The Therapist Lounge
Welcome to The Therapist Lounge — where therapists learn, grow, and connect through authentic conversations. Each episode brings you real talk with fellow clinicians about the art and practice of therapy — from new modalities and trainings to the books and ideas shaping our field. This is a space for genuine dialogue, professional growth, and shared wisdom — therapist to therapist.
The Therapist Lounge
Episode 1: Embodied Awakening. When the Therapist Becomes the Practice with Harmony Kwiker, MA, NCC, ACS
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Sabrina and Harmony discuss how Gestalt therapy and awake awareness shift the frame from therapist-as-expert to client-led healing grounded in presence, embodiment, and intuition. Harmony Kwiker shares practical ways to honor innate spirituality, reduce burnout, and train in transpersonal skills with clinical rigor.
• dismantling the expert model and centering client wisdom
• awake awareness versus ordinary mind
• the therapy room as a sacred container
• somatic work and present-moment experiments
• reframing countertransference as intuitive data
• trusting patterns as portals to healing
• reducing burnout by staying seated in our own energy
• training paths at the Institute for Spiritual Alignment
• levels covering attachment repair, subpersonalities, and non-ordinary states
• practical care for the clinician’s energy and congruence
Find Harmony’s resources and trainings at awakenedtherapist.com
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_00Hi, and welcome to the Therapist Lounge with Sabrina Duong. Here today I have Harmony Quiker with us, a licensed professional counselor, author, instructor at Naropa University, here to talk about a really amazing model in therapy, to talk about our Institute for Spiritual Alignment, and for us to learn further about her book on how therapists can be awakened and be present more within their practice and with their clients. So thank you so much, Harmony, for joining us today. Thank you, Sabrina. I'm so happy to be here with you.
Dismantling Therapist-As-Expert
SPEAKER_00Yes, I'm wondering if you could maybe start by talking about the Awakened Therapist book and how it's shifting from the clinician being the expert, having the knowledge and wisdom to share, and actually honoring the client's own wisdom and experiencing that with them and within the therapy practice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So the Awakened Therapist is a textbook for Gestalt therapy. And the foundation of gestalt therapy is really about dismantling this old paradigm of therapist as expert and positioning the client as the expert of their healing, where we honor not only their own awareness, but also their innate wisdom and their innate spirituality as the catalyst for their healing. There's nothing that I could teach somebody that's going to actually create healing. I could teach them something and their own awareness and their own sovereign will can then navigate that new information to find their healing. But within them is where the true healing potential lives. And so this approach to psychotherapy is really nonviolent and also has embedded within it concepts of Taoism and Zen Buddhism. And so what this means is that we're working in a way of effortless action, where we're following our client's energy as the guide. And so we're not efforting to make anything happen. We're really creating a sacred container for the client's organismic self-regulation and innate wisdom to find its way back home to itself. And so I wrote The Awakened Therapist because as a teacher, I teach Gestalt therapy. All of the textbooks were very theoretical. Theory is great, but I was noticing that my students, because I teach in low residency, and so I don't see them every week, like in a traditional learning format, uh, that they they needed something more that they could dig into to understand how to actually do this. Like when I when I describe it, it kind of sounds like, okay, and so what does that actually mean clinically? What's the application of this? And so that's why I wrote The Awakened Therapist.
SPEAKER_00So you emphasize the therapist presence as central to healing in in your book and in the work. What does resting in awareness look like in practice?
Resting In Awake Awareness
SPEAKER_01Well, one way to understand resting and awareness, and specifically I call it awake awareness, because we're increasing levels of awareness in different capacities, is that we're shifting from ordinary awareness, where most of us are walking around sort of hyper-identified with our ordinary mind, our thought-based reality, and we're shifting into awareness-based knowing where intuition and presence and the ability to listen to the inherent wisdom of the field itself lives. And so this doesn't mean that we're not also using the part of our mind that tracks narratives that attunes to our clients' emotions or energy or nervous system states. But that from awareness, we're not, we don't have this like tunnel vision of only looking at personality patterns or distress patterns. We're looking at the wholeness of the individual. But from awake awareness, we're actually also honoring our wholeness as a clinician. So what we feel, what pulls our attention, and also the space between us, which we call the eye though. So awareness is the formless dimension of that is beyond energy that has the capacity to welcome everything and really be the witness of all of that, which takes practice to be able to seat ourselves in that. But the main point here is that we're not looking at our client as a separate other from our mind, somebody to interpret or analyze or dissect or change or fix in any way, because that is from the ordinary mind. The ordinary mind looks at the world as separate, where awake awareness really honors the wholeness and the interconnectedness of all beings.
