"Intimacy and Illumination:
The Longing for Love and Relationship”

Esther Perel, MA, MFT

Mating in Captivity: The Paradox of Intimacy and Sexuality

Based on her international best-seller, Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence, this seminar with Esther Perel offers a bold, new take on intimacy and sex, and grapples with the obstacles and anxieties that arise when our quest for secure love conflicts with our pursuit of passion. Combining presentation and workshop format, Esther Perel will address four central themes: intricacies of desire and how social forces inhibit erotic expression; attachment history and the erotic blueprint; the language of the body; and the role of fantasy/imagination. We will tackle eroticism as a quality of aliveness and vitality in relationships extending far beyond mere sexuality, and consider how the need for secure attachment and closeness can co-exist with the quest for individuality and freedom.

Michael Conforti, PhD

The Joy and Terror of Meaningful Relationships

If we want to love deeply then we must be prepared to face an unimaginable sense of loss because it is only through this loss that we can discover the transcendence of genuine love. Herein lies the joy and terror of any meaningful relationship and why we often find ourselves conflicted and repeating behaviors that bring us pain and despair. Weaving together clinical experiences and examples from dreams, literature, the cinema, and stories from the world’s wisdom traditions, Dr. Michael Conforti will explore the processes that keep us from establishing meaningful relationships, as well as the dynamics that can lead us to the profound experience of love’s transcendence.

Gary Trosclair, DMA, LCSW

The Varieties of Intimate Experience

Romantic relationship is only one of many forms of intimacy that provide opportunities to grow. In this presentation and experiential workshop, we will explore these other paths to intimacy, including friendship, community and the therapeutic relationship and their role in the individuation process. Drawing on poetry, interpersonal neurobiology, alchemy, and attachment theory, we will discuss how getting close to others actually helps us become more ourselves. We will also examine the blocks that keep us from opening up to different forms of intimacy to help us achieve wholeness.

Allen D. Koehn, DMin, MFT

Intimacy and Individuation: How Relationships Transform Us

In Jung’s Red Book, which chronicles his profound inner journey, he stresses the paradox that we each need to “find our own way” while reminding us that we cannot individuate alone. This speaks directly to the subjective and objective, and introverted and extroverted nature of intimate relationships. In his presentation and experiential workshop, Dr. Allen Koehn will explore the dynamics of relationship — including projections, fantasies, hopes, and expectations — and examine what our relationships demand from us while simultaneously offering us a myriad of opportunities for individuation and transformation.

Manisha Roy, PhD

Relationship as an Expression of Self

One of the necessary elements for human survival is having relationships of many kinds — with people, places, objects, cultures, ideologies, and the divine. This sustaining urge is an expression of a deeper archetypal foundation of the relationship with oneself. That is, who and what we attract into our lives is a direct result of how we think and feel about ourselves, both at the conscious and unconscious levels. Sometimes we choose well — and sometimes not, but the choices we make surely reflect the culture we create around us.