Alert:
The Listen to a Veteran Project (formerly known as the Welcome Johnny and Jane Home Project) is not and will never in any way be associated with Scientology or its "Citizens Commission on Human Rights." Any attempt on the part of anyone associated with or speaking for any of these entities who claims that Dr. Caplan or the LTAV Project is connected with them is wrong and making an unauthorized and unwarranted claim.
The Listen to a Veteran Project (formerly known as the Welcome Johnny and Jane Home Project) is not and will never in any way be associated with Scientology or its "Citizens Commission on Human Rights." Any attempt on the part of anyone associated with or speaking for any of these entities who claims that Dr. Caplan or the LTAV Project is connected with them is wrong and making an unauthorized and unwarranted claim.
When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans is now available as an audiobook at www.scribl.com/books/EAXY2/when-johnny-and-jane-come-marching-home for the new audiobook -- same link for the e-book version -- ...and notice that FOR NOW, the audiobook is free for the first people who place orders! That is the policy of the company that handles it. The book won three top national awards for nonfiction.
Comments and endorsements from veterans and nonveterans and lots of information about it are at whenjohnnyandjanecomemarching.weebly.com The book gave rise to the nonprofit Listen to a Veteran Project listentoaveteran.org.
The book can be ordered at any of the following:
https://www.amazon.com/When-Johnny-Jane-Come-Marching-eb…/…/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-johnny-an…/1100660449…
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-tpyDwAAQBAJ
https://www.kobo.com/…/when-johnny-and-jane-come-marching-h…
Comments and endorsements from veterans and nonveterans and lots of information about it are at whenjohnnyandjanecomemarching.weebly.com The book gave rise to the nonprofit Listen to a Veteran Project listentoaveteran.org.
The book can be ordered at any of the following:
https://www.amazon.com/When-Johnny-Jane-Come-Marching-eb…/…/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-johnny-an…/1100660449…
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-tpyDwAAQBAJ
https://www.kobo.com/…/when-johnny-and-jane-come-marching-h…
For information about rave-reviewed film based on the book, please go to isanybodylisteningmovie.org
Now Streaming on the IndiePix Unlimited Prime Video Channel: https://amzn.to/34tFo94
Now available on DVD: https://amzn.to/38yMlIo
Now Streaming on the IndiePix Unlimited Prime Video Channel: https://amzn.to/34tFo94
Now available on DVD: https://amzn.to/38yMlIo
This is the poster for the April 19, 2018, Harvard Kennedy School event organized with phenomenal compassion, thoughtfulness, and planning by Lt Col Athanasia Austin, who opened the event with an exquisite and unique talk of her own, then had me (Paula J. Caplan of Listen to a Veteran! listentoaveteran.org) speak, followed by the courageous, open, moving talks by five service members and veterans, with the closing talk by HKS National Security Fellows head Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Bill Rapp. A unique aspect of the talks by Col. Austin and the service members and veterans was that they followed the storytelling fashion created by the brilliant Marshall Ganz, and another was the exquisite care Col. Austin took to ensure that all six talks were about service to others (both military service and other kinds of service) and about finding commonalities and community between veterans and nonveterans, something that is at the very core of our Listen To a Veteran! Project (formerly known as Welcome Johnny and Jane Home).
Vikings Punter and Army Veteran Praise Their WJJH Listening Session
Minnesota Vikings Welcome Johnny and Jane Home
November 23, 2016
The Minnesota Vikings further implemented their longstanding, major commitment to helping veterans last Friday, when Vikings punter Jeff Locke and Army Ranger veteran Hector Matascastillo teamed up as part of Welcome Johnny and Jane Home (WJJH), which pairs a nonveteran with a veteran from any era in a private session in which the nonveteran simply listens respectfully to whatever the veteran wants to say.
The purposes of the WJJH unrecorded sessions are twofold: To reduce the isolation from their communities in which so many veterans live and to increase the nonveteran’s knowledge about veterans’ experiences in the military and making the often difficult transition back to civilian life. Harvard Kennedy School research has shown the sessions, which require no training but simply the instruction to the nonveteran to listen with 100% of their attention and their whole heart, to be helpful in a wide variety of ways to the veteran and transformative, often lifechanging, for the nonveteran listener.
