Having debunked their literal reality, it [Western culture] is satisfied that they have no reality at all.

                                                                                                                                             ---Patrick Harpur

                                                                                                                                            The Philosopher's Secret Fire

 

 

With fifteen-years of hospice service and twelve years as psychotherapist, I bring a wealth of academia and experience into the room. I've helped men and women who struggled with a traumatic past, depression, and anxiety. And I've mentored folks who were seeking a deeper, meaningful connection to self and "Other". In recent years, I've created space for unusual phenomena that has long been a part of the human experience across the world in ancestral,  mythic and literal forms. Unfortunately, many credible and functioning individuals have not found a place in Western psychology to explore these strange phenomena and, instead, have found themselves marginalized and dismissed. ​

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Make no mistake. This pushing to the side such potentially transforming experiences isn't just a matter of friendly differences in concepts. History demonstrates that it is more. A beginning immersed in a type of bias thinking that leaves others of dissimilar thought out of the equation says it all. Thus, as therapist working with both the common and the strange, we must look critically at who has forced a claim on how we understand reality and define the healing components.

 

The study of psychosis in light of growing reports about unexplainable events and experiences is an example. Mainstream psychiatry has given us little by way of definition, but claims to have defined it for all, especially people of color, the indigenous population, and women. And after over a century, it still fails to acknowledge the complexity of the brain, the relationship of mind and brain, theories of Consciousness, a theory of reality that includes immaterial properties,  and the unexplainable of human experience that many cultures and spiritual traditions have offered as avenues of healing. 

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How to help the client organize and empower his or her narrative, strange or otherwise, without an automatic pen-to-paper towards pathology, is my mission. Without such intervention to tackle all the pieces, humanity doesn't stand a chance to evolve, grow, and heal.

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Online Webinar Coming September 5th from 1-3pm EST

"Epistemological Injustice & the Phenomena of the Strange:

 

A Growing Concern about Mental Health"

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Stay tuned for more information

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Body Mind Metaphor LLC is a private practice and does not take insurance to prevent restrictions on your care and to ensure the highest form of confidentiality.