Global Crises: We Don’t Have to Hit Bottom...

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...emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually! This past week while preparing for a training presentation for addiction therapists, I was struck by several themes, and indeed wisdoms, that speak directly to the multidimensional and interconnected global predicaments that are swirling around all of us. I had re-read the words of the late M. Scott Peck, M.D., author of the all-time bestseller The Road Less Traveled when he stated "I believe the greatest positive event of the 20th century occurred in 1935 with the convening of the first AA meeting. It was not only the beginning of the self-help movement and the beginning of the integration of science and spirituality at a grass- roots level, but also the beginning of the community movement. I think of addiction as the sacred disease. Very probably, God created alcoholism in order to create AA, and thereby spearhead the community movement which is going to be the salvation not only of alcoholics and addicts, but of us all."

In my sharing with the group on the evolution of the healing (and recovery) tools of the community movement such as Stage One and Stage Two Recovery, Somatic Experiencing and Focalizing, I was also aware of some key elements that I’ve integrated into the latter with group settings. These insights and tools incorporate Otto Scharmer’s (from MIT) teachings and his book Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges about learning from the shared inter-connected field of our existence, Bert Hellinger’s “spiritual constellations,” and World Café methodologies centering on “conversations that matter” and discovering new opportunities for action.

Personally having “recovered” from a multitude of both personal and community crises, I for one will not sit by and feel un-empowered and/or victimized by our present circumstances. On some level we all felt them coming, and I encourage us to face them head–on with the tools at hand. As we in addictions work know, we don’t have to hit bottom. We can halt the downward spiral of victimization and provide assistance no matter how far down we have already gone. High-bottom or low-bottom, everyone can recover from the disease of victimization with the help of a strong support system and knowledge of the energetic field that supports us all — a creative vortex where there is “magic in the air” supporting great discoveries from deep inner journeys and allowing us a source of collective mastery.

I am “dynamically linked” to a number of inspiring people, treatment centers and healing organizations. It will be my mission to engage a conversation with them in the days and weeks ahead about how we can organically meet our collective challenge in ways that allow us to move forward with grace and dignity and at the same time benefit all. Never before in history has our human, global inter-connectedness been so tangibly obvious — to have a blind spot to this and not seize the moment would be a tragedy.

If you are wondering how you can start in your own course of action in alignment with my own, I have a few suggestions to offer: (1) Since whole-hearted acceptance is always the pivotal shift to meaningful transformation, I invite you to listen (in a full-bodied relaxed way) to this 6 minute spoken meditation by Bert Hellinger titled Consenting (by the way, it also inspired the naming of a vibrational essence organically created over the last year in a collaboration between myself and Shabd Sangeet Khalsa). (2) Read a brief, yet powerful excerpt from Otto Scharmer’s book here and some of the above links or search your own stirrings and note if an inner voice calls you to action, no matter how small or large, (3) take that action and observe what happens. Lastly, stay tuned and I will keep you posted on the organic process with this recovery that I begin with this writing. Contact me if that would be your calling, we don’t want to be in this alone.

PS: There are still a few openings in the November 8th NY workshop on Hellinger's Work & Focalizing, consider joining us.

Good Summer, Vehicle Demise & Organic Happenings

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The weather has mostly been great on weekends making for a restorative and very pleasant summer. My nineteen year old station car that gets me home on Thursday nights has seen its demise, with my needing to call AAA three times. It has served me very well. In the same magical way I wrote about that vehicle coming to me in the book Ritual As Resource, a new one (this one only nine years old!) came to me in a similar way, without hassles or time that I did not have to waste for looking. I feel fortunate and blessed once again, and in many ways.

A lot has been organically emerging in shadow of summer activities. I have been exploring the benefits of very specially designed Orchid Essences used to enhance Focalizing made by internationally known botanist Shabd Sangeet Khalsa - a client who came from Alaska a year ago to work with me, and later became a collaborator. She is a very talented and gifted woman. So far, the results have been quite amazing with my clients, even in my own personal growth with this vibrational medicine, an expansion of, and complement to somatic and energetic healing. We are currently preparing more info on this for the web site to give you the full story. Stay tuned!

As summer closes, projects are aligning for the fall and winter. I've been invited to do a morning therapist training (Oct 22) by Sierra Tucson, Inter-Care and Marworth on "Somatic Experiencing & Focalizing: An Integration of Innovative, Soulful & Energetic Approaches to Addiction and Trauma Healing." Click here for deatils. On Saturday November 8th I've been invited to do another Special Saturday on Bert Hellinger's "Family Constellations and Focalizing," this experiential one-day workshop is sponsored by the Institute for Authentic Process Healing (IAPH) and my co-focalizers will be Christina Casanova and Jan Crawford. For registration & more info click here.

A one-hour DVD interview I did last spring for a grant proposal on intergenerational healing and the Holocaust is in the process of being re-edited as brief video clippings for this web site; another reason I hope you'll stay tuned. I'm excited about this, when I replayed and watched the DVD and heard my spontaneous heartfelt answers to questions posed in the interview I heard a new clarity. And, this leads me to yet another new initiative, furthering my work with adoptee healing; IAPH has created "The Adoption Healing Project" which will include the use of adoptee focus groups and full day workshops culminating in a multi-CD series for adoptees to use on their own. This will evolve over the next year.

Wow, and this is just what's coming to me at the moment. It boggles my mind that in my “silver years,” I can have all this coming to me while still conducting a full-time, dynamic private practice. I feel so blessed and honored because I've lived to see many miracles in my own life and in those all around me. I mosey into the fall season with a glow in my heart and a new but older station car…..:-) to keep me writing & renewing at the foot of the Catskills.

More to come….

Independence Day Transformation

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My Independence Day weekend has been one of reflection and easy socializing. On the reflective side, a colleague and friend, Christian de la Huerta, shared last week about his first ten years of life living in Cuba under an oppressive regime. People went to sleep every night fearing a knock on the door. Nobody felt safe. For him, coming to this county was a miraculous lifting of his and his family’s daily terrors. I’m refracting this with the media version of “Patriotism” that is banging us on the head in such complex ways. For me, it’s not a “my country, right or wrong,” yet I feel blessed to live with the personal freedom that allows me to explore and share my discoveries and live as full and rich a life as possible. This was a gift from the toil of our founding fathers; and a part of a very mysterious process of human evolution. America is still a bold experiment on the world stage.

Some feel that this bold experiment has seen its best days and, with global shifts expanding daily and poor and uninformed choices made by our leaders, we will never be what we once thought we were. That would be impossible. Yet, we can be something even better, as a measure of my independence; I can receive a magazine like Ode - a print and online publication about positive news, about the people and ideas that are changing our world for the better. As a member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (who recently published the book Living Deeply that utilizes ten years of scientific research to demonstrate the global consciousness of the moment and its preparedness to positively shift from the individual out), this freedom to explore human consciousness is a treasure I cherish beyond words.

