Projects Under Consideration
Here are some projects I am currently considering. I would appreciate getting your reactions, suggestions, and leads, so please email me if you are so moved, or feel free to share these proposals with others.
Some of my project ideas never reach fruition, but some do (see my current and past work). You might be the catalyst that sets one of these projects into motion...
The People's Apothecary
Has the time come for a pharmaceutical company that embodies many of
the values of holistic healthcare? (more)
Red Sox Mahabharata
When we cross-fertilize two profoundly "eastern" and
"western" stories and performance forms, what strange and
wonderful hybrids can emerge? (more)
Boston's Holistic Past: A Walking
Tour
What can we learn from uncovering a neighborhood's forgotten healhcare
past? (more)
DRAWING BOARD: IDEAS FOR HEALING AND A MORE JUST AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
Welcome to my Drawing Board!
Below are project ideas that excite me and that I have considered developing. I have not yet taken the step of evaluating their viability, and perhaps some are already being implemented (or laughed at!) I list them here to give you as sense of the kind of work that excites me.
Please email me and tell me what you think about any of them:
Carbon Footprint Assessment of Holistic Healthcare Modalities: Collaborate with ecologists, healthcare analysts, and holistic healthcare leadership to determine the carbon "footprint" and environmental impact of a range of common holistic healthcare professions, as a way of forging links between these fields and shedding light on the suitability of holistic healthcare to a post-carbon society.
Herbalist Support to Medical Marijuana Patients: Establish a state-funded partnership between professional herbalists and health departments in states that permit medical marijuana use that would provide free herbalist consults to medical marijuana users in order to reduce unwanted side-effects from marijuana use and, if possible, to help users transition to more effective and less controversial herbal remedies.
Wellness Finder Smartphone Application: Work with smartphone programmers and health informatics specialists to create an open source, GPS-enabled smartphone app that would interface GoogleMaps with conventional and holistic online professional directories, state/municipal parks and rec resource listings, and yellow pages, so as to allow users to quickly locate caregivers, parks, pools, fitness clubs, places of worship, YMCAs, and wellness centers are in their vicinity.
A Guide to Welcoming the Blind to Shiatsu Schools: In acknowledgement that shiatsu therapy in part emerged from a form of massage traditionally practiced exclusively by the blind in Japan, build bridges between activists in the American blind community and American shiatsu schools in order to raise consciousness of the shiatsu profession's debt to the blind and to create a guide for shiatsu school personnel, written by blind activists, on how to recruit, welcome, and teach (and teacher train) visually impaired shiatsu students.
Battlefield Acupressure Training: In light of the growing acceptance of acupuncture in the US Army as a useful modality for battlefield medics, establish a learning partnership between servicemen, medics, acupuncturists, and acupressurists to develop a basic teaching protocol of useful acupressure points for immediate pain and stress relief on the battlefield, which (unlike acupuncture) could be practiced by all personnel and under conditions when needling is unadvisable.
Wii Virtual Keyboard Application to Reduce RSI: To help address the worldwide epidemic of repetitive strain injuries caused by long hours sitting at the keyboard, work with a team of programmers, ergonomists, and integrative caregivers to design and develop a new software application for the Ninendo Wii in which the user, donning special gloves, would "virtually type" on the computer screen, thus greatly reducing the need for keyboarding; instead, a series of computer-guided preliminary ergonomic exercises would help users find a physical position that would enable hours of comfortable virtual typing while producing minimal musculoskeletal strain (and ideally help condition their muscles and joints).
Computer-Assisted Feedback for Bodyworkers: Drawing on insights from the fields of neurofeedback, biofeedback, and Heartmath, build a knowledge network of programmers, designers, and bodyworkers to produce a simple and affordable electronic monitoring device to be worn by receivers of bodywork that could provide caregivers with real-time quantitative feedback on stress and pain reduction, so as to enable bodyworkers-in-training and the general public to give more effective massage/bodywork sessions.
2009 Karlo Berger. Some rights reserved. Website Design by Solid Uncoated.
Thanks to Hannah Burr, Kristin Granli, and Jim Kelly.