The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit Package

The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit will span 10 informative days, bringing you more than 30 hours of teachings from our 30 presenters. If you'd like to revisit any or all of this life-changing material:

Own the Complete Package of The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit

Here is everything you will receive:

  • Digital session recordings: More than 30 hours of practical guidance and breakthrough insights
  • Downloadable presentation materials, transcripts of each session, and additional resources
  • Lifetime access to The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit

PLUS

  • Shift Into Freedom book

    Bonus #1
    eBook

    SHIFT INTO FREEDOM
    Synthesizing insights from neuroscience and psychology with wisdom from the world's contemplative traditions, this book by Loch Kelly offers an accessible and remarkably powerful series of meditations that lead us to a little-known natural capacity called “awake awareness.”

  • Already Free book

    Bonus #2
    eBook

    ALREADY FREE
    Therapist and Buddhist practitioner Bruce Tift explores how psychotherapy's “Developmental” approach of understanding the way our childhood experiences shape our adult selves both challenges and supports the “Fruitional” approach of Buddhism, which tells us that the freedom we seek is always available.

  • Belonging Here book

    Bonus #3
    eBook

    BELONGING HERE
    From pioneering teacher Judith Blackstone, this life-saving book shows how our spiritual gifts become entryways into both the depths of human connection and our innermost selves.

  • IPhone playing audio

    Bonus #4
    Audio Download

    THE ROOTS OF BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY
    An audio-learning program with renowned teacher Jack Kornfield, presenting more than eight hours of Buddhism's most valuable insights on the interior life and the path to true happiness.

  • Multiple bonuses and varying media forms

    Bonus #5

    Gifts from the presenters, including even more teachings, articles, and practical information.

  • Bonus #1
    eBook

    SHIFT INTO FREEDOM
    Synthesizing insights from neuroscience and psychology with wisdom from the world's contemplative traditions, this book by Loch Kelly offers an accessible and remarkably powerful series of meditations that lead us to a little-known natural capacity called “awake awareness.”

  • Bonus #2
    eBook

    ALREADY FREE
    Therapist and Buddhist practitioner Bruce Tift explores how psychotherapy's “Developmental” approach of understanding the way our childhood experiences shape our adult selves both challenges and supports the “Fruitional” approach of Buddhism, which tells us that the freedom we seek is always available.

  • Bonus #3
    eBook

    BELONGING HERE
    From pioneering teacher Judith Blackstone, this life-saving book shows how our spiritual gifts become entryways into both the depths of human connection and our innermost selves.

  • Bonus #4
    Audio Download

    THE ROOTS OF BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY
    An audio-learning program with renowned teacher Jack Kornfield, presenting more than eight hours of Buddhism's most valuable insights on the interior life and the path to true happiness.

  • Bonus #5

    Gifts from the presenters, including even more teachings, articles, and practical information.

Welcome to The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit

Woman at the beach with her arms in the air

In recent years we've seen extraordinary breakthroughs from the combination of Western psychotherapy and spiritual practice. From the “mindfulness revolution” to the prescription of yoga for PTSD and other challenges, this emerging synthesis of the scientific and the spiritual is transforming our approach to health and healing.

And we've only scratched the surface.

With The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit, you are invited to explore the profound implications of this uniquely exciting time in history.

Beginning on October 30, 2017, Sounds True publisher Tami Simon will speak with 30 of today's leading experts on the intersection of psychotherapy and spirituality to hear their insights into the journey toward becoming a mature, balanced, spiritually open, and psychologically healthy human being.

A New Paradigm for Transformation and Healing

An effective therapist in today's world is prepared to address psychological as well as spiritual concerns. But how do you choose from the many powerful tools that psychology and spirituality make available? And how do you avoid the limitations and blind spots of any given approach?

The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit brings you 10 days of conversation at the forefront of human development and evolution, intended to help you reconcile the apparent contradictions and paradoxes among various paths and add to your personal toolbox both time-tested and newly innovated techniques for personal transformation and healing.

dotted quote box

THE WIDE OPEN SPACE OF spiritual awareness IS OUR OWN MIND,
THE WIDE OPEN SPACE OF THE spiritual heart,
is our own heart
, FREE OF CONSTRICTION.

Judith Blackstone
AUTHOR OF BELONGING HERE

30 Leading Voices Exploring the Furthest Reaches of Our Human Potential

Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield

Meditation teacher and author

  • A clinical psychology of liberation
  • A wise approach to body, heart, mind, and spirit
Diane Poole Heller

Diane Poole Heller

Creator of DARe: Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience

  • Trauma for the impatient soul
  • What is needed for healing disconnection
A.H. Almaas

A.H. Almaas

Founder of the Ridhwan School and the renowned Diamond Approach®

  • Theory of Holes
  • Recovering lost aspects of Authentic Being
Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber

Philosopher and author

  • Growing up to become whole and healthy human beings
  • Waking up to our infinite and transpersonal nature
Dara Williams

Dara Williams

Trainer, meditation teacher, and wellness coach

  • Healing trauma in both individuals and communities
  • The therapy session as a form of ceremony
Richard Schwartz

Richard Schwartz

Author and developer of Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • The history and development of the Internal Family Systems model of therapy
  • Non-pathological multiplicity of mind and the concept of “SELF”
Pat Ogden

Pat Ogden

Clinician, international lecturer, and author

  • Embedded Relational Mindfulness
  • The role of the body in healing from past wounds
Bill Plotkin

Bill Plotkin

Depth psychologist, ecopsychologist, and agent of cultural evolution

  • The three realms of identity and consciousness
  • The nature of soulcraft
Bo Forbes

Bo Forbes

Clinical psychologist and innovator in mind-body medicine

  • Interoception, or mindfulness in the body
  • The science of embodiment
Bruce Tift

Bruce Tift

Therapist, Buddhist practitioner, and author

  • How to identify our investment in “identity dramas”
  • Practicing embodied immediacy and unconditional kindness
Dorothy Hunt

Dorothy Hunt

Author, poet, and spiritual teacher

  • Suffering as separation from truth
  • Transforming the energy of an emotion
James Hollis

James Hollis

Jungian analyst and author

  • Exploring a mature spirituality
  • Does spiritual practice enlarge or diminish us?
Ashley Turner

Ashley Turner

Depth psychotherapist, yoga and meditation instructor

  • The four functions of mind in yoga psychology
  • Incorporating Shadow work into your yoga
John J. Prendergast

John J. Prendergast

Psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and author

  • Discovering our underlying wholeness
  • Meeting our conditioned experience with love and insight
Judith Blackstone

Judith Blackstone

Psychotherapist and nondual teacher

  • Realizing “fundamental consciousness”
  • The integration of awareness, emotion, and sensation
Loch Kelly

Loch Kelly

Psychotherapist and author

  • Shifting out of a chattering mind and into peace of mind
  • Practical tools for “healing up, waking up, and growing up”
Mariana Caplan

Mariana Caplan

Psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and author

  • The integration of yoga and psychology
  • New possibilities for healing and transformation
Peter Fenner

Peter Fenner

Author and pioneer in nondual psychology

  • The nature of awareness and the release of dualistic thought
  • Nondual inquiry and nondual awareness
Pilar Jennings

Pilar Jennings

Psychoanalyst and author

  • The protective role of dissociation
  • Buddhism and psychotherapy
Sandra Maitri

Sandra Maitri

Teacher of the Diamond Approach®

  • The enneagram—what it is, its benefits, and its drawbacks
  • The enneagram as a tool for the transformation of consciousness
Richard Miller

