to compete with; 11. a mother was overly critical of her child; 12. a mother was overly “smothering,” domineering or controlling 13. a mother committed infidelity in her marriage & her child knew; 14. a mother encouraged her child to tell or keep secrets; 15. a mother broke the law and/or modeled dishonesty. Which of the above issues seems to resonate with you? The core effects of the situations described above often result in persistent feelings of neglect, rejection,abandonment, self-doubt, low self-esteem/self-worth, codependency/care-taking others, as well as loneliness, depression, anxiety, and anger. There may be other wounds or conflicts that develop around our relationship with our mothers than are listed above. Have you worked through any of these issues or does it feel like you still need to? Because I didn’t have the best role model for a father, I found myself feeling ashamed to be a man, not trusting men or authority, and quite confused about both women and what I wanted to do with my life. Fortunately, I had a great therapist who encouraged me to read books about men’s issues and to participate in men’s support groups and retreats where I found I was not alone, began to trust men again, and to see the positive aspects of men and authentic masculinity. We rarely talked about or looked into our relationships with our mothers in my men’s groups. It’s been theorized that the reason the “men’s movement” of the 1990’s petered out was that we didn’t know how to individually and collectively deal with our mother issues and, so, we kind of hit a wall. At least for most men, regardless of sexual orientation, our issues with mother often are more subtle yet also more scary and dangerous. Compared to my father’s more obvious failings, my mother was a saint. But in the past few years, events led me to come to the conclusion that I had to deal with my mother issues, too. For me, part of this arose in the context of my 10 year marriage to my wife. It’s not uncommon for men to have issues with their wives that are, at the core, issues with mother or “the feminine.” How many men, when asked to do something by their wives or face a perceived criticism, feel like a 5-year old being ordered or scolded by mother. I also realized that I’d continued to play the good son role despite having made progress on this. I still felt scary to speak up more, share my feelings and truth, and risk my mother’s love–I’d been so used to being her protector, her biggest fan. I had to come to terms with my mother’s (and my own) limitations in our relationship. I’ve been learning to let go of that primal desire to have “mommy” be there for me as I continue in adulthood and it’s my judgment that my mother has had to learn that I won’t always be there for her as I was in the past. I think we both needed to be knocked off our pedestals a bit. It’s been painful for both of us but necessary, too. It’s natural to look to Mom (or Dad) to be a safe space to share our pain and our opinions (even if it hurts them). It doesn’t mean they don’t share their own pain and opinions back but, I believe, a primary role of a parent is to be strong and mature enough to absorb their child’s expressions, to model this even, and to be secure enough even in their imperfections to listen, try to understand, and try to see the gift in their child’s courageous, if imprecise, offering of their pain, their perspective. As we grow up (and, hopefully, we do) we learn to differentiate from our parents, need them less (emotionally, financially, etc) and develop compassion for them (they did the best they knew how to do given how they likely were raised). But this doesn’t mean it’s easy. We are taught to honor thy parents but that doesn’t mean we don’t speak our minds our share our hearts. I also am slowly coming to realize, as my mother ages, that she won’t always be around: Mom is mortal. She just turned 76 this year and is dealing with both some physical and cognitive changes. The question arises: what do I/we need to say to my/our mother or feel in my/our heart so /weI can be as complete as possible when she passes? I can only say that when my wife and my friends are able to hear each others’ grievances and concerns without attacking back or defending (and when I can hear them), it creates safety and trust and deepens our relationships. I can’t think of a better way to honor each other. In this context, wouldn’t it be great if–this Mother’s Day–instead of cards and flowers, we could give the gift of honesty, our mother could receive it lovingly, and we would return the favor?
