A New Year of Transformation

I had lunch yesterday with my best friend of over thirty years. He is being treated with chemotherapy for leukemia and has other health challenges, too. At one point in the conversation John told me that despite the physical torture of his treatment, he has never been so happy. He said, “All the crap, the fears and anger just disappeared, and I feel freer than I ever have in my life.”

I looked at John and said, “It’s not just you. I’m also feeling the best and lightest I ever have. And, it’s not unique to only us. I’m seeing a remarkable shift in many clients and other friends.“

On my drive home later, I had a vision that what we are going through is a collective transformation threshold. We are letting go of previous perceptions of who we should be, and becoming more aligned with who we really are. It is all about collective energy.

Source Energy, which I also call love, teaches us that giving love is the way to be truly happy. When consciously coming from Source, giving (and receiving) love creates harmonious ascending circles of more love.

While there is great suffering in our world, as so many struggle, there are also countless people finding themselves on a path of freedom, joy and contentment through connecting with their own Source Energy. It seems what we call spiritual awakening or transformation is no longer the exclusive domain of ardent practitioners, rather it’s within the reach of all of us, and I am amazed at how often I observe it.

I have begun a series of brief articles to explain and explore this expanding phenomenon. In the first, published by GoodTherapy.org called Source Energy Optimizes Life (Part One: Finding Source Energy), I begin to roll out the basics in a simple, easily used process for making the connection. Click on the bold title above to read it.

Additionally, I have been given the opportunity to lead a 5-evening workshop to further share my experience in making this connection. I will be helping participants access expanded Source Energy by dissolving one of the greatest barriers we have in becoming fully whole beings. It is the culturally induced split between our sexual energy and our loving, or spiritual energy. This NYC Open Center workshop begins January 9th. Click here for details.

Happy 2012, Michael

Bob’s Death; A New Threshold

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Last week, my eldest brother, Bob, died after years of health challenges. We were never really close, though his daughter is my godchild and a cherished part of my life; my brother and I had opposite worldviews.  I dreaded his forwarded emails that I politely asked him to stop sending. They came anyway; he was determined to save me.

 At the time of Bob’s difficult passing I was reading Lynne McTaggart’s new book The Bond that was highly recommended by my friends at the Institute forNoetic Sciences. In this groundbreaking book we discover scientifically that “the essential impulse of all life is a will to connect rather than a drive to compete. In fact, we are inescapably connected, hardwired to each other at our most fundamental level—from cells to whole societies.”

I was given words in The Bond for a different perspective that has been shifting inside of me, casting a palpable energy beyond me. Bob’s death highlighted what the book refers to as “relativity awareness.” It grounded my own notion that competition as a fundamental human urge made no sense.

I have been writing about wholeness and what it means to us for decades. Yet, Lynne’s book catapulted me to a new threshold of envisioning it everywhere.  I suddenly experienced my dying brother from his inside out, and all around. Our differences lost all significance and I felt a strong compassion, love and new connection with Bob that was real. It was a lovely gift to receive. And, it went out beyond Bob to every person alive. You could say that I am in awe, and it feels so full of new possibilities that I smile with gratitude for both Lynne and Bob.

As many of us are saying along with Lynne, “We sense that we have reached the end of something. The world as we knew it is going down.” The false view of us as separate is also going down, as we gradually emerge to the potential of a better future. Just as my differences with Bob were dissolved and replaced with compassion and connection, our new world-story can be seeing and giving from wholeness, or the Bond that is alive between us.  It changes everything in a really good way.

The Bond energy, wholeness, or the creative source energy found in stillness is where to look for a new world. Check out my resource page if you want to hop on the ride.

Happy fall, Michael

A Magical S.E.X. Experience

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Last week, I co-led a five-day retreat w/Claes Lilja (founder of Brotherhood Retreats) for HIV positive gay men from around the globe. Having previously facilitated numerous retreats, this one had some special ingredients that I am still happily digesting.

My contributions to the group were primarily in the areas of Disease Transformation (click to read article) and Sexuality & Sacred Sex. For the latter, we approached healing the obstruction many find between their sexual and love energies by shifting what we know about sex. We explored it through the lens of S.E.X. (Soul Energy eXchange), agreeing on a definition of “soul” and defining the four primary energies exchanged: Love, Pleasure, Lingam (active), and Yoni (receptive).

