FRUITS OF THE MARAZION QUAKER LIBRARY (20) - RICHARD LANNOWE HALL (2021) 'SAILADAY OK - RECOVERY FROM ADDICTIONS THROUGH MARINE-BASED ADVENTURE PSYCHOTHERAPY'

 Richard Hall is a member of the Marazion Quaker Meeting and he recently gifted our library a copy of his inspiring account of a remarkable new venture in psychotherapeutic practice which he pioneered so successfully he was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM). Over a period of a decade and more, Richard employed his skills as a sailor and psychotherapist to help small groups of recovering addicts to develop their own self-esteem and resilience through learning how to sail, aboard his boat and under his supervision in a programmed period of several days. For Richard, the essence of being at sea was that everyone on board was immersed in being in nature, in the natural world - and therefore within its healing power. His book is a cry from the heart - so many forces are at work in the modern world that alienate us from nature, from what makes us whole. Here, at sea, wounded souls could mend and recover.

Richard Hall's account of his own life and recovery from addictions - and his development of marine-based adventure psychotherapy.

The success of Richard's approach is vividly represented in the pages of the book which relate scores of feedback responses from participants who experienced these days and nights at sea. As Sue Parker Hall, his partner at the time, says in the Foreword: 

'What Richard doesn't mention are the occasions that he would receive... some time later...  a postcard or an email thanking him again for all his help and telling him that their experience with him had literally saved their life.'   

Richard explains his insight and practice here:

'The essence of adventure therapy... is making this connection with nature and tuning in and adapting to what we have been given and making this work for us, to help in our growth. This is not something you

can learn from a textbook; this is about experiential education... As Jung said, "It is likely that one cannot understand a thing until we have experienced it inwardly".

'This process is so counter to our cultural and Western way of thinking about nature... which we take and abuse for our own gratification. The more isolated that humans become from the natural world, the more difficult it becomes for them to understand the struggle with which we are now engaged. Anxiety, frustration and a sense of being overwhelmed follow. Paul Wachtel wrote: "The idea of more, of ever-increasing wealth, has become the centre of our identity, and our security, and we are caught by it as the addict is caught by his drugs".'

Three of the participants aboard Richard's boat: Physis 

  

Earlier in his life, Richard had become the victim caught by his addictions. Born in 1951, he had learned to sail whilst on holiday with his parents in Cornwall - probably the greatest gift his father ever gave him. His mother taught him about art. His background was upper-middle-class and cultured; Richard was in rebellion from an early age. Beaten and abused at boarding schools, he was expelled in 1968 at the age of 17. A love of being outdoors and sport, and art - painting and creating things - had helped get him through these difficult years. Competitive and driven, his own shame was a constant background concern. 

He became an art student at Guildford and joined the student rebellion in Paris in the summer of 1968. Mum and Dad cut off any further financial help when the Times published the photo of Richard putting a brick through the window of the Department of Education and Science when Thatcher was Minister of Education. Richard turned to selling drugs to make ends meet and learned to live outside the law. At the same time, he completed his art education with a Master's at the Royal Academy. He knew he was a good artist but felt he was never going to be a great one. Richard by his own account needed success and recognition; he turned to the tribal rug market; Lannowe Oriental Textiles became the best-known and the most well-respected privately-run restoration outfit worldwide. By the mid-seventies, Richard was married and had a business partner with whom he traded in Little Venice in London - whilst still dealing and using drugs. When the IRA realized he was dealing in cocaine and not just hash, it was time to leave London, hence the move to the west country and a place outside Bath. Cocaine became a big part of Richard's life along with spirits. Over the next twenty years he became the father of three children and an employer of 15-20 men and women, the workforce of the restoration and conservation business. Richard in his words was addicted to work, success, drugs, sex, and debt - 'all in all I was pretty messed up.'

Richard Lannowe Hall in 1980 - a successful artist and businessman - and an addict.

By the age of 40 (1991), Richard had suffered his first close-encounter with death after overdosing. Four years later after many traumas, he gave up drugs; by 2000 he had been abstinent for five years and was a qualified skipper and psychotherapist. Now, around fifty years of age, Richard could turn his life around by helping those who were making their own journeys of recovery from addictions. Around 2004, Sailaday OK was launched. By 2011, Richard was skippering the first group of 'returnees', crew who had already completed their first trip on his boat some years before on a Sailaday OK venture. By 2016, Richard had received his BEM award. What a transformation! 

Richard aboard his boat on a Sailaday OK venture.

However, there were still troubled waters ahead. It took another two years of gnawing at the bone of discontent before Richard realized that he had been too ego-driven and the whole enterprise was too dependent upon him personally. In Richard's words, 'I came to understand that the gift I have to give is not an attempt to save the world, as that undertaking would be merely ego based - leading to frustration and pain... What I could offer - my true self - is the best I can do, giving love as my service... I needed to trim the sails in order to return to my true nature and make this emotional bond with nature... I believe all humanity's consciousness yearn too for this connection.'    

The time had come to let go of this particular version of adventure therapy - but it was not a good or easy ending, facing as he did charity organizations who had their own financial constraints and failed to appreciate or understand the pioneering nature of Richard's work . His journey would continue along other paths. Yet Richard had done so much good for so many people as the pages of this book reveal. It is truly an inspirational read.