I am excited to share that I have been invited to speak at the Independent National Convention next week in Denver, CO. This is an amazing opportunity for me to share the essence of America in Therapy with a huge group of people who are sincerely dedicated to helping our country escape the limitations and inequities of an us-and-them system. It is an honor to be given a place on the stage with over a 100 other speakers and performers and in front of a larger audience than I have ever addressed in person.

And it is scary! But as I was reminded so often when I was struggling to finish the book when I feel challenged, come back to my WHY.

WHY I wrote the book

WHY I feel the need to address our collective mental health as the big missing piece in political discourse, policy and practice

WHY I want to share that the best of what we know in the field of psychology about how to heal individually can be applied to a nation

And so much more..

My WHY had me step out of the relative comfort and safety of my private therapy practice, and join a very public, exposed, often heated, and very urgent conversation about our immediate welfare and our ultimate sustainability. Not something I ever imagined I would be doing. But then, neither did I ever imagine I would be living in a time when we would be facing the threat of a Third World War, catastrophic climate change, and our own possible extinction.

Hurry up and grow up, expand, take a wider view, think bigger and act bolder!

These seem to be the urgent messages trying to be heard beneath the chaos and the in-fighting, the divisiveness and the violence.

So I may have inadvertently stepped into a much bigger arena than I could have conceived of, but I am honored to be here. At the INC, I will have a few minutes to talk directly about America in Therapy and I will also be a guest speaker in a panel discussion with some very esteemed thinkers and healers. Equally exciting, I will get to hear many other very experienced and knowledgeable leaders share their expertise, their hearts, and their visions.

Something I heard recently that I want to share, and also remember when I go to the INC, is that nothing actually belongs to us; we are stewards of the earth, and stewards of the very best we have to offer.

Amen.