What time zone are you on? 

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I'm on EST (in Atlanta, GA). 

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I’ve never meditated. Can I still do IM?

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Yep! No previous experience with traditional meditation is necessary. 

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I've read your site, but I still don't get exactly what IM is. Like, what do you actually do ​in a given session?

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Read my blog.

 

Pick any three posts--not just one post, but any three. All the IM secret sauce is in the blog. 

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(Why not just say exactly what you do on the site, Leslie?)

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Because it would take too damn long in regular website format to make IM to make sense...and that's because IM isn't a sense-making (mental) process. It's somatic/energetic work. Also, IM moves a little differently for each meditator. 

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So, read the blog, and you'll get a sense of what we actually freaking do in a session. Also, you'll get a really accurate sense of whether IM will be a good fit for you. As in, if you dig the blog, you'll probably love IM. 

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How long is the IM Experience (consultation)? 

 

​The IM Experience is 1 hour. (Click here to schedule your consultation!)

 

Questions about IM or scheduling? Contact me. 

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Where can I learn more about full IM sessions? ​

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Please click here! 

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Are the consultation and full sessions virtual or in person?

 

Both! (For in person, I live in Atlanta, GA, and am on EST.)

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The vast majority of sessions I do are virtual, since many meditators live out of state and some overseas. 

 

Inquiry Meditation is equally potent in person and virtually. 

 

One benefit of the virtual format: meditators enjoy being in their own space immediately after the IM Experience or a full session so they can reflect/journal/take a walk/rest/etc.

 

That being said, I'm happy to to work in person. 

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Do you lead group presentations and/or group Inquiry Meditation sessions?

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I absolutely do!  The group factor, even virtually, amplifies IM's effect beautifully. Contact me and let's discuss. 

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Does IM work for young people? 

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IM is a lovely way for young people to begin the wellness practice and valuable life skill of being with one's pain and meeting it with gentleness and kindness.  One clients puts her young children (ages 6 and 8) to bed with my free 8-minute IM meditation. They find it soothing and fun:). 

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Is Inquiry Meditation a form of Internal Family Systems parts work?​

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IM incorporates elements of Dr. Robert MacDonald's  Conflict Integration exercise, which is his interpretation of parts work. 

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From your testimonials, it seems like different people have different experiences with IM. Why is that? 

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You're right: each meditator has his/her/their own unique experience with IM! 

 

This is because IM really works at each person's bodily level of readiness--it  naturally calibrates to where you are.  

 

Some meditators come to me already having done a number of healing modalities, and so they want (and are ready for) greater intensity. And so that is their experience of IM. 

 

Others are new to this kind of work, and so sessions naturally take on gentler intensity.

 

IM is, by its nature, a gentle process. 

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And amazingly, as far as I can tell, there is no limit to the possibilities of its depth:). 

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Deeper IM questions ahead--read at your leisure and pleasure! 

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No offense, but I’m just a regular person--I don't really care about the "inner child" and "triggers" and other deep stuff you mention in your blog. I just wanna pay my bills and solve my current-day normal-person problem.  Is that cool? 

 

No offense taken:). And that's absolutely cool because IM is for normal-person people, too!!! 

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Think of IM as you might think of yoga: some do it purely to relieve, say, back pain. Others do it for enlightenment. Inquiry Meditation accommodates all levels of purpose quite beautifully. 

 

To bottom line it for you: yes, IM can help you work through your given current day problem. Whether you shave your head, don a loincloth, and move to Tibet: all up to you:). 

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Why do you call IM a meditation if you're talking during the session? Isn't meditation about sitting still and being quiet?

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The way I see it, as you inquire and answer questions, what's happening is that you're seeing at deeper and deeper levels. That, to me, is what all forms of meditation boil down to, is seeing evermore deeply. All forms of meditation carry that essence of seeing and seeing and seeing. 

