I offer one-on-one support in various forms: meditation mentoring; guidance on solo, on-line, and group retreats; and psychotherapy.
You can learn more below about my background in these areas. Further below are thoughts about money and ways to contact me.
I love exploring the inner landscape, helping people free up energetic tangles, and suggesting ways to attune to a quiet, heartful wisdom that is larger than our individual identities. This has influenced my shifting vocations and professional choices for several decades.
In the late 1980s and through the 1990s I worked full-time as a licensed psychotherapist in private practice. I trained intensively in a body-based therapy called “bioenergetics.” It is particularly effective at freeing up emotional blockages. It’s not always as good at knowing what to do with that energy when it loosens up. For this I relied on other styles of therapy and my growing experience with Insight Meditation.
As satisfying as my private practice was, I yearned to work in community. I was already an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. So in 2000, I accepted a call to move to California and become the lead minister for a progressive congregation. The responsibilities of ministry meant giving up most of my therapy practice.
While in California, I became a student of John Travis (a senior Dharma teacher from Spirit Rock Meditation Center) and Bhante Vimalaramsi (a jhana master). By 2013, my meditation practice had deepened enough that I wanted to devote more time to the dhamma. I retired from the church and set up the Easing Awake Sangha as a venue for teaching and mentoring.
I have a small office I my home where I meet individually with people who live nearby. I also use Zoom, FaceTime, Skype and other on-line platforms to “meet” with people around the world.
I do live in the world of rent, medical bills, and grocery stores. So I accept money in return for the help I offer. For mentoring that resembles counseling (hour-long sessions on a potentially broad range of issues), I use a traditional sliding scale that usually runs from $80 to $120 an hour. For mentoring that resembles Thai Forest style meditation interviews (shorter sessions with a tighter focus on meditation practice), I prefer to honor the Asia dana system which encourages people to explore their feelings of generosity — tempered by their financial means — and offer what’s appropriate for them.
There is more information about dana here.
If you would like to set up a mentoring relationship or ask about other possibilities, please send me a note. The contact form below is one way to do it. Or just email me.
Copyright 2019 by Doug Kraft
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(a suggested style): "Mentoring and Support …" by Doug Kraft, www.dougkraft.com/?p=Mentoring.