Judith Blackstone
About Judith
Judith Blackstone is an innovative, experienced teacher in the contemporary fields of nondual realization and spiritual, relational and somatic psychotherapy. She developed the Realization Process, a direct path for realizing fundamental (nondual) consciousness, as well as the application of nondual realization for psychological, relational and physical healing. She currently has seven books in publication and has taught the Realization Process for over thirty-five years throughout the United States and Europe. Her new book, The Fullness of the Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spiritual Awakening, is now available at local and online stores.
Judith studied with many teachers in the Hindu traditions (Advaita Vedanta, Bhakti and Kashmir Shaivism), and the Zen Buddhist and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. She was in residence at a Zen monastery for a year and has received teachings, over the past three decades, in the Mahamudra and Dzog-chen paths of Tibetan Buddhism. However, the Realization Process practices for embodied nondual awakening emerged outside of any traditional lineage. The practices arose in response to her own needs for healing and realization, and the needs of the people in her classes and private practice. Her main teacher has been nature–the subtle emanations from all living forms, the challenges presented by a severe back injury, the natural unwinding, in meditation, of the body, heart and mind toward openness, and the spontaneous emergence of fundamental consciousness.
She has a Masters degree in Transpersonal Psychology and a Ph.D. in Psychology, Eastern Religion and Embodiment. She trained at the Institute for Integrative Psychotherapy in New York City. She has thirty-five years of clinical experience as a psychotherapist and is now retired from private practice.
Judith is the author of Trauma and the Unbound Body: the Healing Power of Fundamental Consciousness; Belonging Here: A Guide for the Spiritually Sensitive Person; The Enlightenment Process; The Intimate Life; The Subtle Self; The Empathic Ground: Intersubjectivity and Nonduality in the Psychotherapeutic Process; and The Fullness of the Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spiritual Awakening. Her essays have been published in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, the International Journal of Self Psychology, the USA Body Psychotherapy Journal, Undivided, Inner Directions Journal and the anthologies, Listening from the Heart of Silence, Finding a Way, Being Called, and The Self-Acceptance Project. A six-CD audio series of Judith explaining and teaching the Realization Process is available from Sounds True.
She has presented the Realization Process and papers on the interface of psychotherapy and nondual spirituality at Psychology of the Self conferences, the Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy conference, the Towards a Science of Consciousness conference, the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology conference at Oxford University, UK, the USA Body Psychotherapy conference, the Science and Nonduality conference (SAND), the Society for Consciousness Studies conference and the Conference on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy.
With her husband, Zoran Josipovic, Judith founded the Nonduality Institute, dedicated to the practice and scientific study of nonduality. For more information on Zoran’s scientific research, visit www.nondualityinstitute.org
For thirty-seven years I have been searching, knowing that my aliveness, my connection with myself and others was lacking. I knew there was more! I sensed what I was looking for was close by, but year after year it was inaccessible to me. I knew that just using my mind was not getting me to the core of who I was. Who am I? I think this is the biggest of human questions and it cannot be answered with just the mind. It requires something beyond thinking and talking.
Almost four years ago I read Judith Blackstone’s book Trauma and the Unbound Body and immediately sensed that her embodied way of approaching the deepest and most precious of explorations was the way for me. Since reading that book I have gone on a life-changing adventure working with one of Judith’s senior teachers.
And now I am reading The Fullness of the Ground and it has exceeded my expectations. From the very first sentence (“What does it mean to become whole?”) I felt held by Judith’s words. I felt she knew the journey and the path intimately. I could feel her intelligence and clarity as I read. Her message is profound. And it is tangible. The way to greater wholeness is tangible. Judith’s embodied non-dual approach has enriched my life and her books are the most precious of companions on that journey.
Media & Writing
Inhabiting the Body as Unitive Consciousness
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
In the Realization Process, embodiment is viewed as the experience of being present and in contact with oneself everywhere in one’s body simultaneously. This is a shift from being aware of the body to inhabiting the body. In this paper I describe how the Realization Process utilizes the embodiment of unitive, fundamental consciousness to heal deficits in contact with oneself and others, and to refine the therapist’s capacity for empathy. Brief attunement practices from the Realization Process are included to illustrate this shift.
Pavithra Mehta interviews Judith on Awakin
Judith speaks with hosts Pavithra Mehta and Kozo Hattori about the Realization Process and its origins. For information about other Awakin interviews: https://www.awakin.org/calls/
Chloe Goodchild interviews Judith
In this lively interview, Judith speaks with Chloe Goodchild, founder of the Naked Voice, about a range of topics, including the role of compassion in healing, and how she developed the Realization Process.
Embodied Nonduality
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
In this paper I describe an approach to embodied nonduality called the Realization Process. By embodied, I do not mean just the ability to walk around in our daily life, recognizing nonduality. I mean the nondual transparency of the body itself. This is an experience (I will talk more about this word “experience” later in the paper) that we are made of transparent, space-like presence, that this is our basic or true nature, and that everything that we perceive around us is also made of transparent, space-like presence.
Context for the Healing Ground
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
In this paper, I present some of the context, within the field of psychotherapy, for utilizing the experience of a fundamental ground of consciousness as both the instrument and the goal of psychological healing and personal maturity.
Do We Exist? And Why it Matters
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
This paper looks at how the Buddhist concept of non-findability is often confused with the concept of non-existence, and the problems that result from this confusion for both personal well-being and nondual realization.
A Somatic Approach to Recovering from Sexual Abuse
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
This paper presents a series of somatic attunement exercises, developed by the author, called Realization Process, and describes their application to the treatment of the symptoms of childhood sexual abuse in adults. It illustrates, through case studies, how inhabiting the internal space of the body, and attuning to qualities of being, such as gender, power and love within the body, can foster self-possession, selfcohesion, and self-love, as well as the ability to remain in possession of oneself while connecting with other people.
Judith speaking at the Science and Nonduality conference
Judith Blackstone speaks about the Realization Process and teaches a practice for realizing fundamental consciousness.
Meditation and the Cohesive Self
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
In this paper, I look at the dialogue between some relational and intra-psychic models of psychoanalysis, regarding the autonomy of the self. I also describe how certain types of meditation, in particular, Realization Process, can facilitate both the experience of internal cohesion, the sense of oneself as a separate being, and the experience of participating in a fluidly reciprocal self/world matrix. I discuss how the experience of interiority that can be cultivated through meditation leads to the emergence of a subtle, qualitative sense of self and other, enables creativity, and increases one’s openness to other people.
Intersubjectivity and Nonduality in the Psychotherapeutic Relationship
Judith Blackstone, Ph.D.
In this paper, I compare the relational aspect of the Realization Process with the relational psychoanalytic approach of Intersubjectivity Theory.
Trauma and the Unbound Body: Judith speaking at the Science and Nonduality conference
Judith Blackstone speaks about the Realization Process approach to healing from trauma.
Ryan Oelke Interviews Judith
In this interview, Judith speaks with Ryan Oelke, co-founder of Buddhist Geeks, senior Realization Process teacher, and transformation coach, about her latest book, The Fullness of the Ground: A Guide to Embodied Awakening.
Interview with Judith
Judith is interviewed by Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O’Connor for Awareness Explorers.
Interview with Judith
Judith is interviewed again by Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O’Connor for Awareness Explorers about her new book, The Fullness of the Ground, and the Realization Process path to embodied nondual realization.