FRANCIS J PADINJAREKARA (P J Francis)
Dr. Francis J Padinjarekara is a Clinical Psychologist with more than 20 years experience in the areas of human relationships, team building, consulting and leadership training. He is also an international speaker and professional trainer who also conducts workshops, seminars and courses in India, Ireland, UK and USA.
His broad educational background includes philosophy and journalism in India and doctoral training in Clinical Psychology at the School of Professional Psychology, Wright State University, USA followed by work experience in USA and post-doctoral training.
Some of the special interest areas are Facilitating Group Processes, Communication Skills Training, Interpersonal Relationships, Team Building, Stress and Burnout, and Awareness. Areas of training and certification include Focusing, Holotropic Breathwork, Enneagram, Eriksonian Hypnosis, EMDR, Cranial-Sacral Therapy, Somato-Emotional Release, and Somatic Psychology.
After his training in Clinical Psychology in the US, Francis returned to India in 1990 and succeeded Tony de Mello as the Director of Sadhana Institute for the next 14 years. It was when Francis was at the helm that Sadhana saw the largest expansion of its facilities and programmes including the Integral Couselling Psychology (ICP) course, an innovative programme of a two year course of psychology and spirituality at the masters level.
The years at Sadhana also saw a wholly new direction to his life and professional work. The most important discovery of those years was the experience of the power of awareness to change lives, starting with his own. Awareness is also the central theme of his work from his first retreats and workshops in India and Ireland some ten years ago. Working with Liz seven years ago created a new synergy visible in the clarified vision and newer directions for this work.
Francis was visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana (2004-2006) and earlier scholar in residence at Marquette University, Milwaukee (1999). He is the author A DEWDROP IN THE OCEAN – Wisdom Stories for Turbulent Times which was published recently. Its companion volume, THE OCEAN IN THE DEWDROP, is expected to be released in October 2009.
He shares with international audiences and students a powerful and effective approach that has transformed his own life and the lives of many people. Currently he is a speaker for Vistage International, world’s largest membership organization for CEOs, and a facilitator at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
LIZ DILLON
Born in Co. Meath, Ireland, Liz was educated in local schools and followed the usual trail at that time into banking. Subsequently she was to find her real vocation in teaching which prompted her to complete her BA at University College Dublin followed by teacher training at Carysfort Training College, Dublin.
She loved teaching but, frustrated with an educational system that was too restrictive especially for helping children with emotional and behavioural problems, she decided to found her own pre-school which she ran successfully for 14 years. This was to be her own training ground for different ways of educating children, to experiment with what works best for each child in her care.
Throughout those years she also attended numerous courses in counseling, psychotherapy, parenting and spirituality. Though these courses were useful, she was in search of that something that would deeply satisfy her inner quest. That came in 1994 when she attended a course with Paddy McMahon, the author of the Grand Design. It was Paddy who introduced her to Tony de Mello with a reading from Carlos Valles’ book, Mastering Sadhana. Contact with Tony opened a huge new door for Liz who was quick to read a copy of Awareness and all other works of Tony.
Awareness held a mirror to her own life as it showed her how she was living her life trying to make other people happy, especially her own family, yet she could not change anyone or make anyone happy. It was a shocking but liberating realization that transformation would happen only when something happened within her, when she understood herself.
Awareness was to change her outlook on life, her relationships and her spirituality. It unmasked what she believed was a happy marriage and which she tried hard to save but would eventually end in separation and divorce. It highlighted the emerging problems in her relationship with her four children which, through wise parenting, would eventually bring them into their own freedom.
It was as a different kind of teacher that she returned to mainstream teaching to work in a school that is designated disadvantaged. The problems of the children challenged her to use Awareness in her teaching and in her relationships with them. They led her to look at situations from a different perspective, pushed her relentlessly to look at her own conditioning and question the role of educators in such a situation. Over these years she has developed a strong and healing relationship with the children she works with and sees that they thrive under her understanding and care for them.
Her contact with Francis, then Director of Sadhana Institute, was to be another turning point in her life. Finding in Liz someone who was taking Tony’s teaching into daily living, Francis invited her to offer retreats and workshops together. They co-founded Chetana (Awareness) in 2002. Subsequently Liz has taught at various centres in Ireland, USA, New Zealand and at Sadhana Institute in India.
Liz is focusing her efforts on bringing Awareness into the lives of women and children, in education and parenting, and in families and schools.
