Intense update

[mattlistener]

-I hosted a discussion on touch therapy and talk therapy at the Carl Rogers conference in La Jolla a few weeks ago. Result of that for me is that I'm no longer feeling urgent about finding a combined discipline that would use all of the skills I want to put into service. I've got a great long learning path ahead of me as a massage therapist and another as a counsellor, and that's where I need to be for now -- synthesis can come as it comes. Being around therapists who've practiced for 40 years gave me some good perspective.

-Consequently, the next thing on my agenda is to ramp up my massage practice. For a while I'd been holding back because I was keeping space in my life for finishing my counselling course, and then I was holding back because neither massage therapy nor counselling felt like the "it" I was looking for that would fulfill all the passion I could put into it.

-The question of how to get new massage clients then led me to the thought that I'd like to work with abuse survivors. Already a few of my massage clients have had abuse in their pasts of various sorts, and there was some very different kinds of healing work going on for them in the massage setting. I've got the counselling background obviously, and also I've gotten lots of feedback that I'm good at creating a safe space for people, so it's just making a lot of sense. (And ironically, this may already be the combined discipline I'd decided not to look for above.)

-So my next thought is to take a weekend workshop for bodyworkers on working with abuse survivors. I've already got the foundation, but I could use some "things to bear in mind" kind of training, and a greater repertoire of options to offer so people can get what they need and feel safe. (Things I've picked up recently: if shoulder/back work is too emotionally intense, offer work on the hands. If they want back work with skin-contact and also want a shirt on, suggest putting a button-down shirt on backwards.) This is as far as I've gotten on this thread to date.

-In other news, I have a better handle now on what I've written about in the past as "trouble broadcasting". The flip side of the problem is that I have a great capacity to be fully in the moment doing the right thing unthinkingly. When I get into that mode I'm highly effective, in tune with people, feeling fulfilled, and *broadcasting*. I've even noticed people wheeling into my orbit. I've cultivated in myself a capacity to be evoked into that kind of fully-present-action. But when nothing in the world is calling that forth, I'm sometimes in my head wondering how I can get my needs met.

-I told the above to a friend of mine visiting from Maine (pagan elder type), and she said, "well then, it's clear to me that you need some kind of magical training." Could be meditation or trance work of some flavor, yoga, martial arts, drumming, whatever -- the key is to learn how to get into that state by choice. This sounds really right to me. I might even be someone's dream student if I could find the right teacher. Front-burnered.

-Most of my free time lately has been going into Baldur's Gate II, which is richly detailed, plotted, and dialogued, and has lots of interesting tactical combat situations. The basic approach of hack'n'slash with backup spell damage does not get far at all -- misdirection & defensive magic are so prevalent that I'm forced to employ more of my party's range of abilities. Very rewarding!

-I've noticed that the proportion of my time going into brain-absorbing activities like this goes up when I'm in life transitions or working on big stuff in the back of my mind, so that's probably what this is about. That plus yer basic obsession/addiction, of which I certainly have a streak.

Comments

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

I told the above to a friend of mine visiting from Maine (pagan elder
type), and she said, "well then, it's clear to me that you need some
kind of magical training." Could be meditation or trance work of some
flavor, yoga, martial arts, drumming, whatever -- the key is to learn
how to get into that state by choice

It had never occured to me to call these things "magical training", though I have often referred to the experiences one has while doing this stuff as magic. Myself, I always went for the traditional, ritual magic that was found in certain folk dances. I always found it interesting to compare the magical experiences I had there with the ones that friends of mine experienced in martial arts, mime, or music. I don't know how artistically oriented you are (I only met you once, I think), but you might consicer one of these artistic ways to develop your sense of magic as well.

[laurens10.livejournal.com]

I've never thought of the above as either magic-training or magical, but it makes a lot of sense to me now that you've mentioned it. I've actually been thinking a lot recently about trance-like states, though in my religious tradition it comes from reciting a fixed liturgy. Maybe it is easy for me to fall into a trance-like state, but I find it interesting that no one really ever mentions it within my tradition. But then again there are a lot of quasi-magical things in Judaism no one ever mentions....

I've been trying to carve time in my schedule either to pray (more regularly) the fixed liturgy, do yoga, tai chi, or just plain meditation. Inertia has been eating into me though....

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

Neat! I'm sure there's books out there about the quasi-magical aspects of Judaism, if you wanted to find them...

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

For clarification, the sense of "magic" meant by my pagan elder friend was probably closest to "magic is the art of changing consciousness at will."

I'm not artistically oriented for the most part, although drumming has some attraction -- that's actually the first thing I'm going to explore some more, via the Drum&Dance monthly gathering near Harvard Square.

[tcb.livejournal.com]

congratulations on finding a potential way to combine your strengths!

I hope it truly fulfills you..