About Richard Harvey
I am a psycho-spiritual psychotherapist, author and spiritual teacher. In my early twenties I became part of the Human Potential Movement and studied with some of the leading figures of Western psychology and meditation masters.
After years of study and inward searching, I had a personal breakthrough which I experienced as a transformation into authenticity. I worked hard to integrate these new insights and stabilize in the deeper understanding that I received from my years of personal work. Out of this rich experience my practice developed and I began working with individuals, couples and groups. Since 2002 I have lived in Andalucia, southern Spain.
Biography
My work spans nearly 50 years. During that time I have worked with individuals, couples, groups and communities, both psychologically and spiritually. I have helped hundreds of people to find greater peace and fulfillment in their lives. My approach is to encourage, empower and enable people to clarify, heal, and liberate themselves from the restrictive conditioning that compromises their relationships, family and working lives.
I have led groups, workshops, seminars and training courses throughout Europe, as well as maintaining a private practice. I have acted as a consultant to training courses, worked with staff groups and communities, run supervision groups and acted as a supervisor to psychotherapists, counsellors and other healing practitioners.
At the heart of my work is the awakening of individual consciousness, within the wider context of collective spiritual awakening, through a threefold process of work on the personality, the transformation into authenticity, and the realization of our true nature.
Training in Chronological Order
I trained at the Devon Centre for Alternative Therapy and Education for four years with the American psychotherapist Richard Dror, who had been a senior leader at Quaesitor Center for Personal Growth (the first humanistic therapy center in Europe), in existential-humanistic psychotherapy, Bioenergetics, Gestalt Therapy and transpersonal approaches (1978–81).
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1977-78
Travelled in India, studied meditation and Vedic philosophy in various ashrams.
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1982
Studied group dynamics at the Richmond Fellowship, London.
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1983
Trained with David Boadella (Neo-Reichian Bodywork, Biosynthesis) and Paul Rebillot (Gestalt) amongst many others.
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1984
Studied Zen Buddhist meditation at Throssel Hole Priory, a Zen training monastery.
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1988-91
Completed a 3-year post-graduate diploma training in Buddhist orientated psychotherapy.
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1989-95
Became a member of the Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners (1989–95) and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (1993–95).
Further Theoretical and Experiential Training
My further theoretical and experiential training includes work with:
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1978-79
Miriam Dror (Gestalt and bodywork psychotherapy)
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1978
Tony Crisp (Seed Therapy and Dream Therapy)
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1979
Roberta de Long-Miller/Ma Sagarpriya (Psychic Massage, Leela Groupwork)
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1980
Clover Southwell (Biodynamic Psychotherapy)
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1981
The National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) (Counselling and Communications Skills)
Master Chungliang “Al” Huang (tai chi and Living Tao)
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1982
Guy Gladstone (Bioenergetics and Psychodrama)
Mike Wibberley (Encounter Groups) -
1983
The Institute for the Development of Human Potential (IDHP)
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1984-85
Chan Master Dr John Crook (Chuan-deng Jing-di) (Western Zen Retreats, Ch'an and Tantra).
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1986
Jill Purce (Inner Sound and Voice Workshops)
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1991
William Emerson (Primal Integration)
Other Experience
From 1981 to 1982 I worked as a group therapist with drug offenders in drug rehabilitation (1981–1982), and for ten years I was founder-director of the Change Workshops (1986–1995).
I have run seminars and given talks to natural health centers, the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), private groups and communities. In 1984 with Rev. Myoho Harris I established the Soto Zen meditation group in Devon, affiliated to Throssel Hole Priory (now Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey).
Disagreeing with the direction the practice of psychotherapy is taking in its attempts to structure and formalize itself, I no longer align myself to any organization, and work independently.
Publishing
Richard has published 11 books.
He has also published many articles on psychotherapy, spiritual growth, parenting, fatherhood and society
At the very heart of my work is a spiritual way that addresses the predicament of the modern era. This predicament, as I see it, is rather similar to the idea of the kaliyuga, a term from Hindu cosmology that denotes the darkening of the light, the time of least spirituality, morality, and transcendence. By facing the ego which has been highly developed and become extremely complex as the symbol of self-identification, separation, and division in the inner individual life and the outer collective world, we can prepare the ground for the revolution of individual and collective consciousness.
This consciousness will develop and create, over time, a sane, spiritual foundation for an authentic, compassionate way of relating to each other and to living in the world as a precious privilege and divine opportunity. The age of light follows the kaliyuga and those of us who have been true to our deepest self will arguably have helped to maintain the light of truth and consciousness for all beings.
