Please join me at my new location.

See you there!

I’ve moved this blog to my website, so assuming all works out it will now live on at my Living in Balance site.

As one of the members of the pilot group for Quantum Touch Instructors, I’d like to say we’ve completed out 6 month study.  The group will continue to explore ways to support the success of the practitioners and instructors.

Brian Whetten, the leader for this adventure, is offering several programs to help practitioners and instructors grow their businesses. Check them out -

Selling By Giving

Free Practice Building Kit

Selling By Giving Home Study Purchase

Free Practice Building Teleseminar

6 Month Teleclass Registration

If you are new to business you will find this site full of helpful information to get you started. Her book, Business Mastery, is used in many massage schools for their business classes. It’s considered a classic for new touch therapy businesses.

She also offers a free marketing service which emails you monthly goals and weekly reminders to help you build your business.

The Ethics of Touch book, co-authored by Cherie, is also used by many schools and comes highly recommended. It addresses the difficult and confusing dilemmas confronting touch therapy practitioners.

If you have the basics down, a wonderful next step is Mark Silver’s Heart of Business. He also offers a lot of very useful and insightful help on his site and has a weekly newsletter you can sign up for. With this work, you learn to connect, deep within your heart and your business flows out of that place. Your jewel, the essence of what you have to offer, can then shine more brightly. Juicy stuff!

Have you ever had the experience of all of a sudden feeling hands on your back or neck? You turn to see who it is, and it’s someone you’ve never met? How did you feel? Were you comfortable with the touch?

I remember one workshop I attended. During lunch I sat down next to people I didn’t know. The woman on my left was chatting with those on her left, so we didn’t initially speak. All of a sudden I felt a strong hand rubbing my back and digging into my muscle tissue.

“Excuse me” I thought, “we haven’t even met.”

I was a bit put off by her assumption that I would enjoy her touching me. I did not invite her to touch me, nor did she ask – heck, I hadn’t had any interaction with her at all. She just jumped in and set about getting to know my muscle tissues. I’m sure her gesture was intended as a warm way to say hello, but it felt inappropriate.

At a workplace harassment training a couple weeks back the point was made that ANY touch could be misunderstood due to our different cultural backgrounds, belief systems and life experiences with touch. There are so many variables, that we can never really know how someone will interpret our touch. And yes, I know we live in a touch deprived society (that’s a whole other topic!), but from a legal stance and in respect for other’s culture, belief systems and such, it’s best not to walk up and touch someone.

So how do you navigate the business of touch and the respect of another person?

You wait for the invitation – simple as that.

If you’d like to offer your services, do just that – “You look like you’re in pain. Would you like me to see if I could help?” Then honor their choice – yes or no. Knowing that you care is a gift in itself. A connection through the eyes, your smile, your kind words – they do make a difference, whether or not you physically touch someone.

You aren’t going to heal the world by running around touching everyone you can. You’ll be much more effective at it (if that is your desire) if, as you do your own healing, you let yourself be available to those who want your help. Honoring another, even when they are hurting and you really want to help, means respecting their wishes. Empower them to know what they need.

What is your experience with this?

I had a chat with a friend of mine the other day about relationships and limitations. We all have limitations, whether we’ve created them ourselves or have adopted those created by others. The freedom comes in recognizing that we have the power of choice to live within them or expand them to suit our needs.

For instance, I prefer to abide by the law. Most of those limitations are ok with me and I can play happily within them. Kevin and I are in a monogamous relationship – those limitations work well for us. The belief that doctors will take care of all our ills and we have no responsibility in it, is far too limiting a concept to me as I believe health and wellness is more than the absence of disease and we need to be responsible for ourselves.

For our children we set the limitations, or boundaries, for them to explore and grow within. As they mature and begin to accept responsibility for their actions, we can expand their boundaries. In this way, they are able to grow up in a size-appropriate environment as safe as we can provide, and explore their ever expanding world.

As adults, we create our own limitations or adopt those of others to live our lives. There isn’t one right way – what is right for me may not be right for you and what is right for you may not be right for me. Some “limitation boxes” are small and made of steel, other are large with perforated sides so that one can peek beyond their structure, but remain in their safety zone, some have doors so they can go out and explore but have a safe place to come home to and some have no sides or walls at all and anything goes.

We create them to make order of our world and to function within it. And we all have the power to change them at any time. It is all simply choice.

How do you feel about what you’ve created? And if there are areas where you feel stuck or limited, how do you break free? Or do you?

You’re healing along fine from an injury, and all of a sudden the progress stops. You aren’t getting better, nothing is helping and the pain and limitations are still there. You’re doing all the “right” things; physical therapy helped, massage helped, other things have helped, until now.

You’ve been stopped dead in your tracks. Do you have to live with it the rest of your life? Maybe it’s just that you’re getting older and this is just what happens. Do you have to settle for increased aches and pains as the days and years pass by?

I had a client that had been in a collision and was taken to the hospital, unconscious. She was tended to and sent home, with a prescription for physical therapy. She followed the protocol and received benefit from it, but now she was stuck.

