Hello to one and all.  I hope you have had a good festive season and that you are all raring to go as we set off into 2012!  It is indeed a great privilege for me to introduce to you Dixie Dabney who has just moved to our wonderful community on the Costa Rica Sims.

Dixie Dabney arrived in Second Life just over 5 years ago and she came here with a very specific goal and mission in mind, that being to counsel the residents of Second Life.

Dixie told me that she had been looking for a community within Second Life that she could serve and on meeting Giancarlo she knew she had finally found the community she had been looking for in the form of the Costa Rica Sims.

Dixie offers counseling for internet relationships both for couples and individuals who may require her services.  She has been counseling internet relationships on Second Life since 2006.  She is certified in Gestalt and NLP (neurolinguistic programming) and received her certification in 1991 from the Gestalt Institute of New Orleans/New York.

Dixie herself met her husband on the internet some 11 years ago and they have been married in real life for 10 years.  Dixies says “My work on Second Life, is based on my desire to give back what the universe has given me.”  She continues “my desire is to help people find ways to form meaningful SL relationships that can help them grow in RL as well as SL! Because you know, SL is simply a micro of RL and a very small world, lol.”

Dixie said for me to be sure that I add that she has a wicked and rather warped sense of humor, she reckons that is because she is from New Orleans where apparently they believe in miracles like finding love in SL!

This amazing lady has a wealth of experience gained over her 60 years of being on this earth and consequently there is nothing that surprises or shocks her.  Dixie’s life experience coupled with her studies in this area ensure that she is well equipped as a counselor.

Dixie explained "Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation."  You can read more about this type of therapy on the following website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_therapy

And "NLP  (neurolinguistic programming) utilizes top mind-body technologies to help individuals discover and tap into their most powerful physical, mental and emotional resources.  Old habits and patterns of behaviour can be eliminated and replaced with new and empowering behavior patterns.  In the world of NLP, the focus is not on what the problem is; rather it emphasizes the process or strategies employed in how a person does the problem.  By identifying and changing the filters, the thinking, the strategies, and the mental and emotional programs a person employs, positive change can happen instantly."   You can read more about NLP on the following website:  http://michaelwoodbeck.com/new-to-nlp/what-is-nlp

Dixie as at pains to re-iterate that she is not a therapist, but a counselor.  In her Second Life work, she employs both Gestalt and NLP as a means to help people better understand the powerful influences old patterns of behaviour and thinking have upon how one responds to the present moment.  Her belief is that those of us who seek a relationship, in the virtual world, carry into our experiences ways of being in the world which, unfortunately - as it would in real life, stand in the way of obtaining and maintaining the sorts of relationships we so very much desire.

She will also periodically hold personal growth workshops on the Costa Rica Sims.  These sorts of workshops span many levels...some are centered on dream work; some are centered on keeping a journal; some are centered on expressing feelings via art.  Dixie has presented these sorts of workshops in real life and has found them to be of interest to many different kinds of people - professional and lay people; men; women; fathers; mothers.  She believes that we never lose the potential to grow and to change and to achieve what we desire in our lives.  The first of these workshops is scheduled for Friday, 1/6/2012, which is also the feast of The Epiphany.  Her idea is to do a workshop - either that day or over that week end about the non-religious aspects of 'epiphany' in a person's life.  She found a very simple definition of the word 'epiphany': "a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.”  Dixie explained “In our everyday lives - and our Second Life experiences - we often take the same routes or paths to get from where we are to where we want to be.   Let's imagine that we are in an 'emotional" car or on a horse or flying a plane or sailing a boat.  We wish to alter our usual ways of being or traveling - even perhaps to work today or to the grocery or how we perform our household chores or how we respond to the people we love in our lives.  We all know that, as we travel to work each day or to the grocery, that sometimes we arrive and realize that we truly have no emotional memory of how we arrived from point a to point b.  It is as though we have allowed some non-part of ourselves - the steering wheel - to guide us. Simple ways of being can become routine and sometimes don't always give us the outcome we desire.  Routines seldom allow us to discover different ways of being in the world.  If you wanted to, how would you change your daily routine tomorrow?  What do you imagine this change would offer you?”

Dixie offers couples sessions, individual sessions and - if your Second Life family includes children – she also available to do family sessions.  The first session is free after that she will discuss with you what you think is reasonable to pay, but at no time will a counseling session cost more than L$300, no matter how long the session lasts!!

There are various places at The Retreat that the sessions will be held for example, in the main lounge area in The Retreat or in the lush garden, on the deck looking out across the water or even in the quirky umbrella….

Dixie concludes “It is a great honor to be a part of this community on the Costa Rica Sims and to have been asked to provide my services.”

You can find ‘The Retreat’ @   http://slurl.com/secondlife/La%20Fortuna/118/31/22

Don’t suffer with a broken heart alone, speak to Dixie Dabney and let her help you find your way back to happiness. You can contact her directly inworld.

Take care

xoxo

Lacy Muircastle