Dr. Roger Mills & Dean Rees-Evans in 2004
Dean Rees-Evans MSc has worked with The Three Principles since 2004, after studying and working with the late Dr Roger Mills of the Center for Sustainable Change (www.centerforsustainablechange.org).
A good proportion of Dean’s work has been with schools for both staff and pupils, and in 2011 Dean completed a research programme which shows the potential of the Three Principles in a school environment. Using the Friedman Well-being Scale as a measure, the study shows a statistically significant increase in overall psychological well-being of 17%, and increase in happiness of 28%.
Dean’s work with teenagers at secondary level has involved both students at the top end of the academic spectrum and those less advantaged in terms of ability, concentration and behaviour. Dean has also worked with the Juvenile Justice System for the Home Office, giving guidance and reassurance to the young people about their ability to rehabilitate and have a better life.
Since moving to Australia in late 2012, Dean has been working with individual clients from around the world, conducting professional training and has co-founded an Australian collective of Three Principles Facilitators, to raise the flag of psychological well-being for all.
The Story of My First Encounter with the Three Principles
My story begins with a frantic phone call late on a Friday afternoon – I had to decide whether I took a train into London to enjoy an evening meal with friends and Dr. Roger Mills and ask him all my burning questions – or let the good man have an evening off and venture in the following day with a fresh mind and a rested body.
It was a simple decision – compassion came first, I would put aside my needs and attend the final two days of the four day training with Dr. Mills. The one caveat he insisted upon was that I arrive early so that I could be brought up to speed on the two days that I had missed.
After that the weekend becomes a blissful blur of euphoria. I remember waking up on the Sunday morning and noticing just how quiet my mood was – this was going to be another great day.
Halfway through the morning it suddenly hit me square between the eyes – this was it, and I said: “This is the solution the world has been waiting for!” His reply, no less amazing to me was: “This is the only solution to the world’s problems.”
As the training came to a conclusion I was left with a tangible sense of what Syd Banks terms ‘super ordinariness’. I felt that I had fallen back into being me again, I didn’t have to be anybody, just me, and that was the most amazing feeling ever.
On the Monday morning after eating breakfast in a blissful new silence – I stood washing a few things in the sink, with nothing in particular on my mind when it happened, arising up in me like the joy of a thousand lifetimes all concentrated into one tiny spot of time – and I laughed, in fact I laughed so hard that I had to hold on to the sink to hold myself upright and from not falling onto the kitchen floor. What some call cosmic humour – out of the blue, no particular reason and totally spontaneous. I laughed so much my belly hurt and I had tears streaming down my face – it was a moment like no other I could ever remember, one that was so centred and focused on the immediate now, the present that all other moments seemed to converge into this one central, inescapable, inexplicable explosion of living reality.
I somehow managed to dial the telephone number of the woman that had organised the weekend training but still couldn’t stop laughing – the conversation was short but as sweet as could be, and still the laughing continued. In fact that state of euphoria and bliss and rapture continued to be a central part of my life, influencing every area of my life for months to come. I literally floated on a cloud and looked at life from this new perspective and vantage point – and how different the world now looked.
Later that same Monday morning while at school I realised that my life had completely shifted into a new mode of operation – the children were beginning to respond to me in a totally new way – the connection was deeper, more natural, less forced. It was a unique and refreshing experience that has remained a constant yet ever changing part of my everyday life. In fact it has been such a truly magical journey that I cannot find the words to fully express just how powerfully I have been affected, but I am deeply grateful for the life I live and enjoy.