Richard Miller

Psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and author

  • Healing from the ground of “unchanging Wholeness”
  • Core wounds as tools in the healing process
Robert Augustus Masters

Robert Augustus Masters

Integral psychotherapist and author

  • Psychospiritual Work: psychotherapy and spirituality working as one
  • Cutting through spiritual bypassing
Ron Siegel

Ron Siegel

Clinical psychologist and author

  • Using mindfulness practices to develop a more flexible sense of who we are
  • Cultivating wisdom and compassion for both the professional and the client
Susan Pollak

Susan Pollak

Psychologist, international teacher, and author

  • Cultivating equanimity in our lives and work
  • Integrating equanimity practice into clinical work
Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore

Author and international lecturer

  • Therapy without problem-solving
  • The spiritual dimension in a soul-oriented therapy
Trudy Goodman

Trudy Goodman

Author and Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage

  • The synergy of psychotherapy and meditation
  • The drawbacks of practicing one discipline without the other
Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof

Transpersonal psychiatrist, author, and teacher

  • An examination of “holotropic states”—states of non-ordinary consciousness
  • How non-ordinary states can actually be powerful moments of spiritual awakening
Gabor Maté

Gabor Maté

Speaker and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

  • Psychotherapy in the treatment of illness and addiction
  • Research on the potential impact of psychedelics
Lama Palden Drolma

Lama Palden Drolma

Psychotherapist and lama in Vajrayana Buddhism

  • How combining spiritual and psychological work amplifies healing
  • Our humanness as an integral aspect of awakening
John Welwood

John Welwood

Psychotherapist, teacher, and author

  • Benefits of psychological work for spiritual practitioners
  • Feeling as the flow of the subtle body

The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit opens doorways to

  • butterfly centered in a dotted circle

    Transformation

    The lastest research-based tools to accelerate personal growth

  • tree centered in a dotted circle

    Balance

    Integrating treachings from mulitple disciplines for powerful results

  • lotus centered in a dotted circle

    Discovery

    The emerging theories on human development

  • silhouette of a head from the side with a mind of gears centered in a dotted circle

    New Understanding

    Practical insights into the nature of the human psyche

  • hand holding a plant centered in a dotted circle

    Healing

    Revolutionary approaches to addiction recover, trauma healing, and more

  • lightblub with gears centered in a dotted circle

    Illumination

    Spiritual realization and unfoldment

What Are the Essential Skills for the Healer of the Future?

30 Sessions of Practical Conversations and Breakthrough Insights

Are you a therapist with more and more clients presenting situations outside the scope of your traditional training or expertise?

Are you a spiritual teacher or practitioner who has witnessed the suffering and confusion that can stem from unresolved psychological issues or a lack of Shadow work?

Are you an “ordinary” individual looking for ways to foster your own journey through a deeper understanding and integration of your experience?

Join us at The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit for 30 sessions of transformative discussion and illuminating insights.

Learn more about our presenters and their gifts to you.

1
Jack Kornfield
Monday, October 30, 2017, 12:00 PM EDT

Buddhist Psychology: The Essence

Jack Kornfield

Modern psychotherapy and traditional Buddhist practice share the same root goal: liberation from the suffering that afflicts so much of humanity on a day-to-day basis. However, Buddhist psychology offers a different perspective than the tradition of Freud and Jung—one that begins from a person's innate worth and nobility rather than pigeonholing them through a stigmatizing diagnosis. Join Jack Kornfield to explore:

  • How the tenets of Buddhist psychology provide a powerful complement to Western psychotherapy
  • Teaching stories about transcending our histories, becoming curious about our thoughts, and holding ourselves in loving awareness
  • How the experience of suffering can give rise to empathy and compassion
  • The foundations of inner practices such as mindfulness, forgiveness, self-compassion, and lovingkindness

Bonuses:

  1. Psychotherapy 2.0 transcript (PDF)

Jack Kornfield, PhD, trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India and has taught worldwide since 1974. He is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practices to the West. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology and is the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and of Spirit Rock Center. He has written more than a dozen books including The Wise Heart; A Path With Heart; After the Ecstasy, the Laundry; and A Lamp in the Darkness.

2
Diane Poole Heller
Monday, October 30, 2017, 4:00 PM EDT

A Spiritual and Psychological Approach to Healing the Wounds That Shatter: The Hidden Gift in Trauma

Diane Poole Heller

Trauma often sets off a “firecracker in the soul,” leading to ego fragmentation and disconnection from self, others, God or Source, grounding, and one's own body awareness. Diane will discuss the gradual ego erosion of our defensive or distorted identity that comes as a benefit from chosen spiritual practices, in contrast to the unexpected, choice-less fast track that trauma survivors experience. Trauma often throws us into spiritual states quickly, and we may risk spiritual bypass without embodiment. We will look at what is needed for healing disconnection while providing access to and integration of the depths of our human journey that truly supports transformation of the Soul. Join Diane to explore:

  • Trauma for the impatient soul—fast access to spiritual dimensions of experience
  • Fragmentation—highly charged pieces that need time and attention to access and discharge
  • Trauma stops time—moving frozen memory through time
  • Tracking in the body—excavating implicit memory toward explicit so the brain can shift
  • Reintroducing threats, managing arousal, and completing threat sequence to extinguish the symptom

Bonuses:

  1. Gateway to Spiritual Access, Integration, and Transformation: Spiritual Dimensions (PDF)
  2. Gateway to Spiritual Access, Integration, and Transformation (audio)

Diane Poole Heller, PhD, is an established expert in the field of Adult Attachment Theory and Models, trauma resolution, and integrative healing techniques. She taught and lectured for over two decades in the United States and in many countries around the world, and developed her own signature series on Adult Attachment called DARe (Dynamic Attachment Re-­patterning experience)—more recently known also as SATe (Somatic Attachment Training experience). Dr. Heller began her work with Peter Levine, founder of SETI (Somatic Experiencing® Trauma Institute) in 1989. As senior faculty for SETI, she also teaches Somatic Experiencing®, based on Peter Levine's groundbreaking work, in the US and abroad. Her book on auto accident trauma resolution, Crash Course is used worldwide as a resource for healing general trauma. As a dynamic speaker and teacher, Diane has been featured at prestigious international events and is the author of numerous articles in the field. As president of DARe/SATe and of Trauma Solutions, a psychotherapy training organization, Dr. Heller supports the helping community through an array of specialized topics. She maintains a limited private practice in Louisville, Colorado.

3
Ken Wilber
Monday, October 30, 2017, 8:00 PM EDT

Three Selves on the Journey to Growing Up and Waking Up

Ken Wilber

Eastern contemplative traditions and conventional psychology each recognize two selves. The Eastern traditions acknowledge a finite ego, and an Infinite or Real Self. Western psychology, on the other hand, takes the ego and further distinguishes between an authentic and accurate healthy ego and an inaccurate, dysfunctional persona. Ideally, we would recognize all three selves on the journey to Growing Up and Waking Up. While spiritual traditions help us Awaken to our infinite and Selfless nature, conventional psychology guides us in processing and integrating our repressed Shadow contents to become whole and healthy people. In truth, working with all three selves is absolutely essential for a healthy and fruitful path to human maturation and flourishing. In this session, Ken covers:

  • Why in Western psychology we grow up but don't wake up
  • Why in Eastern spirituality we wake up but often fail to grow up
  • How by working with all three selves we can Grow Up to become whole and healthy human beings while Waking Up to our infinite and transpersonal nature

Ken Wilber is one of the most influential and widely read American philosophers of our time. He is the originator of Integral Theory, a comprehensive philosophy that incorporates cultural studies, anthropology, systems theory, developmental psychology, biology, and spirituality. Ken's writing has been translated into more than 20 languages. He is the author of many books, including The Spectrum of Consciousness; The Eye of Spirit; Grace and Grit; Sex, Ecology, Spirituality; A Brief History of Everything; Boomeritis; and The Marriage of Sense and Soul. Ken Wilber lives in Denver, Colorado.

