I’m happy to report that our Rosen Method community is growing. We have a new Introductory Workshop Teacher, Ann Harnish, who, along with our Intern Priscilla Varland, has recruited enough students to start a new monthly support group.
I’ve learned a lot in the process. We asked the last group of workshop students how Rosen Method had impacted them. After all these years of doing the work, I’m still amazed at the depth of the changes in peoples’ lives. One said she has begun to trust people for the first time in her life and actually wants to seek them out. Another was astonished to discover that when she speaks and shares, she is not interrupting but instead making a contribution.
One person came in to the workshop with arthritic pain. After a hands-on sharing, the pain was no longer there. This just illustrates that much of our physical pain is actually emotional, connected to isolation.
A therapist who attended the two-day workshop reported that she was a more effective therapist in the week following.
I see the new group struggling to wrap their minds around how different Rosen Method is from what they are used to. What, we’re not here to “fix” people? What, my presence matters? It’s so hard to let go of trying to make something happen and offering, instead, aware attention that comes through the touch and the words we use in sessions.
The simple explanation is that we are actually interacting with the client’s nervous system. When we can provide the conditions that allow it to return to “rest and restore,” the body knows how to heal itself far better than we know. Moving into faith in this is transformational for anyone in our culture!
