GUIDE DOG USERS, INC. EMPATHIZERS PROGRAM

Telephone: Toll Free in North America
1-888-858-2227

No one understands the special bond blind people share with their guide dogs quite like someone who has lived and worked with one of those dogs. Recognizing that people often just need an empathetic ear, Guide Dog Users, Inc. offers people to listen. The Empathizers Program consists of people from around the United States who are willing to talk and listen to anyone facing illness, retirement or death of a guide dog and the struggles forming a new bond can bring.

The GDUI Empathizers also provide a valuable service during our national convention. In 2002 our Empathizers served the needs of many convention attendees who were feeling stressed, grieving the loss or retirement of a dog and/or simply wanting some experienced ears to help deal with a busy convention schedule.

Kris shares her story below as an example of what our Empathizers can do.

“I wanted to talk a bit about my very first experience at any kind of convention and my first experience with GDUI.
"It was the ACB convention in Louisville. I had never been to a convention and throughout my life I have had much conflict with other blind persons for various reasons. Because of this, I was very nervous and afraid of trying to reach out to a community that had shunned me so often in the past.
"I also had Maggie at that time and she was a dog with a few very serious problems. I knew she would not be a threat to anyone or any other dog as these problems were between her and I and were not issues related to socialization nor work. I was struggling with my relationship with her and my fear of being potentially rejected on a massive scale by so many blind people all at once.
"I worked very hard to overcome my own fears and seeming inability to reach out and converse with folks and as I relaxed and felt able to be myself, amazing things happened. I discovered that I was different and that I no longer had to be afraid of negativity because it wasn't necessarily going to be there just because it had been in the past. People were warm and wanted to meet and chat and share and I started to enjoy the experience more than I can say. I grew a great deal in that week.
"That week was also one of the hardest as I gave Maggie back to the guide dog school on the Tuesday of the convention. It was so painful and so awful and I was feeling like such a failure. I found absolutely incredible warmth and support and understanding from the people in the GDUI suite. I was welcomed and people reached out to me, cried with me and understood what I had done and how hard it was. There were not judgments nor recriminations.
"It was one of the most wonderful albeit tragically sad times of my life especially in relating with blind folks which I had been craving to do for so long. I saw some of the best dog handling I know I will ever see from some of these same people and was able to learn from their tips and tricks. The impact that the convention had on me in and of itself was amazing, but the most overwhelming interactions for me happened within the GDUI suite.
"It's not a plug because I had never even participated in anything GDUI before nor have I since due to the complications of life. It was a truly awesome experience for me, however, and though I'm sure each convention is different. I feel very lucky to have been in Louisville in July of 2,000 and am a much enriched person for having done it."

Kris

A tape featuring introductions and contact information for all of our Empathizers is available from the GDUI National Office. Just give us a call!

Want to be an Empathizer? Contact Lisa Salinger for more details.

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1-888-858-1008

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