The media gives us content that they have access to or are fed and fits with the mainstream. What we don’t get is news of the gigantic force (organizations, groups, individuals) that challenge themselves daily to find and live in the constructive energy of making a better world. IONS, mentioned above, was founded more than thirty-five years ago by Edgar Mitchell, one of the early astronauts who walked on the moon. On the return flight he saw the earth as a living, throbbing blue orb in the galaxy that made him feel part of a living home base and the universe it resides in. His attempts to better understand this experience in consciousness led to the founding of IONS.

I believe that this country still has the ingredients to become a respected leader on the world discovery stage at even greater levels than before. If you want to share (or argue) with my quietly held belief, I ask you to start with two simple steps (1) Join IONS & their Shift-in-Action program and read their 2008 Shift-in-Action Progress Report. It is astonishing! (2) Join (virtually or otherwise) the efforts of many who for the past approximately eight years have been lobbying the U.S. Congress to establish a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence. Originally proposed in the nineteen thirties to offset our expenses with war, it is now gaining momentum. We sorely need an infrastructure for bringing together our leaders who can help us create peace and healing. The “technology” already exists. Let us be the ones to gather this wisdom and make it accessible globally. This would give us back the vigor and respect that make the distinction “independence” cogent and timely. We need the grounding of an authorized and fully appropriated federal agency that could help focalize the restoration of the planet, make better lives us and for our kids, and make us feel good that we are part of the solution, not passively allowing obvious problems to escalate.

These recommendations are but the tip of the iceberg as what is presently available and known, and what actions are already taking place. Start with these two and others will present themselves. Do so and I promise that next year there will be a new uplifting experience to your Independence Day!

As a practitioner of the healing arts, I know the value of coming out of our conditioned personal world and cultures and experiencing a felt awareness of enlarged realities that sometimes help us find our place in it all. From my everyday bits and pieces, I’m thrilled that the Focalizing.com web site sent out its first newsletter; download it here. Personally, I’m both proud and humbled by the articles in it. Sign up to receive your own future copies of future issues here.

One last thing, in my media encounters over the year’s one public radio interviewer named Nicholas Cimorelli really impressed me with his breath of knowledge, wisdom and warmth. Recently, Nicholas interviewed me again and the dynamic discussion is now an audio pod cast (and discussion segments) and can be heard at our web site any time. There is also a transcript to download for those who prefer reading: The interview was titled Focalizing: An Energy Psychology for the 21st Century (click title for podcast).

Wishing you a great summer!

Three Cool Things to Share

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At the Caron Foundation’s annual awards breakfast in New York City on Friday, May 9th, I was honored with the “Unsung Hero” award for my contributions to the addiction communities. I was nominated by Crossroads, Antigua. They wrote a thoughtful piece for the presentation and the program. Read it here… I am deeply honored and thank Lisa Baruch (in photo) of Crossroads for escorting me to the event.

I’d like to do a little sidebar here for those who don’t identify with being in addictions recovery. As far as I’m concerned, addiction isn’t limited to alcohol, drugs, sex, or gambling; we can be addicted to our conditioned thinking. That is a serious addiction that keeps us from feeling whole and alive and having our needs met. So, in one-way or another, we’re all addicted and can fit into this addiction recovery paradigm.

Secondly, the book I’ve been encouraging folks to read The Untethered Soul written by Michael Singer and published by the Institute for Noetic Sciences just won the Nautilus Book Award conceived to recognize world-changing books, and to celebrate how they contribute to positive social change, spiritual growth, conscious living, high-level wellness, and responsible leadership. I am very pleased and affirmed to hear that others find the rich spirit in this text.

Lastly, as a courtesy to those of you who read my musings I am offering the entire 32-page text of Organic Solutions to Real-Time Challenges: An Introduction to Focalizing as a FREE down, simply click here…

After a busy week upcoming, I’m off for some R&R and will be back in early June with more tidbits and my first newsletter in a long time.

Enjoy the spring flowers!

A Jam-Packed Weekend

After a very full week of private practice I spent Friday afternoon reviewing the transcript of an interview of me by psychotherapist and health journalist Nicholas Cimorelli. He titled the 60 minute interview Focalizing: An Energy Psychology for the 21st Century; a transcript is available by simply clicking on the preceding title. I was pleased with the outcome and look forward to the interview in a pod-cast format on this web site in the next week or so for folks to listen to or download.

When that was done my partner Elias & I went uptown to set-up for Saturday’s Family Constellations & Focalizing workshop. I’m pleased to report that the workshop was a huge success. In my introduction, I placed our work in a Focalizing context and Cristina Casanova and Jan Crawford did about seven very moving “constellations” with our twenty participants. The participant response has been very affirmative with a big email buzz following the event and asking for more. One participant Robbie Tucker wrote of her experience the following day in a workshop review (click bold to read).

In the ongoing power of this Family Constellation healing methodology (I unknowingly expanded on the constellation I did and blogged on 11/06 concerning my dad(s), on Sunday afternoon we went to Long Island to have lunch with the 91 year-old dad that raised me. It was a brief visit as I had evening plans in the city. Just before leaving, my dad called me aside and honored me with a very private gift that was beyond anything I could have ever expected, and I was deeply touched. This Bert Hellinger Family Constellation work just keeps going, (it’s subtle & powerful) like the Eveready rabbit!

Sunday evening I went to a meeting with some of the Institute for Authentic Process Healing (IAPH) community members. It was intended to be a planning meeting and I found myself observing, as well as participating in our process. We planted seeds for some new events and necessary fund-raising, but that was not the most significant part for me. The meeting provided me with a new direction for the community as it is emerging and I have been allowing it to evolve and sharing it with community members as I am able with very enthusiastic responses. This is the same twenty-two year old community that has supported my research and I am forever grateful to the group and individuals. I’ll share more on this as it materializes.

This weekend I rest, reflect, integrate and continue my sharing process.

Enjoy the best of spring, Michael

Spring Awakening…

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While continuing to be blessed with a dynamic practice, I find myself continually inspired and in a state of awakening in many ways: currently I’m almost finished with Michael Singer’s new book, The Untethered Soul. I have found this groundbreaking book so nourishing to my soul and psyche that I have a number of my clients reading it along with me. Concurrently, I’ve joined Oprah Winfrey in her ten-week 90 minute live webinar event with Eckhart Tolle going chapter by chapter through his book, A New Earth. Over five million people logged on and have been participating from all over the world. Now into its fifth week (all shows are still downloadable) this is a world wide web and consciousness phenomena! Both books are charting a new direction and shift in conscious awareness that is truly liberating!

I am constantly amazed at my own journey and I’ve been finding new clarity and a ground of BE-ing that feels like a spring blooming of sorts. Recently, I was invited to write an article for an Italian psychotherapy magazine’s upcoming issue with the theme of “courage.” It was a great opportunity for me to make distinct what I refer to as “Conscious Courage.” In short, Conscious Courage is a state of BE-ing; it is a coming into our self through our heart and life-force allowing us to face challenges, difficulty and fear, instead of withdrawing from it. With all the energy and somatic psychologies that are available to us now, mindful courage is required if we are to face both the personal and global challenges confronting us as we struggle to heal our lives and world. As soon as the article is published, a copy of it will appear on this web site in English.

