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Lee Conger, LMFT

 

Lee Conger is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Certified Integral Qigong and Tai Chi Teacher. Due to COVID-19, all the services he offers are virtual—psychotherapy (individual and group) and Integral Qigong and Tai Chi sessions.

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"Beginning in 1999, I grew increasingly captivated by the idea that '[w]e become the stories we tell each other and ourselves, producing effects that range from the ridiculous to the sublime' (Jay S. Efrans, Michael D. Lukens, Robert J. Lukens; Language, Structure and Change: Frameworks of Meaning in Psychotherapy) and found myself enthralled during conversations and conjoint studies with a community of Narrative Therapy practitioners. Through the years, clients and I have benefitted from locating problems that we humans experience as entities apart from ourselves.

Until July, 2020, Lee served as a clinician with Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (LAMC). He first affiliated with Kaiser in 1998. His earliest experiences in leading guided imagery meditations were the outcome of training in 1999 with the Southern California Society for Clinical Hypnosis (SCSCH). In 2004, Lee began facilitating weekly meditation workshops and relaxation techniques workshops for Kaiser members enrolled in the Los Angeles Medical Center Addiction Medicine Department’s Intensive Outpatient Program.

 
In 2011-2012, Lee completed training as a Certified Integral Qigong and Tai Chi Teacher with Roger Jahnke, O.M.D., through the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IIQTC). He immediately began offering instruction in IIQTC’s Tai Chi Easy™ to members of the Arroyo S.E.C.O Network of Time Banks. Based on material from his IIQTC training, he developed the curriculum “Mind-Body Recovery Techniques” and began offering those classes in 2011 at Kaiser. They continue still. (Some current students' participation dates back to 2012.) 
 
Lee expanded his repertoire via continued studies with Jahnke (The Nine Phases of Qi Cultivation, The Seven Precious Gestures, ​Chinese Medicine Wheel Meditation, Microcosmic Orbit Meditation), Meg Flynn (Wang Ji Wu Sixteen Longevity Exercises, Guigen Qigong, Baduanjin Qigong aka “Eight Pieces of Brocade”) and with Susan Quon and the late Marvin Smalheiser, founder in 1977 of Tai Chi Magazine (Yang 108-Move Long Form Tai Chi). Lee has led sessions regularly at Kaiser LAMC, at the Ortiz Taylor House (Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument 1144), the Anabolic Monument (Los Angeles State Historic Park), and the Metabolic Studio. His 2014 “Intro to Tai Chi” workshop helped inaugurate Trade School Los Angeles (barter-based instruction). In 2015, Lee launched Mind-Body Los Angeles (Facebook page and Google calendar) to track and promote free, low-cost, or donation-based meditation, Tai Chi, Yoga, or other so-called "complementary" practices.
 
CURRENT OFFERINGS

  • "Mind-Body Recovery Techniques" (based on Integral Qigong and Tai Chi and Mindfulness Meditation), Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, 1505 N. Edgemont St., Los Angeles, CA 90027) For Kaiser members. Copay: $0. Tuesdays, 7PM. See curriculum here.

  • Relaxation Techniques Workshop, Intensive Outpatient (Day Treatment) Program, Kaiser Permanente LAMC Addiction Medicine, 1050 N. Edgemont St., Los Angeles, CA 90027. Tuesdays, 1:30PM. For Kaiser members. See curriculum here.

  • Meditation Workshop, Intensive Outpatient (Day Treatment) Program, Kaiser Permanente LAMC Addiction Medicine, 1050 N. Edgemont St., Los Angeles, CA 90027. Thursdays, 3PM. For Kaiser members. See curriculum here.

  • New! Fall-Winter, 2019-20: Walking Meditation, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center Hospital, 2nd Floor Healing Garden, 4867 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027. Select Thursdays, 6:45-7:30AM. A free offering via Kaiser's Healthy Workforce Program. (Visitors to the hospital may join in.) See details and schedule here.

