
Culturally, in the West, we have become deeply constrained by an inherited, ‘disenchanted,’ mechanistic, over-thought, fact-istic, instrumental and individualist view of the world. God becomes the occasional special experience, and spirituality a striving to keep a sense of God alive.
In this meeting, we hope to share and stimulate wonderings about all this. Presentations to open up discussion will include topics like the God with Us who is ‘always already here and there,’ the interior confidence of ‘presence,’ the ‘fundamentalism’ of relationality, and the real problems of ‘things,’ objectivity, categorisation, ‘othering’ and more.
Date: March 22nd, 2025
Time: 9am-2pm with lunch provided.
Location: Maclaurin Chapel, 18 Princes Street, Auckland
Zoom: Unavailable for this event
Registrations are essential, please click here to register before March 20th at 6pm.
Biography:
Brian Broom has been described as a philosopher-physician. His passion for whole person–centred healthcare grew from a dissatisfaction with the ways body, mind and spirit have been divided and compartmentalised in most aspects of Western culture, including healthcare and spirituality. Hence he has practised both as a Clinical Immunology and as a Psychotherapist. He has developed a mind and body approach to physical disease that integrates the patient’s personal story with standard medical care. During the last three decades his explorations of the nature of healing have prompted him to look in many directions and has realised that much of healing lies in a context of‚ relations and relationships. His life-long commitment to Christian spirituality has been deeply influenced by this.
He has written three books on these matters. In 1987 he set up the Arahura Christian Counselling and Medical Centre, in Christchurch, and there, whilst combining Immunology and psychotherapy practice, he developed his theoretical and practical clinical approaches. In 2006 he initiated the multidisciplinary post-graduate MindBody Healthcare Diploma and Masters programme at AUT University, Auckland, where he is still Adjunct Professor. He has a large experience in training and supervising clinicians in the whole person-centred approaches, and has taught extensively both nationally and internationally. He recently received a Distinguished Service Award from the NZ Association of Psychotherapists and in 2015 he was finalist for the Senior New Zealander of the Year Award.