HQP Teacher Profile
Cynthia Merchant, Supervising Teacher
In early 1986, I came to the San Francisco Bay Area seeking a deeper
connection with myself, a new direction in my life, and peace of
mind. I realized – through a series of epiphanies –
that in my early life I had abandoned my innate interest in people,
healing, teaching and relatedness in favor of more “impressive”
subjects such as the theories of economics and international relations
I studied in college.
Fortunately, I found myself living with recent Process graduates.
The central ideas of the Process – Negative Love, programming,
forgiveness, and “No One Is to Blame” – made such
good sense to me that in 1987, at age 25, I undertook the old-style
13-week non-residential Process.
It was grueling. I wrote more about my early life than I thought
possible. I re-discovered who I was and what really mattered to
me in. Through an experience of excavation, cleansing and transformation,
I came to the simple yet healing realization that I knew who I was
– and, more importantly, I genuinely liked who I was. No longer
would I reject myself and my heart’s yearnings in order to
try to be acceptable. I made a commitment to myself to grow toward
full self-acceptance, to honor, develop and bring into reality my
authentic talents and interests, which included doing therapy; gleaning
wisdom from the mythologies of many traditions by listening to teaching
tales; studying the effects of trauma on the psyche and how to work
with it; delving into spiritual practices; exploring expressive
arts, bodywork and movement; and taking advantage of all the vital
aspects of myself the Process had re-awakened.
I felt I was in a time of preparation. Serendipitously, I came
into contact with two of Bob Hoffman’s earliest collaborators,
who introduced me to Bob and encouraged me to think about becoming
a Process teacher.
As I began the 8-day Hoffman Quadrinity Process in the fall of
1989 as a necessary step toward determining if I would apprentice
myself to teach, I was more than a little nervous about how the
genius of the Process could be given over such a condensed form.
Yet the restructured momentum intensified its power. A year later,
in November 1990, Bob Hoffman certified me as a HQP teacher. It
was the fulfillment of a dream that went back to my earliest childhood
fantasies of becoming a teacher one day.
Over the next seven years, I presented the HQP across the U.S.,
and in Canada, Europe and Asia. Experiencing the Process in so many
different cultures confirmed for me the universality of this work
and how deeply each of us, no matter where or how we were raised,
yearns to heal our childhood relationships with our parents in order
to re-align ourselves in love with our deeper self, our parents,
the world around us, and the divine.
I then decided to become a licensed psychotherapist to enhance
my Hoffman work and provide a balance to its lifestyle of teaching
and traveling. In my master’s thesis for Pacifica Graduate
Institute (1999), I developed my view of the HQP as a modern-day
version of the hero’s journey rite of passage. In addition,
I proposed a way in which an adapted HQP could be integrated into
a program for youth at risk as a meaningful rite of initiation toward
emotional maturity.
Today, 16 years into teaching the HQP, I am excited to be contributing
to taking the Process work in a new direction. The Hoffman Institute
and Youth At Risk are developing a pilot program for young people
that will include adapted HQP experiences as a crucial part of a
wider program of healing, initiation and transformation.
Being a Process teacher has been one of the greatest gifts and
challenges of my life. In order to be of service to others in their
journey toward greater wholeness, I must remain engaged in an ongoing
process of growth – a living practice. The HQP is a journey
of ritual into the psyche’s underworld to experience the death
of old childhood survival strategies and to bring about a rebirth
of our true selves. Hence, the HQP can be placed beside ancient
spiritual and shamanic rites whose aim has been the realization
of our full human potential.
Cynthia Merchant, MFT is a HQP teacher/coach and a licensed
Marriage & Family Therapist with a practice in Berkeley and
Walnut Creek where she works with individuals, children, couples
and families. In her free time she enjoys kayaking and snorkeling
on the Sonoma Coast, yoga, hiking, dreaming and a good story.
To purchase the thesis "The Hero’s Journey
and the Hoffman Quadrinity Process," contact Cynthia@hoffmaninstitute.org. |
