I am very interested in exploring and teaching the intersection of Wholebody Focusing and the Teachings of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Wholebody Focusing's invitation to welcome all that one is carrying in one's body is very compatible with Trungpa's teaching that all of us as sentient beings are primordially basically good. Both Focusing and meditation offer a path to cutting through the mind's habitual patterns which distort and confuse our sense of our own Basic Goodness. As a student of Kevin McEvenue and Karen Whalen and Chogyam Trungpa, I look forward to sharing the experiential and spiritual insights of Focusing and Buddhist practice.
I have traveled many diverse spiritual paths in the course of my life. Born and raised in the United Methodist tradition, I graduated from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio in 1967. One of several training programs that I engaged in was a DMin Program in the Whole Church Project led by Dr. Jack Biersdorf, Director of the Institute for Advanced Pastoral Care, (1977-1980), where I completed numerous courses in pastoral care. There I was introduced to meditation practice. In 1999 I entered the Focusing Training Program offered by the Focusing Institute, training for two years with Mary Hendricks and a variety of Focusing trainers. I continued my training with Ann Weiser Cornell, Barbara McGavin, and their practice of Relationship Focusing through two levels of Treasure Maps, and also with Robert Lee.
In 2006 I entered the Heart of Warriorship and Sacred Path basic training with the Shambhala Meditation Community. I have taken several advance training seminars with the Shambhala Sangha at three of their Land Centers in Nova Scotia, Vermont and Colorado. Trungpa and his successor, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche are passionately offering the vision of Basic Goodness as the path to personal and societal transformation.
In addition to the United Methodist and Buddhist spiritual disciplines, I have been offering yoga, meditation, journaling and Focusing practices through the Unitarian Universalist congregations. In 2002 I was credentialed as a Community Minister in the Unitarian Universalist Community. For six years I offered these practices at the Baltimore City jail. I am currently working with First Unitarian Church of Baltimore in support of their outreach homeless persons, developing a program for homeless women in addiction recovery shelters in the city.