Ken Breniman, LCSW, C-IAYT, Licensed Psychotherapist, Certified Yoga Therapist & Thanatologist (http://www.kenbreniman.com) talks with host Sheryl Sitts, MPA, BA, Possibilities Coach & Holistic Practitioner (http://www.sherylsitts.com) about:



* As we enter what is widely viewed as a happy time of year, the holidays, many of us are carrying grief from real and imagined losses we have experienced during this COVID-19 pandemic, and many families are divided over how we should proceed from here. Ken discusses how we can manage this grief, and what he has learned as a student and therapist on thanatology (the study of mortality) and further states that much of the tension and pain we feel during this time is our unresolved grief.* Ken shares how we are all here learning about our own mortality and how to cope with loss, something that can be even more difficult in our Western “death-avoidant culture”* He mentions a term from psychology called “object relations” and how the very youngest among us (and even our own inner child) struggles to understand the pain of physical absence* How do we work through our grief? Ken discusses how we tend to push it away out of fear, and yet the only way to resolve it is to sit with it. He shares and explains how to engage in beneficial ancient technologies, specifically heart-texting, meta-meditation, and tonglen meditation* They discuss the technology and “apps” within us and can work with technology to recognize and develop our own abilities and even upgrade our gifts* They discuss how we can work with sacred plant medicines to navigate our own mortality. Ken shares using caution in how we work with these enlisting our best “harm-reduction” approach in bringing such powerful things into the mainstream. Ken references the headline with a former heavyweight boxer who claims working with these several times a day, and they are so strong and sacred, so we may want to reconsider our approach and discover the benefits of less-is-more. Sheryl admits to getting a bit “lost in it” when she began journeying because it was so powerful, beautiful, and sacred, and then recognized the power of integration to space out ceremonies and bring more forth over time using daily practices. * Ken correlates our culture as being in its “pre-teen phase”, trauma-inducing, death-avoidant, and trying to make sense of our world, and how sacred plant medicines can help us with that * Sheryl shares her own experiences in ceremony that have brought her a deeper knowing of the Divine, reincarnation, and more. She no longer needs texts and teachers or clinging to beliefs because she has been given a direct experience in ceremony.* Ken references the research on the ten phenomenon shared by most during near-death-experiences (NDEs) and how most of those are also experienced in ayahuasca ceremonies, and how we return back into normal conscienscious integration as a gift. Sheryl speaks to the peeling away of the layers of identifies, programming, and beliefs until we are left at the core essence of I AM, free to choose our own course forward instead of being unconsciously trapped in our stories and identies* Ken explains why he wanted to work with psychedelics to help clients. He shares losing his mother at 18 and being taught to avoid his grief until he discovered recreational use of MDMA in the gay community of San Francisco and later had close calls and near-death experiences with DSM. Later as Ken trained in yoga, he was invited into “circles of clear men” in ceremony and he accepted when he was ready. His ego guided him that there would be healing possible in that work and to stay with it.