Editor's Note.

Welcome to this issue of the Heart-Centered Therapies Journal. We are excited to present the five articles that comprise this issue of the Journal, representing scholarly work from members of the Association.

Personal Transformation with Heart-Centered Therapies by Diane Zimberoff & David Hartman is an ambitious article reviewing a continuum of depth and intention from psychotherapy through healing to transformation, or transpersonal development. The process of transformation is presented as overcoming normality and returning to wholeness, within a schema incorporating Kundalini psychophysiology, ego and psychosocial development, and psychospiritual unfolding. The process is viewed from the perspective of Jungian psychology, Kundalini spiritual development, and shamanic traditions. The role of healthy community and supportive network in personal transformation is noted.

The article by Paul S. Sussman, A Heuristic Figure for Explaining the Need for Deeper Therapy, presents a useful idea for clinicians. Noting that clients frequently come into therapy expecting briefer interventions than can reasonably be expected to be successful, and that the need for working at deeper levels is often more evident to the therapist than it is to the client, the author proposes a simple and effective mechanism for explaining both perspectives to clients and third-party payers the need for deeper therapy.

Hypnotherapy and Sexual Offenders: The First Steps Towards Empathy and Healing by Lisa Cooney offers the author's experience combining hypnotherapy with the standard behavioral approaches to treatment of sex offenders. She notes that utilizing traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in conjunction with Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy has increased offender's empathetic response to their victims. Several case studies are presented of Personality Disordered sexual offenders at the Intermediate Level. Subjects were able to connect to early childhood patterns reinforcing sexual deviancy, take more responsibility for their offending behavior, release barriers holding self-defeating thinking errors, and improve self-esteem.

Heart-Centered Approaches in the Kindergarten Classroom by Michelle Lacoursiere-Sussman presents a variety of adaptations of the techniques and processes used in Heart-Centered Therapies for working with groups of children in the primary school classroom. These techniques provide resources for children who are counterprepared for functioning in a group, and those who are simply having a bad day. Implications for classroom management and for parenting are discussed.

The article by Diane Zimberoff and David Hartman, Heart-Centered Energetic Psychodrama, is another in a series on their unique therapeutic modalities to appear in the Journal. This article focuses on locating the Heart-Centered Energetic Psychodrama modality within the traditions of deep experiential psychotherapy and transpersonal psychology. The article analyzes how each of the following elements contribute to this complex method: managing the trance state, concretizing the abstract, activating body memories, providing a "corrective emotion experience," releasing repressed emotion, and re-working missed developmental stages. A number of principles of psychodrama techniques are elucidated, with principles of character elaboration. Measures to maintain safety and avoid retraumatizing the client are discussed. Differences between traditional and Energetic Psychodrama are studied.

1998 Conference in Atlanta

Congratulations to those who attended the 1998 Heart-Centered Therapies Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, October 2-4, 1998. The Pre-Conference workshops and one-hour presentations were all experiential and practical. And a huge "bravo!" to each of the presenters for your wonderful contributions. The program was a real success.

1999 Conference in New York

We urge all of our readers to attend the 1999 Heart-Centered Therapies Association International Conference to be held in New York, October 22-24, 1999. Pre-Conference workshops will start on October 22, presentations are scheduled for the 23rd and 24th. The banquet on Saturday evening will feature a well-known professional in the field. For additional information contact HCTA Headquarters at the address on the Publications page at the back of the Journal.

David Hartman, MSW, Editor-in-Chief, Heart-Centered Therapies Association, Issaquah, WA USA.