How Plant Medicine Informs My Bodywork
As many of you know, I have been practicing bodywork for over twenty years. What you may not know is that for the past thirteen years, I have also been studying plant medicine through a mestizo lineage from the Peruvian Amazon. This post is a brief overview of how my studies of Amazonian curenderismo, or the practice of shamanic healing, has given me greater sensitivity, depth of perception, and centeredness to be a more uniquely effective bodyworker.
The most profound teachings I have received have been from Ayahuasca. Ceremony after ceremony of facing my inner chaos and shadow have allowed me to integrate an ever deepening sense of my essential Self. Old beliefs, nameless fears, shame – all have and continue to be purged from my Being through the fires of plant medicine ceremony. As each layer is scrubbed clean, my focus on the client is greatly refined and the static of mental distractions disappears, enabling me to hold a much deeper container.
Secondly, I have been through many ceremonies that were nothing but struggle. Unable to "let go," even as I desperately wanted to. I get to just stew in all the frustration, angst, despair, and anxiety for hours on end. Dawn comes, the ceremony ends, and nothing is resolved; however, a ceremony or two later a miracle happens. Grace descends, and I experience a breakthrough. Sometimes it's a reality shattering Insight, sometimes a full Surrender into the Heart of the Universe, sometimes a profound Healing of Body or Mind. Whichever way it goes, I am then able to bring this new awareness into my practice. Whenever a client experiences a session that has left them feeling somehow defeated, I am able to comfort them, in Full Knowing, that a breakthrough is imminent.
And finally, we come to the practice of the shamanic dieta. I won't go into it too much here. That's a whole post in itself! Essentailly, I'm drinking a tea made from a plant I want to learn more about and make into a Spirit Ally. Later, in session, I may feel the plant's medicinal properties resonate through me to assist in healing a client that I am working with. My clients invariably report that some deep shift has taken place, even if they can't articulate what it is. I bow to the Mystery.
So there you have it, a little glimpse behind the curtain of what makes my approach to bodywork the unique and powerful Medicine that it is. Plant Medicine and Bodywork for the win!
-Andrew
