Irene Kendig

Irene Kendig is an accomplished speaker, workshop facilitator, self-acceptance coach, and award-winning author. She is a trained NLP Practitioner and certified Hypnotherapist, with a B.A. cum laude in Psychology from UCLA and an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica (USM). As a self-acceptance coach, Irene assists clients in identifying the judgments, misconceptions, and limiting beliefs that are the source of unnecessary suffering, and then facilitates healing through compassionate self-forgiveness, an elegant and graceful way of embracing what is, and a process at the very heart of Spiritual Psychology. Irene is dedicated to living and sharing the gifts of Spiritual Psychology, and is part of a team of USM graduate volunteers who have been bringing these principles and experiential practices to women inmates at one of the largest maximum security women’s prisons in the world, Valley State Prison for Women. The program has been nominated for a national award that recognizes excellence in prison reform programs. “Freedom to Choose,” a moving, 22-minute documentary that conveys the power of this work, was a winner in the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Irene is the author of Conversations with Jerry and Other People I Thought Were Dead: Seven compelling dialogues that will transform the way you think about dying . . . and living. Released in April 2010, the book has won three national awards. Ms. Kendig has taught communication skills in both family and corporate settings. As a certified instructor for Parent Effectiveness Training (PET), she has presented programs to parents in the U.S. as well as in Latin America. As a senior corporate trainer for an international management consulting firm, she has delivered customer satisfaction, team building, and problem-solving training to a wide array of companies, including AAA, American Express, Avis, Lufthansa, Marriott, Oracle, Telecheck, Trane, and Tumi, with satisfaction ratings consistently over 95%. Ms. Kendig has also taught presentation skills to managers in Corporate America and is fluent in Spanish. She is the proud mother of two adult sons, David and Josh, and currently resides in northern Virginia with her husband Charles and their dog Scooter.

Articles:

Compassionate Self-Forgiveness (Part 2)

In this post, I’ll use my experience with Ringo (see Part I) to demonstrate compassionate self-forgiveness, a powerful tool in service to inner healing. There are four steps to this process. Step 1. I give voice to my feelings of sadness, frustration, anger and fear. I honor my process by creating a safe space in which I can allow whatever I’m feeling to come forward. I may cry, scream, yell or laugh; I just let it come out without judging it. I do this for myself and with myself in the privacy of a safe space. As I begin to […]

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Compassionate Self-Forgiveness (Part 1)

I was reflecting today on my dog Ringo, who died after being hit by a car when I was fifteen. As I ran to his side, he acknowledged my presence with one last wag of his tail. I was devastated. I blamed myself for his death. I also blamed my mom, who was at work. I believed that, if she’d been home, this never would have happened. I thought Ringo shouldn’t have died when he did. We are spiritual beings having a human experience rather than humans with spirits. That’s a huge difference, so take a moment to let that […]

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How to Release Regret

I was talking with a man recently who’d been caring for his dying father. “I left him to take care of some personal business,” he said. “I knew I shouldn’t have gone because something inside told me not to go. But I didn’t listen. My father died while I was gone.” Regret. The word originates from Old French, regreter, ‘bewail (the dead),’ feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over something that has happened or been done, esp. a loss or missed opportunity. “If only I’d been a better sister, brother, wife, husband, mother, father, daughter, son, or friend. . .” “If […]

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