BAG LADIES

LUCA MARCHETTO : “AT THE URBANLIFE CLASS *ALL ALONE AM I* REBIRTHING SEMINAR I HAD ONE OF THE MOST STRONGEST EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE “.

10354727_816541951698580_4073861677498084259_n

” WRITING ON A WHITE PAPER BAG THE THINGS INSIDE YOU THAT MAKE YOU FEEL ASHAMED OF YOURSELF AND WEAR IT AS A MASK AND ONE BY ONE INTRODUCING YOURSELF AND YOUR SHAME TO ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE YOU NEVER MET WHILE THEY ARE WEARING THEIR SHAMES TOO.

AMAZING DETOX, AMAZING RELIEF.

1476606_695912417094868_172186201_nOn the other side of the bag we were enticed to write the MOST POSITIVE THOUGHT about ourselves. Taking the bag home we could choose to focus on either side each day. It’s AMAZING how just changing a bag round can CHANGE YOUR DAY!

Then we had a GROUP BREATHWORK SESSION that pushed us into altered states of consciousness, like getting off your FACE but WITHOUT DRUGS! AMAZING!

NEXT ONE IS NEXT MONTH, SUNDAY AUGUST 31 12noon-8pm in LONDON’S Belgravia, 5 mins from Victoria Station.

( BUT WE MAY NOT DO THE BAG THING ) “

http://urbanlifeclass.me/the-creative-collective/luca-marchetto8dix/

 

What’s it all about . . . Urban LIFECLASS

c5923b09-7210-4981-94db-f025242e6236

Ever since the SWINGING SIXTIES London has held the edge of creativity as a capital asset and so it is with BREATHWORK in London right now. Created by David Parker with a 25 year plus history of Breathwork and Award Winning Arts Performer *Drag Fabulist* Dickie Beau,  URBAN LIFECLASS is for anyone willing to develop their CREATIVITY with Breathwork & Personal Development.

b584eb0e57ded0337dfd734fcd03f105Revived in the mid 90’s as COOL BRITANNIA with BRIT POP & BRIT ART storming ahead on the world stage, BRITAIN has always been creative in austere times. Some remember the dole years of the 1980’s when West End CLUBLAND One Nighters sprung up from nowhere and entertained the weary, frivolous and students of St Martins School of Art.

As that period proved, AUSTERITY ( and tight budgets ) was no obstacle to SUCCESS, but the real obstacle is often our past, our attitudes, our fears and stinking thinking like “not good enough”, ” not worthy” or “no confidence”.

In this current *post-Bank Crash* austere period of budget cuts and low Arts funding, it’s a chance to EXCEL centre stage, if we can learn from the past, directions for the future.

Even those who don’t have creativity in their career, or job, and wish to express themselves more fully in craft, speech, communication or the written word could use the mix urbanLIFECLASS offers, in order to achieve emotional balance, life management and better productivity on a daily basis. You don’t have to have an Arts degree or be involved with the arts, just have an open mind about creative thinking, creating healthier relationship in or out of the workplace, and creating less fear, more loving gestures.

We had our first URBAN LIFE CLASS weekend in October 2013 , as described in previous blogs on this site, and now 9 months later we present a NEW SITE ( below ) that records our womb space and final delivery, offering a 21st Century slant on Breathwork.

We have put together a schedule of Personal Development Groups for the MIND + Evolutionary Conscious Connected Breathwork for the BODY + Community Support for the SOUL.

Photos of the new baby are here : http://urbanlifeclass.me

 

Shifting Perceptions

Feedback from Kate Spence a participant of :

IMMACULATE PERCEPTIONS – Spiritual Hoovering and a Blissful Path To Creative Release.
A weekend workshop with Rebirthing Trainer David Parker & Performance Artist Dickie Beau funded by The LIVE ART Development Agency.

