Dr. Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Architect and Designer of the Mythogenic Self™ Process
Who is Dr. Joseph Riggio?
Of course Joseph (as he is referred to by almost everyone - a notable exception are those who insist upon being referred to by their professional titles themselves) is probably most well-know as the architect and developer of the Mythogenic Self™ Process and an international figure in the professional NLP™ and hypnosis communities. However, he is also just as well-known beyond these communities as a remarkably talented advisor and coach to some of the most powerful individuals in international business and political circles. He works with these clients developing strategies regarding moving forward both on their own and just as often in regard to entire teams of individuals.
What Joseph may be most renown for in his professional capacity as advisor and coach is his extraodinary insight to what motivates people to action, both personally and professionally, and his ability to organize the means to articulate the specific messages that will move these individuals to actually taking action. This may just as often be a conversation regarding the next step in an executive or professional career as it will be a plan to transform an entire organization to attain a new level of competence in meeting the demands of an ever-changing and often chaotic marketplace. His ability to assist his clients in meeting these challenges on a personal and professional level that will frequently exceed the expectations of the clients themselves is legendary.
What is Joseph's primary work?
As noted above Joseph is probably most well-known for his work with the Mythogenic Self Process™, which he designed and continues to develop. This work most often involves one or more of the following:
- Advising and coaching clients individually and in small groups to create breakthroughs in their lives by establishing a sustainable position which supports them in their own becoming themselves - regardless of the context
- Presenting the MythoSelf® material to audiences internationally - often in the form of one the programs Joseph has developed for a target-audience to generate a similarly targeted outcome
- Leading professional training programs for those wishing to learn and become certified and licensed in the MythoSelf® material themselves
No less significantly, but much less frequently you'll find Joseph working with his close associates or private mentoring clients to develop extremely high levels of effectiveness using this material in their own lives and with others.
What is less known about Joseph however, is that in addition to his work in and with the MythoSelf® material you're just as likely to find him working with his professional client organizations to:
- Consulting to improve individual and organizational interaction and performance internally and externally
- Leading intensive professional development programs with groups and/or teams of professionals
- Advising/coaching professionals who are interested in peak performance on their own
In this domain he is known in this work as an expert in the applied patterns of communication, persuasion, negotiation, motivation and creativity. So while Joseph is extremely well-known for and loves his work with the MythoSelf® material as a personal development professional, he is also fully steeped in and deeply committed to his relationship and roots in the world of business and large organizations - sometimes even working using his knowledge and skills in moving people on major community and/or societal projects as well.
What is Joseph currently working on beyond his own private and professional client work?
One of Joseph's primary areas of interest is in continual development of the Mythogenic Self™ Process and the models that have been developed incorporating and applying it with others. These models include the work Joseph has done in developing his Soma-Semantic™ Modeling Process, the Dance of the Elements™ movement and somatic education training that Joseph has developed, the Exquisite Performance™ Series of workshops and trainings and his advanced work in "intentionality" outlined below.
- Exquisite Performance™ Series:
The Exquisite Performance™ Series of programs is designed to apply this work to specific target groups for specific applications and outcomes. The programs that Joseph has developed or is currently in the process of developing in this series includes:
- EPC™, Exquisite Performance™ Coaching - Performance Coaching for Individuals and Groups
- ExquisiteAcuity™ - Calibration Training, including Pattern Recognition/Tracking and introducing Adumbration
- ExquisiteTeens™ - A MythoSelf® Program for Teens from 13 - 18 years of age
- ExquisiteParenting™ - A MythoSelf® Program for Parents of children of all ages
- ExquisiteRelationships™ - A MythoSelf® Program for and about Relationships
- ExquisiteHealth™ - A MythoSelf® Program for and about Health
Joseph has also developed two other extraordinary programs delivered internationally based on and including the Mythogenic Self™ Process.
- Secrets of Wealth Attraction Success™ - A MythoSelf ® Program for Developing Extraordinary Success in Life
- Command Presence™ - A MythoSelf® Program about Personal Presence, Power and Language
- Intentional Modeling/Intentional Decision-Making:
Another area that Joseph is fascinated by and fully engaged in continues to be around his advanced work with intentionality, especially in the modeling process and decision-making.
Intentional Modeling uses a teleological modeling process Joseph has developed to eliminate the projection of the past into the future, thereby freeing the process of the limitation imposed upon the future by the past. Joseph's intentional modeling process allows for the development of radically innovative solutions that are build "whole- cloth" in the future-space organized to pull the solution intended into a manifest, extant form.
