On My Path

My path to becoming a therapist was a journey through the woods of personal experience and an eclectic choice of workshops and trainings, rather than the clearly marked road of a formal degree program. From this background, I recognize five pivotal influences: primal therapy, metaphysics, intuitive journaling, transformative dance, and Hendricks training. While these influences have been major ingredients in my professional and personal life, like a rich stew pot, I hold elements from a wide variety of counselors, workshop teachers, and books. Even when I wasn't actively seeking new ideas and tools, Life, like a master chef, added secret spicy ingredients on a daily basis, in the form of people and experiences.

Primal Therapy
In 1986, I discovered primal therapy, which involves tuning into one's body memory by paying attention to the breath and noticing places of tension in the body that "speak" of old emotional trauma. By staying with the feelings that arise through this breath-work, instead of trying to escape them, the client usually regresses in consciousness to an earlier time, often childhood, infancy, birth or before, where the trauma originated. In a regressed state, a person can relive memories and emotions from long ago. Under the witnessing, protective protection of the adult self, the younger part gets another chance to express fully any feelings that were hidden because they seemed unsafe to express when first experienced. Often the expressions will sound like a younger person's. The regressed adult will use baby talk and a little child's tone of voice or make the crying sounds of a small infant. The process is very intense and the reward is very great. On the other side of releasing all these clogged emotions, the client experiences more inner space, which usually fills with a deep peace. This environment of freedom and peace is the playground of the Magic Child. I committed myself to weekly primal therapy sessions and also participated in numerous weekend intensives for five years. During that time, besides clearing out much of the old emotional trauma buried inside, I gained a familiarity with the emotional realm that is essential to me in my counseling practice and forms the basis for the information I share in this book about the emotions. I discovered the fear of expressing taboo emotions is only a feeling and the path to freedom and peace is through, not away from, emotional honesty.

Metaphysics   

After discovering the world of emotions previously hidden from my awareness, I began to discover the world of Spirit within me, which had also been obscured from my conscious mind. I was raised as a Catholic but had dropped my affiliation with the Catholic Church and its belief system about ten years before I discovered metaphysical teachings. (Metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality, particularly the connection between mind and matter.) In exploring the metaphysical belief that the outer world is a manifestation of the inner world, I found a new spiritual connection to God inside me. The energy I am describing as the Magic Child is "godstuff". Although the Catholic teaching declared that God was everywhere, I always experienced God as an outside force. Now, whether turning inward or outward, I find God everywhere. The Magic Child sees through all the masks, recognizing the golden glow of God in every form of life. This guiding spiritual belief heavily influences my counseling practice, my writing, and my whole life.

Journaling
In 1989, I learned a journaling technique from Dr. Lucia Capacchione, author of "The Power of the Other Hand ", that enabled me to receive spiritual guidance from within. The technique involves writing and drawing with the non-dominant hand as a way to access information and feelings hidden from the conscious mind. This technique was my pathway to developing intuitive knowing. My intuition has been an essential therapeutic tool. I have used it to sense the presence of emotions clients have hidden from themselves and invited those feelings into the open. I don't approach people with an outline of what they need to discuss or learn to take their next steps. I trust my intuition to suggest the approach or the words that will beckon the hidden self to emerge.

Transformative Dance
My next major influence was Gabrielle Roth, author of "Maps to Ecstasy". Gabrielle established her reputation at Esalen Institute in California, which represented the cutting edge of experiential therapy in the sixties and seventies. She calls herself an urban shaman because, like the shamans of primitive society who travel through the underworld to heal people, Gabrielle, in a modern setting, leads healing journeys through the dance beat to the emotional underworld. By embracing and expressing all emotions through dance, the dancer fully inhabits his or her body and moves through turmoil to peace. Dance became the vehicle that helped me express emotional pain and celebrate all of the varied parts of myself. I went on to study different transformative dance approaches from other teachers such as Pablo Bobbio from Argentina and Anna Halpern from Tamalpa Institute in California. I made the transition from student and client to teacher and therapist through the doorway of dance. While teaching dance classes, I discovered the power of accessing the intuitive mind through visualization and journaling after my students had already danced their way back to their bodies (as opposed to hiding out in their heads). In leading many such classes, I discovered a natural gift for using imagery to guide people through the inner worlds to self knowledge and healing. Guided visualization is the heart of hypnotherapy which I later got certified to practice.

Hendricks Training
The final major piece of my training was connecting with Drs. Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks. I obtained certification through the Hendricks Institute of Colorado in both Body Centered Therapy and Conscious Relationship Transformation. Body centered means that instead of just a cognitive approach, Hendricks practitioners learn to interpret the organic wisdom of the body using movement, breath and integrity tools. The Hendricks Institute promotes creativity and vision founded on integrity. The emphasis of both trainings is to learn to live from our spiritual essence and to expand our capacity to give and receive love. By learning to tell the truth and keep our agreements we come into integrity, which frees us to create the lives we envision. This promotes greater vitality, intimacy in close relationships, and fun. I consider the Hendricks training the most formative influence in my work. Their work helped me combine the familiarity I already had with my body and emotions, with communication skills. They taught me the importance of expressing the truth about my feelings to the other people in my life. Through these studies, I discovered how the various parts of our personalities seem to have a life of their own and unconsciously direct our behavior. The importance of being in integrity and taking responsibility for my life instead of living like a victim became very clear to me. After completing the Hendricks Institute training, I had the tools to offer people counseling help that made a significant difference in their lives.

My Personal Background
In my counseling practice, I rely on my intuition, my professional training and my life experiences. I believe that my ability to be of service to you is influenced by the situations that I have faced and the lessons that I have learned; situations and lessons that are relevant and may be similar to what you are experiencing in your own life. Certainly my own life experiences have expanded my capacity to be compassionate. In that spirit, I offer you a brief background on my life. I am the oldest of 8 children, and I grew up on the East Coast. After high school I became a Catholic nun and a schoolteacher. I was a nun for 9 years. Even though I left the convent, I have continued to teach and the strong and vibrant thread of spirituality continues to runs through my life. I was actively involved in leadership at Unity Community of Central Oregon where I was ordained as a minister. In conjunction with a local Sufi community, I created a program for children and families, called Heart Space. I continue to look for meaningful contemporary ways to express spiritual connection and power in a communal setting. I believe that spirituality (as distinct from religion) is a critical element in a balanced life. I lived overseas in Thailand and in Australia, where I earned a journalism degree. I married in my thirties and had 2 children for whom I stayed home to nurture. As they grew I supplemented our income by creating a home business teaching art to children. During this time, I explored the field of personal growth, which led to my interest in counseling. After moving to Bend, my first husband and I divorced. I began my full-time counseling practice. I met my husband Ron, and we have focused on creating a new life, a new house and home, building our businesses, expressing ourselves creatively, raising our daughters, and loving each other. Our daughters are now delightful grown women in their early twenties who are exploring the possibilities of their own lives.