At Chelsea Theatre Kings Road London October 5/6 2013.
_________________________________________________________________________
 

8kankclifw5l-ppspidezb2vga5jfgiff1oucz2lmwuk0rphwpyphaqj8guhme4r61ztyelr0jhp_jvhv08tzi2

I was very much looking forward to the workshop as it was looking to remove ‘blocks’ that could be stilting my work. Normally the blocks that affect my work are also those that affect my life in general, but I was very interested to see how this would be tackled in the workshop. I found some things about the two days truly surprising!

One of note is that I realised, very early on, that I was angry (not with the participants of the workshop or workshop leaders! With myself, with unamed individuals from my life). Anger is not something I often express but on going round the group at the beginning of the first day and vocalising how we felt and what we hoped to achieve over the weekend, I realised I was angry.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the level of honesty in which the workshop leaders talked about their own life histories and how their own birth scenarios could be linked to their later life events.

UnknownIt was hugely interesting to think about the impact of the birth experience in having such a major influence on the rest of a persons life. As the workshop went on I could really see how my own experience could be mirrored in the rest of my life events and in my current state of being. The first breath work session on chairs, eye gazing with others, was very intense. I became aware that I don’t accept nurturing very well as the lady placed opposite me was looking at me in a truly caring fashion and that made me so uncomfortable I couldn’t look her in the eye. This was a surprising inability on my part to embrace intimacy, as so much of my work is very intimate. One massive block discovered already on day one!

I found both breathing sessions very physical experiences, as opposed to emotional or mental. I responded physically, and struggled to breathe, I got light headed, my hands got pins and needles, I needed the toilet, but I didn’t become aware of emotional or mental processes. This was actually fantastic as I normally have far too much chaos in my mind, so to feel calm and empty was wonderful.
On the second breathing session I was really struggling to fill my lungs, Diana Roberts seemed to notice, came over and put her hand on my shoulder and said very gently but firmly ‘you do have the ability to breathe with the whole of your lungs’ or something along those lines. This seemed to give me permission to do so. I then spent the rest of the session just really enjoying being able to breathe to that extent. In fact when we finished and I returned to normal breathing I felt like I was barely breathing at all anymore.

cMdPvTKZML3ChanZtzcZugoULBu48BF-xN-QZrMEhxg,pIok2jeifzeBjjSN7NcxRj_ijpPhoQTtodjkGMf-nVU

That is something I learnt, that normally I seem to breathe just enough to stay alive but no more, barely breathing, and that this can relate to how I make exchanges with others, that I’m fairly boundaried and that maybe I’m guilty of giving just enough of myself/and taking back from others, just enough to survive but not to take life and relationships to something more fulfilling. There is so much else I could say, but I also I found the listing our jealousies exercise especially enlightening and helpful.  Please do keep me in the loop, as I would like to explore this more, so if you are doing anymore I would love to know about it. Kate Spence

___________________________________________________________________________

A Deeper Reflection

Feedback from Spike Mclarrity a participant of :

IMMACULATE PERCEPTIONS – Spiritual Hoovering and a Blissful Path To Creative Release.

Dickie-Beau_CJP12061A weekend workshop with Rebirthing Trainer David Parker & Performance Artist Dickie Beau funded by The LIVE ART Development Agency. At Chelsea Theatre Kings Road London October 5/6 2013.

_________________________________________________________________________

Monday begins with a fresh smile on my face, a deep sleep been had, and all my doors and windows are open to allow the fresh air flow through the house as I breath in the optimism, possibilities and the sense of being awake.

Caroline-Howell-window-fresh-air-blogI hadn’t truly thought about what the weekend would bring, and somehow was distracted by other things, and so the word Re-birthing escaped me, I suppose I was looking forward to seeing what Dickie would look like as I have only ever seen him in drag, and from friends feedback on working with him in the past, I knew that something will happen but not quite sure what.

That aside and your workshop began I found myself on familiar territory, though I hadn’t done a rebirth session for a few years, and each session is unique on its own, but the fact here it was not on a field or in some alternative centre or commune, but within a live art building!