Intentional Decision-Making is an idea that runs counter to most decision-making models which are built around the analysis and deductions of historical modeling. Like intentional modeling, intentional decision-making is built around a teleological modeling process. This process invokes the use of bulding "future memories" instead of goals/outcomes, and building the process to create the movement between the "event horizons" that separate the "future memory" from the present.
Joseph built this process that he uses in his intentional modeling and intentional decision-making models based on his years of apprenticing with Roye Fraser learning the Generative Imprint™ Model and Function Model™ material, as well as the years of study spent developing the Mythogenic Self™ Process and completing the research for his Ph.D. The foundation for this advanced work in the area of intentionality as it applies to modeling and decision-making is the "Trajectory of INTENT™" model that Joseph has developed. This model (the Trajectory of INTENT) is based on the work of Roye Fraser, John Searle, David Bohm and others who have laid the essential groundwork for the transpersonal process that Joseph continues to develop and explore.
How does Joseph typically do his private and professional client work?
Joseph's approach is somewhat unique in that he prefers longer and more intensive single one-to-one sessions addressing specific areas of concern or attention (from 2+ hrs. up to 2 days in length, with breaks and an overnight stay of course) than something that would resemble an ongoing therapeutic relationship spread over a long term. He has and often does work with clients in a mentoring type of relationship over a number of sessions to build competencies in multiple life areas or in addressing mulitiple areas of concern or attention. This approach however remains within the structure of contained intensive single sessions that are then linked through time to build on the existing skills that have been developed previously.
This approach is ideal for the professional client who has a situation they want to master or an issue that prevents them from getting on with their lives and producing the results they desire. On occasion Joseph will work with an individual client seeking an intensive learning and developmental experience as a professional coach, providing personalized training and advice related to 'real time' situations.
Joseph is known worldwide for the precision, directness and intensity of his approach intertwined with his down to earth sense of humor and style.
How else does Joseph work with private and professional clients?
- Small Group Facilitation and Development:
In addition to private one-to-one sessions with Joseph on occassion he also leads group training for either personal or professional development. The way Joseph most typically sets up such work is in locations where a number of clients that he's worked with before can comfortably come together. This will typically be a hotel, conference center or resort, possibly in a city that is geographically central to the individuals Joseph invites to participate in the group, or it could be in conjuction with a training program that Joseph is running where he'll decide to add a day or two onto his trip to make this kind of program available to those who want it.
The great advantage of working with Joseph in this way are:
- The group format allows Joseph to use the experience and participation of the group's members to enhance the learning experience for everyone
- The cost of working with Joseph in a group format like this is significantly less than working with him privately one-to-one, yet in his opinion just as effective always - and depending on the group and the day sometimes even more effective because of the dynamic present in the group itself.
This context and environment is among Joseph's absolute favorite forums to work with people and present his material to them in a highly personal and yet communally effective manner. More and more Joseph is developing this format of doing "private work" with individuals in a small group setting.
- MythoSelf® Training Programs:
His most well known program is an intensive personal development workshop, the Mythogenic Self™ Process (or MythoSelf®). The Mythogenic Self™ Process is built on a model of transformational work developed by Joseph that he calls Soma-Semantic™ Modeling. You can also attend training in Soma-Semantic Modeling (e.g.: Exquisite Performance™ Series - Exquisite Acuity™) and the entire MythoSelf® professional training series including;
- Mytho2™ - MythoSelf® Facilitator's Training
- Mytho4™ - MythoSelf ®Advanced Facilitator's Training
- Mytho8™ - MythoSelf® Trainer's Training
- Mytho16™ - MythoSelf® Advanced Trainer's Training
if you are interested in developing the skills of transformational communication yourself.
On occasion Joseph also presents training in Neurolinguistic Programming and Hypnosis ranging from workshops on NLP™ or Hypnosis topics to NLP™ Certification training leading to certification through the Society of NLP™, with other well known NLP™ Trainers and Master Trainers.
Who are some of Joseph's sources and inspirations for the work he's doing?
In part, what makes Joseph's approach unique is that he draws from so many sources and inspirations in his own work. He began his exploration into human peak performance as a young athelete seeking to improve his own performance in the sports in which he himself was active. He was a competive wrestler and boxer, as well as playing football in both high school and college. In addition to the organized sports in which Joseph competed he began studying Eastern Martial Arts at the age of 11, initially on his own and then with a series of master teachers.