A couple of weeks before, I was interviewed for a documentary on intergenerational healing for individuals with Holocaust legacies. While on camera, I was reminded yet again of what a great opportunity trauma resolution represents for mankind. I have personally witnessed the healing of individuals with survivor legacies, and I recognize how much conscious courage is required to enter the healing domain. If we could take an example like genocide to demonstrate that mass societal healing is in our grasp, who knows how fast that healing could migrate to the many other troubled areas in our world? Could this not aid in a resolution to all types of human suffering and global challenges?

As an fyi, coming up on April 19th is an all day workshop titled Family Constellations & Focalizing: Energy Psychologies for the 21st Century and sponsored by the Institute for Authentic Process Healing (IAPH). It was fully enrolled to an enlarged capacity less than two weeks after posting it. This too is very exciting. So many people are open and looking for ways to more gracefully move forward in these complex and confusing times. We will be planning another similar event soon, please get on emailing list (on this site) if you’d like to attend or call or email your interest. The following day there will be a grass-root IAPH meeting to explore and plan events for remainder of the year. Volunteers with skills are always welcome for help with this nonprofit endeavor, simply email for details.

I’m already looking forward to summer! More soon!

Organic Healing through Cyberspace!

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I was reminded, once again, that organic happenings take time, the very personal as well as the professional. The Graceful Guidelines for Sexual Healing text from articles page on this web site was first written for a magazine ten years ago this month, it has been re-edited and reprinted in many venues. What a delight for me to receive the below email acknowledgment this week and to reflect that the message still resonates in a such good way for folks:

Hello Dr. Picucci,

I wanted to write to thank you for your article "Graceful Guidelines for Sexual Healing." I found so much of it to be relevant to my own experience, and am grateful for it.

I'm a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and have been in therapy for about two years now. I began in traditional cognitive therapy, but didn't begin making the strides I am now making until I began seeing an Somatic Experiencing practitioner. I found SE to be completely transformative and I'm now actually training to become an SEP myself.

As far as your article goes, I found that I'm really having to emphasize the sacredness of sex to myself as I begin the somewhat awkward journey into starting to have sex from a loving place rather than a compulsive place. It is scary to be in my body for the very first time while being sexual. It's taking a lot of time to process and integrate, but I chose a loving, intuitive and conscious partner to take this journey with me. The moments in which I've succeeded in staying present with everything that goes on in me, I have been amazed by how beautiful sex can be, and how raw and pure intimacy can be. It's also interesting what you say about revisiting adolescent awkwardness---I've discovered, by tracking myself somatically, that each developmental stage is alive in me and wants to experience being sexual (without my interference) and that that is how I can manage to be fearless and stay embodied during sex. I didn't know that that was possible, or that there was a part of me that was still childlike, whole and intact after what happened to me. I am so glad that that part still has healthy curiosity and wonder, and will develop with my support.

Anyway, thank you again for your wonderful article. I imagine it would be important to anyone interested in healing sexually, but to people for whom there's no choice but to develop loving consciousness about sex if they want to have it at all, it really means a lot.

All the best, Salima

[thank you, Salima]

Family Constellations & Focalizing: Energy Psychologies for the 21st Century

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The major problems of our time are systemic; they cannot be understood in isolation. They need a systemic, or holistic, approach to be solved. - Fritjof Capra


Capras’ statement illuminates my experience. Cristina Casanova, Jan Crawford and I recently planned April 19th as the 1st in a series of Special Saturdays called Family Constellations & Focalizing (click bold title for full details); it is our approach to manifesting Capras' statement. Bert Hellinger’s techniques are drawn from his many years of developing Constellations for healing and restoring the natural flow of life. Personally, Hellinger’s unique observations have brought to light and resolved a long-time personal struggle of mine (see 11/19/06 entry below). My take on the distinction between Hellinger’s Constellations work and Focalizing and all other energy psychology healing processes I’m familiar with such as Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Wave Work, Healing Imagery, Thought Field Therapy, among many others, is that they make us more resilient, whole, and capable of meaningfully connecting with our world. As a result, our healing gets rooted and grounded, or what I refer to as becoming vertically integrated. What I experience as profoundly different vis-à-vis Hellinger’s work and Focalizing is that accessing our ancestries we can restore the “hidden order of love” and resolve unseen entanglements. This produces a palpable and felt-sense horizontal integration of healing energy. We become less the “reach-outers” attempting to pull in what we desire to us.

Focalizing, albeit a newer matrix in the energy psychology family, weaves and envelops an individual in a vortex of healing energy and, in effect, re-organizes emotional and psychological DNA and works on our “3rd dimension.” The goal and outcome of focalizing is to get us to the place where we can rest into a place of serenity and grace thereby allowing intentions, needs and desires to become fully and freely self expressed and manifested. In a sense, the chase is over as we learn to just be with the wholeness of life’s’ paradoxes.

I invite you to join Cristina, Jan and me on April, 19 as we eagerly share our learning and experiences of these remarkable transformative tools. If you are unable to attend, stay tuned for a full report.

iPhoto Expresses 30 Years of Recovery

Over the last several months, I’ve acquired a new digital camera and a Mac and much to my surprise, I’m having a ball with iPhoto. Hence, the new images, I hope they help to convey my ongoing discoveries on multidimensional levels. Pictures do speak a thousand words and these in particular evoke many feelings. When I view them while aware of my felt senses, with judgment suspended and an open heart, I’m flooded with good feelings.

That’s me in Maui on the right in late December outlining the “talk” I gave for Crossroads Centre and the Staged Recovery Project @The Institute.Org in NYC last week. On the far left is Lisa Baruch of Crossroads and Ana Venezia of The Institute flanking “happy me” at the event. It was an honor to be with an addictions recovery community on the same evening that marked my own 30th anniversary in the recovery process, a challenging journey beyond my wildest dreams.

It was a hard-hitting presentation, as I had my first opportunity to share a larger context of my own faceted recovery work that has informed my research and inspired my experience; all the while expanding my horizons and creating shifts in perception. I was able share an authentic story of how I developed fresh eyes and ears on the most graceful ways of healing through Stage Two recovery. This stage has the power to relieve our bodies from “pockets” of frozen trauma energy which keeps us unconsciously repeating unrewarding (or destructive) behaviors or in isolating from what we want most. These energies are fragments of trauma lodged in our nervous system that disconnect us from ourselves and our worlds while causing havoc and keeping us in a state of dysregulation.

I also shared for the first time publicly the pivotal life experience in 1989 that began my shift from a linear, cognitive and emotional healing framework to prioritizing somatic and body-oriented paradigms resulting in the possibility of having a more graceful and efficient healing process without shame or blame. This is a big time saver. When we shift our consciousness to the body and energy fields we can experience ourselves from a more evolutionary perspective thereby eliciting more compassion for ourselves and others.

