Attachment and Health of the Whole

The Genetic Alliance Council has defined Genetic Alliance in a number of ways, one of which has been that we are home to the whole. What does that mean? It comes out of our reflection that we had been limiting ourselves and our community by the relatively narrow focus we were carrying.

For example, in 2003 we were unclear on our mission and found ourselves being defined by projects that funded our work. We got that clear, made organizational changes, developed our vision, and pursued projects consistent with the new vision.

In 2005-2006 we initiated an incubator project that was intended to support specific advocacy groups to take steps to extend themselves and develop their capacities. We found that working with individual groups didn’t produce the transformational results any of us had hoped for and so we looked for new approaches to engage.

In 2007, the Board faced a crisis and effectively chose to go a new way. It was and is a very demanding path. Some Board members felt it required too much of them, encouraged us in the vision, but felt they should step aside. Other members felt that the new direction was contrary to their experience and vision and felt forced out, though those who remained attempted to communicate their heart and intent of openness. This governance and organizational change was the beginning of the Board, now Council, thinking in terms of being home to the whole.

Later that year and in 2008, the staff began to embrace this new idea of openness as process and product of Genetic Alliance. As the staff joined the Council in pursuing openness, we found greater confidence. We began to envision opening the space for systems transformation through our engagement in crucial issues affecting our well being as individuals and communities.

What began as an exercise in being “we” (i.e. as one together) took form...at multiple levels. We realized that Genetic Alliance is not just about any one sector but that it can hold the space open for many sectors. We saw a vision of the future in which our real power comes from holding that space for everyone.

We initially decided we would commit to transforming health through genetics but then realized it was too limiting and turned to transforming the health of the whole, the extended “we.” We use the process of identification as one of many to give substance to the extended “we.” That essentially means that what we see in another, in you—what’s important to you, what’s your problem, what’s your success—we find in ourselves by asking, “How is this that I see in you true of me?”

With this foundation we began to operationalize what it means to be “home to the whole.” We began to carry the entire world in our hearts in a new way while at the same time taking responsibility for the work immediately in front of us well as in our future.

An additional process that has helped us to do this we call “chunking.” It is the means of moving from one level to another, whether that be going to a more general, meaning making level, to a more specific detailed descriptive level, or to a parallel level generating similar examples.

In this case, we would consistently “chunk up” by asking, “What is this issue we are dealing with an example of?” Eventually we got to world peace, which is one of the amazing serendipities of this attachment conference that highlights among others, John Paul Lederach. When we “chunked down” a bit we got to transforming health. We have consistently aligned our Genetic Alliance projects along the vertical and horizontal axes generated through this "chunking."

Being home to the whole and committed to a healing journey, we realized we needed to think in terms of the health of the whole. It would appear that there are at least four major systems that can support the health of the whole...

1. the psychological as it relates to my own self;

2. the social as it relates to my relationships;

3. the communal as it integrates multiple relationships, and

4. the spiritual as it supports the larger sense of my presence in the world.

We can see all four of these systems coming together in the upcoming attachment conference.

In the first system is the significance of attachment identity, “Am I secure in myself as one with resources and strategies to support myself through a crisis or distressing experience?” (Mikulincer and Shaver, Attachment in Adulthood, http://tinyurl.com/4rd8e2x).

In the second system there is the significance of attachment figures in my life, those people who I can depend on (or not) and seek out to be a safe haven and a secure base when my distress exceeds my own capacity to manage it. (Sue Johnson, Hold Me Tight, http://tinyurl.com/5uh62qe)

In the third system there is the significance of multiple relationships forming a culture and which addresses the question, “Is this place, this community, this organization, a safe haven and secure base in which I can trust that I will be known for who I am, my voice will be heard as authentic, and my contributions will be valued.” (John Paul Lederach, The Moral Imagination, http://tinyurl.com/48wfob6)

In the fourth system there is the significance of God-a higher power-the ground of being beyond the simple human connection as a source of security...if you will the ultimate attachment figure. (Curt Thompson, The Anatomy of the Soul, http://tinyurl.com/4lnjxzf; Dan Siegel, Mindsight, http://tinyurl.com/6hqq2l2).

We look forward to further integrating our understanding of these four systems of support for the health of the whole as an expression of Genetic Alliance being home to the whole. We believe it offers us all, "we together as one," the means of transforming ourselves and these systems to positively impact health in all of its aspects.