|
Page 1 of 53
A Personal Note from Lynne: Over the past 15 years of training transformational Large Group Awareness Trainings, I have witnessed what the psychological community would deem miracles. I have seen successful, well-adjusted people awaken to the contribution they are in the world and forge philanthropic and charitable ventures that have changed thousands of lives. I have witnessed thousands of people reconnect and mend broken-off or severed relationships, recovering an aspect of the Self that had been lost and healing. I have seen people with Aspergers begin a training unable to look people in the eye, read emotions or touch others, then ending the training hugging family members for the first time in years, making eye contact. I have watched people who had been given a label of Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Bi-Polar, Depression, utilize the trainings successfully and heal areas where psychology had fallen short. Large Group Awareness Trainings are designed for people whose lives are already working, rather than people who are in distress or suffering from mental illness. That being said, I have often wondered what could be accomplished if the psychological community worked hand-in-hand with the transformational training community. Instead, often much of the psychological community has hurled accusations, assessments and objections about Large Group Awareness Trainings. It takes little effort to do an Internet search and come up with critiques and warnings about Large Group Awareness Trainings, most based on a unstable foundation rather than studies or empirical evidence. When I participated in my Masters program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, I wanted to do an informal study and address some of the criticisms that I had heard for years. Through the years I have seen countless potential participants not participate in the trainings because their therapist or psychologist refused to sign the release and work with the person through whatever emerged in the process. I have seen many therapists reluctant to participant in any growth experience themselves, more comfortable being an ‘expert’ rather than a student of life or simply afraid of the unknown. I know this is not the whole psychological community, because gratefully I have experienced exceptions. Unfortunately, I still do not see both communities working together to serve people. I have a vision of therapists, counselors and psychologists sending clients to transformational trainings, so that they can make greater progress or go to another level in their therapeutic work. I have a vision of transformational trainers and coaches referring participants to deeper work in therapy, to focus on something that emerged in the process. I am including my thesis as the tip of the iceberg of greater work that is to be done and the possibility that has yet to be realized. - Lynne E. Sheridan |