That’s was refreshing in itself. My own experience was deep, profound, and challenging, the letting go, facing fear and panic that surfaced..(to my surprise)

I know it was just yesterday and my body and soul is still digesting the information, but to wake up this morning I felt I was greeted by an old familiar feeling of myself! It had been lost in thought, emotions, anxieties, distraction, confusion, hatred, yearning, blame, shame, and a mass of other shit, anyway here I was, me, laying there, feeling my body, feeling my breath, BREATHING!!!!

Yes my breath, the life source.

For myself it was a wonderful reminder of the life I seek, the one that makes me feel alive, to live everyday breathing in the air around me, breathing in my history, my story, my life, my friends, my family and the love and healing that I am surrounded in.

It was like being on a fast fair-ground ride not knowing what emotions that will surface, but the reminder of my mother, the one that carried me, the one that fed me, the one who’s heart beat I felt from inside her body, the woman who gave birth, who held me, who breast fed me, who heard my first cry, wiped the shit from my arse, bathed me, loved me.

imagesThis was a new image of her, one that I had never seen. I only ever saw the sad life she lived, the external life around her, not my connection with inside her body, now that was profound. I saw for a moment, whether in my imagination, never the less there I was breathing, sweating, my body filled with intense heat flowing from head to toe, toe to head, and I could feel the umbilical cord attached to me, I was floating, I could hear a heartbeat, hers, her mothers, her mother’s mother and mine, the connection was strong, pounding on my chest it was extraordinary.

I have done many self-growth workshops, pushed many boundaries entered into the places I resist, ignore, I fight myself on a continues struggle, but here I was with a simple technique that embraced me with a hug, with gentleness that it introduced me to my mother, it enabled my primal self to let go of the holding and allow the self to be mothered, to return to a place that I never thought I would remember, the place of safety that I was born from.

15515664-mother-babyIt was a moment with me and my mother, not about hang ups, or frustrations, anxieties and all the other baggage I carry, this was about a mother and a son re-uniting, through a heart-beat, through time, through love.

I thank you for this it is one of the most precious gifts that have I have been given recently.

At this point I wanted to say how structured and relaxed the whole weekend was, you took care of us, you reassured us, you fed us, you became our parents, gave us a safe place to become a child, to become ourselves, to be ourselves.

This was really important especially in a theatre for live arts! ( a difficult place to turn into a safe haven and a womb ). For me the crossing of my two life styles, bringing two practices together, helping me to realize it need not be separate. I know the fact that you cannot teach live art, but it is the tools we work with that can help every individual to become themselves within their work and the re-birthing strangely can work, especially in my own practice, reminding myself to breath and to stop being bitter about what I think isn’t happening, but to enjoy, embrace, dance, breath, live, love and appreciate the gift of life.

Thank you

Spike

(below is a picture of my mother holding one of my older brother’s, I wasn’t in the picture yet! I was in the second five born after.) I wanted to share this. xxxxxxxxxxxx

spike GIF

Unique Collaborations with Dickie Beau – take a breath!

More info COMING SOON about my NEW SEMINAR for 2014:
Immaculate Perceptions – Spiritual Hoovering and the Blissful Path to Successful Creative Release.
Dickie-Beau_CJP12061A collaboration with TIME OUT’s Alternative Cabaret Artist of the Year Dickie Beau and David Parker, using Rebirthing Breathwork, verbal, written & group exercises for actors, performance artists, musicians, fine artists, and anyone who wants to develop creativity without procrastination or any form of lack.

 
084dd879-7f64-4215-9774-f5a82d0d3cdb_1_0IMMACULATE PERCEPTIONS – 
Spiritual hoovering and the blissful path to successful creative release.
 
The idea for this experiential weekend workshop takes as its jumping off point that most recognisable of old tropes: the artist relating to their work as a baby, from the conception of an idea through to the birth trauma of the creative process. It is aimed at helping participants clean up dysfunctional attachments that block their path to professional progress, to release suppressed emotion and to correct perceptions of the worlds they live and work in, so their performance of life acquires renewed energy and authenticity.
 
