Press Room

Ironic perhaps to call this a "gift that is a part of our evolutionary process," but that's exactly what Dr. Kevin has elected to do. He explains why ADD/ADHD can be a gift in each of four areas - physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. And how you can begin to work with it in those same four areas. He's antimedication and proalternative therapies. He also shows how ADD/ADHD is a diff-ability rather than a disability, and that ADD/ADHD people can lead normal lives and attain the same education levels as "normal" children, and in some cases even do better.

~Tom Elliot
Book Review Editor, Mensa Bulletin

Pay attention. Focus. Did you hear me?

Nine-year old Chelsea Vanderlinde (pictured right), heard her parents' and teachers' directions. She tried. But she had difficulty paying attention and getting organized.

"My mom and dad were yelling at me a lot because I couldn't really focus," Chelsea says. "I couldn't focus and it made me feel bad."

Drs. Terri and Jan Vanderlinde of Portsmouth, NH knew something was amiss when Chelsea entered first grade. They had transferred her from a public to a private school with a smaller student-to-teacher ratio, yet she still had difficulties follwing directions and learning to write. By third grade, her "20-minute homework assignments" took upward of three hours. After a series of tests, Chelsea's diagnosis was inattentive Attention Deficit Disorder.

"The ADD pervades everything," Terri Vanderlinde syas. "Her mind is not organized at all."

ADD is often identified by a list of symptoms including distractibility, inability to focus, impulsive actions and hyperactive behavior. Violence can be associated as well as depression due to feelings of isolation and low self-esteem.

When ADD is suspected, behavioral checklists and/or clinical rating scales are completed by family members, teachers, special education team members - anyone who spends a lenght of time with the individual. The checklists are scored along clinical interviews and anecdotal records to determine a diagnosis. From there, what to be done diverges into a maze of traditional and alternative methodologies.

Traditional approaches, working on the believe that ADD impairs daily life functions such as learning and socializing, incorporate treatment plans that often include behavior-modification medications. However, there's been a 700 percent increase in the number of children labeled and medicated since 1998, according to "Running on Ritalin," by Lawrence H. Diller, M.D. Lawmakers in Montpelier, VT., recently introduced a bill that could reduce the state's high use of Ritalin. The bill would stipulate that schools may not require students to take Ritalin or a similar behavior-modification drug as a condition of attending school.

Chelsea tried Ritalin buy says it didn't help her focus because it made her "really sleepy at the end of the day."

"Medication is good for the teacher, but it limits the ability of that child to absorb information," says Davis Roberts, a York Middle School seventh- and eighth - grade special education teacher. "Sure it slows the child down, yes, he is more manageable, but the child can't absorb the information."

While parents give their children Ritalin in hopes they will concentrate in school and do better, most "scientific studies conclude that while it may improve classroom behaviors, Ritalin does not have long-term positive effects on either learning or academic achievement." according to the Merrow Report.

Futhermore, side effects range from insomnia to loss of appetite and nervousness. And many adults who took Ritalin as children say they were stoned for most of their childhoods and had no idea what they were supposed to learn.

The Vanderlindes were stumped. Medications didn't work. Nor did checklists, incentives, even looking Chelsea directly in the eye and having her repeat directions verbatim. They saw a number of doctors, tried homeopathic remedies, read books, articles and attended meetings to figure out how to handle it.

"Nothing clicked," Terri says, until they met Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, a teacher, author, Synergetic Catalyst who says ADD/ADHD is an evolutionary gift that should be accepted and nutured.

In his book, "Managing the Gift: Alternative Approaches for Attention Deficit Disorder," Dr. Kevin writes that people with ADD/ADHD think "outside the box" processing information from multiple sources simultaneously. He says ADD/ADHD is an expansion of intelligence.

"We should have called it CIS, Cultural Inconvenience Syndrome," Dr. Kevin says, stressing that education and parenting a person with ADD/ADHD demands more time, manpower and patience. "These children are a gift to our future and we're destroying it because we don't want to be bothered.

