Weaving Our Roots Fall Conference Reflection: From Amelia Pauley

Our recent weekend retreat, Weaving Our Roots, truly lived up to its name, fostering meaningful connection and growth.

The retreat was a collective gathering of multidisciplinary, Spirit-led clinicians who came together to connect over common ground and shared practices.

Exploring the history of pastoral counseling, the distinctions and overlap with Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy, connecting across disciplines, deepening our practices, and integrating it all was truly magical.

Our retreat leaders deserve recognition for hosting this event and for their ability to guide us through “bottom-up learning.” Tamara and Dwight were a gift to the group, as were the many others who offered their talents through music, sound baths, storytelling, and their authentic, enriching presence that fostered our shared spirit.

To ACPE - thank you for the support, presence, and hard work that made this retreat possible. I believe I speak for us all when I say: thank you, thank you, thank you!

The gift of sharing space with others who hold shared values, practices, and missions is life-giving and increasingly needed in today’s culture. We were blessed with a beautiful setting, wonderful food, thoughtful leadership, and warm hospitality.

Together, these elements created an enriching weekend - one in which we all, hopefully, walked away feeling that our roots had truly been woven.

Until next time, friends.
- Amelia Pauley PMHNP-BC

For a review of the past conference agenda, please see: https://bit.ly/4pplXZ7

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@religion #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #faith #spirituality

Happy Samhain to those who celebrate it. In 2023, I made this mixed-media artwork inspired by the Pagan tradition.

#AnimalArt #Animal #Animals #Art #Artwork #Bat #Chiroptera #Chiropteran #DeadlyNightshade #FediArt #Garlic #Halloween #Handmade #Holiday #Jack-o-lantern #Lightning #Mandragora #Mandrake #MastoArt #MixedMedia #Mugwort #Otherkin #Pagan #Samhain #Spiritual #Spirituality #Therian #TraditionalArt #Tree #WheelOfTheYear

"For nearly two decades, Larry Hertz, a 64-year-old professional, had found healing and #spiritual enrichment through underground ceremonies where he and others took #psychedelics. But there was a part of him missing: Raised in a culturally #Jewish home in California’s Bay Area, he found that few in #psychedelic circles knew much about #Judaism; if religion was present, it was usually Christianity.

At the same time, his psychedelic practice made him feel as if he were living a double life.

"I think a lot of times when you’re in the #medicine world, you can feel very isolated because it’s below ground,” Hertz told RNS. “A lot of my friends, I couldn’t tell them that I was taking medicine.”

That changed last year when an online search led him to Shefa Jewish Psychedelic Support, a spiritual community that, according to its website, bolsters “Jewish psychedelic explorers in North America and abroad.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-october-7-jews-seek-healing-from-kabbalah-informed-psychedelic-retreats/