The group that attended ranged from individuals a week in recovery to others with more than thirty five years under their belt. Some of the newcomers fretted at the idea of yet another stage of recovery, this is understandable. Yet, similar to a staged treatment process for other illnesses the foundation stage of healing supports and makes possible that which follows in order to access even deeper healing. I sensed for many it was an evening of seed planting and the take-home message offered was to consider that an addiction is the cannibalizing of our psychic energy and soul and that recovery is the clearing and making of space for love and wholeness to manifest.

I am grateful to Crossroads and the Staged Recovery Project for this opportunity and to the Freedom Institute for hosting it. A great 30th anniversary, indeed!

Aloha to "Tipping Points" in 2008

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The winter solstice, December 21, 2007 was an unusually quiet day spent all by myself on a condo terrace in Maui while visiting our dear friends and colleagues Drs. Tom Kane and David Shaw, who were our holiday hosts. I was deep in thought and pondering: The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies & Possibilities. The book and it’s messages have been resonating with me the for the last six months knowing that the 2012 winter solstice is just five years away. My take away message is that the date represents a major tipping point for the human race. While I personally hold that time as a metaphor, I also experience rapid movements and major shifts in the human experience and perceptions, beyond what previously occurred.

While reading these articulate and lucid essays from twenty-six renowned experts on the 2012 possibilities, my own possibilities continue to unfold. As it so happens, I’ve been invited on January 16th to give an evening talk that I’ve called Beyond Our Wildest Dreams. In this backdrop, I decided to integrate some of the messages of this book, one in particular by Ervin Laszlo struck me profoundly, he states: “We now live in a period of transformation [personal and societal], when a new world is struggling to be born. Ours is an era of decision - a window of unprecedented freedom to decide our destiny. In this decision-window, ‘fluctuations’ - in themselves small and seemingly powerless actions and initiatives - pave the way toward…where the system tips in one direction or another. This process” he states “is neither predetermined nor random. It is a systemic process that can be purposively steered.”

Messages like this provide the larger context for what excites me about the Focalizing work that has evolved out of the new paradigm of energy psychology. Each Focalizing event (with whatever challenges/intentions individuals bring) results in a tipping point that is concretely experienced and resulting in a tangible positive shift not only for the person, couple, or group but also the larger systemic process as well. Folks who have done this work with me report that they’ve lessened their focus on binary (either/or) thinking, emotion, or even psychological pre-conceptions and expanded their felt awareness of the life force within and around them.

Come and join us on January 16th 2008 at 8:00 PM (RSVP Lisa @ 212-759-3508 by January 10). The talk is being organized by Crossroads Centre, Antigua, a wonderful international non-profit holistic rehab center founded by Eric Clapton. The evening is being hosted in NYC by The Freedom Institute, 515 Madison Avenue (53rd between Park and Madison, 35th floor) another respected non-profit addiction resource center.

I wish all of you a 2008 that is filled with grace and tipping points leading to a good place beyond your wildest dreams.

“Life Energy & the Emergent Therapeutic Paradigm:
A Balanced Approach to Body, Mind and Nature”
Berkley, California Oct. 24 – 26, 2007

Attending the first International Somatic Experiencing conference in Berkley, California was a real treat; not only that I would be there but that I would also be presenting Focalizing in an honored way. Long before I had the words for it, the super-tuned reading of life energy, “inner” radar, ran my life. It was what I needed and used to survive. The physical world met some of my most basic needs. Yet, for soul survival and even for some fun, I organically developed neuro-pathways that helped me negotiate the terrain in the safest way possible. One could say I became a very intuitive survivor. In either case, what seemed like a real horror show as a child through a lot of grit, inner work and spirit has been transformed into a gifted adulthood. I get to participate in my ongoing healing and that of my clients in quite profound ways that are beyond my wildest dreams, using skills I learned as a small boy.

The conference was much more scientific (all the neuroscience & neuron-plasticity behind energetic practices) than I expected, and this delighted me. The reality looms in that even though we have scientific evidence that energy & somatic healing works, it can only very gradually be mainstreamed as it moves from research and academic levels. There are not as many pharmacopeia in the emerging paradigms, but perhaps a common ground can be found soon. I trust that there are real smart in-touch people out there and it’s only a matter of time.

I was invited to present with brilliant long-time pioneers, educators and authors to an audience of about 350 colleagues. I learned so much from my co-presenters in fine-tuning my own skills. Among them were trauma healing beacon Bessel van der Kolk, Body Mind Center Director Stephen Porges, Somatic Experiencing Originator Peter A. Levine, and a New York Times neuro-science writer Sandra Blakeslee who just coauthored* a book called The Body has a Mind of Its Own. In this compelling, cutting-edge work, two generations of science writers explore the exciting science of “body maps” in the brain and how startling new discoveries about the body mind connection can change and improve our lives. It explains how our body maps are profoundly elastic and the self doesn’t begin and end with your physical body but extends into the space around you.

The more we can accept the message in the theme of this conference, the more likely we will be to access the non-visible, non-physical realities that our beings nest in. In doing so, we discover the luminous laughter that dissolves all darkness, all differences, all discord, all disharmonies, everything that weeps and wails. And this can deliver us to grace: a force, sweetness, something like a vibration of solace spread everywhere, but which an illuminated consciousness can direct and concentrate on specific points for further healing and awakening.

A closing aside: The Tartan book launch party at Saks mentioned last time was an enormous success. I extend big kudos to Jeffrey & Doria on their amazing accomplishment. And, thanks to those of you who brightened the evening with your presence.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I offer gratitude for all my inner and outer resources.

*Sandra’s coauthor was her son Matthew who represents the fourth generation of science writers in the family. The mother-son collaboration is heart warming for me and makes this book a real contribution of multidimensional perspectives for our time.

The Tartan Mystique

This week I received an advance copy of a fascinating book – a beautiful tome – called Tartan: Romancing the Plaid coauthored by fashion world insiders Jeffrey Banks & Doria De La Chapelle. Tartan, the beloved symbol of kin, clan and nation to the Scots, has evolved into the one of the world’s favorite fabrics. Serving as inspiration for designers of everything from haute couture to furniture, tartan mania is in full swing. This is the definitive book on tartan, bringing together a dizzying array of images to tell the story of tartan’s humble beginnings to its current status as the ultimate emblem of great taste, high fashion and intrigue.

I am smitten with this book for several reasons: (1) I was invited to write an essay on my “psycho-spiritual take” on tartan (the plaid) which I titled The Tartan Mystique – Ritual in Action! and which was excerpted from for the book’s Introduction. I remember the morning I wrote it with a beautiful swatch of tartan in my hand; (2) this coffee-table book published by Rizzoli in not merely about the fashion aspects of tartan, but also it’s very rich history in human evolution, and (3) it profiles the designers who’ve made tartan an integral part of their work, from punk-inspired provocateurs Vivienne Westwood, Jean-Paul Gaultier, and Alexander McQueen to the more refined fashions of titan Ralph Lauren and Burberry; (4) it makes one of the most compelling holiday gifts I’ve seen in a long time, combining history, lifestyle, fashion, and the mystique and mystery that makes tartan so enduring.