In a process of healing touch (with clothes on) led by Claes we experienced the restorative circle of love energy that is present when lingam and yoni are consciously exchanged. This reframing of sex was fascinating to the participants, and I was amazed at the full body, personal and collective healing energy it brought to everyone’s barriers. I have encountered the subtle, yet commanding surge of energy that presents itself when attendees share more than one area of their life’s challenges, but never before like this time.

A few days after the workshop, I felt a new, multi-dimensional awakening, as if a strong channel had opened within me. I choose to keep absorbing my experiences from the retreat and notice where they take me. As my intentions have been to focus less on the past, I eagerly await to be informed by the very alive, emerging future happening all around us.

Coincidentally, the day after the retreat ended, the Director of Programming at The NY Open Center called to invite me to lead a five-week Monday night workshop in early January, 2012 on S.E.X. Though she knew this was part of my earlier repertoire, her offer seemed to come from totally out of the blue. How serendipitous was that? I found a new, affirmative energy in this work at the retreat, and shortly thereafter the universe gifts me with a venue to keep developing the process further. Very cool!

Michael

Recovery, Straight Up & Disease Transformation

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I can’t fully articulate how tickled I am enjoying Maer Roshan’s latest creation: The Fix: Addiction and Recovery, Straight Up. This daily website portrays the most authentic, multi-dimensional, in-the-moment perspectives on the addiction & recovery phenomena I’ve run across in a while. (Read the press reviews about The Fix: The New York Times, The New York Observer, New York Magazine, Salon, and NPR.)

The critics think something interesting is happening, and I’ve found it a healing tool that offers an unexpected humorous glimpse at our reality. It’s a gift from Roshan, the founder of Radar magazine, and radaronline, among other things. Always candid about his own alcoholism, he says, “there’s no rule out there that sobriety is supposed to be this dull, earnest monastic exercise. There’s tons of humor in the surreal situations that we find ourselves in. The Fix is certainly not going to ignore that.”

Humor is not only a significant element of the Fix, it’s a core component of individual and collective healing. While recently preparing for an upcoming retreat for HIV+ gay and bi men, (click bold for retreat information) I was inspired to write an article for GoodTherapy.org: Focalizing Disease Transformation, about my transformation of the disease of alcoholism and other serious afflictions. After a client read it, I was thrilled to be told how it beautifully portrayed her recent freedom from a 30-year-old, daily crippling eating disorder.

Healing can seem bizarre and paradoxical, just like our maladies.

One Love, Michael

Mary’s Tree and an HIV Retreat

Almost 20 years ago, my dear friend Mary MacDonald gave me an apple tree for my then new home in the Catskill Mountains. Although Mary passed away 2 years ago, her spirit continues to be an important resource. Not only do I feel her presence while I’m working with clients, but as I arrived upstate yesterday, Mary’s tree was in full, luscious bloom. Thank you, Mary.

This springtime lift amplifies my excitement to be co-facilitating a Gay & Bi Men's International Retreat: Transforming HIV - Awakening Our Lives, Thursday to Monday, July 14-18, 2011,at Kirkridge Retreat Center, Stroudsburg, PA (in the Pocono Mountains). Further details & registration: http://www.pozretreats.com/index.htm

At this 4th annual retreat, along with co-facilitators, Claes Lilja & Sam Lipton, I will share my experiences on the Focalizing process for disease transformation. Focalizing allows us to respectfully set aside familiar thoughts and feelings to instead access our innate intelligence, reconnecting us with a natural resource that conveys new perspectives. Focalizing often illuminates previously unseen possibilities for moving forward with grace. In learning how to transform overwhelming life situations we can suspend our everyday-thinking-mind to a timeless source of change, developing a newly enlightened intelligence. Being surrounded by nature’s beauty at this retreat with my colleagues will enhance everyone’s experience. Please consider joining us, or passing this along to anyone who may benefit. Early registration is suggested, as retreat is limited to 30 participants.