4
Lama Palden Drolma
Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 12:00 PM EDT

Actualizing True Nature: Union of Awareness-Emptiness and Our Human Condition

Lama Palden Drolma

In order to integrate our experiences of our lives and pure being, or reality as it is, we need to be fully open to our ourselves and our world—to our humanness. We need to understand our human self and be in contact with it so that our conditioned patterns don't block realization. Modalities such as psychotherapy or Diamond Heart work can help with this. The human psyche will not open to pure being if it is too scared, confused, or aggressive. The process of therapy or inquiry can bring substantial healing and insight in order to liberate confused patterns. Spiritual practice cuts through confusion, give us glimpses into the reality of what is, of who we truly are—the unity of wisdom and love, spontaneous awakened presence. This helps us actualize full awakening. The union of spiritual and psychological methods speeds our understanding, unfoldment, and full actualization. Lama Palden explores:

  • The benefits of combining spiritual and psychological work
  • Today's unprecedented wealth of methods and support for awakening
  • How our humanness is an integral aspect of our awakening

Bonuses:

  1. The Unity of Samsara and Nirvana article (PDF)
  2. Opening to What Is (audio meditation)

Lama Palden Drolma was one of the first Western women to be authorized as a lama in 1986 by her primary teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, following her completion of the traditional Tibetan three-year, three-month retreat. Lama Palden has been a student and practitioner of Buddhism and of comparative mysticism for over 40 years. She is the founding teacher of Sukhasiddhi Foundation in Marin County, a Tibetan Buddhist center in the Shangpa and Kagyu lineages. Lama Palden has a deep interest in helping to make the teachings and practices of Vajrayana Buddhism accessible and practical for Westerners in order to help students actualize our innate wisdom, love, and joy.

As a teacher, Lama Palden is committed to each student's unique unfolding and blossoming. In 1993, Palden completed a master's degree in counseling psychology at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. After licensing as a psychotherapist, she engaged in facilitating clients' psychospiritual integration and development through bringing together understandings and methods from Buddhism and psychology, as well as from the Diamond Heart work that she engaged with and trained in for many years. Lama Palden has had the deeply satisfying experience of watching students grow and awaken, sharing their gifts with the world.

5
Robert Augustus Masters
Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 4:00 PM EDT

The Heart of Psychospiritual Work

Robert Augustus Masters

In Robert Augustus Masters's work, the psychological, spiritual, emotional, and somatic coexist. He doesn't conduct psychotherapy and then bring in spirituality, but rather allows both to operate as one intuitive unfolding. Here, Masters explores the process, touching on turning toward pain, Shadow work, spiritual bypassing, and emotional healing. Robert explains:

  • Psychospiritual work: psychotherapy and spirituality working as one
  • Turning toward our pain: an essential evolutionary step
  • How Shadow work connects psychotherapy and spirituality
  • Emotional literacy and deepening: the relevance of emotional work
  • Cutting through spiritual bypassing

Bonuses:

  1. Full-Spectrum Healing: Bringing Together All That You Are (excerpt from To Be a Man)
  2. Making Wise Use of Reactivity (audio)

Robert Augustus Masters, PhD, is an integral psychotherapist, relationship expert, and psychospiritual guide and trainer. His books include Transformation through Intimacy, Spiritual Bypassing, Emotional Intimacy, and To Be a Man. His work blends the psychological, emotional, and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing full-blooded embodiment, emotional literacy, Shadow work, and the develop­ment of relational maturity. At essence his work is about becoming more intimate with all that we are—high and low, dark and light—in service of healing, awakening, and integration.

6
Trudy Goodman
Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 8:00 PM EDT

Why Meditation and Psychotherapy Need Each Other

Trudy Goodman

Long-term meditators who have been in therapy know how psychotherapy can support the process of spiritual development, yet they tend to attribute their positive growth entirely to meditative practice. Therapy clients often long for a spiritual dimension to address life's deepest questions and losses, but shy away from anything that smacks of religion. How do these two paths fit together? What does psychotherapy informed by spiritual work and meditative awareness look like? How can meditation teaching be informed by the insights of Western psychology? Meditation, psychotherapy, and daily mindfulness practice can create a powerful synergy. Through practices that are both psychological and spiritual, we can access the rich and intimate world of our being. Through the willingness to learn, to know our life just as it is, we can enter the vastness and mystery of love at the heart of the universe. This session invites you to learn more about:

  • The creative synergy of psychotherapeutic work and meditation practice
  • The drawbacks of practicing one discipline without the other
  • How meditation practice and psychotherapy inform one another

Bonuses:

  1. Mindfulness and Psychotherapy: Working with Children (PDF)
  2. Zen, Vipassana, and Psychotherapy (podcast)

Trudy Goodman, PhD, is the founding teacher of InsightLA, a nonprofit organization for mindfulness education and meditation training since 2002. InsightLA is the first center in the world to offer trainings in both contemporary mindfulness teachings and Buddhist meditation. Trudy is one of the first MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) trainers, under the tutelage of its creator, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. Trudy is also guiding teacher and cofounder of the world's first Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Trudy had the privilege of studying developmental psychology with Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Carol Gilligan. For 25 years, Trudy pioneered mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples, and individuals. Much of Trudy's life has been dedicated to practicing Buddhist meditation with revered Asian and Western teachers in the Zen, Theravada, and Vajrayana traditions. She is currently the senior Vipassana teacher in Los Angeles from the Theravada lineage.

7
Ron Siegel
Wednesday, November 1, 2017, 12:00 PM EDT

Psychotherapy Without a Self: Mindfulness as a Path to Wisdom and Compassion

Ron Siegel

What if our therapeutic goals of self-improvement turn out to be symptoms of delusion? And what if the mindfulness craze changes who we think we are and what we're trying to do in therapy? This presentation will examine how mindfulness can be harnessed in psychotherapy to reexamine our sense of self, leading toward greater wisdom and compassion for all involved. Ron will cover:

  • Ways to move beyond our evolutionarily hardwired concerns with personal comfort and self-esteem
  • Ways that mindfulness practice can help us break free from the current narcissism epidemic
  • How wisdom and compassion can be cultivated for both the professional and the client

Bonuses:

  1. The Fiction of the Self: The Paradox of Mindfulness in Clinical Practice (PDF)
  2. Who Am I?: The Perils of Self (video)

Ronald D. Siegel, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and author of The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems; coauthor of Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy; coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice; and professor for The Science of Mindfulness: A Research-Based Path to Well-Being, produced by The Great Courses. He teaches internationally about mindfulness and psychotherapy, and maintains a private clinical practice.