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And while, during IM, you are talking and answering questions and such, much of the time is spent in silence as you wait for what wants to come up after you ask a question. Or rather, much of the time is spent creating space (by listening) so that what wants to come up, can come up. 

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So the element of space, and the element of waiting and listening in a state of presence with no expectation: these are very much part of Inquiry Meditation. As is the resulting seeing. 

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 Is IM inner child work? Because doesn't possibly revisiting my childhood, with its past painful events and feelings, encourage a victim mindset? Hard things happened back then, but I don't want to look back anymore. I want to take responsibility for my life now and I've done a lot of work to not give into victim mode and blaming others. 

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First, just a note that the inner child will show up when and only when that would be most helpful for you! 

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When the inner child's pain arises, it is pain that could not be fully felt at the time of the painful event--and your very wise body decides this when it will arise.  When and if it does, we feel compassion for ourselves. We are returned more and more to our inherently compassionate nature. And what we feel for ourselves, we feel for others. 

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So the more you are able to hone in on the child's or younger self's pain--this happens session by session--then the more you are able to feel compassion not only for how much pain you were in during a past painful event: but you also are rendered more and more able to feel compassion for any others who were a part of that event. In seeing yourself, you are able to see them. And forgiveness is the natural byproduct of seeing. Or: to see is to forgive. 

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And forgiveness is power. 

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Where do emotional triggers and being triggered fit into IM? 

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I believe that our emotional triggers and suffering, both seemingly trivial and serious, are not frustrating reflections of our seemingly fated inability to overcome our problems--or, just as painful--our "failure" to "get over" our childhoods or past traumatic events.

 

Instead, I believe our triggers and suffering are desperately hopeful messages from the inner children within us all who yearn for conscious reunion with our adult selves. I believe the inner child is our primary soulmate: "the one," that thing, that feeling, for which we search externally--in a romantic mate, in external success, in addictions, etc.

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Can IM address really serious traumatic experiences like physical and/or sexual abuse?

 

Let me start by saying: I am not a traditionally certified abuse/trauma specialist. Also, I urge a multi-pronged approach to addressing abuse: talk therapy as well as other healing, somatic modalities. Luis Mojica does excellent work. 

 

That being said: Yes, I have worked with IM'ers to process physical and sexual abuse. These are meditators I've practiced with for a number of sessions, and so there's a great deal of trust we've built so that we can work at this level--and so we can ensure their bodies are ready.

 

As with all IM sessions, we follow the body's wisdom. And so, the work is gentle, and we build a safe container each time. I am happy to discuss case-by-case and see what other work a meditator already has done. 

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I’m grieving a recent loss. Can IM help me?

 

First, I'm so sorry for your loss. I'd recommend a multi-pronged approach to address your grief. IM may be helpful in that it can help you open more fully to your grief, and the true love within your grief, as much as your body is ready for. 

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How often do you practice? 

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Most mornings. 

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There are periods of integrating information, though, when my body signals I need to back off. During these periods, I do not practice. When I return, I'm able to access deeper levels of seeing.

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Can I do an Inquiry Meditation session with my partner/child/friend/others present? 

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You absolutely can do an IM session with another person present! It can be incredibly potent to be lovingly  witnessed in your process. You will want to have done a solo IM session before.

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You mentioned your teachers on your "Leslie" page. Do you have other influences?

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For sure! Tons! 

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In no particular and surely not in all-inclusive order that I'll keep updating as I remember or learn of others...

 

Solange Knowles, Eckhart Tolle, Madame Zora Neale Hurston, Pema Chodron, Scott Peck, Alan Watts, Thomas Moore, Paulo Coelho, Pablo Neruda, Erich Fromm, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Malcolm X, Beyonce Knowles, Louisa May Alcott, Neale Donald Walsch, Dan Millman, Audre Lorde, N.K. Jemisin, Madeline L'Engle, Elizabeth Gilbert, David Whyte...

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If you like any of these fine folk, or other fine folk adjacent to these listed here, you just might love Inquiry Meditation. 

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