Latest / Salish Wolf / #5 Fritzi Horstman on Healing Childhood Trauma, Activism Through Film, and Uplifting Humanity

Transcript

#5 Fritzi Horstman on Healing Childhood Trauma, Activism Through Film, and Uplifting Humanity · Salish Wolf

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I realized that what trauma does to the body brain and spirit is
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basically outside of who you really are.
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It's not who you are. You are this Divine magnificent
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being shrouded, in a layer of trauma, the trauma, kind of
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masks and hides, our true potential.
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I feel that when we start looking at our trauma and start
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addressing the hidden wounds, we as a society will be able, All
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to heal and create incredible things.
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Potential is unlimited, welcome to Sailors, wolf a podcast,
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bringing you inspirational stories of extraordinary
0:44
Endeavors. I am your host Todd Howard.
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Just south of my Vancouver Island home as a tiny
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archipelago on which for nearly a decade, lift, and most
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astonishing animal, a lone wolf takea, as he would be named
1:00
Survived and thrived and an environment where likely no wolf
1:03
had ever set foot in the process.
1:06
He captured the hearts of the community and showed us even the
1:10
most unlikely as possible. His story is not dissimilar to
1:15
those of the individuals interviewed on this podcast.
1:18
At some point, they each had to turn to their inner Lone, Wolf
1:22
from there, they were able to lead.
1:24
And Inspire my intention is to share their Journeys to help you
1:28
discover your own. Inner greatness and peace.
1:34
This podcast is brought to you by Anchor Point Expeditions,
1:38
where I provide life-changing personal leadership, Retreats
1:40
for men coaching and other valuable personal growth
1:44
resources. Visit Anchor Point,
1:46
expeditions.com to see where your journey could take.
1:50
You fritzi Horseman is a rare and beautiful individual with a
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selfless passion to transform lives.
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As a Grammy award-winning producer for her work on the
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defiant. Ones pretty is not resting on
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her Laurels. Nora she coasting through
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Hollywood lapping up the Limelight instead she is
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focusing on spending as much time as possible in prison
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supporting incarcerated men and women for its he believes
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wholeheartedly in an urgency to bring humanity and compassion to
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prisoners to transform their lives and ultimately Society.
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I invited for tea on to the podcast after seeing a seven
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minute clip of her forthcoming documentary step inside the
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circle, a riveting examination of the role that childhood
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trauma plays in the lies of the incarcerated within the first
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minute. I knew I wanted to help share
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for its he's story and work. I felt chills throughout my
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whole body and still do each time I watch it.
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If you have not seen this powerful video, I urge you to
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pause this podcast. Go to the For step inside the
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circle in the show notes, watch the video, and then come back to
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listen. It will give you greater context
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for the dialogue that fritzi and I share, it is remarkable.
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And a sense that fritzi escaped, a life of crime and addiction
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many, who suffer the degree of adverse childhood experiences
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that she did. Do not rise above a life of
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Shame, blame and fear with courageous transparency for its
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he shares with us. Some of her most intimate
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childhood experiences, and how they still impact her.
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Today with her message, there is no shame.
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She wears her heart on her sleeve, which helps those around
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her fine, inner strength, and forgiveness.
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Until there is forgiveness, there can be no healing until
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there is healing as a race. We will continue to perpetrate
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acts of violence against all life for.
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Its he is the founder and executive director of The
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Compassion prison project. Which through compassion
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childhood, awareness and creative and educational
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programs to uplift, Humanity aims to catalyze prison reform
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and N recidivism fritzy knows firsthand the trauma that many
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incarcerated men and women have experienced in life, having
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found her path. She is now helping many who are
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most lost to find theirs. Fritzi, I want to welcome you to
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the show, and I cannot tell you how much of an honor it is to
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have you here. Thank you so much.
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It's an honor to be here. Each time I watch your
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promotional video for step inside the circle, which is part
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of your current work in Mission. I get chills.
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And I just watched it one more time with my son before coming
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on, because he was curious who I was interviewing, and it is
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incredible work that you're doing and I want to help support
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that work and share that. At work is as much as possible.
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So I thought to begin it would be good for you to share with us
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what that work means to you and where you're going with it.
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Bringing trauma awareness. Childhood trauma awareness to
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our society actually. And especially the incarcerated
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population is I would say it's become my life mission just
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makes me want to cry. Just the thought of people
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abusing their Sweet babies, and their sweet children, and
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ultimately abusing themselves because when you, when you
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abuse, someone you are abusing yourself.
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There is no, there is no other in this in this, in the circle.
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Just as how when we throw something away into the Earth
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without thought, when we just throw something away.
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Pollute the Earth. We're polluting ourselves it.
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The circle just is Just it just continues and I believe this
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film came out right during the pandemic.
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This PSA came out right during the pandemic because it's again
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showing us what we're doing. But we do to each other, is what
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we do to ourselves and there is no other end.
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So this the reason this work means so much foundationally.
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As I was abused as a child and I never understood why someone
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would do that. To me, it didn't make any sense
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and it wasn't until I read the book.
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The body keeps the score by vessel then or caulk that.
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I realized that. What trauma does to the body
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brain and spirit is, is basically outside of who you
6:50
really are. It's not who you are.
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You are this Divine magnificent being shrouded, in a layer of
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trauma, the trauma, kind of masks and hides our true
7:01
potential. So I feel that when we start
7:06
looking at our trauma and start addressing the hidden wounds, We
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as a society will be able to heal and create incredible
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things. And potential is unlimited, what
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is the compassion person project?
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And how did it come to life compassion?
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Prison project came to life when I walked into a prison in 2018,
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September 2018, I did a day visit with the company called
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hustle 2.0 with cat Hoke and and I walked in there and I saw
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everyone and I realized Everyone was just traumatized, the all
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the men and the hundred men that I saw were just traumatized and
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I wanted to do anything I could to help them and I said when are
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we coming back? Let's let's do this.
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Let's let's dig in and the way they have it set up she said six
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months and I was like we can't just leave these guys doing
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nothing for six months. So I spent four months
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researching, kindness compassion, the Golden Rule like
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do unto others as you would. Do unto yourself and make up
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this ridiculous curriculum. Which changed the minute I
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walked in there and, and I just, I dug into the trauma.
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I just realized that these men needed to know about trauma.
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And I remember, when we reach each, we went around the circle
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in each man, read about the symptoms of trauma, like, what
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trauma, what are the results of a traumatic of a traumatic life.
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And I just heard a sigh Like a deep sigh from one man.
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And right there. I knew I was onto something that
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oh he didn't know, he didn't know, he was hyper-vigilant, he
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didn't know where the anger comes.
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Came from that blind. Rage of anger that just doesn't
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make any sense. It's almost it has no connection
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to the assault to the to what created the anger has no
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connection. It's overblown just
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sleeplessness. Just we When we continue the
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film, the next PSA we're going to release as the symptoms of
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trauma because I don't think people really know how
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devastating trauma really is. And also the Neuroscience behind
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trauma is Is a game changer for this Society, for the, for this
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Western Society. Once we understand that the
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prefrontal cortex goes offline, which is the place where you
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make good decisions. So, when a cop sees a cop, who
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has PTSD, because most of the cops have PTSD sees a guy, and
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it's a phone instead of a gun, but he, his brain says, it's a,
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it's a gun. He fires without thinking,
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that's trauma. That's what PTSD does, and that
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is 97% of What is involved in our prison system?
