| Melinda Ribner L.C.S.W., Founder and Director of Kabbalah of the
Heart and Beit Miriam, is a New York State licensed social worker in
private practice for more than 20 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.
Individual sessions are generally more experiential than traditional
talk therapy with 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 re-claim their power and open to the awesome spiritual
potential within.
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 Masters 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 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 receive
and experience God's love of 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.
Sliding scale rates as listed below.
| Low Income ($80) |
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| Mid-Income ($100) |
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| High Income ($125) |
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Testimonials From Clients
I know that 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." Jill
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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