Art Hochberg
After receiving his doctorate in Psychology in 1969, Dr. Art Hochberg proved himself to be a dynamic teacher and innovator in the field of psychology. Within a year of receiving his degree, he became the Psychology department head at St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, and also taught at Notre Dame University where he initiated several new courses and program changes toward the field of Humanistic Psychology. Dr. Hochberg was one of the earliest members of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and gave several talks on the subject at their annual conference.
While continuing to develop his own ideas in the field over the next nine years, he taught experientially-oriented psychology courses, travelling in Uganda, Ceylon, Israel, and Switzerland, among other countries. All the while, he was deepening his spiritual focus. He visited religious centers, spent a year in a Zen Buddhist monastery and has spent thirty-nine years studying with the Sufi Master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.
Dr. Hochberg’s vision was transformative on an organizational level as well. Wherever he worked, it was common for him to revamp the institution’s existing program, hire new staff, and take part in presenting the new program to the general public. Such examples in the late 70’s include Urbana College in Ohio where he was the Division Chairman of Social Services; in Fort Dix, NJ, where he was the Clinical Director of the Drug and Alcohol Program, supervising twenty drug and alcohol counselors, developing treatment programs for the patients at Walson Army Hospital, and conducting seminars around the base for commanders, soldiers, and their dependents. In 1979 at the newly established Fordham-Page Clinic in Radnor, PA where he was Clinical Director, responsible for counselor training, teaching nutrition, and presenting the clinic’s holistically-oriented program to the public.
In the early 80’s, Dr. Hochberg established his private practice. In the early years of his practice, he was known as a nutritional psychologist, since he was one of the few psychologists in the country at that time using nutrition in their practice. He appeared on television and was a radio guest numerous times speaking about the nutritional approach to the treatment of psychological problems. Several national magazines and newspapers also covered his groundbreaking work. He trained under such notable practitioners as Dr. Paavo Airola, a Finnish Nutritionist; Dr. John Christopher, a leading herbalist; and Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, who was the foremost orthomolecular psychiatrist at the time. Dr. Hochberg joined the International Academy of Preventive Medicine and spoke at several medical conferences about the role of Psychology and the body, appearing with Dr. Linus Pauling, and Dr. Jeffrey Bland, among others.
In addition, Dr. Hochberg had a practice at the Center for Preventive Medicine in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania for eleven years, and published fifteen articles on stress and nutrition. In November, 1981, Prevention Magazine wrote a feature article about his work on nutrition as he combined it with Psychology which was included in Prevention’s Complete Book of Vitamins in 1984. Dr. Hochberg also wrote a chapter in The Metabolic Management of Cancer — A Physicians Protocol and Reference Book. In 1993, he became the Director of the Holistic Health Program at Rosemont College in PA, and was also on the Adjunct Psychology faculty at Widener University. He also worked as a prison psychologist in southern New Jersey, and in several outpatient mental health clinics in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Currently, Dr. Hochberg continues to maintain his own private practice as a licensed psychologist, and mainly deals with the transformational process that people can experience as they go through the various “changes” in their life. These “changes” serve as the Process for each individual’s transformation, and greater self-awareness. In addition, Dr. Hochberg serves as an intake psycho
“If you plan on becoming sick then guess what - you may get sick. If you don’t plan on being sick you might get sick, but you won’t feel victimized.”
“Sometimes it seems that we initiate a scene and sometimes it seems that we’re just taking part in the scene. Actually, we’re initiating them all.”
“You know there’s plenty of love to go around. It takes the right situation to bring it out of people – and all situations are right.”
“There is no end to the story. Isn’t it amazing that something is really, really important one moment, and then minutes later it has lost all importance? What happened? It seems like it’s gone away. It’s been diffused. Amazing.”
“Did you ever have a conversation with different parts of yourself. Try it. It can be fun. You never know what you have to say to yourself.”
“Did you ever leave a scene and wonder, “What was that all about?”
“In a sense we have to keep sweeping out the trash. It all has to go. Your whole history – it has to go. The whole trip has to go so that you can go on.”
“Everything, everything that you experienced up to this point is gone – gone – so go on.”
“It’s not that the scene which is unfolding for you is out there – it’s coming from in here.”
“Don’t make a big deal out of a small deal - and you know everything is s small deal. Nothing is a big deal.”
“Everyone has a part in the play – especially little kids.”
