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Wholistic Approach

Holistic Therapy

The four submissions below are for connecting in relation to the offering. Clients may submit all four submissions at one time, or may choose to submit one-by-one before each meeting. Please submit at least your first response, after reading and contemplating, before the first meeting.

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Contemplation

The four human aims, known as Purusharthas, are Dharma (righteousness), Artha (prosperity), Kama (pleasure), and Moksha (liberation), guiding individuals toward a balanced and fulfilling life.

Overview of the Four Aims

  1. Dharma: This represents righteousness, moral values, and ethical duties. It is the foundation of all actions and is considered essential for maintaining harmony in society. Following Dharma involves adhering to the laws of society and fulfilling one's responsibilities towards family and community.


  2. Artha: This aim pertains to prosperity and material success. It acknowledges the importance of wealth in achieving a comfortable and secure life. However, it emphasizes that wealth should be acquired through honest means and should not conflict with Dharma.


  3. Kama: This refers to pleasure, desire, and emotional fulfillment. It encompasses not only physical pleasures but also the enjoyment derived from cultural pursuits, relationships, and creative activities. Kama is recognized as a legitimate aim of life, provided it is pursued in a balanced manner alongside Dharma and Artha.


  4. Moksha: The ultimate goal of human life, Moksha signifies liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth (samsara). It represents spiritual enlightenment and self-realization, allowing individuals to attain a state of eternal bliss and freedom from worldly attachments.

Significance of the Purusharthas

The Purusharthas provide a holistic framework for living a meaningful life. They encourage individuals to pursue a balanced approach that integrates ethical living, material success, personal enjoyment, and spiritual growth. By understanding and applying these aims, one can navigate life's complexities and work towards a fulfilling existence.


In summary, the four human aims—Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha—serve as guiding principles in Hindu philosophy, helping individuals achieve a harmonious and purposeful life.


Practice

Conception of the Body These concepts highlight the inconstant and uncertain nature of embodied knowing, suggesting a novel onto-epistemological stance. This approach has implications for various fields, including body pedagogics, where skilled experts use selective sensory engagement with moving bodies to assess and intervene in the skill acquisition of learners. These influences reflect a broader societal shift towards recognizing the body's relevance in various disciplines, moving away from the Cartesian mind-body dualism and towards a more holistic understanding of the body as a source of information.

Yoga Studies, Medical Anthropology, Cultural Geography

Yoga Studies

The concept of Tri Sarira, the "three bodies," is a fundamental framework for understanding the complete human experience. This concept is crucial for grasping a human perspective on social change and spiritual growth. These are Sthula Sharira, the gross or physical body; Sukshma Sharira, the subtle body that includes breath, mind, and senses; and Karana Sharira, the causal body that holds deep impressions and the seed of individuality. Each body has its own role, yet all three work together as one system.


Three Bodies in Yoga: Sthula-Gross Body, Linga-Subtle Body & Karan-Causal Body – Fitsri Yoga

Medical Anthropology Anthropology and the body together in theory and practice are becoming more and more widespread and understood by scholars. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, in her article "The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology," advocates for a deconstruction of received concepts about the body. She examines three perspectives from which the body may be viewed:

  • As a phenomenally experienced individual body-self

  • As a social body, a natural symbol for thinking about relationships among nature, society, and culture

  • As a body politic, an artifact of social and political control


    Scheper-Hughes proposes the study of emotions as an area of inquiry that holds promise for providing a new approach to the subject. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the body as both a physical and symbolic artifact, as well as a product of historical and cultural contexts. This perspective challenges the Cartesian dualism that separates mind from body and spirit from matter, suggesting that these divisions are cultural and historical constructions rather than universal truths.


The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology

Cultural Geography The study of sensory experiences and their impact on the perceiving body, lived body, and knowing body is a rich and multifaceted field in the book Senses of Place, edited by Steven Feld and Keith H. Basso, with a prolegomenon chapter from Edward S. Casey (1996). Upon ethnography and anthropology, it encompasses various disciplines, including sociology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, each contributing to our understanding of how sensory information shapes our perception and interaction with the world through Merleau-Ponty's theoretical framework.

