Speaking and listening from the authentic self creates an enlivened connection. It happens whether you are in an intimate conversation or addressing a large group.

How do you know when you are speaking or listening from the authentic self? When you feel fully present, with a sense of openness and engagement, you are likely speaking and listening from the authentic self.

Speaking from authenticity means you are genuinely interested in your listeners. You know you are giving the truth of who you are, no matter what you’re talking about.

Listening from authenticity means you are interested in receiving not just what is being said, but who the person is.

Essentially, speaking and listening from the authentic self creates an energy that welcomes speaker and listener into a relationship where both people discover more of who they are. They become a duet, creating a healing rhythm that emerges from being fully seen and deeply heard.

Barry Friedman, Ph.D and MFT, attended the SpeakingQuest retreat in 2003 and 2005 and each time received 31 Continuing Education Units.

Molokai and SpeakingQuest have changed my life profoundly and forever. My experiences there have been immensely healing and transformative, personally and professionally. I had the opportunity to find myself, to give myself back to myself, in a way I had only dreamed of.

Within a day of entering the SpeakingQuest retreat I realized that I was being invited to be myself with full and conscious abandon – carpe diem! It was and has been a great liberation. I learned to relax into simply being with others and with myself in a far deeper and broader way than I had ever known.

Through this experience I am so much more able, enthusiastic and joyous to be with others, to share myself in various ways in every walk of life. My friendships have been enriched and my work as a depth psychotherapist and teacher in the history of religions has deepened enormously. I am no longer filled with neurotic shame; rather, I rejoice in letting myself be seen and heard.

SpeakingQuest reaffirmed in a most beautiful and powerful way what I had already known: that the soul’s need to be seen and heard, when met, brings liberation and eternal creativity. And to enjoy the play of deep and delightful people together at SpeakingQuest is to embody the celebration of life.

Molokai, the Most Hawaiian Island, where the legends of Hawaii live on. There are no nightclubs or supermarkets, no high-rise buildings or bustling cities, no traffic or traffic lights - this island moves in harmony with the wind and the palm trees, the waves and the sky.

Molokai appeals to the seeker in all of us - whether the search is for adventure or serenity, closeness or seclusion, this island of hospitality offers it all.