How many of these issues are hidden under your carpet : 
 
– the need for approval from others and overdependence on peer recognition / external validation of your work?
– fear of financial scarcity, abandonment, rejection, judgement and completion? – fear of failure or fear of success(!)? 
 
Were you born with these thoughts? Were you born with these demands of yourself? How many projects have you started but not completed? How do you deal with rejection? Are you challenged by change? Do you ever feel like you have to wait for permission from an authority figure (a director/producer/curator/the Arts Council) to get on with the work? How do you deal with setbacks? Are you ready for self-direction?
 
Recovery processes include verbal and written work, CONSCIOUS CONNECTED EVOLUTIONARY BREATHWORK, and group exercises. Participants will be asked to bring a blanket or duvet, a cushion and comfortable loose clothes, as well as a frivolous disposition and an open mind.
 
552933_10150630163948483_156145323482_9379037_193653781_nWe are being funded by the LIVE ART DEVELOPMENT AGENCY ( A subsidiary of THE ARTS COUNCIL ) for our first Seminar next weekend October 5/6 2013 to get the ball rolling for 2014.
________________________________
Applications come via LADA and we were more than doubled over subscribed for attendance so others will need to wait until next year. This coming weekend at the CHELSEA THEATRE Kings Road London is Fully BOOKED and the applicants were requested to submit the following :
 
Applicants are asked to write a short précis of their birth, if they have any information about this, and describe what they think might have been the effects of this on their adult relationships, both with their creativity and with other people. Were you early or late? Did you arrive on time? Were you planned? Forceps delivery? Caesarean? Were you born to heal a relationship? These are the kinds of things to put down. If information about your birth is not available, you can alternatively write about the early years of your life and the impact you think this has had on your emotional progress in life. 
__________________________________
check out Dickie’s work :
and watch Dickie here : Blackouts__Twilight_of_the_Idols he is miming to *found sound*, which is his unique skill, that leaves you speechless

1175576_10151637078822549_798285833_n
 

A Year Off.

imagesSince 2002 I have been travelling somewhere abroad every 2 months and during 2011/12 every month, so I decided in May 2012, hitting 65, that I would take time out for review and I am still in it, coasting toward March 2013. One thing I have learnt is that the universe knows best, or as Marianne Williamson wrote in A RETURN TO LOVE : “God’s plan works – yours doesn’t.

In June last year I started twice weekly BOXERCISE with a Home Personal Trainer to get back some stamina then in August was told I had first stage skin cancer and went on twice daily chemo for 3 weeks. Deeply unpleasant ( but successful ), and handy that I was already in an exercise pattern. Yes, some patterns ARE useful. But more importantly it verified my first paragraph above.

So having cancelled all the planned seminars for 2013, I just waited, rested and waited. 

I just posted a blog on one of my other sites, which is rather apt for here to keep you in the loop . . . AND I’m having a wonderful break, off to Marrakech next week, my spiritual home. Still waiting, still resting.

_____________________________________________________

Hopefully I’m back with a rhythm. It’s been an interesting calming four months deciding what to do next, when the ego insists you MUST be doing something instead of watching ‘Flog it’ in the afternoon.

flogit_home_203x152I thoroughly enjoy ‘Flog it’ especially when they ask ” what are you going to do with the money? “. The money is usually about 80 quid and they put it toward a cruise or a trip to Australia. I can’t wait for someone to say ” it’s paying my electricity bill because of this bastard government and their free-market chums “. Years ago, during the last recession in the late 80’s ( under the Tories I might add ) I was wandering in Watkins, London’s oldest esoteric bookshop in Cecil Court, off Charing Cross Road where I found a little booklet called ‘Life was never meant to be a struggle’ by Stuart Wilde.

It changed my life. Literally. From that point on I refused to struggle and pointed this out to the assistants at Watkins on many future visits, so much so that they amended my mailing list address to ‘I don’t do Struggle’ followed by my name. Later on while researching codependency in the 90’s I came up with another mantra that will solve anyones life crisis and move on. It was FEEL IT, CLAIM IT,>DUMP IT. This too is still used today on my address when they send out recent booklists.

