"To heal is to touch with love that which we previously touched with fear." ~ Stephen Levine

Photograph by Gitel Steed

I've been thinking about connection as healing...

Dr. John Upledger, developer of CranioSacral therapy, used the word "blending" to describe the connection that allows change but does not impose it.

To me connection is about honoring what's there, not judging, being with. As a body/mind therapist, I aim to empathize, understand, be in your world. I honor you and all your "parts." I invite you to honor all your parts too. Connection heals.

"No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots are in hell." Carl Jung     

https://images.app.goo.gl/ARahsz7c7UeBV8Qm7

Let us appreciate and honor our own "roots!" To me that means to visit the "underground' -- our shadow, our shame, our pain. Pain is painful, but ignoring ones feelings, abandoning the Self is more painful. Being with our pain and shame can ground us, help us feel less top-heavy, less like an uprooted tree. It can foster empathy, free up energy, and, counter-intuitively, help us feel happier!

"The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another's pain as one's own, and to act to take that pain away. There is nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness." John Connolly 

Art by Edvard Munch

As a somatic therapist, I practice empathy. I listen to and advocate for your body and for your unheard personas or "parts." For many, that empathy is the most impactful form of therapy.

Your Magnificence

"Let the waters settle and you will see the moon and the stars mirrored in your own being." ~ Rumi     

Photograph by Edward Weston

I can help you relax into your magnificence. You don't need to add or subtract, to change or rearrange, just let the "waters settle" and see what's there. I see magnificence.

Beauty

Looking at the Moon after Rain

The heavy clouds are broken and blowing,

And once more I can see the wide common stretching beyond the four sides of the city.

Open the door. Half of the moon-toad is already up,

The glimmer of it is like smooth hoar-frost spreading over ten thousand li.

The river is a flat, shining chain.

The moon, rising, is a white eye to the hills;

After it has risen, it is the bright heart of the sea.

Because I love it—so—round as a fan,

I hum songs until the dawn.
 

by Li Po, translated by Florence Ayscough and Amy Lowell

Photograph by Alfred Stieglitz

I'm sending you a poem to remind you of Beauty. In nature, in others, in ourselves.

The Stars in your Psyche

...and if you cannot find your way out of the darkness I will sit there with you and show you the stars."  
~ N.R. Hart

Photo by Juan from Pexels

And I can help you see the "stars" in your own psyche.

Symptoms as love notes

"I love you." 
          ~  Your body

     Photograph by Robert Maplethorpe

I got the vaccine for Covid-19 recently, and felt sick afterwards. When I tuned in to what was happening, I sensed my body's love for me! I sensed its drive to preserve ME.

Even if we are in pain, even if we don't honor ourselves, even if we feel sick. we can trust that our bodies love and cherish us... til death do us part ;-)

What if we thought of symptoms as love notes?!

Life is like a beautiful melody

“Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up."
~ Hans Christian Andersen

Art by Mel Bochner

What else is nature but God?

"What else is nature but God?" ~ Seneca the Younger

Photograph by Elliot Porter

... and aren't we of nature?

Let us both gaze lovingly at the beautiful brokenness that is you

“There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.”

~ Shannon L. Alder

Let us both gaze lovingly at the beautiful brokenness that is you.