Category: Relationships
On the Air: Kindred Media: The New Return to the Great Mother with Isa Gucciardi
In this interview, Kindred Media’s editor, Lisa Reagan, talks with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. about the seven life initiations needed to move into our full state of wholeness and our full potential for thriving – and what happens when these initiations are broken, interrupted, or culturally unacknowledged. Isa shares her considerable insight into how we are thwarted from completing our seven initiations, and how we can reclaim, and even heal, our innate paths to flourishing.
On the Air: Birth Ease Loss Support Podcast: Episode 24: Grief, Loss, and The Great Mother with Isa Gucciardi
In this interview with Birth Ease Loss Support Podcast host Michelle Smith, Isa Gucciardi provides insights from her over twenty-five years of experience in supporting the bereaved. She shares the initiations that women experience throughout their lifetime which include our own birth, puberty, menses, the first sexual experience with another person, giving birth, menopause, and death. Isa explains the Great Mother as a source of wisdom, creative intelligence, and nurturing that can bring comfort and healing into the journey and complexity of grief. Isa and Michelle also discuss holistic ways to support the grief process such as plants, herbal sprays, homeopathic remedies, and meditation.
On the Air: Our Birth Journey: The New Return to the Great Mother
On the Air: Our Birth Journey: The New Return to the Great Mother In this conversation with Our Birth Journey, Isa Gucciardi discusses the topics covered in her newest book, The New Return to the Great Mother, which include understanding birth as an important initiatory moment and understanding the importance of a connection to inner […]
Video: Past Lives and Soul Mates with Isa Gucciardi: Case Study: Karmic Patterns Across Lifetimes
In this series of talks, Isa Gucciardi draws on 25 years of clinical experience and research to help you understand your relationships in a new light. She explores patterns of relating that can repeat themselves from relationship to relationship and looks at Buddhist understandings that might offer insight about why this happens. She defines soul mate relationships in a new way and offers tips on how to recognize a true soul mate relationship. She shows how expanding awareness to include the possibility of past life connections with friends, lovers, and family members can inform current relationships. Join her in this wide ranging exploration of relating! Visit sacredstream.org to learn more.
Video: Past Lives and Soul Mates with Isa Gucciardi: Past Lives and Karmic Patterns
In this series of talks, Isa Gucciardi draws on 25 years of clinical experience and research to help you understand your relationships in a new light. She explores patterns of relating that can repeat themselves from relationship to relationship and looks at Buddhist understandings that might offer insight about why this happens. She defines soul mate relationships in a new way and offers tips on how to recognize a true soul mate relationship. She shows how expanding awareness to include the possibility of past life connections with friends, lovers, and family members can inform current relationships. Join her in this wide ranging exploration of relating! Visit sacredstream.org to learn more.
Video: Past Lives and Soul Mates with Isa Gucciardi: Karmic Patterns in Soul Mate Relationships
In this series of talks, Isa Gucciardi draws on 25 years of clinical experience and research to help you understand your relationships in a new light. She explores patterns of relating that can repeat themselves from relationship to relationship and looks at Buddhist understandings that might offer insight about why this happens. She defines soul mate relationships in a new way and offers tips on how to recognize a true soul mate relationship. She shows how expanding awareness to include the possibility of past life connections with friends, lovers, and family members can inform current relationships. Join her in this wide ranging exploration of relating! Visit sacredstream.org to learn more.
Video: Past Lives and Soul Mates with Isa Gucciardi: What is a Soul Mate?
In this series of talks, Isa Gucciardi draws on 25 years of clinical experience and research to help you understand your relationships in a new light. She explores patterns of relating that can repeat themselves from relationship to relationship and looks at Buddhist understandings that might offer insight about why this happens. She defines soul mate relationships in a new way and offers tips on how to recognize a true soul mate relationship. She shows how expanding awareness to include the possibility of past life connections with friends, lovers, and family members can inform current relationships. Join her in this wide ranging exploration of relating! Visit sacredstream.org to learn more.
Video: Past Lives and Soul Mates with Isa Gucciardi: Introduction to Soul Mates and Karmic Patterns
In this series of talks, Isa Gucciardi draws on 25 years of clinical experience and research to help you understand your relationships in a new light. She explores patterns of relating that can repeat themselves from relationship to relationship and looks at Buddhist understandings that might offer insight about why this happens. She defines soul mate relationships in a new way and offers tips on how to recognize a true soul mate relationship. She shows how expanding awareness to include the possibility of past life connections with friends, lovers, and family members can inform current relationships. Join her in this wide ranging exploration of relating! Visit sacredstream.org to learn more.
