About Linda Friend, MA, MFT
My Personal Journey
My path is the of the “Wounded Healer” (see blog post). I have been deeply dedicated and involved in my own therapy, healing and meditation for decades. I have healed from chronic physical pain. This taught me th importance of understanding how much chronic physical pain effects one psychologically, as well as the difference and the interface between the two.
My path as a seeker and healer began at an early age. I was president of my Youth Fellowship Group at church as a teen-ager and was giving sermons to the entire Congregation in my youth. I had a very intuitive mother, and doing psychic readings was part of the daily routine over washing dishes.
I was fortunate to have a very loving and gifted therapist in my early twenties and knew from that point on that counseling and healing was my vocation, a part of my spiritual path, not just a career.
As I say in my post on Depth Psychology, the “Wounded Healer, and the World of Trauma,”:
“Acceptance of my human limitations and integrating that with my ability to access the Divine is where my “mourning integration” has taken me. It can be very much a struggle to hold both, but life would not be fulfilling to me without enchantment, magic, wonder and mystery along with the routine and the mundane.
Otherwise, if the worlds remain separate, the all too human me has no access to the magical world and the spiritually gifted me has no access to the human suffering and its transformational potential. In the transition between these worlds trauma is transcended, and here wholeness and fulfillment are experienced.”
Education & Work Experience
Psychotherapist in Private Practice since 1978;
Member, California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists Association
B.S. with high distinction, University of Minnesota
English, Theatre and Secondary Education 1970
Teacher, Minnesota School System 1970-1972
Co-founder & Owner, “Cerealia”
restaurant and bakery, Bainbridge Island, WA 1974-1975
Massage Therapy License 1975
M.A. in Psychology, Antioch College West 1977
Marriage, Family and Child Counselor License, State of California 1978
Clinical Director, Odyssey House
psychiatric residential treatment center for adults, San Francisco 1976-1979
Training in Psychic Practice and Meditation 1979-1981
Founded Spiritual Center in Healdsburg, CA 1985 (see press coverage)
Jungian Therapy Training 1986-1988
Frequency Specific Microcurrent Core Training July 2008
Qigong Meditation Training 2009-present
My Passion for Beauty
Singing Sacred Music is a spiritual path for me. I began training in Chant style sacred music in 1999. In 2006 I was a founding choir member of Vox Flores, a Medieval Women’s vocal Ensemble led by Shira Kammen and Devi Mathieu. Along with Vox Terra, the men’s ensemble, we perform spiritual musical concerts recreating musically the “pilgrim’s journey.” Our concerts now include: The Black Madonna Concert, The St. Francis Concert, and the Soul’s Flame Concert (from Dante’s Divine Comedy).
