2008 Tentative Conference Schedule
The 2008 tentative conference schedule is below. Please check back as the schedule will be updated as information becomes available.
Friday, October 31 Preconference Event
| 8:30 am | Registration |
| 9:00 am - 4:00 pm | Mindfulness and Mental Health Sylvia Boorstein |
Saturday, November 1 Conference
| 8:30 - 9:00 am | Registration/Exhibits |
| 9:00 - 9:30 am | Welcoming Remarks |
| 9:15 - 10:30 am | Opening Keynote Address |
| 10:30 - 11:00 am | Book signing and exhibits |
| 11:00 - 12:30 am | Lunch and exhibits |
| 12:30 - 2:30 pm | Workshop and Activity Sessions (2 hr) Crafting as a Spiritual Practice.... |
| 2:30 - 3:00 pm | Break |
| 3:00 - 5:00 pm | Workshop Sessions (2 hr) Relax, Renew and Refresh: 3 Tools to Manage Stress The Oneida Fire Ceremony: a ceremony for getting rid of things that keep us from getting healthy |
| 5:00 - 5:30 pm | Exhibits |
| 5:30 - 7:30 pm | Break for Dinner (on your own) |
| 7:30 - 9:00 pm |
Zahir Roman Orest |
| 8:30 - 9:00 am | Registration/Exhibits |
| 9:00 - 10:00 am | Workshop Sessions (1 hr) Jennifer Zech |
| 10:15 - 11:30 am | Keynote Address Anees Sheikh, Ph.D. |
| 11:30 - 12:00 pm | Booksigning and exhibits |
| 12:00 - 1:30 pm | Lunch/Exhibits (exhibits close at 1:30 pm) |
| 1:30 - 4:30 pm | Workshop Sessions (3 hr) Using Shamanic Journeying Techniques to Create Healing Stories |
| 4:45 - 5:15 pm | Closing Ceremony |
2008 Body, Mind and Spirit Conference
Preconference Event
Friday, October 31
8:30 am Registration
9:00 am-4:00pm Mindfulness and Mental Health
Buddhist psychology teaches that happiness depends on the ongoing presence in the mind of both composure and keen discernment so that the inevitable challenges of life can be met with wisdom and compassion. This seminar will teach participants to understand afflictive emotions, such as anger, jealousy, envy, depression, and indecision, as the result of challenge rather than moral failures and assist them in lessening the pain of these emotions.
This seminar is particularly well suited to teachers, therapists, indeed everyone whose work depends on establishing and maintaining warm, positive relationships with the people with whom they work. Participants will be introduced to both Mindfulness and Lovingkindness practice. There will be time for meditation and ample opportunity for question and answer periods.
Conference
Saturday, November 1
8:30-9:00 am Registration/Exhibits
9:00-9:15 am Welcoming Remarks
Bob Salt and Kevin Doll
9:15-10:30 am Opening Keynote Address
Happiness is an Inside Job
Happiness is an inside job: everyday practices for cultivating and sustaining a contented and engaged mind in the midst of complex and challenging times.
10:30-11:00 am Booksigning and exhibits
11:00 am-12:30 pm Lunch and Exhibits
12:30-2:30 pm Workshop Sessions (2 hr)
Mindfulness
Sylvia Boorstein
In this two-hour mini-retreat, through instructions, periods of silent meditation, and time for questions and answers, Sylvia will present the basic interventions--Wise, Effort, Wise Mindfulness, and Wise Concentration-that the Buddha taught as the techniques for transforming our minds from confusion to clarity, replacing struggle with contentment.
Crafting as a Spiritual Practice....
Lisa Cory
Explore the healing and connective aspects of handling and creating in a fiber medium. The first hour will include a PowerPoint presentation. The second hour will include tactile activities such as knitting, crochetting, or the ancient practice of felting.
A Magical Mystery Tour: Guided Imagery with Hypnosis
Richard Marano
Participants will learn about hypnosis in a lecture/question and answer format. Once participants are educated and wanting, Richard will induce a safe and pleasant state of hypnosis to guide participants through a wonderful sensory experience.
The Path of Simply Being
Tom Roberts
Too often mindfulness is presented in a way that is difficult to understand and even more difficult to apply. This workshop will offer a clear and direct insight into the mindfulness experience. The mindfulness must be experienced rather than talked about. This workshop is experiential and will offer you access to the spacious quality of mindfulness.
2:30–3:00 pm Break
3:00-5:00 pm Workshop Sessions (2 hr)
Relax, Renew and Refresh: 3 Tools to Manage Stress
Julie Geigle
Learn three tools to help raise your vibrational frequency, manage stress, and tap your worries away. Julie will first share some basics on aromatherapy and introduce the therapeutic essential oils that will help relax our spirit. Next, she will teach us how to use self-hypnosis to reenergize our body. Finally, a simple tapping technique will be presented to help release stored emotions and leave us feeling revitalized and refreshed!!
Introduction to Meditation
Bob Salt
The basic elements of meditation practice will be reviewed. There will also be discussion of the different types of meditation from the various cultures and religions around the world.
