Photo Credit Gayle Gorman https://franz665.wixsite.com/photo
The Process of Recognizing and Responding to Colonialism, Capitalism and Systems of Great Oppression and Injustice:
Firstly, I am currently living on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, specifically the Mississauga's of The Credit First Nation and Haudenosaunee, specifically Ojibwa/ Chippewa peoples. More importantly, I think, is my growing understanding that I am benefiting from inherently racist systems and from living and working on stolen land, (likely from coerced and/or broken treaties).
I have made efforts to participate in a group reading of The 94 Calls To Action resultant from the 2015 Truth And Reconciliation Commission (everyone should read this) and look into unconscious biases that I may be holding, racist and otherwise. I continue to learn and witness the vast many faces of human devastation globally due to racist, colonial systems. I work to be aware of unearned privilege, to figure out my place in solutions as they may emerge.
Beliefs and Intentions:
In the heart of this business is a desire to hold space for people so that they can feel safe enough to heal, explore and grow .
Whether we explore our edges or rest in patience and self-compassion, we can touch on the transformational.
When we explore movement we may connect to our sacred aliveness.
Our bodies are where we live. For our whole lives.
Why I chose this work path:
As I grew up, I saw a disconnect in our culture that seemed to cause people a sense of isolation or separation from their own sense of self and feelings. In early adulthood I sought a way to help people with stress and pain and to support greater health and wellness. I become a Registered Massage Therapist in 2002.
For a decade, I worked in physiotherapy clinics where I learnt skills that helped people manage pain, tension and support better alignment.
This work was also facilitating people's reconnection with the sensations of their bodies.
This is important, because as I observed over many years, most people don't notice the sensations of their bodies except in situations of pain, tension or during intense physical work or workouts. This loss of felt-relationship was often the cause of cumulative tension and lack proprioception in posture, and perhaps also connected to a loss of sense of self.
I saw clients who had a hard time making the alignment changes that the physiotherapists were suggesting,
because a sense of self was specific to each person's normal posture and movement choices,
how they felt psychologically and sensorially.
For example,
A shy or introverted person might tend to lower their gaze and bend their neck in busy environments and may have trouble maintaining a more upright, gravity-efficient posture. It may feel exposing to them to open their chest and draw their shoulders back, and would feel unlike who they knew themselves to be, even if it did reduce shoulder tension and neck-originating headaches.
An anxious person may have a more shallow and rapid breath, more chronic tension in muscles related to fight, flight or freeze and may not even notice this. I wondered if relating to their bodies in a more conscious way would help.
We all carry our thoughts and feelings in our body postures and movements.
Feelings ultimately are or become physiological responses.
And our culture projects so many ideas of perfection onto our bodies many of us have lost the sense of connection to physical self.
Around this time I was also exploring recreational movement/dance like 5 Rhythms and contact improvisation. I found that movement and dance could completely change my mood-state and thinking.
I also noticed a much more deepened sense of aliveness and presence in my body.
And then a confluence of research and books came out:
The Body Keeps The Score (Bessel van der Kolk)
In An Unspoken Voice -How The Body Releases Trauma And Restores Goodness (Peter Levine)
as did classes in attachment theory and how we physically enact this,
the neurobiology of regulation and co-regulation,
poly-vagal theory, somatic trauma response, active listening and witnessing.
And the body was central to it.
The information was saying that bodies are greatly impacted by emotions,
and anatomy and physiology are way more than parts and mechanics,
they are where we manifest our feelings,
the knot in your stomach, or tightness in your chest, or the relaxed smile when all is well.
I was compelled to learn more.
Somatic Movement and Related Trainings I have completed:
2016 (45 hrs) Laban Movement Analysis class with The Movement Arc, BC
2016-2018 (30 hrs) Bartenieff, Laban classes with interpersonal neurobiology, N S regulation, with Nadine Saxton, RP, CMA,
2018-2019 (324 hrs) Laban Movement Analysis (Bartenieff, embodied anatomy and physiology) with LSSI
2020-2022 (200 hrs) Dynamic Embodiment, Somatic Movement Therapy with Dr Martha Eddy, NYC
2023 (16 week, 34 hrs) External Only Pelvic Floor work-Core Exercise Solutions, Sarah Duval PT
2023 (72 hrs) Trauma Informed Treatment For Somatic Movement Therapy
So Far...
The meaning of The Healing Well
The well is ancient, the water rises up from within the earth, always flowing...
There are many aspects of Well Lore.
A source of fresh water... life sustaining and energetically nourishing
Associated with intuition and cleansing
The well is round and relates to the sacred feminine.
In the ancient Celtic lands, springs and wells were thought to be places to connect with spirits of nature, ancestors and guardians. Here, offerings would be left for those seeking healing, abundance, fertility, and giving gratitude.
Many of these sites were adopted by the church and renamed after saints.
In my early 20's, while exploring the magical land around Findhorn, Scotland, I found a water source that had the same energy of those old springs... a healing well. While there, I was also having marvelous discussions about the sacred feminine with a wise older woman who lived for several years in a caravan and created her life as a magical adventure. These visits in her caravan while looking out at the moon and sipping tea, reading the Mother Peace Tarot, surrounded by the mysterious landscape, all this mythology coalescing in my imagination.
The mythology of the healing well came alive there for me.
About Me
Philosophies and What I Think About:
This miraculous, phenomenally diverse planet-home we share.
Moving towards a new (older, wiser) relationship with the earth and all of it's inhabitants.
Social Justice, equity, end unnecessary suffering.
There is much suffering in life anyways, much of it is unnecessary. How do we live in balance?
What does it mean to acknowledge all that we take from the earth. with gratitude?
I have learned to stand up and use my voice in defence of marginalized groups, even in tricky situations like work.
Healing on all levels is necessary: personal, relational and cultural levels.
We need to heal what is broken, to then build what is healed.
Healing is Caring, Caring is Healing.
What does a healthy culture even look like? How can we do that?
I deeply value creativity, self experiencing and self-expression
Post-traumatic resilience:
I have survived widowhood at age 35 and was able to bloom into life by recognizing it's shortness,
And raised an awesome human by myself
I long to unearth new ways to live on this incomprehensibly beautiful, ancient planet
For me personally, it is important to maintain some connection with the divine and my sense of intuition. I don't push this on others.
Sources of Hope, Inspiration and Dance in this troubled world
Music:
Max Richter, Olafur Arnolds, Ludovico Einaudi, Aurora, Sia
Books and Writers:
Robin Wall Kimmerer- Braiding Sweetgrass
Suzanne Simard- Finding The Mother Tree
Andrea Gibson- You Better Be Lightening
Janet Alder- Intimacy In Emptiness
Naomi Klein- Doppelganger
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Image: Coming Home to Self
Big Heart Dance Camp 2015. Photo credit Mopo Photography |
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