Embodying the Sacred Self:
A Conference of Renewal
and Connection

As people of hope and courage committed to the well-being of our country, the Friends Conference on Religion & Psychology will convene its 83rd gathering over Memorial Day weekend with a focus on engaging with the world from the Light of the Sacred Self during challenging times.

Ours is an annual conference that began in the shadow of World War II, with Quakers seeking the enlightened counsel of psychiatrist Carl Jung and his wife, Emma, as to how modern individuals can use psychology to heal inner wounds and be more skillful peacemakers.  
 

The idea of healing the healer lives on in us, though the body politic of our nation is fracturing. Even with the challenges before us, we hold – as people committed to psychological and spiritual health -- that we can stay true to our core values without being overrun by anxiety, anger and fear. 
 

Whatever unfolds in our nation, we are people who seek kindness, meaning and spiritual uplift. And we are pleased that our conference is a safe place to experience the authenticity of others and for each of us to be seen for who we are. 
 

Because of our integrity in creating our conference, seekers of every kind have been drawn to our offerings. That includes therapists, social workers, spiritual leaders, and those searching for spiritual growth in their own professions. Over the decades, mental health professionals have helped plan our conference and they’ve come as attendees for exposure to new concepts in the study of our emotions, our mind and our soul. 

 

And so, we will gather on the tranquil 24-acre Pendle Hill campus, a wooded retreat and study center in in Wallingford, PA. We invite you to join us from Friday May 23 rd to Sunday May 25th, and become part of our community. The three-day schedule will allow you to be at home to celebrate Memorial Day with friends and family, and this allows us to reduce fees (from past years) for everyone.
 

In 2025, we are asking: How might we stay centered in the Self in times of turmoil when life goes haywire around us? Our guide is a master psychologist and deeply spiritual man, psychologist Tom Holmes, Ph.D. 

 

Tom has been a professor, a therapist and a trainer in his field for 45 years and for much of that time he has traveled the world, helping therapists place the Sacred Self in the foreground of awareness. He is someone whose presence often awakens individuals to who they really are. 
 

With Tom’s assistance, we plan to offer a true retreat experience, combining engaging ideas, with interesting conversation and relaxation in a natural setting. We like to think that conferences do not last for 83 years unless they are doing something right. 

 

In fact, attendees like that we focus more on healing than hand wringing. They like that we are not dogmatic, but open to all sorts of ideas to improve our well-being. 
 

Tom has been invited to be our speaker, because he was our plenary presenter in 2024 and proved to be the among the best-loved speakers in our history – a history that includes mythologist Joseph Campbell, poets Robert Bly and David Whyte, as well as the Jungian analyst Marion Woodman.  
Last year, attendees shared in the warmth of Tom’s spiritual practices and they reported heart openings and peak experiences. They asked that we bring him back. To put it simply, our attendees find Tom – and his offerings, which include the dances of Universal Peace – delightfully stimulating. 
 

You do not have to have been with us last year to benefit fully from Tom’s presentations. 2025 is a new year, and Tom’s plenaries will once again be accessible to all. (By the way, some conferences are so large you never get to have a private moment with the speaker. Here, the opposite is true. If you would like to have a one-on-one dialogue with Tom, sit with him in our rustic dining hall or outside under Pendle Hill’s stately trees.) 
 

Tom is a psychologist’s psychologist. He has trained mental health professionals in international areas of conflict such as the Middle East and Ukraine. We might say that Tom’s workshops and presentations are about the fostering of heart harmonics so our external polarization does not become an inner polarization. At Pendle Hill, his goal is to help us stay in touch with an unguarded place within.  
 

For us, Tom will use many of the concepts of Internal Family Systems, an evidence-based practice that is winning converts around the globe. IFS clinical studies have shown such positive results with clients that it is now hard find an open seat in trainings. The demand is great and we are pleased to say that this year we can offer clinicians CEUs for the weekend. 
 

If you are not familiar with IFS, it is a transformative therapeutic model that views the mind as a complex system of parts, each with its own perspective and role. These parts often carry their own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. IFS offers a structured way to assess and understand the different parts within a client, providing insight into their interactions in the world. 

 

At its core, IFS is also built on the belief that everyone has a sacred Self that is centered, compassionate, and capable of healing.  In this way, IFS is in tune with Carl Jung’s model of there being a Self at the center of the psyche, as well as the Quaker teaching that there is guiding Inner Light in everyone. 
 

As we grapple with a changing world, how do we center in the stillness of the essential Self and maintain connection with friends and family, and those who look to us for guidance?
 

Join us in May, as Tom Holmes guides us in answering this question – a question vital for seekers – and healers -- in our time.