Active Pause

Bruce Gibbs talks about what his practices of meditation and Focusing have in common, what is different about them, and how they can enhance each other.

Bruce Gibbs, Ph.D., has explored consciousness, both academically and experientially, for many decades. He has practiced Yoga, Vipassana, and Zen meditation. He teaches Focusing and meditation, has developed a form of Felt Sense meditation, and is dedicated to experimenting with the crossing of the two.

Published April 2021.

Merete Holm Brantbjerg talks about the deeply satisfying bodily experience of finding what sustains her.



Merete Holm Brantbjerg developed Relational Trauma Therapy, a psychomotor and systems-oriented approach. She is an international trainer, group leader, and therapist based in Denmark. See her website.

See other conversation with Merete Holm Brantbjerg.

Published March 2021.

Susan Rudnick talks about mindfulness within the broader context of Buddhism and the Zen tradition.

Susan Rudnick LCSW is a Focusing-oriented therapist in private practice in Westchester NY. She has a long-term practice in Zen Buddhism, and recently has been integrating this consciousness with her roots in Judaism. In her seventies, she wrote and published the memoir Edna’s Gift: How My Broken Sister Taught Me To Be Whole. It is the story of how her differently-abled sister was her life’s greatest teacher. As well she is a published haiku poet, one of which appears in the book New York City Haiku, from the Readers of the New York Times.See her website.

Published March 2021.

Evelyn Fendler-Lee and Serge Prengel have been exploring creative ways to think about thinking in such a way that it opens up new horizons. This process involves sharing some of what comes up as we proceed. We feel that the sharing broadens our exploration as it stimulates further thoughts in you. 

For a transcript, see my article in Medium: Thinking As Movement

Dr. Evelyn Fendler-Lee is an organizational psychologist and person-centered counselor. She developed the online course: “Playfully Engaging Uncertainty to Create Something Original.”  See website. 

Serge Prengel is the editor of Active Pause.

Published January 2021

Shelly Chauhan continues to reflect on her experience dealing with breast cancer. Our first conversation was after she had had her diagnosis. This second conversation takes place after the surgery and the first round of chemotherapy. Among other things, she talks about her experiences with pain.

Shelly Chauhan MSc CPsychol : As a London-based chartered psychologist and executive coach, Shelly has coached hundreds of clients on resilience, leadership, stress management, and emotional intelligence. Shelly works in an integrated way, combining deep, intuitive insight into human behavior with sound scientific knowledge. Drawing on years of research into the neuroscience of connection and wellbeing, along with practical, contemplative exercises such as mindfulness and compassion meditation, Shelly helps clients develop their capacity for emotional regulation, resilience, wisdom, wellbeing, and connection. This approach enables transformational changes across a range of areas including managing anger, anxiety, and stress levels, enhancing self-confidence, self-acceptance, decision-making, and perspective, and building meaningful relationships. Shelly’s approach has a positive impact on the parenting style of her clients, something that led her to write a book, Heartfelt Parenting, published by Robinson in 2020. Shelly’s breathing exercises, based on her four-stage method of emotional regulation, are available on SoundCloud. See website.

Published January 2021

Gregory Kramer talks about integrating Buddhist wisdom with our everyday life.

Gregory Kramer teaches, writes, and is the founding teacher of the Insight Dialogue Community. His primary focuses are sharing a relational understanding of the Dhamma and teaching Insight Dialogue, an interpersonal form of Buddhist insight meditation. He has been teaching worldwide since 1980.

In his new book A Whole-Life Path, Gregory invites us to see the noise, complexity, and challenges of today’s world as doorways to fully embodied Dhamma wisdom. Drawing on decades of meditation, study, and teaching, he explores the essence of each factor of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. He looks at modern life and offers to put all the Buddha’s teachings into practice—individually, relationally, and socially. More than 50 experiential practices allow us to test his guidance—right here, right now. See website.

Published December 2020.

Shelly Chauhan reflects on her experience dealing with breast cancer: “As a psychologist and coach, being diagnosed with breast cancer has enabled me to experience, first-hand, the transcendental power of emotional regulation, self-compassion, and mindfulness. Without the ability to restore a feeling of inner peace and emotional comfort, or the ability to accept, without anger, what life has brought my way, these past few weeks would have felt infinitely more distressing. I feel so much empathy for those people who are dealing with trauma or difficulty without the healing quality of compassion or the tranquillity and ease of simply being present in the moment.”

Shelly Chauhan MSc CPsychol  : As a London-based chartered psychologist and executive coach, Shelly has coached hundreds of clients on resilience, leadership, stress management, and emotional intelligence. Shelly works in an integrated way, combining deep, intuitive insight into human behavior with sound scientific knowledge. Drawing on years of research into the neuroscience of connection and wellbeing, along with practical, contemplative exercises such as mindfulness and compassion meditation, Shelly helps clients develop their capacity for emotional regulation, resilience, wisdom, wellbeing, and connection. This approach enables transformational changes across a range of areas including managing anger, anxiety, and stress levels, enhancing self-confidence, self-acceptance, decision-making, and perspective, and building meaningful relationships. Shelly’s approach has a positive impact on the parenting style of her clients, something that led her to write a book, Heartfelt Parenting, published by Robinson in 2020. Shelly’s breathing exercises, based on her four-stage method of emotional regulation, are available on SoundCloud. See website.

Published November 2020

Jan Winhall and Serge Prengel talk about making meaning. Or, rather, feeling it, sensing into it.

Jan Winhall, M.S.W., R.S.W., F.O.T., is a psychotherapist in Private Practice and Director of Focusing On Borden, a centre for teaching Focusing and Focusing Oriented Therapy. Jan is the author of “Addiction From The Bottom Up: A Felt Sense Polyvagal Model To Treat Addiction” to be published by Routledge in June 2021. Jan teaches internationally and is a lecturer in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. See website. See website.

Published October 2020.

Richard Gillett is the author of It’s A Freakin Mess: How to thrive in divisive times. Here, we talk about how personal and social divisiveness manifests and its huge costs to our physical and mental well-being. We talk about how to change the pain of polarization, and how we feel so much better and become so much more effective when we do so.

Physician, psychiatrist, keynote speaker, and author Richard Gillett received his medical degree from Cambridge University, England, and is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. His work is based on a lifelong personal and professional quest—what does it take for a human being to lead the best possible life, even if circumstances are rough? This quest took him all over the world—he has lived on four continents—and led him to settle in New York State in 1991, where he was granted residency as a “professional of extraordinary ability” before he naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He came to the understanding that much of our suffering is created by a common habit—divisiveness—a mindset that is relatively easy for us to change once we see how we’re doing it. He wrote the book: “It’s A Freakin’ Mess: How to thrive in divisive times.” See website.

Published October 2020. See also:

How to depolarize political conversations

How to overcome your biases by finding common ground

Political conversations tend to bring out activation and polarization. This is not a reason to avoid them. To avoid falling into the pitfalls of polarization, use a mindful approach that fosters curiosity. Instead of defending a position, make it your goal to know more about each other through the discussion. This talk describes a format that helps youmake this a more satisfying experience:

* Explicitly commit to building safety and trust

* Put the issue into a personal context

* Ask a meaningful question

* Discuss lessons learned

You can download a printable PDF transcript of this article. 

Reprint of the article on Medium: How to depolarize political conversations.

This approach was inspired by the structured process developed by Kirk Schneider, President of the Existential Humanist Institute, author of “The Depolarization of America.”

Published September 2020. See also related article: Understanding social myth: Why it’s so hard to find common ground & how to do it.