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE IN RECOVERY
FROM SHOPPING ADDICTION? by Hilary George-Parking Digital Media (April 20, 2015) Sometimes, shopping isn’t such an easy topic to talk about. Beyond the handbags and shoes and occasional suede culottes, it’s about what you choose to spend your money on and why. And the “why” isn’t always so healthy. Overspending, compulsive buying, shopping addiction-these are all words for a very real problem that often gets brushed under the rug, or else chalked up to a silly little (stereotypically female) habit with few major consequences beyond owning a kickass wardrobe (“Confessions of a Shopaholic,” anyone?). Jessica Pishko, who recently wrote an essay for Racked about using eBay to sell many of the clothes she accumulated through compulsive shopping, knows otherwise. Filing for bankruptcy in 2008, she says, was “truly one of the most painful things I’ve ever done.” Not so much the paperwork (she’s a lawyer by training), but rather the moment of reckoning where she had to face the sum total of her debt. “You know, you get those little bills here and there, but to add it up and see the enormity of what you have done. Just to look and think, This is what you’ve done. Can you believe it? It really explodes in your face.” According to a 2013 study, an estimated seven percent of Americans have problems with compulsive buying, and some experts put the figure at closer to 10 percent. “People naturally are prompted to shop quite a bit in our culture, ” says Terrence Shulman, an addiction counselor and founder of The Shulman Center For Compulsive Theft, Spending And Hoarding. “Some people can begin using shopping as a drug. Some people might use retail therapy on occasions when they’re having a down day, but some people, for whatever reason, are susceptible to really going overboard.” This could stem from grief, low self-esteem, trauma or one of many other factors both cultural and personal, but ultimately, if left unchecked, the end result looks the same: debt, secrecy and a massive sense of shame. “You feel at fault. You feel like you’ve done it. That was the thing that I had a hard time getting over-the sense that I was selfish, that I was greedy, that I was materialistic,” she recalls. “That’s what people say when they want to be mean-they’ll say, ‘Well, you know, you’re privileged to have such a high limit on your credit card.’ And it’s true…I mean, I don’t disagree.” But while she may have sided with her critics, she now realizes that this attitude only made things worse. Instead of talking about the problem or getting help, she hid it further away, allowing debt and shame to accumulate. Now, while Pishko dismisses the idea that she’s “conquered” the impulses (shopping, after all, is unavoidable), she knows how to recognize warning signs-and how to push back. She consciously leaves shopping bags out in the hallway of her house when she has the impulse to stash innocuous purchases out of sight, goes to stores with her husband for built-in accountability and avoids the quest for the “perfect” anything, be that a dress, a piece of jewelry or a fitness routine. Even healthy shopping can be about more than fulfilling a need, of course: we buy clothes to seem more professional, to give us confidence on a first date or to look even slightly as cool as Daria Werbowy in an ad campaign. But when you factor in shame and secrecy, the aspirational aspect of buying becomes something darker. See full article at: Shopping Addiction BRITISH MILLIONAIRE CAUGHT SHOPLIFTING by Sarah Coles (April 23, 2015) Ronan Ghosh, the millionaire 39-year-old owner of RG Recycling in Solihull, England has pleaded guilty to having stolen wine and meat from a branch of Tesco in Birmingham. CCTV footage showed him putting £200-worth of meat and expensive wine into a bag, before paying for other items in his trolley at the checkout. He was stopped at the door, where his bag was searched, and police were called. The Daily Mail reported that the judge gave him a 12-month community order, ordered him to do 80 hours of unpaid work, and made him pay £575 costs. The motivation for the theft is hard to fathom. After-all, his business turns over £16 million a year, his home is worth £500,000, and he owns two BMWs, so clearly he wasn’t driven by financial need. The Birmingham Mail reported that he told the court that on the day of the theft his mother had been diagnosed with skin cancer. There was also a will being discussed in the family, which had put him under more strain, and he went to the supermarket immediately after an argument with his girlfriend. He told the court he hadn’t intended to steal anything. Research by the Global Retail Theft Barometer and Checkpoint Systems suggests there could be a new kind of middle class shoplifter emerging after the financial crisis, who steal to maintain their lifestyle when their income falls. However, this doesn’t explain why well-off people shoplift, and psychologists suggest there is something far more complicated at the root of the crime. A study back in 2001 by Michael Douglas Geyer interviewed 116 first-time shoplifters who were equally in the dark about their motivation, and discovered that many of them experienced some kind of loss before the incident. Unresolved losses are the driver for many atypical shoplifters. People have turned to shoplifting in the same way that others turn to binge-eating or drinking, as an inappropriate way to deal with loss. It gives them a temporary high that blocks out whatever it is in their life that’s causing them distress. Of course, as Ghosh has found, this temporary high, can easily be followed by the kind of consequences that cause them even more distress. See full article at: Rich Shoplifter N.Y. Doctor Arrested Again for Shoplifting by James T. Mulder (Syracuse.com 4/2/15) Syracuse, N.Y. — A DeWitt doctor who has been charged with petit larceny many times is facing new criminal accusations that she shoplifted from two Syracuse area stores. Dr. Lisa Freedman took a raincoat, dresses, hats, gloves and other items worth more than $1,000 from Boom Babies at 489 Westcott St., Syracuse, and stuffed them into a bag, according to a police report. Syracuse police arrested Freeman, 53, of 6202 Applecross Road, March 5 and charged her with fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony. Freedman’s bag was so full she was carrying it “like she was Santa Claus,” a sales employee told police.
