Mariana Vera-Bren
BIRDSONG
Spiritual Exploration
& Embodiment
My Approach
I combine an embodied, meditative, exploration through the Realization Process, developed by J. Blackstone, PhD, and therapy-informed dialogue through the lens of nondual yoga psychology.
In sessions I will guide you along gentle and subtle practices of embodiment derived from the Realization Process, through which you may feel more clearly how it feels to be you inside your body and mind. I will usher you to inhabit your body fully, claiming back areas that may feel frozen or numb into ease and fluidity.
Together, we'll uncover the space where your thinking, feeling, and sensing, may attune with each other and integrate as one potent voice, your voice.
I offer you my non-judgmental, non-pathologizing presence and resources so that you may experience your wholeness and a sense of coherence, while simultaneously uncovering the infinite ground of your spiritual nature.
The Practice
Spiritual Exploration
Spiritual inquiry through embodied meditation practices derived from the Realization Process, and integration through nondual, therapy-informed dialogue.
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey.”
(Excerpt, Wendell Berry)
"Nondual realization is not an energetic outward expansion of the individual self. Rather, through inward contact to the core of one's own form, the expanse of nondual consciousness appears."
(Judith Blackstone, 2007, p. 61).
Embodied Meditation
Realization Process guided meditation to deepen the experience of spirituality. Journaling for you to explore further on your own, with a wise friend, or with your therapist.
Personalized Yoga
Practice & RP
With your input, I design a personalized yoga sequence for your daily practice. It includes asana, vocalizing and breathing exercises, and embodied meditation.
This may be an aspect of our spiritual exploration engagement or as an independent yoga practice.
“Sri Aurobindo (1971b) once remarked that although it seems like consciousness is in the body, actually the body is in consciousness”
(B. Cortright, 1997).
Consultation Session
To learn more, please reach out to me for an initial chat where we can both feel and assess if our relationship will be fruitful.
My session rates are based on a sliding scale which are determined prior to our first appointment.
Disclaimer:
I do not diagnose, cure, advise, or prescribe treatments. By participating in my services you acknowledge that I am not a licensed psychologist, medical doctor, or health professional and that my services are not intended as substitutes for their services.
My personal spiritual practice is at the core of my life. It manifested both through challenging experiences and through deep realizations and awe. I am delighted to share all that I have learned as well as my resources with others.
My life unfolded through unexpected meanderings and synchronicities. I had the good fortune of meeting teachers and therapists along the way who guided me to a deeper and subtler personal spiritual exploration. I am grateful to have met mentors with whom I may continue my inquiry so that I may engage with clients in a safe and constructive way. I am forever grateful to them, and I hope to follow in their steps.
My Story
Foundation
Spiritual Exploration
and Religion
Spiritual exploration may involve themes related to organized religion, but it is not circumscribed by this. My understanding is that spirituality lies beneath religious affiliations. One may or may not attune with a religious faith and yet at the same time feel deeply called to open to the unseen yet felt experience in life.
Spiritual Exploration
and the Body
I believe that our closest access to spiritual exploration is our body and all we experience through it, which includes our senses, emotions, and mind.
Through a somatic approach to self-inquiry one may deepen and refine the internal perception of one’s own body, fully inhabit it, and attune to the inherent wisdom pervading it. Constrictions may be detected and released, liberating emotional contents held in the body which often determine unconscious patterns of behavior, restoring a deeper understanding. One may come to experience a unified sense of self and feel grounded when faced by challenges; one may fully participate in life from a personal sense of coherence and spaciousness.
Heart muscle cells with chromosomes condensed following cell division
What enticed me most from the RP practices was that we may feel psychological healing and spiritual awakening happening at the same time. Not only may we detect, dissolve, and process held constrictions in our bodies, but uncover the richness inherent in our experience as embodied nonduality. We may embark in the wonderful exploration of our infinite nature as fundamental consciousness.
Nondual realization is spontaneous and self-arising and I do not claim to be fully realized or established in it. I simultaneously experience the pendulum swing between the infinite manifestations of peace and turmoil in life, and an ever-present and ever-revealing spontaneous drive to come back to my core, in a dance between learning and knowing, between becoming and being.
The Realization Process is a somatic, meditative approach to both psychological healing and spiritual awakening, developed by Judith Blackstone, PhD. This practice fosters and deepens the integration between the mind, emotions, and physical sensations by inhabiting the body; we get to experience all our being at the same time. This is a shift from being aware of the body to inhabiting the body.
