All the practitioners I know in the field of healing say
that, when they look at how they got to where they are, they can trace their
choice of profession back to their childhoods.
I am no exception. In my case, it
showed up in the way I welcomed taking care of my four younger siblings, or how
I would find a baby bird who had fallen out of its nest and bring it home to
nurse into a fledgling. I would feel so
proud and joyful as I watched it fly away, sure that it would have a wonderful
life.
My natural inclinations were undeniably influenced by
being brought up Catholic (being half Irish and half Italian, was there any
other option?). As a child, I loved the
incense, Gregorian chant and the ceremony of mass. It was all in Latin then, so no words got in
the way of my experience. I absolutely loved Jesus. I wanted to be a healer like him. Even as young as 6 or 7, I was impressed by
the way he could talk to people and have them realize that they could think and
do things differently, that they could be loving and helpful . . . to
themselves and to the others around them.
His laying on of hands, healing lepers and bringing back the dead,
touched me in a profound way that went beyond the awe of the miracles. I went to mass and communion daily throughout
junior high and high school and prayed to be of service.
I went to a catholic college and chose a major that was
called Speech Correction because I wanted to help people express
themselves. However, the nuns there were
so nasty that I stopped being Catholic.
I decided to find out what spirituality had been like before it was
institutionalized. That was very
enlightening because I discovered that indigenous cultures honored all
of God’s creation, not just a hierarchy of church officials. They did look up to their elders and leaders,
but all their voices were heard. And,
unlike churches, women had the trust and respect of their tribes and clans, and
were just as likely to be the leaders as men were. This gave me a new sense of possibility. I understood that even a woman could make a
significant contribution to society.
[That might seem strange to say, but it was quite a revelation for a
young woman coming to adulthood in the mid -1960’s. Afterall, I had grown up in the 1950’s, and
the movement for Equal Rights for Women didn’t even start until after the Equal
Rights Amendment passed in 1972.] I was
inspired!
My inspiration was put on hold, however, because I
married a pretty macho guy at the age of 21.
The Women’s Liberation movement hadn’t happened yet. Several years later I marched for women’s
rights, divorced, and moved to New York City to study Shiatsu. Now I was living a life of my own choosing .
. . and it was fantastic! I was an
enthusiastic and dedicated student. I
organized study groups so that I could be “in it” day and night, and I
practiced on people all the time. The
school I was enrolled in was so pleased with my attitude and aptitude that they
hired me to teach the beginning levels before I graduated! They also hired me to work in their clinic
after graduation.
I met fascinating people and worked on stars from the
movies, the ballet, modern dance and Broadway.
I learned yoga. I became a
Buddhist monk for a short time (or, as I like to say, a “monkette”). I was sent to Canada and to several European
countries to teach shiatsu. Some amazing
healers from Japan came to our school. I
found one of them to be so astounding that I moved to Germany to apprentice
with him for two years. Besides being an
internationally reknown healer in the shiatsu world, he was a Shinto
priest. Shinto is the ancient indigenous
spirituality of Japan. He taught me much
of what I know about healing, both on the physical and esoteric levels. Just being being in his presence was an
uplifting experience for everyone around him.
He worked “miracles” on those of us who studied with him.
By this time, my own reputation was growing
internationally. I was recruited back to
the United States to design nationally certified shiatsu programs in massage
schools, community colleges and acupuncture colleges. I did this over a period of 18 years in five
states and many institutions, and loved spreading this beautiful work from
coast to coast. During this period, four
national certifying agencies hired me as their subject matter expert (SME) for
on-site visits at various schools to assess the eligibility of their
programs.
This was a very exciting and prolific time in my
career. From all across the country,
twelve other practitioners and I envisioned a national professional
organization for Asian bodywork that was distinct from European and American
style massage. We realized our dream in
1989 with the formation of the AOBTA (American Organization for the Bodywork
Therapies of Asia). I wrote the initial
draft of the educational requirements for student clinic, and chaired the
committee that brought it to completion.
Next, in the mid-1990’s, several of us worked with the National
Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) to
develop a national exam. It took over a
year and was a BIG accomplishment for
our profession . . . and so satisfying.
Throughout all these
years, there remained a continual inner drive to increase my
understanding and skill set. I wanted to
know everything about what it means to be human, and how we become happy,
healthy and wise. I studyied with
American chiropractors, European osteopaths and Asian acupuncturists. I furthered my knowledge and practice of
Asian medicine by on-going personal,
professional and tutorial relationships with my most influential teachers. Sadly, they have passed on. I miss them.
Some of my most gratifying and fulfilling courses of
study and apprenticeships have been those with native healers of different
cultures. I feel so fortunate to have
been taken into such magnificent worlds of wonder – and to have been shown how
to lead others there. These are the
realms within the human potential where spontaneous realizations and
unexplainable remissions happen, where the mind is at peace and the soul rests
in the silence of deep joy.
Yes, I have been lucky.
I have visited these worlds . . . admittedly, only for moments . . . but
repeatedly. My inner drive to sustain the
stillness, the peace, persists. And it
is my sincere and heartfelt desire to share that space with those who want to
know that experience for themselves.
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