When employees confronted her, Freedman fled without paying, got in her car and drove away, leaving her teenage daughter in the store, said Lorraine Koury, owner of Boom Babies. Kohl’s accused Freedman of stealing $884.63 worth of merchandise Feb. 26 from its store at 100 Towne Drive in Fayetteville. Manlius police arrested Freedman and charged her with petit larceny. Freedman was sanctioned by the state in January for professional misconduct. She was fined $5,000 by the state which accused her of prescribing controlled substances to a family member and using the drugs herself. If Freedman is convicted of any of the criminal charges, the state could take further disciplinary action against her. Under state law, a criminal conviction, even if it’s a misdemeanor unrelated to a doctor’s medical practice, can trigger a charge of professional misconduct. Koury said Freedman brought a large cloth Vera Bradley bag into Boom Babies and filled it with merchandise she did not pay for. “She couldn’t get any more in the bag,” she said. The arrest at Kohl’s was the ninth time since 1990 Freedman was charged with petit larceny, a misdemeanor, in the Syracuse area, Post-Standard archives show. Some of the previous charges occurred at Price Chopper in Syracuse, Towne Center shopping center in Manlius, Walmart in East Syracuse and Wegmans in Liverpool. See rest of article at: Doctor Shoplifter DEALING WITH CRAVINGS by Randy Lindell, SMART Recovery Program (2012) Cravings are normal Everyone who’s engaged in addictive behavior will experience uncomfortable cravings (“I want it badly”) and urges (“I have to do it now”). They are normal. And fortunately, they always pass with time. At the outset of recovery, they can be pretty intense, but each one will subside if you can wait it out and have a plan for relapse prevention. Cravings and urges will decrease in strength and frequency over time. You can make this happen by adopting some coping strategies that work best for you. Learning to resist cravings For many people, urges and cravings to use trigger automatic responses. They are without conscious thought: I want [fill in the blank]. = I get it. Learning to say NO to these intense, ingrained desires is one of the biggest challenges in recovery. The good news is that you can understand these desires and learn to resist them. In fact, “Coping with Urges and Cravings” is Point 2 of the SMART Recovery 4-Point Program®. The SMART Recovery Handbook has collected nearly two dozen strategies for dealing with them. Some of the approaches that work best for many are summarized with the easy-to-remember acronym DEADS – as in “Combat Urges DEADS.” Each letter stands for a useful approach: • D = Delay. The mental activities of cravings and urges disappear over time unless you actively maintain them with your attention. Given time, they will run their course and disappear. If they aren’t gone in 10-15 minutes, then chances are you are still exposed to the stimulus that cued the urge in the first place. Just don’t give in no matter how bad the urge is and it will pass. All the urges you have ever had have passed. Once you have denied an urge, you know you can do it again and again. And after a short time, there will be fewer cravings and the ones you have will diminish in intensity. • E = Escape. Just leave or get away from the urge provoking situation. Run away from it. Leave the pub so that you can stop staring at the beer taps. Leave the supermarket where all the bottles of wine are so nicely displayed. If there’s an alcohol ad on TV, switch the channel. Just the act of escaping the trigger will focus your mind on something new – which will quickly lessen the urge. • A = Accept. Put your urges and cravings into perspective by understanding that they are normal and will pass. It’s important in the recovery process to learn to accept discomfort. It won’t “kill” you and will be gone pretty quickly. • D = Dispute. You must develop a rational “effective new belief” or counter statement to help you attack your (irrational) urges and cravings. These exercises help you productively diagnose past addictive situations and develop useful tactics for disputing them when they occur again – which will help them pass much more quickly. • S = Substitute. When you get an urge, quickly substitute a thought or activity that’s more beneficial or fun. Take a walk or any other form of exercise. Pick up something new to read or turn on something to listen to. The possibilities to substitute (and lessen the craving more quickly) are endless. Think about or have a list on hand when an urge occurs and just pick one to employ an effective response. See rest of article at: Cravings Teacher Cheating Scandal: Blame Flawed Education Policy by Daniel Denvir (The Nation, April 22, 2015) In Atlanta, eight teachers, administrators, and testing coordinators have been sentenced to prison terms of one to seven years for falsifying results on standardized