I have recently had a breakthrough with a regular client of mine. Breakthrough may not be the right word because it seems to have the connotation of an identifiable moment where there was an observable shift. This was more like an experience of riding through the darkness and only being able to realize how far you have traveled once the sun has come up.
I have been working with this client for over a year now. We have had over 30 sessions together, which has been a combination of both SET and EERT, or as we like to say body- and breathwork. This client came to me without any major painful conditions, only a desire to experience the transformative effects of the work that someone close to him had shared about their experiences.
When we first started to work together I wondered if I was giving him enough pressure with the bodywork; his body was releasing, just not overtly like I had seen in other clients or in myself receiving a treatment. He assured me that he was feeling the shifts, but without the concrete information of decrease in chronic pain (because he had none) I will admit I was slightly concerned that the work was, well, working. Despite the absence of any major obvious changes, he enjoyed the work and continued to see me.
It wasn’t until we were working together for several months that I started to realize how his body was responding, which was more of what I would call an energetic response. At the beginning of each session he would bring me news of the changes occurring in his life. As a university professor, he was starting to prepare for the tenure tract which sounded pretty demanding. Until this point, he saw that becoming a tenured professor was his only option for career security. When you have a PhD., you want to use it. But it was becoming clear to him in our sessions that this was taxing his body and spirit perhaps more than it was worth.
So he started to return to what he really loves to do. Music. It started by playing guitar more often, then by purchasing some equipment to record himself and has since released a debut album with plans for another on the way. He began to play gigs around town and was getting wonderful responses from the audience and shop owners, and started to heavily supplement his income by playing music. Though he became really busy, he was often doing what he loved to do and combined with taking time for himself twice a month to see me he has been able to avoid major burnout.
In addition to playing music around town, my client has also begun to explore sound healing. He now conducts sound healing journeys and is enrolled in a training program to enhance his skills in this new healing modality. His outlook on the world, reality, and his life has had a major shift in the past year and a half. Some of it has to do with our sessions but also his willingness to open himself up.
Now, he accepts the reality of tenure and the whole of academia for what it is (which is a sharp contrast to the major stress he was feeling at the time he was preparing for it) and has become more open to other opportunities. He is able to see that those fears were supported by a belief that he had to find acceptance within academia to survive and now he knows there is a world of options. I do not want to bad mouth the academic institution, but I believe it is important for us all to know we can do what we love, even if that doesn’t fit into the story we are told about what it means to grow up.
I feel like I have got to watch this man grow up. Even though he came to me as a grown man (and I didn’t ever see him as otherwise) looking at him now I can see how he has come more fully into being who he really is. The more he sought that which he loved, music, the more opportunities opened up for him, including recently traveling to a world music conference in another continent where he had been invited to speak.
Our body work sessions the past month have gotten more intense for him than before. I am doing some deeper work, but it is more than that. He has let down some of his armor, old baggage that was holding him back, and allowing my touch to penetrate deeper. I don’t think either of us knew it was there until it had gone.
I suppose it is like our youth. We are not sure what it is when we are in it, because it is all we have known. But once we start to get older, we can see that things have changed and suddenly we are no longer young. We cannot get younger, but we have every day until we leave this earth to expand our capacity and openness to life. Though you may be grown up, but you can still grow upward.
I have been working with this client for over a year now. We have had over 30 sessions together, which has been a combination of both SET and EERT, or as we like to say body- and breathwork. This client came to me without any major painful conditions, only a desire to experience the transformative effects of the work that someone close to him had shared about their experiences.
When we first started to work together I wondered if I was giving him enough pressure with the bodywork; his body was releasing, just not overtly like I had seen in other clients or in myself receiving a treatment. He assured me that he was feeling the shifts, but without the concrete information of decrease in chronic pain (because he had none) I will admit I was slightly concerned that the work was, well, working. Despite the absence of any major obvious changes, he enjoyed the work and continued to see me.
It wasn’t until we were working together for several months that I started to realize how his body was responding, which was more of what I would call an energetic response. At the beginning of each session he would bring me news of the changes occurring in his life. As a university professor, he was starting to prepare for the tenure tract which sounded pretty demanding. Until this point, he saw that becoming a tenured professor was his only option for career security. When you have a PhD., you want to use it. But it was becoming clear to him in our sessions that this was taxing his body and spirit perhaps more than it was worth.
So he started to return to what he really loves to do. Music. It started by playing guitar more often, then by purchasing some equipment to record himself and has since released a debut album with plans for another on the way. He began to play gigs around town and was getting wonderful responses from the audience and shop owners, and started to heavily supplement his income by playing music. Though he became really busy, he was often doing what he loved to do and combined with taking time for himself twice a month to see me he has been able to avoid major burnout.
In addition to playing music around town, my client has also begun to explore sound healing. He now conducts sound healing journeys and is enrolled in a training program to enhance his skills in this new healing modality. His outlook on the world, reality, and his life has had a major shift in the past year and a half. Some of it has to do with our sessions but also his willingness to open himself up.
Now, he accepts the reality of tenure and the whole of academia for what it is (which is a sharp contrast to the major stress he was feeling at the time he was preparing for it) and has become more open to other opportunities. He is able to see that those fears were supported by a belief that he had to find acceptance within academia to survive and now he knows there is a world of options. I do not want to bad mouth the academic institution, but I believe it is important for us all to know we can do what we love, even if that doesn’t fit into the story we are told about what it means to grow up.
I feel like I have got to watch this man grow up. Even though he came to me as a grown man (and I didn’t ever see him as otherwise) looking at him now I can see how he has come more fully into being who he really is. The more he sought that which he loved, music, the more opportunities opened up for him, including recently traveling to a world music conference in another continent where he had been invited to speak.
Our body work sessions the past month have gotten more intense for him than before. I am doing some deeper work, but it is more than that. He has let down some of his armor, old baggage that was holding him back, and allowing my touch to penetrate deeper. I don’t think either of us knew it was there until it had gone.
I suppose it is like our youth. We are not sure what it is when we are in it, because it is all we have known. But once we start to get older, we can see that things have changed and suddenly we are no longer young. We cannot get younger, but we have every day until we leave this earth to expand our capacity and openness to life. Though you may be grown up, but you can still grow upward.
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