The Nashville Scene

11/28/01

 

Unconventional Wisdom

A Nashville healer conducts offbeat wellness therapy

By Matt Pulle

 

 

 

The deal is to heal. Kenneth Robinson's offbeat approach to transpersonal wellness includes deep breathing, yoga-like exercises and religious readings. Photo by Eric England

Kenneth Robinson says he lives by a perspective Hunter Thompson champions: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." He calls himself a transpersonal healer who "works with the conventional to help them find their weirdness and with the weird to help them make the most of that blessed state."

 

He is a practitioner of Alaya, "a process that helps us discover our own answers to the question, 'Who am I?'"

 

Hmmm.

 

"The idea behind Alaya is to help the person connect with their inner essence," the 47-year-old Nashvillian says. "What we try to do is help a person not just theorize about that, but actually experience that connectedness."

 

Actually, at the risk of oversimplifying a complex approach to physical, mental and spiritual health, Alaya (pronounced "A-lie-uh") can be explained as a method of blending traditional methods of therapy with yoga-like attention to breathing and movement. Then there's the unusual blending of various religious readings. It's an approach to wellness that is likely to make doctors and probably more than a few therapists cringe. And in a time when contemporary society seems to be going back to clear-cut notions of right and wrong, Alaya might seem a bit Sept. 10. Still, Alaya's focus on the connection between the mind and body is certainly not misplaced, and those who practice it say that it has helped them find peace when all else failed.

 

Two Boulder, Colo., residents--a social worker and a dancer--devised Alaya as an alternative to psychotherapy in the 1980s. In 1988, Robinson, who has a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling and worked in family counseling for seven years, became one of their clients. Right away, he says, the experience was very powerful, and he quickly decided he wanted to abandon a stable career and practice Alaya himself.

 

Flying back and forth from Nashville to Boulder over a period of four years, he underwent rigorous training with the Colorado partners. Today, he has a thriving practice. He has 15 regular clients and conducts about 10 group sessions a year. Next February, he will be leading a retreat to Tulum, Mexico. And recently, he and two other part-time partners just developed a Web site, although we'll warn that the site doesn't exactly speak the language of Donald Rumsfeld.

 

The essence of Alaya--that there is a strong connection between the rumblings of the mind and the health and feeling of the body--isn't all that radical. (It's not meant for people with serious depression or mental health problems, unless it's used in conjunction with more conventional approaches.) But it's certainly not mainstream either.

 

The easygoing Robinson meets with clients for anywhere from an hour to 75 minutes. During that time, the client may talk about issues he or she is confronting at work or at home. Robinson, whose reassuring good looks could land him a sensitive male lead in a Lifetime original motion picture, sometimes asks clients to express an emotion such as anger in a physical way. They may shout it out or just shake their fists. He may also have them dance. The idea, Robinson says, is to "bring the force of the feeling into the body."

 

Robinson also asks clients to perform what he calls breath work--taking full and deep breaths and noticing changes in their bodies as they do it. Yoga-like exercises are also applied.

 

"When you're breathing for 20 to 25 minutes, I don't know the mechanics of it, but I have powerful, emotional, cathartic experiences," says Sharon Woodard, a longtime client of Robinson's who credits Alaya for helping her get through divorce with integrity and compassion. "For me, it was a cleansing of old emotions."

A therapist for 20 years, Linda Manning is a part-time partner of Robinson's. She says that Alaya tries to pick up where yoga leaves off. "Let's say you're in a difficult yoga position. Some people may want to give up immediately; others may want to force their way through it. Regardless of what you do, that [choice] offers information about yourself. Those things you do in reaction to difficult physical experiences are the same things you do in reaction to conflict in your life."

 

In some ways, Alaya is all about making the age-old, if elusive, connection between mind and body.

 

"We live so much in our heads and in our thoughts," says Manning, who is also a staunch anti-death penalty activist. "Our bodies are just audio-visual carts that carry the brain around. So just engaging in physical activity like dance or yoga-type postures gets us reconnected with our body, so we can recognize a physical impulse when it comes along."

 

In a session filled with breath work and yoga-like exercises, Robinson will also ask clients to read a rather eclectic list of spiritual texts. Asked what might be on the reading list for a particular session, Robinson rattles off the works of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist priest; Rumi, a Persian poet; and the Dalai Lama. And in case Pat Robertson is reading this, Robinson's clients also read biblical texts.

 

Robinson says that generally he asks his clients to "slow down and connect with their own body, breath and feelings." He himself talks thoughtfully, if very deliberately. If he can't answer a question right away, he asks for more time. Your heart rate drops just talking to him.