tests. Twentyone others who accepted plea deals will serve lesser sentences. The Fulton County district attorney accused the educators of having “altered, fabricated, and falsely certified” answer sheets as part of a cheating conspiracy that touched a majority of the city’s public elementary and middle schools. Remarkably, the educators were charged under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act-an unprecedented application of a law intended to attack organized crime. By press time, Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter, facing widespread criticism, had announced that he will re-sentence three administrators given seven-year prison sentences. Meanwhile, the policies that motivated cheating remain in place. Back in 2002, President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act ushered in a high-stakes standardized-testing regime that enshrined “Adequate Yearly Progress,” a measure demanding high test scores, as the mechanism by which to evaluate schools. The Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative leveraged billions of federal dollars to tighten those screws, pushing states to tie their teacher evaluations to test scores. Administrators were expected to deliver extreme improvements, including an impossible mandate that every single student score as proficient in reading and math by 2014. Schools that failed to make the grade could be-and were-shut down or taken over by private charter-school operators. Superintendent Beverly Hall took over Atlanta’s schools in 1999 and was a star for most of her tenure, lifting some from among the state’s lowest-performing to near the very top in a year’s time. Teachers at district schools that scored well received a bonus-but “when principals and teachers could not reach their targets, their performance was criticized, their jobs were threatened and some were terminated,” according to the indictment. Then, in 2008 and 2009, The Atlanta JournalConstitution began to expose widespread cheating in the district, prompting official investigations. Such behavior may be reprehensible, but it is symptomatic of a system in which a school’s continued existence rests on test scores. Fearful teachers have been forced to convert their classrooms into test-prep boot camps lest they lose their jobs and have their schools declared failures. Meanwhile, ascendant charter networks tout high test scores as proof of the “reform” model’s success. How does this high-pressure environment lead to cheating? Social scientist Donald T. Campbell outlined in 1976 what is now called Campbell’s law: “The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.” Campbell was concerned that the state’s use of data to evaluate efficacy encouraged bad behavior, from military officials measuring battlefield success in Vietnam through body counts (which often included massacred civilians) to police ignoring crimes in a ploy to keep their clearance rates up. See rest of article at: When Teachers Cheat NEW U.S. DRUG CZAR IN RECOVERY HIMSELF Addresses Compulsive Shoplifting Vanity Fair April 2015 BALTIMORE – Six recovering substance abusers sat in an innercity treatment center, sharing their stories. When Michael’s turn came around, he spoke of his former drug of choice, alcohol, and mentioned the night years ago when he drove drunk on the Massachusetts Turnpike, caused an accident and was arrested before passing out. Michael then pulled out a picture of a friend’s brother who recently died from mixing prescription painkillers with alcohol. He described his grief and visceral connection with the struggles of substance abusers in recovery. “You are my people,” he said, wiping one eye. Catharsis is common in treatment centers, but Michael is not the typical former substance abuser: He is Michael Botticelli, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, informally known as the drug czar. Mr. Botticelli is the first person in substance-abuse recovery to hold the position. His history, far from the liability it once may have been, is considered evidence that the government is moving toward addressing drug abuse more through healing than handcuffs. “Every other drug czar has had a military, political or police background,” said Tom McLellan, a founder of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia and an expert in substance abuse. “Nothing against them, but it’s time to have that new perspective, and Michael brings it. He is the living example of what should be an expectable result of treatment – recovery.” Mr. Botticelli lived it himself: In 1988, after being arrested on charges of causing an accident while driving drunk on the Massachusetts Turnpike, he woke up the next morning handcuffed to a hospital bed. (He had previously used marijuana a few times, as well as cocaine, he said, “on a somewhat occasional basis.”) He spent four months in a court-mandated outpatient treatment program for alcohol abuse, and soon