He holds a 4th-Degree Black Belt in Okinawan Karate, a 1st-Degree Black Belt in Aiki-Jujitsu and he has also studied Aikido, Chin Na, Tai Chi, Krav Maga and numerous other forms of martial arts as well. From this experience Joseph was led into many forms of alternative healing, including - shiatsu, kiatsu, moxibuxtion, tui na and many other forms of hands-on and body work, as well as both Eastern and Western forms of herbalism. All of this "informal" study influenced Joseph extensively as he continued to explore both human potential and performance.
Beyond this personal pursuit of peak performance training Joseph became extremely interested as a result of this activity in two other parallel studies he pursued with vigor - bodywork and peak performance states (i.e.: mental states of peak performance). This lead him directly to the study or hypnosis and NLP with regard to his interest in working with peak performance states. He is certified at the highest levels in both for a lay (non-medical) practitioner, as a Master NLP™ Coach and Trainer and as a Clinical Hypnotherapist. His interest in bodywork led him to the exploration of the Alexander Technique™, Feldenkrais™ Method and Somatics™ (Thomas Hanna's work). In addition to his work with alternative healing this training developed his awareness and skillset in the area of the somatic aspect of human performance at a level rarely encountered in other practitioners.
While Joseph is highly well-read in traditional psychotherapeutic approaches, both Western and Eastern, Traditional and Modern, he is not an academically trained psychotherapist (he claims never to have taken a psychology course during his entire academic career). Yet some of the founders of modern psychotherapeutic approaches have significantly influenced him through their writings. They include: Freud, Jung, Adler, Reich and Lacan among the earlier pioneers in psychotherapy. Some other practitioners of the therapeutic approaches that have influenced Joseph also include: Milton Erickson, David Reynolds .
Other corollary areas of study that captured Joseph's attention early on included: anthropology (especially modern and applied) - (e.g.: Whorf and Sapir, Bateson and E.T. Hall) as well as folks like Joseph Chilton Pierce who was on the cutting edge of medical anthropology, social pyschology - (e.g.: Lewin, Bandura) and many miscellaneous sources in the areas of philosophy (e.g.: Wittgenstein), philosophy of mind (e.g.: Searle, Dennett), linguistics/semantics/semiotics (e.g.: Korzybski, Chomsky, Eco) and neuroscience (e.g.: Jaynes, Gazzaniga, Pinker, Stern).
And, most assuredly, the following are among the most influential sources that Joseph references intimately in his work:
- Roye Fraser - Generative Imprint™ and Function Mode™ Models
- Joseph Campbell - The "Hero's Journey" model
- John Grinder and Richard Bandler - NLP™, Neurolinguistic Programming
- Dr. Clare Graves - Graves' Model of Biopsychosocial Evolution
And the many, many peers and colleagues that have shared themselves and their work with Joseph along the way including, but not limited to: Wyatt Woodsmall, Dennis Chong, Sid Jacobson, Finn Strandgaard, Steven Cerri, Robert (Bob) Brandau and John LaValle.
Bio:
Dr. Joseph Riggio is the architect and designer of the Mythogenic Self™ Process. Joseph holds a Ph.D. in Business from Berne University, having completed his studies and dissertation on "transpersonal decision-making in human systems." In addition, Joseph apprenticed and studied intensively for ten years with Master NLP™ Trainer, Roye Fraser or NLP America/ Blue Dell Systems, the creator of the Generative Imprint™ Model and is one of a select few to be approved as a trainer of the Generative Imprint™ Model by Roye. He is also a licensed NLP™ Master Coach and Trainer with the Society of NLP™. His previous work experience includes private practice in architecture and many years as a professional animal behaviorist and trainer. Joseph is the owner of Applied Behavioral Technologies, Inc. (1990), a personal and professional development training group, and is the co-founder of JS Riggio International (1996), an international consultancy specializing in executive/professional developmental advisement, facilitation, coaching and training with offices in the United States (New Jersey, California), England, UK (London) and Denmark (Copenhagen). Dr. Riggio also holds certification and membership with many professional societies and associations including: APA - American Psychotherapy Association, ABBP - American Board of Body-Psychotherapy, ASTD - American Society of Tranining and Development, ISAP - International Society of Applied Psychology and IBLEA/IBLEC - International Board of Licensed Executive Advisors/Coaches.
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Many thanks in addition to all those who are part of the entire MythoSelf journey, including the trainers, facilitators and each and every participant who's given their time and energy to this work. Also, a special thanks to Alethea Jacob, Jon Nicoll, Melissa and Janice Moore for their assistance in helping to proof this page, as well as Michael Marks for providing input on the cropping of the photo at the top of the page (the one with Joseph wearing sunglasses) to improve the energy balance and impact of it. | 
