This four-event series combines insights and practical daily life expression from Nonviolent Communication and from Zen and Buddhist wisdom.

Through engaging presentations and discussion, participants explore ways to communicate more clearly, understand conection and conflict more skillfully, and deepen understanding and expression in relationships.

The series includes:

• Being a Leader, Being Led, and "Power With"
• Karma and Finding Your Liberated Mind
• Enjoying the Difficult Conversation and Making Things Better
• The Zen of Visionary Poet and Artist William Blake, and Our Human Potential
  

About David

David B. Alexander teaches effective and enjoyable communication to individuals and couples, as well as to executives and business owners, so that they can thrive in the social and working world in which we all live. A primary focus for his communication work is an approach called Nonviolent Communication, or "NVC".

NVC emphasizes authenticity in communication, but authenticity based on an empathetic understanding of self and others. NVC expression can be loud or quiet, diplomatic or direct, but is always intended to benefit all parties who are involved.

As a licensed psychotherapist, David also finds value in gestalt therapy principles, existential therapy, and modern psychoanalytic understanding. These are all approaches towards awakening for a fulfilling life.

In addition to psychotherapy work, he has been studying Zen since the age of 20 and Tai Chi Chuan since the age of 25, and has been teaching since the early 1990s.

Saturday, September 19 · 11am – 1pm ET

All of us are meant, eventually, to be leaders, and in some aspects of our lives we are leaders from the moment of birth. When an infant cries, she or he is trying at a visceral level to lead others to respond in a way that helps the infant and makes "the world" (as the infant experiences it) better.

How do we respond as adults to different strategies that others use to lead? And how do WE lead when we are in a position of leadership? How do we lead even when others do not call us a "leader" officially?

Issues we will explore include "power with" vs. "power over", ideas of protection vs. punishment, and the strength of vulnerability along with empowerment.

About David

David B. Alexander is a licensed psychotherapist based in Roslyn Heights, NY, with a practice that draws on principles of gestalt therapy, existential therapy, and Nonviolent Communication, as well as drawing on decades of Zen Buddhist and Tai Chi Chuan practice and teaching.

He has guided individuals, couples, and leaders through the challenges that we all face in experiencing a better life despite what are felt as external setbacks or our own mental blocks. He brings to this work not just clinical expertise, but the kind of depth that only comes from a lifetime of practice and a life fully lived.

Psychotherapy sessions are available online across New York State, and in person in Roslyn Heights, NY. A free 15-minute consultation is available for those curious about individual or couples therapy. All inquiries are confidential.

Saturday, October 10 · 11am – 1pm ET

Most of us know karma as, basically, the concept that our thoughts and actions have consequences, whether immediately or at some future time. Although that statement captures the basic principle of karma, there is significantly more to karma than that.

Another important teaching is the Four Immeasurables, which can be seen as a solution for creating good karma, leading to liberation. To find our true freedom we need to use our higher capacities as human beings, which help us break free from limitations. Actions that are "clean", and do not create bad karma, help us toward our own and others' liberation.

Our higher capacities allow us to cultivate a mind that frees itself from following past negative karma, gradually breaking those chains. By connecting to one's unlimited mind rather than to the narrow mind, we can help free ourselves and others from painful complications in living.

During and after the presentation we will discuss and practice these principles, and enjoy community.

About David

David B. Alexander is a licensed psychotherapist who has practiced Zen since 1970 — studying with teachers at the New York Zen Center in the '70s and '80s, and more recently, active at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, NY. He has been personally encouraged to offer public teachings by Enkyo Roshi (Pat O'Hara) of Village Zendo and Zen Master Wu Kwang (Richard Shrobe) of Chogye Zen Center.

He is also a 40+ year practitioner and teacher of Tai Chi Chuan, and a licensed psychotherapist whose clinical work draws on principles of gestalt therapy, existential therapy, and Nonviolent Communication.

When David teaches Zen, he isn't translating something he read. He is sharing something he has lived.

Psychotherapy sessions are available online across New York State, and in person in Roslyn Heights, NY. A free 15-minute consultation is available for those curious about individual or couples therapy. All inquiries are confidential.