left his job as an administrator at Brandeis University to work at a substance-abuse treatment center. Mr. Botticelli, 57, has remained abstinent for 26 years, his only synapse-soothing substance being an occasional cigarette. He even refused a prescription for opioid painkillers after a significant medical procedure for fear they might awaken addictive behavior. “Locking people up for minor drug offenses, and especially people with substance-use disorders, is not the answer,” Mr. Botticelli said. “It’s cruel. It’s costly. And it doesn’t make the public any safer.” Mr. Botticelli said that as the social stigma associated with drug abuse dissuaded people from seeking treatment, the substanceabuse field should take cues from the gay rights movement. He lived that, too – he is gay and married his partner in Massachusetts in 2009. “I almost found it easier to come out as being a gay man than a person in recovery,” Mr. Botticelli said. “We’re doing an amazing job decreasing the shame and stigma surrounding gay folks. There is a playbook for this.” Mr. Botticelli stopped first at Reach, an outpatient treatment facility that serves primarily patients covered by Medicaid. When he sat down with five adults recovering from abuse of various substances – heroin, alcohol, painkillers, marijuana – they were reticent about sharing their experiences and opinions. Only after an awkward 10 seconds did he say with a smile, “O.K., I’ll start,” detailing his own abuse history and allowing the others to open up. “It means a lot to know there’s somebody who understands,” said Ashley Grimes, 22, who is in her second year of recovery from heroin abuse. “He’s walked in the shoes we’ve walked.” As heartened as Mr. Botticelli was at that story, on the way home he shared a more somber one. Last year, he heard about a Virginia man whose 23-year-old son died in his arms from a heroin overdose. Mr. Botticelli invited the grieving father to lunch in the West Wing, where the father lamented that the death was his responsibility. “It isn’t your responsibility,” Mr. Botticelli responded. “It’s my responsibility.” See rest of article at: Drug Czar In Recovery Himself SPOTLIGHTS: unsteal.org unsteal.org is a non profit organization collecting retributive funds from potential past thefts and returning funds to retail merchants. We started in October 2014 and are filed the official paperwork. The IRS recently approved our non-profit 501(c)(3) status. History One day a repenting thief went to a department store to pay for a stolen perfume set he couldn’t afford for his girlfriend’s birthday 5 years prior. The cashier was startled by the apparent confession of a crime and desire to pay back in cash, risking prosecution depending on the statute of limitations and quantity. AWKWARD… Many people have stolen an item from a retailer and would likely return the cost if there was a convenient way to do it instantly from a website or app. There is an amazing reward from retribution and unsteal.org is the website for the world to return anything stolen. We already own the domain name and launched it on a shared host server for the next 14 months. Please help us get started with the legal paperwork for the state and federal government and eventually change theft forever on a global scale! You are all beautiful people and even if you have pain and guilt, you can find moments to shine. Try this! Vision The purpose of Unsteal is to offer retribution for any past theft by collecting money anonymously and returning it to the victims. Initially, we are using a website to host actual transactions, but we plan to launch a mobile app. for iTunes and Google Play by March 10, 2015. To ensure the safety of our users we’re cooperating with retailers at a corporate level, along with local officials, to protect users from prosecution as a result of an Unsteal transaction. Similar to the police’s “no questions asked” gun collection drives to reduce overall crime, we will gain support from law enforcement to give the public a chance to return something stolen without any fear of punishment. Please visit: www.unsteal.org Write on My Mind Mental Health Project Welcome to WriteOnMyMind.com-a safe place for the mind to speak. This website is part of a broader global initiative, The Surviving Suicide Project, a partnership of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Collier County, Florida, USA, (NAMI-CC) and author Deena Baxter. As Baxter explains, “After losing our youngest son to suicide in 2012 – death by mental illness – I felt like I was living through my own reality TV series of “Survivor”. That reality launched me on a mission, a search for “Normal”. I desperately needed some company and I was lucky to find the NAMI-CC. I am still searching and invite you to join me. For too long, the stigma of mental illness and impairment has kept it cloaked in darkness and denial. This places an additional burden on those who live with it every day, plus