It is always gratifying to help someone during a ZenThai session. The training I have received allows me to treat many different physical ailments, specific musculoskeletal problems and common sites of pain. Quite often clients come to me chiefly with a physical problem – tight neck, sore lower back, injured knee – and I employ my skills to assist them. But sometimes they come to the mat with a deeper issue. An emotional problem, a mental issue, a full nervous system dysregulation. My training also encompasses methods to assist with these types of problems. And this is truly why I have gotten into this work. This is the healing and the medicine I have received from somatic work and the reason why I am wanting to share this with others. This is when I really feel like I am utilizing my skills to assist people and when I feel most fulfilled.
This last week I have had the opportunity to do a lot of ZenThai sessions where the emotional and nervous system issues were at the forefront of the treatment. Many of the clients that have been coming to me lately have been trusting me with their stories of deep grief and trauma, things they have been holding onto and are ready to let go. I am deeply gratified that they are willing to put their trust in my hands and to work with their bodies to heal their souls.
I offered ZenThai at the Dance Temple Gathering the last weekend. Many people had gathered to seek community and healing through sharing music, movement and dance. They gathered on Providence Farm in Duncan – the site of a former residential school. I feel like the site of this gathering contributed to the emotions that were running through many of the clients that came to my mat. Just as the body recalls and stores past traumas so does the land. One can’t be in a place that has witnessed so much suffering without feeling some of that yourself. Today, the building serves as a nature-based therapeutic centre and the organizers of the gathering did a wonderful job of integrating the local First Nations and Indigenous communities into the festivities.
I am grateful that a had the opportunity to be a part of such an event and to be a part of the healing that needs to happen for individuals and for humanity as a collective. We must continue the work of reconciliation through relationship, humility and accountability. Keep dancing, keep moving, keep healing.
Raven's Breath Somatic Facilitation 