Saturday, November 14 · 11am – 1pm ET

Daily life often consists of small and fairly simple interactions that keep things running smoothly or at least meet the needs of the moment.

In addition to those simple interactions, there are the conversations that involve important and perhaps challenging content: hurt, anger, and even feelings of love and emotional intimacy, which can all be difficult to bring up, or to fully take in when offered by another person.

And yet, these same, somewhat raw conversations provide the opportunity for deeper mutual connection, as well as supporting one's own well-being and vitality.

Topics for discussion will include:

• The benefits of expression vs. silence: bring more life to your life

• Handling anger well

• Handling affection and empathy well

• Reframing the conversation: realizing that the negative is fundamentally based on a positive

• "Good" words / "bad" words: which words and phrases create more conflict, and which heal

We invite all participants to bring in their own real-life questions and challenges around the above topics, or other topics related to "difficult conversations."

About David

David B. Alexander teaches effective and enjoyable communication to individuals and couples, as well as to executives and business owners, so that they can thrive in the social and working world in which we all live. A primary focus for his communication work is an approach called Nonviolent Communication, or "NVC".

NVC emphasizes authenticity in communication, but authenticity based on an empathetic understanding of self and others. NVC expression can be loud or quiet, diplomatic or direct, but is always intended to benefit all parties who are involved.

As a licensed psychotherapist, David also finds value in gestalt therapy principles, existential therapy, and modern psychoanalytic understanding. These are all approaches towards awakening for a fulfilling life.

In addition to psychotherapy work, he has been studying Zen since the age of 20 and Tai Chi Chuan since the age of 25, and has been teaching Tai Chi Chuan since the early 1990s.

Psychotherapy sessions are available online across New York State, and in person in Roslyn Heights, NY. A free 15-minute consultation is available for those curious about individual or couples therapy. All inquiries are confidential.

Saturday, December 12 · 11am – 1pm ET

There is a deep connection between William Blake's worldview and the worldview of Zen Buddhism. Our human experience of Truth does not belong to only one cultural heritage, geography, or time; it belongs to all human beings and it is our potential to discover for ourselves.

Zen is concerned with finding the original, clear self and expressing our wholeness and energy in everyday life. There are many writings about how to find and live that original, clear self.

In his work, Blake portrayed the human being as ultimately what he called Albion, which represent the original human before our timeless fall from a fully healthy and integrated state of being.

Both Zen and the works of William Blake are pointing to the inner freedom and harmony that we each have in a fundamental way, but that we need to discover for ourselves.

More details

William Blake portrayed in striking and unique ways his understanding and experience of what our human nature is, and what our potential is. But why should we care about that?

What stands out is the deep connection between William Blake's worldview, and the worldview of Zen Buddhism. What this connection points out is that the truth does not belong to only one cultural heritage; it belongs to all human beings and is our potential to discover for ourselves.

Buddhism looks directly at that true self in all its expressions, and in many places Buddhism points out that its teaching is about understanding and living fully our human nature, and is not about a dogma.

About David

The teacher and facilitator, David B. Alexander, is a licensed psychotherapist. He studied William Blake's poetry and art while in high school in the 1960s. Since then he has re-read and studied many of those poems and artworks, as well as biographies and analyses of Blake and his works. This has led to understanding the natural connection between Blake's expression and the intuitive understanding that is fundamental to Zen.

David has practiced Zen since 1970, with teachers at the New York Zen Center in the 1970s and 1980s, and most recently has been active at the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, NY. He has been encouraged to offer public Zen talks by both Enkyo-Roshi (Pat O'Hara) of Village Zendo and Zen Master Wu Kwang (Richard Shrobe) of Chogye Zen Center.

In psychotherapy work, he uses gestalt therapy, psychoanalysis, existential therapy, and nonviolent communication to support individuals, couples, and leaders.

Psychotherapy sessions are available online across New York State, and in person in Roslyn Heights, NY. A free 15-minute consultation is available for those curious about individual or couples therapy. All inquiries are confidential.