For some reason, I have been avoiding this topic in principle for years. That would be the topic of giving treatments to babies.
I’m not sure why – perhaps because babies seem so fragile, or because I would not want to have the parents asking me all sorts of questions when my mind is in intuitive bodywork mode. It could also be because I have or had some unprocessed psychological stuff around my own birth and early upbringing (this is most likely the case).
My main bodywork teacher, Janet Evergreen, gives free treatments to newborns and any babies under 2 years of age. She is possibly one of the most gifted spiritual healers on the East Coast of the United States. And I do not say that lightly – I have had many teachers. I have taken numerous empowerments and numerous Dharma teachings from many legitimate Tibetan lamas and yet Janet offers something unique, something a little bit different. She is Buddhist, but she follows her heart. She has a powerful root lama and yet she forges her own path at times. She does not go by the book. I do not quite know what to make of her. But as far as teaching bodywork, there is no one else I would rather learn from. (I have witnessed her work miracles with her clients in the most empowering way possible – we all have the ability to heal ourselves, and she does not want her students putting her on a high pedestal.)
She has been treating babies for years, and I have been taking her classes for years. I have taken nearly all of her classes at least twice each – Craniosacral I, II, III, Supervision; Zapchen Somatics, Zapchen retreats, Advanced Zapchen 10-day retreats; Organs (visceral manipulation); Working with the Vagus system I, II. I even joined a support group that she hosted for artists and bodyworkers and yogis and I was a part of that radically advanced and dynamic group for close to 3 years. And this exhaustive list does not include the dozen of advanced Buddhist retreats that we were a part of together. But I have never taken her Babies class.
Maybe I thought that I did not need to work with babies. Maybe I thought that I would only be good at working with teenagers or adults (the populations I have had success with up to this point).
I have only worked with 3 or 4 babies with her – in 11 years of taking classes from her!
Yes, I fear that I have subconsciously been avoiding this topic. Until today.
Today, I was blessed to be a part of treating two babies – two 6-week old baby boys. The fact that they were baby boys resonates with me. I was a baby boy once. There is a baby boy part of me. I, like other baby boys, do not wish, did not wish to hurt my mother during my long birth process.
Today we treated 2 babies in under 3 hours and I was a part of it! I held the second baby’s occiput and helped with its rebirth process (where the baby is going through a re-do of its birth, how it spiraled its way out of the birth canal, pushing against the top of the womb with its legs). They were miraculous treatments. She did re-births with both babies. She checks the dura tubes of the babies, the diaphragms, the vault holds, the vomer bone (because this has a lot to do with their ability to suck on a nipple), and the craniosacral pump – she listens for the spiral dynamics still in the birth memory of the cells and she follows the baby as they unwind any birth trauma that their bodies are willing to reveal at the time. And she has many skills and knowledge (and wisdom) from working with Myrna Martin and pre- and perinatal psychology workshops.
It is a lot. But babies are more flexible, more plastic, more able to change traumatic patterns within a few minutes. Therefore they might be able to do a ton of releasing work in under an hour!
It is not a simple process. Years of preparation and personal growth work have gone into her ability to do this. She is not an ordinary human being. Janet Evergreen is a dakini. And (at the same time) she has a few human foibles (which she is working on). But she is constantly working on herself and working to improve her classes and her teaching skills.
Somehow she combines the transcendent wisdom of the Buddha Dharma with the embodied wisdom of Zapchen and Continuum dynamics and Somatic Experiencing. It is an amazing process which I am blessed to be a senior student of.
After working with babies today, I feel like I have discovered a new way to taking refuge (in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha). I do not say that lightly. Taking refuge in the 3 Jewels is a sacred and rare path toward enlightenment and joyful bliss. I loved working with babies. I loved having my hands on babies. I want to learn more. I have much to learn. But I am eager to get started.
I fear that I have been wasting much valuable time. It is time to get an office space going. To attract new clients and to put out the willingness to help new babies unwind their birth trauma (and generational trauma). Babies are the future. Babies are extremely pliable. If I can hold self-care and wisdom and compassion and wide, spacious awareness; then the babies will respond positively and reveal how to unwind them into the health that is never lost.
I am excited and nervous and worried about this promise to my heart. Walking my talk, removing all that is harmful from my path, living in embodied visceral wisdom is not easy, nor is it comfortable. But that is why I have taken this incarnation. I seek to have a meaningful life.
I wish for all sentient beings to know happiness and its causes. I wish for all beings to never experience suffering. I wish for all babies to be free from suffering and its causes.
May it be so.
(Thanks for reading!)
Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation 