The Feeling Path opens a new, transformative relationship with feeling. You’ll go from adversarial control position, where you work hard to promote the feelings you want and avoid the ones you don’t want, to an attitude of welcome. You’ll learn that every feeling state, no matter how difficult or challenging, is an opportunity to move along the path to your highest self.
You can use the resources I’ve provided on this website, the videos and my upcoming book, to explore this new relationship on your own. And I invite you to work with me directly, to accelerate your learning and your progress. The feeling mind is new territory, uncharted by the myriad tracks of psychology or spiritual practices. I’ll be your weathered guide, leading you through this new landscape with the assurance of one who has been traversing it for nearly two decades.
We can work in my home office in Port Townsend or by phone, wherever is most convenient for you. Here’s what you can expect when you work with me.
Setting Things Up
You can either email or call (360-399-6575) to set up your first appointment. I have open hours at various times throughout the week, so we’ll have no trouble finding a time that works for you. Typical sessions are 90 minutes.
If you like, you can share a bit with me about what you want to work on. Sharing this can help you set your intention for our work together. In the time before our session, I’ll suggest you reflect on whatever it is you’re wanting to change, focusing particularly on the feeling states you typically experience in the course of living out this issue.
Your First Session
In your first session, we’ll get right to work. I’ll ask you to share your story of what seems to be in the way. I’ll be listening especially intently for feeling states that are part of your experience. As I listen, I’ll ask questions to help you clarify your experience. Within a half hour we’ll have a pretty good handle on anywhere from half a dozen to ten or more feeling states that underlie your experience of the issue.
At that point, we’ll jump right in and start mapping. In our first session, we may have time to map a couple states and move one of them. I like to make sure you have the experience of what it’s like to move a feeling state in your first session, so you get an idea of the power of this process and know what you have to look forward to.
Further Sessions
As we proceed, we’ll be identifying feeling states involved in creating your challenge, mapping them, moving them, and integrating the new states into your everyday life. Depending on how deep you want to work, we can take one of four paths:
1. Breakthrough
This single session is a good choice if you are already on a growth path but are finding your progress temporarily blocked by something that feels rooted in the past. We can quickly identify what I call the pivot state, the feeling around which your challenge revolves. We’ll map that pivot state, move it, and free you to continue your progress using your preferred practices.
2. Clearing
This series of 4-6 sessions is for a specific issue that is obstructing your fulfillment in life. We’ll identify the set of nine feeling states which holds your obstructing pattern in place, map each state and move it, and set you up with effective integration practices to completely leave this issue in the past.
3. Transformation
Underlying our tactics of compensation, defense, and compromise in life is a deeply rooted template. This template, what I call the Deep Self, is our core identity, formed very early in life. This Deep Self is held in place by nine pervasive feeling states. In this series, we will start with a Clearing, then use that issue as a pointer to uncover the Deep Self states. We’ll map those, move them, and set you up with effective integration practices to completely transform your life. This is very deep work. Expect a period of adjustment, both exhilarating and disorienting. Total number of sessions is about 10 to 15.
4. Deepening
As you begin to live life from a deeply authentic place, you will make different choices, find yourself in new situations. These new situations may bring up new opportunities to deepen your practice. Through periodic ongoing sessions, you’ll learn to recognize when your feelings are locked in the past and giving you unreliable information about the present, and when they’re signaling you with accurate feedback about the current balance in your life. When they’re stuck in past reactions, you’ll learn various ways to quickly and easily release that old imprint and return feelings to their natural, responsive state of being.
Complete Documentation
All along the way, I’ll be documenting your work. I’ll be taking detailed notes, using your words to capture your experience. You’ll receive these notes in a Word document or PDF after every session. Plus, I’ll be outlining the various feeling states using mind map software, so we can visually track your progress. You will be drawing each feeling map, (or guiding me in drawing it), so you have a visual representation of the feeling. And with every feeling state you map and move, you’ll receive a 5″x8″ index card printout (or PDF) of the before and after versions, with the visual images and the verbal descriptions. If you would find it helpful, we can also record your sessions as MP3 files you can review at any time.
Payment
Currently I’m offering private Feeling Path sessions on a gift basis only. While I do accept financial and other support, I choose to opt out of the money-based, exchange economy in offering this work in the world. Please contact me to set up a first session, and let’s find out if this work is right for you. You can read more about my position regarding money at FeelingPath.com. You will also find a page on that website which will guide you through mapping and moving on your own. Try it now.
Disclaimer
I want to be clear. The Feeling Path is not therapy. Although it provides many of the end results people seek when going to therapy (and more), this is a teaching, and you are in charge of your progress.
My baseline assumption is there is nothing wrong with you, no diagnosis to be made, nothing to be healed. By simple virtue of growing up in our culture, you were trained to diminish and suppress your natural reliance on feeling as a source of wisdom. I’ll be teaching you to revive the wisdom of your feeling mind. You can apply this new learning to therapy or any other growth pursuit you may have. Talk with me if you have any questions.
