Valerie Harrison

Are you concerned about whether you are losing your memory?

Southwestern Community College’s Small Business Center is presenting a workshop to teach proven techniques and legitimate reasons why you may be having problems with your memory.

Available to anyone looking to enhance their memory skills, Memory Power Building costs $12, which includes lunch, and is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at SCC’s Annex behind the Macon County Courthouse in Franklin.

According to Valerie Harrison, the workshop facilitator, “A decline in memory skills may have nothing to do with dementia and may be overcome with practical knowledge and a little bit of effort.”

To learn how to enhance memory skills, Harrison will first address the many factors that can contribute to an ineffective memory. These can range from medications to sleep deprivation and many causes in between. “Elimination of the cause of memory decline can frequently correct the problem,” according to Harrison.

There are exercises and explanations that have been scientifically proven, that allow people to build memory reliability, she said. By the end of the workshop, each participant will have received techniques which will enhance their learning and retrieval capabilities, if practiced.

A resident of Swain County, Harrison has become involved with the seniors as an advocate and writes the “Senior’s Corner” column for The Smoky Mountain Times in Bryson City.

While working full time and taking care of her family, Harrison has also volunteered in many community causes over her life, such as spearheading the development of a well baby clinic to provide migrant workers with medical and dental help for their children up to five years old and working at a Psychodrama Clinic with at-risk teenagers.

In 1983, she started Images of the Mind!, a business which lasted 19 years. She researched, developed and facilitated practical behavioral science seminars throughout the United States and Europe, with occasional stops in the Republic of Panama, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands. She also became a life coach and worked with chronic substance abusers and repeat offenders with the State of Florida Department of Corrections.

Harrison had her own radio talk show called Achieving Excellence, on the Business Radio Network in Orlando, Fla.

For additional information or to pre-register, call 800.447.4091, ext. 426.

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