John Thomas Edwards, 70, born on January 14, 1941 and passed away on
November 10, 2011. We will remember him forever.
He has left a legacy with lots of instructions. Let us begin with his credo:
"One step at a time. Take it easy. Keep at it."
Please read "STORIES" which include some of his writings and tributes of others who knew him.
We invite you to share your own lasting imprint from John, his work and his wisdom.
FAMILY SYSTEMS and awareness of the WHOLE
was John's life work and what he taught.
How are we continuing this essential truth now in our own lives?
The John T Edwards Foundation is seeking to contact those who are interested in networking together to increase this much needed practice in our COVID world Right Now!
THANK YOU!
I've been feeling to write a letter to John in my journal which I do from time to time. This seems a beautiful opportunity to write and to share.
Today I opened a book I received just yesterday: "The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau" by Malcolm Clemens Young. I sat on the porch, slowly beginning to read as I also looked out to the misty mountains and the leaves, red, gold and orange, falling now and then, helping to slow me down even more. It is good to be still. " Reminding me how you taught "ALERT STILLNESS" to me and modeled it for many.
In the Introduction to this book, were words by Edward Abbey,
"Thoreau's mind has been haunting mine for most of my life." I realized THIS would be my tribute to you today, 9 years now since you departed on November 10th, 2011. Almost 11/11/11 which I always noted, nearly Veterans Day, which you were.
You gave me a paperback copy of Walden when we were on Ossabaw Island in 1970, living there as participants in "Genesis, A Project in Human Ecology". I am still reading Walden and Thoreau's journals and writing in tandem with these. A very deep and beautiful thread in my own life actually given to me from you, when I was 21. And now I am living on a land preserve in western North Carolina where you and I visited once, and I lead walks as a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide. I marvel at life's outworking and wonder how it is you are not here, and then I think of your legacy,--alive and well!
As someone who readily rejected the digital world, your work and influence is now available (though in beginning stages) on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram and a new and upcoming website. Forgive us, John, but we know Family Systems Theory and Practice is needed in the world more than ever, and so we seek to make your teachings and wisdom available best we may. We hope to create a network where what you began, may serve now. "I follow so I lead."
I'll close from Thoreau's Journals: "It is not words I wish to hear or utter--but relations I seek to stand in. . . . ." Well, then, it is relations and relationship we continue, in gratitude always.
“And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed." MayaAngelou
"Time is the stream I go a-fishing in"....wrote Henry David Thoreau.....This stream just keeps on rolling...
it amazes me....here now, living in western North Carolina and loving this day in honor of you, dear John T. Edwards....
You really introduced Thoreau to me in many ways,--I read Walden when we were on Ossabaw Island participating in "Genesis, a Project in Human Ecology" and and we thought we were going to save the world. We did save an island and Ossabaw now is protected and remains the beautiful place we knew so many years ago. I'm writing now in deep gratitude across years and time for your presence and all the gifts alive in me now and in all you taught and shared your many insights so needed right now.
It is, says the math, your 77th and I am posting TWO GIFTS for your website this morning....it is a clear, cold January day in the North Carolina mountains today....and you are very close.
A COMMUNITY OF SPIRITS by Rumi is now in "YOUR LIFE" section here, and in photos, I have placed your beloved KINGFISHER.
Thank you, dear friend for YOUR gifts which we continue to unpack and make present here, for you.
77! I just realized we met when you were 27 and I, 19! You, just home from Vietnam and so beautiful in every way. I give thanks for this fresh memory. Thank you Life.
In abiding trust,
Martha
He reduced his own smoking habit and added a consistent practice of meditation that served him well for the balance of his life. At his memorial service at his home some of us were comforted in our grief and amused when his ode to cigarettes was read to his "friend" of those few daily smokes he enjoyed sitting on his porch or in his shop. Can't you see him sitting there caressing his "friend' and expelling smoke as one of his meditations? (Whoever has this poem he wrote to cigarettes might consider putting it on this site)
During his life the number of people he helped personally and professionally are legion. His legacy lives on in all of us who knew him.
Rainer Maria Rilke's lines captures some of John's gift to us:
To praise is the whole thing! A man who can praise
comes to us like ore out of the slience of rock.
His heart, that dies, presses out
for others a wine that is fresh forever.
He is one of the servants who does not go away,
who still holds through the doors
of the tomb trays of shinning fruit.
“Slow down (Way Down! I insert),
One step at a time
Keep at it” echos in my head.
As Izzy, John’s favorite dog,
And I jog south on the vacant beach
in the drizzling rain.
