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The interplay of acting, playwriting, directing and drama therapy has allowed Leclanché Durand a unique and privileged window into each of these forms of exploration and expression. She often feels like a pioneer of the human psyche in these several worlds, which call upon individual revelation.

Leclanché Durand is an actress, a playwright, and a drama therapist. Her 40-year acting career includes Broadway credits, national tours, and leading roles in many of the nation’s regional theatres. Her 13 film performances include AWAKENINGS, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, and CHAPTER 27.

On stage she has enjoyed the pleasure of working with Joanne Woodward, Geraldine Page, Blythe Danner, Tom Conti, Victor Garber, Zelko Ivanek, Dina Merrill, Keene Curtis, Peter Marshal, Judith Ivey, and Jean Marsh.

Her three plays for young people published by Dramatic Publishing Company have been produced and toured by Lincoln Center Institute.

Published June 2012

The interplay of acting, playwriting, directing and drama therapy has allowed Leclanché Durand a unique and privileged window into each of these forms of exploration and expression. She often feels like a pioneer of the human psyche in these several worlds, which call upon individual revelation.

Leclanché Durand is an actress, a playwright, and a drama therapist. Her 40-year acting career includes Broadway credits, national tours, and leading roles in many of the nation’s regional theatres. Her 13 film performances include AWAKENINGS, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, and CHAPTER 27.

On stage she has enjoyed the pleasure of working with Joanne Woodward, Geraldine Page, Blythe Danner, Tom Conti, Victor Garber, Zelko Ivanek, Dina Merrill, Keene Curtis, Peter Marshal, Judith Ivey, and Jean Marsh.

Her three plays for young people published by Dramatic Publishing Company have been produced and toured by Lincoln Center Institute.

Published June 2012

Kristen Ulmer was a mogul skier on the US Ski Team, but is better known for being the best big mountain (extreme) and overall woman skier in the world as voted by the media and her industry peers. In 2000, the outdoor industry also voted her the most overall extreme woman athlete in North America. In 2003, Kristen abruptly left professional athletics to study with Zen Master Genpo Roshi and develop a radical new approach to sports mindset training. Today she runs very popular mindset-only ski camps called Ski To Live, works with pro athletes and is changing the way sports are taught, and most of all works extensively as a spiritual counselor. Her evolutionary  work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal,  New York Times, Forbes, USA Today, Outside and many more. See her website.

Published April 2012. See other conversation on this site with Kristen Ulmer.

Kristen Ulmer was a mogul skier on the US Ski Team, but is better known for being the best big mountain (extreme) and overall woman skier in the world as voted by the media and her industry peers. In 2000, the outdoor industry also voted her the most overall extreme woman athlete in North America. In 2003, Kristen abruptly left professional athletics to study with Zen Master Genpo Roshi and develop a radical new approach to sports mindset training. Today she runs very popular mindset-only ski camps called Ski To Live, works with pro athletes and is changing the way sports are taught, and most of all works extensively as a spiritual counselor. Her evolutionary  work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal,  New York Times, Forbes, USA Today, Outside and many more. See her website.

Published April 2012. See other conversation on this site with Kristen Ulmer.

In the video below, you can see somebody using the body as a resource in the process of making sense of things. Please keep in mind that the person in this video, Carol “Tandava” Henning, is an actor and dancer who sees belly dancing as a way to embody the sacred feminine. She has developed a higher ability to be aware of her body and to listen to inner movement.

In this conversation, Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi talk about their book, Love, Inshallah, in which 25 American Muslim writers talk about their experience of love.

Ayesha Mattu (left) is a writer and international development consultant. Her writing has appeared in CNN.com, The Huffington Post, the International Museum of Women, Religion Dispatches,  and the award-winning blog, Rickshaw Diaries. She was selected a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the UN Alliance of Civilizations and the ASMA Society in 2009. Ayesha is working on a memoir about losing faith and finding love from which The Opening is excerpted in Love, InshAllah. She lives with her husband and son in Northern California.

Nura Maznavi (right) is a civil rights attorney, writer, and Fulbright Scholar. She has worked with migrant workers in Sri Lanka, on behalf of prisoners in California, and with a national legal advocacy organization leading a program to end racial and religious profiling. Nura is working on a screenplay and several short stories. Nura’s third love—after food and traveling—is California, where she was raised and lives currently.

