Core Energetics

Core energetics is body-centered, evolutionary process originally conceived by psychiatrist John Pierrakos, MD, and an outgrowth of his work with Alexander Lowen in Bio-Energetics. It is an approach that works with movement, touch, breath, and vocal expression, using powerful exercises that sometimes bring focus to, and other times provide perspective on or integration with the body, mind, will, emotions, and spirit. In the broader scheme of things, Core serves to build awareness and contact with energy consciousness, intention, and inspiration. The centerpiece of Core involves work with the body, as a particularly effective way of experimenting and opening to expressions of your emotional, cognitive, and life force. 

Exceptional Relationship Mentoring

The Exceptional Relationship Approach was developed by Marcia and Brian Gleason over the last 20 years. It is an outgrowth and synthesis of somatic relationship psychotherapy (especially core energetics), attachment theory, polyvagal theory, IFS, and more. It is based in the belief that people thrive in accepting, compassionate, and safe environments – and the process guides couples in accessing the intelligence of their bodies and shifting their identification with themselves as separate beings, thereby opening to their connection with each other and the world we live in. As human beings, we often live in a state of alienation from one another, wishing it were different. Our tendency is to hide our most tender places, even with those we are closest to. And yet – what we are afraid to show others is exactly what we need to. Connection happens not only through words, but through a felt exchange that occurs when we learn how to be more authentic with each other. 

I am part of the Exceptional Relationship Collaborative, and I practice this approach with colleague Daniela Zambrana. For more information, visit: https://www.artofrelationship.org/

Integral Coaching

Integral Coaching is a method developed by Joanne Hunt and Laura Devine (Integral Coaching Canada) and based on the concepts of Integral Theory most often identified with Ken Wilber. It provides an integrated structure or map that guides a personal assessment based on different “lines” and “levels” of your whole self (body, mind, emotions, spirit, morality, relationships, and more). Working together we use this map to identify your “learning edges,” which can provide direction for the practice work you will engage in for “strengthening the muscles” needed for your “New Way” in the world. As inevitable resistance comes up towards the work )”I didn’t do my practice!”), we return to Core for digging underneath that struggle. 

Contemplative/Spiritual Practices
Words are elusive when it comes to the topic of spiritual practice. But the one that rises to the top for me is “awakening” – waking up to the essence of who we are that is bigger than the story-driven ego that dominates our daily thinking and behavior. I have maintained regular contemplative practice for over 18 years in yoga and meditation. During the last 10 of those years, my practice has been centered in Zen Buddhism – not so much as a “religion,” but as a teaching for a daily, embodied, and bigger self-life. In particular, I am a practitioner and facilitator of a koan-based process called Mondo Zen.

Mondo Zen is a brilliant teaching conceived by Jun Po Dennis Kelley Roshi (founder and long-time abbot of Hollow Bones Zen) that establishes a solid grounding in embodied meditative awareness. This awareness becomes the basis for deeper understanding and skill-building in working with our emotional and behavioral reactivity in daily life. It supports an expansion of our “life game” from an isolated egoic lens to a free, connected, “Big Self,” that enables a process of “un-selfing.” Ego works relentlessly to define and maintain our identity, roles, and memory in this life. In our early years, this is a very good thing. Later, however, these ego-driven patterns can become an outdated dependency or mindless habit. These patterns and identities – “our story” – are a primary topic of focus in therapy, coaching, and meditation, bathed as they are in feelings and emotions which are vital for our well-being. Awakening practice opens us to the deeper work, broadening the lens needed for connecting to our essential Self. 

All of which circles back to my experience with Core Energetics. By using the practices of awakening to integrate with the spiritual component that is at the heart of Core, we discover that the body is the magical bridge between mind and spirit, ego and connectedness. The result is a life transformed from one built on defense to one of freedom.