See the full Report on Our meeting and Listen to our Guest speakers here –
Our Meeting was held at Leicester Racecourse, Premier Suite. We normal start at 2.00pm and everyone is welcome.
Introduction
Where we clarified some guiding principles of the group and our meetings.
Confidentiality
As a support group, we encourage all to speak openly about what issues that they face, but as such we ask everyone to respect everyone’s privacy and keep confidential any specific personal matters that are supplied during our meetings
We are not doctors
We are not medically trained or qualified, so we will never seek to advise on treatments or medical matters. Whatever advice or personal experiences are shared, everyone should always consult with their own medical and healthcare experts for the best medical care and advice.
We are not a charity
We are not a registered charity, we handle no money, we have no money. We are just people helping people. Where we require money to fund leaflets or posters, we approach local companies for them to buy on our behalf.
Positive Only
We are a support group, with the emphasis being upon support, so we encourage everyone to seek the positive in what we discuss, in our members situations and our overall attitude to our mutual challenges. Let us always try to find solutions rather than be dragged down by the problems, and let us always give encouragement and hope to each other.
Tolerance & Friendship
The group is for everyone, and we can all seek different things from belonging to this group, but at the very least I hope we will all find some degree of friendship and comfort from meeting and knowing our fellow members. Let us all be tolerant of differences and respect that balance disorders come in many flavours and affect any person in any walk of life and at any age – so we of all groups, should acknowledge and celebrate the variety and differences in our members.
Charity Support
The group is supported by the Menieres Society and VeDA as an official support group listed by both of their web sites. We support both charities in their good work for all things related to balance issues. We have agreed to abide by their own good and common-sense guidance for support groups and we will encourage members to consider membership of either charity and sharing of member contact details with both at future meetings. Fund raising ideas on their behalf will also be discussed going forward. [See Our Friends section for details and links for both charities]
Meet A Member
Now a regular feature of our meetings, one of our members talks to teh audiance, and tells their own personal story of their life when their balance disorder appeared and what challanges they face in living with their balnce issues. This is both and exclent way to get to know our members, but also each members story helps us all to understand that we face very similar challanges and we are not alone. Thank you to all of our members who share their stories with us all.
Todays “Meet a Member” is Simon, from Market Harborough, Leics.
Simon kindly agreed to allow his talk to be recorded (this is optional for all members), so see Simons excellent talk below.
Click to Watch Simons story on our You Tube channel
After Simons wonderful contribution, we then introduced our –
Guest Expert Speaker – Kala Patel
Kala Patel is our expert guest speaker, a psychotherapist with 24 years’ experience
“Practical, portable tools to survive each day with a balance condition. Challenging the noisy trickster in your mind!”
This presentation covered many aspects of the challenges faced by those with balance conditions such as dealing with the “noisy trickster” in your mind, learning to silence this and flourish as a result. Revealing that some simple daily practice and routines will provide benefits to your life in just a matter of a few days. We recommend this presentation to anyone who has felt that their balance issues have created stress, anguish or anxiety – and would like to reduce these feelings and regain control!
Click here to view our Facebook Live Recording
Or
Click here to View on Our You Tube Channel
Kala is a psychotherapist with 24 years experience having worked for Leicester College, PPC and Occy Health at George Elliot Hospital. She is in Private Practice as a Counsellor, Psychotherapist and Supervisor in Leicester and at Harley Street, London.
Kala has volunteered for over 30 years: including HIV/AIDS organisations; the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy; and more recently as a Psychotherapeutic Trustee for an independent school in London.
Learn More about Kala from her own professional web sites for midlands and London based treatment.
https://www.pcl-psychotherapyleicester.co.uk/
Thank you Kala, for a great presentation and Kal has now agreed to help us create our own section on our web site dedicated to helping us all cope with the anxiety and stress when living with a balance disorder.
Support Group News
The Member to Member opt in contact network is proving very succesful, with many participants finding help, comfort and frindship in regualr contact with other members between our meetings. Any member can opt in to this group at any time, sharing your email address and or phone number with the other “opted in” members.
We have been succesful in securing sponsorship for all of this years support group meetings. With these enlightened businesses agreeing to pay for the cost of our superb meeting venue on our behalf. Each meeting will carry the name of our sponsor for that date.
Informal conversations between everyone in small groups
Finally,, conversations were held between members, including our guest speaker, enabling friendship and sharing. This phase of the meeting lasted for over two hours, as much of the benefit for our members is found in simply meeting people who share so much in common with themselves, and being able to talk to people who do understand completely what is being discussed.
Well done and thank you to all members and guests who made it to the meeting – your involvement is what makes each meeting so special and rewarding for all.
Please come and join us if you feel we can help and don’t wish to face your challenges alone. You are very very welcome.
The Meeting Room and facilities are kindly paid on our behalf by our generous meeting sponsor :-
Clarks Cycle Systems – A Midlands based global supplier of cycle components. MD Tony Wright and his team are keen to see as many balance sufferers as is possible regain the ability and freedom associated with cycling. Thank you all at Clarks for funding this meeting.