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Is trauma behaving in the world and we let people out that are
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still traumatized. We traumatize them and we're
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letting trauma back out into the world.
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All we need to do is address the trauma and, and the deep
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sadness, that is in all of our hearts and we can transform
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everything. I don't I get so emotional
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because I see it happened to me. This transformation happened for
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me. And that's all I want to do is
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bring this to the world so that we can heal each other.
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I don't know. If I answered both of your
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questions, you did you did and I'm sure we'll come back to that
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as well. I want to tap into this sadness
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that you're feeling. I can see it and feel it myself.
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Do you mind sharing a bit of your personal story and what
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your path to Healing from trauma has been like, So I was abused
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as a little girl, my mother. So my mother was highly
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traumatized. I haven't even thought about
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doing her Ace test, but she was put up for adoption when she was
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a baby and adopted into a sharecroppers household and she
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was abused every day and this was in Louisiana and the cycle
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of violence in the south is extremely, it's extremely potent
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because Because again, when you are, when you're a landowner and
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you have a slave, the violence, who perpetrate on the slave is
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the violence, your perpetrating on yourself.
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And so the legacy of slavery and violence in, the south is
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something, my mother experienced.
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And so she was, I don't know if she was sexually abused but when
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your violently abused every day and emotionally abused and When
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your abandoned by your mother, that that Moon, I don't think
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she ever got over. You know we talked a lot about
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that. Feeling of Abandonment that she
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had and so and and the last letter she ever wrote to me she
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said I think I would have been a criminal.
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She said I would have been a criminal but for the grace of
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God so she sees herself again like I do in the incarcerated
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population that same trauma is it's a through line in My family
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and my father, I don't know the extent of his trauma.
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But to drink alcohol to, he was a professional alcoholic and to
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have that level of alcoholism. I can only imagine the trauma he
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suffered. I believe he was sexually
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abused. I don't have that written in
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stone but that's my that's my hunch.
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So sorry I lost your question. No this is this is it, you're
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doing great. Just speaking of your trauma, my
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trauma. And then What happened?
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I was I told my, you know, I started sharing about my abuse
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as a child and my friend who was a therapist, he said, oh, just
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read this book. The body keeps the score and I
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had my sister read it, and she's also traumatized.
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And we were like, oh, oh, this is all trauma.
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All this behavior, all this acting out.
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Like, my friend would scare me in a movie theater and I would
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overreact like, as if I, you know, I was being assaulted.
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The level of PTSD and anxiety that I've had in my life and I
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still have and I didn't, I can't speak for anybody else's trauma
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but I've had a buzzing in my spine on my life, just a little
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like a hum like like I'm not safe when which is which is
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called hyper-vigilance. It's just the feeling that at
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any minute I'm going to get smacked or I'll be hit or
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something. And so I live at the 13 year
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old, my son is 13. So some of his on surprising
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Behavior will just trigger me. And so I got I started seeing
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that that I wasn't this. It's like who, who was this?
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It's like two people. It's a separation of who I am.
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And this Trump traumatic person is traumatized person and the
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relief that I got reading that book just that this is what
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trauma does to your mind, bringing your your brain, your
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body, and your spirit. And we live in a society that is
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highly traumatized in America. From slavery, we carry that
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traumatic wound, all of us do and where were very, there's an
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arrogance and that we don't want to cop to it.
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We don't want to really start healing from that trauma.
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That's, that's what we're all. Psychically, carrying the slave
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the slave trauma and what we did to the indigenous tribes.
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When we came over here, the That we that we perpetrated is in all
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of our, our psychic shame, which is the other thing that I
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believe this shame is keeping this Trump trauma in place.
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So, we're we have a shame doesn't want to be seen and
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doesn't want to be exposed. And that's why we're digging in,
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like some, some political parties are digging in to keep
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the poor people, poor. And to keep When Americans
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deprived of Social Services and just things that are basically a
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perpetuation of violence which is a perpetuation of the ego and
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perpetuation of Separation, which is not who we are, we are
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not that and deep down, we all know that.
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And we have a longing, we have a deep longing for connection and
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for community and wholeness 40. I'm hearing you speak and
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hearing the level of emotion. How do you think you managed to
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break the cycle of perpetuation of the trauma?
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I don't know. I like I said that book woke me
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up but I didn't abuse my child except for two incidences.
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I just got like this and I pinched him once and I shook him
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a little bit. Once those are the two violent
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acts, I really did to my son when I was when he was a young
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boy and I didn't know how to control that and I had some
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self-control, but I, that's why I keep saying there's no shame,
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because the people that are using your kids, they don't want
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to do that. And they don't know how to deal
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with this trigger. This anger at this, this
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violence is lives in their bodies.
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How did I peel this trauma? I'm still working on it every
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day, but awareness is the first step awareness that we are
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traumatized and that's I think that's why the PSA is gotten
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over a million views. Because I think I'm I'm onto
17:04
something and it's not that I'm onto something, it's that.
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I'm talking about it. That shame has to just we have
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to peel back the layers of shame because it's it holds it holds
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it all in place and but there's accountability the thing I
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haven't expressed in there is no shame is that there's
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accountability. So if you have abused your
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child, be accountable like I'm being accountable.
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Like I've talked to my son about what I did and I every time I
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have an outbreak of I'm triggered I Me myself and I
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talked to him about it. I'm accountable for what I've
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done even though sometimes with trauma, you don't even know what
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you're doing that blind, rage that people say they go into
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that's trauma and that is and I've been there and that blind
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rage is basically, I would really call it temporary
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insanity and I think everybody deserves a chance to talk their
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case about temporary insanity. Because you do not know.
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Oh, the things that you say you do not know what you're doing
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and I'm not excusing it. But in this the when this goes
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offline, when the prefrontal cortex stops working and your
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amygdala gets bigger and all they care about is fight or
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flight. It's game over, it's game over,
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you're either running or you're you're hurting and hurt people,
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hurt people. Heal people heal people.
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How is your work? Currently in the prison system,
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helping you to heal? Well, I'll cry about that to the
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more, you give, the more you receive, the tsunami of love
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that. I have gotten just from coming
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in and loving these men and women.
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But I've been to one woman's prison and it just once it's
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beyond explanation what those men.
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How does Ben have healed me walking in into those sacred
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Gates that it's it, I call it the sacred gate because that is
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my church. That is where I find myself and
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I find humanity. It's the secret sauce of life is
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just giving of yourself and forgetting forgetting who you
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are and your nonsense and just just loving.
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That's what we're here to do. Fritzi, how did your
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relationship with your parents? Evolve and was their healing
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there. Mmm, this one makes me want to
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cry too. I do deeply, my mother loved,
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and my father loved me. I know, and I know they love me
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to the extent that they could my sister.
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It's all this family dynamics, that my sister, she cried a lot,
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so she got most of the attention.
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So I didn't know how to. I didn't know how to get it as a
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teenager I would act out so I would at least get Some
20:07
attention and that's what I did. All my, my bad behavior, my
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mother though. She listened, she was a really
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good friend when she wasn't out of her mind and she had really
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deep wisdom, really? I think that's where I get some
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of it because I'm not to say I'm deeply wise but I get some of
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that Soulful introspection about the world and about life from
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her and my father he was brilliant.
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He was brilliant, but he couldn't function in the world.
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You didn't want to be backstabbing.
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He didn't want to. He wouldn't didn't want to
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Railroad to be successful. So he felt like a failure
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because he couldn't, he couldn't succeed the way.
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This society says you should succeed, which is another form
20:58
of violence stepping on people to succeed, as a form of
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violence in my father was too kind to do that.
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So he surrendered, I want to talk about where you've gone and
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what you've achieved in life, you are Grammy, award-winning
21:12
producer for the defiant ones, you've co-founded and film
21:18
company, and dependent arising films, and now you're turning
21:22
your attention. I should say and now because
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perhaps you've always done this but you're certainly turning
21:28
attention towards giving back and it is so commendable that
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you are using your strengths and also using your weaknesses, your
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traumas from the past, to help change lives.
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And you are most definitely changing lives.
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The film that you're working on step inside the circle.
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So beautifully, Portrays some of the work that you're doing
21:56
inside of prisons and how you are bringing to the Forefront
22:02
adverse childhood experiences to help the prisoners to heal and
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I'm hoping you can talk a bit more about the work that you are
22:11
actually doing in the prisons and what that looks like, one of
22:15
the women in on our team, she calls The Compassion prison
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project like a jazz session and there are other prison programs.
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She's Later. She says, I'm more like a
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symphony where everything is lined up.
22:27
The thing is, when you walk in there, I walk in with it.
22:31
An agenda of what we're going to accomplish that day and
22:35
sometimes I'll have done one little exercise because the men
22:39
want to talk about something that's going on like sometimes
22:45
they have to deal with. There's a guard one of the
22:46
guards are having a really hard time with.
22:48
We have to spend almost three or four hours working on that
22:52
working on what it's like to be abused daily and how we can find
22:58
ways Pat a build Bridges to the correctional officers and really
23:04
we go bowling. And we listen we got with an
23:07
open heart and we've we sit in a circle and we check in with each
23:11
other. Check out with each other and
23:14
kind of like men's groups and sacred circles which is the you
23:18
know which is I think is the formula.
23:20
It's really the formula is just to be there being a
23:25
Compassionate listener, and then speak from your heart in that in
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just that act. I think it all changes, it all
23:33
shifts because they are being seen as an equal on the on an
23:38
equal playing field in their Divinity and we all show up in
23:43
that way. So it's alchemical is that the
23:46
word? It's an out chemical reaction.
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All the love. Just it just changes all of us.
23:52
We go in there with an idea of what the day's going to be like.
23:56
We have all these exercises from restorative, justice to writing
24:00
a letter to your 14 year old self just all kinds of
24:02
exercises, that that really kind of Honor.
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We have to honor our past, we have to honor where we came from
24:12
and love that part of us. Because if we shame it, nothing
24:17
moves, the energy doesn't move. It's really all about, honoring
24:20
the individual. I'm Sure, we bring a lot of
24:23
snacks in there. They're not allowed.
24:26
We're not, we can't bring in Pizza.
24:27
We can't bring in lunch, so I just make sure we have good
24:31
snacks. And because we're in there for
24:33
seven hours, we start the day, we drive up, we drive two and a
24:37
half hours from Los Angeles, all the way up to north of
24:40
Bakersfield to Kern Valley State Prison.
24:43
And so, we go in with buckets of goodies and just that act alone,
24:49
it's transformative because it's nurturing It's love it.
24:53
Sees them, as humans, instead of these meals, just the meals
24:58
alone that they receive in. Prison is just all levels of
25:02
dehumanization. So the idea is to uplift, the
25:05
spirit in all ways we can, when we walk in there from the way we
25:09
greet them, and it is, this is all natural.
25:12
I don't say, okay, everybody go through life with your heart
25:15
open, instead of shut down the energy gets transmuted.
25:20
Like I see the god. Birds are all armored up their
25:23
armored up their hearts. Aren't it up?
25:25
They've got vests on. And so it's a real, I mean, it's
25:30
a real contrast. When you walk in there and you
25:32
can feel as it's like a caravan of love walking, in their words
25:36
are important though, there's no violence, we don't go in there
25:39
with violence. And that intention is really
25:42
important and I think as a society starts transforming,
25:47
which I really feel like we're heading towards we're heading
25:50
towards a big shift. We're going to really have to
25:53
examine the elements of violence that we bring in our daily
25:57
lives. And how I talk to somebody is
25:59
violent or how this business interaction is violent, or how
26:04
buying this quart of milk is violent.
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Like what, where am I contributing to the violence in
26:11
this world? Because that's, there's no shame
26:14
in that. There's no shame and we know
26:15
better. Now it's accountability once we
26:18
have accountability, things can shift, that's A big message that
26:23
I've learned for myself because as soon as I'm accountable and I
26:27
say look, I screwed up and I didn't want to do it like this.
26:31
This is not my intention. My intention is to bring love to
26:34
this situation. No, shame.
26:36
And there we go. And same with the prison system.
26:41
Look, we're accountable. We screwed up.
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We've been going about it in a violent way.
26:47
No, shame. Let's fix it.
26:49
It's like we can't shame everybody.
26:51
All those people that we've canceled, all those comedians in
26:55
people who did bad things we have to give each other a break.
26:59
No shame, you're accountable. Say, look, I screwed up and I'm
27:03
going to do better and I'm going to give back and I mean we got
27:05
to give each other's break because we're all, we've all
27:08
screwed up every one of us. Every one is Curse.
27:11
When we shouldn't have cursed, whatever, it is, whatever, minor
27:14
thing we've done or big thing, we've done.
27:16
But if we, imprison everyone with, with the past, you can't
27:20
create a new world and that's what that's the mission.
27:25
That's the mission. At least for me is to create a
27:28
new world and Gandhi is really, right?
27:31
Be the change. You want to see in the world.
27:34
That means, what do you want to see in the world?
27:37
I don't want to see Violent world so I'm looking at my level
27:39
of violence and where I'm being violent, when buying plastic
27:43
wrapped, whatever that's violent in a sense because it's not
27:47
considering the environment and it's been its totality.
27:51
No shame. I don't know how to get
27:54
zucchini. That isn't wrapped in plastic
27:57
right now because of this thing, but I have to think about that.
28:01
Shame has become so commonplace In our culture.
28:06
And actually it seems to be at the Forefront of so much media,
28:11
be that social media or mainstream media, and I couldn't
28:16
agree with you more. It is holding us back.
28:18
As a matter of fact, I think you have a quote on your website
28:22
which I'm just checking my notes Here.
28:25
Yeah. Shame is the glue that keeps us
28:27
stuck in the past. I love that and yeah, self
28:31
forgiveness and forgiveness of others.
28:34
Yes, I had an interview to guess not long ago, and we were
28:38
talking about trauma and healing from trauma and I asked, is it
28:44
possible to heal the trauma without forgiveness?
28:48
And he said, not completely you can move past it, but you'll
28:53
never heal from it without forgiveness and in shame, as it
28:58
keeps us in that state of just perpetuating the crimes, be
29:02
those violent crime. Or mental emotional, crimes over
29:07
and over, and over again. Well, all shame is violent is
29:12
all violent. There's a book called power
29:14
versus Force by David Hawking's. I have that.
