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Peter Fortunato, MFA, CHT Poet & Artist, Novelist, Certified Hypnotherapist, Ordained Minister 

Welcome! You’ve found my website. On this homepage is basic information about me and my professional services.  On this site you’ll also find information about my literary activities, a gallery of my artwork, links to my social media platforms, and my occasional blog.

My novel, Carnevale, is now available in print and e-book formats. Click on this link to my publisher’s website for complete information and easy, on line purchasing:  https://www.fomitepress.com/carnevale.html

I am a practitioner of complementary alternative medicine working in several mind/body modalities.  I specialize in hypnosis, Reiki, shamanic healing and Buddhist based counseling.   In essence, I help people to learn about themselves so as to enable their personal and spiritual growth.  I have experience with all of the classical applications of hypnosis including stress reduction, smoking cessation, phobia eradication, pain control, decision making, past-life regressions, preparing for surgery, preparing for birthing, and performance excellence. 

I am an educator and life coach, a spiritual guide rather than a mental health practitioner. My services are professional in nature, not “medical” or “psychological,” and so, I do not accept insurance reimbursements. I have been in private practice for more than 25 years in Ithaca, NY, and I have worked with hundreds of clients on many kinds of issues.

As well as being a healer, I’m a poet, novelist, essayist, performer, ceremony maker, visual artist, and teacher.  I use the term 21^st Century Shamanism to describe the organic relationship among my gifts.  Read at length about 21^st Century Shamanism on the page with that title. 

This painting on paper entitled “A and All the Rest” says several things about my work as an artist, author, and hypnotherapist.  On one level, the title refers to the first letter of the alphabet, rendered here in one of my favorite tones of blue: sky blue, light blue, baby blue, call it what you will: the name of a hue is provisional, and in fact, I can’t say that I even intended the shape of the letter A when the paint came off my palette knife. Like most of my artwork and writing, the process was inductive; that is, over time, amounting to a finished composition. 

I create in order to see what it is that I see, and I write in order to discover what it is that I have to say.  This places emphasis on the unconscious mind as the matrix of creativity.  The conscious mind, the critical mind, the part of me that decides how to further a work by shaping it to express an idea, usually comes forward afterwards. 

The unconscious mind is far more powerful and aware than we ordinarily assume: we believe we’re in charge of our thoughts, but on closer observation, for example during hypnotic trance or during meditation, we might realize how, in effect, our thoughts are thinking themselves, unless we take control of them, as we do when deliberating on a topic.  Even in such instances, however, we might scratch our heads and ask ourselves, “Where did that idea come from?”  

A final thought on this subject and this painting, “A and All the Rest”:  the background came first, a delightful dance of colors and lines, playful splashing on a piece of paper without a goal in mind; but then, on looking at it and recognizing that I wasn’t satisfied with what I’d done so far, something in me called for that blue slash of sky in the foreground.  When I saw it as the letter A, the title came to me.   It could be pronounced Ah—the primordial sound of creation according to the Tibetan tradition of Dzogchen, which is translated as The Natural Great Perfection. 

For many years I taught writing at both Cornell University and Ithaca College, and from 2005 through 2009 I taught at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. There, my writing seminars for the Pre-Medical Program introduced future doctors from all over the world to literature in English, as well as to such subjects as narrative medicine and psychology.

I’m non-sectarian, and I’m always interested in how others make sense of their reality. However, as a Buddhist practitioner for more than 40 years, I have applied its principles in many settings and with diverse people.  As an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church I frequently perform non-sectarian and interdenominational services, including weddings.

Telephone me to talk about yourself or send me an e-mail. Take some time at my website—and thank you for visiting!

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