She wasn’t getting any better – the pain, limitations and poor bone healing was causing a lot of stress in her life. She didn’t know what the problem was, she didn’t know what to do and she didn’t know where to get help.

How frustrating is that?!?!

It is common for some trauma to remain in our bodies after an intense experience. Drugs, while necessary, can cement over the trauma locking it into our tissues. Now when there is an opportunity for that trauma to release, it will, however it is common to close the door on it and lock it away. We just want to forget about it and move on with our lives. This route can lead to movement limitations and pain.

So now what?

There are things you can do to release it on your own. With all of these, breathe deeply and slowly. Let me share a few ways to do that.

• Be Present. Rather than trying to get away from the pain, sit with it, feel it and invite it in to see what it has to show you. I have a friend who invites those uncomfortable parts to “come, sit, have tea and let’s talk” to open the dialog deeper with her Self. You can sit in silence or journal your communications. You may be surprised at what you learn.

• Dance with the Edges. Any kind of gentle, safe movement that goes to the edge of the pain, but doesn’t force its way in can unlock the trauma. Yoga, slow meditative dance or gentle jiggles can all be effective.

• Bypass the Physical with Energy Work. Whether you work on yourself or enlist the help of another, this can be very effective. By bypassing the physical structures and going deeper into the subtle fields and pathways you can create an opportunity for full healing and release of the trauma. Often it is easier to get someone to help you if you’re feeling very stuck.

It may take a bit of practice to become comfortable with these techniques, but like anything, practice helps to develop your skills and increase your awareness. You’ll get better and it will be easier the more you do it.

She chose to call me for help. During our session, in a flash, she returned to the point of collision between herself on the bicycle and the deer. The impact was so forceful that the deer died from that collision, but fortunately she healed. The memory came up and it left. It was quick and simple – the trauma released as soon as it had an opportunity. She was then able to move forward with her healing.

Sometimes it only takes a moment of being present for trauma to release.

No one enjoys pain or feeling limited in their movements. Your body will always choose movement and healing over non-movement – we are designed to move. When you’re stuck, there is a reason. Rather than trying to avoid the pain, work with it. Get involved and communicate with your Self. Dance on the edge. Or call for help. We all need help now and then.

Once I was called out to work on an injured racehorse. The veterinarian had already been there but wasn’t able to get close enough to the horse to do what he wanted to do, so the owners decided to try me. I was able to reduce the pain and inflammation considerably – to the point that the veterinarian could do his “doctoring.” I thought it might be the beginning of a business relationship – or at least the occasional referral.

But no. As it turned out he tried to discredit me in the community. Fortunately everyone he spoke to already knew me – and told him he was mistaken – so the talk died out. But he could’ve pursed it legally, attempting to claim I was “practicing medicine without a license.”

He wouldn’t have won, as I was working within my professional scope of practice, but he could’ve tried. If someone is going to question the legalities of what you are doing it will more likely be a professional that sees you as a threat rather than your clients.

Many practitioners use the words examine, diagnose, prescribe, treat, cure, patient, etc without even realizing that all of these words are “copyrighted” by the American Medical Association. These words are illegal to use in your practice unless you are a licensed medical practitioner.

Realize that we are in different businesses. We are in the health-building industry and those in the medical field are in the disease industry. We do not “treat diseases” as only doctors can do that! However, there are no laws in any state that prohibit the practice of educating people about health and lifestyle.

A Medical Doctor is one who examines or diagnoses, prescribes, advises, recommends, administers or dispenses a drug or medicine, appliance, mold, cast, application, operation or treatment of whatever nature, for the cure or relief of a wound, fracture or bodily injury, infirmity or disease for compensation of any kind, direct or indirect.

If you wish to name diseases and organs, and it is your desire to treat them, then you are not practicing health, you are practicing medicine and are guilty under the law. Rather than working in the health field, you would be illegally working in the disease industry.

It was point out by two medical professionals that in order to get medical attention, you must qualify. Either you must fall victim to some degenerate disease or you must become a victim of some devastating accident. And as superb and educated as the medical community is, it only meets the needs of 30% of our diseased population. Even though they have addressed themselves extremely well to the traumatic and crisis conditions of our people. 70% of our unhealthy people have disease conditions which are outside the range of the medical community’s expertise. There is a huge opportunity to help people increase their wellness, their health, their happiness.

Do you know what your state’s medical statutes are? They vary state to state so you can always write to your State Medical Board and request the statues of your state regulating the practice of medicine so that you know them.

In the meantime, be aware of your language and how you position yourself. Are you helping someone to increase their health and wellness? Or are you treating a disease that they have? What industry are you really working in?

Who wants to join me in the adventure of freedom and radiant living?

By that I mean freedom of the body, mind and spirit – to release the restrictions that have be holding us back so that we can grow into our grace and beauty in a more profound way. And radiant living = joy, vitality, health and happiness.

I’m new to blogging so if something isn’t working right or you have any suggestions to make this better for you, please let me know.  I’m learning as I go here!

Cheer to us!