Subtle Arts
& Bodywork
Modalities
Get a brief summary of the tools and modalities I use in my practice.
Somatic Therapies & Breathwork
Massage therapy is more than just applying pressure to the tissues. It involves the power of touch and the effect it can have on the nervous system, the emotional body, and even the subtle (energetic) body. When we are able to surrender in the presence of another person, like the social creatures we are, it can be a transformative healing experience.
During bodywork sessions (and regular life!) it becomes important to regulate the breath. It helps your muscles relax, release, and keeps difficult work (like deep tissue) from hurting or damaging you in the process. The same can be said for regulating the breath in daily life. As children, we enter the world capable of filling our whole chest with air — our diaphragm is flexible and strong. But while we grow up, for one reason or another, we forget that full-belly expansion and start to confine our breath to our chests. Breathing gets shallow and oxygen struggles to nourish all parts of us. It's one of the most common expressions of trauma, chronic stress, and anxiety.
If you can reintroduce expansion into your breathing and when you pair personal surrender with practices which help you learn about your own body, about what triggers or calms you — it transcends therapy. It becomes a new way of living in this body and in this life.
Energy Healing & Reiki
Massage therapy is more than just applying pressure to the tissues. It involves the power of touch and the effect it can have on the nervous system, the emotional body, and even the subtle (energetic) body. When we are able to surrender in the presence of another person, like the social creatures we are, that alone can be a transformative, therapeutic experience.
But when you pair that surrender with practices that help you learn about your own body, what triggers and calms you, it extends past therapy. It becomes a new way of living in this body and in this life.
Shadow Work
Drawing from the work of psychologist, Carl Jung, Shadow Work is a popular term for the journey of making your subconscious, conscious. Jung believed that all the parts of ourselves that we reject, ignore, shame, and ostracize get folded into an unconscious Shadow. They wait there, hungry for attention and love, confused about why they were cast aside in the first place. The reason is that, when we incarnate into these bodies, our psyche starts out without any kind of moral judgment. Morality is learned, but before that, all facets of the human experience (and I mean all) are possible. As we grow up, we emphasize certain traits and habits that improve our ability to survive to adulthood. This conditioning, by default, shuns aspects of ourselves that we might not even know existed.
It's a good tactic, for us kids, because for the first few decades, survival is all that matters. However, an unfortunate side effect of this process is, once we reach adulthood, there's a whole, hidden field of desires and beliefs that we aren't aware of. Depending on the strength of these desires (and our self-control and emotional integration), they can fuel our unconscious behaviors for years. When we don't know why we keep doing unhealthy habits, loving toxic people, etc., those choices are said to be satisfying some unconscious desire of the Shadow.
When we start the process of revealing these unconscious desires, it can be incredibly uncomfortable. But once we shine some love on those abandoned parts, we allow ourselves the one thing that our childhood conditioning keepsy from us:
Our freedom.
Archetypes
Archetypes are symbols and motifs that we have passed down through the collective in the form of art, music, storytelling, and imitation. Although popularized in the vernacular of psychology by Carl Jung, archetypes venture back to the beginning of the written word. They are the characters we see represented again and again, since Gilgamesh, that call forth memories and emotions simply be mentioning them. When one mentions the word "Mother", we unconsciously summon a list of traits, characteristics, and associations that come both from personal experience and social storytelling. Or, when we think of the "King" or the "Lover", we have a series of traits we associate with them, too.
Even outside of storytelling, archetypes can be powerful in the path of healing. Using Shadow Work to communicate with the subconscious can be hard enough. But when we engage well-known symbols and characters to inspire us (since the subconscious functions in symbols and signs), we open up an entirely new level of transformation.
Somatic Parts Work
Based on the work of Dr. Richard Schwartz and Susan McConnell, Somatic Parts Work (also called Somatic IFS) is an integrative therapy that combines the deeply transformative work of Internal Family Systems, somatic movement and inner awareness. IFS is a modality that invites the client to create a safe space within themselves that allows them to identify and speak directly to various "parts" of themselves. These parts are often linked to past traumas, core wounds, and hidden (shadow?) impulses. By engaging them directly, the client is given the chance to create a sense of safety and control within themselves while, potentially, diffusing or redirecting old, unhealed parts of themselves.
Somatic Parts Work brings IFS into a body-based practice. The client is invited and guided to create a safe space in their own body. This allows them to engage sensations, impulses, and physical symptoms directly. This modality operates on the understanding that our emotions and unconscious desires have the ability to settle into our tissues, creating physical dysfunction and pain there. By addressing this pain head-on, the client is able to dissolve old wounds at their source.
*This work can be extremely intense, due to its somatic nature. It is common for clients to feel sick or fatigued for a while after, while they adjust to how the energy has rearranged within their bodies.
Traditional Astrology
I see Astrology as both a symbolic and scientific tool. For centuries, astrology was used to calculate fortune and famine. It was a complex, exact science that required intense study and intuitive understanding in order to accurately, and reliably, answer the questions of the querents.
In modern use, it's more of an introspective tool for reflection and transformation. Currently, astrology is thought to depend on the quantum concept of macro/micro influence. As above (macrocosmic), so below (microcosmic). What occurs in the universe among the celestial bodies, influences that which occurs on Earth. It involves much more than your Sun Sign, too.
Astrology is a system of relationships. How do the planets relate to one another? How were they connected (or conflicting) when you were born? How can these astrological archetypes (Planets and Signs) be used to evaluate your relationship with concepts like Love, Ambition, and Success?
When we incorporate astrology with an eye toward how it can help us become better people or live to our fullest potential, it can aid us in changing our lives from the inside, out.