Brian Gleason, MSW
Brian Gleason is the co-founder, director, trainer and developer of Embodied Relationship Mentoring. Brian has over 40 years of experience in working with organizations, groups, couples, and individuals in a variety of mental health, corporate, wellness, and educational settings.
Brian is a senior faculty member of the N.Y. Institute of Core Energetics and Radical Aliveness Institute in Los Angeles, California. He teaches internationally and is author of a book on transpersonal psychology – Mortal Spirit as well as his newest book (Relative to Everything) on how our intimate relationships are impacted by, and can influence the environmental crisis. Brian also enjoys a thriving private practice for individuals, groups and couples as well as providing supervision for therapists.
Together with his wife Marcia, Brian developed Embodied Relationship Mentoring, an experience-based methodology for working with committed relationships which allows couples to honor each partner’s capacity to discover their greatest gifts and deepest truths. This authentic, rich and powerful journey is explored in couples workshops, professional workshops, books and CDs, and two books:: Going All the Way, The Heart and Soul of the Exceptional Marriage, and Exceptional Relationships: Transformation Through Embodied Couples Work.
Marcia Gleason, MSW
Marcia Gleason the co-founder, trainer and developer of Embodied Relationships. Marcia brings 45 years of experience, dedication and passion to working with matters of the mind, body and heart. Trained as a clinical social worker, Marcia recognized early on the limitations of talk therapy. After graduating with a Master’s of Social Work in 1978, she went on to pursue additional training in Core Energetics, Polyvagal therapy, , and Internal Family Systems deepening her understanding of the body and its role in the healing process.
Together with Brian, Marcia developed the Embodied Relationship Approach, which combines elements of emotional and body centered literacy. Her approach to her work synthesizes her clinical experience combined with her caring heart.
Marcia facilitates workshops and couples training programs for therapists in the US, Canada, Mexico, Holland, Greece, and Australia in the Exceptional Marriage approach. She is co-author of Going All the Way, The Heart and Soul of the Exceptional Marriage and Exceptional Relationships: Transformation Through Embodied Couples Work. She teaches Embodied Relationships at the New York Core Energetic Institute.
Seven years ago, she and Brian moved to Asheville, North Carolina from New York. Currently she has a private practice, leads workshops and classes and provides supervision to therapists. In addition to her therapeutic work with clients, Marcia loves creating mixed media art and mosaics.
Meet the Founders
Relationship Mentors
An Embodied Relationship
Get to Know Us
We have lived through peaks and valleys over the course of these four and a half decades. From possessed young lovers to obsessed parents and through the emergence of our life work together it has been, well, everything imaginable.
What we have learned is that everything can lead back to love, intimacy and deep growth, if we are open to facing each other in our most difficult places.
Our Vows
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To remember that there is more to each other than we can ever fully know.
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To allow our tender “child-like” places to have sufficient room to emerge and be held in compassion by our partner.
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To embrace conflict and accept that our messy interactions can lead to deeper empathy.
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To make it safe for each other by never losing sight of the other’s goodness.
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To care for ourselves and each other.
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To expect the unexpected.
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To take responsibility for our part in unhealthy interactions.
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To discover our sexuality anew as we continue to age.
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To have the humility and courage to acknowledge how important the other is to us.
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To be aware of and act upon our obligations to the world.
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To bring our relationship work to anyone who would like to make their relationship more exceptional.
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To bring our relationship work to anyone who would like to make their relationship more exceptional.
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To take big risks when life calls us to do so.
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To encourage each other’s individuality even when to do so might make us insecure or inconvenience us.