Alumni Interview

For one thing, I wanted a career change. I also wanted to bring my spiritual life and my professional life together somehow. I had been practicing yoga for some time and I was finding that my inner, private life was incongruent with my public, outer life. I wanted to change that.

Has it worked?

Amazingly so! In ways I never anticipated.

How so?

Well, I feel different. I’ve let go of the rat race and being driven on a career track. I still want to be the best that I can be professionally, but not at all costs anymore. What’s on the inside for me is all different now. In terms of my mind, I can work with myself in a way that I didn’t know how to before I came here.

Can you say more about that?

I came to the program thinking that I already had the counseling skills, that all I needed was the credential. I figured I’d go in there, skate through the work and go home with my degree, no big deal. But it didn’t happen like that.

So what did happen?

Sitting meditation practice and the Maitri Program, that’s what happened! Naropa is as rigorous as you make it. At first glance, it looks like you can just glide through the program, and I suppose you can if you want to. I asked myself why spend all this money when there’s all this other juicy stuff to learn?

Like what?

Like how to work with my mind so that I am free to really be with the people I’m trying to help.

How did the maitri retreats impact you?

I went through a lot of personal changes as a result of the Maitri Program. Being in such a restricted environment at the retreats gave me a good sense of what it’s like to be in a prison system! The directors really laid down the law there and I had a lot of discomfort with it.

But, the good that came out of it is that I was able to say to myself, ‘Maybe I like this, maybe I don’t, but how can I make the most of it?’ It gave me the opportunity to learn to trust that things are what they are. I came out of first-year maitri with a commitment to take what I had learned about making the unbearable more bearable to other people.

Where have you done your third-year internship?

I’ve interned at the Mental Health Corporation of Denver, working with people who are dually diagnosed with severe and profound mental illness and substance abuse issues. My case load has consisted mainly of people who were recently released from prison or mental hospitals. This is where my training from the maitri retreats has been so incredibly useful.

What, if any, limitations have you noticed about the student body?

Naropa tends to draw members of the leisure class, because it is expensive to go to school here. These teachings are so badly needed by people who don’t have the means to afford them, I wish it were possible to make them more readily available.

Do you have anything to share with prospective students about the difficult moments one encounters while doing this program?

You’re going to have challenges, they won’t last forever and they won’t kill you.

Anything else?

Just get here, that’s all!