“Bill Say has been working with my daughter...She is in a semi-coma state but has shown signs of improvement and awareness. Bill has certainly been a factor in her improvement. He has a special bond with Diane and she has developed a trust in him. Bill is able to read Diane’s emotions and is able to encourage her to follow them. While working with Diane she looks him directly in the eye and seems to listen to his every word. Her response to him is very positive. Both her sisters and I agree that Bill has been a great asset in our quest to bring her back to consciousness...”

—Barbara Mims, Diane’s mother

Coma and Vegetative Work

The relationships between loved ones and an individual in a coma or vegetative state are vital in terms of support, connection, and communication. My work aims to increase the connection and communication possible between all involved. People who have the best recovery often have strong family or other loving support.

My work with people in comatose and vegetative states and their family, friends, and other loved ones is based on the pioneering work of Arnold and Amy Mindell. This work is respectful, noninvasive, and process oriented.

The process involves three main parts. The first part of the work involves making some level of connection with the person. This connection happens verbally, through respectful touch, and the development of a feedback loop consisting of various responses to the signals generated by the individual (examples of signals that can be meaningfully responded to are: breathing, heart rate, motions of body and eyes, sounds, and skin coloration). People who have emerged from comatose states have often talked about either the sense of loneliness they experienced or the support they felt when connection was attempted and maintained.

The second part consists of communication. Communication with people in comatose and/or vegetative states isn’t necessarily verbal, yet like all communications, can be deepened and clarified. Often, what begins as a seemingly innocuous process of communication can transform into a much more involved and elaborate process, at times resembling the type of communication we often take for granted.

The first and second part of this work combine to enhance and feed each other. While I don’t offer promises of one outcome or another, clients almost universally enjoy benefits from greater connection and communication.

The third part of this work deals with the processes that the person is involved with. Not infrequently, people in such altered states are in processes beyond the obvious ones of being apparently unconscious and uncommunicative. These processes can involve yearning for peace, feeling the need for love, and wanting to gain control or power, to name some central themes. These important processes need support. It is analogous to being on a vacation where some people respect this time while others try to impose some other agenda. People in comatose states have later observed that the processes they were involved in had very little to do with what seemed to be happening on the surface of things.

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