Proactive Mindfulness

In this conversation (February 2014), Susan Rudnick begins with a childhood memory of being exposed to nature, and how from then on, nature has sustained her, thinking that will be the topic. But then the conversation moves to the way she uses embodied presence to bring herself back into a memory, reflect, deepen understanding, connect it to the rich tapestry of her life, and perhaps express in writing. This is a specific use of the mindfulness that she tries to cultivate all the time.

Susan Rudnick LCSW has been in private practice for over thirty years in Manhattan and Westchester. Her special interests include questions of spiritual direction, infertility and adoption, and relationship intimacy issues. She trained analytically at the Karen Horney Institute. Twelve years ago she discovered and fell in love with Focusing. She is a certified Focusing Trainer, and has completed a Focusing based trauma program, led by Shirley Turcotte. She also is part of an ongoing Self Psychology study group. A Zen practitioner, and haiku poet, her chapter, “Coming Home to Wholeness,” appears in the book ”Into the Mountain Stream: Psychotherapy and Buddhist Experience,” ed. Paul Cooper. Susan teaches and supervises for the FORP (Focusing Oriented Relational Psychotherapy) program in New York and South Africa. See her website.

Published February 2014

In this conversation (January 2014), Pawan Bareja talks about the power of myth to inspire us.

Pawan Bareja has practiced Buddhist meditation since 2001. She is a Spirit Rock Ritual Minister and Community Dharma Leader. In her private practice as Trauma Resolution Practitioner, she works with a diverse population of clients and includes mindfulness meditation. As a senior assistant in Somatic Experiencing trainings, Pawan has offered personal sessions and case consults at all levels for the past 10 years. She now teaches mindfulness and trauma classes and daylongs in San Francisco and at Spirit Rock.

Published January 2014

Bruce Ecker has driven the clinical field's recognition of memory reconsolidation research

In this conversation (June 2013), Simona Aronow and Ilene Serlin discuss how spiritual practice and the practice of movement and body mindfulness can go hand in hand.

Simona Aronow, MEd, BC-ADTR, CMA, NCTMB, NCC, KMP facilitates movement for self awareness, expression and transformation. She brings to her healing work 35 years of experience as therapist, supervisor and educator. Simona is a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist specializing in Authentic Movement, and is certified in Laban Movement Analysis and Kestenberg Movement Profiles. In addition, she is a hands on somatic practitioner and a long time student of Kabbalah. Her current passion is working with Authentic Movement and Embodied Spirituality as vehicles for enlivening others on their spiritual journeys. She teaches this work privately and at retreat centers, including The National Havurah Summer Institute, Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, Aleph Kallah, and University of Virginia Mindfulness Center. She is on faculty for the Laban/Bartennieff Movement Studies Training Program, University of Maryland, and the Embodying Spirit En-Spiriting Body Training Program in California. Her private practice is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Ilene A. Serlin, Ph.D, BC-DMT is a psychologist and registered dance/movement therapist in San Francisco and Marin. Past-president San Francisco Psychological Association, FellowAPA, past-president Division of Humanistic Psychology, she taught at Saybrook University, Lesley University, UCLA, the NY Gestalt Institute and the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Editor of Whole Person Healthcare (2007, 3 vol., Praeger) over 100 chapters and articles on body, art and psychotherapy, she is on the editorial boards of PsycCritiques, American Dance Therapy Journal, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Arts & Health: An International Journal of Research, Policy and Practice, Journal of Applied Arts and Health, andThe Humanistic Psychologist.

Published June 2013