Many of you have asked where I get my information from .Most of  my dialogue is  based on what I have learnt over the years from personal experience with my family, friends and from my clients and students.

We have also been so fortunate in the fellowship we have felt from our friends and colleages locally in Shropshire, and it has  reinforced to me again that whatever is going on in these unsettling times, when we connect with like-minded people who offer their love,  support  and friendship, how valuable that is.

With the chaos that is around us at the moment, it is easy to get caught up in the discordant energies, becoming stressed and confused. So I think it challenges us to maintain our body/mind/spirit balance, whether that is in our spiritual practice, meditation, being in nature, chanting, singing ,  exercise, spending time with like-minded friends, doing in fact whatever brings us joy, and so feeding our soul. This enables us to hold our note and hopefully be a reference point for those around us.

We also stand more chance of being able to be more compassionate and loving to others as well as those close to us, and more open to receive that love and support from family and friends.

My husband is looking for another job, our cottage is nearly sold but our potential buyer has his own unscheduled timetable which seems to bear no relation to ours. I have had to face one of my biggest fears of being homeless, although kind friends have offered us tempoary shelter should we require it. I was touched deeply by my children’s reponses to our situation in offering accomodation in the form of a home and financial assistance should we need it in the future. It’s at times like this that you know who your true friends are.

My husband also has a chronic health problem which is likely to require surgery soon.

I finally surrendered last week to my Higher Self and have felt an inner peace that all is as it should be and everything is in it’s own time.

I did know all this of course!! However, when you get caught up in the chaos of others and the world in general it’s easy to lose your inner point of reference. We are all being challenged to “walk our talk” and “live our truth” in our increasingly chaotic world, as the energies on the planet are being impacted upon, as we move into 2012, and Gaia is moving into her position for the cosmic re-alignment on the winter solstice of 2012.

I have through my spiritual life tried to live by two fundamental principles:

1. are the decisions I’m making for the greatest good of all concerned i.e. from a love/heart/soul place or from an ego/fear/flight or fight place where there are inevitably  winners and losers;

2. minimum effort for maximum gain: am I moving with the cosmic flow or against it?

I would like to thank all of you who have responded so enthusiastically to my posts to date. The feeling I get from your responses is that this website and blog are worthwhile and I look forward to developing it further and more consistently when my life is more settled.

What really came home to me was that tha most powerful healing is when the heart is engaged with e Client as well as all the learnt skills and energetic development.

Thankyou all for a most enjoyable week

Please contact me on 01746 712100 for further details if you are interested.

Trip in 2007

We had a small select group of four who wanted to experience this form of writing, which is ‘writing without a parachute’ (Barabara Turner-Vesselago).

Having had an inspirational week of freefall with Barbara, I felt I wanted to share her ideas with others. I ran a day workshop last year with 12 people and relaised at the end of the day that I needed to extend it as the students were only just beginning to get into the flow.

This small group were truly incredible, producing some beautiful writing.

I read Chief Seattle’s speech to them and asked them to go onto freefall and see what emerged. The following are two examples of their creative writing in reply to his speech. I also include Seattle’s speech to put the examples into context.

There are other stories I would like to include and will ask the sudents if they will comment/re-produce them here as we put them on CD so that they could listen to their own stories. I asked them to do this because they are then more able to appreicate their creativity as the listener-reader.

Here are two of the students’ responses, after Chief Seattle’s speech – below:

CHIEF SEATTLE: 1855
 
Some of our most influential roots are the original cultures of this land. The following letter, sent by Chief Seattle of the Dwamish Tribe in Washington to President Pierce in 1855, illustrates the dignity, wisdom, and continuing relevance of this native continental vision.
 

Trip in 2007

THE GREAT CHIEF in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. The Great Chief also sends us words of friendship and good will. This is kind of him, since we know he has little need of our friendship in return. But we will consider your offer, for we know if we do not so the white man may come with guns and take our land. What Chief Seattle says you can count on as truly as our white brothers can count on the return of the seasons. My words are like the stars – they do not set.
How can you buy or sell the sky – the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time. Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and every humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.
We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s graves and his children’s birthright is forgotten. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the redman. But perhaps it is because the redman is a savage and does not understand.