Best Always, Michael

What I'm Learning About Crop Circles

Friday night I saw the NYC premiere of the curious documentary, What on Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Mystery, and it affected me deeply. Some years ago I was awakened to the mystery of my own body’s felt senses and how they lead me in a positive way. That discovery allowed nature’s deep innate-intelligence to guide my path of discovery and healing forward in ways that were previously inconceivable.

I now see a whole other dimension of natural intelligence in the Crop Circles. Many have associated these breathtaking natural works of art with the UFO phenomena, yet Crop Circles are something else to me. They speak much like my inner referents. At first, the communication seems a bit foreign, like the felt senses of my own body did. Perhaps the Crop Circles are the universe’s innate intelligence giving us powerful signals on how to best heal next. In a perplexing world, I sense that another dimension of our own cosmic intelligence is appearing to lead us to a better place. I intend to listen with great anticipation and hope to learn this visual language of powerfully energetic symbols.

Similar nuances of inner and outer guidance assisted my awareness of the sexual-spiritual (love) split that haunts our culture, our relationships, and our well-being. This intra-psychic split has been a central focus in my healing practice since 1985. Personal and global healing can resource each other with amplified energy, and this development correlates the synergy between Crop Circles and personal/sexual healing.

For a better sense of this unconventional dynamic, please consider joining us on the evening of Friday, May 13 and all day Saturday, May 14 for the workshop: Map for Living: Soul Energy Exchange (S.E.X.). We will share hidden, yet practical healing opportunities and techniques in a discreet, safe and very comfortable way. Simply click here for full details and how to register for Friday night’s free introduction and/or Saturday’s workshop.

In the whisper of spring, Michael

Focalizing Good Possibilities Gets Traction

Our recent weekend workshop “Map for Living: A Lost and Found Journey” grounded years of experience, research and wisdom as a whole new group was exposed to the Authentic Process Healing Institute’s new paradigm of Focalizing our way to a defined experience of holism. It was a delightful awakening to new tangible possibilities (that can be felt in the body) for many.

We were a very diverse group of about 45, aged from 21 to late 60s, men and women, all kinds of sexual diversity, 12-steppers, no-steppers, and just curious folks. Each participant quickly resolved a unique personal internal block and felt more inner flow and greater outer possibilities. It was a magical, delightful, fun experience.

One of the youngest in the group who had never been to anything similar and was quite fearful at first emailed us a week later saying: “I have found myself in a place of contentment since the workshop. Thank you.” A respected 12-Step old-timer said: “Thank you, thank you, thank you, and more thank you's.....I loved the experience, the concept, the shift I feel in my whole outlook. I don't know how it works, but it does, so I'm coming back. Please consider me a member of the community.” And, so many others have shared similar sentiments, all asking: “what’s next?”

Our leadership team is responding to the call: There will be a full-day workshop on Saturday, May 14. There will also be a free Intro on Friday evening May 13 from 7-9 for folks who have never been oriented to this new healing paradigm and may want this before signing up for Saturday, or some later event. Friday evening will also be a an opening event for those already registered for Saturday. Pre-Registration for Saturday workshop and/or Friday Introduction is necessary, please do so by clicking here.

The May 14 workshop “Map for Living: Soul Energy eXchange (S.E.X.)” will include an important segment on healing the Sexual/Spiritual (love) Split that haunts the lives of so many, and is a primary barrier to holism. One does not need to be in a relationship, or even be sexually active, to access the benefits of opening this powerful aliveness vortex. As we create the Focalizing conditions, including suspending conditioned thinking, an experienced illumination awakens soulful possibilities in our life experience.

There will also be an optional weekly “sustaining” group starting very soon after this workshop to support anyone who has done an orientation workshop in maintaining a grounded experience of holism and good possibilities.

Other varied groups and collaborations with other like-minded communities are also moving along in a nice organic way.

I am so personally excited to see all of this come together in such serendipitous ways, that I bow my head in gratitude – an experience I’m learning to “come from” as I observe the wonders manifesting all around me.

Stay with us, and contact me if I can be of service, Michael

A Weekend of Fun and Healing

The Authentic Process Healing Institute is premiering our Focalizing Good Possibilities series with Map for Living: A Lost and Found Journey at a weekend workshop starting Friday evening, February 4^th. It promises to be a groundbreaking personal growth experience.

