Healing the mind, body and spirit
Alumna helps survivors of sexual assault find joyful hearts
By Judith Jaeger | Photos by Lisa Denning
Imagine swimming in the ocean and being approached by wild dolphins. What would your reaction be?
For survivors of sexual assault who are given this experience through the Joyful Heart Foundation, based in New York City, swimming with dolphins is a step on the path toward healing.
"There is an extraordinary thing about being in the ocean and having wild animals bigger than you approach you with no agenda, " says Stacey Bosworth '94, executive director of the Joyful Heart Foundation. "For survivors of sexual assault, this is a profound experience. And whether or not you are a survivor of sexual assault, everyone is a survivor of something. "
The Joyful Heart Foundation, Bosworth explains, was founded by actress and activist Mariska Hargitay, who plays detective Olivia Benson on the popular NBC drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." The show follows Manhattan detectives and district attorneys as they investigate and prosecute cases involving sexual assault. As a result of her work on the show, Hargitay began to receive letters and e-mails from women describing, for the first time, their experiences as survivors of sexual assault. Wanting to do something to help women like these, Bosworth says, Hargitay drew on an experience where she found herself swimming with wild dolphins off the coast of Hawaii.
"It was a life changing moment for her," Bosworth says. "When I met Mariska, that was a specific goal, to share that experience. Everything at the Joyful Heart Foundation radiates out from that, to create heart-opening experiences for people. "
Bosworth, who has been with the foundation from the ground up, knew that success in this endeavor would require a different approach to nonprofit development and management.
Dos and don'ts of nonprofit management
Bosworth's first experience with nonprofit work was as a Clark undergraduate. In her junior year, the philosophy major completed an internship at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in London. After graduation, Bosworth worked at a multinational public-relations firm and then for a small firm where she once again worked with nonprofit organizations. Bosworth then went on to work for the Rainforest Foundation and later the Sundance Institute, both teaching her much about the dos and don 'ts of nonprofit management. For example, Bosworth has always been surprised at the lack of coalition building and partnering among nonprofits. She adds that whether large or small, nonprofits are not run like businesses —"and they should be."
At Planet Impact, an organization that incubates new nonprofit organizations, Bosworth used her knowledge and experience to help nonprofits plan for long-term success. She was at Planet Impact when she met Hargitay. When presented with the idea for the Joyful Heart Foundation, Bosworth first asked an important and often overlooked question: "Is this something people want and will they support it?"
After talking to other women's organizations and those who work with survivors of sexual assault, Bosworth discovered the answer was "yes." Still, she and Hargitay did not want to reinvent the wheel when it came to helping survivors of sexual assault, recognizing that there were already many successful organizations already dedicated to this cause.
"We wanted to add spokes to the wheel," she says.
Programs that peel back the layers
The Joyful Heart Foundation, Bosworth explains, recognizes that everyone heals differently and offers different retreat programs to help people "peel back the layers," as Bosworth describes it.
"The conventional wisdom around survivors of sexual assault is that something has been taken away from them. Our philosophy is that something has been covered up. "
Weeklong, three-day and one-day retreats, all provided free of charge, focus on one area of healing: mind, body or spirit. Because touch can be a challenge for those who have been sexually assaulted, Bosworth says, part of a retreat may involve a manicure or massage so people can experience touch in a positive way. Something gentle for the body is combined with something challenging, such as surfing, to create a sense of empowerment. The weeklong retreats to Hawaii include time in the ocean with the dolphins, but also yoga, art therapy, writing and other programs aimed at physical and emotional healing.
The foundation has also made a commitment to the community in Hawaii, providing programs to the underserved population of survivors there. Back in New York, the foundation has worked with the Girl Scouts to tailor a program for teens on dating violence and sexual assault. And in April 2007, the foundation provided programs to 400 people in one day during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Grassroots at heart
As executive director, Bosworth does a little bit of everything at the foundation. She works with the foundation 's board members and corporate sponsors on fundraising efforts and oversees programs.
"No matter what, I'm a grassroots girl," says Bosworth, who adds that she can't imagine being the kind of executive director who isn't helping to set up chairs before an event. But what she enjoys most is "providing inspirational programming and meeting amazing women who are fearless and ready to take on their next steps."
Bosworth traces her career path straight back to Clark, where she learned "to create something without the confines of ‘this is how it's always been done.'"
In her work with nonprofit organizations and the Joyful Heart Foundation in particular, Bosworth returns to the same question again and again: "Why do we have to do it that way?" And that, she says, "speaks to everything I learned at Clark."
For more information about the foundation visit www.joyfulheartfoundation.org
Dolphins and Humans Some Healing Information
From the Joyful Heart Foundation Web site
Research on the effects of swimming with dolphins on humans has been ongoing since the 1970s and reports that these interactions have a powerful ability to promote healing. Studies done with people who suffer from a number of psychological, physical and emotional ailments have shown significant and often dramatic results.
As a result, organizations in such places as Florida, the Bahamas, Hawaii, New Zealand and Mexico have set up structured programs that allow people an opportunity to swim with dolphins.
Some of the programs are geared for those interested in personal growth and others specialize in assisting people with depression, autism and developmental, neurological or physical disabilities. Centers for research include: Dolphin Reef in Eilat, Israel; the Lei Aloha Dolphin Research Center in Waianai, Hawaii; Island Dolphin Care, Key Largo, Florida; and the former Kazachya Bay Naval Base on the Black Sea in Sevastopol, Ukraine. Researchers say more than 2,000 patients have interacted with dolphins and experienced therapeutic benefits.
How it Works
Dolphins use their sonar to scan the water around them and locate their prey. They produce an intense amount of energy that resonates in the bones of the skull, sternum and spine of the people around them (according to research from the Child Empowerment Program of the Human Dolphin Institute). Some researchers believe that the dolphins ' biofield, their electromagnetic or energy field, is responsible in part for dolphins ' healing abilities.
Others theorize that the high vibrational transmissions emitted by dolphins heard by the human ear as a series of clicks and whistles have the power to synchronize the electromagnetic forces of the human brain. The ultrasonic frequencies appear to have a biological effect, triggering the production of certain neurochemicals.
Recent studies at the Florida Back Institute in Boca Raton have demonstrated that dolphin encounters have a dramatic effect on the production and uptake of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and may also affect the entire endocrine system.
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