Trip in 2007

There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to listen to the leaves of spring or the rustle of insect wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand – the clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind itself cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented by a pinõn pine: The air is precious to the redman. For all things share the same breath – the beasts, the trees, and the man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.
If I decide to accept, I will make one condition. The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. I am a savage and I do not understand any other way. I have seen thousands of rotting buffaloes on the prairie left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast also happens to the man.
All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
Our children have seen their fathers humbled in defeat. Our warriors have felt shame. And after defeat they turn their days in idleness and contaminate their bodies with sweet food and strong drink. It matters little where we pass the rest of our days – they are not many. A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the children of the great tribes that once lived on this earth, or that roamed in small bands in the woods will remain to mourn the graves of the people once as powerful and hopeful as yours.
One thing we know that the white man may one day discover. Our God is the same God. You may think that you own him as you wish to own our land, but you cannot. He is the Body of man, and his compassion is equal for the redman and the white. This earth is precious to him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator. The whites, too, shall pass – perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by the talking wires, where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

Olympic Peninsular

We might understand if we knew what it was the white man dreams, what hopes he describes to his children on long winter nights, what visions he burns into their minds, so they will wish for tomorrow. But we are savages. The white man’s dreams are hidden from us. And because they are hidden, we will go our own way. If we agree, it will be to secure your reservation you have promised.
There perhaps we may live out our brief days as we wish. When the last redman has vanished from the earth, and the memory is only the shadow of a cloud passing over the prairie, these shores and forests will still hold the spirits of my people, for they love this earth as the newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. If we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your memory the way the land is as you take it. And with all your strength, with all your might, and with all your heart – preserve it for your children, and love it as God loves us all. One thing we know – our God is the same. This earth is precious to him. Even the white man cannot escape the common destiny.

Mary – 17th July 2011

How have we come to this?

Where we have no roots in the earth,

Where food comes from plastic packs not animals,

A world where many people are never in nature,

A world where nature and man are not arm in arm?
We need “fast”: a fast movie, fast food, a fast life.

But we don’t really. We travel too fast to enjoy the journey.

As our planet dies, our children’s children die too- and all our dreams with them.

There are too many of us here now, becoming parasites on our planet.

Not daring to put things right in case others get ahead.

We are all stainless steel and shiny, air-conditioned and tasteless, muzak and mass-produced.

Our earth wants us harder working, slower, growing and different.

It’s all so sad to think about. It’s easier to ignore it.

We have come too far the wrong way.

It’s all so sad.

River joining Sea, Peninsular, Washington State, USA

Jenny – 17th July 2011

We have elected you Chief Seattle to speak our truth, but I can no longer deny what sits in my heart, a great boulder of pain in my chest, holding my tears back. Should the waters burst through and fill our lands and stop the white man from seeing them as beautiful?

I can no longer stand at your shoulder in unity, I must follow this rage that consumes me.

What choice? Give the white man the river, have my blood and see it spill and join the lands of my birth. I die in order to remain. Give the white man our trees that give our people shade and shelter, that he uses them to send the iron horse further into the territories. Best he take my scalp where shelters the wisdom that tells me to sell to the white man, our wisdom will be no more.

Give the white man access to our brothers the buffalo and the horse, our sisters the deer and the antelope, then also give him access to my soul that he may rip it  from its home but leave the husk of my essence unwanted, unused, food for the scavengers.

No, Chief Seattle, for me death cannot come in this way; to watch our people torn from their roots. Their source of growth and nurture left back in the souls of their land, leaving the life so full of purpose and passion to slowly, slowly ebb away.

Of what shall we sing? When all I see behind my closed eyes are scenes of the civilised ones raping my woman and her life blood pouring from her throat, my children hacked down as they run.

No Chief Seattle, death cannot come to me in this way for me as I am already dead. Give me back my brother horse, give me back my tomahawk and knife that I may ride alone and deliver the message of my heart. I am the sky, I am the land, the beasts and the wind. I cannot, will not be tamed.

No Chief Seattle, I will die this way, give me back my pride that I may take it with me to the other side, for I cannot live in this world of the white man; here I can see what my future will brings and I will take my change on the other side where I hope I can join the people of my heart.

Forgive me Chief Seattle. I see your wisdom. I have tried to make peace with it. I fail you, this, but I know I cannot die this way

Your brother Red Cloud, I see you.

This time, we simply enjoy seeing  how the garden had matured form our last visit , about 10 years ago.After our own space for contemplation we enjoyed Maitreya’s hopitaliy in the shape of hot freshly baked scones and cream and his special mixed fruit tea.

Shropshire Oak Tree

The latest HICC has completed it’s nine monthly weekends with mixed feelings I and the students are glad that we will have a break from our monthly commitment but as with most HICC groups we have built an incredibly close supportive and cohesive group.  I have personally felt loved and supported by this mature group as I lost my elder son in January after a long battle with alcoholism. The students truly demonstrated the qualities Carl Rogers, felt were essential for a good counsellor; empathy, positive regard for the other, and genuineness, in their relationship with me, at a very vulnerable time.

The course lends itself to trust and sharing as each week the students spend Saturday afternoons practising counselling skills with each other. I’m sure they would all agree at times the course has been challenging both in the knowledge and understanding and in the growth in their self-awareness, and they are often ready for home on the Sunday afternoon.

The beautiful venue of the old school- house beamed hall at Peace Haven in South Shropshire has allowed us to share a pooled lunch together and given us other opportunities to exchange views and much hilarity.