Focalizing, the result of decades of my award-winning research has manifested to an easily digestible, streamlined process that is easy and fun. Perceived as rich and powerful by colleagues and leaders in the field, it is now available and accessible to many more people than it has been in the past.

In a community setting, we will illuminate our desired destination, map the journey, and use the natural, energetic technique of Focalizing to ease this transformative process. We do so with focus, poise, good-heartedness and fun.

I will be co-Focalizing the event with Barry Lipscomb and we look forward to sharing it with whoever can attend. Because it is the Institute’s intention to make this healing program available to everyone, the fee for the entire weekend is only $100.

For more info and registration click here.

Come experience something new and empowering!

Stay tuned, Michael

Greetings from the cusp of 2012

The year 2012 holds great significance for many. Knowing that my feelings and actions of today can co-create the future, I choose to focus on the now. The newborn 2011 comes with renewed feelings of joy and great possibility. I sense that many old and new healing tribes around the world are merging their wisdoms in a way that nourishes all of our communities.

It has been a privilege this past year working with the brilliant minds and hearts of the Authentic Process Healing Community in planning how to best offer some of our gifts. Our intention has always been to share this new paradigm in an accessible way to diverse populations. I have the honor of inviting you to attend a free Focalizing event Sunday, January 9th @ 3:00 pm, to introduce you to Authentic Process Healing & Focalizing. Come experience the magic of participating in a personal and collective evolution that thrives on co-creation.

An RSVP for this free event is important, as the space is limited. This calling may be for you, or for someone you care about. Pre-registration is required and space is limited: Please email register@theinstitute.org or call (646) 397-3137 ASAP. Leave your name, the number in your party, and a phone number where you can be reached

Click Here for full details and additional programs.

May the New Year bring you serendipitous and wonderful possibilities, Michael

Celebrating History > Envisioning A Good Future

Last Sunday afternoon’s beautiful celebration of the Authentic Process Healing Institute’s 10^th Anniversary was a day of joy and gratitude for me. I watched my best friend of over 30 years, John McCormack, receive the Alice Terson Sharing The Love award. He is pictured above left being presented by Barbara Warren, another long-time supporter. It was John that magically ignited the early Institute community in 1985 and he is the spiritual father of my accomplishments within it. Without John, I could not be where or who I am.

The day also ushered in the Institute’s continuing transformation with a new curriculum we are offering, Focalizing Good Possibilities. Two more from our leadership team, Barry Lipscomp and Ana Venezia (above right), designed the upcoming programs and I greatly appreciate their significant contributions.

We are so excited about our new offerings that I want to give you a chance to explore them for yourself. Mark your calendar and join me Sunday, January 9^th for Doorway to Holism: Introductory Experience. This free afternoon will showcase the upcoming series and give you the unique opportunity to sample a workshop. (Click on the bold link for more information and to register)

Wishing all a 2011 that surprises us in very good ways,

Michael

Invitation to celebrate Institute's 10th Anniversary

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On Sunday, December 12 @ 3:00 we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Authentic Process Healing Institute as it marks a full decade of being chartered as a nonprofit healing and education organization. This Institute grew out of an informal community birthed at a retreat I facilitated in 1985. A number of us had an awakening at that event and this growing community has been supporting my (and our) research of where that awakening has taken us and where it is leading us to now. Click here to see full invitation along with 2011 new programs for Focalizing Good Possibilities.

We are very excited about the event and the year ahead. Please join us.

Hope to see you there, Michael

A Deeper Awareness: Reflections on 2012

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In his new book, Notes from the Edge Times, author Daniel Pinchbeck asks, “How do we confront the current mega-crises of species extinction, global financial collapse, and resource depletion and initiate a new planetary culture that integrates the physical and psychic aspects of our being, while meshing harmonically with our planet's fragile ecology?”

Watching the insightful new film, 2012: Time For Change, based on an earlier Pinchbeck book, I could feel those answers in my own life. When we clearly accept the reality of our place in human evolution we can be freed from our fear and destructive conditioned-thinking. As we gradually (or quickly) experience this liberation our perceptions gracefully refocus themselves.

