Padrinho Paulo Roberto

Padrinho Paulo Roberto and Madrinha Nonata are the padrinho and madrinha of Ceu do Mar in Rio the Janeiro. Madrinha Nonata is a daughter of Padrinho Sebastião and sister of Padrinho Alfredo. Paulo Roberto Silva e Souza received a degree in psychology from the University of Gamafilho in Rio. His training included psychoanalysis, bioenergetics, gestalt, as well as various psycho-spiritual healing modalities. At the age of twenty-five he worked as a psychologist for the Brazilian government in Amazonia. There he began what was to be a life long study of the psychological and spiritual effects plants of the rainforest have on communities of native people. Initiation into a religious order in which God, the Holy Spirit and nature were revered, enabled Paulo Roberto to study the sociological and familial structures of Amazonian communities that were not psychologically orientated but rather informed by direct communication with the Divine. As a psychologist in Rio de Janeiro, he worked at the suicide prevention center of Pinel Hospital, with psychotic patients at the Pedro II Psychiatric Hospital; with psychotic patients at the Anna Freud Clinic, and with psychopathic children at Santa Thereza Hospital. At the same time he continued to develop his work integrating the science of the mind with theology that spoke to the spirit. In 1982 he became the head of a church in Rio de Janeiro, as he found that he could provide more profound assistance to more people in this way than in a clinic. In tackling the challenge of helping the masses of people who are poor, in great despair, turning toward crime and drugs, without the resources to find or pay for psychological help, he found the church to be a more immediate and available source of solace and enlightenment. Since his first lecture at Harvard University 15 years ago, Paulo Roberto has been invited to universities and conferences around the world to share his knowledge of Christian-Spirituality. As well, he is one of the foremost English speaking authorities on the psycho-spiritual work of Amazonian communities. The demand for his teachings throughout North America has dramatically risen in the last few years as the globe shrinks and the thirst for spiritual guidance has increased.