SPEAKER_00That's great. So you talked about therapy as the sacred container.
Honoring Innate Spirituality
SPEAKER_00How can therapists honor that spiritual dimension and presence without imposing their own world views?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So this isn't about spiritual dogma or religion. This is really about honoring our clients' innate spirituality. And innate spirituality is really one expression of a regulated nervous system, but it really like encompasses this experience of belonging, not only belonging to this world, but belonging to oneself, of opening up the portal of higher consciousness and in the brain and the parietal lobe, and really being curious and open to the evolution of life as opposed to these rigid patterns of trying to find safety or control in this world. And so when we're listening to a client's innate spirituality as the catalyst for their healing, on our way there, we're first supporting our clients in shifting states of awareness. Because from hyper-identification with the mind, innate spirituality seems like this concept that we need to talk about or think about. But this is really an embodied spirituality, a deeper sense of self and a deeper knowing within oneself. And so in this work, we're creating openings for our clients to reconnect with that aspect of themselves as they sort of move through the different layers of unresolved experiences that have them disrupting contact with that aspect of themselves.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So it's it's a form of spirituality that's looking at the cell. Would you say your work is across transpersonal counseling, subtle energy work, and just stuff? Like how do the threads come together for this book book? Is there also somatic work? I was wondering about the different therapeutic pieces.
Gestalt, Somatics, And Transpersonal Threads
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so gestalt therapy is a tr is a truly holistic and integrative approach to counseling. And one of the main elements of this approach is that we understand that we cannot separate our clients into detached separate parts. So gestalt literally means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, or it also means a unified whole. And so we're look, we're really looking at all of all of these aspects intertwining together throughout the session. And so gestalt therapy was, in my understanding, the first somatic-based approach to counseling. And one of the reasons why is that we're always working in the here and now, in the present moment. And sensations in the body are always happening right now, where meaning making can be thinking about the past and something that's unresolved, or looking to the future, or out like thinking about somebody outside of the room that isn't present in the here and now. The sensations in the body are always happening right now, and they house a lot of wisdom. Of one, I have many favorite quotes by Friz Pearls, one of the creators of Gestalt therapy. But one is lose your mind and come to your senses, meaning listen to the sense sensations in your body and let go of this thought-based reality. But transpersonal counseling is really a way to, there's so many different nuances, but one of the main elements is that we're accessing non-ordinary states of consciousness, which is what awake awareness is. And same with subtle awareness, which is where we access the sensations in our body. And so if I'm resting in awake awareness as a clinician and I'm not engaging with my client from my personality or my thought-based reality, and I'm supporting my clients in shifting states of awareness, levels of awareness, coming into the here and now and expanding into that welcoming, loving aspect of awake awareness for within themselves. This is where they find the potential of their healing because it is the client's own awareness that is going to sort of discover their way through these patterns. And because it's so honoring of the client and like so, so trusting of their deep, deep wisdom, really, we're honoring that even in their distress patterns or the patterns that cause them the most suffering, that the medicine that they need actually lives within those patterns as well. That spirituality is not separate from that. There's something embedded in there that holds a wisdom that is the key to their transformation. So everything is welcome in that deep way and nothing is separate.
SPEAKER_00Oh. So it's really preparing yourself for the deeper work, you know, and supporting the client.
Who Benefits Most From Gestalt
SPEAKER_00What would you say would be the ideal client in terms of offering gestalt therapy or which clients would benefit for them?
SPEAKER_01It's an interesting question. And I really think that the answer lies within the therapist's skill. I think newer clinicians or clinicians who aren't very skillful in this approach want clients with higher levels of awareness for this work because they think that that makes it easier or more effective. But having done this for over 20 years, I find that the clients who have the most impact, the biggest transformation are those who are most contracted around their hyper-identified self, who have the lowest levels of awareness or the most disconnection from their body or disassociation, because you know, a client arrives at therapy wanting to cultivate something different within themselves. And that desire alone is really where the wisdom lives within them. And so, regardless of diagnoses or symptom picture, I really do believe that gestalt, and of course I'm biased, but it's just good therapy.
Burnout, Boundaries, And True Empowerment
SPEAKER_00What do you wish more modern therapists understood about Gestalt principles?
SPEAKER_01I think that the thing that even people who are trained in Gestalt, but therapists in general, just understanding that when you try to change your client, fix your client, or earn your value by making something happen for your client, you're actually misusing your energy and causing yourself to burn out while also crossing over the contact boundary and doing work that isn't yours to do. And so if one shift that I think all therapists can make, but especially through the lens of gestalt therapy, is staying seated in their own source of energy, staying seated within themselves and finding ways to create openings for your clients to actually do that deeper inner work. And what ends up happening is that we, the therapists, feel more energized when we leave and our clients feel more empowered.
