My Path as a Healer (part 1)
So I'm 32 now, turning 33 in a few months... I first learned I liked and was good at giving massage when I was 16. That's half my life ago! I went from giving out hand massages and shoulder rubs to my classmates in high school, to using it as a social crutch during parties in college. I decided that I wanted to go to massage school when I was 19 but my parents said "No, you have to finish college first!" So I did (and in the meanwhile, met my husband, Greg!). I began attending Healing Hands Institute for Massage Therapy just days before my graduation at Rutgers!
I definitely fell in love with massage even more once I went to school - I really felt like I found my calling. I graduated massage school in December of 2000 and was already working regularly in two different places. I continued working full time doing massage, but quickly realized the toll it could take on my body. I had to cut it back to part time and began working in an office as a receptionist (which I HATED! It assured me that Healing Work was the path for me b/c the rigid office environment definitely wasn't for me... but I needed health insurance!). In May of 2001 Greg and I got engaged and got married in October of 2002. I knew that there was more out there for me in the healing world and massage wasn't going to be the ONLY thing for me. I just didn't know where my path would take me.
Shortly after our wedding in 2002 my mother fell severely ill with an autoimmune disease (Acute Transverse Myelitis). In the despair that followed, I knew I REALLY wanted to help her but didn't know how. It was a very scary and helpless time. At this time, I received a few signs to pursue "CranioSacral" Therapy- a gentle modality that manipulates the spinal fluid and really relaxes the body and assists in its ability to heal itself. I took that course in March of 2003 and it was heavily influential in my future. The work itself is very gentle and subtle, and because of this class I learned (even more than before) to trust in my intuition and to go where I was being guided with my work. I would integrate this work into my massages and people would often ask me "How do you know where to go!?" and I'd always say "I don't know, my hands know!" It wasn't something that I was deducing through a thought process, I just went where I went because it felt like that was where I was supposed to go.
I took a second CranioSacral course and was quickly realizing how badly I wanted to have a baby! So parenting and babyhood took center stage for me the next few years... I had Gre
gory in November of 2004 and then Andrew in March of 2007. I took "SomatoEmotional Release" (another main course in the basic CranioSacral work) while I was pregnant with Andrew and there I was opened up even more to the mysterious, unknown and unprovable (so far) work and it piqued my curiosity. Later on stuff I encountered in that class would come up, but not for a couple of years. Babies and toddlers were the only language I spoke until Andrew was about 2. The next part of my Healing Work story will have to wait till next time. I need to go catch my 20 minute afternoon nap while Andrew is watching his kid show - his "rest time". :)
I definitely fell in love with massage even more once I went to school - I really felt like I found my calling. I graduated massage school in December of 2000 and was already working regularly in two different places. I continued working full time doing massage, but quickly realized the toll it could take on my body. I had to cut it back to part time and began working in an office as a receptionist (which I HATED! It assured me that Healing Work was the path for me b/c the rigid office environment definitely wasn't for me... but I needed health insurance!). In May of 2001 Greg and I got engaged and got married in October of 2002. I knew that there was more out there for me in the healing world and massage wasn't going to be the ONLY thing for me. I just didn't know where my path would take me.
Shortly after our wedding in 2002 my mother fell severely ill with an autoimmune disease (Acute Transverse Myelitis). In the despair that followed, I knew I REALLY wanted to help her but didn't know how. It was a very scary and helpless time. At this time, I received a few signs to pursue "CranioSacral" Therapy- a gentle modality that manipulates the spinal fluid and really relaxes the body and assists in its ability to heal itself. I took that course in March of 2003 and it was heavily influential in my future. The work itself is very gentle and subtle, and because of this class I learned (even more than before) to trust in my intuition and to go where I was being guided with my work. I would integrate this work into my massages and people would often ask me "How do you know where to go!?" and I'd always say "I don't know, my hands know!" It wasn't something that I was deducing through a thought process, I just went where I went because it felt like that was where I was supposed to go.
I took a second CranioSacral course and was quickly realizing how badly I wanted to have a baby! So parenting and babyhood took center stage for me the next few years... I had Gre
gory in November of 2004 and then Andrew in March of 2007. I took "SomatoEmotional Release" (another main course in the basic CranioSacral work) while I was pregnant with Andrew and there I was opened up even more to the mysterious, unknown and unprovable (so far) work and it piqued my curiosity. Later on stuff I encountered in that class would come up, but not for a couple of years. Babies and toddlers were the only language I spoke until Andrew was about 2. The next part of my Healing Work story will have to wait till next time. I need to go catch my 20 minute afternoon nap while Andrew is watching his kid show - his "rest time". :)