Blog: Personal Responsibility: An Interview with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Question: How would you define personal responsibility?
Isa: Personal responsibility is a process of becoming more self-aware, understanding your motivations, your intentions, and the effect your actions and thoughts have on you and those around you. It involves a willingness to contemplate the consequences of your emotional responses, and the ability to recognize when those expressions are harmful and when they are beneficial.
Blog: Boundaries: A Case Study
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
When people come into my office with relationship problems, they do not always realize they’re dealing with boundary issues. Many people think if they’re being treated badly in relationship, they must be doing something wrong. This is generally due to a lack of understanding about boundaries, and this lack of understanding usually stems from a place of unworthiness. The person being mistreated believes they’re flawed in some way, and makes compromises to stay in relationships where they are suffering. Boundary issues almost always arise when a person doesn’t feel lovable, and consequently, they’re willing to do almost anything to get another person’s approval. Because they don’t love themselves, they are dependent on others to be sources of love and validation.
Video: Depth Hypnosis: Powerful Healing for Common Issues
In this conversation with Laura Chandler, Isa Gucciardi describes many of the common issues people seek help with, including relationships, autoimmune issues, phobias, anxiety, and spiritual crisis. Isa also talks about a common phenomenon known as the “Inner critic” and how her book, Coming to Peace, offers insight on the inner critic and how to heal it. This interview takes place at the Sacred Stream Center in Berkeley, CA.
Blog: Ask Isa: Finding Meaning in Divorce
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Question: I just got divorced and it’s brought up a lot of shame for me. I feel like I failed in my marriage. How do I deal with the shame?
Isa: Whenever you have shame, you have blame. It sounds like there might be an internal conflict going on, where one part of you is blaming you and one part of you is receiving the messages of blame and feeling ashamed. I would recommend sitting down and exploring the part of yourself that is making you feel ashamed.
One way to do this is to think about all of the expectations you had going into the marriage. Consider the expectations you had of yourself, the expectations you had of the other person, and the expectations you had of the marriage itself and what you hoped it was going to do for you. For instance, if you got married because you wanted to feel validated by your family, ask yourself why you didn’t feel validated before you were married. You have to honestly examine your motivations for entering the marriage to discover what is behind these expectations. As you become clear about what your expectations were, you’re going to see how you respond when your expectations are not met.
Article: Who is Tara?
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
One of the oldest Stone Age artifacts that has been recovered is a small statue of a full-bodied woman carved from limestone. The statue was named the Woman of Willendorf, after the small village where it was found in southern Austria, and is estimated to be around thirty thousand years old. Many similar statues dating to the early Stone Age have been discovered throughout Europe and beyond. Expressions of the feminine have been found in the art, mythologies and spiritual practices of many ancient cultures, often represented in the form of female deities and goddesses.
Ancient images of Quan Yin, the goddess of mercy, have been found in China, Korea, Thailand and throughout southern Asia. Pachamama, the goddess of the Earth and time, has long been depicted in the traditions of the Andes Mountains of South America in stories and art. Long before Mary, the embodiment of the great feminine in Christianity, Middle Eastern and African cultures revered Isis, who presided over the other gods, life, and death. Images of Kunapipi and Eingana, the mother goddesses of the Australian aboriginal cultures, have been found in rock art dating back at least ten thousand years.
Article: Mothering and Matriarchy
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Matriarchal societies are organized by maternal priorities, meaning all members are cared for in a nurturing and supportive way. To create communities rooted in these values, both men and women must change their fundamental relationship to mothering and motherhood.This shift must go beyond the rhetoric of early feminists who decried the second-class position mothering placed on women, and who sought to liberate women from the prison of the culturally-defined institution of motherhood. Instead, we must recognize the power of motherhood independent of any cultural value systems where mothering becomes a pawn of dominance and ownership. To do this, we must understand how our inability to nurture ourselves and others has weakened us, both on a societal and an individual level.
Blog: Ask Isa: Can Depth Hypnosis Help Me Get Over My Breakup?
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Question: I broke up with my boyfriend a while ago, but the pain still feels overwhelming. I’m not moving on at all. Part of me wants to be back in a relationship and part of me is relieved it’s over. Can Depth Hypnosis help me get over my breakup and move on?
Isa: What you’re describing sounds like an internal split, where part of you wants to be in the relationship and part of you does not. The tension and lack of resolution between these two parts is probably what’s making it hard for you to move on. Journaling can be a very helpful tool for understanding these two conflicting parts of yourself. For example, you can list all the reasons you want to be in the relationship, and then list all the reasons you are relieved to be out of the relationship. As you do this, the position of each part will become clear.