The pace slows as I retrace by steps
northward on the beach.
The incoming tide
begins to cover my old tracks.
Something is ripening besides the figs in August:
my old mistakes.
No time left to procrastinate;
good ideas are falling from the tree.
John always said don’t take the figs
until they fall into your hand
when touched.
The birds didn’t listen.
I’m over-ripe
ready to fall from the tree.
Best I quickly harvest
The fruits of my toil;
seventy six years
of growing intuition.
Ghost chapters of my life
are fading fast.
Best I “keep at it”;
Honor John’s message,
The master “shop keeper”.
He finished what he started.
His Brother,
Sid
I am still collecting the fruits of his legacy everyday.
Happy Birthday John.
He probably would say it is another challenge we must take and endure.
From your peacefulness, we will gain strength.
New job, new opportunity to further your wisdom, new chance to fail, new time for growth, new time to stare like a cow staring at a new fence, new time to be old, new time to be new. I am beginning to understand. I love you. - Michael
I said these words aloud earlier this morning as I hiked up to the hill and stood, amazed to hear the helicopter at St. Claire Hospital that lifted off with you, now years ago. It is impossible, of course that you are not here, and yet, as all who were touched by your life, we feel you ever close ever guiding with your Wisdom, Gentleness, Strength, Care. I recently quoted you in my journal when writing of a situation in my life now, in which you said to me, "sometimes a person NEEDS rescuing". You always pushed against any standard way of thinking or doing, to dig down to the root of truth. Your legacy is living, alive and well in each of us, dearest JTE. Thank you for helping us understand that love is, indeed, Eternal.
-Patience may not be the ultimate virtue, but it's close.
-Learning is discovering that something is possible.
-Some days are better than others.
My current life is a daily lesson in patience & your guidance is helping me be that.
I am learning so very much about myself these days & I'm bringing those lessons to life in my current journey.
Many days are better than others; I'm accepting the good with the bad & realizing something I've always known - that God doesn't ever give me more than I can handle.
Thanks again for being such a good friend & mentor. Dance with the angels today!
I was corrected when I said it would be "2 years"...no, indeed, it has been 3 years....three turns of the planet around the Sun, three cycles of seasons. It is good to honor this life, this teacher, this friend.
The songs are ones he sang and crooned to for many years...
I spent a long while November 10th downloading photographs I could find that are meaningful for JTE's life. I have others, but they will have to wait.
I just now uploaded many, and have not asked permission, though all passed the "what would John do?" and so they are here...
If anyone has any photos they would like included please send them to me and I shall post them.
Let us continue to honor John by honoring ourselves and each other.
"One step at a time; take it easy; keep at it.
I am going to post these "brief, random bits of advice to myself" he wrote, in "STORIES" for everyone to enjoy. It is wonderful to read these and hear his wisdom and humor, candor and strength. Please click on STORIES above.
On John's marker were the words "Your True Home is Now"
Words of Thoreau, Rumi and Rilke were read and afterwards many gathered there spoke, including one of John's teachers, and his childhood best friend, cousin and "brother" Gene Pearson.
His teacher told a story that while lining up in graduation from high school, she asked, "John, what are you going to do with your life?" whereupon he replied, "I'm going to college and study psychology. She asked him what he was going to do with a degree in psychology, and John said, "open a psychology shop!"
Afterwards, a wonderful reception was held at the ancestral home of their grandparents orchards, where all shared stories and memories including one that remembered how John and Gene used to play in the cemetery where his plaque now resides. Somehow that playful heart was felt enduring even now in Fort Valley.
With John's lifelong work with Families, it seems fitting to have both John and Lane's representation there now next to his parents and ancestors.
*Click on "Gallery" to see photos.
To listen to Wendell Berry's interview: http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-11-14/wendell-berry-place-time-twenty-stories-port-william-membership
On this day I honor your passing and vividly remember your life as my brother. I will be with you as I offer this day of being with families to you. You are part of what I offer, the uninterrupted stream of love that we share. Brothers Always, Sid
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From John's cousin Peggy
"I can't tell you how blown away by the Website and all the tributes to John. And when I came to "Farther Along" hearing him sing. Oh. my. goodness. I always thought it was just my Father and his brothers who would gather around the piano; I'd play and they'd sing "Farther Along." But it must have been their parents- brothers Oscar, (John's Grand dad), John (my Grand Dad) , J. D., Will, Mike (Walter) Clyde who sang it because John would have heard it from his Mother Raynelle- it had to have been a favorite family song. Or maybe John just liked it, but the inner-connectedness of us all is amazing. Oh, how I wish I could have known John as the incredible adult person he was. What a legacy he left. He was so sweet as a boy. I don't think there was a mean bone in his body. He had early lessons in pain, disappointment and forgiveness. I heard a great definition of humility that does apply and describe John. "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." I believe that was John. The 9 fruits of the Spirit. I call them "Love Potion # 9"- Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Humility, Self-Control. The John I remember was the epitome of Love Potion # 9.
