The Healing of Teddy Bears
AUTHOR TO SPEAK AT PORTLAND, OREGON, IONS MEETING MAY 4, 2008
04/07/08
Don L. Nickerson, author of The Healing of Teddy Bears—Creating an Imaginative Faith, will make an interactive presentation for the Institute of Noetic Sciences meeting Sunday afternoon, 4-6 P.M., May 4th.
The session, to be held at “Bodies in Balance” studio, 3rd floor, 208 SW 1st Avenue in downtown Portland, Oregon, will address major themes of Mr. Nickerson’s book on evolving faith consciousness. He will underline how a shift of faith consciousness, from externalized authority to internal, mystical consciousness, generates creative delight and inclusiveness.
A former long-time Gestalt and Bioenergetic therapist in Portland, Mr. Nickerson draws upon a 40-year background in energetic sensitivity when he theorizes about a characteristic theme of his book and of his ION’S presentation: “Positioning our consciousness so that it is capable of tolerating the tensions of opposites may be the most important attitude of faith we can adopt. It allows us to be open to the multiple aspects of our being—our atheism and agnosticism as well as our spiritual delight, the darkness of our natures as well as our generosities. Once we understand faith as a dynamic, fluid positioning of consciousness, an un-dogmatic innocence of heart, faith is liberated to become transformational; as such, it becomes as powerful, unpredictable, and creative as we could possibly imagine. It is my belief that Being Itself is the energetic core of such a faith, both inspiring it and becoming its manifestation.”
At one time a minister of the United Church of Christ, Mr. Nickerson was for 22 years adjunct professor of Gestalt Process in the Graduate School of Counseling at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. He also was Director of Counseling at the college for 10 years. Leaving that position, he founded the Energetics Counseling Center of Milwaukie, which evolved into the multi-faceted Ariadne Professional Center, where he was its director for 10 years.
A poet, Mr. Nickerson is currently bringing his poetry, reflections, and aphorisms into a third book for publication, Sunlight Tilting. Since 2001 he and his wife, former Portland psychologist Linda Larsen, have been retired in Tucson, Arizona.
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