For those of you who have been following me for some time, you may know a bit about my evolution as a healing facilitator. If not, I’ll review 🙂
First there was Reiki and Spiritual Astrology. I still work with the Astrology, sometimes Reiki comes through my hands, but I don’t do much with the symbols any longer. Although my willingness to work with healthy, compassionate guides, angels and wisdom beings has always been here.
Then I met extra special teachers and began learning what it means to truly come down out of the head and into the body. Embodiment took me a solid five to seven years – in terms of making it stable. I practiced Craniosacral Therapy, Zapchen Somatics, and learned how to work with the visceral organs for several years. All while practicing Tibetan Buddhism – meditating and drinking from that deep well of wisdom and blessings.
Next, starting in 2012 I began learning to work with the Polyvagal System – the Vagus Nerve and the Autonomic Nervous System. This path I am still on today, as regulation and building resilience are a lifetime’s work – especially in learning how to skillfully teach it!
In 2013, I participated in my first Womb Surround / Birth Process Workshop – this is an intense four or five days of diving deep with a precious group of fellow seekers and working on early early material each day for about six hours. Whoa! The first one I joined was potent and amazing and I pushed too hard – that along with working 60 hours a week right afterward meant I got sick for a bit.
Fortunately I stuck with learning the birth process work however, attending two of Myrna Martin’s Summer Intensive trainings in Canada – two weeks each. That and I participated in about three more womb surround workshops over the next few years. That allows me to gradually do a bit of PPN (pre- and perinatal) work with clients who are ready.
Why am I mentioning all these modalities? There is a reason, trust me. What I haven’t mentioned is most recently I completed an intense and amazing massage school / ninja / Taoist training in Colorado (we did Chi cultivation sometimes for 3.5 hours a day). There I learned massage, shiatsu, acupressure and an incredible Shamanic Hot Stones modality.
And now my arsenal of skills is more complete 🙂 When we do emotional-process-oriented-bodywork with a client, this can be a lot for their system to take in, to integrate. I have learned my lesson here too (another story) – I have learned that most people can do two potent sessions involving processing early developmental stuff in a row – maybe within about 5 – 7 days of each other. However, if they request another similar session within a week, I almost always muscle test to see if Shiatsu or Acupressure would be better for them, or pure Craniosacral Therapy. This is so they can integrate the work we have done without putting another added strain on the emotional-process-integration-body.
On a sidenote, I see talk therapy and some forms of meditation as being good for purifying the mental body. Some forms of bodywork are necessary to all the body to catch up with mental purification work – people who meditate day and night can still get stiff bodies! But there is also the emotional body piece – and that is what I am referring to above.
Yes, I am going to continue to do more training. Yes I want to complete my PPN training (not too much more to go there). And yes I am beginning to teach Working with the Polyvagal System – Building Resilience in the Nervous System (in fact, I am teaching the introductory class in Portsmouth Va in April – let me know if you are interested). And now I have the skills to competently assist clients in integrating deep work – often times less is more. And going slower will get us there faster. It’s true!
Thank you for reading!
KM
Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation 