Ryan Oelke speaks with Judith Blackstone, a teacher in the contemporary fields of nondual realization and spiritual, relational, and somatic psychotherapy, about her new book, “Trauma and the Unbound Body: The Healing Power of Fundamental Consciousness”. They chat about the connection between embodiment, nondual realization, and healing, and how all three help deepen one other.
Judith Blackstone
Judith is an innovative, experienced teacher in the contemporary fields of nondual realization and spiritual, relational and somatic psychotherapy. She developed the Realization Process, a direct path for realizing fundamental (nondual) consciousness, as well as the application of nondual realization for psychological, relational and physical healing. She currently has six books in publication and has taught the Realization Process for over thirty-five years throughout the United States and Europe. Her newest book is Trauma and the Unbound Body: the Healing Power of Fundamental Consciousness.
Judith studied with many teachers in the Hindu traditions (Advaita Vedanta, Bhakti and Kashmir Shaivism), and the Zen Buddhist and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. She was in residence at a Zen monastery for a year and has received teachings, over the past three decades, in the Mahamudra and Dzog-chen paths of Tibetan Buddhism. However, the Realization Process practices for embodied nondual awakening emerged outside of any traditional lineage. The practices arose in response to her own needs for healing and realization, and the needs of the people in her classes and private practice. Her main teacher has been nature–the subtle emanations from all living forms, the challenges presented by a severe back injury, the natural unwinding, in meditation, of the body, heart and mind toward openness, and the spontaneous emergence of fundamental consciousness.
She has her Masters degree in Transpersonal Psychology from John F. Kennedy University and her Ph.D. in Psychology, Eastern Religion and Embodiment from Union Institute & University. She trained at the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy in New York City. She has thirty-five years of clinical experience as a psychotherapist.
Judith is the author of Trauma and the Unbound Body: the Healing Power of Fundamental Consciousness, Belonging Here: A Guide for the Spiritually Sensitive Person; The Enlightenment Process; The Intimate Life; The Subtle Self and The Empathic Ground: Intersubjectivity and Nonduality in the Psychotherapeutic Process. Her essays have been published in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, the International Journal of Self Psychology, the USA Body Psychotherapy Journal, Undivided, Inner Directions Journal and the anthologies, Listening from the Heart of Silence, Finding a Way, Being Called, and The Self-Acceptance Project. A six-CD audio series of Judith explaining and teaching the Realization Process is available from Sounds True.
She has presented the Realization Process and papers on the interface of psychotherapy and nondual spirituality at Psychology of the Self conferences, the Towards a Science of Consciousness conference, the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology conference at Oxford University, UK, the USA Body Psychotherapy conference, the Science and Nonduality conference (SAND), and the Conference on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy.
With her husband, Zoran Josipovic, Judith founded the Nonduality Institute, dedicated to the practice and scientific study of nonduality. For more information on Zoran’s scientific research, visit www.nondualityinstitute.org