SUNDAY AFTFERNOON WORKSHOPS
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Round Seven: Sunday  1:30 – 2:45 P.M.

701    Basic Attendance                                                            

              Eric Friedland-Kays, M.A.

Basic Attendance is a therapeutic approach rooted in contemplative meditation.  Therapists, friends, families, and others offer supportive presence to a person in need, cultivating shared insight at the levels of body, mind, speech, and environment.  This workshop introduces Basic Attendance through discussion and activities.

   For the past 8 years Eric Friedland-Kays has been a Senior Clinician with Windhorse Associates in Northampton, Mass., where he has served many clients, staff and families as Team Leader, Individual Psychotherapist, Supervisor and Trainer of other clinicians, and Coordinator of Admissions.  His psychosynthesis training has been at The Synthesis Center in Amherst, MA.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Describe the Windhorse approach of Basic Attendance and its roots in contemplative meditation.
2. Practice the skills of Basic Attendance.
3. Apply the contemplative approach to gain insight into themselves and into the therapist/helper approach.

702     Psychopharmacology and Spirituality:

              The Synthesis That Promotes Human Development

              Walter Stephaniv, Ph.D., NCSP, ACS*

Psychopharmacology has the potential for harm but it also has the definite potential for enhancing the human condition and providing a medium for some to develop their spiritual potential.  Use and abuse of these psychopharmacological agents will be contrasted utilizing clinical cases.

   Dr. Walter Stephaniv earned his doctorate in school psychology from Ball State

University.  He also completed post-doctoral programs in clinical respecialization

and clnical psychopharmacology at Argosy University.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Discuss how psychopharmacology works.
2. Describe the risks and benefits of psychopharmacological interventions
3. Assist and facilitate a beneficial application of psychopharmacological interventions in their practice.

703    The Mechanics of Interdependence:     

              Exploring the connection between personal and social synthesis

              Dirk Kelder, M. Div.

Who I am is inextricably bound to my connections and interactions with the world in which I live, and I cannot come to understand myself apart from this. In this workshop we will explore a cognitive framework that gives rise to what I call "ecological thinking", a valuable tool for both personal and group synthesis, as well as understanding their connection.

   In his life Dirk Kelder has been exposed to a large diversity of settings and influences including language, culture, climate, and much more. In an effort to synthesize or integrate these, he studied science, philosophy, theology, psychosynthesis and more. With the mind and subsequently with the heart, he has been working out a path through the labyrinth. His most recent work has been to develop what he calls Polarity Dynamics.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Describe an application of Psychosynthesis to groups and the social dimension.
2. Apply a cognitive framework of "ecological thinking" to Psychosynthesis.
3. Discuss the link between personal and social synthesis.

704     Using Your Home to Explore Your Self                           

              Mariya Rivera, B.A.

If we occupy our homes the way we occupy our bodies, our living spaces can be used to investigate and clarify issues, support growth phases and initiate desired changes.  After a brief introduction to bio-energetics, participants will be guided through at least two exercises to center and explore.

   Mariya Rivera, artist, wrestled with her expectations and the limitations of her home for over 18 years.  Psychosynthesis has guided her in evaluating her attitudes and clarifying her actual needs.  She offers her newfound insights for consideration via this creative, body-centered workshop.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Practice anchoring and centering.
2. Notice where one feels stuck, where one feels safe, and where one feels inspired.
3. Describe a shift in awareness.
4. Expand awareness of self and home.
5. Feel at home within one’s body and one’s living space.

705     Consciousness-in-Action:           

              An Integral Psychology of Liberation & Transformation                                  

              (Double-length workshops: 1:30 – 4:15 P.M.)

             Raúl Quiñones-Rosado, Ph.D

An introduction to key concepts and principles of this integral approach to personal and social change. Drawing from psychology, social theory, integral studies, contemplative practice, and work in communities-of-struggle, it offers an overview of:an integral developmental framework; a psychosocial analysis of the impact of identity-based power, and; liberatory-transformative practices for addressing social oppressions.

   Author of Consciousness-in-Action, Raúl is co-founder of ilé, inc. (formerly Institute for Latino Empowerment). He works in communities-of-struggle in the US and Puerto Rico were he teaches, counsels and trains social and spiritual activists.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Describe an integral model of well-being and development.
2. Examine institutional oppression as a major force that hinders well-being and development.
3. Consider consciousness-in-action as a process for disrupting internalized inferiority and superiority.
4. Discuss consciousness-in-action as a methodology and praxis toward integral liberation and transformation at the personal and collective dimensions of life.

706     Exploring Psychosynthesis From the Inside Out                                                

              (Double-length workshops: 1:30 – 4:15 P.M.)

              Judith Bach, Ph.D., Olga Denisko, M.A., and Nanette Hucknall, B.A.

Through experiential immersion in the major principles of Psychosynthesis, e.g., disidentification, the 'I,' the higher Self, participants will be encouraged to explore their understandings and open new doors or re-affirm older ones in their inner landscape.  Creative exploration and the ability to discriminate between levels of consciousiness are central.

