In the French Quarter of New Orleans, THE MOJO DOCTORS offer
traditional healing for modern times.
traditional healing for modern times.
Biographies
Bradford Keeney
Bradford Keeney, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned traditional healer, creative therapist, cybernetician, anthropologist of cultural healing traditions, and improvisational performer. He is presently Professor and Hanna Spyker Eminent Scholars Chair, University of Louisiana, Monroe, and has served as a professor, founder, and director of clinical doctoral programs in numerous universities. He is the originator of several orientations to psychotherapy including improvisational therapy, resource focused therapy, and creative therapy. A Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, he received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the Louisiana Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
As a scholar, his classic text, Aesthetics of Change, was cited by Heinz von Foerster as one of the key texts of cybernetics, the original science of complexity. He is the inventor of recursive frame analysis, a research method that discerns patterns of transformation in conversation. As a fieldworker, Keeney has been called "the Marco Polo of psychology and an anthropologist of the spirit" by the editors of Utne Reader. He spent over a decade traveling the globe, living with spiritual teachers and healers who trusted him to share their words with others – modern cultures in need of elder wisdom. The result of Keeney's work is one of the broadest and most intense field studies of healing, chronicled in the critically acclaimed book series, Profiles of Healing, an eleven-volume encyclopedia of the world's healing practices.
Recognized as an ecstatic spiritual teacher and healer by numerous cultures, Keeney became a n/om-kxao (healer) with the Kalahari Bushmen. Megan Biesele, Ph.D., former member of the Harvard Kalahari Research Group, writes: "There is no question in the minds of the Bushman healers that Keeney's strength and purposes are coterminous with theirs. They affirmed his power as a healer." He is the subject of the book, American Shaman: An Odyssey of Global Healing Traditions written by psychologists Jeffrey Kottler and Jon Carlson, which won a Best Spiritual Book of 2005 award from Spirituality & Health magazine. A display honoring his breakthrough fieldwork and contributions to understanding the origin of human culture is permanently installed as an exhibition in the Origins Centre Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Keeney has presented keynote addresses to professional audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Japan, Central and South America, and Australia. He is the author of over 36 books including THE FLYING DRUM: The Mojo Doctor's Guide for Creating Magic in Your Life and THE BUSHMAN WAY OF TRACKING GOD, which won the prestigious Silver Nautilus national book award.
"Bradford Keeney emerges as a fascinating and charismatic healer, one who brings to modern life the powerful wisdom of a traditional shaman."
DANIEL GOLEMAN, author of Emotional Intelligence
DANIEL GOLEMAN, author of Emotional Intelligence
"I have chosen Dr. Keeney as my successor and I entrust to him the role of representing and overseeing the teaching of the transmission of seiki (the universal life force) to others."
IKUKO OSUMI, SENSEI, revered master of Seiki Jutsu, the Japanese art of working with the universal life force.
IKUKO OSUMI, SENSEI, revered master of Seiki Jutsu, the Japanese art of working with the universal life force.
"Brad Keeney is a genuine spiritual enthusiast who will electrify your life. He made my spine tingle, legs dance, and provided a new context for visionary experience."
DR. CARL HAMMERSCHLAG, author of The Dancing Healers and a member of the Speakers Hall of Fame
DR. CARL HAMMERSCHLAG, author of The Dancing Healers and a member of the Speakers Hall of Fame
"Did you ever wonder where the spirit and voice went of Abraham Maslow, R. D. Laing, Fritz Perls, Jacob Moreno, Sheldon Kopp, Ira Progoff, Carl Whitaker, Eric Berne, and other therapists who inspired your career? It is alive and well – Brad Keeney is on fire with their spirit!"
STEPHEN LANKTON, author, therapist, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
STEPHEN LANKTON, author, therapist, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
"Brad Keeney's work is a living example of what we need in our field at this stage of evolution: a synthesis of traditional and modern, east and west, body and soul."
GAY HENDRICKS, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Counseling Psychology, University of Colorado, founder The Hendricks Institute and the Foundation for 21st-Century Leadership, and author
GAY HENDRICKS, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Counseling Psychology, University of Colorado, founder The Hendricks Institute and the Foundation for 21st-Century Leadership, and author
"I meet a continual stream of people devoted to intelligent soul work and spiritual journeys, but Keeney's radiance shines a different light on the territory. Life happens in dreamtime for him...the soul-in-the-world is alive, and he is, (as D.H. Lawrence said), in sheer, naked contact with it."
