CHE chair recognized for life-saving book

Janice Holden, department chair and professor of counseling in the UNT College of Education's Department of Counseling and Higher Education, received a diploma from the Royal Life Saving Society Commonwealth November 26 at the society's annual National Lifesaving Championships competition in Leeds, England.

The society conferred the diploma, a kind of certificate of recognition, for a book Holden co-authored with water safety expert Stathis Avramidis titled Near-Death Experiences While Drowning (available here: http://www.library.unt.edu/aquiline-books/nde-003-8). The primary purpose of the book is to educate water safety professionals about the possibility that someone they rescue from drowning may report a near-death experience, usually involving hyperlucid perception from a position apart from the physical body during circumstances in which no conscious experience would be expected, and about how to respond to such a disclosure in a way that helps and does not harm the rescued person.

The diploma reads, "For a high standard of knowledge of lifesaving values and for service in contributing to the development of the Society's aims and objectives."

The Royal Life Saving Society was founded in 1891 in London in response to the large number of drownings occurring at the time. It is a charity registered in the UK with the Charity Commission and is governed by Royal Charter.

Above: Pictured, from left, Stathis Avramidis, Janice Holden and RLSS UK President Ian Hutchings.