Category: Personal Responsibility
Article: Forgiveness
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
True forgiveness is serious business. To forgive or be forgiven is a complex and stirring process that requires each party to dive deeply inward in order to restore peace. To reach a place of true forgiveness, we must set our sights on the heart of the conflict and begin the necessary work of self-examination required to find and release our attachment to the offense. Only then can we truly be free from our pain.
Article: The Eightfold Path as an Ethical Compass in the Therapeutic Environment
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Ethics is generally defined as a process of determining right and wrong conduct or as the study of morality. In many traditions, both sacred and secular, there is an effort to come up with a set of principles to govern behavior. In many traditions, there is an emphasis on “what bad thing will happen if you don’t do the right thing.” The motivator to good behavior is fear. This is an effective method of crowd control when the luxury of understanding personal motivation and intention cannot be understood on a case-by-case basis. But it falls short in creating conditions under which people can learn how to truly trust their motivation and intention in making decisions regarding their conduct.
Article: Depth Hypnosis: Where Fierce Compassion and the Path of the Wounded Healer Converge
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Dr. Robert Thurman, noted Buddhist scholar, has stated that the future of Buddhism in the West lies in meditational therapies. One such meditational therapy is Depth Hypnosis. Depth Hypnosis is a therapeutic model that incorporates the wisdom of two very ancient healing and spiritual modalities (Buddhism and shamanism) with two more modern approaches (hypnotherapy and transpersonal psychology) to address emotional and spiritual imbalance.
Article: An Interview with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. on Soul Retrieval
By Gerri Ravyn Stanfield
I was introduced to Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. through a mutual student and friend who told me “You two are up to the same things.” Through our email correspondence, I came to agree, the Foundation of the Sacred Stream is a place where spiritual seekers and healers can find education and inspiration from a variety of spiritual traditions. I spoke with Isa Gucciardi in September of 2012 regarding her work in the study and practice of soul retrieval.
Article: Personal Responsibility: A Buddhist Perspective on Relationship
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Relationship forms the core of our experience as humans. We define ourselves and are defined by the nature of our relating. In Buddhism, there is a concept called “interdependence” which postulates that nothing exists independently. Everything exists interdependently. Applying this concept to relationship implies that we do not and cannot exist independently of one another.
Podcast: Episode 27: Empathy and Compassion in Buddhism
In today’s episode, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses the roles of empathy and compassion in Buddhism, and offers a practice for maintaining balance when faced with the suffering of others.
Article: The Path of Service and Initiation
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Thank you for inviting me here this evening to speak to you. I have known about your group for many years now, and I have always appreciated the efforts you have made to change the way women and families experience birth in the Bay Area.
I think it might be easy for us in the Bay Area to take the kind of resources and alternatives to birth that each of you provides for granted. But all we need to do is to listen to the news to understand how women’s reproductive rights are under siege both in this country and abroad.
Podcast: Episode 19: Understanding 2012
In today’s episode, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses the 2012 era in terms of the evolution of human consciousness.
Article: Ho’oponopono: Making Right
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Ho’oponopono is a Hawaiian word which refers to a process of mediation which has been used to bring peace among family and community members in Hawaii for centuries. Ho’oponopono is a key component of the larger school of psychology and healing called Huna.
Huna is a very ancient psychology, which has roots in mystery schools beyond the Hawaiian Islands. Many of the important elements of these mystery schools were relatively well preserved within the shamanic practices of Hawaii until the arrival of Christian missionaries in the early nineteenth century.
Podcast: Episode 18: Managing Personal Energy
In today’s episode, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses how to manage your personal energy and transform negativity, especially in relationship with others.
Article: Understanding the Nature of Suffering and Personal Responsibility: A Buddhist Perspective for the Modern Therapeutic Context
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Buddhism is sometimes viewed as a pessimistic philosophy by the casual observer. Its emphasis on suffering is misunderstood as a misplaced focus for a spiritual path. But, in actuality, Buddhism’s focus on suffering actually provides a path out of that suffering. Suffering becomes a vehicle through which one can explore and understand the self.
Podcast: Episode 16: Comparing Depth Hypnosis to Other Modalities
Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses the differences between Depth Hypnosis and other hypnosis models – specifically clinical hypnosis and Ericsonian hypnosis.
Podcast: Episode 15: Perspectives on Karma
In this excerpt from a 2010 talk on birth family dynamics, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. gives an overview of perspectives on karma and discusses its application in a modern context – particularly in matters of relationship.
Article: How to Prepare for 2012 and Beyond
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
As 2012 approaches, more and more people are wondering what is needed to be able to meet the demands of the changes that are prophesied for the winter solstice on December 22, 2012. This date refers to the time when many ancient calendars either run out, or have a shift that creates a dramatic change to the world as we know it.
Podcast: Episode 07: The Path of the Bodhisattva
The path of the bodhisattva is, among other things, designed to break down the illusion of separation between self and other. When we talk about the Two Truths in Buddhism, ultimate reality and relative reality, in relative reality there is a separation. Ultimately, there is no separation. By serving others you wind up serving yourself. In this excerpt from a 2008 Applied Buddhist Psychology course, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses what one has to attend to within oneself in order to liberate oneself and be of service to others on the path of the bodhisattva.