A six week Level I group

in

COMPASSIONATE AWARENESS

for

Men

and an

Inclusive Group

for men & women

 

Greg on ’82 BMW R100RT

 

 

In these groups, and at home, you will learn, practice, and work with tools that help enhance your ability to:

·        respond, not simply react

·        loosen the grip of fear and other troublesome thought patterns

·        relate less stressfully to stress

·        develop a more spacious-gracious relationship with yourself and others

·        open more to beauty, truth, joy, & compassion

·        employ greater emotional intelligence at work, home, & play

·        gain increased clarity for what you really want in your life

·        move more effectively towards the future with hope

 

Compassionate awareness(sometimes referred to as mindfulness or contemplative thought ) supports personal growth and healing through employing two aspects of consciousness that are always available, but rarely taught and used: First, the ability to bring awareness to our felt present experience in a way that frees us from being at the mercy of habitual reaction patterns. Secondly, the ability to bring essential qualities such as calm, curiosity, and compassion to bear on parts of ourselves that need some kind of attention. Employing such consciousness provides a wise, reliable, self-empowering approach toward increased freedom, depth, joy, and richness by responding spaciously, as opposed to reacting habitually, to the concrete realities of daily life.

 

                Times:                 7:00-9:00pm Tuesday evenings for men  - OR -  Thursday evenings open group

                Dates:                  Tuesdays (men) = May 11, 18, 25 & June 1, 8, 22 (skipping June 15)

                                                Thursdays (inclusive) = May 13, 20, 27 & June 3,10, 24 (skipping June 17)

                Place:                   Hakomi Educational Resources, 2523 West Lunt Chicago, IL 60645

                Cost:                    $180 for 6 sessions, $30 per session; or $160 if paid in full at the beginning.

                Size:                      Each group is limited to eight persons.

 

The group leader,Greg Johanson, M.Div., Ph.D., is an internationally recognized figure in contemplative or mindfulness-based approaches to growth and healing with nearly thirty years experience as a trainer of Hakomi Therapy and Internal Family Systems Therapy, as well as a pastoral psychotherapist. He is well-published in the field, including (with Ron Kurtz) the celebrated Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te ching. He is on the editorial board of five professional journals, has taught in a number of universities, and is currently Research Faculty with the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology

 

For more information and to set up an intake interview contact Hakomi Educational Resources

2523 West Lunt Chicago, IL 60645; (773) 338-9606; gregjohanson.net; [email protected]

 

 

 

Additional Group Information

 

Mindfulness is an empirically validated tool at the heart of a number of healing methods. Its roots extend to ancient wisdom and spiritual traditions. It supports personal growth and healing through employing two aspects of consciousness that are always available, but rarely cultivated and brought to bear: First, the ability to bring awareness to our felt present experience in a way that frees us from being at the mercy of habitual reaction patterns. Secondly, the ability to bring essential qualities such as calm, curiosity, and compassion to bear on parts of ourselves that need some kind of help.

 

Learning and practicing compassionate awareness has been demonstrated to be helpful with a variety of human concerns including:

 

·         Personal relationships

·         Parenting

·         Emotional intelligence in the workplace

·         Bothersome feelings

·         Worrisome habits or addictions

·         Dealing with loss

·         Envisioning the future

·         Relating to stress

 

Mindfulness can transform our relationship to our lives, while avoiding the pitfalls of engaging in self-improvement projects, escapisms, or intellectual speculations. Mindful methods provide a wise, reliable, self-empowering approach that can be profitably employed by spiritual and secular seekers alike who want to practice their way toward increased freedom, depth, joy, and richness by responding spaciously, as opposed to reacting habitually, to the concrete realities of daily life.

 

The group will be both psycho-educational through introducing concrete practices each week to be used at home, and therapeutic through the opportunity for individuals to do mindfulness-based in-depth brief therapy in a group setting. At the end of the six week group each participant will have been resourced with a variety of mindfulness-based practices that have been applied to many aspects of one’s life that can be profitably used for continued growth and meaning.

 

The structure of each two-hour group: An initial check-in time concerning how life and the week’s practice are going; a time for doing individual work within the group setting; a time to debrief the session in relation to the group; an orientation toward the coming week’s practice.