Beyond Identification

Save the Date: October 11, 2025

Beyond Identification 2025

Science, Psyche, and Spirituality: Resonance and the Collective Unconscious
featuring internationally renowned author Rupert Sheldrake, PhD 

(To be held online — more details coming soon)

Event Highlight: Beyond Identification 2024
The Knowing of the Heart

Conference Summary, December 2024:
Now in its fifth year, the Beyond Identification program is offered by the International Association of Sufism, led by its founders and directors, Dr. Nahid Angha and Dr. Ali Kianfar, in collaboration with the Sufism and Psychology Forum and the Community Healing Centers that offer integrative mental health services in Northern California. This year’s Beyond Identification Program, entitled The Knowing of the Heart, brought together two accomplished psychotherapists and teachers, Dr. Jamal Lawrence Granick and Dorothy Hunt. Dr. Granick is a licensed psychotherapist in California and New Mexico and an Uwaysi Sufism practitioner. He also coordinates the Beyond Identification program. Dorothy Hunt is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy and Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha teaching at the request of Adyashanti, from whom she received dharma transmission during 2004. Each presenter offered a presentation, including many experiential components, and then the audience interacted further with the material through a Q&A session.

Dr. Granick noted that “The heart has an inherent capacity for knowing.” He cited emerging scientific studies recognizing the significance of the heart in shaping the state of the therapist and the client. Dr. Granick highlighted the importance of the state of the therapist as central to psychological healing.

Dorothy Hunt’s presentation included a guided meditation, noting that the heart’s knowing holds the secret of who and what we truly are. Ms. Hunt described this silent mystery that reveals itself:  “There is a space in the heart where everything meets.”

The event concluded with agreement by both presenters that there is no separation between us and our origin.  Dr. Granick recommended being with your heart.  Ms. Hunt added that we give our attention to what we love.

Presenter Bios

Jamal Lawrence Granick, Ph.D., is a licensed psychotherapist in California and New Mexico. He is student of Uwaiysi Sufism under the guidance of Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Dr. Seyyed Ali Kianfar, the founding directors of International Association of Sufism. Dr. Granick is a member of IAS and serves on its Executive Committee, and has participated in many of its programs, including presenting on Sufism and Psychology nationally and internationally. He is co-director of the Sufism and Psychology Forum (department of IAS) and coordinates its Beyond Identifications program. Dr. Granick obtained a Ph.D. from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 2011, and did his doctoral research on transpersonal aspects of therapist’s presence in psychotherapy. He also holds a fifth degree black belt in Aikido.

Dorothy Hunt, serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request of Adyashanti, from whom she received dharma transmission in 2004. She is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy and practiced psychotherapy from 1967 until her retirement in 2021. She is the author of Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness. Leaves from Moon Mountain, and Only This!, as well as authoring chapters in two volumes exploring Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, The Sacred Mirror, and Listening from the Heart of Silence.

Dorothy has a long and deep connection to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and the path of Self-Inquiry, as well as the nondual teachings of Zen, Advaita and the Christian mystics. In meeting Adyashanti, she was invited beyond identification with either the absolute or relative, finding freedom in what is awake in each of us regardless of the changing faces of experience. Dorothy offers satsang, retreats, and private meetings in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere by invitation.  www.dorothyhunt.org

For more information please call (415) 499-1115 or email spf@ias.org.

**International Association of Sufism is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, to sponsor continuing education for LCSWs, LMFTs, and LEPs, Provider number: 95354. IAS maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. Continuing Education grievances and request for refunds, disability accommodations, copies of CEU certificates or other records should be directed to spf@ias.org. For our policies pertaining to these matters, please go to the policies page.

Beyond Identifications Overview & Past Programs 

All Beyond Identifications programming focuses on the practice of psychotherapy grounded in a heart-centered approach. The heart has been recognized as a center of awareness in many spiritual traditions since ancient times. Recently, the field of psychotherapy has begun to recognize its relevance, from both neurobiological and experiential perspectives, yet there is still much to be learned about the role of the heart in promoting human development and healing.

Read more about this program, and the interplay of psychology and spirituality in Sufism: An Inquiry.

2023 Beyond Identification Program
“The Healer’s Heart”
With Kathy Kain, Lael Keen, and Scott Zamurut

*4.5 CE Credits for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs

The 2023 Beyond Identification program focused on the state of the practitioner as an essential factor in the healing process. The heart has been recognized as a center of awareness in many spiritual traditions since ancient times. Many healing traditions also recognize that the heart plays a central role in organizing internal states. Recently, the fields of interpersonal neurobiology, somatic studies, and trauma treatment have also come to understand the position of the heart in organizing the healing process across modalities. For the 2023 program, we reached beyond the discipline of psychotherapy to include healing approaches that involve hands-on work. All three 2023 presenters are experts and teachers of somatic healing disciplines. There is much to still to be learned about the role of the heart in promoting human development and healing. This program offered the opportunity to increase our understanding and awareness of how focus on the heart can remove impediments and increase the possibility of realizing our full human potential. 

Presentation Highlights 

Kathy Kain

Presentation: “Somatic Presence:
Resting and Nourishing the Healer’s Heart”

Those in healing and caring professions must maintain resilience to avoid compassion fatigue and poor physical, mental, and spiritual health consequences from chronic extension. Our ability to be heart-full for ourselves and others can become compromised. In this experiential presentation, we will discuss how somatic history and habits can undermine resilience and explore practices that can help us rest and nourish our heart-full presence.