KGrHqZioE-qoIQmBfBP7hjlmQ_32-300x243Serenity in recovery often means giving up the struggle in order to WIN. When you register that struggle serves no purpose, it can dissolve as quickly as it arrived. Scarcity or not enough in any form, is linked to the concept of struggle but handing over struggle, or the requirement to create it, to higher vibrations is not all the work you need to do, physically removing yourself from struggle is the real solution. Many of us have learnt to struggle through experience, in fact we are very successful at it. By definition it’s impossible to say you have failed. Rather like people who say they have no discipline yet have been disciplined with struggle all their lives. Switch words around. Letting go of people, places and things is like clearing a cupboard that is rammed full with rubbish you think you need. You don’t. So get clearing.

My own struggle with a physical chronic illness during the eighties came to an end when I attended a ‘Benefits of Illness’ workshop. Instead of struggling with a dominating physical partner ( as in a relationship ) I was struggling with a dominating virus in the same codependent way. It controlled my life. Once I realised that I had a choice whether to accept struggle as a pain, the pain of struggle left. When people asked me how my health was, I would respond ‘ I am more than my health identity’. This assisted me is seeing that codependency, the attachment of struggle, was at it’s end. Stuart Wilde’s little pamphlet affirmed that ” If it’s easy for me, it’s right for me’ and I have to admit that I have followed this path ever since. As Marianne Williamson said ” when people say you are so lucky, just remind them it’s because you practiced “. Letting go of struggle is not a given, it’s practice. The last 4 months doing very little has been a doddle. Just being, waiting but not wanting. It’s been a breeze.

Check out the link below, start practicing, and start to chuck out the chintz today.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/39659258/Stuart-Wilde-Life-Was-Never-Meant-to-Be-a-Struggle

A message from Bron Barter of the Australian Academy of Rebirthing and Breathwork

Here in Australia we are used to Personal Development Trainers coming from America, selling books, so it makes a change to discover one from the UK who writes blogs instead of the printed page.

DAVID PARKER  has over 20 years experience as a Life Coach,Trainer & Breathworker leading Residentials, Seminars and Workshops in the UK, South America, Canada, Sweden, Italy, Estonia & Spain, in 2011 he was invited to Morocco where he creates seminars 3 times a year. In 2003 he presented his work at the Global Inspiration Conference in Queensland and is returning again to share his work on Codependency, Addictions & Healthier Relationships for all sexualities. His experience of recovering from active addiction himself and it’s codependent core reality has influenced all his global trainings, but as you will see, David’s path has been to counsel those on the outside from the beginning.

Born in 1947, his real adventure began in October 1982 when he had his last lash of alcohol & mood-altering drugs, and has remained clean, sober & nicotine free ever since, setting him aside from other trainers in terms of addiction recovery, pragmatism and approach. He was told he had 6 months to live if he carried on drinking, after a few months he stopped, but discovered that cirrhosis of the liver diagnosed was not caused through excessive alcohol but via self-infecting chronic active hepatitis B virus undetected for over a decade and was incurable.

Soon after he was placed on the first human interferon drug trial in the UK costing many millions, his only hope for survival. 10 people took the trial, 9 died and David survived but the trial failed to halt liver failure. It was then that he set out to find alternative routes to healing including The Gerson Diet used at the Bristol Cancer Centre, a pioneering clinic in 1982, reading the first edition of You Can Heal Your Life, the Louise Hay classic in 1984 and in 1987 on a visit to Sydney saw a TV programme on Rebirthing Breathwork that really did change his life. On returning to London he found a Rebirther in 1988 and on his 5th session of Breathwork his liver function suddenly returned to normal, it took another 8 years of breathwork to sero-convert fully the virus in 1996, using only spiritual breathwork. Doctors said it was impossible, David knew it wasn’t. He has been well ever since.