   Judith Bach is co-founding Director/Trainer, Berkshire Center for Psychosynthesis and of the Psychosynthesis Institute of New York. She has  been a psychotherapist for 37 years, trainer at above centers & in Canada; seminar presenter on social psychosynthesis, and includes psychosynthesis applications in upcoming book (Spring, 2008), How To Play Nice Together: Creating Community Locally & Globally.

   Olga Denisko is founding Director/Head Trainer, Psychosynthesis Pathways of Montreal. She conducts three-year training programs in Montreal (1981 to the present) and until recently, also in Halifax, Nova Scotia (1991-2004), and maintains a part-time psychotherapy practice since 1978.

   Nanette Hucknall is a Workshop leader, career therapist/psychotherapist, and author. She has co-lead weekend training groups, taught seminars & written several books on the higher Self, & is the author of a psychosynthesis-based book, Karma, Destiny & Your Career, now published in four languages.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Discriminate between centered choice and the pressures of subpersonalities and more limited ego states.
2. Describe different ways to access their higher Self for guidance.
3. Apply disidentification in order to distinguish the intuition and messages from the higher Self from those coming from less evolved aspects of the personality.
4. Utilize the creative faculty of imagination and differentiate it from unrealistic childhood and/or borderline fantasies.
5. Make choices, for good or ill, using the power of the will.

Round Eight: Sunday 3:00 – 4:15 P.M.

801     Standing Up for the Mother: Affirming Maternal Values in a Troubled World                    Anne Yeomans, M.A., LMHC

Traditionally the qualities of The Mother, relatedness, care, nuture, have been seen in the confines of house and home.  There is much evidence that this sphere of maternal concerns must expand to the larger world for us to survive as a species.  Can these values become, not just the "soft stuff" of our world, but priorities of our global home?

   Anne Yeomans is a psychotherapist, a group facilitator, and a grandmother. She has applied Psychosynthesis to the teaching of  non-violence, conflict  resolution, women’s circles, and women’s spirituality.  She is currently training women in sacred circle work and maintaining a private practice in Concord and Shelburne Falls, MA.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Describe the qualities of the Mother principle, and show how crucial they are to our future.
2. Discuss these qualities as universal to everyone.
3. Describe the impact that the qualities of the Mother can have within the individual, between individuals, and in groups or organizations.

802    Our Precious Kinship With The Natural World:

             The Essence Of Planetary and Personal Healing

              Nancy Rowe, Ph.D

Our ability to form a healthy relationship with all living beings is central to planetary survival and our personal journey toward wholeness. In this experiential workshop, we will cultivate our relationship with the natural world and explore how seeing the sacred in all beings can bring  greater balance to self and planet.

   Nancy Rowe is on the faculty of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and is a counselor/expressive therapist in Kingston, NY. She incorporates ecospirituality, psychosynthesis and creativity in her writing, teaching, workshops and therapy practice.  Her passion is to help others to reconnect to Earth, their imaginations, and their creative, intuitive selves.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Describe how our relationship with the natural world is essential to personal and global healing and transformation.
2. Discuss how shifting our language and experience of the natural world can shift our relationship with self and planet.
3. Reconnect with our instinctual earth self and our interconnectedness with all beings.
4. Cultivate an awareness of how archetypes in nature emulate our personal narrative.
5. Describe ecopsychosynthesis as the kinship with all living beings and how to bring it into our lives.

803     Healing Self & Healing Others                                 

              Cynthia P. Russell, Ph.D.

An interactive presentation considering what we can do to maintain optimal functioning, recovery as needed, and to be of greatest support to those we work with; clients, patients, relationships. Will include a number of holistic modalities, psychoneuroimmunology, ancient knowlege,recent research.

   Cynthia Russell is a psychosynthesist , director of  Connecticut Institute for Psychosynthesis, and trainer. Her research on patient experiences has been published at Yale School of Medicine.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Demonstrate how to be more compassionate with yourself, and practice Self care each day.
2. Use findings from Psychoneuroimmunology for self and others.
3. Teach clients/patients the power of choice and Will.
4. Apply C.P. Russell's research to being totally present to others both in and out of the healthcare system.

804    Living Inside/Living Outside: Self in the World

              Dorothy Firman, Ed.D.

Finding  congruence between inner knowing and outer action is a lifelong process. Knowing how we know what we know will help guide us towards living in harmony with our deepest values and inner truths. Each person hears the Call of Self in a unique way. Tracking the threads of our own purpose will help reveal our individual ways of  knowing and inspire us towards resonant actions, large and small.

   Didi Firman has been teaching psychosynthesis for more than 25 years at The Synthesis Center and is a professor of counseling and psychology at Union Institute & University.

Learning Objectives: Attendees will be better able to:

1. Apply skills for accessing meaningful life choices.
2. Discuss the concepts of Psychosynthesis theory of "purpose"  and how it may positively impact the people we work with.
3. Strengthen personal and professional balance. 

(Updated March 16, 2008)

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