The Oneida Fire Ceremony: a ceremony for getting rid of things that keep us from getting healthy
Russell Swonger
Exploring A Companionate Spirituality
John Williams
Is there such a thing as a companionate spirituality? The basic emphasis in traditions of spirituality have been either individual or communal. Discussions of spiritual friendships or marital spirituality (until recently) have been conspicuous for their rarity as if these are not the foundation or the building blocks for a communal spirituality. This workshop provides an opportunity to examine the experience, dispositions, and practices that characterize an Emmaus-like pathway for two pilgrims traveling together along life's way.
5:00-5:30 pm Exhibits
5:30-7:30 pm Break for Dinner (on your own)
7:30-9:00 pm Dances of Universal Peace
Zahir Roman Orest
Sunday, November 2
Conference
8:30-9:00 am Registration/Exhibits
9:00-10:00 am Workshop Sessions (1hr)
Join us for a highly interactive session that explores an overview of Power Animals, Animal Spirit Guides and Animal Totems. Participate in a meditative shamanic journey to access information about the animal energies available to you and learn how to increase that dynamic. Identify at least one power animal that you are connected with as you explore various ways to meet and greet your animal spirit guides.
This is an experiential hands-on workshop using a combination of breath, touch, movement, and focus to create and allow inner awareness. The results are often a sense of relaxation, inner pace and confidence. These exercises are unique in that they cue the nervous system in a genuine gentle way to create sustainable changes in perception of life, reaction to stress, and relationship to others.
Tai Chi
Bill Broughton, Instructor of Tai Chi
You will learn a brief history of Tai Chi, and move to a discussion on practical benefits of practicing Tai Chi. From there, it is all practical participation of the form with spontaneous, running questions and answers.
Memorial Student Center Northwoods
10:15-11:30 am Keynote Address
Healing Images: Connecting with Inner Wisdom
Anees Sheikh, Ph.D.
Mental imagery has occupied an important place in the healing arts of many cultures. In the west, this approach had been relegated to obscurity for a long time, but now once again, it is assuming a position of prominence. Many now feel that of all the recent developments in the healing arts, perhaps the most significt one is an increased understanding of the healing potential of imagery, especially its potential to help us connect with our own inner wisdom. It appears that the most effective healer is not in an office but within the psyche of the individual. Imagery has been shown to be an excellent vehicle for accessing our inner healer. Dr. Sheikh will provide the audience with an understanding of the healing power of imagery through its connection with inner wisdom and will share a number of imagery techniques that have been successfully used for this purpose.
11:30 am-12:00 pm Booksigning and exhibits
12:00-1:30 pm Lunch and exhibits (exhibits close at 1:30 pm)
1:15-4:30 pm Workshop Sessions (3hr)
Theta-Heart-Brain Connection
David Andrae, Storyteller
We spend the majority of our life in a Beta brainwave state with a small amount of time in Alpha and only a fleeting glimpse of Theta. By doing so, we deprive ourselves of the benefits including reduction of anxiety, a stronger immune system, ehanced creativity, peak performances, and a higher insight to problem solving. In this session, we will use entertrainment, which is the process of synchronization where vibrations of one object will cause the vibrations of another object to oscillate at the same rate connecting Theta with the Heart Brain.
Past Life Therapy
Eric Christopher, Hypnotherapist/Marriage and Family Therapist, Private Practice
There is ample evidence that suggests that we are both mortal and immortal, a package deal as both human and eternal, indestructible soul. We will discuss research, teachings and fascinating case studies regarding our purposes here as souls. We will also discuss the therapeutic value of past life regression with emotional and physical issues. Finally, we’ll do a guided group past life regression and process experiences.
Using Shamanic Journeying Techniques to Create Healing Stories
Joan Mickelson
Shamanic journey techniques allow access to alternate states of consciousness (ASC). Participants will discuss contemporary research into neurological basis for ASC, discuss historical context for shamanic journeys and healing symbols, learn basic journey techniques, retrieve a healing guide while in ASC, and journey for a metaphor or story with healing potential.
Reiki I Attunement
Jodi Olmsted, PhD, Usui Reiki Master
This highly interactive session is designed for the individual who has been introduced to the practice of Reiki, and is now ready to receive a Level One attunement for using Reiki for self-healing. Demonstration and practice of various hand positions, uses, and meditations will be shared. Participants should wear loose, comfortable clothing, and bring a blanket and/or pillows for a guided mediation that will be part of the session. An additional course fee of $100 per person will apply, and is payable to the instructor.
Happiness and Health: the Role of Imagination
Anees Sheikh, Ph.D.
It seems that happy people are healthier, more productive, more tolerant and creative, select more challenging goals, demonstrate greater empathy, have more close friends, enjoy better marriages and live longer. In this workshop, Dr. Sheikh will first discuss what happiness is and how it can be nourished. He will specifically expand on the role of imagery in attaining happiness and health through its connection with our inner wisdom. He will lead the participants through a number of imagery experiential exercises. The role of imagery in the clinic will also be emphasized.
4:45-5:15pm Closing Ritual