Katherine Townsend 1983 Interview with John for the ADAP-ter
K = Katherine Townsend
Dr. E.= John T. Edwards, PhD
K: Dr. Edwards, you are involved in treating substance abuse problems on a family level. What advantage does this type of treatment have over the more traditional methods, like group or individual therapy?
Dr. E: The major advantage I have found, and I've done all three over the past five years, is that family therapy takes on more importance to the drug dependent individual. That is, his motivation level is higher. The important people around him, many of whom control some of the resources the drug dependent person needs are there, and are reacting to the identified patient in ways that sometimes help maintain the problem. So, breaking into the enabling pattern is very important.
K: To what extend are families involved in what seem to be individual problems such as drinking too much or drug abuse?
Dr. E: A recent Gallop poll conducted through out the U.S., that came out about 6 weeks ago, inndicated that one out of three families have a problem with substance abuse. That's quite a high statistic and it was one that surprised many people.
K: What evidence do you have that family treatment is more effective than individual or group treatment?
Dr. E: There is evidence from research conducted in various places, but notibly in Philadelphia by M.D. Stanton, that bringing in the family in drug dependent problems leads to a more successful outcome. That is if you measure outcome by the two main criteria of amount of time without drugs and no criminal activity. My own experience and some of the readings I've done indicate that there is more success when you bring in the families of the drug dependent person.
K: You mostly work in the Structural/Strategic models of family therapy. What are the assumptions of this model and how does it differ from other family therapy methods?
Dr. E: Structureal Family Therapy and Strategic Family Therapy are not the same. They do have different ways of approaching the problems. The Structural model and Strategic model do share however, some common assumptions. One of these is that a long standing chronic symptom of most any type, including drug abuse, is being maintained in its social context. That's a very important assumption for doing therapy. The primary social context for most people is the family.
Another assumption that is made about this model is that in a drug dependent family, the recurring patterns of relating to each other have in some way violated certain principles of hierarchy and boundries. By that I mean the power structure in the family have been distorted or reversed, like a child may have more power than the parents. Boundries may be unclear, like an overinvolved mother with a son. Some of these patterns sometimes result in symptoms like drug abuse.
A third assumption is that changing these family patterns or structure will change the experiences of each member, and remove the need for the symptom, thus allowing a new growth process to begin in the family.
K: In the model you use, what would one be trying to accomplish by seeing, for example, a drug abusing young person with his/her family?
Dr. E: By young person I am going to assume we're talking between the ages of 13 and 25. In the majority of the cases that I have supervised or worked with in this age range have a problem with beginning and maintaining their own independence. That is, it is a separation issue. They are overly involved with their nuclear family (mother, dad and siblings) or they have unsuccessfully tried to leave homme and are unable to be self sufficient. Therefore, seeing the entire family helps to reorganize them to motivate the young person to allow for the separation to occur successfully.
K: How long would one work with a particular family? How many sessons are involved?
Dr. E: I like to see a family between 8 and 15 sessions. However, the average is less than that with this population. I believe that some long standing and enduring structural change can occur within the 8 to 15 session range for at least 80% of the families.
K: Does family therapy take more time?
Dr. E: In terms of total treatment hours it probably takes less time. Things happen faster in family therapy; therefore, fewer sessions are needed.
K: Is it best to use co-therapists with families or a single therapist?
Dr. E: I like to work with a special kind of co-therapy model. That is, only one therapist in the room with a family. However, I strongly believe in having the support of a supervisor or colleagues, who, if the equipment is available, can be observing the session behaind the mirror, with the family's permission. So, it's a special type of co-therapy model. Only one therapist is in the room at a time.
K: If this model does not advocate co-therapists in the room, are you saying that one therapist could do this without any support from anyone else?
Dr. E: Even thhough there is only one therapist in the room at a time, I believe no one should attenpt to do family therapy entiirely alone. There should be colleagues or others involved in the work that the therapist can talk to and invite to observe sessions to give feedback.
K: Many families are extremely resistant to discussing drug problems with a therapist. How do you get these families to come in?