"The person with ADD/ADHD does not have a disability," he adds. "He has a 'diff-ability.' He learns and processes differently. But the system is less able to deal with differences."

While Dr. Kevin is not "completely anti-medication," he says it should be the last choice, not the first. He acknowledges that ADD/ADHD and its interventions are not black and white, not one size fits all. Dr. Kevin's treatment plans often include behavioral modifications, changes in habits and patterns, dietary changes, herbs and nutritional supplements. He works on four levels with his clients: physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual, identifying the individual's processing style and sharing what he has learned...

"It sounds really out there," Terry Vanderlinde says, "but he's so in tune, so professional. He doesn't mince words. He's right there and he's on the mark."

Dr. Kevin began his career as a corporate trainer, trouble-shooter and manager, but grew dissatisfied. He left his position as a sales training manager for American Express in 1992...

"People wanted something more grounded in spirituality but that was also practical to help on a daily basis to develop skills to live a more empowered life," Dr. Kevin says, adding that "Managing the Gift" is his fourth book.

"Energy work is a component of the process of empowering people to heal themselves."

Dr. Kevin sees what needs to be done and guides his clients to self-exploration through homework assignments and discussion Much of what he does is work to bring the ADD/ADHD person into his or her body through the energy and breath work. He teaches clients to connect with, understand and appreciate themselves.

He also coaches parents to set the tone and help shape the child's experience with ADD/ADHD by reinforcing the belief that the child learns differently, not to a lesser degree. He helps parents to create organized and structured environments and to teach their children how to be organized and structured.

Parents are also taught how to listen to their child's needs. Emphasis is placed on nuturing the child's self-esteem, on celebrating and supporting the child's skills and differences.

Clients must be active participants in their own healing process, as well. For many, it is a relief having someone say, "It must hurt to be in that head of yours sometime with all that information coming at once."

"It's actually working," Chelsea says, after working with Dr. Kevin for four months. "The advice he's giving me is actually working."

Her treatment protocol includes meditation, visualization and grounding techniques. Chelsea employs organizational methodologies, homework strategies, and takes daily "emotional coffee breaks." An emotional coffee break involves a mental review of all past interactions since the last time out, noting where an emtion was created. The ADD/ADHD person learns to acknowledge the feelings, whether it's an "I feel hurt," or "I feel angry," and to honor them.

Next the emotions are processed in a journal as a way to determine what action is needed for a healthy resolution.

"I feel like I fit in, like I'm just part of the group," Chelsea says. "I can do stuff other people can do. I don't feel like I'm not smart because I have ADD. I have the ability. I am capable of doing it if I put my mind to it."

~Nancy Eichhorn Portsmouth Herald (N.H.)

MANAGING THE GIFT: Alternative Approaches for Attention Deficit Disorder

Dr. Kevin begins by taking the position that Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a problematic label designating "the increased visibility of certain aspects of our evolution as a species." Adding that this condition if often confused with our disorders, the author admits that those with ADD are often difficult for others to understand; the generalized expectations about how people should act and think don't fit them very well. The author explains that ADD's evolutionary nature "stems from our ability to grow and change as a species." Not surprisingly, Dr. Kevin takes exception to many of the recommendations of the chief organization designed to help Children and Adults with Attention Defecit Disorder (CHADD), primarily because of what he considers misleading information and advice concerning Ritalin and other psychoactive medications. From his extensive work as a coach and counselor for children and adults diagnosed with this "disorder," Dr. Kevin has developed a useful framework for understanding and working with the different learning styles, behavioral dynamics, and unique abilities that characterize such people. Although it considers the impact of a range of treatment approaches, teh book's greatest value lies in its attitude towards ADD as a physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual gift.

~AB NAPRA ReView

Managing the Gift is a book that may switch your perspective and alter your preconceptions on what is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Dr. Kevin claims that what is commonly known as ADD or the closely related ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) is not a disorder at all, but the next step in our evolution as a species. His work with ADD impacted children and adults led him to beleive that these individuals are using more of their brain capacity than the average person.