Perceiving Body

  • The Coherence of Perception: ““Presence does not give me truth like geometry but presences” (Merleau-Ponty 1964:14). What are these “presences” that are given in perception? Merleau-Ponty insisted that they were first the presences of feeling and perceiving bodies, bodies whose sensory experience was never fully sublimated to abstract cognition" (Feld 1996, 92). "Senses, he urged, were always experienced presences, presences of what later cognitive psychologists and philosophers called an “embodied mind” (Varela, Thompson, and Rosch 1991) or a “body in the mind” (Johnson 1987). But the senses, the body’s “sensorimotor surfaces,” are not limited to embodied presences, and they constitute more than experiential sites for establishing points and places of physical and social contact (Strauss 1963)” (Feld 1996, 92).


    Knowing Body

  • Interpenetrating Web of Bodily and Sensory Presence: Sensory studies and the knowing body are interconnected concepts that explore how our sensory experiences shape our understanding of the world. The knowing body is often conceptualized as a floating body, engaging in various sensorial flows such as sensory release, within-corporeality, and sensory entanglement in dreams. “Perceiving bodies are knowing bodies, and inseparable from what they know is culture as it imbues and shapes particular places. It is by bodies that places become cultural entities" (Casey 1996, 34). This is based on based on the notion of local knowledge by Clifford Geertz (Casey 1996, 45). “Moreover, whatever people may wish to know, they are already doing at the bilateral level of knowing bodies and known places” (Casey 1996, 35). Theoretical influences such as Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, practice theory, and embodied cognition have also played a significant role in re-evaluating the importance of the body in Information Studies.  It highlights the role of embodied knowledge in the transmission of skills and cultural norms.


    Lived Body

  • Phenomenology of Human Situatedness: Merleau-Ponty's concept of the lived body emphasizes the subjective experience of being a body, suggesting that our perception is deeply intertwined with our embodied existence, based on the notion of "lived experience" or Erlebnis by Immanual Kant. These studies collectively contribute to a deeper understanding of how we perceive and interact with our bodies, the lived body, and the knowledge we hold about them. They underscore the importance of considering the sensory and embodied aspects in our understanding of knowledge and the world around us. “The primacy of perception is ultimately a primacy of the lived body — a body that, as we shall see in more detail later, is a creature of habitual cultural and social processes” (Casey 1996, 19). This field examines how sensory experiences are integrated into our understanding of the world, influencing our social interactions and cultural practices.



Accomplishments

Interpersonal Communication and Intrapersonal Communication

The 16 MBTI® Personality Types

The Myers-Briggs® system consists of four preference pairs that reflect different aspects of personality—opposite ways to direct and receive energy through Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I), take in information with Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), come to conclusions using Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), and approach the outside world through Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). Most people find that one preference, in a preference pair, best describes their natural way of doing things, where they feel the most comfortable being themselves, outside of any roles they play in life. When the letters for each of these preferences are combined, 16 distinct personality types form which consist of different characteristics unique to that type. What is your type?

ISTJ

Quiet, serious, earn success by being thorough and dependable. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized—their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty.


ISFJ


Why Learn About Personality Type?

If you are new to personality type, the first question you may ask is, why take the time to learn about it? Considering how many personality systems exist, that's a good question and we have answers for you. In learning and working with MBTI® personality type, many people find their natural sense of self affirmed—many discover that it affirms that it is valuable to be the way they are.


Personality type is the term used to describe the 16 personalities in the Myers-Briggs® system based on the work of Isabel Briggs Myers. Myers created the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) instrument to measure the 16 personality types in C. G. Jung's theory of psychological types.


Importantly, MBTI personality types describe genuine and natural differences between people. The insights of personality type distinguish the (necessary) differences between people and gives us positive language to discuss and respect these differences.

