ELENA GRECO

Holistic Life and Creativity Coach / Group Facilitator

Mind  Body  Health  Art  Life

As an integrative and holistic coach and counselor, I have a lifelong commitment to self-actualization for myself and others, and most of all, to promoting the power and flow of creativity in all of us.

My unique abilities as a sensitive, and my desire and intention to help others transcend suffering and discover their truth, allow me to relate to my clients on a deep level. As a coach, I offer transformational work that promotes physical and mental health, self-actualization and creative freedom. I teach tools for self-support while offering emotional and practical support whenever needed. I can offer you a comprehensive yet concise means of supporting and maintaining health that focuses on balance and non-harmful practices, and draws on the best of all worlds. Some things I can help you with are:

• creative and artistic coaching that supports you in bringing more of your innate creativity to your work, as well as addressing any blocks to that expression;
• creating and refining goals to get you where you want to go, in life and in your career;
• creating a highly effective and personalized support system for yourself;
• maintaining and supporting your health in a way that is economical, non-harmful and totally unique to you;
• becoming accomplished at manifesting goals and dreams rapidly and easily (see Abracadabra! for more information);
• overcoming trauma; and
• learning about healthy communication and boundaries—what they are and how to incorporate them in your life so that you can have more effective relationships and better health

* Credentials  *  My journey  *  Education  *  Health and Healing  *  Meditation  *  Creativity  *  The work

Credentials. My background includes decades of experience and training in leading groups and working with individuals, certifications in a variety of healing modalities, and four decades of study in the areas of psychology, communication, trauma, nutrition, physiology, Ayurveda, meditation and the body-mind relationship.

Among many areas of focused study and training in psychological, physiological, energetic and spiritual modalities and practices, the following were useful credentials:

• certification in BRETH™, a transformational context and practice for healing, by Kamala HopeCampbell, who worked and trained with Stanislav Grof, Timothy Leary and John Lilly;
• certification in MariEl™ healing by founder Ethel Lombardi, one of the ten original Reiki healing masters in this country;
• certification in CranioSacral therapy;
• certification as a Bach Flower Remedy® practitioner;
• certification in CPR/First Aid;
• a degree in Counseling Psychology / Human Development (SUNY); and
• advanced training in Creativity Coaching by Eric Maisel

My journey. When I began my own journey to health many years ago, I had a lot of trauma to overcome. I tried psychotherapy, but talking therapy, at least as it was practiced then, didn’t address the things that needed to heal. Bodywork was very helpful, but I didn’t really like being dependent on someone else to facilitate my own healing (although I still find bodywork to be very helpful at times). I followed my instinct and explored. The most profound experience I had was with an Australian healer, Kamala Hope Campbell, who practiced a transformative process called BRETH™.

I’ve been a great animal lover my entire life, and became very interested in dolphins in the 80s. I saw a BRETH group advertised in the New York Open Center catalogue that said “swim with dolphins.” I was in!

This trip to Florida turned out to be a BRETH™ group facilitated by some longtime students of Kamala’s. As part of the group, we each formulated an intention and lay down and closed our eyes, while someone sat next to us to offer support in a very specific way we were carefully taught in the group. At first I was sure that nothing would happen; how could I go inside with a total stranger sitting next to me? But suddenly I saw a video playing; it was like a movie of an experience that was stuck in my unconscious that was holding me back. I watched as it unfolded on the screen. My body experienced the things it had experienced when I had had the experience, and emotions surfaced that were attached to the experience, but I was totally unaffected by these things. I was simply an observer to the experience as it completely unfolded, clearing from my consciousness. After that, I was no longer affected by that old experience in my life. It was an amazing experience, one which affected me profoundly. I knew that I had found the portal to my freedom.

Education. There were many interesting BRETH journeys to come! Each was different; some were like the one above, in which a trauma unfolded and released, some involved physical healing and some involved receiving answers or insight from within. As I continued to participate in that work, I came to realize that I wanted very much to share it with other people so that they could experience the freedom this work gave back to me. I took an extensive and demanding year-long training program, becoming certified to practice BRETH with both individuals and groups.