This rare wealth of experience of him sero-converting chronic disease using breathwork, working with those affected by HIV/AIDS since 1984, those affected by Hepatitis C since 1989, assisting those in hospices to complete their lives peacefully using breathwork, and moving forward in Codependency Recovery that mirrors the Internet age, plus his own journey of recovering from alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, codependency and personal bankruptcy in 1984, gives an edge to his training that steps aside from the new age model.

In millennium year 2000, London’s weekly TIME OUT Magazine called him CLUBLAND’S THERAPIST as his client list  – as now – included DJ’s, promoters, music, media & fashion tribes. His global groupwork however, attracts a more general mix of traffic, with common relationship issues,  fear of change and compulsive behaviours as themes that warrant solution and maintained recovery.

The term Co-dependent is used by Treatment Centres to describe the partner, friend, lover or family member of an addict, alcoholic or gambler who have lost themselves and their identity in the task of caring for, or trying to fix the addicted person. Many of the books on Codependency during the 80’s & 90’s focus on this model but he say’s we have moved on in understanding & solution. David’s seminar COME OUT OF THE COMA – is linked to CODEPENDENCY, the compulsion to be in control or to be controlled, the habit of unbalanced caring, the attachment of fear and a hidden agenda of conditional love. Everyone drifts into this unconscious coma once in a while. Some people wear it as a badge of procrastination while others hide past hurts & shames by busying themselves, immersed in denial. Many become motivated by fear and struggle, only coming alive by drama and scarcity. David specialises in working with those adults affected as children by alcohol, depression, drug use and emotional withhold in the family of origin but as he has discovered everyone has an addiction somewhere that requires observation and management even if its lack of self esteem.
A solution is at hand.
____________________________________________________________

Here is our happy band of graduates in March 2012 after a fantastic RECYCLE YOUR LIFE weekend of breakthroughs and realisations.

486234_10150870921779966_682599965_12817904_336891926_n

You can read his other blogs here :
The SwarmiteREHAB/ London Lifestyles, Codependency & Urban Addictions. http://www.theswarmite.com/
LGBT Coachinghttp://mygaytherapist.me/

Bouznika Plage Casablanca October 2011

Sometimes I need to walk away from something to revitalise it.

Many do this in relationships in order to WAKE UP or to harbour the joy of what they had taken for granted and not seen. Often you can reclaim or review and this in itself is rebirth. I have been blogging on and off for 5 years on different sites, including myspace, my first step into putting things on paper with one finger typing, and needed a break – so I did just that. This coincided 9 months ago with extensive travel and my first foray into Rebirthing in Morocco at the invitation of NAFS ( The Moroccan Rebirthers Asscociation ) and meeting Nabil Scally, who opened over 2 years ago the first Bikram Yoga Studio in Morocco in Casablanca. A conception took place and it was effortless.

Here is the final goodbye shot of the Trainer, Organiser/Producer and assistants of the Rebirthing Weekend in a Beach House right on the beach in the smart resort of Bouznika, a 45 min drive from Casablanca city, and some other memories of what took place.

Over 20 of the participants were brand new to Rebirthing and the success has inspired Nabil Scally & myself to create the first Residential Spiritual Retreat in Morocco this month ( January 2012 ) in Marrakech using Yoga, Meditation & Rebirthing Breathwork. More news on that in later posts.

Here’s some feedback on BOUZNIKA :

C’était absolument extraordinaire merci Nabil, mercy David! (N.R.)

Thank you all, it was a truely amazing WE! (R.K.) une expérience inoubliable..un voyage à l intérieur de soi pour guérir ses maux et ses addictions…un partage d amour et de compassion…merci david et merci Nabil et merci à tous ceux qui ont partagé ce moment (S.E.G)

Témoinage d’une participante du Stage à Bouznika avec David Parker: “Depuis le weekend du stage je me sens plus apaisée, moins en colère et moins triste…et surtout beaucoup moins seule, car ce séminaire m’a permis de rencontrer des gens formidables et vrais qui ont partagé leurs souffrances et leurs frustrations snas complexes ni interdits…et ceci est le miracle du Rebirth- une nouvelle naissance – en ayant conscience de nos douleurs et en ne les laissant pas guider nosvies car nous les avons comprises. Merci à tous ! Devenez ce qui vous êtes ! ” S.E.