SPEAKER_00So the difference would be in using the skill as trained and excited to talk about those opportunities in a minute, but that's what you would notice or see, right? Feeling less strain, less energy, less of this being the expert in the room and feeling the client feeling more fulfilled, maybe capable, able, excited, walking away with, you know, really being able to tap into the self. I know so many people that kind of are looking for answers around what the self is, what does that look like, whether it's a feeling, an experience. And so I I do think many clinicians would benefit from learning more.
SPEAKER_01And part of this work is really as we support our clients in expanding into their wholeness. We ourselves as clinicians are called into greater wholeness. So any place within us that has unresolved experiences or some disconnection or fragmentation, that that work is so important because we are an essential part of the field of the therapeutic field.
SPEAKER_00I think in how we're taught, it's a bit disfragmented, where you learn about, okay, as a clinician, here's self-care. This is what you do. This is what counter-transference or transfers is. And that's about as far as it goes in terms of looking at the interactions and how we connect and what's happening even in the room.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, and
Rethinking Countertransference As Intuition
SPEAKER_01even the concept of counter-transference is very different in Gestalt therapy. The way that I teach it is that counter-transference is actually intuition and disguise. But when we're hyper-identified with our personality, we attach to that experience as being about us. And so we're told to bring it to supervision that it's not part of this experience. But if it's in the container, it's present in the here and now. So if we're in our mind, for example, um, if I'm sitting with a client and I'm overwhelmed with this feeling like I want to rescue them. And I know I have this experience from my childhood where I wanted to rescue my mom. And so it's like a similar situation with my client. I might see that as like a counter transference that I need to not bring here. But the sensation or just the experience of rescuing, that is there in the field. If I don't attach to it as mine, I can just be curious about rescuing. And I might say to my client, you know, I know you're not saying this, but I find myself wondering if you want to be rescued. And I'd say nine times out of ten, the client's like, Yes, that's exactly what's happening for me. But because they haven't been able to give words to it, the sensitive, present person in the room feels it. And so I really I see it as something that's essential to the therapeutic process.
SPEAKER_00And I just thinking my own experience sometimes in the therapy room, feeling, you know, this sense of emotions or energy. And I didn't know what to do with it. So I just kept that to myself until I went to a workshop hearing another psychiatrist talk about the same sort of flutter or you know, energetic experience with certain clients. And I thought, okay, it's not just me. There's something here about intuitive or energetic ways, I guess, of of knowing. And I'm wondering how do you balance that, like the clinical vigor with our intuitive or energetic ways?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, if you fight it within yourself and try to ignore it, it'll also contribute to your own burnout. Like, you know, not only that, but you also are now an incongruent presence in the field. And incongruence is actually a threat to the nervous system. And so clients feel that incongruence and we're not creating safety. In Gestalt therapy, there's four pillars within gestalt
Clinical Rigor Meets Intuition
SPEAKER_01therapy. One is called the dialogical relationship, which essentially means authentic engagement, where the therapist is fully engaged from our wholeness in the therapeutic encounter. And so if I'm denying something within me, I'm not authentically engaged. And so to me, it's actually very clinically appropriate to use that information, but not from the realm of the personal, from the realm of the transpersonal beyond personal identity. So if I sit here with my client and I say, I notice I have fluttering in my heart, I've made that about me. If I notice fluttering in my heart, to me, that's just a call to bring attention to my client's heart and ask them, what do you notice in your heart right now? So it's just about bringing whatever is implicitly in the field, finding a way to make it explicit.
SPEAKER_00And what would you say maybe for people who are a bit skeptical or cautious about integrating somatic or intuitive or energetic ways?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would I would invite them to be curious about what arises within them, like what feels edgy or risky about bringing the body into the therapeutic space, because the body is already there and it houses a tremendous amount of wisdom. And it's also the path of nervous system regulation, which is where mental clarity and mental health really comes to right.
SPEAKER_00And the body and mind are so interconnected. And I remember some parts of the therapy or training, it's like you feel like you need to be just this stone, right? Of like not showing anything during sessions. And you know, people certainly pick that up and look for how you're interacting in the session and and engaging or responding.
