How I Healed
Beginning in my early adolescence and escalating through my 20s and early 30s, I experienced a relentless cycle of injuries, pain, disability, joblessness, anxiety and deep depression.
In my teens, I had recurring elbow, back, and hamstring injuries. In my early twenties, I developed tendinitis in both knees, both wrists, and both shoulders while suffering from crippling social anxiety and depression. By age 26, I was chronically unemployed, broke, and unable to drive or carry groceries on the short walk home. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and began taking prescription pain medication that I was told I’d need for the rest of my life.
By my late 20’s, I had rejected my diagnosis and stopped my medication. I then made two important decisions: First, I left the city for a rural life spent mainly outdoors. Second, I began studying a collection of practices and modalities that helped quiet and focus my mind in order to bring forth my body’s innate abilities to heal cognitive, emotional, and physical issues.
Slowly at first, but rapidly as time went on, my health stabilized and improved. The combination of my somatic practices, an excellent therapist, and steady outdoor physical work helped me shed trauma, calm my mind, and strengthen my body. At the age of 34, I achieved a level of health where I was able to fell trees with an axe, lift and carry objects over 100 pounds, and build my own cabin using hand tools and lumber I made from trees on my property.
How I Help
As I healed, I learned my uniquely sensitive nervous system allows me to tap into the somatic experiences of others, meaning I am able to feel their cognitive, emotional, physical, and energetic experience within my body. This ability, called clairsentience (clear feeling), allows me to perceive bound up energy in others that needs to be expressed and released. Gradually I learned to help others by applying tools and strategies I’d mastered while healing myself.
A second gift, which I discovered later, is called claircognizance (clear knowing). This allows me to know what to say or do at a given moment in order to maximize a client's ability to express, move, release and rebalance their energy, all while maintaining a feeling of safety. Such communication not only results in a more productive session (the client can access deeper parts of themselves and, ultimately, release more), but also results in a client feeling a greater level of agency, empowerment and awareness.
My particular practice draws from somatic meditation in Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, various energy healing traditions, clinical models of somatic therapy, and the Alexander technique.
A more detailed account of my healing process, particularly the role nature played, can be heard on this episode from the Our Nature podcast.
