The Integrated Self

Dan Halpern
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Mental Health

Guidance for living a more connected, embodied, and flowing life. Join Dan Halpern—somatic trauma therapist, spiritual counselor, and poet—share questions, wisdom, and inspirations for living a fully human life in current times. Topics include: paths of healing and wellness, paths of spiritual growth and awareness, animism and connecting to the more-than-human world, relationships, art, beauty, music, improvisation, integrative and applied philosophy, and much more. Come, let's grow and live together. I'd love to hear from you. Let me know how the show resonates with you, what doesn't, any questions or comments you'd like to share. Let's let this be a conversation. email: dan@integratedselfcounseling.org For more from me or if you'd like to work together, visit www.integratedselfcounseling.org

  1. Jul 29

    25. The Spirituality of Phish

    Why 43 years of friendship, humor, intelligence, and creativity is so meaningful to so many. In this episode, I describe how being present (i.e. surrendering to the flow) is a key ingredient to spiritual experiences. The band Phish offers A LOT to be present with, in caring, inclusive, and endlessly playful ways. Among many insights and experiences, three of the core teachings I've learned from Phish are: 1. Listening humbly and responding powerfully, 2. Balancing form and freedom, 3. Saying "Yes, And" to whatever's happening. This is the Spirituality of Phish. In this episode: What is and isn't "spiritual"?Sustained Presence is a key aspect of spirituality and ceremonyContainers you need to fit into, and containers that naturally fit all of youPhish is 4 friends - humble, kind, genuine, and invitingHow dancing can widen and support listening and understanding what you're hearingThe blended unity of difference Phish are master teachers of listeningMusic as presentation and music as participatory journeyHumility in listening, and sharing the leadBalancing form and freedom, earth and skyThe multi-meaninged abstract nature of Phish's lyricsBringing your personal process into the music listening experience Phish's expertise at "Yes, And"Jamming awkward and any mood (I referenced them playing a song and mistakenly said it was Cannonball, meant to say it was Catapult)Tension and release Phish's career-long and ongoing evolution, musically and personallyGhosts of the Forest and Phish fans' widely varying opinions and criticisms of the bandThe full freedom of the open channel Phish createsPhish's psychically attuned light showThe art of listening and responding simultaneouslyListening to each band member and widening your awareness - teaching owl eyes practice to relax mental fixationsSpecific Phish listening recommendations "Hose" and channeling spiritual experience through music Letting the surreal lyrics and music work on you from the inside over time Growing presence and spiritual awareness by surrendering to the flow of whatever is happening Find and play your notes in the already present music of life

  2. Jul 1

    24. To Death!

    Most of Modern Western culture abhors, shuns, and deeply fears Death. But what if Death is holding the key to the full unblemished experience of Life, and by turning away from Death, we are limiting our ability to live as the full, complete, perfect beings we deep down know ourselves to be? Continuing the contemplation started in Episode 14: Death is Safe, this episode ventures, safely in our breathing bodies, to the doorway that honoring Death can lead us through. When we allow Death to sit at our table... or rather, when we recognize that Death is the one who prepared and is in fact the table, we can relax into more of the fullness and grandeur of life, here and now, than we may have ever thought possible when we tried to live without Death. In this episode: Embracing and honoring death to fully embrace and honor life.A story of a compassionate chicken slaughter.The natural necessity of death in life.Death's portal into ahierarchical freedom.Duality, Binaries, and Masculine / Feminine Energies.Death as a feminine force.The purpose of life is to fully participate in life.The Western approach to hiding death and a more participatory approach to celebrating it.On loving through grief, and grieving as the most appropriate response to life.We're already living and loving through a field cleared and made by death.The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's teachings on death.Embracing the great battle of your time.Beyond binaries, good / bad, into pure engagement with the dance of life and death.

  3. Jun 1

    23. Contemplation - The Gene Keys pt. 2

    The essence of The Gene Keys path of wisdom, discussed in the last episode, is the art of Contemplation. This episode dives deeper into this central practice. Contemplation is a spiritual practice that can easily integrate into modern lifestyles. It can help busy homemakers, parents, workers, and anyone access a deep wellspring of wisdom and dynamic truth by entering into relationship with the now in an open, curious, and playful way. Contemplation is not just a new technique to try. You might hear about it listening with your left brain, listening for something to do. But contemplation is not something to do, it's a completely different way of experiencing, a way of engaging with reality that is fundamentally unlike our usual left brain way of living. It's living into a right brain, relational process of unfolding. In this episode: - Meditation as a monastic practice, and modern lifestyles collapsing meditation time - Living spirituality that evolves with life and you - Contemplation is not a technique but a way of being and becoming - The three phases of contemplation: - Pausing - dropping into the eternal essence of existence and Allowing life to be what it is - Pivoting - engaging with what's arising in your life and Accepting the effect it has on you - Merging - Embracing the unity and dance of yourself and your experiences - Contemplation is a playful and dynamic living relationship with life that includes and transcends protocol - How contemplation allows wisdom and insights to emerge over time - Create your own contemplative practice - Containers to hold your practices