NOR HALL, Ph.D., psychotherapist, author, and playwright
NOR HALL, Ph.D., psychotherapist, author, and playwright
"Keeney's story ranks with The Gospel of Ramakrishna and The Autobiography of a Yogi in terms of sheer revelatory power with its encounter with the sacred. . . Some of us first encountered this feeling while reading Carlos Castaneda . . . Bradford Keeney is an answer to the question: what would happen if you gave a university professor a kind heart and a limitless infusion of spiritual power?"
STEPHEN & ROBIN LARSEN, authors of A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell
STEPHEN & ROBIN LARSEN, authors of A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell
"Brilliant is the first word that comes to mind in characterizing Dr. Keeney and it does justice to the overwhelming dynamism, competence, enthusiasm, foresight, indefatigability, and sheer radiance of personality of this remarkable human being. His professional competence, charming personality, scientific credibility, and sense of responsibility serve as an inspiration."
HEINZ VON FOERSTER, Ph.D., a founder of cybernetics
HEINZ VON FOERSTER, Ph.D., a founder of cybernetics
"Bradford Keeney provides a wisdom invitation: we are invited to be natural and spontaneous creative beings in our living and embrace the art of living that is simply living in love. He shows that the only kind of encounter that is able to open up a space for mutual respect and self-respect in collaboration and in autonomy is where there is harmony without fear of mistakes and without attachment to some transcendent value. Here the legitimacy of everything that happens is accepted and the past and future are a manner of being now in the present – in the continuous change that results spontaneously in the dynamic architecture of the world that we inhabit. Keeney's creative therapy shows us that everything that happens in the cosmos happens when it happens, not afterward, not before, that is to say, in zero time in the spontaneity of the encounter..."
HUMBERTO MATURANA R., Ph.D., Co-Director, Instituto Matriztico, Santiago, Chile, and author (with Francisco Varela), The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding and Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living.
HUMBERTO MATURANA R., Ph.D., Co-Director, Instituto Matriztico, Santiago, Chile, and author (with Francisco Varela), The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding and Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living.
"A colleague and I were interviewing the most influential therapists of this generation about their most seminal cases. Among all the most prominent thinkers and clinicians, Keeney's work struck me as the most memorable. It was not just the way he told a story (which was indeed captivating) but it was his incredible intellect, wide-ranging experience, and cultural sensitivity that captured my interest. Keeney is one of the most creative teachers I have ever seen. Anyone is fortunate indeed if they have the opportunity to learn from Brad Keeney's keen intellect, compassionate heart, and vast experience. I have never worked with any professional – physician, teacher, clergyperson, or therapist – who has more charisma and more power to move people who otherwise feel stuck in their lives."
JEFFREY A. KOTTLER, Ph.D., Former Chair of the Counseling Department at California State University - Fullerton and author of more than fifty books.
JEFFREY A. KOTTLER, Ph.D., Former Chair of the Counseling Department at California State University - Fullerton and author of more than fifty books.
Hillary Keeney
Hillary Keeney, Ph.D., spent over ten years working in the nonprofit sector as a leadership coach, diversity trainer, and community worker dedicated to youth leadership development and social justice. Hillary recently left the nonprofit sector to become a scholar and practitioner of creative approaches to personal and social change. She is presently Distinguished Visiting Professor in Psychology, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Mexico and Adjunct Faculty in the Creative Systemic Studies doctoral concentration at the University of Louisiana.
A seasoned trainer and facilitator, Hillary has co-written and facilitated over two hundred workshops and trainings ranging from postgraduate therapy education, creative coaching, diversity and racial justice issues, to collective organizational leadership. Hillary served as a diversity trainer with Allies for Change and spent three years with Public Allies training young leaders to do community change work in Los Angeles and Phoenix.
She received her B.A. in Women's Studies and Masters of Social Work from the University of Michigan. Her doctorate in Transformative Studies is from the California Institute for Integral Studies, San Francisco, and she has taught Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies at California State University. Hillary spent five years studying Zen Buddhism as a resident of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, and was awarded the Frederick P. Lenz Residential Fellowship for the Study of American Buddhism at Naropa University in Fall 2009.