The Institute For Spiritual Alignment
SPEAKER_00So I was wondering if you could tell us more about the Institute for Spiritual Alignment, what opportunities you offer there for therapists.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the Institute for Spiritual Alignment is my training institute where I offer therapists ongoing opportunities to really deepen into their learning and understanding of the transpersonal realm. And my trainings are based off of my book. So my book is very much the um part of the curriculum. So the Awakened Therapist Level One training is it's a six-month training where clinicians have the opportunity to learn the foundational skills of transpersonal counseling and gestalt therapy within a really beautiful, wonderful community of heart-centered clinicians. And we've been talking a lot about awareness, but a really important piece of gestalt is experiments these days. I don't want to make myself sound old, but these days, when people talk about parts work, they think about IFS and they don't realize that parts work originated with Gestalt therapy and psychosynthesis. And so the first three months of the course is really understanding the energetic coherence of a container and co-regulation and the nervous system. And then the last three months are really about doing experiments, healing and repairing the attachment system, working with subpersonalities in two-chair experiments. And um, yeah, it's it's powerful. I also have a, and that's all online. So I'm here in Boulder, Colorado, but level one is all online.
Training Levels And Depth Work
SPEAKER_01And um, it's approved for 12 continuing antication hours by NBCC. And I do have a few recorded trainings also that that are just go at your own pace online courses that also offer the foundations of transpersonal counseling and gestalt therapy, but without the interaction with me and the community.
SPEAKER_00Would you say part of the training also would include consulting or supervising as well?
SPEAKER_01So in the live classes, there is opportunity for case consultation. It's it doesn't qualify as supervision, but yes, I think it's extremely valuable to have your own client and try to understand like how does this apply here to this situation? So in every live class, there is opportunity for case consultation.
SPEAKER_00That's great. So that's level one. Is there other levels after that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so this is still a new endeavor. I'm actually with my first cohort right now. I'm enrolling level two, level the next level one right now, but level two will have a partial in-person component here in Boulder. And level two is more of the depth work that happens. So once you learn the foundations, then you can really start to get into the depth of this work. When you're first learning it, it can be hard to like take in new information of a theory while also learning how to apply it. And so once that has unfolded in its natural way and in its natural time, the deepening is ready to happen. And then level three is more about the mystical realms of transpersonal. So in transpersonal counseling, Mystical and spiritual and non-ordinary experiences are just seen as healthy and normal. And that might be working with ancestral wounds, working with a deceased loved one, which is in a similar realm, but um, a future self, spirit guides, whatever feels aligned with the clients. And so that's level three is learning more of those different dimensional ways of working in a really clinically sound way through gestalt therapy with these non-ordinary states of consciousness and also psychedelic integration here in Colorado. That's a pretty big thing. I'm not sure about elsewhere in the world. But and then level four is more of the energetic pieces to deepen into those.
SPEAKER_00Can you explain more what energetic pieces and working with that would look like?
Energetic Sensitivity And Practice
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's different for all of us. We all have our own different sensitivities to energy. My way is often through my sight. I can see energy, and it really helps me to work with that energy. Learning how to both honor the energy that's present, give a name to it, and then find a way to have it be useful therapeutically can feel challenging to many clinicians. And so it might be like we were talking about a flutter in the heart or something that we see in our client, or some other intuitive transmission that might come. I know a lot of therapists in particular often have imagery, like metaphorical imagery come to them, sometimes literal imagery. It's not the way that my intuition of energy works, but just finding your own medicine in that way and how to fill out the wholeness of the container energetically.
SPEAKER_00And parts of your training and courses, do you also teach therapists on, let's say, how to kind of I don't know if word heal with their own energy. Um, you know, it can be draining honor energy, that exchange, and just wondering if you also give tools with
Tending The Therapist’s Energy
SPEAKER_00that is the very first class of level one because it's so foundational.
SPEAKER_01We are so foundational. And I think that graduate school really fails therapists in understanding how to tend to their own being. And so I prioritize that in my first training because it was something that I've had to learn to do over years and years of practice. And I mean, it's just it's essential to our own well-being and the work itself.
SPEAKER_00Great. Um, yes, I was curious about what that would look like and when what level that that came into sharing that knowledge. So I'm just wondering where people could find you or more resources and registering for any of the courses through your institute.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so
Resources And Where To Find Harmony
SPEAKER_01my website's awakened therapist.com, and I have a lot of free courses on my website and free PDF handouts as well. And and all of my trainings are there too. And so you can find me at awaken therapist.com.
SPEAKER_00Great. And I'm happy to post any of those links to free resources on um this episode so it can help people find you as
Closing Gratitude
SPEAKER_00well. Thanks so much, Harmony, for coming and sharing your knowledge today and about stealth therapy and transpersonal therapy. And I think it looked really interesting. And yeah, looking forward to having you on to learn further. Thanks for creating the space, Sabrina.