At the same time, I was learning other tools that allowed me to heal, and to help others heal, particularly hands-on healing, meditation, and several sound, energy and movement modalities, as well as physiology and nutrition. I took courses and did in-depth, extensive, individual study to learn various techniques for healing and bodywork (some of which I still practice). While I got value from all of them, I came to see that they were mostly still in the allopathic realm of applying a technique for the purpose of correcting a symptom, rather than addressing the person as a whole. What I had gotten from my training with Kamala was that truly being with someone (something we don’t often encounter in life) was the only way to facilitate real healing, and that applying a technique without this way of connecting with someone as the foundation not only did not bring true or lasting healing, but could sometimes cause harm. I really learned about boundaries from my training with Kamala, and how recognizing and honoring boundaries was also an essential part of healing. However, I learned that I could still utilize other techniques very effectively as long as I came from the perspective I learned from her.

I also learned a lot about the power of true listening when I participated in ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) and studied carefully the work of Terry Kellogg. Also during this time I studied and practiced in depth Kundalini and Advaita Yoga, and subsequently Buddhism, and explored other means of connecting with the Source within us and raising our level of consciousness. Later I obtained a degree in Counseling Psychology / Human Development in order to hone my facilitating skills on the psychological and verbal level, since most of my previous training had been in work with the energetic and subtle bodies and in leading groups. Facilitating groups of all kinds is my great passion.

Health and Healing. I have studied both Eastern and Western schools of health and healing intensely and extensively, as well as Human Biology, Neuroscience and Statistics at the college level, and continue to review research and studies in all areas of health. I can help you create an effective health plan for yourself, one that takes into account your unique life and needs.

Meditation. One of the most beneficial practices I have used throughout my life is meditation. I can show you experientially what meditation is, and help you create a simple, unique, individualized practice that works for you, whether you are a beginner or a longtime meditator. Meditation can make a profound difference in your life in ways you might not suspect. Many years ago I spent a couple of decades seriously practicing and exploring several spiritual paths. Eventually I withdrew from those practices, as I found they did not offer the practical and transformational results I was looking for. I continued practicing meditation on my own, expanding my research of meditation techniques used for centuries. I found a resonance with various Non-Dual philosophies in particular, which emphasize a focus on what lies within rather than without. What I was looking for was a practical spirituality, one that worked in daily life, rather than an esoteric practice that seemed to remove me from daily life. Eventually I found what I was looking for. I discovered something very important about spirituality and meditation practices, which I share in my lessons and workshops.

One important thing I learned about meditation is that while most meditation teachers teach you how to do a technique that is (sometimes) conducive to meditation, they often do not teach you what meditation really is. There is a problem there: the technique is not the experience. Nor is it the purpose of meditation. And doing the technique without having the experience or knowing what the purpose of the technique is will not lead you to enlightenment, or relaxation, or focus, or whatever your purpose for meditating is. In my classes I show you experientially what meditation is, and some ways to get there that might work for you, and I do them in a very safe and transformational environment. Meditation can make a profound difference in your life in ways you might not suspect.

Creativity. I love to show people how to access their deepest creativity so that they can utilize their gifts to the fullest. I am a creative artist myself, and I bring my understanding of the need for personal and spiritual expression through the arts to my healing work. My life is dedicated to creativity and allowing it to flourish in all of us. Virtually everything I do comes from this commitment.  I’ve done advanced training in Creativity Coaching with the master of this type of support, Eric Maisel, who founded the field of creativity coaching, which goes a step beyond traditional therapy and gets right to the heart of creativity and the creative life. I can help you live creatively and be more creative in daily life, even if you have time or other limitations.

The work. Eventually all of my experience and learning synthesized to create the work that I draw on in my coaching work with individual clients  and through NEW YORK SINGERS SUPPORT™. I bring the work into my musical productions, as well, in particular in the concerts of ELENA GRECO MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTIONS™ and CONCERTS FOR HEALING™, so that I can bring transformation to people through music and art.

The work I do and teach is my own, and it is a synthesis of all the many teachings I have studied and practiced, together with my own innate talents. In the areas of being, communication and healing, Kamala Hope-Campbell was a major influence. Meditation teachers I particularly admire and respect are Adyashanti and Peter Russell. In the realm of creativity, I greatly appreciate the work of Eric Maisel, Steven Pressfield and Kenny Werner.

Although I am well trained in the various modalities I practice, I find that often the most useful thing I can offer people is to truly listen and fully be with them. I serve as a facilitator for others in their own journey, using my innate gifts for healing and support with the skills I’ve learned and practiced, and I teach tools for self-support and transformation. Of course, I always offer support whenever needed, whether verbal or energetic, and I can utilize the skills related to my degree in Counseling when appropriate. I contemplate what it would be like if everyone had an experience of the context that forms the basis of my work and had these tools at their disposal. I love to share this work with people!

Please email me at elena@elenagreco.com for more information about groups or individual consultation.