29:17
That's an Incredible Book. Yeah.
29:20
And shame is the lowest vibration and, but Shame, Shame
29:25
is the way business Keeps Us buying things.
29:28
We should they shame us for how we look, they Sheamus for being
29:31
female, they Sheamus for being old.
29:33
They Amos for being fat. They Sheamus for being too black
29:38
to white. It doesn't matter.
29:40
They find a way to make us feel like we're not amazing and the
29:44
thing is we are amazing. That's the thing.
29:47
Seriously, we're all amazing were all, we're all this like
29:51
just being born. I mean that's animes like just
29:54
having a child and bringing forth this this creature.
29:58
It's a miracle. Anything less than a miracle is
30:02
a lie. So, A system of domination that
30:06
we're all under. We're all under the system of
30:09
domination prison is the extreme form but we're all under it the
30:14
way we pay our taxes, the way we've separated into two camps
30:19
Republican and Democrat. That's it.
30:22
That's a fallacy as well. We all want healthy children.
30:25
We will want to educate our children.
30:27
We all want a way to provide for our families.
30:31
We all want the same things and By keeping us divided and
30:36
shaming each other. It's another way of keeping this
30:39
all stuck and the division seeing anybody as in other as
30:44
somebody different than me is shame-based.
30:48
And it's it's a lie from what I can see from the work that you
30:52
do in the prison's. It's influenced by men's work
30:57
and Men's Work circles. And personally having LED some
31:02
of those types of absurd. Rules and held space for men.
31:07
I'm curious how you do it. How you hold space for these men
31:11
who have had such traumatic past?
31:15
And in many cases, don't know what love feels like.
31:20
Don't know what appreciation or friendship even if feels like,
31:27
how do you step into such an intimidating place and hold
31:30
space? I really don't know.
31:32
I just do, I just know. No, I just know from my core
31:36
that I love them. I knew that when I walked in
31:40
there, the first day, I said, I don't know.
31:43
You don't know me, but I love you and I just it is true.
31:47
It's true with all those 235 men in that Circle.
31:51
I love them, I could feel it because there is no difference,
31:54
there's no difference between us.
31:57
The only thing that separates us as those walls and some of the
32:02
ancient ideas we have about. Ourselves.
32:05
This is our time. This is the time when those
32:07
ideas are coming down, we're just humans in this spiritual
32:11
experience as a human experience.
32:13
It's a spiritual experience. It's a karmic experience.
32:17
I don't know what we're doing on, but when I walk in there, I
32:22
know I love those men and those women when I went and met those
32:26
women, I love them. I come from that spot.
32:29
That's all. I know and everything comes from
32:33
that, everything comes from that and I do it in my neighborhood,
32:38
I walk on, I go around and on my walks and I love those people
32:42
to, I see them. And I waved them, like, wow,
32:46
it's good to see you. I don't know who you are, but
32:48
it's good because look who you are.
32:50
You're just great. That I get to observe.
32:54
And you know, sometimes I'm sad when I don't get to kidnapped,
32:58
it's an adventure of seeing myself and other people because
33:01
that's what it is. The person that like I'm seeing
33:04
you. I see myself in you this
33:07
wonderful man who loves his son and shares himself and is
33:13
eagerly working on himself. That's who I see in.
33:17
That's my that's what I see in myself and you and that's It's
33:21
such a good clue is whatever you see in the other person that you
33:26
have a problem with is such a good clue of what what work
33:30
needs to still be done. And I've got so much work that
33:34
still needs to be done. And I'm excited about it because
33:39
anyone I have a conflict with I know I'm not loving myself in
33:44
that moment. And I'm in fear.
33:46
So it's just another opportunity to look at the fear and, and
33:50
thank you for showing up. And while walking along so you
33:54
walk into a prison with love and it's, it feels like an alien
33:59
feeling to them and then they hunger for it the same way I
34:03
hunger for walking, and we all look forward to those visits.
34:06
Every volunteer just can't wait to get back.
34:10
I'm glad you brought up some of the challenges in our current
34:15
penal system and in preparation for this.
34:19
I just jotted down a few statistics.
34:22
These may not be completely accurate and feel free to
34:27
correct me if you know any differently.
34:29
But I just wanted to share with our listeners.
34:31
Some of these statistics because I feel they're quite powerful
34:36
currently. There's 2.3 million prisoners in
34:38
the US and with the average incarceration time of two years
34:43
and although the u.s. comprises five percent of the world
34:47
population, it has 25% of the world's prisoners.
34:52
Interestingly, female prisoners comprise only roughly about 6%.
34:58
And if it just stood for population, a black man is six
35:01
times more likely than a white man to end up in prison.
35:05
And a Hispanic, man, nearly three times more, likely to end
35:08
up in prison here in Canada, 27 percent of our federal prison
35:15
population is comprised of indigenous people and yet, they
35:19
only make up 5% of the population of Canada.
35:25
So clearly the minorities are being affected strongly.
35:31
I want to talk briefly of recidivism, which is ultimately
35:36
the relapse the return to put it simply the return to prison
35:42
based on criminal activities and in the u.s. more than two-thirds
35:47
of State. Prisoners, released are arrested
35:50
again, within three years and almost half of the remaining
35:53
1/3. Are arrested again within years
35:57
for 29. That is incredible and I it
36:02
speaks. Volumes to what is not working
36:07
in our prison system and the work that you are doing and
36:11
others who are trying to bring about transformation.
36:16
Hopefully will start to shift and I saw some work that is
36:20
being done in Europe and Scandinavia and Norway.
36:23
For example, the recidivism rates only twenty percent as
36:27
opposed in nearly 70 percent in the US.
36:30
And what I was reading about prisons and Norway's, they try
36:33
to maintain Normal life for prisoners as much as possible.
36:36
They have community space, they maintain full citizen rights.
36:41
With the exception of they are in prison.
36:44
And then upon release they receive housing employment,
36:47
education Healthcare, and it's working.
36:51
And what what what is happening in the US and in other places is
36:56
not What they're doing is they're treating their
37:00
incarcerated population, like they're humans.
37:03
And in Norway that is yeah that's exactly what we do in our
37:09
classes. Because that's who they are.
37:12
And there's are nothing less than human.
37:15
And when you dehumanize a hue, when you dehumanize anyone,
37:19
which means you don't see their Divinity, you don't see their,
37:23
their, their beautiful souls, they become the other, which is
37:27
Exactly, that's the notion of other is.
37:31
Is it's the notion of Duality, which is, you know, in spiritual
37:35
worlds, obviously. That's theirs.
37:37
But the one side of Love is the other.
37:39
The other side of Love is fear, so it's right there.
37:43
The answers. It's all the ruby slippers.
37:46
We have the answers and it's just do exactly the opposite
37:50
that you're doing. Instead of demonizing a man that
37:55
committed a crime, love the man who committed a crime, doesn't
37:59
that sound so amazing. To love a man who committed a
38:03
crime because the equation I have is crime equals trauma.