their family members and loved ones. Many of these adults, teens and children are seeking to live full, productive lives. They are successfully integrating their mental health challenges into their daily life but don’t wish to be defined by them.” You have come to a place that gives mental illness a lifeaffirming voice-a virtual, global community where visitors can find helpful resources and be inspired by the many different ways the mind can speak-in words and in art. This website was inspired by the NAMI-CC Anything Goes: Art-From-The Heart Project that resulted in the artwork included in Baxter’s book-SURVIVING SUICIDE: Searching for “Normal” with Heartache and Humor. Visual art can be a powerful communicator, beyond words. It can send a message if we are open to it, and it can heal. See: www.writeonmymind.com Jack L. Hayes, International, Inc. Based out of Florida, Jack L. Hayes, International is a loss prevention and corporate consulting group that has been helping clients for over 30 years. Founded by Jack Hayes, who is now semi-retired (and who gave an in-depth interview about theft in my book “Cluttered Lives, Empty Souls”), the company is now headed up by long-time point-person, Mark R. Doyle. Hayes International has clients around the world and is recognized for their Annual Jack Hayes Retail Theft Survey of large corporations. This survey tracks the prevalence and trends of shoplifting and employee theft and is widely cited (including by me). Hayes International also is known for their long-standing quarterly newsletter which has several articles about loss prevention and related issues. I’ve been honored to have had several articles included in their newsletter. Please see their website at: www.hayesinternational.com “In Recovery” Magazine There’s a wonderful quarterly recovery magazine I want to let you know about. It’s called “In Recovery.” Founded 2 years ago by Kim Welsh, a recovering person herself, in Prescott, Arizona– home to many treatment centers and half-way houses, this magazine has something for everyone. I visited Kim in October 2013 and was honored to be invited to write a regular column about process/behavioral addictions–starting Spring 2014. The magazine is available in hard copy as well as online at: www.inrecoverymagazine.com 3rd Millenium STOPLifting Online Education Course! 3rd Millenium Classrooms out of San Antonio, TX has been offering high-quality online education courses for alcohol, marijuana and shoplifting issues for many years now. I’ve been honored to help them fine-tune and update their shoplifting course which many are court-ordered to complete after an arrest. 3rd Millennium Classroom’s STOPLifting is an online intervention course designed to assist shoplifters in examining and altering their attitudes and behaviors towards shoplifting. The course incorporates evidential examples and related follow-up questions to discover the student’s motives behind shoplifting, reveal possible patterns in his or her behaviors, and identify potential triggers and ways to cope. Through STOPLifting’s unique motivational interviewing style, students are encouraged to evaluate the personal consequences of shoplifting and how they affect the individual, his or her family and those around him or her. See: www.3rdmiclassrooms.com Castlewood Eating Disorders Treatment Centers I was privileged to tour Castlewood Treatment Center near St. Louis in August 2014 while in town for a conference. Castlewood also has centers in Birmingham, Alabama and in Monterey, California. They have been around for over a decade and have a great reputation and great staff. See: www.castlewoodtc.com Clutter-Hoarding National Clean-Up Services See: http://www.clutterhoardingcleanup.com/
Honesty is its own reward.–Anonymous Walk in peace. The Shulman Center 2014 Ongoing Events Calendar Ongoing … The Baton Rouge, Louisiana court system has a court-ordered, facilitated educational program for retail fraud offenders. The program is based on material from Mr. Shulman’s book Something for Nothing: Shoplifting Addiction and Recovery. Mr. Shulman created a 1-hour employee theft online course with360 Training. Learn why people steal from their jobs, how to deter it, prevent it, and what to do when confronted with it. Enroll at: http://theshulmancenter.360training.com Mr. Shulman created an online continuing education course on compulsive shopping and spending called Bought Out and $pent! based on his book and Power Point presentation. The course, CEs offered, through The American Psychotherapy Association. at: http://www.americanpsychotherapy.com “In Recovery” Magazine There’s a wonderful relatively new quarterly recovery magazine I want to let you know about. It’s called “In Recovery.” Founded 2 years ago by Kim Welsh, a recovering person herself, in Prescott, Arizona–home to many treatment centers and half-way houses, this magazine has something for everyone. I visited Kim in October 2013 and was honored to be invited to write a regular column about process/behavioral addictions–starting Spring 2014.The magazine is available in hard copy as well as online at: www.inrecoverymagazine.com 3rd Millenium STOPLifting Online Education Course! 