 

He talks frequently about the deleterious effects of a fast-paced life. "The rush of urban life and the ever increasing levels of stimulation and information that we receive do create some problems," he says. "What's even more important is the speed of our thoughts. We can become so overloaded with our thinking that we lose contact with our intuition and our bodies. Then we become more subject to the expectations and demands of other people, our society, even loved ones, and lose some of the freedom to choose for ourselves."

 

How the pace of life can affect someone's mental health may rank as an obsession with Robinson. "All this speed tends to numb us. We can't process everything, so parts of us shut down, emotionally, physically, even mentally," he says in a slow, calm manner that doesn't betray his message. "The first part of Alaya is to notice just how fast it all is going."

 

Of course, Robinson doesn't tell anyone to quit his or her law practice and start a blueberry farm. What he does advise is to slow the tempo of life and figure out what's important. But the clients have to come to it themselves. The premise of Alaya is that through the breath work, the yoga, the dancing and the spiritual readings, the clients find some sort of peace.

 

"It wasn't so much what he did," Woodard says. "He never told me anything and never gave me any answers. But he allowed me the space and time to come up with my own answers. He's masterful at what he does. He doesn't do anything, and yet he does a whole lot."

 

"I went to a therapist for several years, but I never cried with him," another client says. "I just never felt safe enough. But when I started seeing Kenneth, my emotions started happening."

 

For sure, all this may sound a bit hokey--especially phrases such as "opening up your heart" and "getting in touch with your deepest wants." True, Alaya isn't grounded in an excess of scientific research. But it's not as farfetched as it might seem. For example, we know that stress can lead to heart attacks and hypertension, so Alaya's focus on slowing the pace of life isn't exactly misplaced. We also know from personal experience alone that when we're agitated and frustrated, that tension manifests itself in our shoulders and muscles. So again, Alaya's concentration on relaxing the body makes sense.

 

"I have a Ph.D. in psychology, and I have studied it for a very long time," says Manning, who also works as the director of the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center at Vanderbilt University. "Alaya may not have been developed as a science, but it's perfectly compatible with what science teaches us."

 

Robinson himself says that the appeal of Alaya lies in just how elementary it is. "It seems strange that something as simple as slowing down and breathing with awareness could take us to a place of compassion for ourselves and others, but strangely it does."

 

 

 

Erika Callaway, Vanderbilt Divinity Student,

interviews Kenneth Robinson on the topic

“Minister as Theological Educator”

Teaching/Learning Interviews

April 16, 2002

 

 

Kenneth Robinson was my first interviewee.  He directs Alaya here in Nashville (www.alayapartners.com).  Kenneth’s clients are mostly adults.  Printed on his business card is the goal of his work: “Alaya is the teaching of practices that open the heart.”  We met at Fido and sat at a table against the window with a view of Hillsboro Village.  I wrote as he drank a cup of coffee and shared his beautiful wisdom with his eager listener (that’s me!).   Since songwriters and alternative thinkers tend to frequent this coffee shop, it was the perfect place to meet.  Our hour spent together was absolute joy for me.  He said so many things my ears and heart have longed to hear.   Though he practices meditations collected from all faiths and spiritual practices, he says that he really cannot be anything other than a Christian.  It is too much a part of who he is.  His definition of Christianity is outside of the mainstream, however.  He loves Jesus, but hates what Christianity has done to him.  (Wow, I couldn’t agree more!)  Kenneth has written a book of poems called The Year of Lovemaking and Crying.  One of my favorite poems therein is entitled, “The Day We Took Jesus Back from the Christians.”  I was delighted that Kenneth, too, got something out of this interview.  First of all, he was honored that I had asked to interview him.  Moreover, as he sat across from me, midway through our talk that consisted of much more than answering the questions, he said, “I’ve never thought of myself as a theological educator, but I am.”

 

I am going to relay Kenneth’s answers to the questions in the free-flowing form that he gave them because I think you might be able to better appreciate his insight.  I’m also going to try to relay his words in the way that he spoke them.

 

How do you understand the nature and purpose of religious/theological education?

 

Kenneth says that the nature and purpose of theological education is to assist one in recognizing his/her basic goodness.  It is to provide a framework for their spiritual experiences.  It should raise people’s awareness, providing room for different types of encounters with the divine so that people can experience feelings like unity, compassion, and ecstasy.  (I asked Kenneth to define ecstasy.  He said that it is that place where you feel completely.  It’s the happiest or best you can possibly feel, but it’s also when you let yourself feel sadness completely.  It’s going to a place deep inside yourself where you feel most and think best)  He says that theological education should make available a container for religious experience so that people can know that others have had the same experiences and were able to bear them.  He says that the purpose of theological education is to build a person’s trust in themselves to the point that they will approach scriptures with their own authority.

