FREE YOURSELF: Ten Life-Changing Powers of your Wise Heart
Free Yourself Author Bio
As a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, Author, Lecturer, Workshop Leader, former College Professor and student of Buddhism and meditation since 1975, I am passionately committed to offering people of all faiths quick, practical ways to bring freedom and inner peace into their busy lives. After thirty years of blending Buddhist wisdom and Body-Centered Therapy in my therapy practice, I have witnessed thousands of men and women move through chronic pain, depression, anxiety, illness and fear into spacious freedom and inner peace with the ten powerful Heart Choices in Free Yourself.
Disgruntled with the limits of anti-depressants and behavioral therapy, readers lacking the means or interest in month-long retreats gain the daily gifts of trust, curiosity, gratitude, kindness and compassion during their morning exercise or commute. As a young girl who watched Valium and downers only exacerbate my mother’s depression for years, I long to share with readers the skills of happiness inherent in Buddhism
While promoting my first book, JOY, No Matter What (Conari, 2005, selling 12,000 copies in five languages), I taught these heart choices to hundreds of therapists, social workers, nurses and psychologists at nationwide CE credit workshops, including Spirit Rock and U.S. Journal Workshops. Hungry for fresh tools to help clients cope with chronic pain, anxiety and despair, many raved about their effectiveness. Whether speaking at a Catholic, Protestant or Unitarian Church Service, people of all faiths applied these ten practical Heart Choices to immediate life issues with great results.
As a passionate student of Buddhism and Consciousness since 1973, the seed for this book came one morning at the end of my meditation when I said, “Today I cultivate Inner Peace.” This intention dissolved fears and reactions I had struggled with for years. The past 20 years, clients taught me which heart tools work best with despair and anxiety. My journalism training at the U. of Oregon provides an easy-to-understand writing style.
I teach Workshops on Joy, Freedom & Inner Peace annually for CE credit to social workers, psychologists, therapists and meditation students at Spirit Rock Center near the SF-Bay Area and National CE Conferences sponsored by the U.S. Journal. Three years ago, I presented at the TenthInternational Conference on Science & Consciousness in Santa Fe, N.M. A former Graduate Professor at Naropa, my work is featured in popular magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day, Woman’s World, Essence, Spirituality & Health, Body & Soul, AHP Perspective, Shambhala Sun and Imagine.
A member of the Assn. of Humanistic Psychologists & Assn. of Transpersonal Psychologists, I taught graduate courses at Naropa Institute in Boulder, CO and Transpersonal Psychology in Durango, CO, where my private practice is. Trained by International Trainer Eleanor Greenlee in Bioenergetics and Certified in Body-Centered Therapy by International Trainers Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks, I received my masters in Humanistic Psychology from California’s Sonoma State University in 1982 and Bachelors from the University of Oregon. I published “Letting Go of Beliefs” in the Aug/Sept 2005 international journal AHP Perspective, “Mid-life Journey” in Personal Transformation & “What is my Illness Saying?” in the Feb/Mar 2000 AHP Perspective.
Carolyn Hobbs 