Particle and Wave

Shout out to Life Forward Movement! Integrated Life Practices is live. Thanks for visiting. I am here to be a part of the solution — empowering myself and others to become more authentic, integrated, embodied and awake.

I created this site (with the help of many – more about that later) to take the next step into sharing life enhancing intentions, practices, and resources.

It is my desire to be a resource to those who are wanting to cultivate self understanding and compassion, somatic awareness, mind/body/spirit integration and embodied awakening.

I am a part of a larger wave of a world view that is continually evolving. I deeply appreciate the work and the teachers that have been out ahead – informing, inspiring, guiding and supporting me along the way. I want to express gratitude for the many influences and pioneers of that wave.

But before I go there, I want to acknowledge the influences and supports that are closest to the heart. I am deeply blessed through the abiding wellspring of love and grounding from my partner of 30 plus years, Ron Strom. My profound gratitude goes out to him, our three beautiful children – Zach, Samantha and Hannah – and my entire loving family. Thank you, family!

Back to the career path –my exposure to Focusing in 1994 was a game changer for me. Previously, I was traditionally trained in the world of counseling and clinical social work. I am glad to have that background, as it was an important base for developing as a healing professional. Through Focusing I began to experience the importance of the whole organism and the intricacies of the “felt sense” and began to cultivate an empathic witnessing capacity. Focusing is a well established and researched modality that is based on the work of renowned philosopher Eugene Gendlin. My primary mentor in the field of Focusing has been Ann Weiser Cornell, who along with Barbara McGavin, has developed the elegant Inner Relationship Focusing modality. Ann’s generosity, support, keen mental clarity and articulation, and devotion to developing and sharing Focusing, has been invaluable to me.

The Integral model developed by Ken Wilber and others was another pivotal discovery. I am awed by that body of work and “the map” of human experience it provides. I am so appreciative to the people involved and have particularly appreciated the work of Terry Patten (Integral Spiritual Practice and many other endeavors), whose heart based approach to the Integral model has been a bridge for me. Attendance at an Integral Spiritual Center gathering in 2007 introduced me to Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder and the work of Waking Down in Mutuality (WDM). This work has offered me “the territory” for the ongoing path of both waking up to the ground of Being and landing down into embodiment. The founder Saniel, my primary teacher, Sandra Glickman, and all the teachers and mentors of Waking Down in Mutuality have been a source of nourishment and wisdom. I am very grateful for the heart based transmission, teachings and the mutuality that this community provides.

When I started to feel an impulse to explore healing work with my hands, I received much affirmation and guidance from my WDM community as well as wise and wonderful friends, colleagues, and energy workers including Cielle Backstrom, Brian Stokes, Mary Love May, Laurie Thorp, Libby Outlaw, Joe Badstein, Lauren Jubelirer, Janice Gellar, Tyler Beach and Janice Durand. (And more … this is tricky to start naming people but I have gone down that rabbit hole and so it goes …thousands of blessings and apologies all around) In Polarity training with Janice Durand, I began to develop a vision of how Focusing and energy work might be interwoven. She also introduced me to the term “The Back Space” . I had spontaneously experienced the phenomenon but I didn’t yet have a name for it. She filled in an understanding of the how you can help someone physically and energetically feel into this space. I have incorporated her use of the term and other elements of Polarity into the meditation I am offering on this site.

I have also been inspired by Russell Delman and his work The Embodied Life. He has beautifully integrated Zen, Focusing and Feldenkrais Technique. He presented at the International Focusing Conference I attended (and taught a hoop dance workshop!) in 2010. He just blew me away with his presence and elegant facilitation. One influence from him — that I can easily name — is the notion that the relationship between our organism and the earth is a two way interactive circuit. This is also embedded in the meditation I created.

Somatic Experiencing is another powerful modality that continues to add depth and range to ways of working with the felt sense, settle the nervous system, and promote recovery from trauma. There are so many systems, healers and life forward practices out there right now, each weaving its unique thread in the tapestry. The world needs the weavers and the emergent tapestry. All hands on deck!

Last, (for now), but not least, the role of movement in my life over the past 8 years can not be underestimated. It has been a joyful vehicle for coming forward, cultivating body awareness, integration, deepening musical range and appreciation and … much more. This is the beauty and power of dance, it is more than can describe! My local community has been an incubator, hot spot and gathering place for hoop dance, ecstatic dance and evolving flow arts. It has been a deep pleasure to witness the almost magical unfolding that happens as people begin to feel more comfortable in their bodies and begin to open up to their authentic expressions. The sense of community that springs up around this shared experience is a beautiful thing. I am particularly appreciative of the vision, passion and community building of Jonathan Baxter, Julia Hartsell and Jaguar Mary. The essential healing and centering to be found in movement, music and community have never been more apparent to me.

I feel truly blessed to be connected to these, and many more, strands of human potential — as well as the larger wave of conscious evolution finding its way in and through us.

The problem when you start to name people and things is that you will inevitably leave things out. And I certainly have, so it is a good thing that I can write more blog posts!

I hope you find something helpful on the site. Thanks for listening!