 

He sees theological education as communicating tradition and bringing it to life, cultivating curious minds.  In his experience, the purpose was to “scare the hell out of kids so they’ll act right.”  He wants the goal of theological education to be finding the truth through the focusing of a disciplined mind where we can be present enough to see the truth and let it carry us as far as it can to direct experience of the reality of union and loving kindness.

 

We got into a discussion after I had relayed one of our essay assignments –“theological education as tradition and/or transforming.”  From this conversation came his interpretation of the story of Jonah and the whale, which I especially enjoyed.  He uses the story in practice.  He says that Jonah’s intuition was telling him to go to Ninevah, just as our own intuition guides us.  But, Jonah was scared and fought his inner voice, just as we are scared to listen to the voice inside.  This fighting is being caught in the storm and devoured by the whale.  Kenneth has said to his clients, “You’re feeling nothing but whale-belly (or big-fish-belly) right now.”  And when we let ourselves listen to the inner voice, we finally decide, like Jonah, “Ok, I think I’ll go to Ninevah.”

 

 

What excites you most about being a religious/theological educator?  What dismays you most?

 

Kenneth offered a whole list of things that excite him (the most!) about his work:

-being present and being a part of someone breaking through and experiencing ecstasy

-improvisation and collaboration in exploring a person’s inner world toward breakthrough into heightened awareness

-helping people experience Christ in their own bodies

-embodying spiritual insights

-teaching the message that pleasure is good and the joys of sensing and contact with other people and interior world

-experiencing breakthroughs himself

-using art, music, and the natural world to teach

-getting to do something so much a part of his life -- without the boundaries of work and play

-guiding people away from virtue and toward joy (yes!) .  He says that compassion is “trippy.”  The feeling in and of itself is the means AND the end.  We are in heaven when we are deeply in compassion.  It’s not about merit – “it’s just the best deal going.”

Dismays:

-how “defended” we all are

-how much fear we have of so many of our feelings

-the ends we will go to to avoid and suppress shame and fear

-positive thinkers!!

-the sorry state of theological education

-how each religion has restrictions on feelings (even Buddhism)

-the fear and shame that remains around sexuality

-how much people use their minds to resolve issues instead of heart/feelings

-that people think that they can block out feelings to make decisions and live when in actuality the feelings that are being denied and repressed are running the show

-violence

 

 

What is your biggest challenge doing religious/theological education at Alaya?

 

Simply getting the word out.  Also, a personal challenge for Kenneth is knowing when to back off.  When people experience the deep connection to breath, feelings, or body, they are often scared.  He has to remember to modulate the intensity so that people don’t become overwhelmed and say, “I can’t handle this.”

 

 

How do you choose the curriculum that you use?  What do you like about the curriculum resources you are using?  Where do you think they fall short?  (This one is fun!)

 

Kenneth’s curriculum is whatever is in front of his face.  He goes to Tower records to play anything that looks interesting.  He goes to any plays and exhibits that he can all over town.  He reads all the good books and poetry that he can.  His curriculum is whatever he’s struggling with at the moment or stirring passions.  He says that when you ask the question of yourself, “What’s up for me?” that is the group you should lead.  His curriculum is whatever touches his heart, makes him feel alive, has truth, or is confusing.  His curriculum is a good question that interests him.  It flows from his body and his insights during sex.

 

What he likes most about his curriculum resources is that he likes them!  They come from the things he likes.  They can come from anywhere, everywhere.  There is not much that cannot be curriculum, and they don’t fall short!  It is only in the application or the ability to apply them that makes them fall short.  After Kenneth said this, he went on to say that all curriculum falls short because it is not the experience itself.  Anywhere it is false is where it falls short –false meaning that it does not speak from transformation or experience; it is merely theorizing.

 

Do you think that it is important for the people in communities of faith to know about the beliefs and practices of persons from other religious traditions?

 

Yes.  This illuminates one’s own tradition.  It is important so that people will be less afraid of other people and less afraid of the fallibility of our own framework.  It is important so that you’ll know that God is bigger and better and tougher than your best paradigm or worldview.  It helps us understand that the mystery is way too big to be encapsulated by a set of stories.

 

How do you educate/prepare/train/care for/minister to your volunteer teachers?

 

Kenneth does not have any volunteer teachers, but he trains psychologists and therapists in Alaya.  His first goal is to help them get to know themselves and create a container so that they’re less afraid of knowing themselves.

 

He really liked the thought of ministering to his own trainees.  He defined that as “taking care of and teaching.”  He takes care of them by communicating with everything he’s got in him and by assuring them that it is perfectly acceptable to have the time of your life learning about Spirit.  He takes care of them by not setting himself apart as someone who is somehow free of the human condition.

 

He trains by asking people to go see particular movies or plays or exhibits or read books.  He asks them to use their own bodies, feelings and their own insights to teach.