Mary Rocamora founded the Rocamora School
in 1984 to offer the Transformational Journey Course
and other programs she designed to help gifted adults
optimize their abilities. For some, these small group
classes lead to fulfilling the promise they demonstrated
as children. Others who were not formally identified
as gifted but share many of the personality traits
associated with giftedness are also benefited. The
School continues to develop new programs as an outgrowth
of her more than 24 years experience counseling gifted
and talented people - many of them in the entertainment
field.
Accepted with a scholarship into the
experimental Early Entrance Program at the University
of Chicago at age 15, she completed two years of the
program and left ahead of schedule to pursue studies
in cultural anthropology at the University of the
Philippines. In addition to completing her Bachelors
degree, she did a number of field studies in various
aspects of comparative culture and land use patterns
with mountain area tribal groups - including headhunters.
These field studies drew Mary's attention
to the subject of comparative belief systems. She
found that medical conditions that could be cured
in one tribe could not be effectively treated in another
one because of the tribes' differing beliefs. This
led her to take a closer look at individual beliefs,
where she found significant parallels. She achieved
Masters degrees in Anthropology from Cornell University
and in Psychology from the University of Colorado.
Her career took shape as she began counseling
gifted adults and looking at how their belief systems
impacted their self-actualization. Mary notes that
her approach is different from traditional psychotherapy:
"My private counseling and the Personal journey
Course have the effect of clearing out belief systems,
so they cease to obstruct creativity, vision, and
personal energy. The work is as deep and challenging
as each person wants to take it, and we have an enormous
amount of fun."
Mary is very knowledgeable about current
research on creativity, the nature of the inner process
of talent expression, gender differences that are
noted between gifted men and women, and strategies
for fulfillment of abilities. She has presented workshops
and appeared as a guest on radio and television programs
to discuss giftedness and strategies for optimization.
She also has a wide range of informed perspectives
on related concerns, such as the charter school movement
and how the public school system fails to nurture
or challenge gifted students; how "equal opportunity"
efforts, plus aspects of feminism, may undermine women's
progress; ways in which much of New Age thought perpetuates
spiritual immaturity; how belief patterns increase
emotional separation and isolation as well as impact
social and political conditions.
