The Story of How Soul Therapy Came to Be

I am a sensitive — one of the billions in the world who are born  intuitively feeling the emotions of  others , and experiencing difficulty discerning between what we are feeling, and what others are feeling.  Unable to understand  or accept the ramifications of what this ability means in our life, we hide behind, alcohol, drugs, eating, love obsession, working too much, and  religion.  We have learned to cover or ignore the truth of who we  really are because we have a desperate need to fit in. We compromise our inner truth in the name of fear,  that small word that rules us individually and collectively .

Hidden deep within all of us is determination– or faith.  It might be buried beneath many layers of denial, but it is there.  It is part of our sole purpose of existing.  Determination  will carry us through the fear,  if we allow it to do so, even if we might be resisting, kicking  and screaming.

One evening, while I was waiting for a friend to come over, my father asked me what my plans were for my future. I was sixteen and really had no  idea, I did know what was important to my dad, so  I told him what he wanted to hear.

The next time I saw my dad was when I was trying to resuscitate him. I found him in the garage hours later on that same night. My younger brother had been looking for him to give him a kiss goodnight. I was the last to see my father alive and the first one to find him after he had died.

We  as humans can compromise ourselves and become numb, all to  escape the fear of going within and working through our feelings.

In the next ten months I was in two accidents, one as a passenger, the  other as the driver. The second I do not remember.    Nine years later, in 1983   I was introduced to yoga.  One evening in  class,  everyone stood on their heads. I was the last to try.  With a lot  of support and coaxing, I stood on my head. Within seconds I was aware of a crunch and pain.   From that day on, getting out of bed,  became a painful chore.  I would roll on to my side, drop my body out of bed, and kneel on the floor facing the bed. Then  I would grab my head between my hands,  and push myself up to stand.

It was around 1986 that I began my physical journey to heal. I learned  about massage, and chiropractics.. I found a book  on callanetics, a form of exercise  that combines yoga and ballet, and I created my own practice at home. The outer body healed, but as it did so, it exposed  a new pain and emptiness I could not explain.  What  this was, I would learn years later,  was  my  soul body speaking to me.

Owning a business,  being a mother and a wife did not allow me a lot of  spare time.  There’s an old saying, “You can run, but you cannot hide.”  When I did have spare time I would,  run, swim,  and bike,  trying to wear myself out, I could not sleep. A friend suggested I begin my yoga practice again. I spent  as much time in shivasana as I did in the poses.  I began to  travel to places I had never seen, ancient tropical places that were peaceful and beautiful. I was not sure what was happening, but it felt  right.

I  was in the New Renaissance book store in Portland, Oregon one day, and found a card for a shamanic, spiritual healer.  I made an appointment and experienced a shamanic soul retrieval: a spiritual healing that helps you reclaim parts of  your soul that can leave when you experience trauma.( This, I learned, is our   soul’s way to protect us from the pain body)

I remembered different times after my father had died, when I had seen spirits looking at me.

This  type of healing work resonated with me. I wanted more information,

I began  shamanic journey work training(with Michael Harner’s Journey work Institute ) in 1998. This training continued  through 2002 when I completed Harner’s three year intensive training.

Although time appeared to stand still, in truth my life quickly changed.   I learned the realm of spirits is filled with much love and compassion for us mortals. I began learning teachings to help me through my  emotional weaknesses.    Through experiencing other realms, similar to the ones I experienced in shivasana, I learned how to identify and protect myself from  others’ feelings and to ground myself.
I was a receiver of cranial sacral therapy.  This is  a  gentle, hands-on technique that addresses  the natural rhythm of  the cerebral spinal fluid that  flows around our spinal cord, that knows every emotion, every pain our cells store in our body.  With a little help by a trained therapist, the manipulated spinal fluid will  release stored pain and stress from the body.