The books launch party is at Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC on Monday, October 29th (6:30-8:30 in the New Burberry Shop on 2). The authors have invited me to invite my friends. So, if you want to come, simply call the RSVP number 212-940-2844 and leave your name and the number of people in your party. Then you can gift autographed copies :). Maybe I’ll see you there.

Until soon, Michael

Opening the “Focalizing Bistro”

In introducing Focalizing, my new service, I equate it to opening a fine restaurant. I imagine it as the Focalizing Bistro. For the past two years the process, structure and its web presence have been refining themselves. As a finishing touch, I’ve written and produced a 32-page booklet called: An Introduction to Focalizing: Organic Solutions to Real-Time Challenges. Although I’ve been testing the menu very successfully with local folks and others who come from across the country in preparation for the “opening;” this fall is the true unveiling. I have set aside special times for these sessions and, in one of these times, the first-ever Focalizing gift session was procured by someone for a friend in need. It was a rich, honoring experience for everyone.

One of the individuals who “met” me online came from the Northwest Territories to work with me in a real-time setting demonstrated amazing results. She was suffering from a long period of depressive immobilization (w/additional physical manifestations) ignited by post traumatic stress triggers and early life traumas. She made it perfectly clear for me that all the timing for Focalizing was mysteriously on-target and she was now ready to move on with her life in the months ahead. One statement this client shared about the results of our 2nd session was that “I feel a new integrity in my being.” She felt she was bringing together the body, mind and nature in a way that reminded her of a “house well-built with everything perfectly fitting together.” Her visit and our time working together was a gift for both of us.

I returned last week from presenting “Focalizing a Path to Sexual Health” at the 20thAnniversary conference of the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health in Las Vegas, Nevada. Aside from having my presentation very well received, there were two other pearls of wisdom I received from colleagues. Patrick Carnes, a cofounder of the organization in 1987 and the man who first brought compassion to those suffering from sex addiction, spoke at the Gala about the original study group of practitioners who began to understand the special needs of this population (this population dumbfounded most practitioners at the time). He shared his grief about losing some of the original group who recently passing on and how, for him, this loss was a wake-up that he has little time for the frivolous; there are too many meaningful connections, loves and healing opportunities to enrich his existence to lose time to frivolity. This brought me back to my own experience in the mid-eighties when not only was I seriously ill, but all my friends who paved the courageous first gay coming out path with me were dying of AIDS. From that time on, the core of my being is always most focused on what matters to me and what I feel has meaning and connection with others. Focalizing is the latest manifestation of that commitment to making a difference.

The second pearl came from pioneering therapist Linda Hudson who shared about turning chaos and crisis into order and love. She even made the important leap in sharing how our soul speaks to us in such situations. Again, for me, it was another confirmation about my own healing journey and how the Focalizing distinction and process fits in the evolution of consciousness and healing.

Later this month, I’m off to the October 24-26 International Somatic Experiencing® Conference where I’ll be presenting: Focalizing: Organic Solutions to Real-Time Challenges to my international tribe of Somatic Experiencing practitioners in Berkeley, California. The theme of the Event is “Life Energy and the Emergent Therapeutic Paradigm: A Balanced Approach to Body, Mind and Nature.” Stay tuned for post conference notes.

New York Area Focalizing News:

In addition to individual focalizing sessions & consulting, there will be:

* Two bi-weekly evening Focalizing groups (7 participants each) beginning in early November ‘07. Designed for those who want to discover a new method of enriching their experience of life now and moving forward with exuberance.

* A weekend Focalizing Event in December, ‘07 or January, ‘08 (Dates TBA)

* The gifting of Focalizing

For more information: Contact frank@focalizing.com or 800-409-5713

Happy fall, Michael

Awakening in the Air (and my bones)

The spotlight on Focalizing as a transformational tool has been evolving in my own being in ways I could never have imagined. This change process has been confounding and uncomfortable at times, yet quite organic with many resources coming to meet me. The dense air and weight around putting it into another form has just lifted. I feel another awakening!

In my last musing (sometime ago), I invited questions as a way of engaging readers more fully and expanding my learning. The big first question was: What is Focalizing? Darn it, I thought I explained this distinction in the text on the web site—apparently I did not! I elaborated on what Focalizing does but not what an actual Focalizing session is. I now know that I did not take the reader into the heart of the experience and history of a Focalizing session. I have spent most of my available time this since late spring endeavoring to do just that. I found myself plumbing the depths of my own wisdom and experience while struggling to express myself even more from my core than I was able to do previously.

The result is something I feel quite proud of. It was worth all the effort. Just off the printing press yesterday is a beautiful 8”x10” 32-page monograph (booklet) that as concisely as possible (to the moment) takes the reader into the presence of Focalizing possibilities. To see the Table of Contents and excerpts click on this title: Organic Solutions to Real-Time Challenges: Focalizing, An Introduction.

Aside from being a resource to readers, this monograph will form the core and support to my presentations at professional conferences in the fall, where I will be introducing Focalizing to therapists nationally and internationally as a powerful tool that some may want to access. This approach can benefit anyone who is in a state of feeling stuck, or who feels trapped by the circumstances that life presents. Focalizing conveys new perspectives and often illuminates previously unseen possibilities for moving forward with grace. My gut instinct tells me that many therapists and organizational consultants would love to weave their existing skills into a process like this. I believe the new monograph will be a great support.

The annual conferences that I will be presenting Focalizing at are: the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health and the International Conference for Somatic Experiencing (click for more info). I truly look forward to engaging with hundreds of my colleagues and hearing about their work while being able to share my own new exciting developments.

At the same time that I am in this wondrous space, life has its complexities. My oldest brother is dying as I write this. His lungs have given out. His wife, too, is in the end-stage of her emphysema disease. My step-mom is in the hospital again with advanced diabetes while her husband, still recovering from open-heart surgery at 89 sits at home alone worrying about his wife and the son he is losing. He is my nonbiological-dad which previous musings can clarify. I am so grateful that I have the support, resources, and resilience to be helpful in my clan. To no small degree, I thank the tools embedded in the Focalizing process for this.

Wishing you all a great summer!

Any Questions?

Sometime back I received a gift book from my friend and colleague Nicholas Cimorelli. Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life by Stephen Laberge suddenly popped back in a very interesting manner. A week before I started reading it I had two powerful dreams that I was awake for and watching while in my sleep. The dreams were very vivid and potent. Since reading the book, I now have a new awareness that I can actually engage with and co-create with these kinds of dreams, often waking with an energy and/or idea of an illuminating nature. It’s a something fresh to start your day, or the rest of your life with.

One of these dreams last week was full of computers, monitors and web sites. The dream felt like there was a serious challenge that I was trying to set right with all these random hardware strewn about. I watched myself, as is instructed in the book, begin to take part in the dream. I was trying to manipulate—god knows what with—all those images to bring about a sense of order. Just as I began to awake from the dream, the problem was solved. Somehow though all the confusion the computer learned how to ask questions and it was content.

