Bodywork and Spiritual Development

Bodywork and Spiritual Development

How can our work as bodyworkers enable our clients to grow their own spiritual awareness? I practiced a spiritual discipline, vipassana meditation, for years that was centered upon continuous monitoring of bodily sensations. I was becoming a bodyworker at the same time, 1986. As I started my work as a Trager practitioner I was committed to finding a body-centered bridge to spiritual development. My years as a practitioner on Orcas Island was a time of experimentation. I guided my clients into their bodies and then found how to accompany them, using Trager, Reiki, craniosacral, Therapeutic Touch, and co-counseling.

I was concerned that the spiritual development grows out of the client's own experience. I had worked with various spiritual teachers over the years who had imposed their beliefs and practice on students. I was convinced that all persons have their own internal spiritual guidance towards awakening.

My quest for a reputable method led me to graduate school three years. During that time I worked further with clients to develop this internal connection. My teachers and supervisors were immensely helpful as I reported these client sessions and my own understanding of spiritual awakening. Finally I settled on presencing, bringing clients consciously into the present moment, as the learning tool for client self development. I had ample evidence from my own experience that as inner guidance grows, external interactions reflect that growth.

In graduate school I realized that what we call "healing" is actually the flowering of spiritual development. I undertook a study of elder healers and realized that their own healing was inextricably linked to their own internal development. After my learnings in graduate school I continued to experiment with a number of techniques. I started to teach some of these techniques to bodyworkers. Advanced Side-Lying, Being Present with Your Client, Reiki for Bodyworkers, Presencing Your Life, Moving Beyond Caretaking, Ethical Dilemmas, Supervision for Bodyworkers, and Understanding the Enneagram.

In all of these classes I was concerned with two fundamental issues: client empowerment through presencing, and healing as a growth of body-centered awareness. Each of these classes seemed to produce profound realizations for practitioners and clients. I now know that the various forms of presencing produce the transformations. I continued my own meditations and other spiritual development tools for solidifying my own inner guidance and direction.

This class was developed over 3 years of graduate studies in theology. It involves somatic learning and the practice of presencing, focusing and willingness to be witness to the clients spiritual growth. Below is an article that introduces some of the possiblities involved.

FURTHER IMPLICATIONS OF PRESENCE IN MANUAL THERAPY
(c) Jack Blackburn and Cynthia Price

It is suggested that bodyworkers and other manual therapists have a unique contribution to make in the practice and understanding of presence as a tool of healing and transformation. This uniqueness stems mainly from the fact that it is possible to learn to use touch as a way of facilitating and monitoring the effects of client presencing. Also, the presencing practitioner - by conjoining the client in presencing activity - can become an additional source of change in the client's somatic experience. By joining with the client in attending to bodily sensation, the practitioner may precipitate an episode of shared presence; magnifying the client's comprehension of internalphenomena - including the interactive nature of his/her thoughts, emotions and physical sensations.

Typically, clients are but dimly aware of their internal environment, particularly kinesthetic signals. Learning to be present in bodywork involves the process of bringing awareness to aspects of experience that are often in the "unconscious" realm. According to Thomas Hanna (1995), "It is only through the exclusionary function of awareness [into body parts] that the involuntary is made voluntary, the unknown is made known, and the never-done is made doable. Awareness serves as a probe, recruiting new material for the repertoire of voluntary consciousness." This is important because it enables a parallel apprehension of the inner experience of self, which is a strong foundation for the therapeutic process in bodywork. The phrase inner experience of self' refers to awareness of inner state of being - important for the ongoing, constructive process involved in the creation of sense of self (Greenberg & Van Balen, 1998). 

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