The students on this course have included two yoga teachers, a physiotherapist, a reflexologist / healer who volunteers in a local hospice, and an artist and potter, a mother and daughter combination which despite my initial reservations worked very well. In fact the potter, Liz Gunning is also in the process of developing as a healer on the COH Diploma course! And has kept up with her assignments for both courses, some dedication and commitment.

The group have decided to meet up in four months for the start of their O.P.D.

For more information of this Holistic Integrative Counselling course click www.collegeofhealing.org

So it is interesting, that in our more advanced technological age, the healing arts have generally become more structured, scientific & specialised, and in some cases mechanistic, and have moved away from a truly holistic approach, supported by Plato in 350 BC who said:
“Cure of a part should not be attempted without treatment of the whole. No attempt should be made to cure the body without the soul…the greatest error of our day is that in the treatment of the human body, physicians first separate the soul from the body”, and this message is perhaps more appropriate today than it ever has been before.

It is also a well-known fact, that those expressing the healer archetype in healing professions have a high risk of ‘burn out’, as they dedicate their lives to one of service, in order to alleviate the suffering & pain of others.

What is now coming to the fore is quantum physics & its new concepts, which give us the backcloth needed to understand the energetic matrix of which we are all an integral part and co-creators. What is becoming clearer is that disease is the result of a malfunction within our energy circuits, leading to a miscommunication or an imbalance in our dynamic interplay, meaning that we fall out of sync.

We as therapists facilitate a holographic re-patterning that enables clients to find their personal health note once more, and this can be achieved by influencing an individual’s energetic system through a number of disciplines & skills. For example, a suggested change in diet can be offered, acupuncture, physical manipulation, mantra or healing, and we catalyse a chain reaction to bring every level – physical, emotional, mental & spiritual, into line, creating a harmonious balance.

Our most important instrument as practitioners is ourselves – it is not so much what we do. We are the energetic reference points for our clients and even as they walk into our safe space, there is a subtle movement of energy, and if as a therapist we are in a state of balance & equilibrium, we set in motion, in a holographic sense, a re-balancing for the client – it is as if they tune their instrument to ours at a deep unconscious level. Indeed, it is thought that this is how dolphins positively affect people who swim with them.

For example, those who have suffered from long-term depression & anxiety, start to be healed after time spent in the water with these creatures. Swimmers move to the dolphins’ rhythm and because the dolphin is an instinctual creature moving with natures flow, this facilitates the change in the individuals’ disturbed patterning.

In much the same way, therapists are a focal point and a bio-feedback for the client, even as the client enters the therapeutic situation, before anything is said or done. If as a therapist we are not in balance, we are likely to be vulnerable and affected by the disharmonious note of our clients, and often, in order to continue working, we close down and heal automatically, working more mechanically & less intuitively – developing a rigid therapeutic manner, losing our flexibility & inspiration.

If we understand that who we are is as important as what we do, and that we have the capacity to catalyse a change in consciousness for our clients, healing at a profound level where their attitudes & perceptions change, they then feel more empowered and find a new level of health, as opposed to merely having their symptoms relieved which requires little or no effort on their behalf.

It is time in our evolutionary development to take responsibility for ourselves, a time to heal the healers and re-train therapists, so that we can understand our own energetic systems. It is time to self-reflect and study our relationship with ourselves and live what we teach. We can now look after ourselves by clearing the psychic debris accumulated throughout the day before going to sleep, by re-charging & rebalancing ourselves so that we can come from a place of centeredness & balance, and keep ourselves healthy in order to send a clear health note to our clients; and more importantly, learn safe techniques that keep us in balance & energetically protected where there are discordant energies.

How many of us have felt drained when a demanding client has attended a session or we have felt we have taken on & started to process something that belongs to our client?
An understanding of the energetic dynamics, inter-reaction & exchange that occurs between therapist & client is also essential to maintaining a healthy & successful practice. The College of Healing, established in the early 1980s as an educational charity, has a growing number of doctors, nurses & health care professionals taking accredited healing courses for their own self-healing, and to develop their abilities & sensitivity, in order to expand their therapeutic work qualitatively & quantitatively and continue their personal development.

Many come on the courses because they understand the need to heal themselves before they can fully engage in the healing of others through the use of a discipline or learnt skill, and by accepting their wounded healer and undergoing their own personal journey, they can be more empathetic of clients, colleagues & other human beings.

The healing energy is, in part, the caring & empathetic communication that involves a true soul-to-soul connection and an offering of unconditional love. It is not necessarily about curing or making people better in the conventional sense, it is about a shift in consciousness, initiating the healee to re-connect to their own healing energy & innate wisdom. Inevitably, a change will occur and this can happen spiritually, mentally, emotionally or physically.

There are as many ways to heal as there are healers and the College’s view, is that on-going development is essential for healers whether they choose to work professionally or not. It is that innate knowledge & understanding of the healing process that enables profound changes to occur, that in turn leads to an integration on every level of our being, leading us to identify with a more positive image of ourselves, our environment, and our role as spiritual beings experiencing on this planet in human bodies.