Knowing What You Know

We often used words to distance ourselves from intense or uncomfortable feelings. That's okay! But what power there is in feeling those feelings! Many times the way to do that by tuning into our bodies. Our stomachs might tell us that we're anxious about a deadline. Our hearts might hold grief. Our throats may constrict to repress rage. Fatigue or even physical pain may be eclipsed by words about the pain or fatigue. When we feel our feelings directly and don't "talk over them," we have real control, not the illusion of control. We're fully informed. 

I can help you know the freedom and power of knowing what we know!

That's healing.

Finding and Unwinding

“Barn’s burnt down — Now I can see the moon.” ~ Mizuta Masahide, Art by Alfred Stieglitz

Barns can be beautiful. You've probably seen paintings and photographs of weathered, rustic barns....barns have charm. And I learned, in a visceral way, that yes, my barn was protective, but it also has/had charm. We all are inhabitants of barns. We all are both magnificent and mad...we're human. 

My barn burned down a few weeks ago. I was in a five-day CranioSacral workshop in which twelve advanced CranioSacral therapists treated each other. My barn is my adaptive self; the self/selves that had protected me, like a barn protects its inhabitants. My barn was my self-effacement, my self-consiousness, my self-censoring.

I can see the moon now.  It feels as if the moon itself burnt down the barn with its light. The moon, in this case, is my True Self, Spirit, my Spirit. My CranioSacral colleagues allowed Spirit (SpiritMoon?) to work through them and "saw" my True Self," and that honoring and channeling healed me. I feel reborn. 

As an anonymous Craniosacral therapy client stated ...it is still beyond me how something so gentle can have such powerful results."

Come try it. 

Your Inner Historian

We mostly want to clear out, avoid, or ignore our own pain. We want, and are often told, to “get over it.” “That happened so long ago, can’t you let it go?” or “Think positive. But what if that pain is a valuable messenger? 

I’ve found that the only way to move forward is to first learn the lesson, feel the pain. To Know, viscerally (and usually painfully), what happened. Did your father beat you? Did your mother ignore you? Were you called stupid or worthless? When these things happen, our psyches create Inner critics who repeat those words messages that were either covert or overt; verbalized or unspoken. Our Inner Critics, or Inner Shame-ers ineptly try to help us the only way they know how; they mimic.

AND, our psyches many times will create an Inner Historian. The Inner Historian does its best to teach us our own history. It advocates for our wounded self by designing lesson plans, scenarios, “plays” to show us what we need to know; to connect us with ourselves. You might call this “repetition compulsion.” The Inner Historian is persistent! It may nudge us towards toxic situations that repeat old dynamics. It doesn’t stop until we listen, until we feel, with self-compassion, the old pain. It doesn’t stop teaching until we learn what happened and learn that it doesn’t define us. It doesn’t stop until we feel compassion towards our wounded selves.

When we acknowledge, feel the pain, and learn the lesson, the Inner Historian is satisfied. The wounded one feels heard and loved. The Inner Critic can ease up or change roles. We don’t have to repeat our childhoods. 

Let me help you find that new, freer way of being, with the help of your loving Inner Historian.

Your Light

..what I hope you take from this is that you are already Whole, Powerful, and of the Light. 

The Body Speaks; Let's Listen

"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Photograph by Edward Weston

The body speaks. Let's listen. 

One way that the body speaks is in metaphors.

One client's stomach says "I'm fed up!" Another client "can't swallow" her current situation. Repeated emotional trauma can manifest as an armored solar plexus; as the gut bracing for more "punches." A tiring living situation can show up as a pain in the butt. (The body sometimes has a sense of humor.)

How is this wisdom? The body is wise in localizing the pain, and creating a metaphor that can instruct, a message that can be de-coded. Your body can speak in symbols like a dream. 

I can be your body-whisperer, your somatic psychic. I can help you interpret your body's "dreams," and wise-up to yourself ;-)

You're an Animal!

"You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves." ~ Mary Oliver

Photograph by Edward Weston

..."let the soft animal of your body love what it loves"... and it loves you! Why else would it fight infection, circulate blood, process nutrients, hold you up, and help you move. I wish that you could sense what I sense; maybe you can -- that our bodies love us like our animal friends do. Some of us are more able to feel love from and towards our pets than from our people! What if our bodies were loving us the same way our pets are? We ARE animals after all. We are made of the same stuff as our pets.

Trusting What's Trustworthy

“O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small” ~Breton Fisherman's prayer ~ Painting by Winslow Homer

Our society values independence and self-reliance. We are encouraged to find our own truth, to have faith in ourselves, believe in our own strength. But in reality, we are little boats in stormy seas, aren't we? 

Buddhists have refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Christians believe that Jesus saves us. Jews know that God is our refuge and strength (Psalm 68:6). Pantheists see God in everything. Hindus might pray to Lord Shiva. Some say the Universe has our back, others that Mother Earth supports us. 12-step-ers come to believe in a power greater than ourselves that can restore us to sanity. We all need help. I can help you be at peace with your "smallness" and trust "Bigness."

Seeing the Unseen

"I have spent my life seeking all that's still unsung. Bent my hear to hear the tune and closed my eyes to see." ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter, Photograph by Edward Weston

As a Lyrical Healing healer, I hear the unsung song, see the unseen, and touch the untouched. Parts of the song are sad, parts are sweet, and all parts are sacred. It is an honor to hear and see and touch, and help you to hear, see, and touch.

Compassion

"Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” ~ from tinybuddha.com, art by Rembrandt van Rijn

Touch is powerful. More powerful than words sometimes. When we're not touched we can feel invisible or worse. I wonder about the model of psychotherapy in which a person comes to us for help and we sit them across the room and "analyze" or try to fix them. What they (and we) really need is empathy. And empathy heals.

My touch is an empathetic honoring. I aim to touch clients with a patience and curiosity that feels like respect. A touch that implies that you have what you need to heal; you might just need some gentle nudging. A touch that bespeaks empathy. I model empathy and compassion so that you can extend empathy and compassion towards yourself; so that you can touch your own wounds with compassion, and heal. 

I See You

"The history of each person is contained within and expressed by their tissue, fluids, energetic qualities, and motion." ~ Dr. John Upledger, Art by Kathe Kollwitz

Dr. Upledger is my hero. He was an osteopathic physician with his feet grounded in science and his mind in the stars. He was smart enough to be a physician, open-minded enough to explore phenomenon not explored in medical school, and wise enough to know his limits. He was a visionary who understood that the mind and the body are indistinguishable, and that he was not the healer of this body/mind. It's our "Inner Physician," as he called it, or a higher power that heals. CranioSacral therapists just facilitate.

Like Dr. Upledger, I read your "history" in your tissues, fluids, and heart, gut, and mind! I listen deeply to your words and to your body and to your Inner Physician, AKA You! I hope you sense, and benefit from, the respect and caring that that deep listening entails.