Jung's Types and Myers' Dream

Jung was a psychiatrist and in his clinical practice he noticed that people had significant differences in how they used their basic mental functions, i.e., taking in information and evaluating that information. He saw that these differences then led to distinctions, in personality, of qualities and characteristics between people. Jung's theory of psychological types put the words extravert and introvert into our collective vocabulary.


Myers' MBTI instrument made psychological type accessible and usable by everyone on the planet. Myers' dream in creating the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment was to help people know themselves more deeply in order to create a life in line with their true nature and heart's desires. She saw in Jung's theory of psychological type a (deceptively) simple model of insight into how the human mind works, i.e., our preferences for what we focus on to take in or perceive the world, and our preferences for how we evaluate that information and make decisions.

Introversion and Extraversion

Extraverted Types: Reveal / extravert their dominant function and introvert / conceal their auxiliary.


EJs reveal Te or Fe, conceal Si or Ni

EPs reveal Se or Ne, conceal Fi or Ti


Introverted Types: Conceal / introvert their dominant function and reveal / extravert their auxiliary.


IJs conceal Si or Ni,reveal Te or Fe.

IPs conceal Ti or Fi,reveal Se or Ne.


Functions for Personality Processing

The dominant function is the core of the personality, defining the primary way of interacting with the world. It is the most developed and conscious function, providing the most energy and representing the core of the personality. The auxiliary function supports the dominant function, offering an alternative approach and balance. The tertiary function is less developed and often contributes to hobbies or secondary interests. The inferior function is the least developed, often a source of stress but also potential for growth. Understanding these functions helps in recognizing natural strengths, supporting functions, creative expression areas, and growth opportunities.

Cognitive Functions

This brings us to our third rule: each function is always paired with its functional opposite in the function stack. We sometimes refer to these as “function pairs.”


There are four available function pairs:


Absoluteness

The Core Concept: We Are Made of Many Parts

Parts work therapy is a therapeutic approach that views the mind as composed of various inner subparts, each carrying distinct emotions, memories, and protective roles. This therapy helps individuals heal trauma, anxiety, depression, and emotional conflict by cultivating self-leadership and integrating different parts of themselves.


It is rooted in concepts from various therapeutic frameworks, including Internal Family Systems (IFS), and emphasizes understanding and nurturing these inner voices to foster emotional healing and self-compassion. Internal Family Systems® (IFS) is a model developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, that has made a significant impact in the psycho-spiritual field by highlighting the healing relationship between the Self and its parts.


By acknowledging our inner multiplicity and the innate power of the Self, we can support trauma healing through a method that is widely embraced by therapists, coaches, and healers around the world.

Parts Work Therapy proposes that the mind is naturally multiple, and emotional conflict often arises when these inner parts are misunderstood, overwhelmed, or carrying burdens from past trauma.

Three Major Types of Parts

While different frameworks use different names, many Parts Work systems describe:

  1. Exiles – Parts carrying pain, trauma, shame, or fear.

  2. Protectors – Parts that shield us through avoidance, perfectionism, control, dissociation, or anger.

  3. Managers / Firefighters – Parts that react to overwhelming emotion, often through impulsive behaviors, addiction, bingeing, or shutting down.

How Parts Work Therapy Helps Heal the Inner System


1. Developing Self-Leadership

A foundational principle in many Parts Work systems (including Internal Family Systems, or IFS) is the concept of the Self — the calm, compassionate, centered aspect of one’s identity.


Therapy helps clients access this Self-energy to lead and nurture their inner parts, offering emotional clarity.

2. Unburdening Exiled Parts

Many internal conflicts stem from unprocessed childhood experiences or traumatic events. Parts Work Therapy gently helps:


What a Parts Work Therapy Session Looks Like


1. Identifying Parts

Clients learn to name and describe their internal parts, building awareness without judgment.


2. Building Compassionate Dialogue

Therapists guide clients in communicating with their parts, often through visualization, journaling, or guided meditation.