38:07
If you've committed a crime, you're traumatized because you
38:10
don't see other choices. And if you do, if you cannot
38:14
see, you cannot see another Choice, besides, whatever it is
38:18
whatever crime, you've committed, you are in a, you're
38:22
in a very, very small small world and that that world looks
38:27
like trauma. Their trauma shuts, your world
38:30
down and shuts down Options. It shuts down your brain, so
38:36
just do the opposite. We just all of us need to just
38:38
do the opposite of what we've been doing.
38:40
And they'll we will have transformed the world because
38:43
just the flip side, the flip side of anger is Jew boy.
38:47
All these things are choices that we make some trauma.
38:50
Maybe not so much drama. I don't know if we have a choice
38:53
but recidivism the reason people keep coming back is there.
38:58
The trauma hasn't been addressed because you go back out.
39:01
Out there and those limited options are still the same op.
39:05
The only options there are when you start educating them
39:09
education and critical thinking. I mean there's one guy that this
39:14
prison that I work at Kern Valley.
39:16
He has five associate degrees five.
39:19
He's dying to get a bachelor's degree.
39:22
He was in my class and they took them out, they made up some dumb
39:26
excuse so that they could basically castrate him and take
39:30
away his his Villages. So he's sitting in his cell now
39:34
he's in their 23rd, the men that I work with, it's a Maximum
39:37
Security. Prison they're in their cells.
39:39
23 hours a day. Wow that's incredible.
39:45
What our prisons are doing more than not providing the healing.
39:50
They're perpetuating the trauma, it's right there, trauma severe,
39:55
Trauma Centers. It's they're not they're not
39:57
Healing Centers, their Trauma Centers, they are they're
40:01
actively meeting out tomorrow. That's what's happening there.
40:05
That's what I've seen. I've heard many stories and
40:09
they're all, you know, people are like they're just trying to
40:11
manipulate you 40 and that's the other thing.
40:13
The men and women that are trained as correctional
40:18
officers, they're trained like a military like as if they're in
40:21
the military which is training to create the enemy.
40:26
The enemy is on the other side, The Prisoner or the incarcerated
40:30
person is on the other side. So when you create an enemy, you
40:34
go to work and you going to meet the enemy.
40:38
What, what possibilities are there?
40:42
But that's your brother that's your brother in there.
40:45
Let's talk a little bit about adverse childhood experiences
40:49
and how prevalent they are your prisoners.
40:53
Okay? So I've done my own little My
40:57
little my little surveys that aren't codified or
41:01
substantiated. So in America 65% they say 65
41:08
percent have had at least one adverse childhood experience,
41:11
65% of the population included in.
41:14
That is divorced. I mean divorce is just very
41:16
traumatizing experience. 17% 17 percent of the American
41:24
population have had four or more Aces people who have four or
41:29
more Aces, have more heart health issues than your average
41:34
person comorbidity. I would say all the comer
41:38
comorbidity that's going on in this pandemic, which is
41:42
accelerating deaths. Is based on trauma, I would say
41:46
anybody who has heart issues lung issues.
41:49
My mother died of lung cancer. My father died, died of a blood
41:53
clot. He died at 61, comorbid
41:55
comorbidities so imprisons. The test that the, the ace test
42:00
that I've given, 70 percent, 70 percent of the men.
42:07
I've surveyed have four or more Aces and most of them are like
42:13
between 7 and 10. What are some more examples?
42:17
You mentioned divorce, but what are some more examples?
42:19
Apple's of Aces or adverse childhood experiences, so it's
42:24
physical emotional, or sexual abuse, physical or emotional
42:30
neglect. Those are five divorce.
42:33
A parent that's been incarcerated a parent that has
42:37
mental illness, or caregiver parent, or caregiver, parent, or
42:41
killed caregiver. Who's addicted and domestic
42:44
violence? I believe that's the all the
42:46
Tim. I think I got them all.
42:48
So, I had seven, I had seven by the time I turned 18, my life
42:55
expectancy but I believe I'm because I'm healing and I'm
42:59
aware of that. I probably will live longer than
43:01
my mother died at 69, my both, my parents were ferocious
43:05
smokers. My father was an alcoholic.
43:07
My mother was a rageaholic. So, all of that toxicity in the
43:12
system, the body just can't. It gives up its too much, too
43:19
much too much. To, you know, and that's what's
43:20
going on in our in those neighborhoods, those toxic
43:24
neighborhoods. Oh and toxic stress, we added
43:28
two of two things, toxic stress, even if you don't get abused,
43:33
when you're living in extreme poverty, your body reacts in the
43:37
same way that your body acts on its traumatized, one of the guys
43:41
in the trauma Circle. This is how I came to understand
43:44
this, one of the guys, in the trauma Circle.
43:47
I was like, why aren't you going in?
43:50
You're you've been in and out of Prisons, all your life, what's
43:52
going on? And then I said, did you have
43:55
expected? You live in extreme poverty?
43:57
And he said, yes, I was like, okay, there it is.
44:00
You can take five five to ten steps and have the same effect
44:04
on your nervous system on your brain.
44:07
This shuts down the amygdala, gets bigger, it's the same
44:11
symptoms. So extreme poverty is is the
44:15
exact same thing as having any amount of aces.
44:19
He's so, and that's why we added, I added 20 extra
44:23
questions for the step, inside the circle.
44:25
We have 31 event to walk inside those Circle for that, for that
44:30
big circle towards the end, which we, which were the
44:34
questions. We added like foster care,
44:36
homelessness. Have you ever seen a dead body
44:39
first responder? See dead bodies all the time and
44:43
that that tells your own body because you're seeing something
44:47
dangerous. You don't feel safe.
44:49
First Responders, don't feel safe.
44:51
They are all traumatized, they're all issues of PTSD.
44:55
And that's, those are men and women that are out on the
44:58
streets responding to crimes. I have no shame for the way
45:03
people react when they're traumatized, whether they're
45:07
incarcerated. Or if they're policemen, when
45:09
you feel threatened, you're going to protect yourself.
45:12
That's just the way the Body Works and yet we incarcerate the
45:17
the people who have PTSD Because they're poor versus the people
45:21
who have PTSD because they served our country or because
45:24
they're they're policemen when we understand what trauma does
45:29
we have to redo this whole system?
45:32
We have to have a trauma-informed criminal justice
45:35
system, that's another version I'm putting out today.
45:38
A trauma-informed, criminals justice system.
45:40
Oh my God. As part of your checklist of
45:44
items that you want, you want to have a library and all prisons.
45:47
That have a trauma-informed books.
45:49
Emotional base books and spirituality base books.
45:54
What is the hunger for those? Do you think in the penal system
45:58
the hunger for any care? That's, that's just a simple
46:02
care. Like we need, we know you need
46:05
to work on yourself. We all need to work on
46:08
ourselves. Any demonstration of Love is
46:11
what's required for all of us but us, giving to the prisoners
46:16
to the incarcerated family is giving.
46:19
To ourselves. The whole thing is just a
46:21
circle, it's the circle. That's what we're in a circle
46:25
and we have to complete our own Circle.
46:28
What would a trauma-informed? Prison system look like to you.
46:33
Well, it's called a Wellness Center first off and the minute
46:36
that the man or woman comes into the system, they need to be
46:40
taken off the street because they're highly traumatized and a
46:44
traumatized person, doesn't know how to function in our society.
46:48
We take Come in and we say, what happened to you?