When I was fully awake I was left with a feeling of accomplishment and that I knew something I had not known before. It had to do with computers/web sites & asking questions. While brushing my teeth in a minute of free association, I was left with the feeling of inviting readers of this site (& my musings) to contact me online if they have questions. I realized that for many this is “way out” material, people must have questions. Therefore, I’m willing to answer them as best I can. I’m willing to put some time aside because I always find that I learn and grow when asked to further explain something. So, with my and our learning at heart, I ask: Do you dear readers, have any questions?

There must be many questions alone about the Focalizing process, a useful method in the sphere of energy psychology. I’m also excited that I just finished the first draft of a booklet for concisely introducing the Focalizing experience (always hard to write about)—a kind of guide from the inside-out. It is being edited and will be available late summer, just in time for several of the fall conferences I’ll be attending and presenting at.

Hope you are enjoying the closing of spring’07 and that there are a few good questions out there you’d like to pass along.

An Act of Conscience ? ?

After spending time with Bert Hellinger this past week, these four words will never resonate in the same way for me. Drawn from his many years of developing systemic constellations for healing and restoring the natural flow of life, Hellinger’s unique observations have brought to light and resolved a long-time personal struggle.

He posits that Conscience—i.e., what is right and what is wrong—in each of us emerges from our own thoughts and the energetic fields that have evolved from what we’ve been exposed to and/or rejected. We are each also subscribed to larger forms of group, organizational and societal fields of conscience; it’s where we seek acceptance. Needless to say, this can be very different for everyone. Watching the evening news later after hearing Bert’s words, I noticed: The Democrats and Republicans each come from a position they seem to believe in, and so does our president. The same could be true of all the struggling forces in the world where there is conflict and even among ourselves. I have always struggled with my own conscience, often questioning it when it went against my natural inclinations.

One of my biggest learning’s from this wizened sage was that my conscience can be transcended and quietly put to rest (albeit temporarily). If we shift our way of perceiving from our every-day thinking to what I label the Curious Observer part of us (what Bert calls the spirit mind, or what Otto Scharmer calls presencing) the weight of my body drops and my mind can become still and clearer. When I practiced this the other day, with a sense of timelessness, a great compassion was illuminated for our species and the life force that moves us all forward and me as well. If we could suspend our conscience for periods of time to tune into this timeless place of knowing being aided by Otto Scharmer’s Theory U and Hellinger’s insights, peace on earth and ecological resolutions begin to look like real and tangible possibilities. That is, our conscience is being informed by a force larger than us and, we have the ability to transform our perceptions and actions by stepping out of conscience and being otherwise informed by this larger force. Certainly, a new step for mankind (as we know it) and, one we may be getting ready for.

This new perspective on conscience is but one of the new healing openings and illuminations that I was presented with and experienced this last week. I look forward to the continuing process of metabolizing, and integrating them to better serve myself, my clients and the universe.

To understand Bert’s work better I recommend one of his newer books, No Waves Without the Ocean.

Transformation MADness

There was a time in my youth when someone would give me a copy of MAD magazine and I would get really excited about the irreverence I was about to dive into. Now, many years later, I get that same excitement when I receive the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) quarterly publication Shift! Far from irreverent, it continues to catalogue and document the global shift in consciousness. From the messages we receive in the mass media and in the upheaval of our world, most would consider the notion of positive personal, societal and global transformation as impossible and another version of MADness. I don’t!

To add to my joy IONS recently published an 80 page report entitled: The 2007 Shift Report: Evidence of a World Transforming. The introductory message says it all much better than I can and posits a “whole-scale change from an unsustainable way of life—mired in the contradictions of dogmatic religion and secular political power and fueled by rampart profiteering and the coercion of science—to one in which science and spirituality reconfigure our most basic understandings of human consciousness and how to live harmoniously in a healthy and sustainable ecosphere…it is our destiny not only to survive but to thrive…the evidence for such a phase shift is mounting. We may very well be moving from the brink of catastrophe to a great era of transformation. And if that is truly the case, then each of us will experience this transformation in the center of our own being.”

Transformation in the center of our own being is very familiar to me and, my daily vocation. As synchronicity would have it, as soon as I completed reading IONS I received an email from Otto Scharmer, a pioneer whose work is in consciously expanding such transformation in groups, organizations and societies. He shared that his long-awaited new book Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges will be available May 15th. Click on the title to read more about Otto, the book and to download the Introduction, Chapter 1 and Chapter 21. This is highly recommended reading and I strongly encourage you: Buy this book!

I sense in my bones and in the energetic fields that I work in that our choices are instrumental in the evolution of our culture/s, but (as the report above says) “we now see that those choices also play a role in the wiring of our own brains and in the expression of our genes, not just in the current generation but for generations to come.” It makes me envision my nieces and nephews, and their children and the world they will inhabit; or as the Native Americans write, for the 7th generation beyond us.

Next week I’ll be in Rockville, MD and in the presence of another mentor, Bert Hellinger, further learning how our ancestries and how Loves Hidden Symmetry is underneath everything. Stay tuned!

What is Dynamic Linking?

Dynamic Linking is my unique description for describing a multidimensional method of networking that at its core is about, relating to people through accessing inner and outer resources. It is one of the most powerful concepts I’ve come to understand and appreciate because of the incredible energy it unleashes and awakens in consciousness. When you are dynamically linking, you feel it. There is a vibrant energy in the human connection that is very different from that of just meeting people, swapping emails, or chatting on the phone.

Dynamic Linking is also a tool in the “outside the box” array of perceptions and insights, combined with new communication processes, accelerated on-line capabilities and other non-visible information systems, pooled with the current explosion in alternative resources and communities. Using ritual and focused intention to further increase our connectivity greatly expands and accelerates growth and our scope of experience. These resources can bring about an information transformation.

I had a lovely experience of dynamic linking on Wednesday; we experienced and felt it! It occurred during a meeting at the Jordan Anderson Advertising agency. We were reviewing the final edits on my new Focalizing and psychotherapy practice web site that is going live next week. In the room aside from me was Alan Wiener who oversees my account, Chris Collette, site editor and conceptualizer, and the Anderson design and IT team of Martin Castro and Marteen Allen. The focus, warmth, dedication and respect were palpable. All the elements of focalizing were present. While many others were also dynamically linked to the project and made significant contributions (like Elias Guerrero, my partner, and Jay Tyrrell, the photographer) it all came together in these precious moments in a conference room. It was no mystery that I ended out in the hands of Jordan Anderson Advertising, as they are also the people responsible for Corporate Healers, Inc.

It was a synchronistic experience that as our meeting ended Alan mentioned to me that he just the night before had been reading the chapter in Ritual as Resource on Dynamic Linking, and that he too sensed that was exactly what we were doing. As my deceased friend and mentor Daya might have said, there was a shared feeling of "being on the wave."

