Founder & Director - Mary Rocamora
- Mary formally created The Rocamora School in 1984 to offer the Transformational Journey Courses 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 are not formally identified as gifted but share many of the associated personality traits may also benefit.
The school continues to develop new programs as an outgrowth of Mary's 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.
Also see Services Offered by Mary Rocamora.
Assistant Director & Web Director - Kate Oliver
- Kate has been studying the Awareness Training Method for 10yrs plus, personally and now in a facilitation capacity. She is preparing to teach her first Online Correspondence Course this coming September 2010, as well as developing a method to blend Awareness training with her bodywork.
She was certified in Massage Therapy in 1998 by The Massage Therapy Institute of Colorado. The program entailed 1050 hours of training in various modalaties such as: Swedish, Deep Tissue, Anma, Neuromuscular Therapy, Myofascial Release and Kinesiology. She went on to learn specialized techniques like Reiki, Craniosacral Therapy, and Structural Integration. With practice Kate learned that each style or technique carries a specific energetic quality for a unique match with each person in every session. Experience also taught her that working with peoples' bodies activates emotional, energetic, psychological and spiritual responses in addition to the basic biological effect. The realization of the dynamic needs that arise during a session like matching the individual's pace, receptivity, and capacity, unearthed her yearning to offer a much deeper experience than a standard massage. She found the most effective and profound results occur when she can invite a person's willingness to participate in their healing process and she holds a space for that person to consciously cultivate his or her innate awareness throughout the session.
In 2002 Kate's passion for filmmaking was rekindled after seeing the second film in the "Lord of The Rings Trilogy". She combined her interest in travel with the desire to learn more about the reality of getting a film made and signed up for film school in New Zealand. The year at South Seas Film and Television School was a great beginning. In 2004 after a failed attempt to get a work visa to stay longer in Auckland, Kate returned home with high optimism.
Disappointment soon ensued when her effort to build a network of filmmakers who wanted to abandon the linear and mainstream route for creating from the free state was continually thwarted with limitation and cynicism. However her inner work with Mary prevailed and continued to expand her view. With each new idea she was paving the way toward her dream project, a documentary about Mary, her body of work and Awareness itself.
And now with the business partnership between Mary and Kate growing and The Rocamora School's visibility expanding through the internet, an ideal environment is occurring to birth this very important film into existence.
Also see Services Offered by Kate Oliver.