One of my mentors, Peter Russell, describes, “It is not seeing different things so much as seeing things differently….Inner well-being and happiness become the true measure of social progress.” As each of us comes more from that place of compassionate wisdom we then create a tipping-point in consciousness. According to Russell, history and science suggest something like an “Age of Wisdom” can now evolve in as little as two years.

I am extending an opportunity for you to preview this new film that portrays our planet's moment in time with positive possibilities; it’s about moving forward in a good way. I will be on a panel following the screening with Daniel and other distinguished guests who will illuminate how to optimize our personal growth with an emerging collective healing process.

The evening’s discussion will also explore how we can swiftly transform unsustainable societies into a collective, regenerative planetary culture.

Please order your tickets as soon as possible since seating is limited. If you cannot make it to the event on October 20th, please forward this to someone you care about. To buy tickets Click here and put in the date 10/20 and the 7:00p.m. showing (Includes panel discussion). To view the movie trailer: Click here.

The Authentic Process Healing Institute is sponsoring this event and will be offering a series in the near future on Focalizing Better Possibilities.

I’m hoping to see many of you and your friends there.

Whisper of a Promising Future

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I recently received a pleasant summer surprise from Dr. Jacqueline A. Carleton, a New York-based therapist who works extensively in Europe. Her review of the Focalizing monograph, in the Summer 2010 issue of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy follows:

Dr. Michael Picucci’s An Introduction to Focalizing: Organic Solutions to Real-time Challenges serves as an introduction to Focalizing, a distinctive way to tap into the “innate capacities” of our consciousness. By accessing our innate intelligence instead of simply focusing on familiar thoughts and ideas, it is possible for one to reach an “enlightened intelligence” and a timeless state of oneness – as the precincts between past, present, and future disperse into a realm of timelessness. Picucci focuses on an organic sense of transformation by focusing on matters such as the “body’s felt senses,” as well as on strength and balance. By bringing the mind and body into a state of oneness, the practice of Focalizing has the potential to create a path of healing and inner peace.

Thank you, Jacqueline, and the pioneering consciousness communities across the globe. The more transformational communities of kindred spirit link together, the brighter the future glows. In subtle ways we are all guided by an inner voice that knows so much more than our thoughts and experiences. This whisper of a promising future wanting to emerge is a joy to grasp, however fleeting.

Stay tuned as The Institute community launches a new array of accessible healing possibilities. I’m humbled and proud to be a part of it. I look forward to sharing the unfolding creation as details become available shortly.

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To autumn discovery, Michael

August Anticipation

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I’m having an early morning sit in my study in the Catskill Mountains listening to the birds and looking out at nature’s abundance. I am feeling a lovely calm along side a very sweet anticipation of a future unfolding around me.

I find myself very taken by some folks with long histories at www.theinstitute.org along with some enthusiastic newcomers. Together they are integrating my life’s work into a timely, accessible offering for healing. It has been many years since I have been part of such a generous, spirited and unified intentional community with an ambitious mission: Sharing a vision for living authentically and creating conditions to connect more genuinely with ourselves and our world. The last time I had such a powerful community experience it was life changing, and I have the same feeling now.

I am grateful to Ana Venezia and Barry Lipscomb for their leadership and to our board and committees for enthusiastically supporting the launch of this vibrant possibility in the weeks and months ahead. Please stay tuned, as these initiatives speak directly to my previous blogs about finding growth, resilience, and direction in our rapidly changing lives.

I have added two new links to my web site resource list. The first: Dr. Frank Lipman, a pioneering Integrative Physician and author. For twenty years he has enlightened me with new perspectives on optimizing health holistically. I was recently honored to become a contributor to his web site with my recent article Spontaneous Remission From Collective Insanity (click and have a look).

The second: Integrative Psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Scharmat. He always surprises me (and clients I refer to him) with his whole-body, whole-world perspective that is often illuminating.

In a recent issue of Ode Magazine there was an article that beautifully articulated an alternative perspective on common mental illness diagnoses in: Your brain is a rain forest (click for full article). Thomas Armstrong introduces the field of neurodiversity, celebrating the differences among brains. It’s a fascinating forward-moving perspective.

