HOLISTIC COUNSELOR
The goal of Holistic Counseling is to bring your whole self – body, mind, spirit, and emotions – into harmony. You probably already strive for balance, and seek to stay centered as you move through life. But at times circumstances add stress to your system, and you get off balance. Those stressors can be due to positive changes, for instance a marriage, children, or new career. Other times they can be due to more difficult challenges, like divorce, illness, or dissatisfaction with a job. When you are thrown off center by the circumstances of life, it is easy to get confused and lose confidence and direction.
Together we can work to bring you back to your center, and to develop new insights and clear direction in your life. We start by looking at the whole of you and figuring out where your system is most out of alignment: is it the body? mind? spirit? or emotions? Then we develop a plan to move you back into balance. I use a variety of approaches tailored to your needs including deep listening, dream analysis, guided imagery, and past life therapy. For example, if you feel trapped in your job, we first look to find out why. Then we strengthen your energy system by building on what sustains you. You may love yoga, reading, church, or spending time in nature. Then we find and correct the parts that are off balance. There is often an inner conflict between the mind and emotions, with the mind chattering non-stop about all the things you “should” do, and the heart feeling great sadness that the deeper needs of the soul have been forgotten.
I also offer Life Coaching, a process where we work to create change around specific circumstances in your life. This is an especially good process for empty-nesters, recent graduates, or people wanting to go to college, change jobs, move to a new city, or start a business. In four sessions we clarify your intention and develop a clear vision of what you want. We then build a strategic plan that can help you manifest your heart’s desire.
ASTROLOGER
The goal of Astrology is to gain self-knowledge and bring greater insight to your life. Astrology means “the wisdom of the stars".
You might not realize that astrology is so much more than the very generalized sun-sign column in the daily paper. Your personal astrological birth chart is literally a map of the heavens showing the location of the planets and stars at the moment of your birth. It is like walking into a planetarium and having the Sun, Moon, and all the planets in the sky on the day of your birth projected on the dome. This map of the heavens is a personal blueprint of your psyche. There is a deep spiritual and intuitive part in all of us that gets overlooked in our overly analytical and ego-filled world. I am familiar with the language of the soul, and I understand the use of myth, symbol, and metaphor as a way to understand that interior world. As an Astrologer I use the imagery of the heavens to describe the inner working of the self. The rich mythic imagery of astrology can provide a new perspective on the complexity of your life to help you find deeper meaning and direction on your journey. Each planet represents a different part of yourself, for instance Venus is your ability to be in relationship, and Mars is your assertive nature.
Clients usually have an issue on which they seek a new perspective. Common issues involve work, relationships, children, career, psychological conflicts, life purpose, and new directions. In your astrological interpretation I combine compassion and common sense to help you understand the meaning of the Sun, Moon and other planets so that you may see yourself more clearly. Most people begin with an appointment to have their birth-chart interpreted, since that is your basic blueprint. But you can also have a Life Cycle reading, with a focus on the changing currents of your life, or a Relationship Chart, where we look at your chart in relation to your partner, children, or parent. Classes and private mentoring are also available.
For more information about astrological offerings go to www.laishley.com
BIO: Lilan Laishley, Ph.D. has a solid educational background from traditional academic institutions and a rich background in the healing arts. Her experience in the healing arts began twenty years ago in New York City where she earned her Master’s degree in counseling from Hunter College while working in holistic health clinics. She later received a license as a professional counselor and was a practitioner in behavioral medicine, wellness, and addiction in psychiatric, drug, and alcohol treatment centers. While she had a great respect for intellectual inquiry and analysis, she also recognized the importance of the right brain intuition, imagination, and inner creativity to the process of healing. She became trained in the deep soulful process of Past Life Therapy, which can release and heal wounds from the past, including childhood, pre-natal, and prior lives. She utilized Carl Jung’s exploration of archetypes and wrote her Master’s Thesis on the use of symbols and visualization in counseling. She learned to use dream interpretation, hypnosis, and guided imagery in the process of self-discovery and emotional healing. Lilan has also studied comparative religion and cross-cultural healing methods. She received a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, (Pittsburgh, PA) where she specialized in symbology, cosmology, and ritual, particularly the ritual of walking the labyrinth. She is the author of Labyrinths in Contemporary American Religion: Rituals that Engage a Sacred Cosmos. She is also a founding member and previous Director of Research on the Board of Directors of The Labyrinth Society, an international organization dedicated to the education and expansion of labyrinths around the world. She has studied a variety of spiritual traditions including Native American wisdom in Arizona, mythology with Joseph Campbell, and Buddhism with the Dalai Lama. She has traveled to fourteen countries around the world to visit sacred sites and study spiritual practices. Dr. Laishley is also a Professor of philosophy and religion and has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Tennessee at of Chattanooga. She has given numerous papers at academic conferences, facilitated multiple workshops and classes on women’s spirituality and astrology, and has been a guest on radio and television.
