Conscious Choice: Mapping Your Life

July 2001

Mapping Your Life

Deborah Van De Putte Brings Healing Arts to High School

by Jonn Salovaara

Not long ago, national attention focused somewhat feverishly on the phenomenon of adolescent alienation; it was one of many issues raised by the shootings at Columbine High School. Other tragedies and issues have since crowded onto the media stage alongside the problems of American high school life. Nevertheless, teenage angst and confusion continue.

As a substitute high school teacher in the Chicago area, Deborah Van De Putte saw many adolescents "carrying a lot of anger and hatred and self-esteem issues." Rather than merely shrugging off adolescence as an irredeemable time of life for such students, she wondered, "How can I assist them in addressing these issues?"

In addition to being a substitute teacher, Van De Putte is a healing arts practitioner who uses feng shui and energy field reeducation tools. Before building her practice, she was for ten years a paralegal and administrator in law firms. Even then, Van De Putte was involved in human resource issues, helping to redirect people who felt frustrated by their current jobs. Making a break for her own different sort of career in 1991, she began studying yoga instruction at the Himalayan Institute in Evanston. She qualified as a yoga instructor in 1994 and continues to offer instruction in yoga today.

At the Himalayan Institute, Van De Putte met Dr. Jerry Gore, now of the Center for Holistic Medicine, and he became a mentor, especially in the area of self-expression. "When I started exploring the healing arts I felt a need to be more creative. I picked up water colors and started to paint. I have a love for color and texture." Van De Putte continues to paint and plans on future work with textiles as well.

At the same time, Van De Putte completed a B.A. in applied behavioral science at National Louis University. In 1995 she began to study with Circles of Life, which she describes as "a group of people working toward living the truth of why they came here, being truly conscious." She learned to step out of her comfort zone and work from the heart. Circles of Life facilitated her learning about sacred geometry, muscle testing, and kinesiology, which she uses in her own healing arts practice.

Given her background in education, communication, behavior science, and spiritual development, Van De Putte found she had become an ideal resource for high school students interested in careers in the healing arts. She began a handbook that included information about the work of therapists in art, music, dance, and massage, and instructors of yoga and creative writing. For each career, Van De Putte conducted Internet research and personal interviews to provide an explanation of what the practitioner does, solid information about education and training to become a practitioner, and information about likely work settings. And she encouraged kids to find, with the assistance of counselors, practitioners they could observe and/or interview, then journal about.

Van De Putte, who says she has an affinity for so-called behavior disorder or BD kids, admires the creativity she saw in many of these students. "Their [behavior] issues need to be channeled into more productive expressions of self," she concedes. "These kids are pressing a lot of buttons for educators." She also notes that many educators are still afraid of using the arts, because, as she puts it, "It’s not structured." But, she insists, "we need to guide students and nurture them for right livelihood. We need to assist them in getting grounded."

Van De Putte spent seven months turning her idea into reality. The resulting handbook, entitled Mapping Your Life: An Introduction to Careers in the Healing Arts, offers a simple page-long introduction to each of six professions: yoga instructor, creative writing instructor, music therapist, art therapist, dance therapist, and massage therapist. Produced in a sort of workbook format, Mapping Your Life is laced with quotations from practitioners and includes numerous blank pages for students to fill with journal notes. It also includes a list of addresses and Web sites for further information. Some of Van De Putte’s own artwork adorns the book.

Even a cursory examination of Web sites devoted to healing arts, professional associations, and educational institutions reveals how necessary this book is — not only because it introduces students to alternative careers, but also because several of the careers covered by Van De Putte offer master’s degree-level study opportunities, sometimes with recommended undergraduate prerequisites. Some offer doctoral possibilities. Those who hope to create a successful lifetime career would be wise to start early.

When Van De Putte was ready to publish her handbook, she ran into a few brick walls. So she turned to a self-publishing manual and brought the book out herself. (As a result, a few minor proofreading errors did creep into the book, but they do little to weaken the integrity of Van De Putte’s product.) For anyone who went to high school when auto shop and cosmetology were the principal career offerings, there’s an irresistible joy in perusing the handbook and sharing Van De Putte’s vision of bringing better awareness of healing arts careers to young people.

In pursuit of that joy, Van De Putte is hard at work getting her handbook into the hands of adolescents. Already, a number of schools and organizations are considering the book for inclusion in their career-related courses. Among them are Los Cruces High School in Los Cruces, New Mexico, and Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Illinois.

At Deerfield, I spoke to Mary Jo Lynch, who is charged with making an initial effort to update and expand the career education offerings at the school. Though she declined to leak her choices in career books for next fall, Lynch did say she has found no other books with Van De Putte’s particular focus.

Rich Rutchman, the Coordinator of Program Development at the Chicago Teacher Center, a division of Northeastern Illinois University, says "I think it’s a great book." His center has provided the book to four charter schools in various parts of Chicago. Each of them will use it in "thematic learning expeditions," where students get in groups and explore ideas and options.

Van De Putte also offered her handbook to officials of the Chicago Public School system (CPS), who responded with a polite no-thank-you. When I asked Jose Velasquez at the CPS Education to Careers office about this, he responded that when he received the book, he realized that it was "holistic." He said that the Chicago Public Schools do have a medical careers program, then added, "We’re having trouble with the basic sciences," implying that holistic studies were still in the future.

Van De Putte presses on. When a group called Artists for Teens decided to use a different program, Van De Putte nonetheless donated twenty copies of the book for their use. She also is ready to supply schools and groups with six different practitioners, each working in one of the book’s careers, to visit schools and groups and participate in a school or group-determined program of instruction. She is offering options suited for a one-day program, a two-day program, or a six-week, once-a-week program.

Perhaps because she is working along so many avenues, Van De Putte is quite optimistic about getting this information to students. "I think it’ll happen," she comments. "It’s just going to take a while to evolve." Herself an apt example of someone working from the heart, Van De Putte already is contemplating further books through which additional careers may enter the hopes and dreams — and the future — of high school kids.

Mapping Your Life: An Introduction to Careers in the Healing Arts by Deborah Van De Putte. Mundelein, IL: Gold Leaf Publication and Productions, 2000. $18.95.

Contact Van De Putte at Gold Leaf Publishing, 847-566-2462, Goldleafpro@cs.com.

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