I have been working on the planning of this ground breaking conference for a bit now.  We are just about ready to work on the web site and print the mailer. The Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy is hosting this congress. Dr. Henry Grayson is Chairing this event and the line up is stellar! Now, more than ever, this is an essential event due to the hyper sexuality of people.  People tend to abuse and misuse their sexuality and this event will illustrate how sexuality is meant to be expressed and how to have a fulfilling sex life without all the problems that arise typically due to internal struggles. I wanted to give you all a heads up so you can mark your calendars. The congress will be held at the Hotel Pennsylvania, in NYC.

• At this time of economic, political and ecological turmoil in the world, why a national congress on spiritual sexuality and sexual healing? What is most needed now in the world is a deeper sense of connection with who we really are, and a deeper sense of bonding with our families, friends and colleagues. For thousands of years many of the great spiritual traditions of our planet have pointed us in a particular direction– the realm of sacred sexuality.
•  But in our present culture sexuality is not an easy realm to explore. Sexuality is deeply misunderstood.  It is either laden with guilt and shame, the focus of wounding and abuse, commercialized and trivialized, or seen as an easy path to so-called enlightenment.
• The goal of enhanced pleasure in our lives is something we all can applaud.  But the great spiritual traditions point to something deeper- the possibility that sexuality can be the gateway to our deepest healing and spiritual maturation. 
• It is in this spirit that the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy is bringing together the nation’s experts in the exploration and teaching of spiritual sexuality and sexual healing.  Join us for this transformative weekend national congress to include: a mixture of exciting talks, gentle experiential work, movement and artistic performance, with the option of a third day of post-conference workshops that will afford us the opportunity to work in smaller groups with some of our presenters.  Together we will embark on a sacred adventure into the realm of our deepest maturation and healing. 
• web site: www.natconss.com

Conference Chairman: Henry Grayson, Ph.D.                   Co-Chairman: Kenneth Porter, M.D.

Line Up:

Presenters (in order of appearance)

Michael Mirdad, Ph.D.

Michael

Mirdad, Ph.D./ Exploring Spiritual Tantra 

Dr. MichaelMirdad, renowned Spiritual Teacher and Healer, is the best-selling author of An Introduction to Tantra and Sacred Sexuality and You’re Not Going Crazy . . . You’re Just Waking Up! Michaelhas conducted thousands of classes, lectures, and workshops on Intimacy, Spirituality, Relationships, and Healing. He is one of the few teachers in the western world with 30 years of tantric teaching and practice and is the founder of “Spiritual Tantra.” His vast knowledge and wisdom combined with his personal warmth, humor, and integrity has earned him the title of “A Teacher’s Teacher” and “A Healer’s Healer” from students, teachers, and authors around the world.

Jalaja Bonheim, Ph.D./ The Path of Sexual Priestess

Dr. Bonheim will show how the sexual priestess is not only a historical figure, but also an immensely powerful archetype that is presently resurfacing full force in the lives of contemporary women. When a woman begins to live from that center of power, she reconnects with a wisdom that is ancient, radically transformative, healing, joyous, and life-affirming. Jalaja herself was trained in Indiain the Tantric tradition of the Indian temple dancers. Today, she’ll help us understand what it means to walk the path of the priestess in the context of modern life, and how to do so with integrity, authenticity, and joy.

Author of four books, including Aphrodite’s Daughters: Women’s Sexual Stories and the Journey of the Soul and The Hunger for Ecstasy.  As the Founder and Director of the Institute for Circlework, she leads workshops and trainings for women in the US, Israel, Palestine, and Afghanistan. www.jalajabonheim.com 

Rich and Antra Borofsky

Rich Borofsky, Ed.D. & Antra Kalnins Borofsky, Ed.M./

Rich and Antra Borofsky will present their work on intimacy as a spiritual path. The word “intimacy” means what is innermost.”What is innermost in us is an aware, spacious, eternal presence that is none other than Love itself.   To realize, to manifest and to share this loving presence is the heart of spiritual life.  In this presentation we will explore how emotional and sexual intimacy can be a path for allowing, welcoming, and celebrating this loving presence that is the heart who we are most truly.   

“Being Together: Intimacy as a Spiritual Path”    

Rich Borofsky, Ed.D. & Antra Kalnins Borofsky, Ed.M. are co-directors of the Center for the Study of Relationship in Cambridge, MA. where they provide therapy and workshops for couples.   They also offer their Being Together workshops for couples nationally. They are contributing authors to On Intimate Ground: A Gestalt Approach to Working with Couples; Wisdom & Compasssion in Psychotherapy (in preparation);and Joyful Wedding: A Spiritual Path to the Altar. Antra, is Gestalt therapist and Marriage and Family therapist; Rich is a Clinical Psychologist. They are both long time students. They have been a couple for 40 years. www.beingtogether.com    

Lee Holden

Lee Holden will teach how sexual Energy, physical vitality, and spiritual connection all are part of the same life force energy manifest in different ways.