  4. May 22

    22. Human Design and The Gene Keys

    This episode provides an introduction, an overview, and key take ways from two systems of self awareness I've been connecting with: Human Design (the first 13 minutes) and The Gene Keys. These systems provide practical knowledge for your optimal functioning as a unique individual, and a path of inner awakening for your personal evolution. Discussed in the episode: Human Design's mapping of the 64 archetypes of the I Ching along the ZodiacThe reality of astrology (we are porous and affected by external realities)Key Human Design Takeaway: Every person's optimal functioning is unique and different, specific to each person's designDifferent decision making styles (Human Design "Authority")Similarities between Human Design and neurodivergent awarenessHow The Gene Keys branched off of Human DesignHuman Design as a more left brain path of knowledge, Gene Keys as a more right brain path of wisdomWorking with the Gene Keys if you don't know your birth date, time, and locationKey Gene Keys Takeaway: "Every shadow contains a Gift." - Softening into the gold of the stuck and suffering placesHow the Gene Keys relate to geneticsThree frequencies of each Gene Key: the shadow, gift, and siddhiThe Golden Path's three areas of focus: Purpose, Emotions, and ProsperityThe technology and art of Contemplation as distinct from meditation and concentrationConversing with Living Teachings, and entering into Spiritual Paths like entering into different relationshipsFocusing on one spiritual tradition or synthesizing manyKnow Thy SelfMy biggest Gene Keys Takeaway: Trust in myself, life, in slowing down, and being.

  5. Apr 13

    21. Circumstances Pt. 2 - Living from the Ink

    Continuing the discussion on differing circumstances from the last episode, today we go deeper into our Kabbalistic contemplation of the common life force present in all people, things, and circumstances. Review of the 4 levels of reality through the metaphor of the Torah scrollThe true nature of esoteric teachings and why they're secretive How perceiving and relating with the shared life force (the ink) makes it impossible to hateThe difference between electric light and starlight What is natural? Seeing the same ink in both a tyrant and their victim(s)What we're doing here: Awareness becoming aware of itselfIntegrating dual and non-dual Chinese landscape paintings, and exercising restraint with the expressions of our ink

  6. Apr 6

    20. Circumstances Pt. 1

    Coming in in a very weird mood, this episode is a real time process of living in a world of inequality and astronomically different situations. I also share an unplanned Kabbalistic teaching on 4 levels of interpreting the Torah Scroll and reality, which I learned from my teacher Zvi Ish-Shalom. It's not about finding a neat answer to inequality and living with differences, but about feeling our way through the complexity and multidimensionality at play in all our circumstances. In this episode: - The weirdness of all of us living together, all with different circumstances - The 4 Layers of the Torah: Words, Letters, Ink, and Parchment - The heartbreaking gift of Life in all circumstances

  7. Mar 27

    19. Cleaning House with Marie Kondo

    In this first episode of Season 2, I share my key insights from studying and practicing the KonMari method of tidying up a physical home as a spiritual practice. Covered in this episode: - A thanks to listeners and a technical note on my recording technique - Overview of Marie Kondo and the KonMari method of tidying up your life - Marie Kondo as a role model for living one's life authentically - How to decide how much stuff you need, what to keep and what to throw away - Possession as an honoring practice - Sparking Joy, and living a life aligned with your personal and intuitive sense of Joy, aligned with your unique nature and life purpose - Acknowledging and appreciating when things have served their purpose and are complete for you - Discarding papers - The dangers of too much good storeage - How and where to store things you want to keep - Living spaciously - The Animism of living intentionally with freer energy in the material world - The difference between daily cleaning and the tidying marathon - The Click Point - what you need to be happy Footnote: one thing I'd like to emphasize is that the point of tidying up is not to live with the least amount of things. The point is to live only with things that you love, to live a life of greater and greater Love, physically and beyond. And in that sense it's okay to keep sentimental things and other stuff; this process helps clarify what you really love now, in the current version of yourself.

  8. 12/29/2025

    18. Meditating with Life (Listening Pt. 2)

    In our 18th Episode Spectacular (!), join me in a living meditation. You don't have to be sitting still, but to get the full effect, you are warmly invited to listen, not just to me, but to the full energy of Life as it moves through you throughout this episode. Preceded by a short left-brain (rational) talk, we then drop into a direct right-brain (experiential) relationship with Life itself. Including some guidance and spontaneous teachings throughout, this episode speaks to: • The Hebrew word for life (chai) and its relationship to the number 18. • The typical podcast (and modern living) left-brain orientation and an invitation into a right-brain experience of living. (This is referencing the left and right hemispheres of the brain and their general functions.) • Songs versus musical improvisation. • Labeling what you're doing in categories (i.e. worrying, judging, reliving, planning... Appreciating, breathing, listening, etc.). • Forgiveness - what it really is and does. • Gratitude. Thanks for listening to this show. With infinite Love, Dan

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Guidance for living a more connected, embodied, and flowing life. Join Dan Halpern—somatic trauma therapist, spiritual counselor, and poet—share questions, wisdom, and inspirations for living a fully human life in current times. Topics include: paths of healing and wellness, paths of spiritual growth and awareness, animism and connecting to the more-than-human world, relationships, art, beauty, music, improvisation, integrative and applied philosophy, and much more. Come, let's grow and live together. I'd love to hear from you. Let me know how the show resonates with you, what doesn't, any questions or comments you'd like to share. Let's let this be a conversation. email: dan@integratedselfcounseling.org For more from me or if you'd like to work together, visit www.integratedselfcounseling.org

Information

  • Creator
    Dan Halpern
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Integrated Self