|
WELLNESS
No matter where we are, whether it be very healthy, suffering a
chronic disability or facing a
terminal illness, we have the
potential of experiencing higher levels of wellness. Despite conventional wisdom,
wellness is not just the absence of disease. It's a direction, a
choice, not a
static state. It's a dynamic process
of investigating where we are and how we can move ourselves to a
more vibrant and fulfilling life, living our purpose.
A potent means for achieving more balance
in our lives comes by investigating our well-being within
12 areas
of experience including self-responsibility and love, breathing,
sensing, eating, moving, feeling, thinking, playing and working,
communicating, intimacy, finding meaning, and transcending.
By being asked powerful questions, learning
how change actually happens, and using effective instruments
and resources, you design your own wellness plan and implement it
with my ongoing guidance and support. It is a highly personalized process
that helps you to negotiate what can often be a maze of confusing
and conflicting information. There are no "magic bullets," just a
process that takes you to your own doable plan of action and its
successful implementation, the rudiments of which you will continue
using for a lifetime. Clients I coached in the late 70's have said
that what we began then is still the rock-solid foundation for their
ongoing wellness process today.
Check out the
Wellness Inventory
and take the tour. It is a whole-life assessment and support
tool that will help you to achieve your best life.
back
INTERPERSONAL NEUROBIOLOGY
This exciting new interdisciplinary field
of scientific understanding melds the newest findings from
neuroscience, attachment theory, psychology, and sociology into a
profound understanding about our human "hardwiring" and how this
understanding can create a kind of relational connectivity that is
often described as spiritual experience.
Relationships actually shape the human
brain through the activation of neuronal pathways. Through
scientific study of the human brain we have come to understand the
profoundly interconnected nature of our minds. We are born
with only about 25% brain development. It is primarily through our
relationships that the brain develops and the mind emerges. With
this new understanding, neuroscience allows optimal human growth.
The brain's awe-inspiring ability to transform itself (called
neuroplasticity) throughout the life cycle is generating new hope
and optimism for our capacity for positive change in lasting
and significant ways. The key is human connectivity.
When asked about the most surprising
feedback Interpersonal Neurobiology pioneer Dan Siegel, MD,
has received about his highly acclaimed scientific book, The
Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape
Who We Are, he replies that consistently it is the number of
people who report experiencing having spiritual experiences from
reading his book. He says, “Interpersonal Neurobiology is a very
grounded, scientifically informed approach that can help promote
spirituality in the sense of connectivity,
because it’s all about how we are
wired to connect with each other and how human connections create
and shape neural connections and those are the connections that in
turn shape our psyches.” The dictionary definition of the psyche
includes the mind, the intellect, the spirit, and the soul.
Employing Mindsight (utilizing insight
from one's own experience and empathy for another's experience) we
literally reshape our brains while we reshape our relationships.
back
COUPLES AND
FAMILY
What is it you want from your intimate relationships? How do your
reactions to your thinking keep you from getting what
you want? Are there alternative ways of seeing your situation? Are
you hearing what the other is saying and are you saying what
the other can hear? How can you use your strengths and the
strengths of your intimates more effectively?
Utilizing proven techniques and information from leading
relationship and brain researchers, I help
you sort through the obstacles and create more of the relationships you want. I guide you through the process of repairing
relational ruptures and gaining an understanding about how you can
better create intelligent and compassionate
relationships.
back
POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Positive Psychology is a young endeavor in the field of psychology.
Its principles have been practiced in small enclaves of the field
for many years, but it has not achieved the widespread usage and
validation that it is beginning to enjoy today. It is, in brief, the
science that builds human functioning and fulfillment.
It is a strengths-based approach. Rather than looking at what's
broken, it looks at what works and ways to enhance and amplify it.
Prior to World War II, psychology had three objectives: 1) curing
mental illness, 2) helping people to live more fulfilling lives and
3) identifying and nurturing genius or high talent. After WWII, with
the creation of the Veterans Administration and the National
Institute of Mental Health, and the availability for grants for the
study of mental illness, the focus shifted heavily to the first
objective and, by and large, forgot about the other two. The result
has been that great strides have been made in the understanding of
and successful therapy for many formerly intractable disorders.
However, in doing so, the other two objectives were largely forgotten.
Since the 70's more people have become interested in prevention. The
groundwork was being laid for over 30 years by many like-minded
scientists and clinicians toward a more positive framework. In
recent years the cultural zeitgeist has changed. The time is ripe
for a new direction that supports and enhances the good work already
being done.
In 1998, Martin Seligman, PhD had just been elected as The American
Psychological Association's president. He called for a new focus on
fostering strengths, optimism and resilience, emphasizing prevention
rather than only repairing weaknesses. Thus, with the collaboration
of other renowned researchers like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD and
Chris Peterson, PhD, and many others, Positive Psychology was
officially launched so that we might expand out to the often neglected
other two
objectives of psychology, lending to them the full weight of
scientific inquiry.
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, both brilliant and talented
clinicians, attempted this in their Humanistic Psychology movement
in the 1960's and 1970's. But, in the end, they both admitted that
they had not achieved their aim of bringing their work into the
mainstream because their theories had not been scientifically
researched and documented. Positive Psychology's founders are
preeminent researchers who are determined not to make the same
mistake. Millions of dollars in grant money is being awarded to
researchers who are asking questions about what is right (rather
than what is wrong) and what is working (rather than what is not
working). They are asking about
the preventative buffers to mental illness, what are happiness and a
fulfilled life and how do we achieve them, and what are the best ways to
identify and build on our strengths?
In my work using Positive Psychology, I am standing on this solid
foundation of research, experimentation, and innovation. I continue
to find that the results are remarkable.
Each person has a "set range" of happiness
depending on many factors including cultural factors,
genetics, life experience and cognitive styles. When engaging in
this work, we seek to raise our experience to the top of our own
personal set range; we do not endeavor to be who we are not. Indeed,
it is in discovering and utilizing our strengths that we become more
of who we are and find more solid footing for a fulfilling and
peaceful life.
back
ELDER TALES
Learning how to tell your life stories is an amazing
process. With easy techniques, you learn how to create a safe space
for your listeners and yourself, you see your stories in a new light
with fresh eyes, and the meaning of your life comes into
focus with renewed appreciation. As one client put it, "Everything
is so much better now that I have my story straight." What a
wonderful gift for someone you love.
I can also teach you to work with your
loved-ones, to draw out their stories.
When loved-ones are gone, all we have left are their stories and our
memories.
back
|
