Venita Ramirez
"Awareness is ever there. It need not be realized.
Open the shutter of the mind and it will be flooded with Light."
Nisargadatta
What I Do
I am an Awareness guide and facilitator offering personal and professional support for greater depth, clarity, aliveness awareness, presence and optimal well-being. My clients come from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Many are coaches, consultants, mind/body practitioners and visionary leaders. Some are physicians, executives, entrepreneurs, engineers, and artists. They are intuitively, energetically and sensually gifted and/or would like to develop these gifts of expanded awareness and greater presence in their work and in their lives. If this sounds like you, and you are ready for further refinement or growth, consider working with me.
We'll work with your breath, subtle energy, belief systems, awareness and embodiment practices. Through our time together you will expand and refine your consciousness and awaken to a more vital way of being human, revealing your
greatest potential in every moment, and clearing your mind, heart and soul to receive and to give all that is possible for you.
B I O
Growing up in a mixture of cultures I began early to wonder about humans and the variety of expressions of being human. What motivates people? What makes some behave so differently than others? And what is true?
From the mid 1980's to the mid 1990's, I studied and received extensive training in Psychology, Breath, Energy and Bodywork. I also explored many forms of Eastern Philosophy as well as various other spiritual and philosophical traditions. I immersed myself in yoga philosophy and meditation practice. And I discovered the research of Dan P. Brown, who co-authored the book Transformations of Consciousness. For many years, I used his stages of state development - as well as pointers from the tantra practitioner/scholar Haresh Johari's book Chakras - to guide me in my development while I continued to immerse myself in meditation and intensive mind-body trainings.
In the mid 1990's, my study of Integral Theory led me to Western Psychology's ego stages of development as researched by Robert Kegan and Suzanne Cook-Greuter. And ten years later, in 2006, I found myself working in partnership with Terri O'Fallon who had been observing development in people of all ages for most of her life as an educator.
From 2006 through 2016, I was immersed in a learning laboratory observing state and stage development of adults in our Pacific Integral leadership programs. We offered nine-month transformational leadership trainings to leaders from 35 countries in Australia, New Zealand, Ethiopia and the Unites States. We gave people the MAP and StAGES Assessments and then watched them closely over the next nine months to several years. The patterns and consistencies of growth were unmistakable.
Remarkably, the Eastern Philosophical state stages I had studied from Dan Brown's research seemed to be consistent with the Western stages of ego development we were witnessing in the people we were observing.
Over the years, I have blended the knowledge and experience of states and stages with my training in psychology, bodywork, and energy awareness including tantra, pranayama and kundalini yoga. The result is a powerful culmination of wholeness that brings with it a transmission of expanded consciousness, a life of greater flow and ease, and a sense of freedom, love, clarity, wonder and peace.
METHODS & TRAINING
Following is a partial list of training and philosophy that inform this approach:
Methods and Philosophies
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Awareness Training
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Vedanta
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Kashmir Shaivism/Tantra
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Tibetan Buddhism & Zen
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Taoism
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Somatic/Bodywork
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Rosen Method
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Bioenergetics
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Acupuncture/Accupressure
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Psychodrama
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Subtle Energy Practices
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Reichian Breathing & Energy Philosophy
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Kundalini/Chakra Philosophy
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Pranayama
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Advanced awareness practices
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Psychology
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Psychodynamic & Family of Origin
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Developmental Psychology
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Gestalt
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Attachment Theory
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Person Centered/Humanistic
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Other Frameworks
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Integral Theory
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Systems Theory
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Education
M.A. Psychology, Antioch University 1985
B.A. Business, University of Puget Sound 1981
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Certificate - StAGES Developmental Assessment Scoring Analyst, with Terri O'Fallon, PhD, 2014
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Certificate - Transformational Leadership, Pacific Integral via the Leadership Institute of Seattle, 2007
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Completed - Integral Studies Course with Ken Wilber and Randy Martin, University of Pennsylvania, 2004
Training in Psychology & Somatic Modalities
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Bennet Wong, M.D., Jock McKeen M.D., Joann Peterson, M.S.W. 1986-1996 (Breath, Body, Energy, group facilitation, Gestalt, Object Relations, Psychodrama, Emotional Authenticity, Boundaries.)
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Rosen Method Training 1994
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Eugene Kidder, M.Div., Richard Miller, Ph.D., Peg Blackstone, M.A. 1985-1990 (Psychodynamic Theory, Group Process)
Training in Meditation & Eastern Philosophy
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Siddha Yoga Meditation Center of Seattle, 1988-96
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Integral Consciousness, Fred Kofman & Ken Wilber 2004
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Zen Buddhist Training - Genpo Roshi 2006
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Pointing Out the Great Way Level 1, with Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dan P. Brown, 2016 & 2017.
Education and Training
“Among her unique gifts, Venita exercises a “unitary presence” of mind-body assessment. She uses herself with restraint, empowerment and artistic deftness,
including a marvelous sense of timing.”
Eugene Kidder, M.Div. – Psychotherapist, Seattle, USA