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ABOUT REVEREND LESLIE
I find a particular joy in helping people orchestrate their celebrations, whether it's choosing just the right words or the most comfortable choreography. Celebrations are special because they create new memories for all involved and they have the energy and power to transform or resolve old and difficult memories. This is why I feel that ceremony has great healing and resolution potential, just as there is potential to inspire great transitions through the healing arts, the first foundation of my professional life.
MY BACKGROUND
I am an Interfaith Minister, ordained in June 2003 after two wonderful, inspiring, and rigorous years of study at the OneSpirit Interfaith Seminary, 330 W. 38th St, Manhattan. I am an authorized marriage officiant of New York State and am registered with the City of New York.
I became an Interfaith Minister after over 20 years of practicing and teaching in the fields of Eastern medicine, bodywork, and natural and wholistic lifestyle. Thousands of people have passed through my hands, whether on the table or in the classroom or Clinic. I was always especially interested in the connection between patients' expressions and mannerisms and the symptoms of their conditions. Discomfort and disease, for me, became more and more alive with emotional and spiritual symbolism. Through the healing arts I was happy to find my own spirituality deepening and I sought to realize a fuller scope of ministry by entering Seminary.
After receiving my NYS license in 1984 to practice Massage Therapy, I received certification in Amma Therapy (an Eastern form of bodywork based on acupuncture theory), and became a Feng Shui Consultant and Bach Flower Remedy Practitioner. A great leap for me happened when I added QiGong and mudra to my practices. Then, throughout my Seminary studies, I found myself more and more in love with ceremony. Not only did I find another creative mode of expression for my "inner artist" through writing, speaking, design, and movement, but I became endeared to ceremony's particular quality in encouraging people to express their very own selves, especially in moments of need.
Though I am quite moved by Eastern philosophy and Native traditions, I am awestruck at how common values speak through all ancient faiths, and by how people choose the faith that allows their own spiritual growth to flower. Mythologist Joseph Campbell remarked how overwhelmed he became while repeatedly discovering similar patterns in creation and human experience stories throughout the world's cultures. We choose what we need to make our own creation story and life experiences meaningful to ourselves.
To me, the bridge of common values between all faiths is the foundation for all other healing arts
Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures ~ Albert Einstein
There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness ~ Mother Theresa, Sisters of Mercy
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