In my work I blend techniques from the psychotherapeutic and meditational traditions to facilitate breakthrough.
Psychotherapy and consciousness
Consciousness is an umbrella term I use for principals that have been around for millennia, found in the wisdom traditions of many cultures, in the mystical writings of all religions, and shared by many philosophers and modern day physicists and brain chemists. The view is that we are each a unique aspect of Creation, i.e. Divine Substance individualized as ‘me’, and subject to the laws of Creation. The life we live is an out-picturing of the concepts that are running us. In this view Divinity is all-providing and limitless in possibility. Any lack I am experiencing suffering from in my life, e.g. lack of love, health, money, creativity, is a reflection of inner beliefs I am holding that are incorrect, and hold me as separate from Divinity.
Traditional therapy risks giving the message that if your wounds from childhood were healed you would know how to be a happy, successful adult. It is my view that being a happy adult takes a lot of skill development. Part of that skill development is to know how to work with the energy of emotions, how to identify thoughts you hold that are toxic to your well-being and release them, the development of a value system that allows for robustness, connection, and the fulfillment of one’s sense of purpose. These skills are what the Consciousness perspective offers.
In our work, I use techniques that open you more to the flow of your energy, techniques that you can practice and cultivate. My hope is that our work together leaves you free from whatever was blocking you from your full Robustness, and that it introduces you to practices from the meditational/self-help/energywork traditions that continue to catalyse and support your opening to the most meaningful levels of Who-You-Are and what your life is for.
More on the consciousness perspective:
When we experience discomfort (or pain of any kind) there is most often an automatic, insidious, conclusion we attach to the discomfort. The conclusion goes like this: ‘This ___________ (discomfort, shame, anger, awkwardness, betrayal, despair, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, etc) is a reflection of a personal defect on my part (it’s happening to me because I am not smart enough, quick enough, tough enough, special enough, attractive enough, wanted enough, etc).
From the Consciousness perspective this conclusion is an illusion of the ego, that considers itself in control of life. From the most ancient wisdom writings, the Upanishads (Hindu texts written between 800-400BC) the ego is seen as, tricking us to identify with the ego, and keeping us from surrendering to the true Source of All Things (our Beingness/Consciousness). Three tricks or ‘Gunas’ are described to be wary of, the ego telling you when you feel challenged that 1) you are unworthy 2) you are alone and 3) there is something you must ‘do’. The wisdom teaching is that 1) as you are an aspect of Creation, you are inherently worthy, 2) you are in partnership with Divinity and have the unlimited resources of Divinity/Creation available to you, never alone and 3) to access Source is the realm of ‘Being’, not ‘doing’.
The access is through quieting the thinking mind, and ‘receiving’ or relaxing into Awareness.
The answers we seek being available to us through our Beingness and not through our thinking minds, is a wisdom shared by Einstein. He said ‘The mind that perceives the problem, is not the mind that can solve the problem’. He writes of entering a theta-brainwave state, to access inspired ideas or genius. A theta-brainwave state is the state meditation achieves.
Hypnosis, and energy psychologies
Traditional psychotherapy is based on the recognition that the beliefs that are most harmful to us are the ones that we are not conscious of, and therefor not accessible through thinking mind. The access was considered to be through the ‘transference’ relationship with the therapist, and through the altered state achieved by hypnosis.
Today there is an entire field of ‘energy psychologies’, various approaches to uncovering and releasing beliefs and traumas bypassing the thinking mind. I have an eclectic approach and a repertoire of techniques. Hypnosis is gentle and yet powerful in its results. I believe you will find it to catalyze our work by getting us more quickly to the heart of the matter, and a strong support in effecting goal oriented changes. Ask me about it for help with the gestalt of issues facing children, teenagers, and adults, e.g. A.D.D., addiction, alcohol, drug abuse, behavioral issues at home and school, career issues, compulsions, couples work, ‘delicate’ cutting, depression, divorce that honors the children, domestic abuse, eating disorders, headaches, grief, insecurities, life-challenging illness, panic, post-traumatic stress, public speaking, sexual abuse, sexuality, trichotillomania.
Email me or call me at 203-550-2111