Merci beaucoup pour l’expérience, travail très intéressant et motivant pour continuer à travailler sur soit, technique à approfondir pour sûr 🙂 H.O.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Getting back to blogging is now back on my list and keeping you updated on Morocco, London, my new seminar RECYCLE YOUR LIFE in Casablanca in January, and in Adelaide, South Australia in March, during my 3 week trip to OZ, then back to London in April. In April I will be hosted by Hans Moberg, a rebirther and events organiser of many, many years to discuss bringing my work to Sweden in August 2012, than back to Morocco in May for more seminars and private sessions, so it’s deep breath – full speed ahead. Meanwhile check out these wonderful people!

Photos by Ingrid Pullar : http://www.ingridpullar.com/

New countries, new playgrounds.

Since I returned from a month in Australia in September it’s been a bit of a whirlwind on the passport front. The Canary Islands in December for a break and to catch up with Agustin Hernandez, a prolific Rebirther in Teneriffe, followed by Austria over Christmas to launch Rebirthing groups in the Tyrol, then my first presentation in Morocco in January this year. At the end of  last month I went back to Innsbruck  for 2 more Rebirthing groups, which is building nicely with an opportunity to start Rebirthing in Vienna later in the year.

But the big one is Morocco, I am so excited by the opportunities there, that I have started a blog and information site just for that country and it’s cultural differences, in english and some pages in french. It appears that limited rehab and detox facilities ( if any ) exist in Morocco and no government figures are available for alcohol & drug use, as if no abuse problems exist. I had some reservations when I was invited  to present there, as alcoholism is paramount to the history of codependency and speaking about alcohol in a muslim country I thought would prove difficult. Well it wasn’t. People were eager to talk about it, either privately or in group. Casablanca appears to have noticeable alcohol issues alongside, club drugs and sexual activity via female prostitution. All this creates shame, the word I kept hearing in relation to family secrets.

This makes sense on reflection because Casa is not a tourist destination but the financial and business hub of Morocco breeding all the problems we experience in the West when money, power and addiction come together.

For my first presentation, the free two hour thursday evening introduction was ready with 20 chairs – and 45 people turned up! It was not the amount of interest that held my breath, but the diversity of audience, all ages, from twenties to grannies, from short skirts to covered heads and legs and equal men and women. Locals and expatriates from France, Spain, Belgium and America sat cross legged on the floor hungry for information about a subject that rarely gets spoken in public there : codependency & addictions. So it was wonderful to work with well over 20 people on the One Day Saturday Seminar, including 6 doctors, and twelve people who had never experienced Rebirthing Breathwork before. Well the feedback speaks for itself :

Excellent but too short – come back! . . .  David Parkers relaxed and unpretentious attitude, humour and calm way of speaking . . . Can you come back once a month? . . . My first Rebirthing breathe was sensational! . . . well led, adaptable, complex material . . . Very secure and relaxed atmosphere.

Before I left Casablanca train station at lunchtime the next day, for the Marrakech Express, the wonderful committee of NAFS ( The Moroccan Rebirthers Association ) invited me to a power breakfast beforehand to complete. We discussed the feedback sheets and I agreed that I would return in May for a weekend seminar and a week in Casa for private sessions and to build up support, if only to repeat the laughter we all had. Since then I have been invited to Tangiers to start something there later in the year and other requests have come in from Yoga centres to develop ideas. I have committed in my schedule to return to Morocco 3 times a year, this year and next, to build for the good of all concerned. I so look forward to returning the first 2 weeks of May.

En shallah!

So a BIG THANK YOU to the committee pictured here as I left and to Philippe Raffrey from Rabat who attended my one day and listed my blog and information on his pioneering alternative therapy blogsite, the largest such site in Morocco :  http://marocterredeveil.canalblog.com/

. . . & do check out my NEW Moroccan blog and info pages here : http://urbanlifeclass.wordpress.com/