8
Mariana Caplan
Wednesday, November 1, 2017, 4:00 PM EDT

Yoga & Psyche: Integrating the Paths of Yoga and Psychology for Healing, Transformation, and Joy

Mariana Caplan

Has yoga improved your health and expanded your awareness—but emotional and relationship issues continue to challenge you? Or, have you found psychotherapy helpful, yet yearn for vaster spiritual discovery? In this presentation, we will explore these two domains of transformation and how they complement each other—particularly in light of the advancements in somatics, trauma research and healing, and neuroscience—laying the groundwork for a new merging of these two disciplines. When we bring together yoga and psychology, possibilities for growth are awakened within one's body, deep psyche, and spirit. Together, they form a seamless weave of insights and practices that are applicable in the yoga studio, therapy room, and amid the rush of daily life. Session highlights include:

  • Why the integration of yoga and psychology is at the zeitgeist of contemporary spirituality
  • How psychological work and yoga practice mutually support each other
  • The new possibilities for healing and transformation stemming from developments in somatics, neuroscience, and trauma research
  • Participating in the synthesizing of the great traditions of yoga and psychology

Bonuses:

  1. 10 Spirituality Transmitted Diseases (PDF)
  2. The Union of Psychology and Spirituality (PDF)

Mariana Caplan, PhD, MFT, RYT 500, is a psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and the author of eight books in the fields of psychology and spirituality, including the forthcoming Yoga & Psyche: Integrating the Paths of Yoga and Psychology for Healing, Transformation, and Joy (Sounds True, 2018); the award-winning Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path (Sounds True, 2010); and the seminal Halfway Up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment. She is founder of The Yoga & Psyche Method™ and The Yoga & Psyche Conference™. She has been teaching workshops and trainings at major retreat centers, online, and in yoga studios and universities throughout the world since 1997. For over a decade, Dr. Caplan was an adjunct professor and developed large public programs at The California Institute of Integral Studies. She also taught at Naropa University, John F. Kennedy University, and Sophia University. Her articles have been featured in magazines and journals including Shambhala Sun, Tricycle, ReVision, and The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. Her new ideas are published regularly on her HuffPost blog. She is a regular guest on radio and TV programs on subjects of spirituality, psychology, yoga, and wellness.

9
Peter Fenner
Wednesday, November 1, 2017, 8:00 PM EDT

The Ultimate Medicine: Nondual Psychotherapy

Peter Fenner

Nondual therapy blends the intimacy of therapy with the power and vitality of Asia's nondual wisdom traditions. Nondual therapy is based on the healing power of pure awareness. In Buddhism, nondual awareness is called the “ultimate medicine” because when we rest in this timeless state of pristine awareness, conditioned experiences can no longer detract from our fundamental state of total completion and integrity. Our age, physical and emotional condition, and material circumstances no longer limit us. Nondual healing functions at the “result level” by directly introducing people to the transpersonal dimension of awareness itself. This presentation lays out the essential dimensions of a form of therapy that's suited to individuals and groups. This form of therapy works in the here and now to dismantle limiting beliefs and constructions about who we are and what is happening in the present moment. Peter explores:

  • Creating an environment that's intimate and warm, yet clear and penetrating at the same time
  • Revealing the nature of awareness itself through nondual dialogue and the natural release of dualistic thought
  • Working from the result, or acausal, level, gently inviting people to the ground of effortless being
  • Nondual inquiry—“seeing through” the dualistic constructions that seem to obscure the presencing of nondual awareness

Bonuses:

  1. Presencing Unconditioned Awareness (PDF)
  2. Nonduality and Therapy: Awakening the Unconditioned Mind (PDF)

Peter Fenner is a leader in the Western adaptation of Buddhist wisdom. He is a pioneer in the new field of nondual psychotherapy. He was a celibate monk in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions for nine years. He has a PhD in the philosophical psychology of Mahayana Buddhism and has held teaching positions at universities in Australia and the US. He is founder of the Center for Timeless Wisdom and the creator of the well-known Radiant Mind and Natural Awakening courses. His books and audio programs include Natural Awakening: An Advanced Guide for Sharing Nondual Awareness; Radiant Mind: Awakening Unconditional Awareness; Radiant Mind: Teaching and Practices to Awakening Unconditioned Awareness (seven-CD set); The Edge of Certainty: Paradoxes on the Buddhist Path; and The Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy (ed. with John Prendergast and Sheila Krystal). He has taught workshops at Naropa University, the California Institute for Integral Studies, Omega Institute, ZIST, Terre de Ciel, and other centers, and given invited presentations at JFK University, Saybrook College, Stanford Medical School, Columbia University, and at locations internationally.

10
DaRa Williams
Thursday, November 2, 2017, 12:00 PM EDT

Fearless Compassion and the Healing of Intergenerational Trauma

DaRa Williams

There are some traumas that are so devastating that their effects echo across generations. In Aboriginal Focusing-Oriented Therapy, healers will find tools to search for the origin points of intergenerational trauma and address the myriad ways they cause suffering in the present. This is especially important for marginalized communities where persistent oppression causes unique stressors. Here DaRa addresses:

  • Strategies for addressing trauma from societal oppression, poverty, and colonialism
  • Healing trauma not only in individuals but in greater communities
  • The therapy session as a form of ceremony
  • A guided visualization for distancing from a difficult person or situation

DaRa Williams is a therapist, wellness coach, and teacher who has been practicing Vipassana meditation for more than 20 years. A graduate of the Spirit Rock Meditation Society teacher training program, DaRa is also on the Board of Directors for the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She maintains a private practice in Manhattan.

11
Richard Miller
Thursday, November 2, 2017, 4:00 PM EDT

The Ultimate Cure: The Skillful Use of Opposites in Healing Core Wounds Amidst Spiritual Awakening

Richard Miller

Our suffering can't be resolved by our thinking mind. Nondual therapy is designed to provide access to our innate Wholeness, enabling us to access intuitive wisdom and heal no matter the circumstances. This presentation explores this neuroscientific intervention of working with opposites in order to lead to the ultimate cure—profound health and wholeness. Richard will emphasize:

  • How healing proceeds from the ground of unchanging Wholeness
  • Recognizing opposites that conceal and reveal health, healing, and Wholeness
  • Identifying continuums of opposites for healing and well-being
  • The neuroscience involved in working with opposites
  • Recognizing core wounds—and how to use them for healing

Bonuses:

  1. Your Wholeness of Being (audio meditation)
  2. Nondual Psychology and the Skillful Use of Opposites (PDF)

Richard C. Miller, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, author, researcher, scholar, and spiritual teacher who has devoted his life to integrating Western psychology with the teachings of yoga, tantra, Advaita, Taoism, and Buddhism. Richard is the founding president of the Integrative Restoration Institute, cofounder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and founding editor of The International Journal of Yoga Therapy. He is the author of several books, including iRest Meditation: Restorative Practices for Health.

12
Sandra Maitri
Thursday, November 2, 2017, 8:00 PM EDT

What the Enneagram Can and Can't Do for You

Sandra Maitri

This presentation will focus on the place of the enneagram in the inner work of spiritual transformation. Sandra will discuss how this powerful body of knowledge can reveal blind spots within ourselves, as well as what it takes for these insights to actually transform us. Session highlights:

  • What the enneagram is for those unfamiliar with it
  • The enneagram's place in spiritual work
  • Potential benefits and drawbacks
  • How we can use the enneagram in a way that truly transforms our consciousness

Bonuses:

  1. My Journey with the Enneagram (video)
  2. Moving Through: How the Diamond Approach Interfaces the Psychological and the Spiritual (video)

Sandra Maitri is a teacher of Vipassana meditation and A.H. Almaas's Diamond Approach who currently leads groups in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the United Kingdom. She began her spiritual journey at the age of 21 as a student of the Chilean psychiatrist and pioneer of the Human Potential Movement, Claudio Naranjo, MD. Sandra is the author of The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul and The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues: Finding the Way Home, both of which have been translated into many languages. She has a private practice in Marin County, California.

