[Note: This program is open to new participants while also serving as further training for those who have studied with John Welwood before. It is designed for both those in the helping professions and everyone who is interested in these issues.]
All psychological problems are ultimately spiritual issues— symptoms of disconnection from our capacity to be present with our experience. Conventional psychotherapy rarely teaches people how to directly inhabit their immediate experience with mindfulness and awareness. And spiritual practices often bypass or transcend the wounds and complex experiences that are part of the human condition, without transforming them. But when we bring psychological and spiritual work together, both approaches can complement and enhance one another, increasing the growth potentials in each. Then every experience turns out to contain its own intelligence and every emotional issue or difficulty provides its own kind of spiritual opportunity, as a way to connect with oneself more deeply.
The most important capacity for this kind of work is unconditional presence — the ability to remain open and freely inquire into our bodily felt experience, just as it is, without bias, agenda, or manipulation of any kind. This quality of presence allows a precise tracking of the experiential process, enabling it to unfold naturally in the direction of freedom, truth, and deeper being. As we learn to inhabit the flow of our felt experience, we begin to settle more deeply into the body and heal the inner divisions at the root of all psychological problems. Then the “feeling body” begins to open out into the “wisdom body.”
This weekend will give special emphasis to exploring the body as a gateway to presence. The format includes talks, psychospiritual work, body awareness practice, and some meditation.
John Welwood, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, an editor of The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, and teacher whose work integrates Buddhist teachings with Western psychological practice. His books include Toward a Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation; Journey of the Heart; Love and Awakening; andmost recently, the award-winning Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships .
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