Beloved Hoffman teacher and coach, Lisa Wenger, is our guest this week. Lisa has been a part of the Hoffman world since 1989 when she did the Process in Austria.
What brought Lisa to the Process? Her brother had taken the Process and afterward, Lisa saw the sparkle in his eyes. Lisa realized that she wanted that same sparkle back. After her Process, she knew her sparkle had returned because she could feel it in her Being.
While in the middle of her Process, Lisa realized she wanted to start a Hoffman center in Italy. Once she completed that, Lisa realized she wanted to teach the Process. She feels very fortunate to have trained directly with Bob Hoffman. Listen in as she shares stories of the early days of the Hoffman Process in Europe.
Born as the middle child between two brothers, Lisa grew up in an intellectually active family where the psychoanalyst C.G.Jung was like an “invisible” presence. Psychology was often a topic of conversation. She rebelled (silently…) and went off to live in Italy to work in fashion.
Lisa took the Hoffman Process in 1989. Immediately during her Process, she felt driven to make it available in Italy. With the support of Bob Hoffman, she created the Italian Hoffman Institute and staged the first process in August 1990 where Bob was teaching. She then trained to become a Hoffman Teacher. She trained partly with Bob Hoffman, and also attended processes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France.
Lisa spent ten years serving as the Director. She left the Italian Institute in the good hands of her brother and sister-in-law to dedicate herself to teaching and supervising more internationally – in the aforementioned countries as well as the UK, Ireland, Canada, and the US. Since 2003, Lisa has been a part of the US Institute’s faculty. Recently, she stopped teaching the 7-day in-person Process. She wants to be more available to her family and her work handling the Estate of her artist aunt Méret Oppenheim (see below). You can still find Lisa teaching virtually and coaching.
Lisa lives with her husband Douglas in a small village above Lake Lugano in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.
August ’90: 1st Process in Italy. L to R: Michael Wenger, Bob Hoffman, Lisa, Béatrice Wenger Haab
Vienna, Aug ’90, 1st Intl. Hoffman Congress. Lisa (far L), Bob (front 4th from L),
Raz (top far R), Kani Comstock, Barbara Comstock, Michael Wenger, Béatrice Haab.
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AS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODELisa now handles the Estate of her artist aunt, Méret Oppenheim. Méret was a Swiss Surrealist artist and photographer. She has been recognized as a figure of the women’s movement.
In 1982, Méret Oppenheim won the Berlin Art Prize. In 2019, the city of Basel inaugurated a plaza, road, fountain, and a high-rise apartment building in the city center, all named after her. The large fountain features her sculpture Spirale (der Gang der Natur). Recently in 2018, Oppenheim was the subject of a short documentary, Gloria’s Call.
Photo at right: Méret wearing a paper coat she made. Photo: Claude LeAnh
Méret’s works have been exhibited in Switzerland at Kunst Museum Bern and at the MOMA in New York City.