46:51
What happened to you? My port for my poor friend, what
46:54
happened? I mean, just thinking about all
46:57
the traumas that these young young men and women have dealt
47:01
with, they can't learn when you're traumatized, you can't
47:04
learn because you're worried, you can't look at the Blackboard
47:07
and understand that x equals y, that makes no sense.
47:11
You're someone might hit you, some of my throw it spit ball at
47:15
you. Someone might attack you.
47:17
There's no focusing. I think it's like, 55% of the
47:22
incarcerated population of special needs education when
47:25
they were in school. That's the because they're not
47:28
smart. It's because they can't focus
47:30
this Brave. This is not working.
47:32
This is working. This amygdala, which is in your
47:35
lizard, brain is the only thing that's on so and there's no
47:39
shame but we shame them for needing special needs because
47:43
they need to just feel safe but it's the only way.
47:46
That's the only way you can begin to rehabilitate.
47:49
Prison is if you feel safe, otherwise, your hyper-vigilant
47:54
and you're ready for war and that's it.
47:57
And this information is just not getting out to the level that it
48:01
needs to get out. And, but, and also this
48:03
connection of trauma trauma. And Trauma, how trauma and forms
48:08
crimes, trauma is what causes crimes?
48:12
Because it's a normalization violence.
48:14
Sorry, I have, I know. You want to talk know, so many
48:17
things are coming to me is you're Kicking in our society.
48:21
We vilify the acts that criminal acts, we vilify the criminals
48:27
themselves and yet as you speak of this trauma and the amount of
48:33
trauma that most of these prisoners have experienced, none
48:39
of us can say for sure that if we were in their shoes, if we
48:45
had received the same amount of trauma, the same lack, Love the
48:50
same amount of violence, that we wouldn't be exactly where they
48:53
are, and you speak of love and compassion.
48:59
And it just inspires me to want to, to reach out to fellow
49:06
humans, and to meet them where they are, not from a place of,
49:12
I'm better than, but from a place of I'm here on your level
49:17
and I understand that. That what you have gone through
49:22
with the traumas that you have experienced are not your fault.
49:27
It's not your fault. And yet that is why most of our
49:30
prisoners are in the system because they've experienced that
49:34
trauma. I know part of your work is to
49:37
help. Prisoners.
49:38
Give back, how are you doing that?
49:42
And what does that mean to the prisoners?
49:46
Well, it's called the giving back project and it's really
49:50
more of a vision because of I've had encountered so many
49:54
roadblocks, just trying to get a calendar make that we can sell.
50:00
And so the vision is is first of all, I wanted to address the
50:06
harm that the men and women have created and had landed them in
50:12
prison because back to accountability.
50:16
There is a harm that has been made.
50:18
There is a deep wound trauma for those families that have lost a
50:23
loved one. I mean, it is a it is something
50:26
that desperately needs to be acknowledged and that's where
50:31
the giving back project comes into because those men and those
50:36
women that I have talked to, they are so mortified at what
50:40
they've done, they want a way to give back.
50:42
They want a way to heal the wound for them.
50:45
Ourselves. But also for those families that
50:47
they injure, I have remorse letters.
50:50
I have stacks of remorse letters.
50:51
And of these men who just the reality of what they've done,
50:56
you know, they were trained. Most of these guys were gang
50:58
members, and they were trained as soldiers.
51:00
So they were trained in the same way, all the men that go to war
51:06
and all the CEOs to dehumanize the other.
51:11
The other doesn't matter. The other is the So when you
51:16
dehumanize somebody, you can abuse them and that's what was
51:20
done to them by their parents by the normalization of violence.
51:25
I'm not forgiving their crime outright that I'm saying they
51:29
want to ask for forgiveness, they and they want to find ways
51:34
to cure the harm and that's where the getting back project
51:37
comes in. These guys have you know they
51:40
make 17 cents an hour so they're not going to make and that needs
51:43
to change to but they're not going to To make enough money to
51:47
to give back to the family to give back that loss, but they
51:52
can write poems. They can make murals, they can
51:55
create artistic projects. They can build a community
51:59
center with their community. So the idea is they have harmed,
52:03
a family and they have harmed, their community.
52:06
And now we're building a bridge back to that community.
52:11
And when that man or woman steps out of prison, he will A bridge
52:15
to cross over on. It's just it just it just warms
52:21
my heart. This vision of a man walking out
52:24
in prison and being welcomed back into his community.
52:27
Instead of being labeled as a criminal still like, which is
52:32
what we do, we never forgive. We are just, we are so shamed
52:36
that we don't know how to forgive.
52:39
We don't, we can't forgive ourselves.
52:40
So we can't forgive someone who who so desperately needs to be
52:45
forgiven. So these are the bridges.
52:47
We want to build Bridges. Back to the community and let's
52:50
uplift all the communities that are Gang Related.
52:54
And let's give them community centers and let's paint their
52:57
houses. Let's clean up their yards and
53:00
really honor everybody that that is on this planet Earth.
53:03
That's, that's what it is and when you're when you're starting
53:08
to honor, someone else you want or yourself or vice versa, it
53:11
doesn't really matter but we don't have to live in squalor
53:17
but we've allowed Quad or I've allowed squalor, there's South
53:21
Central, Los Angeles is probably four miles from where I live.
53:25
I'm not in there cleaning up their yards so I'm responsible
53:31
I'm responsible. If only everyone took the
53:36
accountability that you take, it's a beautiful Vision that
53:41
That you have for helping to heal wondering if you could
53:46
share some of the impact, some of the stories of the impact
53:51
that you've experienced firsthand.
53:54
Three of the men in my class were addicted to heroin when
53:58
they started the class and I know two of them are right now
54:03
competing, but I left them in March February.
54:09
They were clean. And probably the most moving
54:13
story I've ever liked. The most moving thing is one of
54:17
the men. Had a DNR.
54:19
Do not resuscitate on his his directive.
54:24
And he announced to the class, he said, I'm taking that DNR
54:27
away, I want to live, I want you to resuscitate me.
54:31
I want you, I want to be in this life with you guys, so I don't
54:39
know if I need any other evidence do.
54:41
I feel the chills through my whole body with that?
54:45
That's incredible. Why is it do you think that
54:51
these men are getting clean and renewing their their will to
54:57
live and blossoming their blossoming?
55:00
There's get a realizing, their healing with their families.
55:04
They're they're taking accountability for their own
55:06
trauma and, and forgiving their families for the trauma that
55:10
they imparted on them. So they're shames being lifted.
55:15
And they're lifting their own shame and their own, their own
55:18
sense of who they are. As in this case, men, in the
55:22
world that have potential that have possibility.
55:26
And instead of being treated like they're condemned and that
55:29
they're pieces of crap. That's also because I have done
55:34
my work and I see myself as valuable.
55:36
I see myself as having having Import in the world and having
55:41
something to give. So I'm just giving them And
55:45
they're receiving it, and then they're giving it back to me.
55:48
So those circles, the circle is the key.
55:51
It's, it's a circle, and it's the flip side.
55:54
It's it's the opposite and it's the circle.
55:58
I think those are my My visuals as a Grammy award-winning,
56:04
producer, you are turning your expertise into helping these men
56:12
and to bringing their plight to light.
56:16
Because it really needs to be brought to light.
