Who is Dr James D McDonald

1. The Challenge of Nurse Rachet

In Dr. James McDonald's own words, "The car wash and cleaning sewers aside, my first job began at seventeen as an attendant at Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in Toronto. Cuckoos Nest and Nurse Rachet were everywhere. The job started on midnight shift with my head swirling with fear and uncertainty and my last exit was with sadness and confusion.

I left the hospital with the naive conviction that emotional and mental illness often appears as a matter of strategic convenience." One patient’s comments have stayed with me. Asked why he was sick, he said, “I am sick because I need to be right now.”

My work with people questions why sickness is still a viable strategy when so many healthy options are possible? As an educator, I am still asking that question thirty seven years later.

2. Getting Beyond the Numbers of Research

Following graduate school in psychology at York University I took a position of Research Associate with Prof. Robert House in the Management Studies Department at the University of Toronto. Hired for statistical understanding and an ability to construct models of leadership and learning, I began with arrogance and ended with remarks of ‘exemplary research designs’ but with a heart that was once again empty and somewhat deadened.

Today my personal style of working with people is based on the fervent belief that the depth of human consciousness, the well of wisdom, compassion and change will never be captured in a research paradigm or the growing list of disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. My energy is directed to know the real person behind the numbers and symptoms.

3. Tortises and Hares in the Corporate World

With passion on hold, I left academic pursuits to join the real world. First with Corporate Health Consultants and then with Northern Telecom, today Nortel, as Manager of Organization Design and Development and two years later as Director, Organization Effectiveness and Human Resources. I began with hope, thinking I had now joined the adult world, with real issues and normal, real people. I tried to convince myself of my sincere interests because I was getting paid significant money not to be disillusioned.

My heart grew heavy again when I realized that my pace and desire to bring about a change in human values was overzealous. I needed to learn hare and tortise lessons, but I never adapted.

4. The Art of Awakening

Today the work of Integral Courage is realizing that change happens one person at a time. The art of personal discovery and spiritual awakening is focused on what allows each person the courage to embrace change.

In 1986, after academics and corporate life, I finished a three-year training program at the Gestalt Institute of Toronto in Psychotherapy and Group Dynamics and proceeded into private practice. While the nature of my practice has changed over the years from leading a group of change consultants, to working with other professionals and now educating using the AIM and FIRE process, I have never looked back.

I later completed a Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy (1993) and have found strange and wonderous teachers from such places as the mountains of Tibet and Hopi Indian snake priests from Arizona. Their influences have been profound and undeniable with a teaching method far removed from books.

5. Finding Wonderous Teachers Everyday

Today, my most remarkable teachers are the people who walk through my door with the courage to choose the path of self development. Each person uniquely expresses how they have had enough of their fears, self-doubt and pain. The creation of the AIM and FIRE process came from years of listening to people and how they learn to express joy and fulfillment with a growing depth of meaning and purpose.

I have come full circle in experiencing leadership as service in the world. Thank you all. You have showered me with many blessings and teachings.

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