Professional Influences

 

• Family Medicine, the biopsychosocial model and family systems theory

 

•  M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled.

 

•  Hospice and Palliative Care

 

•  Medical ethics and hospital staff leadership

 

•  Psychosomatic medicine

 

•  Psychiatry and psychodynamic therapy

 

•  Jungian studies and depth psychology – explores the contents of the whole self, the ego, consciousness, the unconscious, dreams, archetypes, the Shadow, sacred masculine and feminine, complexes, and the imago dei.

 

• Anamcara – Celtic and spiritual traditions for care of the dying, acting as a soul friend, a spiritual midwife to life changes and the final passage of death.

 

• Enneagram – sacred psychology system for understanding personality typology and its effect on personal/spiritual growth.

 

• Positive Psychology – focus on happiness, thriving, flourishing, the strengths, values, personal resources, and determinants of resilience, hardiness, and wellness beyond disease focus and the absence of symptoms.

 

• Cognitive Neuroscience – burgeoning field of brain science, neural plasticity, and intentional development of neural networks that support happiness, resilience, and well-being.

 

• Mindfulness – MBSR, other meditative traditions, and contemplative prayer provide valuable increased internal and present moment, non-judgmental awareness, aiding the development of an “inner observer”.  Extensive f-MRI and extensive research studies now document the mental and physical health benefits of meditative practices.

 

• Wellness Coaching – provides a powerful way of using positive psychology and proven personal change strategies to facilitate growth, development, and wholeness beyond the medical model.

     

• Appreciative Inquiry - Focus on strengths, internal resources, and episodes of success, joy, and competence in our lives as a pathway of change as opposed to focus on problems, mistakes, and deficits.   

 

• Spiritual Direction – an opportunity to explore, assess, and discern relationship to the divine, to totality on our spiritual journey through our every day life.

 

• Existential Inquiry – asks questions and seeks to understand issues of meaning and purpose, causation, suffering, birth, death, and relationship to the cosmos.

 

• Richard Rohr – Franciscan priest and modern wisdom teacher who has founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerqe, New Mexico, written many books, and spoken about religion, spirituality, non-dual awareness, contemplative prayer, and Jungian psychology around the world.