Two events happened last week . George Leonard died, and a new colleague  of  mine offered me a chance to experience a “one-shot” sure-fire therapy session.

George lived an amazing life.  He was an award-winning editor for Look Magazine, a many time author, a 5th degree aikido black belt, and a jazz pianist. He coined the term “human potential movement” and went on to work with Esalen founder Michael Murphy to develop a “householder’s practice” called ITP (Integral Transformative Practice).

I studied aikido with George and was a member of ITP when I moved to California in 1998.

The ITP philosophy was that deep sustainable change takes practice. After years of watching people have seemingly transformative experiences in Esalen workshops only to lose it later, Michael and George deduced that these kind of growth leaps were not sustainable. Intense experiences could result in openings in consciousness, but a daily multi-dimensional practice was needed to maintain deep change. Read the rest of this entry »

We are in the  processes of writing the Inner Champion section of the Inner Critic book. The question of what actually facilitates change is on my mind. What are the components of a focused growth process that lead to a shift in internal experience and behavioral change?

Mostly the process IFS works. This treatment model seems, at times, like a miracle for deep healing and creating the changes people desire.  I feel very fortunate to be a part of this community of healing professionals.

I was recently working with a client who does touchingly beautiful IFS work with his parts. He said that although having names for his parts and developing relationships with them has changed his inner experience and has helped him better understand and live with himself, he still found that certain trigger situations led to old behaviors. I have had other clients where work on their protective systems moves forward slowly.

So as we build this Inner Champion work, I am trying to determine the core components of change. I want our work to be fully grounded in helping people access and develop these Inner Champion parts and build reliable resources. Read the rest of this entry »

This Fall I ran three “Beyond Eating” telephone classes using the IFS model. A total of 18 women worked courageously to look at the parts of themselves that ruthlessly criticized them for their eating habits and their bodies. And, we also got to know the opposing parts that engaged in indulgent and out-of-control eating.

For me, the most inspirational result of these classes was the connection between the women. They started out as a group of strangers. Gradually the trust grew and they were able to share very tender and intimate feelings about themselves and their process.

A few of the women had used drawing in their individual therapy to explore the deep processes they were unable to articulate verbally. One by one, these drawings were shared with individually and then the group. Read the rest of this entry »

Lately, I have been watching the tremendous impact that giving someone permission can have. I have just started working with a devoted mom who came to see me because of mild feelings of depression, a lack of energy, and a loss of purpose in her life.  In our first session I gave her homework to stop at each decision-making juncture of her day and ask, “What do I want to do?” She was amazed to find that this simple practice lifted her heaviness. Her sense of vitality returned.   She had been so focused on the needs of her family that she had stopped even thinking about her own desires.  My giving her permission to tune into herself completely changed how she viewed day. She said, “I didn’t actually go to the movies any afternoon, but it was amazing to know that I could.” Read the rest of this entry »