Lael Keen

Presentation: “Creating a Space Where Grace
Can Arise and Healing Can Happen”

Scott Zamurut

Presentation:
“The Home of the Heart”

One pathway for understanding how the heart serves as the center for practicing a healing art is to understand it’s place with our body anatomy and physiology. Knowing the heart’s placement with our body, physically and energetically, enlivens our understanding and experience of the heart as central in our healing practice.

Read more about the event and presenters in Sufism, An Inquiry

Beyond Identification Team

Team Bios

Hamaseh Kianfar, Ed.D. is a Registered Associate of Marriage and Family Therapy and has earned her Doctoral Degree in Education.  Hamaseh currently works as a Mental Health Practitioner for Behavioral Health and Recovery Services for the county of Marin. Prior to her work for Marin County, Hamaseh worked as a Mental Health Practitioner, providing direct therapeutic services, crisis intervention, facilitating mental health groups, and providing psychodiagnostic court evaluations for juveniles and adults impacted by the criminal justice system. Hamaseh believes that working in a collaborative way with community providers, providing culturally informed care, and keeping the client at the center of services is integral. Hamaseh has served as a commissioner for Marin County’s Human Rights Committee and is committed to equity for all and the promotion of community-based social justice. Hamaseh is certified in a variety of groups and tools, including Seeking Safety, Anger Management, J-SOAP-II, JSORRAT-II, CANS, Parenting for the Inside Out, Thinking for Change, Criminal Conduct and Substance Use, Motivational Interviewing, and Restorative Practices.

Leili First, Ph.D. is a student of Uwaiysi Sufism and a long-time member of the International Association of Sufism. Dr. First has given lectures on Sufism and Women in Islam at colleges and universities and presented at the Annual Sufism Symposium and Parliament of the World’s Religions. She has served on the Marin Interfaith Council, and as a Sufi Women Organization representative at the United Nations meeting of NGOs. She holds a Ph.D. in Transformative Studies.

Jamal Lawrence Granick, Ph.D., is a licensed psychotherapist in California and New Mexico. He is student of Uwaiysi Sufism under the guidance of Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Dr. Seyyed Ali Kianfar, the founding directors of International Association of Sufism. Dr. Granick is a member of IAS and serves on its Executive Committee, and has participated in many of its programs, including presenting on Sufism and Psychology nationally and internationally. He is co-director of the Sufism and Psychology Forum (department of IAS) and coordinates its Beyond Identifications program. Dr. Granick obtained a Ph.D. from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 2011, and did his doctoral research on transpersonal aspects of therapist’s presence in psychotherapy. He also holds a fifth degree black belt in Aikido.

Mary Toth Granick, M.Ed, LMFT is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and maintains a private practice in California and New Mexico.  She works with individual adults, couples, adolescents and their families. She also has extensive experience and a background in school-based counseling services. Ms. Toth Granick is a student of Uwaiysi Sufism and a member of the International Association of Sufism. She has contributed articles in the SPF Newsletter and the journal, Sufism: An Inquiry. She has also presented her work with Sufism and Psychology at various retreats in the Bay Area.

Arife Ellen Hammerle, Ph.D. is a senior teacher of the Uwaiysi School of Sufism, guided by Sufi Masters Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali. Kianfar. Dr. Hammerle is a member of the International Association of Sufism and sits on the Executive Committee for the Institute for Sufi Studies. She is a psychotherapist and published author who teaches courses at the Institute for Sufi Studies and 40 Days Alchemy of Tranquility Program. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology. Dr. Hammerle is a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor with the Community Healing Centers, an integrative psychotherapy non-profit organization. She is a published author who has written numerous books and articles on spirituality and psychology.

Elizabeth Miller, Ph.D., is a student of Uwaiysi Sufism under the guidance of Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar.  She is a member of the Sufi Women Organization Council and serves on the editorial team of Sufism: An Inquiry.. Dr. Miller works as an educator and professor of Philosophy and Religion, and is co-founder of a Bay Area nonprofit.  Her research focuses on heart-based approaches to evaluation and learning, and draws on Sufism, science and psychology.

Katherine Preston, MA, LMFT is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and has been a practicing psychotherapist for over twenty-five years. She maintains a private practice in San Francisco and has held many clinical leadership positions overseeing and providing clinical training and supervision for therapeutic services throughout the Bay Area. Ms. Preston is a student of Uwaiysi Sufism and a member of International Association of Sufism. Ms. Preston serves as moderator for the 40 Days – Alchemy of Tranquility Program.

Amineh Amelia Pryor, Ph.D., LMFT is a student of Uwaiysi Sufism under the guidance of Sufi Masters Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar. Dr. Pryor is co-director of the Sufism and Psychology Forum and co-editor of the SPF Newsletter, a department of International Association of Sufism. Dr. Pryor is a clinical supervisor and psychotherapist at the Community Healing Centers in San Francisco. She presents at local and international conferences and has published articles in the fields of spirituality, psychology, consciousness, and science. Dr. Pryor is the author of Psychology in Sufism and co-author of Sufi Grace.As a presenter and group facilitator in the 40 Days – Alchemy of Tranquility® Program she also experiences the benefits of the 40 Days practices in her own life.

**International Association of Sufism is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, to sponsor continuing education for LCSWs, LMFTs, and LEPs,  Provider number: 95354. IAS maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. Continuing Education grievances and request for refunds, disability accommodations, copies of CEU certificates or other records should be directed to spf@ias.org. For our policies pertaining to these matters, please go to the policies page.