The Tao of Sexual Secrets

 Lee Holden is an internationally known instructor in meditation, sexual alchemy, tai chi, and qi gong, lecturing and teaching workshops in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Holden brings to his practice passion, depth of knowledge, and diversity of experience, including international study and teaching; editing, writing, and consulting in conjunction with leading experts; and extensive athletic training and accomplishment. Holden is the founder of Santa Cruz Integrative Medicine and Chi Center, one of Northern California’s premiere wellness practices, which is dedicated to promoting overall health and well-being by providing the highest quality treatment, education, and consultation. www.pacifichealingarts.com

 Mary Sise, ACSW/ Energy Psychology and Healing from Sexual Trauma 

Mary Sise, ACSW

Mary Sise is a specialist in treating Trauma: When the Terror of the Past Hijacks the Ecstasy of the Present. When the body experiences a sexual trauma, consciousness fragments and the body, once it is triggered, prevents the person from being fully present in sexual encounters.   The sacred pleasures are overpowered by the triggered terror and no matter how hard a person tries to stay present, it is nearly impossible.   This session will discuss the mechanisms of trauma, how it impacts current sexual functioning and strategies to reclaim the soul fragments trapped in the past.

Mary Sise, LCSW, D.CEP a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Diplomat in Comprehensive Energy Psychology has a private practice in the Albany, NY area. In addition to being traditionally trained, she integrates energy therapies into her work and has trained hundreds of therapists in these methods.  Past-President of the Board of Directors for the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, she has presented at conferences both nationally and internationally on the use of energy therapy for trauma.  A former adjunct professor at Siena College, she has produced numerous training videos, teaches an eight week on-line course in trauma and energy psychology and is the co-author of The Energy of Belief: Psychology’s Power Tools to Focus Intention & Release Blocking Beliefs. www.integrativepsy.com/biography.asp  

Andrew Harvey

Andrew Harvey, P.C./ Embodying the Light: Spiritualized Sexuality 

 Andrew Harvey is an internationally acclaimed poet, novelist, translator, mystical scholar, and spiritual teacher. Harvey has published over 20 books including Son of Man(Tarcher/Putnam) and The Return of the Mother (North Atlantic Books). Harvey is a Fellow of All Souls College Oxford from (1972-1986) and has taught at Oxford University, Cornell University, The California Institute of Integral Studies, and the University of Creation Spirituality, as well as, various spiritual centers throughout the United States. He was the subject of the 1993 BBC film documentary The Making of a Modern Mystic.  He is the Founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism in Oak Park, Illinois, where he lives. www.andrewharvey.net

  Gina Ogden, Ph.D./ Sex, Spirit, & Shamanism: The Healing Connection

Gina Ogden

 Gina Ogden offers guidance on combining crucial elements of sex therapy and shamanic practice through her multidimensional “ISIS” model, a contemporary medicine wheel.  She describes diagnostic uses of sacred geometry and drummed journeying, demonstrates healing functions of shamanic tools such as feathers and shells, and teaches transformational techniques such as “hucha miqui,” a sacred breathing exchange that feeds the earth while clearing our chakras for sexual connection and meaning.

Gina Ogdenhas had a distinguished career as a sex therapist, family therapist, researcher, teacher, and author.  She conducts retreats and training workshops internationally, lectures widely, leads teleseminars for professionals, and has appeared on the media from talk radio to the Oprah Winfrey Show.  She has written seven books on women’s sexual health, pleasure, and the meanings of sexual relationship. Her most recent books are: The Return of Desire (2008), Women Who Love Sex (2007), and The Heart and Soul of Sex (2006) http://www.ginaogden.com

Stuart Sovatsky, Ph.D.

Sovatsky is Co-President of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, www.atpweb.org, co-convener of the World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality (in India), author of Eros Consciousness and Kundalini and has chanted in private audience with Yannous Drnovsec, Chair of Unaligned Nations of the World. He practices psychotherapy in Californiaand employs his extensive study of Yoga and Kundalini in his work with individual and especially couples as a doorway to personal and interpersonal liberation. http://home.jps.net/~stuartcs/about.html  

Andrew Harvey will present his vision of the Cosmos as a sacred marriage of transcendence and immanence, light and dark, masculine and feminine. From this he will go onto explore what he calls the Tantra of Tenderness, the natural human Eros that flows from the inner fusion of opposites and give 3 mystical practices.

Dr. Mirdad will teach healing through energetic bodywork, intuition, emotional release, and spiritual refilling. He will also offer insights and methods for enhancing love and intimacy, awakening vitality and passion, as well as how to find and release trauma and/or inhibition stored in the body

ich and Antra Borofsky feel the word  “intimacy” means what is innermost.  What is innermost in us is an aware, spacious, eternal presence that is none other than Love itself.   To realize, to manifest and to share this loving presence is the heart of spiritual life.  In this presentation we will explore how emotional and sexual intimacy can be a path for allowing, welcoming, and celebrating this loving presence that is the heart who we are most truly.   

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