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Irene Friesen

Irene's holistic approach offers compassionate guidance to help you live your life more fully. As your therapist, Irene is dedicated to providing a safe and comfortable environment where you can find a greater peace and connection with yourself. Irene meets with each person as a special, respected individual and invites you to describe what you wish to accomplish or what weighs heavily on your heart.

Focusing

Focusing (Gendlin, 1978) is a body-centered, client-centered approach to healing. Together, we bring attention to your body and listen in a very compassionate way to what is there. Focusing is a respectful technique that helps one to develop and observe the Self, attuned to the body’s knowing. Focusing is a gentle way to heal those parts that seem most stuck and unresolved. By listening with care and compassion to those places in you that are the hardest to resolve, they can naturally begin to shift towards wellness. Focusing is particularly effective as a therapeutic intervention for childhood trauma.

My Teachers

• Deanne Andre
• Anne Poonwassie

Member of the Focusing Institute

Article: Imagery is More Powerful with Focusing: Theory and Practice by Eugene T. Gendlin, Ph.D. University of Chicago

Shamanism

"Shamanism is the earliest spiritual practice known to humankind, dating back tens of thousands of years. The fact that the practice has survived and thrived for thousands of years speaks to the potency of the work. A shaman is a man or woman who interacts directly with spirits to address the spiritual aspects of illness, perform soul retrievals, divine information, help the spirits of deceased people cross over, and perform a variety of ceremonies for the community. Shamans have taken on many roles in tribal communities; they have acted as healers, doctors, priests, psychotherapists, mystics, and storytellers. Shamans heal emotional and physical illness by working with the spiritual aspects of illness. Shamanism teaches us that everything that exists is alive and has a spirit, and that we are joined with the earth and all of life via our spiritual interconnectedness." Sandra Ingerman

In contemporary communities, shamanic practitioners offer healing, divination and ceremonial services

My Teachers

• Alicia Gates
• Sandra Harner
• Michael Harner
• Sarangerel and Enkhtaivan

Member of Society for Shamanic Practitioners

In 2002, I traveled to Siberia to experience first hand the confluence of shamanism and Buddhism. I visited sacred places.

Gallery – Travel to Siberia

Khakassia	Sayan Mountains	Lake Baikal	Wishing Tree	Ulan Ude

Traditional yurt of nomadic herders in Siberia & Mongolia	Wooden yurt in Ulan Ude, Siberia	Octagon house at Ivolginsky Datsun near Ulan Ude	Temple of the Sun, Beijing	Terra Mandala

Transpersonal Psychotherapy

Transpersonal Psychotherapy is an approach to healing which encompasses the mind, body, spirit and soul on the road to moving through the stuck places that prevent us from living life to the fullest. Carl Jung first coined the term transpersonal when he used the phrase "transpersonal unconscious" as a synonym for "collective unconscious."

Transpersonal psychotherapy

• combines insights from modern psychology with insights from the world's contemplative traditions, both East and West.
• uses imagery as the language of the soul and an essential tool for healing.
• works with transpersonal and spiritual dimensions of the Self, including self-development, peak experiences, mystical experiences and altered states of consciousness.
• provides interventions for spiritual emergencies when a client’s spiritual development unfolds with an intensity beyond their control (Grof).
• promotes a healthier balance between masculine and feminine principles in our culture and society and supports the exploration, education and embodiment of the divine feminine.

See also Transpersonal Institute
Anne Baring
Jeanne Achterberg

Tibetan Medicine / Ayurvedic therapies

- Under construction -

Terra Mandala Meditation Garden

A walking path connects a series of circular garden rooms:

• Chagpori Hill
• Medicine Wheel
• Taiga Woodland garden
• Petroform Teaching Circle
• Herb Garden

Co-Housing

We warmly welcome guests who are interested in exploring co-housing options in Pinawa.

Terra Mandala Home

Constructed in 2006 Design and prefabricated building envelope from Mandala Custom Homes. Juno Carpentry was the General Contractor.

Photo Gallery – Building my Mandala home

Foundation	64 Trusses	Sky Light	Ceiling	Exterior

Biography - Irene Friesen

Irene is a certified counselor with advanced training in complex trauma, shamanism and Focusing. She is a student of Tibetan Medicine, Ayurveda and herbal medicine and looks forward to integrating the wisdom of these ancient traditions into her healing work.

Credentials

Educator

• B.A.    B.Th.    Cert.Ed.
• 30+ years experience as an educator in high schools, adult education and corporate training

Therapist

• Applied Counseling Certificate (U of M)
• Focusing & Complex Trauma Certificate (PRCF)
• Focusing Oriented Therapist (F.O.T.)
• advanced training with Foundation for Shamanic Studies
• Qi Gong – Level 2
• Reiki – Level 2

Wordsmith

• Writer - Blumenfeld: Where Land & People Meet
• Writer - In Search of a Home: The Janzen Family Story
• Writer - The Wiens Family of Omsk
• Editor - Principles & Policies for Managing Human Resources
• Writer – Valuing Diversity