My Healing Path So Far...
The Healers
I'm not a healer.
Not even close.
I'm a teacher, an educator... a communicator. I am a Beloved Presence. So I may share tools to heal, but I'm definitely not practicing as a healer.
Healers are different.
The ones that I have stuck with, who have done the best for me have always maintained that they help us do the healing for ourselves.
They help hold a safe place for us to feel and integrate.
Gail Cooper
Gail was my first healer. I worked with her for 4 years in my late 20's.
She was a graduate of The Barbara Brennan School of Healing , which was super awesome because Hands of Light and Light Emerging had both hugely impacted my understanding of the body energy system, chakras and healing.
Gail was in her 60's when I met her... over 20 years ago.
She had been a nurse for 40 years before turning to energy healing - which is more of a proactive treatment of discomfort before it can become disease.
It fascinated me that her study of the body energy system enmeshed and was interwoven with her medical understanding of the human body's physical systems.
Gail was fantastic, and a nurturing, warm, and kind introduction to putting into practice my beliefs about who we really are, and how things really work here.
I wish that I had kept in touch. I wonder if she's on the other side yet.
I worked with Gail for 4 years before I moved out of the area... and that's when I met Kimberlee.
It’s weird how the Universe serves up pathetic fallacy in all ways. I was considered how to handle this post and my… parting ways with Kimberlee, when this song came on my playlist… so I think I will tell you the story.
Then I made this deeply poetic quote image. Lol.
Kimberlee
Kimberlee was one of my very best friends, for a time.
She was on a healer’s path and studied herbology and healing modalities and was instrumental in helping me move through some of my blocks. Not least of which was dissolving the resistance to intimacy and trust that was preventing me from joining with the great love of my life.
I do credit her with helping me find Keith. That is no small thing and I am grateful.
Keith is my favourite person and I’ll be forever grateful to Kimberlee for whatever help she gave to bring him into my life.
Since then, we have parted ways.
She had babies who became naturally, the most important thing in her life. She expected me to be part of that. Sorry, no. And that was it.
I could understand her wanting that support. I am not the one that could give it to her.
She couldn’t accept my life was not transformed by her babies. I couldn’t accept not being accepted for who I am.
I think of her often and I wish her well.
Paul, Jane & ICU
In my late 40’s I accepted that I could no longer make much spiritual growth progress on my own. I needed a community to help me out of my rut.
I Googled what I was looking for - therapy, coaching… whatever, but it HAD to have a spiritual basis. Preferably non-denominational - general “Spirit”, not religion. I stumbled on the word “transpersonal”, which is exactly that. Transpersonal describes being in a system that is larger than the individual.
Enter Transpersonal Coaching at ICU in the Netherlands.
Now called Living a Life that Matters, this program has been the single most powerful act of education I have undertaken in my adult life. It is therapy, coaching, re-programming my brain and perspective to orient myself to recognize my choice, my power, my wanted inclusion in this Creation.
Nothing short of life changing.
Less angry, more hope. Thank you Paul & Jane.
As of this writing, I am finishing up Level II and will be entering the ICF coaching certification program in the fall.
The Healing of Books
I graduated from Queen’s University with a degree in History, so I’ve always been a big reader. (Lately it’s been audio books - teach me while I drive or clean or cook.)
Books have been healers and teachers in so many wonderful ways. I’d like to share a few of my favourites with you.
This and ‘Speaking to the Trees’ are the Bibles of my Life and Spirituality. They have given me the permission I have longed for all my life to love the natural world and hold it in my arms. Reciprocity. Love. Kin.
Ditto above but also with Celtic re-connecting.
The most comprehensive chakra system volume I’ve ever read. It goes through the chakras individually and discusses in detail how to identify imbalance and bring them back into balance within the whole system.
There are a lot of personal and client stories and history that make it quite rich and juicy.
I refer to this one often.
Have you been missing the Goddess? Here she is.
This one reads like when you’re sliding down the rabbit whole on spiritual topics on the internet and you’ve got 20 tabs open. Keep some book marks handy. I’ve read this one to tatters.
OH MY GOSH! It’s back in print. That’s amazing!! My university boyfriend Galen bought me a used copy for me in my early 20’s. My spiritual foundations are entangled in the quantum realm.
This is the wisdom basis for all the personal and spiritual growth work we do at ICU. My coaching practice is rooted in the ACIM premise that this is only one problem and one solution - disconnection from loving Wholiness needs re-connection.
It’s beautiful, and simple and we struggle our whole lives with it.
This is a personal exploration of ACIM. It’s accessible and real and I love how Marianne isn’t a ‘holier-than-thou’ guru, but is right in the muck of the struggle with us.
She wrote the piece often attributed to Nelson Mandela, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” This book keeps giving.
Byron Katie is new to me and I found her through ICU. The basic premise is that our thoughts are what determine our state of being and if we’re not questioning what we are believing, we are walking around rudderless.
Powerful. Truly.
Quantum spiritual study. Everything is everything. Literally.
Joe is one of my favourite people. He’s invited to my ‘dinner with anyone alive or dead’. His synthesis and connection-making among the religions and spiritualities of the world is part of me. Joseph Campbell gave me a structure to my spirituality that is framed in loving inclusion.
And this one. This is the book that guided George Lucas’ writing of Star Wars.
Actually, anything by Joseph Campbell is exceptional. His ‘Masks of God’ series is incredible. Love all of this.