13
Ashley Turner
Friday, November 3, 2017, 12:00 PM EDT

Foundations of Yoga Psychology

Ashley Turner

The worlds of yoga and psychotherapy come into alignment with a single primary question: “Who am I?” When combined purposefully, these two methods of inquiry can greatly accelerate the search for self. Approaching therapy from a yogic perspective offers a different framework for understanding mental structures—one that anchors us in the boundless potential of Sat Nam, our true nature. Join Ashley to examine:

  • Understanding the mind-body connection through the five koshas, or layers of self
  • Mastering your mind with antarkarana: the four functions of mind in yoga psychology
  • Simple tools to incorporate Shadow work into your yoga

Bonuses:

  1. The Integration of Yoga & Psychology (PDF)
  2. Stress Relief Meditation (audio)

Ashley Turner is a yoga and meditation instructor, psychotherapist, and writer. She is the founder of Yoga Psychology, an innovative training program for teachers and dedicated students fusing yoga, depth psychology, mindfulness, and neuroscience. She is the cofounder of Urban Priestess, a modern-day mystery school for women; creator of nine bestselling yoga DVDs; and coauthor of Aroma Yoga. She works with therapy and coaching clients via Skype and leads transformative events around the globe. Ashley lives by the ocean in Marina del Rey, CA. For more, see AshleyTurner.org.

14
Bill Plotkin
Friday, November 3, 2017, 4:00 PM EDT

Soulcraft, Psychotherapy, and Transcendence: Confessions of a Spiritual Heretic

Bill PlotkinPsychotherapy and spirituality are in the business—or should be—of helping people become fully human. Contemporary versions of both traditions are failing in significant ways. Growing up and waking up are only two of the dimensions of human development. This session will explore what Bill Plotkin refers to as “soulcraft,” an aspect of spirituality that is as essential as growing up and waking up, and perhaps more important and relevant during this time of radical crises and global change. Join Bill to explore:

  • The three realms of identity and consciousness: upperworld, middleworld, and underworld
  • Soulcraft, the neglected yet essential half of spirituality
  • Beyond contemporary psychotherapy: cultivating wholeness and the capacity to self-heal
  • Four realms of awakening: major life passages, “moltings,” transcendence, and inscendence

Bonuses:

  1. Yeats and the Journey of Soul Initiation (PDF)
  2. Eco-Awakening and Soul Encounter (PDF)

Bill Plotkin, PhD, is a depth psychologist and ecopsychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As founder of southwest Colorado's Animas Valley Institute, since 1980 he has guided thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision fast. Bill is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche; Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World; and Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche.

15
James Hollis
Friday, November 3, 2017, 8:00 PM EDT

What Is a Mature Spirituality?

James Hollis

It matters less what we believe than why we believe what we do. Does our sense of a larger frame for our lives come from external authority, family, and other institutions, or does it arise from our personal experience? Does our spiritual perspective bring us into proximity with depth, ask our enlargement, engage us in mystery, or ratify our old needs and their resting places? In this session, James Hollis investigates:

  • What is a “mature spirituality”?
  • How can we know what is “mature”?
  • How does the principle of resonance provide us with some guidance?
  • Does our spiritual practice or understanding enlarge us or diminish us?

Bonuses:

  1. Living an Examined Life (PDF)
  2. Recovering the Soul and Living a Larger Life (audio)

James Hollis, PhD, is a Jungian analyst and executive director of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Houston, Texas. He is a bestselling author whose books include Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life and What Matters Most. With Sounds True, he has authored the audio-learning program Through the Dark Wood and the forthcoming book Living an Examined Life.

16
Stanislav Grof
Saturday, November 4, 2017, 12:00 PM EDT

Spiritual Emergency: Understanding and Treatment of Transpersonal Crises

Stanislav Grof

“Holotropic states” is the name that Dr. Stanislav Grof coined for a large and important subcategory of non-ordinary states of consciousness that have healing, transformative, heuristic, and evolutionary potential. One of the most important implications of the work with holotropic states was the discovery that many spontaneous episodes of these states—which are currently diagnosed as manifestations of serious mental diseases (psychoses)—are actually crises of spiritual opening. Correctly understood, they represent difficult stages of a process of spiritual opening and, correctly treated, they can bring great benefit for the people experiencing them. Dr. Grof explains:

  • Examples of these states in ritual and the spiritual history of humanity
  • The triggers of spiritual emergencies, ways of differentiating them from pathological states, and effective therapeutic strategies in supporting individuals experiencing them
  • The most important forms of spiritual crises, such as shamanic initiation crises, awakening of Kundalini, Maslow’s “peak experiences,” John Perry's renewal process, and crises of psychic opening

Bonus:

  1. Healing Our Deepest Wounds: The Holotropic Paradigm Shift (PDF)

Stanislav Grof, MD, is a psychiatrist with more than 60 years of experience in research of non-ordinary states of consciousness. In the past, he was Principal Investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia; Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD; and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. Currently, he is professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, CA; conducts professional training programs in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology; and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). Among his publications are over 150 articles in professional journals and the books Beyond the Brain; LSD Psychotherapy; The Cosmic Game; Psychology of the Future; The Ultimate Journey; When the Impossible Happens; Healing Our Deepest Wounds; Modern Consciousness Research and the Understanding of Art; The Stormy Search for the Self; Spiritual Emergency; and Holotropic Breathwork (the last three written with Christina Grof).

17
Pat Ogden
Saturday, November 4, 2017, 4:00 PM EDT

Being Present: Philosophical and Spiritual Principles to Guide Practice

Pat Ogden

This presentation will explore the philosophical and spiritual principles foundational to the practice of sensorimotor psychotherapy. The embodiment of principles such as unity, non-violence, and organicity enhances therapeutic presence and creates a compassionate atmosphere for exploring the body as a resource for healing the wounds of the past. A sense of safety is activated in clients, fostering their ability to be present and creating a shared state of consciousness between therapist and client. Within this context, Embedded Relational Mindfulness interventions serve to deepen clients' awareness of the impact of the past on present moment experience and reveal the wisdom of the body. These sage principles and the interventions they inspire can help mental health practitioners, educators, and clients to develop a state of consciousness conducive to growth, healing, and positive well-being. Join Pat to learn:

  • Principles that foster presence
  • Embedded Relational Mindfulness explained
  • The role of the body in healing from past wounds

Bonuses:

  1. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Worksheets (PDF)
  2. Beyond Words: A Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Perspective (PDF)

Pat Ogden, PhD, is a pioneer in somatic psychology and the founder and Education Director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, an internationally recognized school specializing in somatic-cognitive approaches for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and attachment disturbances. Her Institute, based in Broomfield, Colorado, has 19 certified trainers who conduct sensorimotor psychotherapy trainings of over 400 hours for mental health professionals throughout the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. The Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute has certified hundreds of psychotherapists throughout the world in this method. Dr. Ogden is cofounder of the Hakomi Institute, past faculty of Naropa University (1985–2005), a clinician, consultant, and sought-after international lecturer. She is the first author of two groundbreaking books in somatic psychology: Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment, both published in the Interpersonal Neurobiology Series of W.W. Norton. She is currently working on a third book, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Children, Adolescents, and Families, with colleagues. Her current interests include developing training programs in sensorimotor psychotherapy for children adolescents and families with colleagues, Embedded Relational Mindfulness, culture and diversity, couples therapy, working with challenging clients, the relational nature of shame, presence, consciousness, and the philosophical/spiritual principles that guide sensorimotor psychotherapy.

