Archive for the ‘Transpersonal’ Category

Beyond Transference and Countertransference

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Beyond Transference and Countertransference

I’d like to bring your attention to a new workshop as part of the 40 Days – Alchemy of Tranquility series. This one, specifically for psychotherapists addresses bringing the perspective of ultimate reality to relativity of the intersubjective field. The main presenter, as always, is Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar, a bona fide Sufi master from an ancient, venerable lineage. He will be joined by a team of therapists and healing professionals, me among them, who have taken on the work of integrating his traditional teachings with contemporary modalities, to offer a secular-spiritual approach to the deeply compassionate work of healing.

This workshop will be offered at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto on the weekend of March 5th & 6th. You can register or find more information here.

upcoming events

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

There are two new events coming up, both on the same weekend in October:

  1. On Sunday, October 24th, I will be presenting, along with Dr. Amineh Pryor and Dr. Arife Hammerle at the Science and Nonduality Conference at the Embassy Suites in San Rafael, CA.  Our panel, entitled The Unity of Ancient Wisdom and Current Research is from 3-4 pm. My talk will be on my favorite subject (and the topic of my doctoral research)  Presence in Psychotherapy.
  2. On Saturday and Sunday, October 23rd – 24th, we will have the first 40 Days workshop of this year’s series at Dominican University, also in San Rafael -details to follow.

Both programs are part of  40 Days: The Alchemy of Tranquility® program offered by the Community Healing Centers in collaboration with the International Association of Sufism (IAS).

The Dignity of Being Human – Spirituality and Psychology Panel

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

On Saturday, June 26th there will be a panel presentation The Dignity of Being Human on spirituality and psychology at the 17th Annual Sufism Symposium. In the past, these panels have been really rich explorations of the multiple ways that spirituality and psychology are related. And after all, why shouldn’t they be? Both are about self-knowledge. Presenters have come from a variety of backgrounds, both psychologically and spirituality, and there has always seemed to be a spontaneous synchronicity between the presentations.

This year promises a very exciting program. The presentations, moderated by Dr. Amineh Amelia Pryor will include:

  • Mary Toth Granick, LMFT – Sufi Psychology: An Integration of Mind, Heart, Body, and Spirit
  • Michelle Ritterman Ph.D. – Stance, Trance, and Transmission: Responding to This Moment
  • Robert Walters, Ph.D. – The Deep Spiritual Wisdom Hiding Within Psychoanalytic Texts

The panel is from 3 – 5 pm at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Rafael. Cost is $30 and there are CEUs available for MFTs.  AND you can register online!

Before Freud…

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

At the Association Transpersonal Psychology conference last weekend I heard a wonderful presentation by Mark Ryan on the work of F.W.H. Meyers, an little known and under appreciated figure in the history of psychology. Meyers was a major influence on both William James and Pierre Janet and laid, according to Ryan, the foundation for what is now known as Transpersonal Psychology.

Ryan proposed the following five seminal contributions of Meyers’ work:

  1. The application of rigorous empirical methods to the study of subjective experience.
  2. The assertion of the reality of spiritual experience and the inadequacy of materialism to address it.
  3. An extensive map of the psyche as a spectrum of consciousness.
  4. A view of the unconscious as an avenue to transcendent experience and higher human potential.
  5. Belief in the evolution of consciousness.

In recent years there has been a rediscovery of Meyers’ work and a deepening appreciation of his contribution to psychology in general, and Transpersonal Psychology specifically. A comprehensive review of his work and integration with current developments in the field can be found in the encyclopedic Irreducible Mind (Kelly et al, 2007). Thanks go to Mark Ryan for presenting this voluminous topic in a clear and accessible manner.

Kelly, E. F., Kelly, E. W., Crabtree, A., Gauld, A., Grosso, M., & Greyson, B. (2007). Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Jamal’s Blog

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Welcome to my blog. The intention of this blog is to connect. With whom would I like to connect? Hopefully, my extended community of people with shared interests, such as:

• transpersonal psychotherapy
• presence
• the process of conducting psychotherapy
• spirituality and psychology
• integrative therapy
• psychotherapy theory
• research about effectiveness in therapy
• mind-body approaches
• giftedness
• creativity
• indigenous psychologies

So, who might be interested in this site?
• clients or potential clients
• other therapists
• healers
• friends
• anyone who is interested in my work

The hub of my professional work is “presence,” researching both clinically and academically how it manifests in the process of psychotherapy.

Something of note: I am intentionally not separating this blog into a commercial site (i.e., for clients) and professional site (i.e., for colleagues). I am doing this as an experiment. After all, I claim to be “holistic”, among other things. If the arbitrary separation of the individual into “parts” (e.g., mind, body, spirit) is reductionistic, perhaps separating my community into “consumers” and “practitioners” is as well.

We are all growing. We are all learners. Knowledge is not the exclusive property of any particular interest group. So, I am hoping that this site will be a place where I can express myself transparently, in the context of my work, and engage community from that position.

My purpose or intention for this blog is:
• to connect with my “tribe”, by which I mean a community of shared interests and values
• to express my professional self in a public venue
• to share resources, as I come upon them
• to bring my work, both clinical and academic, into a larger domain
• to invite dialogue
• to elicit co-participation in research
• to provide updates on my professional activities