“I don’t think that God cares about what you think. It’s the actions that count. Actually He doesn’t care what you do as long as you keep Him in mind.”
“How does it work? I have no idea. It may have something to do with trusting the process of your life totally.”
“You never know what you’re going to learn about a situation beforehand. Humility is a powerful tool on the path to greater humility.”
“For a man, he has to learn how to get along without a woman for periods of time. For a woman, she has to learn how to get along without a man for periods of time. That’s how men and women learn to be able to get along with each other.”
“Sometimes you wonder, “How did I get myself into that scene? Why did I take that on?” You know, you couldn’t really have done anything different at that time. Now maybe, if that comes around again, you might think twice, not think about it at all, or not do anything at all about it. But let it play itself out as it now presents itself. That’s called being open to life’s changes, however subtle or outrageous they come.”
“To pray with others is good. To pray alone is even better.”
“Love everyone. Why not? Give it a try.”
“There’s always less to do than you think. If there’s more to do than you think, then do that also.”
“When you really merge with someone, it’s not that you merge with them, you’re merging with love.”
“When you smell a flower, where is the smell before you smell the flower? Think about that one.”
“God gives you an infinite amount of time.”
“When you are around people who are really suffering, you get to experience some of their suffering and that can make you stronger in your faith.”
“Why is it that churches and religions and that whole gang behave as if they have got the whole God knowledge down. I mean what kind of arrogance is that?”
“You know, sometimes there’s absolutely nothing you can say about what you’ve been through, nothing. The whole trip is mind boggling. All you can do is shake your head and smile.”
“There are no coming attractions. It’s all here right now. The whole thing is being created right now.”
“I mean when you really, really, really think about it, the whole trip is really, really unbelievable.”
“Every day, each day is the most important day of your life.”
“Once you individuate from the Guru, you’re on your own Guru journey.”
“Why wouldn’t there be divine humor? That’s what the religions sometimes forget.”
“Patience slows down time and more can happen when time is slowed down. That’s the secret of patience.”
“The less you think you know, the more will be known. It’s amazing what you can know when you let go of being the knower.”
“Where do the scenes come from since space and time do not really exist? They come from somewhere, and where is that? Well, that’s the point of the mystery … to experience where somewhere is. I believe it has something to do with quiet and having no expectations.”
“Things look one way and then they look another way.”
“Religions are strange. They seem to be caught in some dream which they won’t give up and trying to convince others of the truth of their dream, when in fact each person is having their own dream. Take what you need from the religions and just leave the rest, and be all right with that.”
“There are many aspects to yourself. Which ones we reveal to ourselves is entirely up to us. To reveal this is a process of self-revelation.”
“There are no guarantees of how things are going to work out. They’re actually working out the way they need to be working out, no matter how outrageous they seem.”
“Everyone’s story is just their story. It may have little to do with you, or nothing to do with you.”
“It’s not our job to pick up another’s fears or even their strengths. Work on your own fears and strengths, that’s your spiritual practice.”
“It’s when we limit our choices that we begin to hone in on what we really want to do. This gives us direction – but what if we choose to do something that doesn’t turn out the way we thought we were directed? Then we deal with that until the next choice. In a sense, every day we get to redefine ourselves. Of course, that definition gets to be redefined in its time. And that’s how we keep evolving.”
“Men and women relate and understand things differently – period!”
“If you don’t like what’s playing, change the channel.”
“Comforting others can be tricky. It can get real sticky, if we think we are the comforter. There really is only one comforter.”
“Childhood can be a scary experience, depending on who is doing the caring and how daring the caring.”
“Accepting the rule that others want us to play is fine, as long as we’re fine with it.”
“Relaxing is hard to do at times. Worrying and agitation are even harder on the body and mind.”
“If we want less and less, we may in fact receive more and more of what we need. It may work like that.”
“Everyone and everything comes into our life at exactly the right time.”
“We have to be rid of all paradigms, I mean all, and go to that place where all paradigms dissolve. That’s what this certainly is all about; especially the scary paradigms. Do you really think that we are all going to Hell, or even Heaven? This is not about punishment and reward. We already have the reward. It’s the grace of this journey into the heart of the Creator and being a part of that creation.”
“Sometimes things seem out of our hands. They are, mostly. The great paradox is that this thing is totally out of our hands, or are we creating this as we go along? Then the issue is, “Who is the Creator.”