My hope for this e-book is that you will learn something to deepen your present spiritual practice and understanding or, if inner work is relatively new to you, that you will find something here to further you in your personal and spiritual discovery.
My broad aim is to make deep psychological and authentic spiritual truths clear and accessible. I do not indulge in popular notions about spirituality. We will be little involved in the kind of psycho-spirituality that is about getting the things you want, feeling happier, becoming healthier in mind or body, or any of the other cosmetic self-improvements that so-called spirituality today seems most concerned with.
Spirituality in practice and reality is a more profound matter than any of these materialistic concerns. Real spirituality has absolutely nothing to do with morality, society, and relationships as you may know them, or happiness as you habitually think of it. Peace, fulfillment, satisfaction, or human experience in every way is dwarfed by the genuinely spiritual. This does not mean that attaining spiritual heights doesn’t make you a better person, a happier person, a person who is more moral and responsible in his or her relationships, capable, sensitive, and skilful with others and in the world. It may well do these things. But these things are not what spirituality is about. Spirituality is about eternity; it is about what is absolute.
Self published, 2013
Pages: 261
PDF document
The Sacred Attention Therapy Group Work Manual is a long-awaited response to people who have thought of setting up and running Human Awakening Groups and have not been sure quite how to do it. It is also intended for therapists, group leaders, SAT students, SAT therapists, and anyone who wants to try their hand at setting up and running a therapy group. The manual is the product of Richard Harvey’s 40 years of experience and it offers a unique approach and insights into therapeutic group work.
“Group work tacitly infers that the natural habitat for human beings is coming together in gatherings. It is primitive and innate. We are communal beings. Modern life has fostered our removal from the gathering, from the rituals of togetherness. Contemporary humans have been separated from each other unnaturally in houses, in families, in relationships, in employment, in furtive meetings, and secretive lonely occupations. Simply the act of gathering together may be viewed as effective and positive in itself. What transpires as a result of such gathering together can be spectacularly transformational and—bearing in mind I am not given to using this term lightly, if at all—life changing.”
Sacred Attention Publishing, August 2018
Pages: 120
PDF document
This book explores the path of personal and spiritual unfolding, with all its challenges and joys, from initial stages to Self-realization. It is a comprehensive guide to the process of the psycho-spiritual journey, or to how we discover who we really are.
Work on the personality is commonly thought to be what therapy is all about. But personal work is only a part of inner exploration. Beyond personal change, lie the challenges of authentic transformation and real consciousness. The fulfilment of these three stages of human development is our innate capacity, and it is attained through a single connected process of awakening.
Many tales of therapeutic encounters, teaching stories, ancient and modern, case histories are used to amplify and illustrate the inner journey, and this book offers an introduction to the inner journey, to clarify and/or inspire you if you have already begun it and give a clear and accessible model of how you can realize your true potential.
This is also a travelogue of the journey through the inner landscape, a glimpse of real experiences, a series of sketches of the inner journey to illuminate, inspire and encourage you to awaken to a most welcome stranger, your deeper self, to a life of empowerment lived out of your authenticity and to a dazzling light beyond anything you could ever think possible, your True Self.
Sacred Attention Publishing, Second Edition, 2017
Pages: 494
PDF document (3.4MB)
The central message of Your Divine Opportunity is that there is something crucial we can do to affect our lives and the lives of those around us. That is to awaken to the true nature of our humanity. The life we are leading is entirely governed, limited, and adjusted to the circumstances, learnt lessons, and prescribed limitations of childhood and distant memory. In this book I will show you how we can turn the present seemingly pessimistic circumstances to our positive advantage and move toward optimism and in time further into the light of wisdom, and through realizing our full potential and fulfilling our human nature, how we may realize a sacred life.
Sacred Attention Publishing, 2020.
Pages: 148
PDF document (2MB)
Tributes
Many people have encouraged and inspired me on my personal and spiritual journey.
In particular I would like to acknowledge:
Nisargadatta Maharaj for his “hammer blows” of uncompromising insight.
Ramana Maharshi for giving the basis of the practice.
Joseph Campbell for lighting the sphere of wisdom through the ages for me.
G I Gurdjieff for uniting love and challenge.
The roshis of Throssel Hole Priory (1984), particularly Rev Master Daishin and Rev Master Jimyo, for teaching me the destruction of the holy and the silence of bowing.
Richard Dror for guiding me through my personal journey.
I extend deep gratitude to them all. And, finally, to the great silence, mouna, the sense of presence, the Divine within.