More in September, Michael

Summer Solstice Awakens a Dream

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As I woke on the morning of the longest day in this 10^th year of the new millennium, a new dream began to take shape. I am a lifelong dreamer, with a good record of having most dreams realized, in one form or another. I once dreamt I would change careers and work more directly with people in a healing way; it happened. I envisioned healing from a terminal diagnosis, and I did. I also dreamed about writing a book; now I’m working on my fourth.

As a contributor for the GoodTherapy.org site, I am encouraged to write periodic new articles with a fresh approach to my specialty, Focalizing. When I began to write the recent submission, it just spilled out of me and titled itself: Spontaneous Remission From Collective Insanity (click bold to read the full article).

Shortly after completing that piece, David, a new Facebook friend remarked, “I feel like right now, we’re all missing a collective dream, at least a positive one.” He asked if I was familiar with Pachamama Alliance. As it happens, not only am I a great admirer, they are linked as a resource on my website.

I was reminded of their “Awakening the Dreamer Initiative,” when I revisited the Pachamama Alliance site. Since my life experience has demonstrated that dreams can carry us forward, especially when bringing intention and action to them, I realized that this article was the beginning of a new dream for me and the world; a dream that we can all bring intention and action to.

I wrote David a follow-up on our collective dreaming chats. “I'm dreaming that we live to see a spontaneous remission of our collective insanity and that the children of your generation will get to live in heaven on earth. Care to share a dream?” David, who is much younger, responded, “I’m dreaming the same dream as you!”

What a delight his response was. It is up to us to create new dreams, as we gradually stop clinging to what no longer works.

I invite all of you to share in this dream. Shared dreams and intentions do manifest real results.

Happy Summer, my friends!

Spring Awakening: History & Fear

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Addiction and mental health recovery activist, Chris Shroeder, recently interviewed me. It was surprising to see how enlivened I was, telling stories that put a part of my life’s history in perspective. I shared about some of my shifts, traumas and awakenings. (To view the video click here.)

During my recent week’s vacation, I had a chance to dive into my colleague Dr. Jeffrey Hull’s new book Shift: Let Go of Fear And Get Your Life in Gear. I was very affected by Jeff’s cogent, inspired method for reinventing our relationship with fear and what he calls the “cycle of dread.” My hope is that the supportive essence of this book can reach the masses at a time when we need it so much. To that end, and in honor of the book launch party this week, I offer the following review for Amazon:

“I was happily awakened by Dr. Jeffrey Hull’s book Shift, as it frames our roller-coaster lives into a spectacular journey of self-growth. With great wisdom, Hull teaches us how to embrace change and transform our fear into a partner that is soulful and revealing.”

Happy spring awakening, Michael

March Facebook Madness and then some...

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Needing distraction from the discomforts of a recent cold led me to an in-depth exploration on Facebook. Initially, I began Facebook with a circle of people I knew and was already in touch with. Subsequently, while recovering from that cold, my curiosity brought on an explosion of new friends on my personal page, which then inspired my professional page. I’ve had the pleasure to survey what is interesting to my Facebook friends. In turn, I have posted when I felt inspired, or wanted to share something intriguing.

The progression has been cascading since that weekend, and I am gratified by the expansive, validating and fun process. It has not been the usual custom in my profession to be so Out There. Yet, in recent years I have felt a sense of freedom and liberation that has emboldened me to share more of my life experiences and inspirations.

This synergistic awakening has manifested with new developments in my work and I’ll soon be leading my first retreat in several years. The many retreats I’ve facilitated over the years have been among my most sacred memories, and this next one will galvanize all of my practice, research and life experience to date. Focalizing with a diverse group toward a shared sense of wholeness and renewal is utterly enlivening.

At the opening session of a past retreat, we created an intention that we would all experience being on a magic carpet ride. With our spectacular oceanfront location in Cape May, New Jersey, we were already off to a good start. By the second day, a growing sense of oneness was emerging in the group. During a break that afternoon we were greeted by literally millions of migrating butterflies; Monarchs flying by the retreat center over a turbulent Atlantic. The beauty and synchronicity took our breaths away, and participants still speak of it to this day.

Long time supporters from the Institute for Authentic Process Healing, it's web site (www.theInstitute.org), and some of my Focalizing students have inspired the direction of our next retreat. Creating it has spirited a revitalization of this non-profit, volunteer community, and I am enormously grateful for the encouragement and support I’m receiving.

