NWPI Retreats
Please join us at our next retreat. Retreats happen every year.
Vastness & Vulnerability: A Retreat Exploring Nondual Wisdom & Psychotherapy
April 12-15, 2012 (Thurs-Sun)
Co-facilitated by Dorothy Hunt, LCSW, and John J. Prendergast, Ph.D.
Location:
The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) Retreat Center
101 San Antonio Road
Petaluma, CA 94952
Hosted by the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy.
16 (BBSE) CEU’s available.
Flyer and registration form with complete information.
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Our past retreats are listed below, to give you an idea of what has been offered and covered, topic-wise, in previous retreats.
Being & Becoming: An Exploration of Nondual Wisdom & Psychotherapy, 2010
March 18-21, 2010 (Thurs - Sun)
Co-facilitated by Dorothy Hunt, LCSW, and John J. Prendergast, Ph.D.
No one walks through a psychotherapist’s door without wanting something to change. But what if the change that actually has the power to end suffering is realizing our true nature? What if the peace we long for comes in discovering we do not need the moment to be different? What if the very transformation we imagine will bring our happiness only comes about by Being who/what we already are? What if the love we so desperately seek outside turns out to be within us?
Being is always becoming, but trying to “become” before knowing what it is to “be,” often ends in frustration. It could be said, a bit simplistically, that spiritual teachers emphasize “being,” and psychotherapists emphasize “becoming,” but in reality we cannot separate either being or becoming. Experientially, there is no realization of our true nature without being, which is a cessation of becoming. Paradoxically, there is no flowering of that realization without becoming, which is our willingness to be transformed by our realization. Realization is not an attainment of ego; it is the end of trying to get somewhere or be somebody. When there has been a true awakening, it is the Mystery and not the “me” that then begins to transform our thoughts, our heart, and our actions, including the functioning called “psychotherapy”. It is at this point that many seekers move away from what they have realized and return to the mind to try to figure out how to live from this truth. However, as soon as we go back to the mind’s thoughts about “how,” we have departed from the mystery of Being, which is the source and agent of living more deeply, directly, and simply from what we are.
Through silence, experiential inquiry, and dialogue, we will explore together both being and becoming. While we will focus on issues arising in psychotherapy and offer CEU’s for psychotherapists, this retreat is open to any who are interested in nondual realization and its impact on the practice or experience of psychotherapy. The retreat will be held in silence except for shared gatherings and dialogues. The Retreat Center of the Institute of Noetic Sciences which is located on 200 acres of beautiful rolling hills in Petaluma, California, just 30 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It offers such gifts as pristine live oak woodlands, meandering hiking trails, an organic garden, delicious food, and panoramic vistas of the California landscape.
Living Undivided: An Exploration of Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, 2009
April 16-19, 2009 (Thurs-Sun)
Co-facilitated by Dorothy Hunt, LCSW, and John J. Prendergast, Ph.D.
This retreat was open to clinicians as well as to the public, and proved very powerful for many who experienced deep openings into the nondual nature of their own seeing and being.
RETREAT SPONSOR
San Francisco Center for Meditation & Psychotherapy
