SPIRITUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR INDIVIDUALS & C0UPLES
"Being a therapist is a great honor and an awesome privilege. It is an extension of my work as a spiritual teacher.”
Melinda's Own Words About Being A Therapist
"Being a therapist is a great honor and an awesome privilege. It is an extension of my work as a spiritual teacher. When I was in graduate school for a Master's degree in social work, spirituality and meditation were certainly not part of our curriculum. Professionalism required a therapist to be value-free, neutral, and, of course, not advocate any belief in religion. Yet I knew from my own life, even then, that it was the opening to the experience of God that healed and transformed me. As this was the most powerful vehicle for healing and personal transformation, I knew that this was what I wanted to share with my clients.
Many years later, I began working in this way, helping people access and strengthen the God experience, especially when they could not access this soul dimension within themselves. My work as a therapist is part of my own spiritual practice and service. As a therapist, I feel that I am God's representative, and I allow God's light and love to shine through me. I pray and meditate before each session, during each session, and even after each session. I am totally committed to loving the person who is coming to me for therapy, helping them to love themselves unconditionally, and to experience God's love for them as well.
To me, being a therapist is a little like being a priest of ancient times, privileged to enter into the Holy of Holies of the Holy Temple. In many ways, in our modern times, the therapy room is a place of revelation, one of the most holy and sacred places available to many people. It is here that people share their secrets, their deepest feelings, their fears, resistances, their hopes, their dreams, and their fantasies. It is here that they discover and experience aspects of themselves they did not or could not previously acknowledge. As a therapist, I symbolically, and often literally, hold the hand of the client as we enter into the deepest places, the most inner chambers, to experience the most holy, the most hidden, the most real, the most beautiful, and the most wounded and dark places within the human soul. Through the therapeutic process, we release the hold of the negative inclination, the judgmental inner critic, free up klippot, the shells of the wounded ego, and redeem the hidden sparks of the holy soul. In opening to the truth of our inner essence, we open to the inner essence of Reality, which is what we call God, and we become vessels to receive greater love and joy than we previously allowed."
PRAISE FROM PRIVATE CLIENTS
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"A unique therapeutic experience that has enabled me to hear and listen to my authentic voice, find what nurtures me..."
“Working with Mindy, I entered a unique therapeutic experience that has enabled me to hear and listen to my authentic voice, find what nurtures me, and use these insights to guide my relationships with myself and with others. I’ve learned to recognize the depth and significance of the body/mind/spirit connection. Judaism, meditation, kabbala, and prayer- integral components of therapy with Mindy—have had a great impact on my well-being. They’ve helped me to discover and embrace my spiritual needs and develop a relationship with God that has guided me, given me inner strength, and contributed to my physical and emotional healing. Bringing these discoveries into my daily life, I strive to make “I want” rather than “I should” choices and statements and to seek nourishing, rather than draining, relationships. Listening actively to others while empowering myself and asserting my own truth has become a guiding principle for strengthening my relationships with my partner, family, friends, and others. Thank you, Mindy, for initiating me into what I know will be an ongoing, life-enhancing journey.”
Private Client
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"“A new world of intimacy opened for us.."
“A new world of intimacy opened for us through the kabbalistic teachings, meditation, and wonderful guidance of Miriam Shulamit.”
Couple’s Therapy Client
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"“The work I did with you helped me to shed the sadness and negativity that I needed to do in order to make my heart become open."
“The work I did with you helped me to shed the sadness and negativity that I needed to do in order to make my heart become open. In early December I was set up on a date with a man who is perfect for me. He is a truly beautiful person, and we are enjoying each other so much. Because of you, I made myself available for him to appear in my life and married him a few months later”
Therapy Client
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"“In just two sessions, we learned how to open our hearts to each other and communicate from a place of compassion"
“In just two sessions, we learned how to open our hearts to each other and communicate from a place of compassion. The sessions helped us to remember what we had forgotten: love, patience, receptivity, and compassion. We both appreciated Miriam's guidance in helping us to come together in a more loving and gentle way.”
