Recommended Reading List on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy:

Adyashanti (2004). Emptiness Dancing, Boulder: Sounds True.

Bodian, S. (2008). Wake up now: A guide to the journey of spiritual awakening, New York: McGraw Hill.

Fenner, P. (2007). Radiant mind: Awakening unconditioned awareness, Boulder: Sounds True.

Miller, R. (2005). Yoga nidra: The meditative heart of yoga, Boulder: Sounds True.

Moss, R. (2007). The mandala of being: Discovering the power of awareness, Novato: New World Library.

Katie, B. (2002). Loving what is: Four questions that can change your life. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Katie, B. (2005). I need your love – is that true?: How to stop seeking love, approval, and appreciation and start finding them instead. New York: Harmony Books.

Katie, B. (2007). A thousand names for joy: Living in harmony with the way things are. New York: Harmony Books.

Klein, J. (2006). I am, Salisbury: Non-Duality Press.

Perry, R. (2007). Return to the heart of God: The practical philosophy of A course in miracles. West Sedona: Circle Publishing.

Prendergast, J.J., Fenner, P., & Krystal, S. (Eds.). (2003). The sacred mirror: Nondual wisdom and psychotherapy. St. Paul: Paragon House.

Prendergast, J.J., & Bradford, G.K. (Eds.). (2007). Listening from the heart of silence: Nondual wisdom and psychotherapy, Volume 2. St. Paul: Paragon House.

Welwood, J. (2000). Toward a psychology of awakening: Buddhism, psychotherapy, and the path of personal and spiritual transformation. Boston: Shambhala.

About Billy

Billy Ledford, LCSW

Billy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (License #7030) with almost 8 years of experience working at an in-patient substance abuse facility.  He obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Work from Northeast Louisiana University and his Master's Degree in Social Work from Louisiana State University.  He is also a graduate of the nine-day School for The Work with Byron Katie.  He is enrolled in the Integrative Restoration (iRest) Certification program through Richard Miller's Center of Timeless Being.

His primary theoretical orientation is Interpersonal Process Therapy.  In this approach, much of the focus will be on the therapeutic relationship (individual therapy)  and/or the relationship among group members (group therapy).  Nondual Psychotherapy is also fast becoming more of an integral part of his therapeutic approach.  Other approaches that he might employ are Motivational Enhancement Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy and Client-Centered Therapy.

He is also a facilitator of "The Work of Byron Katie."  The Work is a simple yet powerful method of questioning your stressful thoughts.  Billy likes to describe it as a method of "cognitive de-structuring" to distinguish it from the more commonly known approach of "cognitive restructuring" used with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.  It is a way to "undo" the thoughts, beliefs and stories that cause all of the stress in your life.

He has received advanced training in Integrative Restoration (iRest) Yoga Nidra from Richard Miller (author of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga).  He teaches this powerful meditation technique to individuals and groups and often incorporates it into his individual therapy sessions.  When combined with The Work, iRest is a penetrating method of "meditative self-inquiry" that facilitates individuals in the process of awakening to their true nature.  Billy also conducts workshops and classes in both The Work and iRest and is available for lectures and short presentations at universities, churches, businesses, etc. 

To learn more about The Work click on the "Self-Inquiry" link above.  To learn more about Integrative Restoration click on the "iRest" link.

Mission Statement:

The Center For Awakened Living, LLC is committed to innovative approaches to resolving psychological, emotional and interpersonal conflicts.  Through individual, couples and group psychotherapy, self-inquiry practices, and meditation  training we assist individuals in awakening to their true nature and in fostering a way of living that results in embodying awareness in compassionate action.

About Our Name:

• "Awakening" -- Waking up from our beliefs, self-concepts, and stressful stories.  Waking up to our original nature, our basic goodness, who we are without our stories.
• "Awakened Living" -- Embodying this awareness in compassionate action.  Living it out in our day-to-day lives with our families, at work, in our communities.

About Our Logo:

The Labyrinth -- A metaphor for the journey to both awakening and awakened living.