According to Dr. Kevin, there were 7 million American children taking amphetamines as a prescription medicine in 1999, the most common of which is Ritalin. Medication is encouraged by the medical profession and by the education system as the preferred mode of treatment for this "condition" commonly believed to be caused by improper brain biochemistry. These drugs do not "cure" anything, they merely suppress some of the symptoms that are common to those diagnosed with the "disorder." In addition, they have many undesirable side effects.

~Tys Dammeyer (AKA Outboundlight) Planet Light Worker

Parents of a child diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder often feel that the system is letting them down. They try everything from drugs to behavior modification to drastic nutritional changes and still find the child has difficulty fitting in with society.

Author Dr. Kevin Ross Emery has a unique way of approaching what he calls Attention Deficit Impacted people.

In his book "Managing the Gift: Alternative Approaches to Attention Deficit Disorder" Dr. Kevin explains his belief that people with A.D.D. are actually gifted humans who are blessed with what he calls "an evolutionary step for the human species."

He writes, "many of the problems created around A.D.D. are not about A.D.D. at all." Dr. Kevin is of the opinion that a great number of the problems people with A.D.D. experience are the result of problems with our culture or society, in other words, those not affected by A.D.D.

While this is far from a mainstream view concerning A.D.D., Dr. Kevin has counseled numerous people with A.D.D. and has a loyal following of both children and adults who finally feel it's OK to be who they are even if others don't understand them.

Some of the premises promoted in "Managing the Gift:"

• A.D.D. is a gift
• It is part of the evolutionary process of the human species
• The A.D.D. label is overused and often there are other conditions going on within the person or within the person's life that exacerbate that person's situation
• A.D.D. affects all four human levels - physical, emotional, mental and spiritual
• It affects all four of the levels differently and must be addressed at different levels
• There are many other factors "layered" on top of A.D.D. These factors are best addressed first to help see and manage the actual A.D.D. component
• A.D.D., most of the time, needs to be MANAGED not DRUGGED

~Our Times

If Dr. Kevin Ross Emery could impart just one message to people when he visits Borders Books Music and Cafe in Concord this afternoon it would be: "Lighten up! God invented humor."

Dr. Kevin will explore some of the principles he presents in his book Combing the Mirror and Other Steps in Your Spiritual Path, a humorous take on exploring spirituality.

The book's title came from an exercise Dr. Kevin gave a man he was counseling.

"He was somebody who was really struggling with running a business with his sister. 'If she would only just do this then we would be successful,' he would tell me," Dr. Kevin said. "I explained to him that he could only change himself. She may go away or change in reaction to him, but he didn't make her change."

Dr. Kevin told the man to go into the bathroom and mess up his hair. Then the man was instructed to pull out his comb and comb the mirror until his hair was fixed, Dr. Kevin said. "I told him to comb the mirror until he realized that no matter how much he combed he would never fix his hair."

"The man started to laugh," Dr. Kevin recalled. "Laughing is so important in the healing process especially when you are dealing with intense painful issues."

Dr. Kevin has an international practice.

He has been a full-time motivational speaker, coach and counselor, for seven years. Before that he spent 12 years in the business world doing troubleshooting and training, but he found that life unfulfilling.

"God is in everything. There is as much God in Buddha as there is in Allah as there is in the Great Spirit of the Native Americans." Dr. Kevin said.

"I help people mine the gold in their past as well as stay in the present and manifest the future they want," he said.

Dr. Kevin assigns homework to his clients, including assignments from his books. There are so many things that people must do themselves to attain spiritual development, he said.

"At my lecture I hope people get a taste of what I am an what the book is about," he said of today's visit to Borders. "I also hope people will take something away from the lecture that they can work with.

When approached by Dr. Kevin's publisher, LightLines Publishing, Borders was intrigued, said Jennifer Lammer, the store's community relations coordinator. "Books on religion and metaphysics, as well as self-help books, sell very well here. They seem to be the kind of thing people in the area want," she said.

Lammer also remembered hearing the name of the book when people came in to special order the volume before the store carried it. "I knew there would be a lot of interest in the community (for the lecture)," she said.

~Ed Hurley Concord Monitor