Couple’s Therapy Client -
"I feel like her mix of compassion, empathy, and insight have been enormously helpful in getting me to this new place.”
“I have gone through some wrenching mid-life challenges in recent years in my marriage, career, and synagogue. Miriam has helped me use prayer, meditation, and therapy to understand myself more deeply and to approach the world from a more mature and well-grounded awareness. I feel wonderful about the new directions I am taking in my life now. I feel like her mix of compassion, empathy, and insight have been enormously helpful in getting me to this new place.”
50 year-old male client
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“Mindy has helped me with the life-challenge of losing my husband of 30 years"
“Mindy has helped me with the life-challenge of losing my husband of 30 years to pancreatic cancer; handle complicated estate issues; and a deeply painful difficulty with one of my adult children. She has helped me feel more resourceful, given me encouragement on creating a new life by listening to my inner voice, setting boundaries, and being gentle with myself. I’ve learned how to say NO and to say YES and to become my own best friend. It’s a process. For anyone who is ready to do the work of starting their life over and wants spiritual guidance and support, I recommend that you contact Mindy.
If you want to move forward with your life, Say YES to Mindy, her books, and the Tuesday night free Guided Jewish Meditation Group!”
60 year-old widow
SPIRITUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR INDIVIDUALS
Individual psychotherapy and spiritual counsel for individuals seeking support through grief, illness, relationship challenges, loneliness, anxiety, caregiving, major life transitions, or simply a longing for greater meaning and spiritual connection.
Meditation, bioenergetics, inner child work, and emotional release work are often included in Melinda's unique body-mind-soul approach to help individuals live more authentically and purposefully in a relatively short amount of time.
SPIRITUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR COUPLES
After years of working with people to improve the quality of intimacy in marriage, Melinda (Miriam) Ribner developed a unique, individualized program for couples, conducted over the phone in the privacy of your own home, in person, or in workshops with other couples. This work is based on the wisdom and principles of Kabbalistic teachings on the nature of the masculine and feminine. Sessions include Kabbalistic teachings, various kinds of meditative experiences and techniques, emotional release work, dyad exercises, listening, and communication skills training.
Sadly enough, many couples are not experiencing the joy and spiritual elevation possible in their marriage. What occurs, or does not occur, in the bedroom affects the couple and the family, for better or worse. It is not just the demands of the day that are taking their toll on marriages, leaving people too tired to be intimate. Power struggles also abound in marriages, creating pain and distance rather than joy and intimacy, and codependency rather than passion. Miriam Shulamit guides couples to be present with each other in a way that restores desire and the natural polarity between the masculine and the feminine. The masculine and feminine energies are within each of us, and between us, waiting to be summoned to the forefront. Enjoying the dance of these energies in our primary relationship enables us to access the deepest core of our being and life itself.
FAQs about Spiritual Psychotherapy with Melinda
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Melinda Ribner L.C.S.W., is a formerly New York State licensed social worker in private practice for more than 30 years. What distinguishes her work in psychotherapy from that of a traditional psychotherapist is that meditation, prayer, spiritual and kabbalistic teachings along with transpersonal psycho-spiritual processes are a part of treatment. In integrating Judaism and kabbalah with modern-day transpersonal psycho-spiritual and bio-energetic techniques, she has carved out a unique and powerful way to access the innate spiritual intelligence, the soul within a person enabling a person to more easily let go of negative limiting patterns of thinking and behavior, increase self-esteem and the capacity to make choices in life to move toward the goals set for oneself.
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Individual sessions are generally more experiential than traditional talk therapy with an emphasis on transformation, rather than insight. Though each person is unique and is worked with differently through a variety of meditation processes, people are generally guided to use meditation to focus on the sensations in the body, to release and transform the depth of their feelings buried in the body, re-parent the inner child, access the soul, heighten the relationship with God, so as to more fully open to the awesome spiritual potential within.
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Yes. Melinda offers virtual sessions via Zoom so you can connect with her through the comfort and privacy of your own home.