Dale Goldstein, LCSW
Spiritual Director & Teacher of the Heartwork Institute
Dale Goldstein is a Clinical Social Worker and Licensed Psychotherapist who has been actively exploring, since 1966, the uses of meditative, healing, and psychotherapeutic tools in the process of healing individuals, groups, and organizations.
Dale attended the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, where he received a B.S. in Secondary Education in 1967, and a Master of Social Work degree in 1969. In 1971, feeling a lack of depth in his life, Dale moved to Rochester, NY to practice Zen under the guidance of Roshi Philip Kapleau. In 1980, he changed to an inquiry/awareness meditative practice with Toni Packer, with whom he worked for eight more years. hen, Dale has continued to explore the uses of meditative, healing, and psychotherapeutic tools for
opening the heart/mind with a number of world-renowned teachers.
In 1977, Dale co-founded and directed the Rochester Center for the Healing Arts, a wholistic health education and multi-disciplinary treatment center. During this time, Dale also trained in Polarity Therapy, a healing art, with Dr. Pierre Pannetier, and practiced and taught Polarity Therapy throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
In 1981, Dale coalesced over fifteen years of study, work, and personal practice into “Heartwork,” a gentle, deeply penetrating process that supports the growth and healing of the body/mind/spirit of individuals and organizations. For 29 years, Dale served as director of The Heartwork Institute, home to his private counseling practice and a variety of seminars and workshops that he facilitates internationally. In early 2010, Dale was able to step down as director of the Heartwork Institute to focus on his roles as Teacher and Spiritual Director of the organization. In addition to teaching through the Heartwork Institute, Dale has also taught at venues such as Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, The Crossings, Rowe Conference Center, Spirit House (Bermuda), and numerous Unity and other churches.
Dale also has worked as a volunteer with cancer and hospice organizations as a primary caregiver and group facilitator and has written monthly columns for the New Health Digest and The World Times, the international “good news newspaper.”
Since 1994, Dale has been helping businesses and not-for-profit organizations develop the tools and practice of self-awareness to help individuals and organizations connect their unique life experiences to create and sustain a successful, humane work environment. Dale believes firmly that individuals and groups can connect their most profound experiences and knowledge to their day-to-day work. He opens himself and others to that possibility by looking deeply into his own heart as he invites other to do the same. Dale’s past and present clients include Kodak, County of Arlington Virginia, New Horizons Computer Learning Center, Cancer Action, and Lifetime Health.
A seeker of Truth, Dale’s work has been most deeply influenced by the meditative, psychotherapeutic, and personal growth work he has done, his life partners -- who have insisted he be a whole person – his two children, and his men’s group.