It was a sweet moment of knowing and sharing.

A Focalizing Weekend & The World Cafe

Hello February! A quirky first month leaves me in an interesting place.

For those who’ve been following the “family saga” my folks and my dear friend Mary are all at home convalescing in their own particular styles. Your interest about their progress was appreciated.

Since the first NYC Focalizing weekend in NYC at January’s end, I’ve been crashing from all the work that went on to produce the event. The build up, presentation and aftermath to this demonstration of a “hidden order” to inform our human journeys absolutely exhausted me. My energy is just now beginning to come back.

Even though I had the blessing and real-time support of six colleagues (Nicholas Cimorelli, Tiger Benford, George Russell, Ana Venezia, Matthew Whaley and Scott Whipple) I was anxious about bringing together 40 people and Focalizing the aligning of the energies of 40 disparate souls. I’m quite confident of my abilities with Focalizing sessions with individuals and existing groups all the while creating space for an intention to be realized. However, now we were going to have 40 people from all walks of life who want to understand this new process I’ve been developing better and who may not necessarily have shared a unified intention. My heart and soul felt confident while my cognitive mind set me astir. It was a paradoxical place to be.

In retrospect, we realized that the space for the workshop was not optimal. Yet just a little resonance from Tiger’s percussion magic blended with George’s suggested movements and the physical surroundings were transcended. We were then able to individually bring forth (privately or shared) our individual intentions that we wanted to have energized over the weekend. We engaged important questions with our own innate intelligence at The World Café where we could then safely share our inner illuminations and stirrings.

We spent two days bringing into play the four elements of any successful ritual (including Focalizing) and by creating an in-the-moment evolving weave we blended the key understandings of Focalizing with movement, sound resonance, and deep conversations in invisibly linked world café settings. Our group (or community) Focalizing process was also informed by Otto Scharmer’s research and observations with his “U Theory” developed at Massachusetts’s Institute of Technology (MIT) supporting organization and societal transformation (and popularized in the book Presence).

All I can share with you now is that on Sunday afternoon all participants were reporting experiencing new possibilities that had not occurred to them previously. For several people I have spoken with since, these possibilities and intentions have begun to manifest in real-time. This is very cool and I feel immense gratitude to be part of this new energetic field that is enveloping us.

As the dust continues to settle I look forward to whatever comes next.

Holidaze, Water Messages, & Intentions

I’m just emerging from the multidimensional stupor of the holidays. I had some great heart-felt moments with both my family of origin (sort-of) and my family of choice. The family of origin particulars included health crises with the "dad" who raised me (see last entry) and my step-mom. They recently celebrated 50 years together. He had to have open-heart surgery (at 89) for a valve replacement. Two days before, she collapsed from what we later learned was a progression of her diabetes. She is still in rehab with the hope of being able to walk again. He is home alone and doing great, but still convalescing. Also my dear friend Mary was in the hospital w/complications from open heart surgery. The holidays were spent in great part communicating with sick and fragile loved ones on the phone, at distances, and advocating for their care.

I’m reminded of a lecture once given by Eva Pierrakos (it’s on the web) on The Spiritual Meaning of Crises in which she shares that crises shakes up the human condition in such a way that enormous healing and self restoration can take place if properly understood. I’ve recently experienced lots of these phenomena, as have my family. Prior to his high-risk surgery, I was able to share with my dad my own personal new discoveries. I discovered that he had always known that I was the son of another man, yet chose to raise me as his own when my mom left. He reported to me that only in recent weeks he found himself ruminating on the fear that I would find out and be angry with him for not telling me. He was so pleased that not only was I not angry, I honored and respected him much more and could better understand why his emotions were out of sort for so many years. We had the most heart-felt and loving conversation ever. He was so relieved and I was in a new place entirely, and a good one.

I also re-bonded, in a very sweet way, with a cousin (from step-mom’s side) that I was close with as a boy and a niece (& god-child). They teamed with me in making sure the ill and fragile were well taken care of during their ordeal. What a great blessing!

The energy from the Hellinger Work I introduced last time has mysteriously flowed through me and my family in ways I can’t begin to explain. Suffice to say, that at least a dozen (probably more) family members and friends have been touched and in some way transformed naturally and organically. I’m amazed as I continue to digest my experiences with loves hidden symmetry.

I left my last entry with a tease & introduction on Masaru Emoto, one of my latest teachers of note that I met at last November’s Energy Psychology Conference in Toronto. His research makes visible, through the use of photographed water crystals, how much power our words and thoughts have. This is profound. It goes still deeper in demonstrating the messages that water (and the universe) has for us. He is doing brilliant work.

In my last book I quoted Lynne McTaggart from her book The Field where she said: "We are poised on the brink of a revolution…At the very frontier of science new ideas are emerging that challenge everything we believe about how our world works and how we define ourselves. Discoveries are being made that prove . . . that human beings are far more extraordinary than an assemblage of flesh and bones. At its most fundamental, this new science answers questions that have perplexed scientists for hundreds of years. At its most profound, this is a science of the miraculous." I invite my readers here to run and get her just published book The Intention Experiment and to let that support you in taking part in the world’s largest mind over matter experiment.

The next entry will probably share the experiment that I am consumed with at the moment, the first-ever Focalizing Weekend in New York City we’re having the last weekend in January. Again, stay tuned!

My Hellinger "Family Constellation"

It’s been hectic and this is the first opportunity I’ve had to sit and report on the October 28 full-day workshop I attended on Bert Hellinger’s “Family Constellations” (FC) and the hidden order of love that they bring into awareness. As it happens, I was given the opportunity to enact my own family constellation. Wow, was it powerful!

From my investigating prior to the workshop and mysterious build-up to it, I discovered quite serendipitously, that my dad (who I just helped organize a 50th anniversary party for along with my step mom) is not my biological dad. My now deceased mother (who left us when I was just under five) was a bit of a floozy (a 50’s phrase) while my current dad was in the service. I was born out of one of her affairs with a married Greek man. My dad was led to believe I was his and I always believed I was 100% of Italian heritage.

This all came as a partial shock to me because I always felt something odd in how I fit in the family. It has not stopped me from loving and honoring the dad who raised me but it has created and sustained a strong curiosity about my biological father and the life-force I inherited from him.

When we enacted my constellation, I selected from the group, “representatives” for my dad, my biological mom and my newfound biological dad (who is deceased). As the representatives were placed, we all just dropped into the energy of the moment. Each was guided by the felt senses and emotions in their own bodies with support from the facilitator.

The two most powerful things that I observed and experienced during the constellation enactment were: (1) my two dads energetically and emotionally struggling to find out how to be with each other, then gradually developing a sense of honor and respect for their circumstances and one another. Then (short version) Greek dad thanked Italian dad for bringing me up and taking care of me in his absence. Conversely, my “adopted” Italian dad earnestly thanked the other for giving him a son he is very proud of. These FC “representatives” were truly channeling two dads; their words and gestures were authentic and their tears were also real, as were mine. (2) My biological dad looked at me very directly with tears in his eyes and told me he was sorry he was unable to be there for me and that he was enormously proud of who I have become. While this was happening, I felt a strong energy osmose into my back; it has been there since.