• There is one path that leads in a circuitous way to the center -- the place of presence and being -- the core of who we are.  This is the path of "awakening."  This "inner path" is only half of the journey, however.
• The same path that takes us to the center of the labyrinth also takes us back out into the world.  It is by taking this "outer path" that we live out our realization in the world.  Our realizations mean nothing until they are lived.  That is what's called "awakened living."

Being your true self on the mountaintop is one thing.  Being your true self at a family reunion is another thing altogether.  It is important that we learn how to fully embody what we discover about ourselves during the therapy hour in the nitty-gritty of our daily lives.

       The Center for Awakened Living, LLC

Nondual Psychotherapy:

"The nondual approach to therapy…is based on the healing capacity of the unconditioned mind.  The common element in nondual approaches to therapy is to focus
on awakening an experience of the unconditioned mind for the therapist and client,
and the ongoing cultivation of this experience."
Peter Fenner (from “Nonduality and Therapy” in The Sacred Mirror)

"Psychotherapy informed by a nondual perspective [is] grounded in the realization, drawn from the nondual wisdom traditions, that the true source of all healing and the lasting resolution of all conflicts and apparent problems lies in the recognition of our nondual nature….  In the realization that this apparently separate self has no substantial reality, problems spontaneously lose their hold, since they’re inevitably based on a mind-created scenario rooted in separation."
Stephan Bodian (from “Deconstructing the Self” in The Sacred Mirror)

"In its deconstructive approach, nondual therapy resembles other depth psychotherapies….  But instead of challenging and disclosing the client’s “self and world construct system”
(James Bugental’s term), only to replace it with a more “authentic” construct, nondual therapy gradually – and gently, since there’s no agenda, just a natural orientation toward the truth – deconstructs this system entirely."
Stephan Bodian

"We are no longer problem solvers facing problem holders. 
Instead, we are Being meeting itself in one of its infinite and intriguing disguises."
John J. Prendergast (from the Introduction to The Sacred Mirror)



Billy's Definition of Nondual Psychotherapy

The goal of nondual therapy is to discover who we are without our stories
and to expand our capacity to embody True Nature
- Welcoming, Spacious Awareness -
in every aspect of our lives. 

Nondual therapy is rooted in the assumption that our perception of “problems”
is itself the problem (which really isn't a problem). 
The self-improvement project is a subtle form of self-directed aggression. 
Who we are does not need improving.
 
By de-constructing our “self and world construct system” (James Bugental's term)
we are able to uncover underlying, unchanging equanimity, or Presence,
and strengthen our capacity to embody Awareness in our day-to-day existence.

This therapeutic process occurs in a certain type of relationship -
a “holy encounter” in which what is awake in the therapist
meets what is awake in the client
- thus healing the client's (and therapist's) 
perception of self, other and world.

A pure nondual approach to therapy does not have any particular "methods."  The realization is that there is nothing we need to do to be our true selves.  There is no where we need to go to become who we already are.  There is no distance to travel.  All of this is very true in an "absolute" sense and is often referred to as "the direct path."

However, in the "relative" world many individuals are "caught up" in their stories and the belief in a separate self.  They believe that their "problems" are very real.  Fortunately for these people, there are "methods" available that act as pointers to and catalysts for the realization of true nature.  These methods can be used as long as they work.  If they start to get in the way of direct realization, they will need to be discarded.  Individuals who use such methods are said to be following "the progressive path."

There are two methods -- The Work of Byron Katie and Integrative Restoration (iRest) -- that actually use our conditioned existence to facilitate waking up from conditioned existence.  Practitioners of these methods directly face their thoughts, beliefs, untamed emotions and limiting patterns of conditioning.  With an attitude of open curiosity and gentle inquiry, they investigate these conditioned patterns and gradually dis-identify from them.  Eventually, the progressive path is seen to be nothing other than the direct path.  Any "thing," when rightly understood and approached with an attitude of welcoming, is a catalyst for awakening.