Matascastillo, a social worker who has won a prestigious award from the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma for having been traumatized during his war experiences but then dedicating himself to helping other traumatized veterans, praised Locke’s focused, respectful listening and said the one hour of their session was worth ten hours of psychotherapy. This is in keeping with WJJH’s principle that suffering caused by experiences in the military should be recognized, and the sufferers offered support and listening, but that their feelings are deeply human reactions, not mental illnesses that should lead to high-risk treatments.
Matascastillo said he was thrilled that on Sunday, he had the opportunity to attend a Vikings game. He, his wife Trista – who is also a veteran – and their 14-year-old son cheered for the Vikings and especially Jeff Locke. Furthermore, Locke, who was raised in a military family, told Matascastillo that if other veterans would like to have listening sessions, he is prepared to do those, too.
The seed for Welcome Johnny and Jane Home was the awardwinning book, When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans, and there are a related film – “Is Anybody Listening?” – and a “Listen to a Veteran!” Public Service Announcement series, both of which have also won major awards.
Veterans who would like to have listening sessions and nonveterans wishing to be listeners, as well as anyone wanting further information about Welcome Johnny and Jane Home or the PSAs are invited to contact the project at listen2veterans.org. Information about the film is at www.isanybodylisteningmovie.org
November 23, 2016
The Minnesota Vikings further implemented their longstanding, major commitment to helping veterans last Friday, when Vikings punter Jeff Locke and Army Ranger veteran Hector Matascastillo teamed up as part of Welcome Johnny and Jane Home (WJJH), which pairs a nonveteran with a veteran from any era in a private session in which the nonveteran simply listens respectfully to whatever the veteran wants to say.
The purposes of the WJJH unrecorded sessions are twofold: To reduce the isolation from their communities in which so many veterans live and to increase the nonveteran’s knowledge about veterans’ experiences in the military and making the often difficult transition back to civilian life. Harvard Kennedy School research has shown the sessions, which require no training but simply the instruction to the nonveteran to listen with 100% of their attention and their whole heart, to be helpful in a wide variety of ways to the veteran and transformative, often lifechanging, for the nonveteran listener.
Matascastillo, a social worker who has won a prestigious award from the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma for having been traumatized during his war experiences but then dedicating himself to helping other traumatized veterans, praised Locke’s focused, respectful listening and said the one hour of their session was worth ten hours of psychotherapy. This is in keeping with WJJH’s principle that suffering caused by experiences in the military should be recognized, and the sufferers offered support and listening, but that their feelings are deeply human reactions, not mental illnesses that should lead to high-risk treatments.
Matascastillo said he was thrilled that on Sunday, he had the opportunity to attend a Vikings game. He, his wife Trista – who is also a veteran – and their 14-year-old son cheered for the Vikings and especially Jeff Locke. Furthermore, Locke, who was raised in a military family, told Matascastillo that if other veterans would like to have listening sessions, he is prepared to do those, too.
The seed for Welcome Johnny and Jane Home was the awardwinning book, When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans, and there are a related film – “Is Anybody Listening?” – and a “Listen to a Veteran!” Public Service Announcement series, both of which have also won major awards.
Veterans who would like to have listening sessions and nonveterans wishing to be listeners, as well as anyone wanting further information about Welcome Johnny and Jane Home or the PSAs are invited to contact the project at listen2veterans.org. Information about the film is at www.isanybodylisteningmovie.org
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"Listen to a Veteran!" Public Service Announcement series has won a Bronze Telly Award! Watch the PSAs at http://whenjohnnyandjanecomemarching.weebly.com/listen-to-a-veteran-psas.html
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Thanks to Congressman Raul Ruiz and his staff for the Capitol Hill screening on June 16, 2016, and to Senator/Senatrice Marilou McPhedran for the Parliament Hill screening of our awardwinning film"Is Anybody Listening?" isanybodylisteningmovie.org
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Thanks to the veterans and nonveterans who came to see the play SHADES in LA and offered moving responses! And thanks to National Veterans Foundation Director Shad Meshad for his great leadership of post-performance discussions!
Phenomenally reviewed here.
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Phenomenally reviewed here.