3rd Millenium Classrooms out of San Antonio, TX has been offering high-quality online education courses for alcohol, marijuana and shoplifting issues for many years now. I’ve been honored to help them fine-tune and update their shoplifting course which many are court-ordered to complete after an arrest.3rd Millenium has partnered with Terrence Shulman and The Shulman Center on this course. See: www.3rdmilclassrooms.com RESOURCES OF NOTE… THE SHULMAN CENTER THERAPIST TRAINING PROGRAM! If you’re a therapist and wish to be trained & certified in the assessment/treatment of compulsive theft, spending and/or hoarding, CONTACT THE SHULMAN CENTER NOW! See: http://www.theshulmancenter.com/counselor-training.html 3rd MILLENIUM STOPLifing ONLINE EDUCATION COURSE! 3rd Millenium Classrooms out of San Antonio, TX has been offering high-quality online education courses for alcohol, marijuana and shoplifting issues for many years now. I’ve been honored to help them fine-tune and update their shoplifting course which many are court-ordered to complete after an arrest. Please check out their courses on their website at: www.3rdmilclassrooms.com IN RECOVERY MAGAZINE–PRESCOTT, ARIZONA There’s a wonderful relatively new quarterly recovery magazine I want to let you know about. It’s called “In Recovery.” Founded 2 years ago by Kim Welsh, a recovering person herself, in Prescott, Arizona–home to many treatment centers and half-way houses, this magazine has something for everyone. I visited Kim in October 2013 and was honored to be invited to write a regular column about process/behavioral addictions–starting Spring 2014.The magazine is available in hard copy and online at: www.inrecoverymagazine.com GET A BOOST with MONEY LIFE-COACHING Tom Lietaert of Sacred Odyssey and the Intimacy with Money programs offers individual money coaching as well as various group workshops on money. Check out Tom’s two websites at: www.sacredodyssey.com / www.intimacywithmoney.com CONSULTING AND EDUCATION ON FRAUD Gary Zeune of Columbus, Ohio has been a friend and colleague of mine for nearly two years. He has been a consultant and teacher on fraud discovery and prevention for nearly 30 years. He is interviewed in my book Cluttered Lives, Empty Souls: Compulsive Theft, Spending & Hoarding. I recently saw Gary in action recently when he presented an all-day on fraud to metroDetroit accountants. See: www.theprosandthecons.com RECOVERING SHOPAHOLIC BLOG AND EDUCATION Debbie Roes is an educator and recovering shopaholic and offers a free insightful blog and e-Newsletter to help you. See: http://www.recoveringshopaholic.com THE FLY LADY ASSISTS WITH CLEANING & DECLUTTERING I recently was told about a website resource that lists strategies for cleaning and de-cluttering and sells various books and products that help with this; so, I’m passing it along… See: www.flylady.net CASTLEWOOD EATING DISORDERS TREATMENT CENTERS I was privileged to tour Castlewood Treatment Center near St. Louis in August 2014 while in town for a conference. Castlewood also has centers in Birmingham, Alabama and in Monterey, California. They have been around for over a decade and have a great reputation and great staff. See: www.castlewoodtc.com
Mr. Shulman’s books available for purchase now! Click here to shop amazon.com Something for Nothing: Shoplifting Addiction and Recovery (2003) See also: www.somethingfornothingbook.com
Biting The Hand That Feeds: The Employee Theft Epidemic… New Perspectives, New Solutions (2005) See also: www.bitingthehandthatfeeds.com
Bought Out and $pent! Recovery from Compulsive $hopping/$pending (2008) See also: www.boughtoutandspent.com
Cluttered Lives, Empty Souls: Compulsive Stealing, Spending and Hoarding (2011) See also: www.clutteredlives.com
Contact The Shulman Center: Terrence Daryl Shulman, JD, LMSW, ACSW, CAADC, CPC Founder/Director, The Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending & Hoarding P.O. Box 250008 Franklin, Michigan 48025 E-mail: terrenceshulman@theshulmancenter.com
Call (248) 358-8508 for a free consultation!
Our Web Sites: The Shulman Center Shoplifting Addictions Kleptomaniacs Anonymous Something For Nothing Shopping Addictions Shopaholics Anonymous Bought Out and Spent Employee Theft Solutions Biting the Hand that Feeds Hoarding Therapy Hoarders Anonymous Terrence Shulman Books by Terrence Shulman: Something for Nothing:Shoplifting Addiction and Recovery Biting The Hand That Feeds:The Employee Theft Epidemic Bought Out and $pent! Recovery from Compulsive $hopping and $pending Cluttered Lives Empty Souls: Compulsive Stealing, Spending and Hoarding All book are available for $25.00 each (includes shipping and handling). Click here to purchase.