ITA Board Members

ITA Board presentation – Medicine Circle

Maria Cristina M de Barros, Brazil;

Žana Marovic, South Africa;

Caifang Zhu, China,

Regina Hess, Netherlands.

The world is struggling to create sustainable, and collaborative ways of co-existing on Earth. Transpersonal training, conferences, and publications play significant role in its potential of transformative power that brings awareness, connectedness, and recognition of that beyond us. International Transpersonal Association has been in forefront of growing transpersonal training in developing countries across several continents. ITA board members will engage audience through harnessing multi-cultural expression and power of transpersonal education.

“The waking up, ready for the leap psychotherapist”, Dr Maria Cristina M de Barros, Brazil

What it means to be a psychotherapist in a time of technological connectedness but profound isolation? In a time where there’s a perceived sense of human frailty, when Covid 19, earthquakes, flooding, war and other life-threatening events have exposed our pain and fear? Who is this psychotherapist emerging out of these turbulent times? Using a Brazilian methodology called “Integrative Transpersonal Approach” (IAT), this experiential work will lead us through an identification/de-identification/integration process to unveil a new psychotherapist, ready to individually respond to a collective challenge.

“The waking up: We are all indigenous to Mother Earth”, Dr Zana Marovic, South Africa

Experiential process is one of the most powerful and transformative aspects of transpersonal training. TranSomatic Wellness, an embodied psychotherapy approach unfolds through mindful practice of awakening one’s authentic self towards transcending individual and embracing collective by harnessing diversity. The experiential process starts with observing silence and sounds, then moves to somatic sensing through breath, yoga nidra and Buddhist meditation and eventually reflect on collective, wilderness and indigenous in each of us through poetry.

The waking up: Grounded Communication as an Integrative Therapy, Dr Caifang Zhu

Since its inception in the late 1960s in USA, transpersonal psychology has been around for more than 50 years. It is generally agreed that by the end of 1990s, transpersonal movement had been characterized by its enthusiasm in the experience of transcendence, enlightenment or awakening. This stage was followed by applying awakening to or seeking transcendence in daily life. Such a pivotal turn of transformation is described by some transpersonalists as integration, embodiment, or embeddedness (Cortright, 1997, 2013; Hartelius et al., 2007). Rarely have we seen or heard an integration that includes interpersonal communication, verbally or/and non-verbally. Besides, such literature has rarely come from the developing countries. To address these concerns, I have developed a model called Grounded Communication as an Integrative Therapy. It integrates my meditation practice based on the Chinese Chan Buddhism and Daoism traditions and the cultivated consciousness and skills of interpersonal communication. I assume it is only the integration of the individual meditation practice of grounding vertically and the interpersonal arts of communication horizontally that can fulfil the mission of the pivotal turn from the first phase to the second phase of transpersonal movement. The presentation will show and demonstrate if possible, the model of Grounded Communication. It will also articulate the significance of such a model in balancing the side effect of the post-pandemic and AI era.

The Waking Up to Ancestral Healing of Rootedness and Belonging as Children of Mother Earth: Multidimensional Transformation of Transgenerational Suffering and Trauma into Unconditional Love – Our Life Force itself – Dr. Regina U. Hess, Netherlands

Living in balance and harmony and healing seven generations backward and seven generations forward is the concept of indigenous cultures and lifestyles around the world The concept of Ubuntu that everything impacts each other as the wisdom concept of interconnectedness can be shown with hard science e.g., epigenetic research showing the impact of severe collective trauma and disaster such as the war on deviations on the DNA. Here is the important threshold where ancient wisdom traditions and modern neuroscience meet: everything is interconnected. In modern times, we lost that connectedness within our environment, tribe, and Nature. Remembering this instinctual knowledge intertwined with modern science approaches can enhance the manifestation of a new paradigm – a so-called new harmony and balance on Earth with humans integrating spirit into matter in a balanced, sustainable, mindful, and compassionate way – towards a new/old civilization where all life and all life forms expressions are sacred – Remember the ancient and manifest in new unknown ways of conscious ways of living – a path through the heart – a path of love. Love is bigger than any trauma or wounding – Unconditional Love is life itself.