Ivo Coelho sdb
NASHIK, SEPTEMBER 1, 2008: I am just back from a very useful retreat at Atmadarshan, Patna, the Jesuit centre for spirituality and renewal. The retreat was an unusual one, entitled 'Journey Towards Wholeness', and made use both of Erikson's eight stages of development and the Awareness Meditation Relaxation therapy developed by Joe Kunnumpuram, SJ, at Atmadarshan. The peculiarity of AMR is that it is a non-verbal therapy: there is no need of deep and extensive sharing as is the case in Group Therapy and most individual counselling therapies. This will ring a bell for those who have done Vipassana, and in fact, AMR has roots in Vipassana meditation. It also makes use of a variety of other therapies and tools such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Hypnotherapy. In combination with the traditional retreat model and Erikson's eight stages, AMR makes for a fine retreat, with opportunities to go over unfinished growth tasks in infancy, toddlerhood, pre-school age, school age, young adulthood, etc. Journey Towards Wholeness, especially when led by Abe Puthumana, SJ, would also make a wonderful basic program for our formation personnel. It could then be followed up by a training course in AMR itself. The four month long Atmadarshan program (January to May) would complete the training. But the offerings of Atmadarshan are for all, not only for formation personnel. A great opportunity for growth, and for all-round (spiritual!) well-being!