Proactive Mindfulness: Redefining Personal Growth

What happens when we get polarized? How can we avoid polarization to engage in more enriching discussions?

We touch upon the personal and embodied impact of the polarized mind (or fixation on a single point of view to the utter exclusion of competing points of view).

In this wide-ranging conversation, Bill Epperly discusses his sources of inspiration and renewal as well as the role of vulnerability in awakened living. The conversation ends with a discussion of how to be an awake, mindful person in today’s chaotic, unbalanced world. Bill offers a practice that can help us remain grounded in the present moment during daily life.

Bill Epperly, Ph.D., is an intuitive spiritual guide, healer and coach who guides clients towards embodied awakening and post-awakening healing and integration. Bill has a BS in Biology and a Ph.D. in biochemistry as well as extensive formal training in contemplative Christianity and Zen Buddhism. He is a long-time student of integral spirituality and a Mentor in the Trillium Awakening community. During graduate school, Bill experienced an initial glimpse of non-dual consciousness that re-oriented his life towards spirituality. He works with people of all spiritual orientations, helping them find their unique paths to healing, awakening, and integration. He teaches mindfulness at DePaul University and offers workshops throughout the greater Chicago area. Bill is on the Board of Sacred Ground Chicago and Chicago Area Spiritual Directors. See website.

Published January 2020

Leslie Ellis talks about how working with dreams engages client and therapist in a co-creative process from which much can emerge.

We explore Climate Change from a perspective informed by somatic psychotherapy.

Carmen Joanne Ablack, President of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy (EABP) talks about the association as a polyphonic endeavor.

Carmen Joanne Ablack holds BA Hons in Psychology and Sociology, PG Diploma in Body Psychotherapy, and an MSc in Leading and Managing Health and Social Care (Advanced Professional Practice). She is an individual, group, couples and relationships psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor. She has published on clinical contemporary practice in Body Psychotherapy and Integrative Psychotherapy, intercultural communications, diversity dilemmas, trauma, access to the profession and regulation. Carmen is currently President of EABP. She is a former chair of Chiron Association for Body Psychotherapy and trained with the Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy; additionally she is a registered Gestalt Psychotherapist and Gestalt Group Psychotherapist. Carmen has particular interest in mental health, social responsibility and educational access. She was External Consultant to Pink Therapy (the UK’s largest independent therapy organisation working with gender and sexual diversity). Carmen is a member of the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN) Leadership Group.  See website.

Published December 2019.

David Mars Ph.D. gives us an experiential sense of AEDP for Couples.

This is a continuation of the previous conversation with Lisa Dale Miller… but it can be listened to without listening to the first one. Here, we explore the experience of having a sense of connection.

Lisa Dale Miller, LMFT, LPCC, SEP is licensed to practice integrative psychotherapy in California, New York, and Oregon and is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP). Lisa has been an outpatient clinician for the Veterans Administration San Jose, a teacher of Mindfulness-based Interventions and trains clinicians in the clinical applications of Buddhist psychology. She is a dharma teacher and has been a yogic and Buddhist meditation practitioner for over four decades. Lisa authored a highly-regarded scholarly, clinical textbook on Buddhist psychology for mental health professionals, Effortless Mindfulness: Genuine mental health through awakened presence. Her most recent project is the Groundless Ground Podcast. See her website.

Published October 2019.