56:19
What do you hope to accomplish with the step inside the circle
56:22
film project? Well what's already happening is
56:27
people are contacting us and they want to bring the circle to
56:32
their institutions, some of the prisons have reached out and a
56:35
lot of the people who run programs that reached out.
56:38
So they want all of our materials and cdcr California
56:42
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
56:45
We're in conversations right now to bring the little PSA that we
56:50
made to all 35 prisons in California.
56:53
What I'd like to do is create a little little information,
56:56
booklet about Aces about trauma, what it does to the brain and
57:00
all that kind of technical information so that they can
57:04
begin to start healing now and they watch it.
57:07
So my vision three years, wellness centers all prisons
57:13
will become homeless centers, all of them starting in the
57:16
u.s., I got three years for the USA for years, for the rest of
57:19
the world, all prisons become wellness centers.
57:23
Because we cannot sustain the violence that we are all
57:27
accountable for and then trauma like those guys, it took them
57:32
about six months. Once once once we got to the
57:35
need of the trauma, it took them about six months, I would say
57:39
99% of the men in my class at a maximum-security, prison are
57:44
ready. They can come out into the
57:46
world. Now, that's incredible.
57:48
I think they need support when they come out.
57:50
The biggest anxiety. All of them have is, what am I
57:52
going to do? How am I going to work?
57:55
Plus, when you're in this confined area in, you've been
57:58
like this for 20 years, the world is like this, you know, I
58:03
mean, you've been confined and now you have an open world with
58:06
all these choices. You didn't have to make choices
58:08
in prison. You don't have choices.
58:11
They need this time to to adjust and to, to integrate back, and
58:17
we need to create a way for them to it's like a halfway house at
58:21
sounds. So demeaning like a transition
58:24
house like a transition program, so that they can ease back into
58:29
society. And, and also, with these
58:32
wellness centers, just start opening opening those doors and
58:36
letting them be in circles all the time, everyday be in a
58:41
circle. And be do all the trauma work,
58:44
but, and educate, and dance, and music, and art, and drama and
58:51
spoken word, and bringing the riches of the world, into their,
58:55
into their awareness, and same with all those, all of the
58:59
communities that are impoverished.
59:01
That's, that's the directive. And that's the vision and that's
59:05
very possible. We live in an extremely abundant
59:08
world. There's no reason why we can't
59:11
bring this. To everybody.
59:13
Fritzi I applaud you for the work that you're doing and your
59:17
passion and drive to help these people.
59:21
But I want to play devil's advocate here for a minute
59:25
because I have to wonder how realistic is your vision to
59:33
convert all of these prisons in the United States into wellness
59:36
centers Todd. I think it's important that we
59:40
envision a world. That's vastly different than
59:45
what what we're presented with right now.
59:47
And if we don't begin to actively pursue a different way
59:53
of doing business, nothing is going to change.
59:57
And I want to plant seeds in. Everyone's mind that prisons are
1:00:03
perverse and they don't work. And the notion of Rehabilitation
1:00:08
is almost laughable, because when you trauma, Sighs someone,
1:00:13
that's already traumatized, the results are more violence, more
1:00:19
more shame and we're going backwards.
1:00:23
So when I say, we're going to have wellness centers in all
1:00:27
1719. Prisons, in three years.
1:00:30
I'm saying, let's start moving in that direction now, because
1:00:36
if we do, if all of our minds and our imagination start seeing
1:00:41
the incarcerated population, And as people in desperate need of
1:00:45
help, instead of punishment and abuse, things will change and we
1:00:50
will have wellness centers in three years.
1:00:54
And the thing is, it's not sustainable.
1:00:56
In any way, the what we're doing in our prison system, we can't
1:01:01
sustain the abuse because it keeps people locked up.
1:01:04
And the only people benefiting from this are the prison guards,
1:01:10
the staff members at prisons and the Private Industry that feeds
1:01:15
into this whole prison thing. So if we're actively endorsing
1:01:20
this, okay, fine. Then we won't, we'll just do
1:01:23
business as usual. But there seems to be based on
1:01:27
the response of step inside the circle and other other things
1:01:32
that are going on during this covid outbreak.
1:01:35
There seems to be a shift in our relationship to what we're doing
1:01:40
with the prison system. And So that's my I'm planting
1:01:46
the seed. Have you seen any momentum?
1:01:49
Not at the prisoner level but at the administrative level and
1:01:53
these presents. So the California Department of
1:01:56
Corrections and Rehabilitation Zyzz planning on putting the PSA
1:02:00
of step inside the circle in all 35 prisons.
1:02:04
And we're I'm also talking with them about bringing them
1:02:09
trauma-informed, materials that the men and women can can can
1:02:13
look at and start interacting with and hopefully creating a
1:02:17
dialogue with the compassion prison project.
1:02:19
So we can really start bringing this information to them.
1:02:22
Now, so that's one thing. Plus all the Valen, all their
1:02:27
volunteers from all around the world that are connecting with
1:02:30
us and we are reaching out to all 1719.
1:02:34
Prisons in the United States right now, through a Grassroots
1:02:38
effort right now with getting people activated in each Eight.
1:02:44
And that's another thing. I'm asking other people to do is
1:02:46
find out how many prisons are in their own State.
1:02:49
How many, how many guards work in one?
1:02:52
Prison? How many shifts do they have?
1:02:54
What, what's the nature of rehabilitative programs that are
1:02:59
in their prisons? I'm asking people to get really
1:03:03
involved in their, their prison system which is different with
1:03:08
each state. Are we bringing rehabilitative
1:03:11
programs? Because those those programs
1:03:14
make better neighbors. And if we don't have
1:03:16
Rehabilitation, if a person comes out into the street being
1:03:19
more traumatized, he's basically been criminalized even further.
1:03:24
So he's actually more dangerous than he is than if he has
1:03:28
rehabilitative programs. So, it's really, it's really
1:03:31
part of our own Public, Safety to know what's going on behind
1:03:34
the Prison Walls. And, and I believe, once we find
1:03:38
out the truth, will demand changes immediately.
1:03:41
So to call to Action. It's a call to action.
1:03:46
I understand your drive and desire to help heal and reform
1:03:52
prisoners, especially in the Maximum Security Prison
1:03:54
situations and hopefully to reform them so that they can
1:03:59
return to their communities, and make a positive impact.
1:04:04
But I also have to think about the victims that are out there
1:04:07
and how they might feel about this possibility of these
1:04:12
criminals, some of them who have done significant harm to them of
1:04:17
being released and I'm curious what you might have to say to
1:04:22
those people who are worried about this concept.
1:04:25
Absolutely. I mean, the victims victims
1:04:28
needs need to be addressed and kind of my feeling is a
1:04:33
restorer. Justice process should be
1:04:35
available to any victim. Who feels they need it terrible.
1:04:40
Harms have been committed, and I'm not saying that they are
1:04:45
needs, should be ignored. What I'm saying though, is
1:04:50
trauma, brought those and into prison men and women into
1:04:53
prison? It wasn't because they were bad
1:04:55
people and they didn't have an order.
1:04:58
They couldn't see different choice in their lives and when
1:05:03
the Victim understands what happens when the brain is
1:05:06
traumatized, when the brain acts before, it is actually able to
1:05:11
think and make a good decision, a moral decision, a decision
1:05:15
that makes sense. Once they find out what the what
1:05:19
the actual biology that occurs in these moments, when
1:05:22
triggered, I mean they're all kinds of circumstances.