By accessing subtler realms within, one can acquire an understanding of how one relates to particular circumstances, prevent reaction, and foster appropriate action. One may experience unity and coherence within and cultivate a sense of safety through boundaries which do not isolate but which enable a harmonious engagement with others in everyday life.
As one embarks on this internal exploration one may sense and uncover a dimension, a ground of being (or fundamental consciousness, as Dr. Blackstone refers to it), which is undivided and unbreakable. All movement and manifestation begins and dissolves in it. This ground pervades us and everything around us while it simultaneously holds us in our individuality.
The Realization Process
“To be in contact internally with our body is, at the same time, to be open to our environment. Everywhere that we are in contact with ourselves within our body, we are alive and responsive to the world around us”
(J. Blackstone, 2018, p. 2)
California Institute of Integral Studies
All along my busy urban life in NY I felt that I could learn from anyone, at any time, and everywhere. But later, I had the good fortune of pursuing the long-held dream of studying psychology. I first explored the more traditional paths through which I could become a certified counselor, but I realized that I would have to abide by defintions of what it means to be a "healthy human being". This in itself, felt restrictive and not congruent with my perception. Fortunately it was recommended that I check the wonderful California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco, were I was able to deepen and formalize my studies in a master's degree program for East-West Psychology.
The curriculum focused not only on what is usually referred to as eastern and western literature, but also on an understanding and knowledge creation derived from different cultures around the globe, other than the Eurocentric views. I was also introduced to various native psychologies through which I could deepen my realization of what may be understood as ecopsychology, a psychology which does not base itself on the fragmented understanding of mental perception, but that reveals a unified reality within, and in relation with other beings and the environments in which we live.
Within my studies of East-West Psychology I chose the path of spiritual counseling.
The Yoga School NY
Based on my personal yoga and Realization Process practices, and my studies at CIIS, I sensed the potential benefits of introducing yoga routines within my offerings of spiritual exploration. I felt a drive to train and deepen my knowledge of yoga so as to safely provide asana, breathing exercises, and focusing routines that may contribute to a subtle attunement to the experiencing within the body and the activity of the mind.
I became a student at The Yoga School NY which follows the lineage of Sri T. Krishnamacharya, who taught his son T. K. V. Desikachar, who then instructed my teacher, Guta Hedewig. Within the approach of T. K. V. Desikachar, yoga is mainly offered through individualized routines designed specifically for each client, considering health issues and circumstances that they may be going through. These routines are designed to 'fit' within the life of the client so that they may practice daily. Check-ins and variations of the routine are met as needed and discussed between the instructor and practitioner. The aim is to contribute to the well-being of the client; yoga routines are not intended to replace any treatment or professional engagements with certified health practitioners.
Yoga practice may offer another entryway into meditation and enable more embodied discussions during sessions, or as a daily practice in itself, independently from an engagement of spiritual exploration. Through a daily yoga practice we are able to meet ourselves exactly how we feel mentally, emotionally, and physically. We may come to know ourselves through the movements of our bodies and minds and at the same time, experience a deep and subtle internal stillness which may bring ease in everyday experiences and a refreshed perspective from which to approach events in life.
Testimonials
"My sessions with Mariana are always enlightening. Her considerate approach, empathy, clear focus, and multiple resources for guided meditation practices help me find peace and be calmly happy."
Cecilia Righetto
"Early on in our work together I felt great trust in Mariana's guidance and support as I navigated deep and edgy territory. I can bring my full, raw experience and Mariana is right there, centered and poised to meet me in it.
Her steady, grounded presence is a strong anchor throughout our sessions. She meets me not with strategy or method, but with a very refined and sensitive attunement to my actual experience. I can sense her following the wisdom of the moment itself. Above all, I feel Mariana's deep care for this work, and her heartfelt commitment to sincerity and truth. Such a gift!"
Jason
Resources and Credits
California Institute of Integral Studies
Located in San Francisco, USA
Developed by J. Blackstone, PhD. Online and residential trainings in NY, MI, CA.
Yoga teacher trainings.
Berry, W. (1983). Standing by words. Counterpoint.
Blackstone, J. (2007). The empathic ground. SUNY
Blackstone, J. (2018). Trauma and the unbound body. Sounds true.
Cortright, B. (1997). Psychotherapy and the spirit: Theory and practice in transpersonal psychotherapy. SUNY series in the Philosophy of psychology.