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August 4, 2000/3 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.47
Therapist strives to change attitudes
LEISAH NAMM
Staff Writer
Therapist Myrna Levine repeatedly heard the same answer when she asked her clients what they do for fun. "I don't know. I read, I go to movies."
"I wasn't hearing any passion," Levine says. Instead, her clients revealed a general dissatisfaction about life, saying that "nothing exciting" ever happens.
Believing that her clients were feeling "stuck," Levine developed a seminar titled "A Different Point of View."
"I have reached a time of my life when I feel that there isn't any part of the day that I'm 'working,' " she says. "I enjoy every part of my day. I enjoy the writing. I enjoy the painting. I enjoy my clients."
That feeling wasn't always there, she says. "I've learned how important it is. So I began to think: What keeps people stuck? Why are they not passionate about things in their life? Why are they not (really) living?"
The interactive seminar, designed to help participants search for what they want in life, begins at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 19 at the Courtyard Marriott-Scottsdale Downtown, 3311 N. Scottsdale Road.
Although Levine was reluctant to reveal too many details to avoid participants' bringing along "preconceived notions," she does say there is a lot of small group and large group activities. She will ask participants what she calls "prompt" questions to stimulate introspection, such as "What was your secret dream when you were 15 years old?" and "What am I willing to do to get what I want?"
"Either you have what you want or you have all the reasons why you can't have it. It's all about attitude," she says.
Levine began her career as a therapist while she was teaching in elementary and middle schools.
"I became involved in my own personal growth about 15 years ago and discovered through that that I had an ability to access my intuition," she says. "As part of my self-discovery, I began to look at what my options would be after I retired, even though I was years from doing so."
She taught school during the day. Evenings and weekends, she met with clients and held seminars and weekend retreats.
She stopped teaching in 1993 to earn a master's degree in counseling at Arizona State University.
In her private practice she deals with issues ranging from relationships, money, work, incest, rape, and dream analysis.
Levine moved to Phoenix from Rochester, N.Y., in 1972. She is divorced and has two daughters, Wendy Levey and Tricia Ginis, and four grandchildren.
Levine says that the many things going on her life now "are really the fruit of the labor of personal growth."
About 1 1/2 years ago she began painting with pastels. One of her pieces will be exhibited Aug. 4-25 at a student art show at the Phoenix Center for Community Arts Visual Art Gallery in Phoenix.
She has published "Open Wounds: A Journey through Healing," a collection of poems - she wrote some, clients wrote others - that will be available at her seminar.
She has also produced compact discs with guided visualizations and meditations and is working on a second book about relationships, tentatively called "Let's get Intimate."
Beginning Aug. 13, she will host a talk radio call-in show, "Journey to Healing," at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoons on KXAM-1310 AM.
Charge for the "Different Point of View" seminar is $99 before Aug. 18, or $120 at the door. Call 602-867-8901 or visit the Web site www.selfdiscovery.org.
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