Dr. E: If you have administrative support, you can make it a general policy that all people below a certain age would have to have their familiies in for at least an assessment interview. However, if you are not working with young people in a family, you're working with young adults who are not in the nuclear family, then you have to see them on an individual basis and begin discussing family relationships. Gradually, over one or two sessions, the therapist is able to build a sound rationale for including the family. It would be important, however, that the therapist contact the family and not go through the identified patient (IP) to get the family in. The therapist needs to get permission from the IP and contact the family directly. Everyone living in the home should attend the first family session.
K: How much training does it take to do family therapy?
Dr. E: The American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) has set the standard of 200 hours of training plus 1000 hours of actual experience with a family to be certified as a clinical member in their organization. I believe, however, that competent family work can begin (with support of colleagues) with less training than that, perhaps in the 60 to 80 hour range, not all of which would be in room with the family wiith supervision, but most of which would.
K: How would an individual or an agency that wanted to learn family therapy begin?
Dr. E: By attending one or more workshops. I have noticed, particularly in the past year and a half, that there has been a fairly dramatic increase in the amount of training workshops in family therapy. There are perhaps six major schools of family therapy. Structural is one, and Strategic is a second. But the four others are also widespread. I would recommend that a beginning therapiist choose a workshop, find if that model suits their particular style, and if so, inquire from the workshop leader where further training can be obtained.
K: What are some of the training resources in the nearby area?
Dr. E: I'm not familiar with all the ongoing supervision type training of this model in North Carolina. In know that the Randolph Clinic and Open House are collaborating in Charlotte to provide this training, and I know that some is provided by the Family Therapy Learning Center in Raleigh. I'm not familiar with others who are available as trainers, but I believe they do exist in the state. The therapist would just have to ask around in order tto find out about this.
K: Does it take any special equipment or facilities to do family therapy?
Dr. E: It's highly advantageous, almost necessity, to have some way that the single therapist working wiith a family can be observed by a supervisor or colleague. The easiest way this is accomplished is through the one way mirror with microphone and videotape. The family, of course, gives permission in writing for this observation to occur. If the one way miirror is not available, and neither is videotape, then I would suggest that the colleagues work together in the room. However, only one therapiist would deal with the family, the other would sit nearby but stay out of the action. That would allow processing to occur between the colleagues after the session.
K: Would you mind people who are interested in further information about family therapy contacting you directly?
Dr. E: No, I would be delighted. I like to talk with anyone about family therapy training. I would like to see it become a more common therapeutic approach in this state. I can be called at (704) 376-2431, which is the Randolph clinic where I am employed as a consultant and trainer.
K: For a therapist beginning family work, what readings would you recommend?
Dr. E: I would recommed for this particular approach, any books by Salvadore Minuchin or Jay Haley. Minuchin has written or co-authored three books. The latest of which is entitled Family Therapy Techniques which I believe is an excellent book. Jay Haley has written seven books, perhaps the best of which for the beginner is Problem Solving Therapy, published in 1976. However, there are many excellent books on the market these days and they seem to be increasing in number. I understand there will be a bibliography of family therapy books in this issue of the ADAP-ter.
K: Yes there is, it's on page 9, and thank you for this interview Dr. Edwards.
This interview was conducted in early 1983 by Katherine Townsend who collaborated with Lewis Foster to produce a Western Region newsletter for professionals working with chemically dependent clients.
At Our Back
John and I shared a rich history together from the time I met him in Fort Valley in 1957 when I started dating his sister Elaine. Elaine and I eventually married and John became the "brother" ,more than brother-in-law, I had always wanted. We shared families with alcohol problems which, in part, became the fire that helped shape us into family therapists. He and I shared attending Emory University and being members of Kapha Alpha fraternity graduating 3 years apart.
Upon John's return from service in the Navy in the Viet Nam war he worked towards his PhD in counseling psychology at the University of Ga where I had earned my PhD in clinical psychology in 1968. He moved to Charleston SC where I supervised his PhD dissertation on the use of meditation to help people reduce and stop smoking cigarettes. This was a habit he reduced but never completely gave up but he did conquer the use of alcohol for himself and helped many others do the same.
After completing his PhD John took over my job as Director of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the Franklin Fetter Health Center in Charleston, SC. This allowied me to work full time in the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical University of SC where I taught indivdual and family therapy, as well as community psychology.
My gratitude towards John as an uncle extraordinary to my children and their families is un-ending. As seen on this site he was there for an inestimable number of friends, trainees, families and colleagues. In his final moments in the hospital he was counseling the staff that attended him. He was always at our backs and still is.
Your Brother,
Sid