Hillary has a true commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and bringing contemporary people helping professions into greater relationship to the healing ways held inside great wisdom traditions. In addition to THE MOJO DOCTORS, Hillary works with Bradford Keeney to provide postgraduate training to therapists and other mental health workers at conferences and workshops throughout the world including Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Europe.
A salsa dancer and poet, she currently writes on cybernetics and creative approaches to healing and transformation. Her most recent books (co-authored with Bradford Keeney) include A Arte de Beber Uma Taça de Amor (Campinas, Brazil: IDPH Press, 2012), Circular Therapeutics: Giving Therapy a Healing Heart, (Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker, and Thiesen, 2012), and A Master Class in the Art of Performing Change (Melbourne, Australia: PsychOz Publications, 2012).
"Hillary Keeney is a remarkable artist of change whose words inspire you to become alive and dance inside the circle of life. She masterfully knows how to enchant your everyday."
William Sutherland, M.D., Nova Scotia, Canada
William Sutherland, M.D., Nova Scotia, Canada
"Hillary is a wonderful teacher who inspires poetry, song, and dance. She is a therapist of the heart."
Vicente Martinez, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Puebla, Mexico
Vicente Martinez, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Puebla, Mexico
"Hillary is a talented and spirited facilitator whose sincerity, sharp insight, and great love of people shines through."
Jack Yeomans, MSW, LCSW, Lewiston, Maine
Jack Yeomans, MSW, LCSW, Lewiston, Maine
"I have been, and remain, impressed by Hillary Keeney's capacity to nurture heartfelt connections among people where healing and transformation become possible."
Chip McAuley, Faculty, Communication Studies, Sonoma State University
Chip McAuley, Faculty, Communication Studies, Sonoma State University
"Mistress of the new wave in spirited wisdom, Hillary will dance you through the mysteries of recirculo ad absurdum, penetrating boundaries of discernment and calling forth a capacity for insight and action you never had before."
Julie Chase-Daniel, M.A., International grassroots philanthropist and birth educator
Julie Chase-Daniel, M.A., International grassroots philanthropist and birth educator
"Hillary is a dancer, poet, and teacher who makes magic in her teaching and practice! We love how she moves our hearts in Brazil!"
Viviani Bovo and Walther Hermann , Directors, Institute of Human Potential, Campinas, Brazil
Viviani Bovo and Walther Hermann , Directors, Institute of Human Potential, Campinas, Brazil
"Hillary Keeney is phenomenally open, honest, compassionate, brilliant and absolutely hilarious. She has an innate ability to connect with and fundamentally understand diverse perspectives of individuals from all walks of life. Encounters with Hillary are always enlightening, engaging and incredibly fun."
Lauren Grossman, Founder and Director, Across the Table, Chicago
Lauren Grossman, Founder and Director, Across the Table, Chicago
"Fasten your seatbelts: Hillary Keeney will take you on the most important ride of your life. She will be an exquisite guide on your journey of self transformation. With her experience and intuition she is able to connect and creatively help you redraft the roadmap of your life."
Terra Malmstrom, Waldorf Teacher and Neuroscientist
Terra Malmstrom, Waldorf Teacher and Neuroscientist
"Ecstasy transforms the ontological structure of reason without destroying the ontological structure of Being, Itself. It is one dimension of existence to know the above and another dimension of life to have the courage to participate within a context in the act of presence and absence, in the act of to be, to live out in a context the particular and universal radical empiricism, the grounding and ungrounding of Being in being, Love in love, in all forms of love. Hillary Keeney is a person who lives in the struggle to allow for ecstasy to reveal constitutional univocity and constitutive difference, as she dares to fall in love with absence and presence in the tradition of Derrida, Deleuze, Tillich, and Heidegger. I commend, not only her academic work, but her presence and absence to you in what stands in the essence of that which is good, beautiful, and true."
The Rev. Fr. Richard Boyd Hartman, Adjunct Professor, Philosophy Department, Portland State University; Former Chaplain, Oregon State University
The Rev. Fr. Richard Boyd Hartman, Adjunct Professor, Philosophy Department, Portland State University; Former Chaplain, Oregon State University
