Below are short descriptions of my areas of expertise:

Psychotherapy for Individuals
Marriage and Couples’ Counselling
Health Counselling

Spiritual

 

When we refer to developing virtues, at the deepest level this means that we are going to remove all obstacles to experiencing our innate spiritual nature. We are actually uncovering what is naturally already within us. Our natural state, at its most creative, is one of pure love, truth, righteousness and peace. This comes from the perception that Man is created in the image and likeness of divine. We seek these qualities in ourselves, and in others. We seek this perfection, which is actually within us. We seek our true self. We can only feel totally happy and satisfied – even in the moment - when we manifest our loving and peaceful selves in our daily reality.

 

But paradoxically, our peaceful selves cannot be embraced until we also know the primitive, the hungry, the greedy, the retaliatory, the lustful, since this is also part of our animal nature. These dimensions being known can open their expression to being modulated, governed, and utilized as part of our empathy-skills through comprehending human nature, others and our own.

Religious education is usually laced with feelings of spiritual pride, when we can act righteously, and guilt when we cannot. Both pride and guilt are based on the ego, comparing ourselves with others, and with an image of a “perfect self”. Fear is often the motive to be "good". But being good-out-of-fear it has limited value.It is when we are free to make choices of feeling, mood, and behavior out of love, and the realization that we are all of one spirit, that can we actualize our “goodness”. Guilt-driven “worthiness” may be useful, but it is most likely “worthier”, and almost certainly more lovable, when we carry into our actions attitudes that are loving, truthful and peaceful.

All beings regardless of ability and ethics have the same divine worth as expressions on one divine consciousness. This is probably why we feel freer and happier when we our motivations are driven by ethics and love, and not controlled by our fears and defense mechanisms.

Experientially, people report that spiritual qualities or virtues are like rays which radiate outward in different directions from a common center. They all originate in our inner self and penetrate into our personality.  Developing any one virtue brings forth all the others. Confidence in the value of this way of being can help us to feel secure, and can enable us to more easily feel love, understanding and compassion, selflessness and peace. These are all aspects of our inner being, one enabling the other.

Our present society, through primitive polarizing of “good/bad”, and demonizing those with differences, or even competition for what we, as a person, group, or nation, possess, does not encourage us to develop love and truthfulness. We are taught that we have to be distrusting and defensive if we do not want to be used, hurt or cheated.

In such a world, a mentor, or a support group of others, who have the same goal,
and various activities and practices can help a person to attain and sustain a spiritual orientation, and to help us develop this “virtuous nature”:

* Group work, or psychotherapy/counselling is can be very important and helpful.

*We can pray for help in developing the qualities which seek.

* We can read the scriptures of the various religions as well as the lives of persons who have been living examples of the strength and clarity necessary for this development.

* We can contemplate on the meaning of all teachings and how they might apply to our daily lives.

* Meditation is another way through which one can be in contact with higher aspects of nature. With time this daily contact can help to transform our personality, and liberate our spiritual selves, and the accompanying freedom and joy.

* Contemplation is a process in which we focus on a specific quality or teaching and seek to understand its deeper meaning and application in our lives. Such understanding enables us to live this quality much more fully.

* Selfless service towards those who are in need is a wide field for developing various spiritual qualities. We are able to see our ego more clearly and can learn to put others’ needs above our comforts. We have the ability then to develop selflessness – an extremely important inner quality.

* It is well known that as we age, love, which earlier was self-serving, changes to joy received from helping others. Observing ourselves on this path can be helpful. Imagining that we are the other and seeking to determine his or her needs, feelings and beliefs, assists us in developing compassion, understanding and love. As we become free from identifying exclusively with ourselves, we can then be more aware of the others. This is basic to spiritual development.

* Developing inner security is basic to spiritual growth. Inner security is a prerequisite to love, peace, truthfulness, selflessness and all other virtues.

* Self-acceptance is an important prerequisite to feeling secure enough to love and understand others. Most often when we lose our peace and love it is because we feel that our self-worth has being undermined, through a criticism authored by another, or by ourselves. When we criticize ourselves, we hurt, but later, when we see these same qualities and difficulties as part of all people, as part of being human, this can help us feel united with others through our common quest towards peaceful coexistence and loving relatedness.

Ingrid Dresher, a psychotherapist in Toronto, can help you find your inner strengths, compassion for yourself and others, and your spiritual self, from which you can find your inner wisdom, which is the heritage of our species. Her years of experience in psychotherapy and counseling, and her own commitment to a path of spiritual growth, may help you to seek your self and to move towards your own path of happiness and contentment.