WHAT HAPPENS IN A JOURNEYWORK SESSION

We begin with a conversation about what brings you to the session – your curiosity or pain point, the situation in which you find yourself, what it is you want to investigate or seek healing around.

Based on that conversation, we identify in general or specific terms what the future is that you are seeking to create. It’s fine if this is wildly unclear to you – many times it’s just a matter of naming a few characteristics of the positive future state you desire, ways you want to feel or be. We also identify a key point of inquiry for the session, our central question and request.

For example, let’s say that Drew comes with an overwhelming feeling of disembodiment and dread. They feel weighed down, yet somehow disconnected from physical reality and the world around them. They are considering their assigned gender and the possibility of transition. They are engaged in EMDR with their therapist somewhat successfully but feel unable to really go deep or integrate the work with their lives. We begin by identifying just three simple words for how they would love to feel in the future: soft, real, and free. We think back to a time when they felt at least one of those things, we breathe into it. Then we go into a journey with the question “How can Drew move toward a life where they are and feel soft, real, and free?” and a request for any healing or support that can be provided in the energetic realm to help Drew in this quest.  

Or let’s say Abigail comes with excitement about a career opportunity but uncertainty about whether she should pursue it and what the repercussions would be for her family and herself. We begin by imagining a road splitting into two roads, traveling a far distance and then uniting at the horizon. Abigail identifies the feeling she most desires at that joined horizon point (reached no matter what path she takes) and it is a sense of completeness, of purpose fulfilled. Then we go into a journey with the question “How can Abigail move toward a life where they are completely fulfilling their purpose?” and a request for any healing or support that can be provided in the energetic realm to help her in this quest.

Then your role is simply to relax. To settle in and sit or lay down comfortably for somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes. During this time, you will hear music playing that is designed to induce a theta state in the brain, and I will be in a deep meditative state working with energies in the non-ordinary (non-physical) realm to seek information as well as request and enact healing or support for you.

At the end of that journey, I will ask you to return to our conversation and we will discuss what if anything you experienced during that time, as well as what work we carried out in the etheric realm and any information I was provided to bring back.

Often the journey information presents itself in metaphor and symbol, but also with some frequency in language and straightforward message. Sometimes the answers are immediately apparent, and sometimes they unfold or deepen in meaning over days or weeks. Unless you request otherwise, I audio record our conversation so that you have a record of it. If we are engaging in multiple sessions, I’ll provide a journey document that highlights aspects of our work together once we’ve reached an appropriate summary point.

In any case, this work is for you and of you. You are always safe and always in charge of your level of engagement and vulnerability. Everything that happens is confidential and all works toward the good.

[Note: I am not a physician or therapist and highly recommend that all of my clients are also under the care of these professionals. This work is intended to be complementary to and deepening of those modalities.]

Want to know more? Read on.

Ready to work together? Email me or make an appointment using this link.

THE THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THIS WORK — journeywork and energy healing using the principles of positive psychology and appreciative inquiry

At a basic level, we understand that the questions we ask dictate the answers we get. This is a fundamental tenet of positive psychology, appreciative inquiry, and common sense. We also know that things begin to change as soon as the question is asked. In this way, the question matters as much as the answer.

Illness or suffering that resists diagnosis and/or treatment from traditional sources often hits a wall because everyone is asking the question “what is causing this” instead of “what can be done to heal this.” This is true of physical as well as psychological/emotional issues (and often these are indistinguishable on any essential level.)

This approach makes perfect sense from a logical perspective – for a physician, it is important to know whether an ankle has been broken or sprained in order to know whether to set and cast or prescribe rest and ice, for example.

But when we enter the realm of issues that powerfully resist diagnosis or treatment, or for which there simply are no diagnoses – pains that come and go, grief that refuses to lift but doesn’t match clinical depression symptoms, auto-immune situations where the body continues to battle itself, etc. – changing the point of entry has the possibility of changing the result.

What this means is beginning with possibility – the possibility of healing and of change – and taking that as our point of inquiry. Much as I don’t need to know the chemistry of why penicillin cures my strep throat in order for the remedy to work, we in working together in the etheric realms (energetic planes, non-ordinary reality, more-than-physical space) don’t need to know how energy healing works in order for healing to occur. We do, however, need to ask for it.

More scientifically-minded people than I have investigated and demonstrated the underpinnings of energy healing focusing on dark matter and dimensions and string theory, but I will say that the little I understand of quantum physics reinforces to me that because we are made of energy and not simply flesh, and because all matter is entangled in ways we cannot observe in ordinary reality, work in the etheric realms can change the experience of a body and a mind here in the physical realm.

What does this mean for our work together?

We start with the belief and affirmation that a different, positive, desired future is possible. In some cases, we “fake it until we make it,” stating this belief even when so much of us resists.

We then frame a point of inquiry. Whatever the question, concern, pain point, or curiosity is, we frame it with an eye toward possibility.

For example, let’s say Ignacio is experiencing pain in various joints, varying from day to day with no seeming pattern or cause. We would begin by remembering a time when the body was free from pain, and then imagining, envisioning a time in the future when the body is a source of pleasure and full of capability – or however Ignacio defines a positive, desired future for their body. Then rather than saying, “Why is Ignacio experiencing pain in various joints and what should he do about it?” (as a physician might) we could ask “How can Ignacio’s body move easily and capably” and request healing in the energetic realm as well as information about what can be done in our ordinary reality to continue the healing.

Or let’s say Eleanor is confused about her future and the path forward. She wants to know what to do with her life, and feels simultaneously overwhelmed with options and fenced in by past choices. We would begin by identifying some key characteristics of the best future she can imagine – how she would ideally want to feel and be. We would imagine back to times she felt or was in those ways, then feel into a future self fully occupying that way of feeling and being.  Then we could ask “How can Eleanor move powerfully into the future she desires?” and request any healing or support that can be offered in the energetic realm.

Sometimes relief is immediate and lasting, and more often it requires incremental healing over time – much like a full course of antibiotics might be necessary, or phsyical therapy after a cast is removed.

A final note on the persistence of the results and psychology of the work

In her psychology research, specifically related to the “The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions,” Barbara Fredrickson not only establishes the power of beginning from an affirmative point of inquiry and embracing an expansive, exploratory approach, but also speaks to the wide-ranging and enduring impact that this approach can have. I won’t go into great detail here, but want to share this quote which I believe speaks to the ways in which I hope and believe this journeywork not only addresses the immediate point of pain or curiosity that brings someone to me, but helps shape their approach to such situations in the future and builds their reserves and resources for addressing and transforming future challenges:

It is important to note that the personal resources accrued during states of positive emotions are conceptualized as durable. They outlast the transient emotional states that led to their acquisition. By consequence, then, the often incidental effect of experiencing a positive emotion is an increase in one's personal resources. These resources function as reserves that can be drawn on in subsequent moments and in different emotional states.

It is my deepest hope and foundational belief that the framework through which I combine ancient practices (for me related to my European ancestry but common to most indigenous cultures) of connection and healing on and through the energetic realms with ordinary reality practices drawing on the tenets of positive psychology can have lasting transformative impact on people, their communities, and the worlds we share.