And I’m on a hunt for stories. Your stories. However this is not the story you know, it’s the one you don’t yet. This is the one you’re willing to go on an adventure to find. It’s a hero’s journey and I can say with great confidence I can help get you there. That doesn’t mean I know the exact way. I do know the signposts. We have great leaders who have come before us to illuminate the path and help guide us. Stephen King, Brene’ Brown, Viktor Frankl, Joseph Campbell and Chris Vogler just to name a few.

All of our stories are wrapped up in this program we call Day One. We use Cinema Therapy – which helps us look at the films we love differently. We recognize there's a reason we keep going back to the same films – like they're calling out to us. Like we have something to say in return. That's your story. And that's what I'm here to help you find.

As for “Sherpa Andy”, that title comes from a couple of places:

1. combination of my experience and deep desire to help. I won’t write the story for you, but I’ll help you through the rough patches to put it all together. Make no mistake about it: writing is work. Doing it together helps a lot. 

2. Andy is from Andy Dufresne, the lead character in the Shawshank Redemption. I learned from him (just like Tommy did – see me and Mr. Gil Bellows below).

The next question you may be wondering is why does it matter? From a Pakrinson’s disease (PD) perspective, it’s because nobody’s experienced exactly what you have the way you have. I’ll take it a step further to say that you probably don’t know your story as a story – you know it as a set of facts. That’s fine, but facts, alone, do not a story make. 

Stories have emotions, sensory experience, high stakes, peril, romance and action. Lots of action. Now you may be thinking – that’s fine for Hollywood, but how is that me? I’ll tell you it’s more you than you realize once you start walking the path with others. You’ll learn what’s common about your experiences and what’s unique. You’ll share your discoveries with a group of fellow travelers to understand how your experiences are both connected and independently vital. 

Stories change the world all the time. Stories help individuals, communities and organizations be understood and receive the support they need. Your PD stories can help us all learn how to research and treat the PD community better. 

This program is open to everyone. We all have stories, regardless of our affiliation to PD. Care partners, medical and wellness providers, family members – all of us can benefit from learning about our stories, and how to rewrite them.  

We can take sign ups for this session of the Shawshank Hero’s Journey until this Sunday, Sept. 8th. You can find out more and sign up by clicking here. 

If you're reading this after Sept. 8, 2024 – don't worry! The programs continue. You can see more about all of them by clicking here.

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

My best to you,

Robert Cochrane, PhD

(a.k.a. Sherpa Andy)

Originally Published on https://www.yesandexercise.org/

Robert Cochrane, PhD Yes, And...eXercise!

Dr. Robert Cochrane is a graduate of UNLV's Integrated Health Sciences department. He's researching the effect of improvisation and storytelling on Parkinson’s disease. He received grants from the Parkinson's Foundation and support from the Davis Phinney Foundation along the way. He is a popular, unique and high energy Keynote speaker, bringing joy, optimism and practical tools for people in the PD community to thrive today.

He has a background in filmmaking, with the Artisan Entertainment release, The Playaz Court, and two Stephen King-based short films among his credits. His father, Dan, was diagnosed with PD in 2001, which shifted Robert’s artistic lens to health. He made his first documentary, the award-winning Boys of Summer in 2004. There are two follow up films in the series with the fourth film coming in 2023.

He moved his family back to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up. He lives there with his beautiful wife, two teenagers who are, indeed, "all that" and is a proud care partner for his amazing parents.