See their website.

Published March 2012

In this conversation, Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi talk about their book, Love, Inshallah, in which 25 American Muslim writers talk about their experience of love.

Ayesha Mattu (left) is a writer and international development consultant. Her writing has appeared in CNN.com, The Huffington Post, the International Museum of Women, Religion Dispatches,  and the award-winning blog, Rickshaw Diaries. She was selected a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the UN Alliance of Civilizations and the ASMA Society in 2009. Ayesha is working on a memoir about losing faith and finding love from which The Opening is excerpted in Love, InshAllah. She lives with her husband and son in Northern California.

Nura Maznavi (right) is a civil rights attorney, writer, and Fulbright Scholar. She has worked with migrant workers in Sri Lanka, on behalf of prisoners in California, and with a national legal advocacy organization leading a program to end racial and religious profiling. Nura is working on a screenplay and several short stories. Nura’s third love—after food and traveling—is California, where she was raised and lives currently.

See their website.

Published March 2012

In this conversation (February 2012), Astrid Schillings talks about “The-Whole-Body-Focusing”, the place of grounded Being, Spirituality, Mindfulness, pathways of embodiment in her life.

Astrid Schillings’ bio: Focusing came into my life in 1981 when studying psychology. It resonated deeply with my wondering what it is to be human, why we are here. I have been exploring, teaching extensively on the interfaces of Sensitive Body-Awareness, Mindfulness, Meditative enquiry, Inner-Directed-Movement and Focusing. It took years to let it slowly carry forward in my heart into one taste of The-Whole-Body-Focusing. Thank you Kevin McEvenue for your warm support! I teach WBF/Focusing-Oriented-Therapy internationally in accredited trainings for counsellors/psychotherapists like in my Cologne-Centre and to everybody interested. I experience The-Whole-Body-Focusing as a way of embodied enquiry into living being, a dynamic being aware… person to person, person- environment, the more… every day. Therapy, trauma-healing are important applications. In the last 17 years I have been in ongoing conversation with Gene Gendlin on the human body as inter-active awareness.

Published February 2012

In this conversation (February 2012), Astrid Schillings talks about “The-Whole-Body-Focusing”, the place of grounded Being, Spirituality, Mindfulness, pathways of embodiment in her life.

Astrid Schillings’ bio: Focusing came into my life in 1981 when studying psychology. It resonated deeply with my wondering what it is to be human, why we are here. I have been exploring, teaching extensively on the interfaces of Sensitive Body-Awareness, Mindfulness, Meditative enquiry, Inner-Directed-Movement and Focusing. It took years to let it slowly carry forward in my heart into one taste of The-Whole-Body-Focusing. Thank you Kevin McEvenue for your warm support! I teach WBF/Focusing-Oriented-Therapy internationally in accredited trainings for counsellors/psychotherapists like in my Cologne-Centre and to everybody interested. I experience The-Whole-Body-Focusing as a way of embodied enquiry into living being, a dynamic being aware… person to person, person- environment, the more… every day. Therapy, trauma-healing are important applications. In the last 17 years I have been in ongoing conversation with Gene Gendlin on the human body as inter-active awareness.

Published February 2012

A Brooklyn native, Carol Tandava Henning has worked on and around New York stages as an actor, director, writer, producer, bellydancer, theatrical improviser, and stand-up comic. She has studied acting with T. Schreiber, the RSC’s Lisa Harrow and others, and has worked with many theater companies including New Directions, Love Creek and IRT. As a comedienne, she has worked at The Comedy Cellar, Stand-Up New York, The New York Comedy Club and The Comic Strip, and is a Level 5 graduate of the People’s Improv Theater (PIT). She has been devoted to bellydance since 2004 and has studied with countless teachers in NY and Egypt and has performed in the US, Japan, and Taiwan. She is a longtime member of the Jung Foundation’s Analytical Psychology Club and actively applies archetypal principles to her work. She hopes to bring Blood on the Veil to audiences throughout the US and abroad. See website.

Published February 2012