Support Dr. Forman's Healing Journey!

Hi everyone. My name is Lorilee Lucas (formerly Turrone).

This gofundme is for Dr. Jeffrey Forman. I recently learned that he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypereosinophilic Syndrome with Multiple Organ Involvement. I've been told he's confined to a wheelchair and they're suppressing his immune system to get the eosinophile count back down. It's a very serious condition and I am not in direct contact with the family so I really don't know any more than this. My goal with this fundraiser is to give all the folks who have touched his life, a way to share their stories of connection and support.

Forgive me if I get some of the details fuzzy, I'm drawing from the memory banks here.

Jeff Forman touched my life when I was at a cross-roads of becoming a young adult. Having graduated UCSB with a BS in Biology but not getting into medical school, I had no back up plan. It took me a few years of adventuring around the country, rock climbing, doing yoga and teaching Lindy Hop, to figure out my next steps. At the time, I hadn't connected the dots that body movement and preventative care were hard wired into my belief system. What a blessing it was to get rejected from Medical School and to be thrust onto another life path. It was this universal course correction that led me to working with Jeff Forman as a Massage Program Assistant from ~1999-2004 (ish) while also going through the program to become a massage therapist myself. I was inspired by Jeff's leadership and vision. He was as committed to refining his own skills as a body worker and growing his Stress Reduction Systems business, as he was in developing the potential of DeAnza students and creating the first AA program for Massage Therapy in the state. There were times he gave me the authority to do things I did not feel qualified to do (which was really scary) but his "progress not perfection" attitude really helped me to see the world in a different way. He empowered me to make website updates and teach myself code to do so. He looked at those "oops" moments as opportunities to figure things out and learn from it. He was utterly non-plussed. He was the first adult who really gave me permission to fail big and to look forward to it so you could level up. He hired me to edit his text book and take ownership in creating the accompanying powerpoint student guide to go with the book. I was utterly humbled when he included a thank you in his book for my help. We rolled out efficiencies for running the De Anza massage clinic to the public to give students real world experience and started issuing certificates of completion to validate and substantiate student training. It felt incredible to be part of something bigger than myself and contribute in a meaningful way to the launching of so many talented healers into the world. It was through this experience that I launched my own massage therapy business and became active in the AMTA, serving a variety of roles for the Santa Clara chapter and working to get legislation changed for California state to recognize and legitimize the profession. I'll never forget my first "Lifescan" fingerprinting down at the Vice Squad and reading in detail the municipal ordinances we were required to adhere to in order to legally practice in the county (so many of those laws worked in opposition to creating a safe space for both practitioner and client). Ultimately, the politics are what soured the profession for me and I moved on to other things. But I have always looked back on this time in my life with such gratitude. Massage is still a very big part of my life, as are the variety of self-care modalities we were taught to keep ourselves healthy to work in the industry (in fact, I have a book on self-care coming out in the next few weeks and I have been reflecting on those times a lot in the last few months!).

In August of 2020, just a few months after losing my job/career in the apparel industry to Covid (production completely shut down in China factories), I lost my home and nearly all of my possessions to the CZU Lightning Complex fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I remember the feeling of needing to turn inward to preserve and protect my energy, my sanity, my healing and to process the grief of the physical, emotional and psychological loss. I knew my community wanted to uplift and support me and, lord knows, my needs were great, but I was NOT in the state of mind to organize those efforts. I turned to gofundme to give me a public way to process the experience through writing and allow others to opportunity to connect with my experience while simultaneously giving them an outlet to let me know they were thinking of me. Just that simple knowledge that my community was strong, sending me energy and love, did SO much to help my healing. This is what I hope to create for Dr. Forman. I have no idea if Dr. Forman needs the financial support. Jeff and his family will be given the opportunity to direct the use of whatever funds are raised, whenever they are ready to do so. In my mind, money is just a form of energy and so this platform still feels like a great way to flow that support toward him and show him how much he's touched our lives and ground him to the love and support of his community of healers.

You are welcome to send this gofundme to anyone beyond the DeAnza Massage community "walls". The more the merrier.

Be well everyone!

xoxo Lorilee