The #2 compelling report above demonstrates “my take” on the distinction between Hellinger’s FC work and other energy psychology healing processes such as Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Wave Work, TFT, among many others. All of them make us more resilient, whole, and more capable of meaningfully connecting. The latter give us a transformed vertical integration of our own energy, rooted in grounding. What I experience as differently profound from Hellinger’s work is that by restoring the “hidden order of love” from our ancestry, our backs are filled with energy. It is a palpable and felt-sense horizontal integration of healing energy. With this horizontal integration we become less the “reach-outers” attempting to pull desires to us. We rest more back into the loving foundation (however conflicted and challenged) of generations past allowing our intentions, needs and desires to come to us. There is a sense that the chase is over, we can relax into the wholeness of life’s paradoxes in the ancestral energies.

For more on family constellations, and the origin of this work, and how this work is growing rapidly in over 25 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa see the article How to Heal Your Family in the current issue of Spirituality & Health Magazine.

I’ll write again soon to share my fantastic experience at the Energy Psychology Conference in Toronto last week, and my great learning from Masaru Emoto, author of the NY Times best-seller “The Hidden Messages of Water” and the great hope he offers for a better world. Click on his name for a preview.

Health & the Passion to Connect

The fall foliage is approaching its endpoint as the leaves take their last turn in color before this year’s letting go. It’s a good time and a very busy one. I feel like a squirrel gathering nuts.

Last Sunday afternoon I joined over a thousand people at a “Passion to Connect” networking event sponsored by the NY friends of Institute for Noetic Sciences (IONS) and others. Deepak Chopra, Andrew Cohen & the great visionary artist Alex Grey each shared their “sense” that a worldwide shift in consciousness is already happening along with the necessary presence and connectivity we need to support it. While acknowledging that such a fundamental change has never before occurred in the human experience, we all trust that without knowing how, it can now manifest. It was a very inspiring event and I have signed on to be part of the “One Voice” coalition that was birthed there.

Yesterday, I was blessed to give the opening keynote address (and focalize a ritual) for the Complementary and Alternative Health & Healing Fair sponsored by LaGuardia Community College (CUNY). In my fifty-minutes addressing those lovely people, I was impressed by the passion to connect that I felt in the auditorium and by the healings that took place in our simple opening ritual. As part of the ritual we used the “world café” model for sharing. This is now being used around the world by IONS and Otto Scharmer and his colleagues who co-authored the book Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society and the Society for Organizational Learning (among others). In yesterdays sharing, two people reported that during our ritual they had healing visits from loved ones who had passed with important messages. Another reported her mom passed two days ago and this was the first time she could make room for the grief in a way that felt honoring. Another said he felt like the ritual lasted all weekend. I’m continually amazed at the beauty and power of ritual.

A Focalizing Weekend will take place in NYC on Saturday, January 27th & Sunday, January 28th. It will be a wonderful opportunity to experience the expansive focalizing process for yourself (it must be experienced before it can be understood). Click on bold heading for flyer with full information and registration details.

Stay tuned for my report on next weeks full-day workshop on Bert Hellinger’s hidden order of love that I will be attending next Saturday.

An Inner-Voice Welcomes Fall

Our vacation to Spain was an enchanting respite. I am a lover of sunsets. One beautiful evening in Ibiza I sat on an exquisite beach watching the sun surrounded by mysterious looking, darkish blue-grey clouds sinking into the ocean. I was spell-bound - as if I was what I was watching. At a poignant moment of visual formation, I felt the sky speak to me. It was very reassuring in that it very simply said: “Keep doing what you’re doing.”

On returning and, synchronisticly, on my birthday, I had another luminous experience. In a focalizing session with a client and listening to his desires, I was inwardly directed to offer to do a Wave Work session with him. I learned this gentle, subtle and powerful process from one of my beloved mentors. She (Dayashakti in Sanskrit, or Sandra Scherer) was a yogi who for many years studied with Swami Kripalvananda who brought yoga to this country and after whom the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health was named. Daya lived and taught there for more than 20 years. Out of that experience she birthed Wave Work (see link), or “yoga off the mat” as she sometimes referred to it. Sadly, Daya passed away in March, 2003 but I know she is always with me.

While guiding my client’s inner presence to sensation and his innate intelligence, I was swept with a moment of harmonious gratitude. Here, on my own special day, I had the privilege of passing on one of the sweetest, most pristine healing journeys I had ever been witness to. Amplifying the energy of the occurrence was my client’s experience of having his deepest needs for inspiration and affirmation fulfilled. And, like my experience with the sunset, he too was informed and guided on his path by a firm inner voice. A great birthday gift!

Along with all the catch-up business of returning, I also had several very pleasant surprises:

1) The Focalizing Brochure had been printed and is now providing the foundation for the coming transformation of this web site (click on bold to get brochure in PDF format).

2) I was invited to deliver a keynote opening to the Complementary and Alternative Health & Healing Fair sponsored by LaGuardia Community College on Friday, October 20, 2006. Click on bold for your copy of their extraordinary offerings for the 2-day event.

3) I was delighted to read that Ritual as Resource: Energy for Vibrant Living (it created and birthed the concept of Focalizing Sessions) was reviewed very favorably in the current issue of Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association (click on bold references for more).

Till next time, happy Autumn Equinox!

A Busy Summer...

Rest, socializing and continuing to absorb the research of Otto Scharmer and Bert Hellinger. It's been a good one, moving faster than all summers that proceeded it. Speaking of fast changing times, and the new challanges we all face, my colleagues and I have also been busy planning fall and winter events and possibilities. Right now, I'm preparing to run off with my partner for a vacation in Spain where a special environment can support integration and resource the months ahead.

I look forward with great anticipation!

Ancestry and the Essence of Leadership

In my free moments, I’ve been absorbing the latest issue of another of my favorite magazines Spirituality & Health: The Soul/Body Connection. This is another publication I highly recommend (click on the link to consider subscribing).

I was captivated by the first two feature articles: "Tapping the Power of Your Ancestors" by Judith Fein and "The Essence of Leadership" by Lance Secretan. The first article grabbed me because of the ancestral healing and integration work I’ve been organically and successfully integrating into both therapy and focalizing sessions since being introduced to the many years of research and demonstration of Germany’s Bert Hellinger and his work with family constellations and what he calls "Loves Hidden Symmetry." (Check his work out by clicking on his name).

The Essence of Leadership speaks as directly as anything to much of the focalizing work that my colleagues and I are doing with and in organizations, particularly with top level executives. Here are two provocative quotes from the article that I hope will inspire some to read it: "Leadership is a serving relationship with others that inspires their growth and makes the world a better place" and "I wish I could take all the corporate mission statements ever written and burn them." Trust me; it only gets better from there!

Mid-July, enjoy the rest!