{"id":5,"date":"2018-11-27T09:17:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T09:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mythiclife.net\/about\/"},"modified":"2024-05-09T09:26:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T15:26:13","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mythiclife.net\/?page_id=5","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Mar\u00eda Luisa D\u00edaz de Le\u00f3n Zuloaga. MA, MSMT, MSME, REAT.<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Personal Statement<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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“Follow your bliss”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

This well-known phrase of Joseph Campbell has guided my path, even before I learned about this quote and that bliss is:<\/div>
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that deep sense of being present,<\/em><\/div>
of doing what you absolutely must do<\/em><\/div>
to be yourself.<\/em><\/div>
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What is my bliss? Cultivating the dialogue between somatic movement, dance, depth psychology, mythology and expressive arts to create possibilities for awareness, healing, growth and transformation. Always befriending the soma<\/em>, the living body.<\/div>
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Therapist, dancer, somatic movement specialist, performer, teacher and researcher are some of the words that point to my professional path and my growth as an individual. I have always felt a deep calling to live a life where meaning, creativity and beauty are a constant.<\/div>
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I attribute most of my pain and suffering to the times when I have shut down, become numb, or tried too hard to maintain appearances and fulfill expectations. Somatic movement and dance lead me to an intimate encounter with myself, where I can explore who I am and reconnect with my calling. The experience of being in dialogue with my body has been one of growth, transformation and healing; an ongoing restoration and re-imagining or my life’s narratives through the practice of the expressive arts, mythology and archetypal psychology.<\/div>
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\u00a0My commitment is to provide people with adequate guidance so that they can live with self-agency, courage, creativity, and responsibility. Through somatic, expressive arts and creative interventions I guide my clients and groups in exploratory inquires, inviting self-reflection and continued learning. I encourage and support individuals in taking a path of self-knowledge, clear interpersonal communication, and determination to embody and live their soul’s calling. I believe that, by traveling this path, we can adventure into the endless mysteries, challenges and opportunities that life offers us.<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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“Without a ritual to contain and inform the woulds of life, pain and suffering increase, yet meaningful change doesn’t occur”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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– Michael Meade<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Teaching an Expressive Arts Therapy introduction course in Mineral de Pozos, Guanajuato, Mexico.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Teaching Expressive Art for Religious Teachers in CDMX, Mexico<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Teaching Somatic Movement Dance workshop in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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My professional experience in psychology, somatics, and the arts spans over twenty-five years and includes work in education, private practice, community intervention, and organizational development.\u00a0<\/p>

I am the creator of Mythic Life: Embodying Wisdom, Beauty and Courage<\/i><\/b>. Through Mythic Life<\/i><\/b> I facilitate meaningful and transformational experiences to women from all over the globe. I developed a mythosomatic<\/i> framework, which is a forward thinking integration of myth, arts, somatic movement and archetypal psychology. This framework, while embodied in my professional praxis and ethos, is articulated in an unpublished collection of academic essays, Somaphilia: Re-membering the Soul and the Aesthetics of Being<\/i>, which is my masters’ thesis.\u00a0<\/p>

I am a registered Expressive Arts Therapist through<\/b> the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association, and I am a registered Master<\/b> Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator<\/b> from ISMETA -the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association. I served on the ISMETA Board of Directors <\/b>for nine consecutive years, the last three as Board President. Through my Board service I gained organizational embodied leadership and insights into the work that it takes to collectively support an emerging field and profession. I continue to serve as a volunteer in the Professional Standards and Equity, Justice, and Accessibility Committees. I enjoy collaborating with the ISMETA Board of Directors to grow the field of somatic movement and advance the profession of somatic movement.<\/p>

As an adjunct faculty at Southwestern College<\/a> I teach graduate courses on the concentration on Consciousness in Action; as well as in the community programs through the New Earth Institute. I am an Associate Teacher at Tamalpa Institute<\/a> where I previously served as Program Director and core faculty.\u00a0 I supervise advanced students\u2019 fieldwork projects and also offer public workshops where I highlight and celebrate the Tamalpa Life\/Art Process in my life\u2019s work.<\/p>

I obtained my M.A. in Engaged Humanities with Emphasis in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. I am a Tamalpa Life\/Art practitioner and did a comprehensive certificate program in movement-based expressive arts therapy. Most recently I\u2019ve studied with Mark Taylor at The School of BodyMindMovement; in particular the modules on the Endocrine System and Motor Human Development; I completed a certificate in Advanced Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute; and an in-depth course on Trauma-informed practice through ISMETA\u2019s Professional Development Center. I have countless hours of self-studies and I consider myself a perennial learner.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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“The body is merely the visibility of the soul, the psyche, and the soul is the psychological experience of the body, so it is really one and the same thing.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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– Carl G. Jung<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mythic Life<\/h4>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Embodying Wisdom, Beauty and Courage<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Through Mythic Life I support individuals and groups in awakening to their living body: soma<\/em>. By experiencing the body from a first person perspective we recognize the intrinsic relationship between body, emotions, creativity, soul, and connection with others and with the Earth. Experiencing the body allows us to reclaim the raw beauty of life; that which gets arrested through the rational, logical, linear, and literal views of reality. Beauty has the potential of healing and transformation. Beauty is breathtaking. Beauty moves us and touches us revealing or evoking our innermost truths. Knowing what is truthful for us gives us a clear compass so we can orient our actions and behaviors with it. Courage is the force to show up, take risks, and behave in ways that spread the beauty of truth into the world.<\/p>

Mythic Life offers guidance in connecting our life story or part of our personal narrative with a grand timeless narrative, and see our own life as a unique and necessary expression in the collective cosmology; granting meaning to our existence.\u00a0<\/p>

For over a decade I have developed my work to include myths. Myths become decentering devices that open our perspective by taking us into the world of imagination so we can recognize our life challenges and struggles as heroic quests in the search of wholeness.\u00a0<\/p>

For Joseph Campbell, myth has a psychological function\u00a0 in which \u201cMythology is the womb of mankind\u2019s initiation to life and death.\u201d Mythic Life focuses on embodying the cycles of birth, death, and rebirth through:<\/p>