Through this therapy I was able to physically relive the automobile accident I  had not been able to remember. I felt no pain as my body  relived every movement it had experienced when the car hit one side of the bridge  then the other, flipping and righting itself. My muscles moved forward, side to  side front to back, up and down. My neck  moved from right to left.
I  continued combining my yoga with spiritual journeys , but now I had direction.  I experienced  times in my practice where  my body moved with n intention greater than  my own. I felt I was an  observer in my body. I was not willing my muscles to move; they moved on their own.  Through this practice I had created, I began to heal emotional wounds. I had a beautiful experience with  my father, and had a chance to tell him how I loved and missed him.

I was guided  by the spirits with whom I worked to sell my business and pursue massage, particularly the spiritual side of cranial sacral therapy.  Within three months I was in massage school. Nine months later the business was sold.

Beyond my personal experiences of healing cellular pain, other  experiences with clients prove over and over that  the human body holds  cellular memory of physical and emotional trauma that  we can release .  I have witnessed a fifty-year old man’s face move through a digression   in time to being a neo-natal infant; slowly  again moved forward through time to the present.  He was emotionally lighter and looked ten years younger.

I have  learned that  a sensitive people are  no different from anyone else.Each of us is unique and we must  all accept who we are, both our faults and our gifts. We must  have the courage to  listen to our  higher power and direct the course of our life to living our highest  truth. That is how we discover who we are, and what we are meant  to accomplish in this world.

In 2003, I began studying with Mukunda Stiles, I had been using his Structural Yoga Therapy strengthen weak muscles that had been causing them pain. Mukunda believes  repetitive motions, such as working in certain positions, similar exercise patterns,( including yoga) and stress over long periods of time   cause our body to take on a certain shapes. Our muscles are not working in harmony and our bones are out of balance.

By using specific muscle testing techniques and checking range of motion, a structural yoga therapist will modify yoga  postures to help strengthen weak muscles  and reconnect with natural alignment. Most of the people I work with did not practice any yoga before our  session. Through their own practice of modified postures 15 minutes a day, they changed their bodies, kept their alignment in place,  and relieved pain.

I worked closely with an acupuncturist who referred many of her patients to me. By doing structural yoga, her patients reduced their need for office visits by 35%- 50%. It was after this training  with Mukunda that I had the courage to combine my spiritual and physical training to help others heal on all  levels of their body.

“People tend to dismiss this work as ‘new age’ mumbo jumbo, and I myself had very serious skepticism about its efficacy. Yet as I worked on men and women who complained of chronic depression, or chronic blockage in creativity (writers, artists), or chronic pain and as they found long-term relief from their maladies and tapped into resources they did not know they had and found joy in their lives, I came to trust the authenticity and reality of the levels of being with which I was coming into contact.”

This is when I laid the foundations for my practice, Soul Body Emergence. Personally, I have changed my outlook on life, I  am comfortable being an a sensitive, different and  recognize, I am still a part of what makes this world whole, I am happier and more at peace. I am able to recognize when I feel unbalanced, and take the time to” fine tune myself” with extra breathing, movement or meditation. I know  the ground work for my healing training began when I was a child.

When  we change the way we look at ourselves, the way we look at the world changes.

Soul Body Emergence is you talking to me, it is you communicating , it is  your higher power relaying information through me to you.

Through the practice of affirmations, breathwork, gentle yoga and visualization, I help you change your life.

You will develop a higher level of listening to and learning about yourself.

If you have  a pattern of reaching dead ends in your life;      continually attracting people who are  not healthy for you, have problems sleeping,      are constantly  living in fear,              never allow yourself time to think, are in a lot of pain, have continual migraines or un-diagnosable distress,    perhaps it is time for you to listen to yourself.

Soul body Emergence  re introduces you to your true self.

When you change the way you look at yourself, the way you see the world, changes.

For more information contact:

Fawn Fitzsimmons Russo

soulbodyemergence@yahoo.com

http://soulbodyemergence.wordpress.com

phone: 503-812-1033