Undefended Love: The Foundation Course

Feburary 7 & 8, 2009

14 C.E.U.s for MFTs and LCSWs

Intimate partnership is a profound vehicle for spiritual and self-realization. Our potential to be fully human - to be entirely ourselves in the presence of another - requires that we forge, rather than find our soul connection, compose rather than control ourselves and each other, and dissolve rather than resolve the issues that emerge in our relationships.

This capacity to live a liberated life - to be free to love and be loved without conditions - is a developed capacity, available to anyone who is committed to awaken to their own potential and nurture what is best in another. This eloquent and life-altering workshop offers a new vision where relationship becomes a pathway guiding us back to that unique, authentic, one-of-a-kind identity we left behind in childhood but that still resides as the Essential Self in each of us.

The map offered in this course helps us utilize the profound benefits of "Undefended Love" - how to be emotionally present even when we feel exposed or vulnerable; a way to relinquish the many strategies we have employed to feel safe and in control; a way of finding the courage to love without guarantees or requirements; a way to cut through personal differences and grow a common ground of being that nourishes and sustains intimacy. The focus of this workshop, open to couples and individuals, is on shifting our center of gravity away from our conditioned personality (the places where we feel stuck, confused, hurt and defensive) toward our essential self (who we are as free, whole, connected, peaceful, powerful and joyful).

Through spirited experiential techniques ("Inviting the Demons to Dinner," "Lifeboat Messages," "Calm Water Practices"), we will go beyond formulaic approaches and popular trends. For example:

On being undefended: Before we can have a meaningful relationship with another, we have to have a meaningful relationship with ourselves. Learn the three capacities that allow us to be undefended:

1. The capacity to know who we are below images and ideas of who we are.
2. The capacity to sustain our experience of ourselves regardless of what our partner is feeling.
3. The capacity to express who we are at ever deepening levels even if we know we will not be  welcomed there.

On emotional reactivity: Learn to recognize the root of emotional reactivity, why we leave the  present when we are triggered, where we go and how to interrupt the chain reaction.

On intimacy: All couples want to be close, but over time, maintaining a close, "companion- based" relationship can limit us, preventing intimacy. To seek the deepest level of  connection with another involves finding and freeing the essential self within.

On problem-solving: Learning to deal with problems as they come up is a good beginning; but learning to dissolve problems at their core is the life-altering experience. Learn how to use the problems and difficulties that emerge in relationship as entry points to deeper connection.

On gender roles: Learn why there is no difference between men and women when it comes to healing the cracks in our identity, rediscovering our essential self and deepening our intimate relationships with others.

To register download registration form.