18
Thomas Moore
Saturday, November 4, 2017, 8:00 PM EDT

Psychotherapy as Care of the Soul

Thomas Moore

Etymologically, “psychotherapy” means “care of the soul.” “Care” is a key word, for this particular therapy is not about curing, fixing, or resolving. Based largely on dream work, personal and mythic narratives, and deep exploration of problem issues, it is an ongoing attention to the needs of the soul. In this session, Thomas explores:

  • Understanding the deep definition of the word “psychotherapy”
  • The roots of this approach: C.G. Jung and James Hillman
  • How to do therapy without problem-solving
  • The spiritual dimension in a soul-oriented therapy
  • Living a therapeutic lifestyle

Bonuses:

  1. 10 Hints on Soulful Relationships (PDF)
  2. 10 Hints on Aging Well (PDF)

Thomas Moore, PhD, is the author of the spiritual classic Care of the Soul and over 20 other books on spirituality and depth psychology. He has been a psychotherapist for 40 years and lectures worldwide. His most recent book is Ageless Soul: The Lifelong Journey Toward Meaning and Joy. He is also a musician. He lives in New England and has close connections with Ireland.

19
Richard Schwartz
Sunday, November 5, 2017, 12:00 PM EST

Internal Family Systems

Richard Schwartz

The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model is an effective way of guiding clients to a state of inner clarity and compassion. From this state, clients are able to calm and transform anxious chatter, compulsive distractions, and self-critical thoughts. These parts of the psyche are surprisingly responsive when addressed with respect and patience. In this session, Dr. Schwartz will:

  • Review the history and development of the Internal Family Systems model of therapy
  • Explore and discuss the basic assumptions of IFS in regard to non-pathological multiplicity of mind and the concept of “SELF”
  • Introduce and review the goals of IFS therapy

Bonuses:

  1. You Are the One You've Been Waiting For (PDF book excerpt)
  2. A Free Internal Family Systems Meditation (audio)

Richard Schwartz, PhD, began his career as a family therapist and an academic. With Michael Nichols, he coauthored Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, the most widely used family therapy text in the US. Dr. Schwartz developed Internal Family Systems in response to clients' descriptions of various parts within themselves, focusing on their relationships and organizational patterns. A featured speaker for national professional organizations, Dr. Schwartz has published five books and over 50 articles about IFS.

20
John Welwood
Sunday, November 5, 2017, 4:00 PM EST

Psychotherapy in a Spiritual Context

John Welwood

Psychotherapy rarely teaches how to directly inhabit our experience with mindful awareness. Spiritual practices often bypass the complex wounds that are part of the human condition. However, when we merge psychological and spiritual work, both approaches can increase the growth potential in each. In this session, John Welwood investigates:

  • The benefits of psychological work for spiritual practitioners
  • How psychotherapy works with felt experience
  • Feeling as the flow of the subtle body and the emotions that point to where it is blocked

Bonuses:

  1. False Self, No Self, True Person (PDF)
  2. Holy Longing, Devotion, and the Genuine Heart of Sadness (PDF)

John Welwood, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist specializing in integrating Eastern spiritual wisdom and Western psychology. He has also been a practicing student of Buddhism and Eastern contemplative psychologies for more than 40 years. John has published more than 50 articles on relationship, psychotherapy, meditation, and spiritual development, as well as eight books, including Toward a Psychology of Awakening and the bestselling Journey of the Heart.

21
Pilar Jennings
Sunday, November 5, 2017, 8:00 PM EST

Relating to Otherness: Within and Beyond

Pilar Jennings

This presentation explores our psychological and spiritual efforts to understand and consciously relate to what we experience as “other,” or “not-me” within ourselves, and how these seemingly foreign parts get projected outward and onto others. In the therapeutic process, we explore how these parts come to feel dissonant with our conscious identities, and find ways to make more room for them, even coming to appreciate their needed place in our psychological experience. In spiritual practice, we are encouraged to cultivate compassion and patience for ourselves, and for all beings, especially those we have conflict with. This can facilitate increased capacity for peaceful interpersonal relationships, but can also pave the way to spiritual bypassing and difficulties that remain unresolved. This session with Pilar Jennings will offer ways to consider how spiritual practice and psychotherapy can be used in tandem to grapple with this personal and collective need for increased tolerance for what we see as “other” within ourselves, our loved ones, and in the larger collective. Highlights include:

  • The protective role of dissociation from “not-me” parts
  • Cultivating curiosity about the parts of us we disconnect or split off from
  • How such splitting impacts relationship group life, families, and political systems
  • The conscious withdrawal of projections
  • The role of Buddhist spirituality in addressing otherness, within and interpersonally
  • How Buddhism and psychotherapy converse in efforts to reclaim split-off parts

Bonuses:

  1. To Heal a Wounded Heart: The Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action (PDF excerpt)
  2. A Conversation with Robert Jonas (video)

Pilar Jennings, PhD, is a psychoanalyst based in New York City with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation practice. She received her PhD in psychiatry and religion from Union Theological Seminary, and has been working with patients and their families through the Harlem Family Institute since 2004. Prior to this training, she earned a Master's in medical anthropology from Columbia University and a Bachelors in interdisciplinary writing from Barnard College of Columbia University. Dr. Jennings is a long-term practitioner of Tibetan and Theravada Buddhism, and has studied with senior teachers in both traditions. Her publications have included “East of Ego: The Intersection of Narcissism and Buddhist Meditation Practice,” “I've Been Waiting for You: Reflections on Analytic Pain,” “Imagery and Trauma: The Psyche's Push for Healing,” and Mixing Minds: The Power of Relationship in Psychoanalysis and Buddhism (Wisdom Publications). Her forthcoming book, To Heal a Wounded Heart: On the Transformative Power of Buddhism and Psychotherapy in Action, will be released in December 2017.

22
Bo Forbes
Monday, November 6, 2017, 12:00 PM EST

Getting Under Our Own Skin: Embodiment, Emotional Resilience, and Collective Well-Being

Bo Forbes

Classical yoga, modern contemplative practice, and psychotherapy often hold the view that the mind is our primary vehicle for healing; we train the mind to change the brain and body. And yet, this view overlooks the dynamic interchange between mind, brain, and body. This presentation will highlight the body's role in transformation through “interoception,” or mindfulness of the body. Through the emerging science of embodiment, we'll explore attention to bodily sensation as the ground for visceral resilience and emotional well-being. We'll consider the relationship between somatic inquiry and deep embodiment—a living, breathing practice whose value is illuminated in relationship with others. Bo discusses:

  • Interoception, or mindfulness in the body: what it is and how we can cultivate it
  • The science of embodiment: from visceral resilience to emotional balance to flourishing
  • “Hot spots” for mindful awareness of the body
  • Why it matters now: the role of embodiment in social justice and equality

Bonuses:

  1. Yoga for Emotional Balance (PDF)
  2. Embodied Belly Meditation and Face-Down Burrito Pose (video)

Bo Forbes, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and innovator in mind-body medicine. Her work integrates emerging research in science, psychology, and contemplative practice with decades of experience on the front lines of somatic education. She consults with professional sports teams, organizations, and learning centers worldwide, and is the founder of an online learning company. She is engaged in ongoing multidisciplinary collaborations that explore embodiment, contemplative practice, and social justice. She has written for numerous leading magazines, and is the author of Yoga for Emotional Balance: Simple Practices to Help Relieve Anxiety and Depression.