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About the Book
Traumatized veterans returning from our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are often diagnosed as suffering from a psychological disorder and prescribed a regimen of psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs. But why, asks psychologist Paula J. Caplan in this impassioned book, is it a mental illness to be devastated by war? What is a mentally healthy response to death, destruction, and moral horror? In When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home, Caplan argues that the standard treatment of therapy and drugs is often actually harmful. It adds to veterans' burdens by making them believe wrongly that they should have "gotten over it"; it isolates them behind the closed doors of the therapist's office; and it makes them rely on often harmful drugs. The numbers of traumatized veterans from past and present wars who continue to suffer demonstrate the ineffectiveness of this approach.
Sending anguished veterans off to talk to therapists, writes Caplan, conveys the message that the rest of us don't want to listen—or that we don't feel qualified to listen. As a result, the truth about war is kept under wraps. Most of us remain ignorant about what war is really like—and continue to allow our governments to go to war without much protest. Caplan proposes an alternative: that we welcome veterans back into our communities and listen to their stories, one-on-one. (She provides guidelines for conducting these conversations.) This would begin a long overdue national discussion about the realities of war, and it would start the healing process for our returning veterans.
The book, as well as another recommended title by Paula J. Caplan, is available for purchase through the link below.
Sending anguished veterans off to talk to therapists, writes Caplan, conveys the message that the rest of us don't want to listen—or that we don't feel qualified to listen. As a result, the truth about war is kept under wraps. Most of us remain ignorant about what war is really like—and continue to allow our governments to go to war without much protest. Caplan proposes an alternative: that we welcome veterans back into our communities and listen to their stories, one-on-one. (She provides guidelines for conducting these conversations.) This would begin a long overdue national discussion about the realities of war, and it would start the healing process for our returning veterans.
The book, as well as another recommended title by Paula J. Caplan, is available for purchase through the link below.
How can I help?
The Welcome the Johnny and Jane Home Coalition's mission is to depathologize war trauma (stop saying that those troubled by war are therefore mentally ill) and increase the use of nonpathologizing, low-risk ways to help veterans heal emotionally, morally, and spiritually. The full mission statement can be found here.
When Johnny and Jane Come Marching - Part 1: The Problem
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When Johnny and Jane Come Marching - Part 2: Some Solutions
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About the Author
Paula J. Caplan, a clinical and research psychologist, is an Associate at Harvard University’s Du Bois Institute and a past Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is the author of The Myth of Women’s Masochism, They Say You’re Crazy: How the World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal, and nine other books. Her articles, essays, and op-eds have appeared in both scholarly and popular publications. She blogs on this website and also at paulacaplan.net.
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What Reviewers Are Saying
"This is a work of profound and astonishing humanity. A distinguished champion of public health, Paula Caplan shows that emotional trauma is often the normal and healthy response of soldiers to the brutalities of warfare. So what we need is not a narrow redefinition of the soldier's experience as a medical 'syndrome' but rather an honest social healing process that treats the soldier with dignity and respect -- and as a harbinger of hope for all of society."
--Jamin Raskin, Professor of Law, American University, and Maryland State Senator "I am truly amazed by Caplan's grasp of not only the psyche of the combat veteran but of the human heart and soul as a whole. There is no prosthesis for the amputated spirit, but Caplan certainly comes close to discovering just that through her extraordinary insight. Brilliant!"
--Michelle Wilmot, Women's Outreach Coordinator for Vets4Vets “Finally we have an all-encompassing, meticulously-researched, brilliantly thought-out and marvelously-written book about the effects of war on humans—and how all of us can help our veterans heal. Dr. Caplan cuts through the smoke of the institutional lies to the true nature of the emotional injuries sustained by these poor souls and offers a detailed and sensible path to healing. This brave and astonishing book stands as the classic, and the standard, for understanding the atrocities of war.”
--Samuel Shem, author of The Spirit of the Place and The House of God “Paula Caplan’s book is powerfully informative and creates an image of the importance of listening to our war veterans and the stories they have to share. This book provides an opportunity for their message to support life-enhancing and healing experiences.”
--David Collier, licensed psychologist/team leader, Salem (OR) Vet Center See additional endorsements. |