3. Unburdening and Integration

Exiled parts release old emotional burdens. Protective parts adopt new, healthier roles.


4. Strengthening the Self

As internal harmony grows, the Self becomes the leader, guiding choices and emotional responses with clarity and compassion.

Inner Parts and Astrology

Although "parts work" is rooted IFS as developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, considering cosmology and particularly astrology as a way of identifying inner parts has also made a significant impact in the psycho-spiritual field, while perhaps a merging of this awareness is not always practiced by IFS therapists.


As a holistic therapist, I find it intrinsic and often essential to study astrology, which allows for a deeper modality for self-study.


By acknowledging our inner multiplicity through astrology and the innate power of the Self through Shakti (i.e. found particularly in Vedic astrology), the aim is to support trauma healing by identifying inner workings (potentially inner conflicts) through a method of meditation, contemplation and integration.

Rāśi राशि

"sign" or "constellation"

catalog for your use


 In Vedic astrology, the zodiac is divided into twelve Rāśis, each corresponding to a segment of the celestial sphere and associated with specific characteristics and planetary influences. 


The zodiac in Sanskrit is traditionally referred to as Rāśi (राशि), which means "sign" or "constellation." 

 

In Vedic astrology, the zodiac is divided into twelve Rāśis, each corresponding to a segment of the celestial sphere and associated with specific characteristics and planetary influences. 

Nakshatra

Nakshatra is the term for Lunar mansion in Hindu astrology and Buddhist astrology. 

           

A nakshatra is one of 27 sectors along the ecliptic.

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Each Nakshatra has its particular power or Shakti; the powers of the stellar alignments and deities that rule over and define nakshatra yoking.

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Each has an ascending and a descending energy.

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↣ the power 

▲ its basis above

▼ its basis below

➳ the result

Jyotiṣa ज्योतिष


The traditional Hindu system of astrology

 

The Sanskrit term "Jyotisha" itself means "science of light," reflecting the study of celestial bodies and their influence on human affairs.

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Nakshatra and Shakta

 

Each nakshatra is listed in Sanskrit, listing for proper diacritical notation and Sanskrit-language text; each Shakta of each nakshatra is listed in Sanskrit, listing the etymology of the word with its tonal qualities.

 

The portion on Shakta offers arrows of direction revealing the energic motion, as you will see describing the transcending interrelationship of Shakta and describing the transmission result of Shakta.

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Graha and Deity​

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Each Rāśi is associated with a particular set of attributes, ruling planets (Grahas), and elements, forming the basis of Jyotisha. The deities ruling over each nakshatra is also listed, listing the name of the deity with its qualities and characteristics, and listing the ruling planet or nakshatra Lord with its significant influence.

 

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Sidereal Astrology Chart

(Vedic Jyotish Horoscope)

Sidereal Astrology Vedic Birth Chart Calculator, Free Horoscope Online

Celtic Zodiac

Please visit this site and consider Celtic tradition in regard to selfhood.

Celtic Zodiac | Lavender Spirit


  • Deer / Beth (Dec 24 – Jan 21) / Birch

  • Dragon / Louis (Jan 22 – Feb 18) / Rowan Tree

  • Mermaid / Nion (Feb 19 – March 18) / Ash

  • Hawk / Fearn (March 19 – April 15) / Alder

  • Sea Serpent / Saille (April 16 – May 14) / Willow

  • Calyx / Uath (May 15 – June 12) / Hawthorn

  • Horse / Duir (June 13 – July 9) / Oak

  • Lion / Tinne (July 10 – August 6) / Holly

  • Salmon / Coll (August 7 – Sept 2) / Hazelnut

  • Swan / Muin (Sept 3 – Sept 30) / Vine

  • Fairy / Gort (Oct 1 – Oct 29) / Ivy

  • White dog / Ngetal (Oct 30 – Nov 27) / Reed

  • Raven / Ruis (Nov 28 – Dec 23) / Elderberry

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Lab Space

member interaction with texts and resources

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