  • New! Introducing "Urban Wilderness Qigong + Native Habitat Restoration"! Select 2nd, 4th, and 5th Sundays, beginning 10:30AM, in a sycamore-and-yucca grotto on the "paper street" (which is to say, unpaved and undeveloped) stretch of Adelbert Ave. in Silver Lake. The format:

    • ​10:30-11:30AM Qigong (Integral Qigong and Tai Chi)
      11:30AM-12:30PM Participants are encouraged to help with native habitat restoration along any one of three more or less contiguous "paper streets" and along the Corralitas Red Car Property, a startling 10-acre, 50 ft. wide by 1 mile long strip of undeveloped land where the Pacific Electric Red Car trolley ran, 1904-1955, connecting Burbank and Glendale with Downtown L.A. I will have a list of tasks, ranging from easy to strenuous, for folks to pick from.

    • 12:30-1:30PM Those who wish can enjoy a potluck picnic, zero(ish) waste style (with little to no plastic or styrofoam use).

    • ​Location, Plan A: Meet me outside the Ortiz Taylor House (Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #1144) at 2650 Lake View Avenue, L.A. 90039 at 10:15am sharp to hike together into the wilderness. Otherwise, find necessarily complicated directions here, along with the schedule of upcoming sessions.

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AHEAD

2019-20


HIGHLIGHTS
2019

  • November 10: Co-organized and facilitated the Definitional Ceremony "Outsider Witness Team" at the 5th Annual Los Angeles Postmodern Psychotherapists's Gathering, USC

  • October 10: Began offering Kaiser Healthy Workforce Walking Meditation at the Los Angeles Medical Center Hospital, 2nd Floor Healing Garden, 4867 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027. To continue on select Thursdays. See details and schedule here.

  • Sept. 14: Co-organized and hosted the inaugural gathering of Kaiser Complementary and Alternative Medicine (KCAM) providers: Kaiser physicians, pharmacists, social workers, and psychotherapists, who are interested in further development of integrative medicine at Los Angeles Medical Center. (The group continues to meet monthly on a volunteer basis.)

2018

​2016-2017

​2015

2014

​2013

  • August 14: Led Guigen Qigong (Earth Element and Fire Element only) for Series Studies #1 Yellow/Red​​

  • June 19: Led Tai Chi Easy™ session for Heal One World

  • June 18: Was profiled at "Urban Healers: A chronicle of the every day heroes that enhance the urban collective experience" 

  • ​February 3: Led Integral Qigong and Tai Chi mini-sessions at Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; as part of a special “Repair Yourself Cafe” edition of Transition Pasadena's bi-monthly Repair Cafe events  ​

2012

  • ​November 8: Presented at Institute for Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IIQTC) Level 3 Training, La Casa de Maria Retreat Center, Montecito, CA

  • July 25: Began leading Integral Qigong and Tai Chi sessions, Anabolic Monument / Under Spring / Metabolic Studio, Downtown Los Angeles

  • March 28: Presented at Institute for Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IIQTC) Level 1 Training, Wimberly, TX   

2011

  • October 8: Practiced Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IQTC) at Flash Mob Meditation, Pershing Square

  • September 20: Began Mind-Body Recovery Techniques classes, Kaiser Permanente (continuing still, as of November, 2019)

  • July 19: Began offering Tai Chi Easy™ classes via the Echo Park Time Bank

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LEE CONGER, LMFT: PSYCHOTHERAPY BIO
In his work as psychotherapist, he continues providing individual and group sessions at Kaiser’s LAMC Addiction Medicine Department. He supervised LMFT trainees and Associate LMFTs (Interns) there (until the c. 30-year program was terminated in 2019). Since 2017, he has provided pro bono supervision for Southern California Counseling Center. He treasures the support of the Los Angeles Postmodern Psychotherapists community and is occasionally called upon to lead Definitional Ceremony reflecting teams of "outsider witnesses" for LA PoMo trainings. 
Lee is an EMDRIA-trained provider of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). He is preparing to provide EMDR to private practice clients for the treatment of trauma.
Contact: MindBodyLosAngeles@gmail.com