Laurie Greenberg, PhD
Psychologist (Transpersonal)
New York City NY
My approach is flexible and versatile. I form a unique connection with each client. I would aim to help you heal and connect more deeply with and beyond yourself: with your own essence, with others, Life, the Universe, the Divine. At various times, our work may focus on grounding, healing, and enhanced embodiment; Visionary Journeys (via hypnosis) into other realms, memories and experiences; experiential dreamwork; expression via dramatization, writing or visual art; techniques drawn from yoga and Qigong.
Journey preparation can be greatly enhanced with IFS, which provides an opportunity to explore an individual's diverse emotions, motives, hopes and concerns related to this venture. This exploration can be quite important. It can help an individual decide, by listening openly to various "parts" of him/herself, whether or not a journey is timely - and if so, to choose the most congenial available substance, dosage, and conditions for this journey.
Prior psychedelic experiences can be explored and integrated, and new ones (without the use of entheogens) often emerge within the session itself. The integration process involves talking through the experiences together, and applying the methods of various therapies (IFS in particular) as appropriate. It may include artistic expressions, healing work as indicated, and support and guidance toward implementing positive changes in your life.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Gestalt Therapy (GT) are systems derived in part from Eastern roots. Awareness of body, mind, perceptions and emotions are enhanced. SE generally involves a carefully paced attunement to one’s inner experience. It is particularly useful for calming, grounding, and resolving traumas. GT influenced the early development of IFS, and can enhance clarity and vividness when when working through conflicts or mapping out multiple dimensions of an issue or experience. It is also a powerful tool for experiential dreamwork, which may prove particularly relevant when vivid dreams follow (or precede) the use of psychedelics.
Visionary Journeys involve the use of hypnosis to explore inner experience, which may include revising past lives or between-life states, connecting more fully with the Divine within and beyond oneself, and possibly meeting with spirit guides or others on another plane.
Even as a child, I was fascinated with the esoteric and the psychedelic: dreams, vividly colorful and intricate art, psychic experiences, and our relationship with the Cosmos. During my teens and beyond, these interests grew into diverse spiritual explorations. By age 19, I engaged often in lucid dreaming and astral travel (OBEs/journeying). Deeply fascinated with the workings of consciousness, I pursued a career in psychology while simultaneously studying esoteric and experiential dimensions of human consciousness. Among these numerous forays, I studied for 3 years the work of Eva Pierrakos integrated, to varying degrees, with the neoReichian Core Energetics of John Pierrakos – an approach with spiritual, psychological, somatic and expressive dimensions. In workshops, I experienced breathwork as well. I experimented with a variety of meditative techniques, continuing a diverse meditation practice in the years which followed, incorporating energetic techniques from various systems of Qigong and yoga.
During and following my doctoral program in Clinical Psychology, I also studied Past Life Regression/Therapy and related methodologies, including Life Between Lives Spiritual Regression. I was already training intensively in Gestalt Therapy, a creative/experiential approach which shares common ground with Jungian analysis, Zen and psychodrama. Among other virtues, Gestalt is rich in techniques of experiential dreamwork.
My meditation practice as well as my psychotherapeutic skills have been substantially enriched as well by training in Somatic Experiencing, an approach which shares much in common with both ancient (and certain other more contemporary) approaches to experiencing one’s own body while dissolving blocks in one’s energy and consciousness. Though primarily intended for the healing of trauma, Somatic Experiencing techniques also blend well with other therapies, with much emphasis on grounding and embodied presence which support calming and centering.
I have been practicing Psychedelic Integration in recent years. I am currently well-trained in IFS and have studied with numerous experts in this field, including Robert Falconer. I am currently working through a course he created re applying IFS to all phases of the psychedelic journey experience.