What inspired you to become a bodyworker?

I was a Theater major in college. I realized that although I loved the story telling, what I really wanted was to work intimately with people and connect on a deeper level.  I was considering Medical School, but the more I learned about Med School and the entire profession, the more I felt that it would be taking me off track.  I witnessed the boxed in way of thinking, the meds…the whole paradigm that didn’t allow for the innate wisdom of the body and the possibility for the body to heal itself.  That interest in the wisdom of the body to heal itself led me to become a bodyworker.

I know that your healing practice includes more than just traditional massage.  What influenced you along the way?

My teachers have greatly inspired me.  One teacher was a martial arts master and practitioner of the Japanese massage Anma.  Anma means “to press and rub” and Shiatsu is actually just one of the nine aspects of Anma.  From this teacher I learned a deeply embodied experience of moving muscles and meridian systems – the physicality of the body.

Another amazing teacher taught me cranial sacral therapy.  I learned that the body has an innate healing plan, and when you can drop down to subtle levels of perception you can listen to the deep wisdom of the body.  And the body will tell you what it needs.  After my first cranial sacral session I felt five inches taller!  Everything felt different – my breathing, my body. I started volunteering to be worked on in class because it helped me to learn by experiencing the work.  I had a lot of sessions because I was willing to have the emotional breakdowns and breakthroughs in front of the class that so many were unwilling to experience.

Then I met Darren Weissman, founder of the Lifeline Technique™.  I learned for the first time about muscle testing and the subconscious mind, and the role it plays in our health and healing.  It was a major epiphany to learn that the subconscious mind is the direct link to the healing process.  By bridging the gap between the conscious and subconscious parts of ourselves, we create healing on a very deep level.  I learned that sensory experiences are the perceptual gateways of the mindbody vehicle that open broader realms of understanding. When we can be a witness to our experience it provides choice and opportunity to change.  Witnessing what is going on for us in the moment allows for opening and expansiveness that encourages self-healing.

How did this learning influence your development as a practitioner?

I have always had an affinity to see the wound, and these techniques gave me the tools to go there skillfully when working with my clients.  I maintain a curiosity in session with my clients, and allow this information to guide me.  Sometimes its a feeling I get in my body.  I create more space by maintaining neutral, and hold a container for the client to witness her own experiences as they arise. Sometimes I ask the person’s body what is happening and listen internally for the response.  Sometimes I ask the client what is happening for her.

Its all about being present – having the meta-view.  By remaining grounded and also seeing the periphery, I hold a strong container for the client to go into his journey and explore areas he wouldn’t be able to explore on his own.

What suggestions do you have for your clients in receiving healing work?

Stay present to the feeling in your body in the moment with an open heart.  With unconditional love anything is possible and alchemy happens.  Letting go of shame and judgement allows expansion to happen.  That’s where compassion and forgiveness come in, and the biochemical body shifts.

Tell me more about these biochemical shifts…

Candace Pert, Ph.D. and Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. have showed us that our genes can shift when we shift our own reality.  Emotions are actually biochemical molecules that Candace Pert calls “molecules of emotion.”  Reaction and fear cause an adrenal response, a stress response, that affects us on a biochemical level, and the body behaves as if it is in a state of trauma.

The antidote is to slow down…breath… This creates space for new possibility and we can begin to create new neural networks in our brains that support the new reality.  And our biochemical responses shift.  What creates the shift is being a witness, slowing down, and breathing.  In my personal experience I feel the shifts happen when I use the tools I’ve learned.  I don’t always know why, but it works.

How does that relate to bodywork?

The body is the vehicle for our life experience.  Touching the body from the energy field deep into the tissues accesses subconscious information.  I invite the body to tell me where to go because it empowers the client and enables them to experience their body in a new way that feels safe.  As above so below…its the micro and macro – the holographic nature of the universe.  When shifts happen in a treatment room it begins to open up those things in the rest of one’s life – that is the inherent value of bodywork.

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Kendra blends her training in a variety of modalities to create her unique healing practice.  Those modalities include The Lifeline Technique™, Anma Bodywork, Acutonics, Sound Healing, Voice Dialogue, Cranial Sacral Therapy, and Energy Work. To learn more about Kendra’s work please visit www.kendracurrent.com.