This lecture provides an overview of the experience of presence—how we cultivate an open, receptive awareness that provides a state of mind and way of being that promotes well-being in our inner lives and in our relational lives.  Exploring attachment research and research findings of how presence in life improves a range of physiological processes including the maintenance of cell function through the optimization of telomerase levels that repair and maintain the telomere caps on the chromosomes.  Reviewing how sensing the inner mental state of one’s own or other’s minds—with “mindsight”—is a learnable skill.  Health in the body, in relationships, and in our mental life can be seen to arise from a fundamental process of “integration”—the linking of differentiated parts of a system.

Presence is the portal through which integration arises within us, and between us, in our inner lives and our relational worlds.  Optimizing clinical work and attachment relationships, applying mindsight and the process of integration in relational communication is one practical way to be present in connecting with others, and with oneself.