Today a Thing Happened and It Was Awesome
It was weird, this thing that happened, but I'll tell you about it because there's a lesson involved. You all know that I'm a mental health clinician here in Alaska. I can't call myself a "counselor" yet because despite having more than enough hours to sit for my exam and crush it, I am a wee bit afraid that I will not actually crush it and I will be embarrassed and $300 poorer. I have been using imagery to SEE myself passing the exam, but if recent efforts to manifest shit is any predictor of what is to come, I need to spend more time meditating, because I have been "manifesting money" and the universe keeps dropping quarters in front of me. Literally. Quarters. I really need to focus on studying for the exam, but instead, I am writing blog posts and attending trauma conferences. So that brings us full circle back to my story...
Lindsay is in town visiting for an unknown amount of time, and she decided to attend this free trauma conference that some amazing professionals here are putting on. It is all about treating trauma as a community issue, and not just another thing to go to therapy for, or pop pills for. The crowd was filled with mental health clinicians, teachers, community members, doctors, and so on. It was inspiring and encouraging to see that science is finally catching up with the body-mind connection and deep wisdom that many cultures have about ways to connect with one another and facilitate healing among one another.
At one point, the keynote speaker Dr. Linda Chamberlain was talking about and demonstrating the use of the technique Tapping. She was incorporating words like "intuition" "psoas" flexors" "emotions held in the body" and "bodywork" which was a total surprise for a scientist and doctor to be discussing during a talk on trauma. A lovely lady in the crowd asked about using tapping to address low back issues. Lindsay leaned over to me and said "I want to talk so badly" and I said "then say something!" so she raised her hand and said "I'm a somatic bodyworker, and there are so many types of bodywork that address the emotional aspects as well as the physical, which help unlock trauma, such as Structural Integration, Feldenkrais, Somatic Bodywork, along with many forms of energy and intuitive work." Dr. Chamberlain agreed that there are a plethora of modalities that address trauma on a physical and emotional level and that talk therapy is not the best practice for all trauma survivors.
Minutes later, the session ended, and immediately the woman in front of us stood up and said, Hi, my name is Deb, can you tell me more about what you were just talking about? Lindsay explained about somatic bodywork and the woman told us all about her physical ailment and how no doctor or chiropractor has been able to help her, she asked for Lindsay's phone number how she could receive bodywork. While talking to Deb (that's not really her name) another woman stood waiting to talk. She said "I've been trying to find a somatic bodyworker in this town and am so excited to hear that you do that kind of work!" She also took Lindsay's number and asked to get some work done.
Did you hear the moral of the story?
WHEN YOU FEEL URGED TO SAY SOMETHING, SAY IT.
I am learning this lesson too, friends. I am becoming better at saying what pops into my head (the appropriate stuff) and the responses I'm getting are phenomenal. I do not feel like I have to hide like I used to. I am receiving feedback that tells me that being an empath and a bodyworker, and a mental health clinician and an energy worker and a mom and a wife are all normal things to merge and that I do not have to separate them out all the time. If I'm at a mental health conference on trauma and I feel urged to talk about somatic bodywork it is likely that there is wisdom beyond what I understand that is alerting me to the connection between somatic work and trauma release.
Say it, be proud, be confident. You are supported. We are all supported
Love and light comin' your way
Bree and Linds
Lindsay is in town visiting for an unknown amount of time, and she decided to attend this free trauma conference that some amazing professionals here are putting on. It is all about treating trauma as a community issue, and not just another thing to go to therapy for, or pop pills for. The crowd was filled with mental health clinicians, teachers, community members, doctors, and so on. It was inspiring and encouraging to see that science is finally catching up with the body-mind connection and deep wisdom that many cultures have about ways to connect with one another and facilitate healing among one another.
At one point, the keynote speaker Dr. Linda Chamberlain was talking about and demonstrating the use of the technique Tapping. She was incorporating words like "intuition" "psoas" flexors" "emotions held in the body" and "bodywork" which was a total surprise for a scientist and doctor to be discussing during a talk on trauma. A lovely lady in the crowd asked about using tapping to address low back issues. Lindsay leaned over to me and said "I want to talk so badly" and I said "then say something!" so she raised her hand and said "I'm a somatic bodyworker, and there are so many types of bodywork that address the emotional aspects as well as the physical, which help unlock trauma, such as Structural Integration, Feldenkrais, Somatic Bodywork, along with many forms of energy and intuitive work." Dr. Chamberlain agreed that there are a plethora of modalities that address trauma on a physical and emotional level and that talk therapy is not the best practice for all trauma survivors.
Minutes later, the session ended, and immediately the woman in front of us stood up and said, Hi, my name is Deb, can you tell me more about what you were just talking about? Lindsay explained about somatic bodywork and the woman told us all about her physical ailment and how no doctor or chiropractor has been able to help her, she asked for Lindsay's phone number how she could receive bodywork. While talking to Deb (that's not really her name) another woman stood waiting to talk. She said "I've been trying to find a somatic bodyworker in this town and am so excited to hear that you do that kind of work!" She also took Lindsay's number and asked to get some work done.
Did you hear the moral of the story?
WHEN YOU FEEL URGED TO SAY SOMETHING, SAY IT.
I am learning this lesson too, friends. I am becoming better at saying what pops into my head (the appropriate stuff) and the responses I'm getting are phenomenal. I do not feel like I have to hide like I used to. I am receiving feedback that tells me that being an empath and a bodyworker, and a mental health clinician and an energy worker and a mom and a wife are all normal things to merge and that I do not have to separate them out all the time. If I'm at a mental health conference on trauma and I feel urged to talk about somatic bodywork it is likely that there is wisdom beyond what I understand that is alerting me to the connection between somatic work and trauma release.
Say it, be proud, be confident. You are supported. We are all supported
Love and light comin' your way
Bree and Linds
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