1:05:24
So I'm just talking about the moments when a drug deal goes
1:05:29
bad and suddenly someone is dead.
1:05:32
Those kinds of moments. Are all done in the blink of an
1:05:36
eye before anyone's really had a had a minute to think about it
1:05:41
and harms have been created but I don't believe that those are
1:05:44
vicious malicious crimes. I do believe they were in
1:05:49
communities that were subject to an extreme amount of violence,
1:05:54
but I don't believe that that person was really maliciously
1:05:57
acting and he may be, I mean, I don't know if she maybe I don't
1:06:01
know. I can't there's a there's a
1:06:03
million In different permutations for this.
1:06:06
But once we understand the biology of what happens when a
1:06:08
person is traumatized, things have to be different and
1:06:12
considered differently, and of course, victim has to be
1:06:16
included in this discussion, but I feel like if the victim could
1:06:21
meet all the men that I just have been working with and could
1:06:24
see how much remorse they carry with them every day.
1:06:29
They think about their victims and the effects that they've
1:06:31
made, I think that they would Change their mind and would want
1:06:35
that man to be taking care of rehabilitated and come and
1:06:39
returned back to his Society. That's my, that's my firm
1:06:41
belief. There are some Psychopaths that
1:06:44
need to stay inside prison. Absolutely.
1:06:47
And some people who have severe brain damage where they are not
1:06:50
able to make good decisions in society.
1:06:53
But I would say 95 percent of the people in prison, eventually
1:06:57
can be returned to us. For those people who who want to
1:07:03
and resonate with what you're saying, which is hopefully
1:07:05
everyone how can they assist you?
1:07:08
They can donate to our cause and they can share the video really.
1:07:13
All I want is the world to realize that we're all
1:07:15
traumatized. If we can just start there, just
1:07:19
share, share the video. That's, that's incredible.
1:07:22
Like I saw this video, this is great please and then talk about
1:07:25
it and then Email us and get the ace test.
1:07:29
I like our expanded. These tests is really starts the
1:07:31
conversation about what these neighborhoods are meeting out.
1:07:36
In terms of trauma, it's not just within the family system,
1:07:39
it's foster care is traumatic. All these things are traumatic
1:07:43
and start the conversation, like create your own Circle.
1:07:46
Why do we all create our own step inside?
1:07:49
Let's all step inside the circle and really start seeing seeing
1:07:53
what is, is really abundant in our Society which is drama at
1:08:00
the right, kind of phrase. But let's all step in the circle
1:08:04
and really start taking Opening Our Eyes share our Humanity.
1:08:10
Yeah. And if you do sorry if you do do
1:08:13
a circle, send us a photo and we'll start putting up Circles,
1:08:16
let's put up the circles. Let's just let's just show
1:08:19
everyone. Let's show the world.
1:08:22
We're with the incarcerated population.
1:08:25
Let's go in straight. I mean, Right now, we can't,
1:08:27
because we're we're on lockdown which empty circle.
1:08:31
Yeah, I will definitely share the video on the the Show links
1:08:36
to this, as well as the, your website compassion.
1:08:39
Purge prison project. I encourage everyone to please
1:08:43
watch the video. It is so heartwarming and
1:08:46
beautifully done. And it, I'm sure it only
1:08:50
scratches the surface of the work that you're doing but
1:08:54
again, it is so commendable and Thank you for that.
1:08:58
Are there any other resources that you want to speak to that
1:09:03
people can turn to for perhaps learning more about the penal
1:09:08
system or for dealing with adverse childhood experiences or
1:09:13
other traumas? Well yeah, I would I would very
1:09:16
much encourage everyone to take an ace test just so they can
1:09:19
see. What the traumas that are and I
1:09:23
would recommend go to Nadine Burke Harris, she's our Surgeon
1:09:27
General in California, and she's doing Ace kind of informed care
1:09:33
for children. So she's really she's changing
1:09:36
the world from the from the beginning.
1:09:39
You know, she's changing it from childhood which is which is what
1:09:42
we need and I'm changing it from the other end.
1:09:46
Oh, and I would also suggest, you know, if you live near a
1:09:48
prison or you want to get Solved in the prison.
1:09:51
Do you want to bring the circle to a prison contact us?
1:09:54
We'll send you information or reach out to prison and ask them
1:09:58
or your Congressman or your Statesman.
1:10:01
Tell him you want to bring the circle The Compassion trauma
1:10:04
circle to the prisons that we need this.
1:10:06
We need this. We need to start the
1:10:08
conversation and every prison there 1719 prisons.
1:10:12
So if we got an advocate for each prison, that's I just need
1:10:17
1719 Advocates to make sure. Each prison gets the circle.
1:10:23
What? A big step that would be so and
1:10:26
and you're in Canada. So let's get the circle in all
1:10:28
of Canada. Absolutely.
1:10:30
Oh fritzy. Thank you so much again, for for
1:10:34
your beautiful inspirational work.
1:10:38
Or the love that you are bringing into the world.
1:10:43
You are changing it and thank you.
1:10:45
You're transforming it for the better.
1:10:48
Thank you. Thank you so much.
1:10:50
It's such an honor to talk with you and you really, it's a
1:10:54
beautiful Circle. We created in our conversation.
1:10:57
Yes. And thank you for taking the
1:10:59
time out of your day to do this. It's been a real honor talking
1:11:02
with you. Thank you.
1:11:05
Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to Sailors,
1:11:16
wolf brought to you by Anchor Point Expeditions, if you feel
1:11:21
called to support fritzy's work. Please check out compassion
1:11:25
prison. Project.org, if you enjoyed this
1:11:29
episode, you might also be inspired by seye Bolin who I
1:11:33
interviewed an episode 3. And who is also helping men find
1:11:37
a Our path, please check out Anchor Point Expeditions.com for
1:11:41
information on my Men's Leadership Retreats and personal
1:11:45
development coaching Norm Han and I are planning to host a
1:11:48
surf Retreat and stunning Tofino, British Columbia on
1:11:51
October, fourth through seventh 2020.
1:11:55
Registration is not yet open, due to the global pandemic.
1:11:59
But feel free to connect with me.
1:12:00
So we can discuss how this opportunity could impact you.
1:12:06
This show was produced By me, Todd Howard, on Vancouver
1:12:09
Island, music was written and performed by Jason cows of the
1:12:13
darcys special thanks to Pacific Rim college for their ongoing
1:12:17
contribution to the show. Four episodes on Holistic,
1:12:21
Health & Wellness. Please tune in to my other
1:12:23
podcast, Pacific Rim College radio at Pacific Rim
1:12:27
college.com. If you enjoyed this podcast,
1:12:31
please give it a five star rating on, whatever podcast app
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you are using and share it with your friends and family.
1:12:38
Stay tuned for my upcoming. Doc cast to KO Chronicles
1:12:41
featuring. The inspirational story of the
1:12:44
lone wolf that mesmerized, the city of Victoria by taking up
1:12:47
residence on a tiny island off. The city's Coastline there,
1:12:52
takea thrived showing us even the most unlikely is possible.
1:12:58
You have been listening to Salish work.
1:13:01
I'm Todd Howard signing off.