I hope that some of you can join us for our next retreat.

Looking forward to continued connection, Michael

Can The Wisdom From Addiction Recovery Save Humanity?

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I have recently been enriched from the wise counsel of some younger people suggesting ways that my life’s work in addictions, trauma healing and Focalizing can be more relevant for the needs of current times. Several participants from last year’s Focalizing workshops, along with TheInstitute.org, (the non-profit community that has supported my work for many years) are helping me connect the dots between segments of my own research and practice. In short, there has been encouragement to merge my Stage Two Recovery techniques with those from Focalizing.

Stage One addictions recovery is a recovery from a destructive obsession that wreaks suffering in our lives and family systems. This can be from a substance, as well as from an addiction to conditioned thinking which causes destructive patterns. Stage Two is the recovery of our emotional, spiritual and sexual wholeness, while Focalizing offers guidance for a natural path of healing and moving forward with grace.

This powerful reshaping of my work to incorporate these previously separate factions utilizes the tools and community of addictions recovery. As Dr. M. Scott Peck said in The Road Less Traveled: 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. Perhaps this healing path really is a way to positively impact the world, as Peck also referred to the first AA meeting on June 10, 1935 as the greatest positive event of the 20th century. How will this evolve in in our new millennium?

As one of my wise, younger advisors, Barry Lipscomb takes it even further in a question that guides his daily endeavors: “How do we affect a mass conscious awakening which encourages sustainable living?” Healing ourselves in a way that has a positive impact for humanity and the planet; what could be better? Read my latest article titled Focalizing Stage Two Recovery: The Spiritual Core (click for entire article reprint) published by GoodTherapy.org. And stay tuned for developments on our emerging future as we begin to offer retreats, workshops, presentations, and interactive online venues.

Wish us well, as we wish the same for all of you.

Michael

(Click here to receive announcements of forthcoming events)

A Personal Aristocracy

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I have another story about a book that’s a new-release and timely to mention. Several years ago a new client came to me by way of the internet. She found me from Alaska, where she had been immobilized for a year with post-traumatic stress. After speaking with her on the phone, she decided to come to New York to do Focalizing work with me. We did a month of two-hour weekly sessions, which helped re-regulate her central nervous system. She left New York with a new, clear sense of spirit and resilience that could propel her life forward. It warmed my heart to know that back in Alaska, she and husband, True Blue Indigo, were thrilled with the success of our work. A year later, I received a manuscript in the mail from True with a note that said, “Michael, if you feel what I have written has value can you help me bring it out in the world? This is beyond my capacity as a simple man of the wilderness.”

I initially wondered what I could do to help since I’m a therapist and author, not a publisher or a literary agent. Yet when I had read about a third of the manuscript, my jaw dropped in disbelief of its power, I had to call my publisher to tell him about what had just fallen into my hands. Within a week of sending him a copy, my publisher and True were in contract negotiation. The book was just released. What an honor it is to have it dedicated to me, with a mention in the acknowledgements that made me weep. If you would like to read a lyrical manifest for the modern age that gracefully invites us to live at our highest potential, buy this book: A Personal Aristocracy: Cultivating the Power of Spiritual Nobility.

The synchronicities and serendipities never end J

You CAN Change Someone You Love…WoW

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I first met Brad Lamm, a vibrant, younger colleague, at the Palm Springs airport on our way to a Professional Weekend in December. He was beaming with delight, as he had just received the first off-the-press copies of his new book, How to Change Someone You Love. Sensing it would be a real myth-buster, I immediately bought it. God bless you, Brad; many people will be helped by your refined new insights that are easy to grasp.

Lamm, an interventionist by profession, leads us on his fascinating personal journey, and those of his clients, weaving them into a simple, loving process. They are not the stereo-typical interventions you see on television. Professionals in the addictions field will also experience a breath of fresh air in the book’s “Four Steps to Help You Help Them.” As the jacket says, “A Powerful, ground-breaking book that shows you in concrete steps how to stop a loved one from engaging in self-destructive behavior…not just a self-help book; it’s a help-you-act book.” I hope Brad has a best seller on his hands. The more people heal themselves, the more it will add to the energetic rippling of ongoing transformation for the good of all of us.

Happy February,

Michael