“Dharma” is a Sanskrit word that means teaching, truth, that which supports, sustains, and upholds. The truth of things as they are, it is likened to the ground one stands on. Dharma is that which remedies, alleviates, heals, and restores. To align with Dharma puts an end to conflict and brings about unity and harmony. It helps us to unite all and develop love and interconnectedness. It is the underlying truth of all spiritual traditions.
The highest dharma is to recognize, and live in accordance with the truth in one’s own heart. It is a personal alignment with a higher Truth, a divine or creative principal at work in an individual, which informs a lifestyle that leads to the fastest path to personal liberation. To follow your Dharma is to take the path that leads you from suffering to enlightenment. Dharma is a way of life that aligns your body, mind, and soul in harmony with your true nature and divine will.
Explore the journey of your own body, mind, and heart to awaken to the spirit of your dharma, the guiding light of your soul. I invite you to quiet your body, still your mind, expand your awareness, and listen more deeply within...
Offerings
Depth Psychotherapy for Individuals and Couples
Areas of focus include managing anxiety, depression, stress-related conditions, PTSD, disability and chronic pain, life transition, authentic self expression, conscious relationship, sacred dimensions of intimacy, and transforming life and relational trauma.
My work with couples focuses on mindful presence, attuned connection, conscious communication, and the sacred path of relationship and deep intimacy.
Download the handout Wellbeing Tool Kit
Download the handout Self Care Daily Reflection
Transformation of Trauma
Download the flyer Transformation Groups:
Awareness & Skills to Transform Trauma 
My approach to the treatment of trauma is dedicated to helping you create safety and stability, develop internal and external resources, transform your relationship to past trauma, promote mind-body-emotion regulation and integration, and create the conditions for optimal personal and relational health and well-being.
Transformation Groups: Awareness & Skills to Transform Trauma
These ongoing 11-week groups focus on learning core skills that allow you to safely enter your internal world; begin to transform your body and mind into safe places for rest, reflection, and well being; and, take steps toward the life you want to live.
This group may be a valuable adjunct to individual therapy or a first step toward exploring your relationship with your past.
Practices
• Meditation – Cultivating Presence, Awareness, & Aliveness
• Pranayama – The Breath of Life
• Yoga – The Journey to Wholeness
• Tantra – Embracing Life as a Path to Awakening
Practice Sessions, Classes & Workshops
Groups, Practice Sessions, and classes that draw from modern psychology and relationship skills as well as the ancient practices of meditation and yoga:
• Transformation Groups: Awareness & Skills to Transform Trauma
• Meditation, Pranayama, & Prana: Awakening Awareness & Life Force
• Sacred Dimensions of Relationship: Deepening Connection with Self & Others
Resources
Articles
Biography
Contact Information
Continuing Education Units
All classes and workshops are approved for CEUs for Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists and Licensed Clinical Social Workers as authorized by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. (#PCE3734)
Brushwork by Kazuaki Tanahashi
The calligraphy on my website is from original work by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Born and trained in Japan and active in the United States since 1977, Kaz has had solo exhibitions of his calligraphic paintings internationally. He has taught East Asian calligraphy at eight international conferences of calligraphy and lettering arts. Also a peace and environmental worker for decades, he is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.
I commissioned Kaz to paint the Zen circle as my logo, as well as the calligraphy for psychotherapy, meditation, yoga, tantra, and articles.
“In the Zen tradition ensos, or circle symbols, have been drawn with black ink on paper, to represent enlightenment. As the multi-colored flow of paint represents the interconnectedness of all life, each circle reflects my hopes, visions and aspirations for a world making healthier choices for the benefit of future generations.” ~ Kaz
Marilynne Chöphel, MA
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
For more information, please call (415) 492-1042
or email at marilynne@dharmaspirit.com.
If you are in an immediate crisis,
please call 911, go to your nearest Emergency Room,
or call Emergency Services at (415) 499-1100 to talk with someone right now.
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