Hello Dear Readers!
I went through some ups and downs in January, with a separation from a five-month relationship thrown into the mix. It has been nice however to right the ship, as I get into working more with my lower chakras, being kind and gentle to myself on a daily basis (this seems like a practice which we need to renew over and over again eh?), and spending more time with friends and Dharma teachers.
I am fortunate to have had many great bodywork teachers, heart / spiritual teachers, mentors and coaches in my life. And having been practicing craniosacral therapy since 2005, I have a few years under my belt to introduce this topic:
Since returning from massage school in April of last year, I have now cultivated several professional relationships with clients such that they have seen me for more than 10 sessions. I am thinking of three people in particular.
All three of them said early on, “Kirby, I want to work with you for as long as it takes to heal / release / resolve / harmonize these issues.”
And I replied, “So you are willing to commit to at least 10 sessions?” And they all agreed!
This is a very hefty commitment for some people, as I generally charge $100 / hour unless they purchase a package from me (those are still $90 or $85 per). So we are talking $850 – $1000 over four or five months.
With that said though, I am seeing how this is so worth the added support and these relatively-rapid inner transformations are very difficult to discover in other places. And another benefit I am noticing which I am only now putting together (I had not heard this from my teachers):
When someone commits to doing 10 sessions and they can afford this investment in their psycho-spiritual health and wellness, then I am noticing that by the time we get to session #3 or #4, they are going deeper than most of my other clients (who are seeing me more on a as-needed basis).
Going deep and doing early developmental work is not always easy or comfortable. It usually involves looking at some shadow material (which means we also bring in some resources which represent the light) and it requires that a person feels very safe and secure and stable.
This is why even with someone committing to a longer, deeper process (like a 10 session series), it still takes a couple sessions for their body to prepare to do the deeper work, to lean into trusting me and the process and to check everything out to make sure it feels good to them on a deeper, heart-centered level.
And yet this has been the case for all three of my long-term clients. If they commit to 10 sessions, then sessions 3, 4, 5, 6 and often session 7 are extraordinary in what they are investigating and releasing. These middle sessions are profound!
And in two of the three clients, they said they want to work with me for months or years to come, they continue to do awesome work each session because they have established a solid therapeutic relationship with me. Sure, not having an end-date in sight or mind is a bit nebulous, but they are making great progress. In my estimation, within 6 – 12 months both of them can back off to once-a-month treatments or less.
This phenomenon makes sense when you consider that doing this deep work can rock the boat – as we shift internally, our external world must also be analyzed to see where we are out of alignment. It is powerful work and it catalyzes change and transformation. The question is how adaptable are my clients’ families, friends and co-workers? As we grow and become more comfortable with our power, others may become less comfortable with our healthy robust changes. Therefore this work is not always easy. And sometimes it involves making outer changes along with the resulting inner transformation.
Keeping that in mind, when we commit to doing a longer term series of treatments, the body wants to release its double binds and inner conflicts, but to do so, there needs to be a safe container and a solid intention. And it makes sense that the middle sessions – 3 – 7 for instance would be deeper. Sessions 1, 2, 8, 9 and 10 might be more for integrating, building trust and preparing to come back into the world with a little bit less support (if they opt to stop seeing me altogether).
I will keep my eye on this intriguing phenomena and see if it is the case across the board or if I just coincidentally encountered it with these particular clients. 🙂
Thank you for reading!
KM
Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation 