The Lens

The Lens
  • 5.0 (13)
  • PHILOSOPHY
  • UPDATED BIMONTHLY
The Lens

I'm trying to become a psychotherapist. What are you trying to become?

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    March 2025

    March 2025 Newsletter

    10 min

  2. FEB 2

    The Lens Client Newsletter February 2025

    Another newsletter to my clients

    16 min

  3. 12/27/2024

    The Lens Client Newsletter January 2025

    Tool of the month - DEFUSION Testify! - Christian G. Parade of Shadows - The Dude

    14 min

  4. 11/27/2021

    Episode 43 - Stergios Skatharoudis

    Stergios is a Social Worker in Rochester, NY and has contributed hours of compassionate care and laughter to folks at The LENS. As an avid participant in ecstatic Native American rites such as sweat lodge, sundance, and vision quest, Stergios is a constant source of fully embodied wisdom. We spoke today about the tragedy of being an unwanted child, abandonment, healing, and ways Stergios has found his home. What is home?

    1h 11m

  5. 12/24/2020

    Episode 42 - Valdis Abols

    Valdis Abols is the editor of Rigas Laiks Magazine. He served as the Latvian ambassador to Spain for 4 years. Denis met him in 1989 when Valdis, an English teacher at Janis Rosenthal Riga Art School, organized an exchange program with Rita Auerbach, an art teacher at Clarence High School (a suburb of Buffalo, NY).

    1h 57m

  6. 07/17/2020

    Episode 41 - Curtis Lovell

    Curtis and Denis had this conversation over a year ago. Before the pandemic. Before the murder of George Floyd. And before the passing of Curtis’ mother, Lorna C. Hill, just two short weeks ago. Even though their time-capsuled conversation lacks an awareness of today’s sorrows, would you say the poignancy of our present day reality is diminished? Or is it amplified? Show Notes Denis and Curtis first met after her performance at Creative Mornings, a monthly gathering of creative people. They talk about why all the superlatives attributed to her mother, Lorna C. Hill, are forever fitting. Curtis talks about “being raised on the stage” in the shining light of Ujima Company, a multi-ethnic and multicultural professional theater company founded by her mother. As a child, Curtis performed in Ujima’s annual mother’s day production, And Bid Him Sing written by her mother. The play is a celebration of the poetry and vision of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and has also been a perennial celebration of Buffalo's great talent in theater, music, and dance. Curtis mentioned performing in the Buffalo Infringement Festival. Curtis’ spoke fondly of her brother Amilcar, also known as DJ Milk, who provides the grooving thump and pump at practically every professional sporting event in Buffalo. Curtis mentioned recording in Bobby Takac’s studio, GCR Audio, in Buffalo, NY. Curtis attended PS 192 Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and is proud of her music and performance apprenticeship with such mentors as George Davis and Frank Scinta. Curtis reminds us that the original Me Too movement was an empowering message of empathy among women of color who were sexually abused. Denis mentioned that he had just recently heard the original history of Me Too from Marxist, Slavoj Žižek. Curtis and Denis discuss what makes it possible for disparate people to maintain their humanity and civility while engaging in challenging discourse. Curtis breaks down her song, Exorcise and remembers the astonishing moment this song brought an audience member to tears. You can follow Curtis’ performances and projects on her website, CurtisLovellMusic.com, and listen to her music on Spotify.

    1h 31m

  7. 05/12/2019

    Episode 39 - Katie Krawczyk

    Katie Krawczyk is Chief Executive Officer and Partner at 19 IDEAS, a marketing, PR, and web development company she started with her husband, Dan Gigante. Katie qualifies a genuine Buffalo Boss Babe, but if you ask her (or Denis), she’s simply the boss. Denis and Katie talk about growing up in the eighties, life in the burbs (Katie was born and raised in Hamburg, NY), taking risks, playing the game we need to play vs. playing the game we want to play, and finally… choosing the life we’ve lived. The question arises, just how much of our lives can be considered a choice? Well… how much responsibility can you handle? Katie will inspire you to accept more. Show Notes Kaite mentioned that Mamoser’s has highly rated, quintessential Buffalo wings. Denis mentioned co-counseling (or re-evaluation counseling) which encourages people to discharge their pent up emotions (distress patterns) created within each of us through traumatic and harmful encounters. Katie mentioned how, in a addition to therapeutic outlets for releasing rage and grief, she found Krav Maga to be an excellent way to release rage while also connecting. But few interventions have served her better than the good old fashioned punching bag. Denis first met Katie at Larkin Square, a happening place that was built in Denis’ neighborhood shortly after he moved to Buffalo ten years ago. Earlier in the show… Denis talked about the upcoming LENS event, The Entheogenic Experience. If you can’t make it, there are more events coming.

    2h 11m

  8. 04/21/2019

    Episode 38 - Avi Afek

    Avi was born in Jerusalem as a wave of hope was cresting. Hope in a peace that had drawn closer than anyone dared to imagine. Hope felt so strongly by Avi’s parents, his middle name is Shalom. Over the next twenty years Avi and his family found themselves in Cleveland, Chicago, Phoenix, New Jersey, Manhattan… and finally… Avi found his own personal Shangri-La… Fredonia, NY, where he attended college, discovered nature amongst the charms of small-town life, and had his first psychedelic experience. Denis and Avi talk about where hope yet lies this quarter century since his birth. Could it be the promising results emerging from psychedelic research? And yet Avi hastens to qualify every statement he makes about psychedelics with attention to honesty and critical thinking. He’s careful to point out the small study samples, and he humbly admits that his own experiences are highly subjective. Details, caveats, conditions, and contingencies are generously supplied. His candor reveals a wider ratio of risk to benefit than one is likely to hear from the growing throng of psychedelic enthusiasts. Denis found Avi’s rational exuberance for inebriants nothing short of… sobering.

    2h 22m
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5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

I'm trying to become a psychotherapist. What are you trying to become?

Information

  • Creator
    The Lens
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2025
  • Episodes
    44
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2018
  • Show Website
    The Lens

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