23
John J. Prendergast
Monday, November 6, 2017, 4:00 PM EST

The Great Intimacy: Stepping Back from and Stepping Through Our Experience

John J. Prendergast

In this presentation we will explore two basic, complementary steps that allow us to be deeply intimate with our experience and with the whole of life. The first step is backwards, where we recognize the unbounded, open nature of awareness itself—which is the common ground of all thoughts, feelings, and sensations. From this more spacious awareness we can more easily step into and through our knots of conditioning and discover their transparent nature. From the light of spacious awareness, core beliefs can be seen through; reactive feelings such as terror, shame, and rage can be felt through; and somatic contractions can be sensed through, revealing their essential qualities and underlying nature as pure awareness. The result is an open-ended unfolding of intimacy. John Prendergast explains:

  • Our essential wholeness, regardless of our personal struggles and psychological conditioning
  • The complementary steps in discovering this wholeness (stepping back and stepping through)
  • Applying “innocent inquiry” to our core beliefs
  • The greatest intimacy called love

Bonuses:

  1. The Great Intimacy (PDF)
  2. The Two Steps Meditation (audio)

John J. Prendergast, PhD, is the author of In Touch: How to Tune in to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself, and the senior editor (with P. Fenner and S. Krystal) of The Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy and (with K. Bradford) Listening from the Heart of Silence: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, V. 2. He is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Rafael, California and a retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at CIIS in San Francisco, where he taught and supervised graduate level counseling students for 23 years. He is the cofounder of (with P. Fenner) and current advisor to the annual Conference on Nondual Wisdom and Psychology, now in its seventeenth year. He is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Undivided: The Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology. John closely studied for many years with the European Advaita master Jean Klein as well as with Adyashanti, and was invited to share the dharma by Dorothy Hunt. He led two self-inquiry groups for over a decade and currently offers residential retreats and online workshops and seminars. For more information or to sign up for his quarterly newsletter, please see listeningfromsilence.com.

24
Dorothy Hunt
Monday, November 6, 2017, 8:00 PM EST

The Play of Presence and Personhood

Dorothy Hunt

Presence cannot be seen but can be felt; it is the open, intimate seeing, sensing, and knowing of experience, unhooked from thought-based separation. A person does not create Presence, yet Presence is the sense of oneness that moves as love for its own expression of being called “person.” This presentation explores the play of Presence and personhood in both psychotherapy and spirituality. Psychotherapy deals with, and often reifies, a personal, constructed “self,” while awakening leads to the disappearance of the separate “experiencer.” Self-improvement is not self-realization, yet no one is separate from the Presence that is both untouched and intimately touching the ever-changing flow of life and experience. Here, Dorothy discusses:

  • Are you a person with Awareness (Presence), or the Awareness that perceives a person?
  • How separation from either our true nature or the truth of the moment creates suffering
  • Why ego (thought-based “self”) is not the agent of Presence, Seeing, or Loving
  • Transforming the energy of an emotion rather than rejecting, controlling, analyzing, attaching to a story, or merely transcending it
  • How uncaused happiness and unconditional love lie just on the other side of personhood

Bonuses:

  1. Who Am I? (audio meditation)
  2. Self-Improvement Is Not Self-Realization (PDF)

Dorothy Hunt serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti. She is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy and has practiced psychotherapy since 1967. Dorothy is the author of Only This!, Leaves from Moon Mountain, and the upcoming Sounds True publication, Ending the Search (Spring 2018). She is also a contributing author to The Sacred Mirror, Listening from the Heart of Silence, (Vols. 1 and 2) Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, and the online journal Undivided. Her poetry has been published in several journals, and she is a featured spiritual teacher in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom.

25
Susan Pollak
Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 12:00 PM EST

Equanimity: A Practice for Turbulent Times

Susan Pollak

To learn equanimity is to develop a steadiness of mind that allows us to be with our ever-changing world. A skill often explored in meditation centers, it is rarely discussed in psychological literature. Especially useful for clinicians, equanimity allows us to sit with whatever arises in our sessions and not be overwhelmed by the pain we see, hear, and feel. In this session, Susan Pollak discusses:

  • How to begin to cultivate equanimity in your life and work
  • How to return to a state of equanimity when knocked off balance
  • Learning the phrases of equanimity
  • Key equanimity meditations
  • Examples of how to integrate this into clinical practice

Bonuses:

  1. Guided Meditations from Sitting Together (audio)
  2. An Essay on the Power of Equanimity (PDF)

Susan Pollak, MTS, EdD, is the President of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and a cofounder and senior teacher at The Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance, where she has taught and supervised for over 20 years. A student of meditation and yoga since childhood, Dr. Pollak has been integrating the practice of meditation into psychotherapy since the 1980s. With Thomas Pedulla and Ronald Siegel, she is the coauthor of Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy.

26
Loch Kelly
Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 4:00 PM EST

Effortless Heart Mindfulness: Discovering the Ultimate Medicine That's Already Here

Loch Kelly

Loch Kelly will present Effortless Heart Mindfulness (EHM) training as both the most effective way to heal trauma and a necessity for embodied awakening. Trauma and shame lead us to feel like a negative “no one.” However, a thought-based “someone” can't live a fully emotional human life. Rather than either spiritually bypassing or psychologically struggling, we can discover our innate Self's inexhaustible resource of well-being, which then loves and liberates our traumatized parts and repressed emotions. Loch discusses:

  • How to shift out of a chattering mind and into peace of mind
  • How to shift into innate Self that is capable of liberating difficult emotional states and wounded parts
  • The practical tools, unique pointers, and supports for your own and your clients' “healing up, waking up, and growing up”

Bonuses:

  1. Living from Freedom (PDF)
  2. Learning How to Access the Ultimate Medicine (audio)

Loch Kelly, MDiv, LCSW, is author of Shift into Freedom: The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness, which was named among the “Top 10 Best Books of the Year” by Spirituality & Health magazine. He is an educator, licensed psychotherapist, and recognized leader in the field of meditation who is affiliated with Adyashanti. Loch is a graduate of Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, where he studied insight meditation, Advaita, and particularly Tibetan Buddhism in Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal. He has worked in community mental health, established homeless shelters, and counseled family members of 9/11 victims in New York City. Loch is the founder of the non-profit Open-Hearted Awareness Institute, and is an emerging voice in modernizing meditation and social engagement. He collaborates with neuroscientists at Yale, UPenn, and NYU to study how awareness training can enhance compassion and well-being.

27
Bruce Tift
Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 8:00 PM EST

Beyond Sanity

Bruce Tift

“Beyond sanity” is the freedom we experience when we consciously participate in open awareness. This awareness has no bias, no position to take—even between neurosis and sanity. Therapy can be understood as a powerful support to our awareness practices through the identification, challenge, and deconstruction of our investment in identity drama and self-absorption. Dissolving our pervasive self-absorption gives rise to a more relaxed and expansive attention and invites the questions: What is aware of this endless stream of experiencing? What is the nature of awareness? This session looks at:

  • How to identify our investment in identity dramas
  • How to practice embodied immediacy and unconditional kindness
  • The stages of dissolving the fantasy of being a problematic self

Bonuses:

  1. Not Self-Acceptance But an Accepting Self (PDF)
  2. Intimacy Is Not the Same as Closeness (video)

Bruce Tift has been in private practice since 1979, taught at Naropa University for 25 years, worked in a psychiatric ward and as a family therapist with social services, and has given presentations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. In his twenties, he traveled for two years by motorcycle in Europe, North Africa, and overland to India and Nepal. He has worked as a laborer, clerk, postal worker, longshoreman, painter, school bus driver, papermill worker, miner, and truck driver. He and his wife, Reva, are now empty-nesters living in Boulder, Colorado. A practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism for more than 40 years, he had the good fortune to be a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and to meet a number of realized teachers. He is the author of Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation.

28
Gabor Maté
Wednesday, November 8, 2017, 12:00 PM EST

Science, Seance, and Psychedelics: Plant Medicines and Mind-Altering Substances in Psychotherapy and Spiritual Work

Gabor Maté

Many cultures since the dawn of history have used mind-altering substances as aids to emotional healing and to spiritual exploration. Interest in such work has burgeoned in the last decade, and for good reason—contrary to Western mainstream medicine, shamanic traditions make no false distinctions between mind and body. A Western-trained medical practitioner, Gabor Maté has found the judicious use of plants and psychedelic compounds helpful in supporting transformation, sometimes dramatically so. In this talk and interview, he will relate his experiences with such modalities in psychotherapy, in the healing of physical illness, in the treatment of addiction, and the theoretical basis of such work. Session highlights:

  • Plant medicines in the shaman's eyes: not drugs, but teachers and healing agents
  • Recent human-invented psychedelic substances that have entered the healing armamentarium as aids in psychotherapy
  • Exciting current research related to the potential impact of psychedelics

Bonus:

  1. Six Key Questions About Addiction (PDF)

A renowned speaker, and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress, and childhood development. With over 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience and extensive knowledge of the latest findings of leading-edge research, Dr. Maté is a frequent speaker and teacher, regularly addressing health professionals, educators, and lay audiences throughout North America. Dr. Maté has written several bestselling books including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction; When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress; and Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder, and co-authored Hold on to Your Kids. His works have been published internationally in 20 languages.

29
Judith Blackstone
Wednesday, November 8, 2017, 4:00 PM EST

The Realization Process: An Embodied, Nondual Approach to Healing from Trauma

Judith Blackstone

Judith will present the Realization Process practices and their application to healing from trauma. She will show how—by attuning to our most subtle, fundamental dimension of consciousness—we can release long-held, trauma-based constrictions from our body and open to both our underlying wholeness and our oneness with our environment. Our nondual spiritual essence is beyond injury. By connecting to it, even deeply rooted effects of trauma can be alleviated. The Realization Process practices also help cultivate authentic boundaries—the ability to remain connected with oneself while experiencing oneness with other people. Judith discusses:

  • How we can each realize fundamental, nondual consciousness
  • How inhabiting our body as fundamental consciousness helps us integrate awareness, emotion, and physical sensation, and contributes to self-acceptance, self-confidence, and deepened perspective
  • How we organize and constrict ourselves in relation to our childhood environment
  • How realizing fundamental consciousness can help us release these somatic organizations

Bonuses:

  1. The Realization Process: Practices for Embodied Nondual Awakening (audio)
  2. The Realization Process: Relational Practices (audio)

Judith Blackstone, PhD, is an innovative psychotherapist and nonduality teacher. She developed the Realization Process, an embodied approach to personal and relational healing and nondual realization. She is the author of Belonging Here, The Intimate Life, The Empathic Ground, The Subtle Self, and The Enlightenment Process. With Sounds True, Judith has also created a six-CD audio-learning program, The Realization Process.

30
A.H. Almaas
Wednesday, November 8, 2017, 8:00 PM EST

The Inseparable Union Between Psychology and Spirituality

A.H. Almaas

Tune in for this special interview with Tami Simon and A.H. Almaas as they discuss spirituality and psychology as inseparable sides of the same coin of consciousness. Tami and Hameed take a deep dive into how to move through the difficult psychological contents that are obstacles to our awakening. They also discuss the shortcomings and gifts of both psychology and spirituality, the Diamond Approach to Inner Realization, the Theory of Holes, childhood trauma and the unconscious, and how to work with both disciplines to experience the individuality and vastness of what we are. One key takeaway is learning about how even the experience of awakening is susceptible to unresolved trauma and deep wounding. Join Tami and A.H. Almaas as they discuss:

  • The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization and how to open up the layers of conditioning that act as a source of many of our emotional and mental states
  • The Theory of Holes: an understanding that when we lose awareness of our essential nature, a hole or felt sense of deficiency develops in its place as an imitation of the essence lost
  • How spiritual traditions train us to move around the contents of our psychology, but that it's by going through them that we truly mature into whole and awakened beings
  • Why we lose touch with aspects of our essence during childhood, and the corresponding impact this has on full human maturation and psychospiritual development
  • The difference between having a separate self and being individuals connected to something vast and eternal

A.H. Almaas is the pen name of A. Hameed Ali, a leading voice in contemporary spirituality who has written more than 14 books, including Runaway Realization and Spacecruiser Inquiry. He is founder of the Ridhwan School, an organization with members in North America, Europe, and Australia, that is dedicated to promoting the Diamond Approach. With Sounds True, he has published the audio-learning program The Diamond Approach and the online courses Endless Enlightenment and Realization Unfolds (with Adyashanti).

dotted quote box

UNDERSTAND THAT many things,
IF NOT EVERYTHING USUALLY CONSIDERED SECULAR,
ARE sacred IF YOU HAVE THE EYES to see it.

Thomas Moore
AUTHOR OF CARE OF THE SOUL
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  • 3 Bonus Books

    Shift into Freedom, Already Free, and Belonging Here
    (1 physical copy of each book)

  • Bonus
    Audio-Learning Program

    The Roots of Buddhist Psychology

  • Bonus
    Presenter Gifts

    Bonuses from the presenters

  • Three bonus books

    3 Bonus books

    Shift into Freedom, Already Free, and Belonging Here
    (1 physical copy per book)

  • Audio learning program displayed on a phone

    Bonus
    Audio-Learning Program

    The Roots of Buddist Psychology

  • Bonus material is displayed in different media formats

    Bonus
    Presenter Gifts

    Bonuses from all 30 presenters

We invite you to get the
The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit
upgrade package today

Single Payment Option
Regular Price of $497 Save $200
TODAY $297
Payment Plan Option
3 Easy Monthly Payments of $99
TODAY $99
We accept Discover, VISA, MasterCard and American Express

We unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction with all Sounds True products for one year when purchased via our website. If you are not 100% satisfied with The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit for any reason, simply return it with receipt for a full refund.

Signed by Tami Simon

Tami Simon, Founder of Sounds True

100% Guarantee Seal

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I register for The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit?

I missed a talk. How can I watch it?

All replays are in video format. They are available for 24 hours after the session was live. Please allow approximately two hours for the video to be available. You can watch them here.
If it has been more than 24 hours, you can purchase all the sessions in an upgrade package here.

When will the downloads I purchased be available?

Your upgrade package will be available approximately two weeks after the summit ends.

How do I contact customer service?

You may contact us Monday—Friday, 8:00am—5:00pm MT.
Email: support@soundstrue.com
Phone: US Customers 1.800.333.9185 #3 International Customers 1.303.665.3151 #3

More »

We invite you to get
The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit
upgrade package today

Single Payment Option
Regular Price of $497 Save $200
TODAY $297
Payment Plan Option
Three Easy Monthly Payments of $99
TODAY $99
We accept Discover, VISA, MasterCard and American Express

We unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction with all Sounds True products for one year when purchased via our website. If you are not 100% satisfied with The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Summit for any reason, simply return it with receipt for a full refund.

Signed by Tami Simon

Tami Simon, Founder of Sounds True

100% Guarantee Seal