Client Assignment

Client Blog Assigment – Grace Beecham – March 27, 2012 - JA12MN INTRO

My first client experience was a great experience. I never would have gone in for a massage but I happened to get a Groupon for an Aveda salon and decided to go.  The best thing about it was the atmosphere for rest and peace that she was able to create, and how I was shepherded into total release.  Active resting was something I had just begun to cultivate in my life, so to be in a situation where I had no choice but TO rest was hugely impacting.

It was surprising, but through this experience I discovered how much I value atmosphere, both for my own use and as a tool as a therapist.  Everything from the products, to the amount she spoke and how she took charge of the situation tipped me right over the edge into complete relaxation, and because of that my whole being was affected – not just my body.  I believe that knowing this key will make me a fantastic therapist, able to get in and release people in places they never knew existed.   

One thing that really impacted me was her professionalism.  We talked a bit in the beginning over a foot scrub,  then once she got the information she needed and I was on the table she said, “Okay, it’s quiet time now”, which released me to let everything melt away.  We exchanged a few comments during the session to stay present with each other, but for the most part it was completely silent.  She moved around the table efficiently and quickly and used an array of media: hot stones, aromatherapy, a sugar scrub and massage oil.  Having grown up in the Midwest to conservative/religious family it was completely outside of my grid - and I enjoyed every minute of it! 

Through what was undoubtedly a spiritual experience, I learned the value of being a strong presence.  There are those that come in who cultivate a lifestyle of keeping things in perspective, giving themselves grace and taking time to rest.  They are in tune with their bodies and hearts and can sense when they’re getting overloaded, so they come in to reconnect with their center.  All they need is the time and a little bit of coaxing to return, and so they come to us.

 Others have never learned what to do when they are overwhelmed, or even to notice when it happens.  They have no ‘muscle memory’, as it were, for the place of peace in their hearts and have no idea when they’ve lost it. So for them, getting back to rest is a difficult and often lengthy journey.   The whole person needs persuading, someone with masterful hands and a gentle heart that will take them by the hand and lead them into rest in mind, body, and spirit.  Sometimes it’s a whole lifestyle change over a course of years, and at other times we get to come in at just the right time and give them the last little piece that makes everything click, and this is what happened for me.  I was learning to relax and simply respond on numerous levels in my life, so having a physical lesson in this drew me into a depth of peace and rest that I am still enjoying today. 

This is what I want for my clients: to be strong, to know by intuition what my client needs on their journey into peace, and trust in my own abilities so that I can partner with the whole person to take them to the next step.  Amazing how one hour and a half session could have brought me to this place!

Therapist Entry

Therapist Blog Assignment - Grace Beecham – INTRO – JA12MN

                I had an interesting experience as a therapist last weekend.  I am still in the place where I am juggling understanding and intuition, often torn between what both the client and I ‘know’ is the problem and what direction my gut was telling me to go.

                This last session was exactly that; it ended up falling short of the fantastic massage I intended, and feedback from the client wasn’t so hot either.  At times like this we can find peace in the fact that even at its most mediocre, massage is still hugely therapeutic.  But knowing this, I feel that there is an even greater truth to be found. 

                When I think about the great therapist I hope to, and one day will, be I remember Lovelace telling our class about the contrast of mobility and stability.  It was in reference to body mechanics, but I feel the same is true for “heart mechanics” as well.  It is a continual dance to remain both stable – not easily overthrown or moved, and mobile – able to grow and expand with ease.  But this is where it gets difficult: in this therapist situation I could have simply gone with stability: doing what I knew by the book, staying within the lines of what I could understand.  But I don’t happen to be that sort of person.  I’m also not the sort whose fingers drip with creative intuition, knitting and painting and decorating ad nauseum.  Instead I happen to be a little of both, the sort that thrives on being surefooted in very unstable places, and finding myself in the unlikeliest of places – and still somehow ending up in a place of influence.  That is why this stability/mobility concept is so intriguing to me, because I feel it is a picture of my own life and journey.

                It is difficult to lead when we don’t know where we’re going.  It was hard to in that situation say to a person’s body: “I know I don’t have all of the answers, but come - let me draw you into healing anyway.”  In balancing the stability of understanding and the mobility of intuition we have to be very brave, trusting both and never fully relying on either.  There has to be something inside, a love of the journey, that is willing to look foolish and ineffective while we try and try again to stay balanced and with it, bring life.  It is like being on the sea in a boat; somehow you know that you will never master it, will always remain a pupil and very seldom be in control; and that HAS to be okay. Ours is an ever expanding field, not really fitting into any one category.  It touches so many parts of a person and it’s always a surprise which. It’s not the sort of tool that one can wield for their own glory, and the amount of life our clients receive is directly proportionate to the life we have flowing through us.

I know that it will be a struggle, a constant adjustment to keep the balance.  I know that at times I will wish I had sided with understanding instead of intuition, or vice versa.  But my heart is to never settle, to never stagnate but to continue to explore and grow and learn and fail.   And if there are times that I encounter discouragement and embarrassment, so be it; I would rather a white-knuckled discovery than a quiet safety any day. Because growing, even at its most confusing and frustrating, will always have more life than confidence in our own competence.  And that’s the sort of therapist I want to be – full of life, whatever it costs, wherever it takes me.