Welcome to Self Care and
Complimentary Therapies
My name is Carol Richards
I've spent over 40 years studying different modalities of self care/healing and became certified in most of them. If you are looking for advice or have a question, please message me.
The Little Things series of booklets and audio books
What is Self Care and Complimentary Therapy?
I think you get the idea of self care. Not relying on doctors to make you healthy after years of abusing yourself but to take charge of your health by taking care of the whole package. Body, Mind, Spirit. There is so much good information and bad information out there. This is a good place to start on deciphering it. Complimentary Therapy doesn't mean abandoning medications you need to live or not talking to a doctor but adding therapies to compliment and enhance your health. Anything on this site is something I have tried and found value in it. Eventually I will add links to help you find the same sources I used. All complimentary therapies have contraindications. Avoid people who tell you something is 100% safe.
REIKI
First, let me say this, Reiki is not a religious practice nor is it a mystical practice.
Reiki was brought into being by Mr. Usui of Japan. The best information about him comes directly from the Japanese teachers. There is much said about him that is misinformation so I'll give you a little background information.
Mr. Usui was born August 15th, 1865. He studied abroad in Europe and the US. He was learning religion, psychology, history and a Chinese healing practice known as Shinsen-jutsu.
He was seeking enlightenment and climbed Mt. Kurama in March 1922. While fasting he passed out. When he awakened he said he felt a strong universal energy come through his head and realized he had the universe within him. He felt he acquired a strong healing power and called it Reiki Ryoho. He began to practice his new found healing energy on the local people of his village. Word spread and people from other villages wanted his healing power.
Some wanted to learn how to do this so they could also help people. He started a school and taught Reiki to others.
There is an Energy Lineage which traces the teachers back to Mr. Usui and how that energy has been passed down. In Japan and China lineage is very important.
What is the purpose of Reiki?
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Becoming aware of the true meaning of life and being part of the universal life. Establishing "self".
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Spreading the vibration, mingling with people, growing together. Exercising love.
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Raising your level of vibration, contributing to the peace and happiness of human beings. Exercising harmony.
What happens during a session?
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Energy is funneled through the practitioner to the client. The client should not receive energy from the practitioner. The energy passes through to the client. The clients body will take in what it needs and no more.
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A session can be 30 minutes up to 1.5 hours.
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The client may sit upright in a chair or lay down.
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The client may choose hands on or hands off method. Both work equally well.
My Lineage is shared by request.
YOGA NIDRA
Yoga Nidra is based on an ancient yoga philosophy, but for our purpose we focus not on where the practice comes from but on what it can do for us in modern life.
The Yoga Nidra of today was developed with the help of neuroscientists and is used for deep relaxation, allowing us to go within and help us become whole.
If you currently do Yoga, you may want to spend 15 minutes with your practice before you go into the mediation or spend that time with some stretching and deep breathing.
How does Yoga Nidra work?
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It works on the Central Nervous System to relax the body.
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You work on going through layers, from the outside in. Observing how your body feels, your breath and calming the mind
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You learn how to relax the mind and body in order to go into a deeper meditation.
What can I expect during this class?
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You will be lying down or, if you are more comfortable, sitting in a chair
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You will listen to the practitioner and follow along with simple directions
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You will learn to completely relax your body while keeping the mind active and awake.
How can this help me?
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Scientists conducted a study in 2002 that showed just one Yoga Nidra session resulted in a 65% increase in dopamine release.
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Our minds want to separate the "self" from the rest of the body. You will help the brain re-orient to allow for wholeness. Retrain the brain to realize we are not the thoughts racing through our minds but rather a whole loving person.
Yoga Nidra can be done with 1 person or in a group.
Shamanic Drumming
What is Shamanic Drumming?
Shamanic Drumming is a method of drumming that helps the Shaman (healer) and/or the participants to go into a deep meditation. This method of healing has been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years throughout the world. Shamans were the healers of their tribe/village. Not just spiritually but also medically and emotionally. They had knowledge of herbs and other natural ways to help the body. They could use a drum or rattle to help the participant delve deeply into their subconscious by finding their spirit guide. This guide could be an animal, person or even a mystical animal. Finding your guide is called Shamanic Journeying. These journeys can help us get out of our head and help us find answers to our questions. These answers are within us, we just need to quiet the mind in order to create a space for guidance.
Shamanic Drumming can be done with 1 person or a group of people. It can be done as a mediation or for journeying.
Thought Field Therapy (aka TFT or Tapping)
From Dr. Callahans site: TFT is a system that accesses and resolves the essence and the root cause of a problem within the whole human system, be it emotional, mental, physical, and/or spiritual. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Callahan began working with negative emotions–phobias, anger, guilt, grief, trauma, addictions, depression, etc. These negative feelings are condensed information in energy form, bound in what he calls a “thought field”. The active information in this thought field creates the distress by disrupting the body’s internal energy flow, causing upheaval that sabotages your emotional well-being. It has become apparent that the same process also occurs for many physical symptoms.
The key to the treatment is influencing the body’s bioenergy field by tapping with your fingers on specific points on the body located along energy meridians, while tuned into the specific thought field. This is a simple, user-friendly process.
Basic tapping technique.
Sound Therapy
aka Sound Bath or Sound Massage
Sound Therapy is a complimentary therapy utilizing vibration to affect the body's nervous system. It is also called Sound Massage. Massage therapists use their hands to manipulate the tissue and Sound Therapists use sound to vibrate the tissue, aid in relaxation and help to breakup energy blocks which, in some cases, can temporarily relieve pain. The idea is pretty simple. If you can relax the body, healing can begin. Stress causes tension. When the body is tense and the muscles are tight, the body has a hard time healing.
I'm not a big fan of using the word therapist. People often think that it is part of the medical field.
Most doctors of western medicine do not believe in these therapies. People making outrageous claims that they can cure you are ones to stay away from. There are many instruments that can be used and many ways to use them. You may want to go to a group event where you can either lie on the floor or sit in a chair while the sound therapist uses instrument and many times reads a script to help you reach a deep meditative state. Sound is being used in medicine. Diagnostic Medical Sonography or Ultrasound is used to look at the inner organs and at a developing fetus. The Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirate is used by neurosurgeons to take away brain tumors and more research is being conducted on how to fight cancer. These are very different from the Therapeutic Ultrasound that I use. The FDA has approved Therapeutic Ultrasound 1mHz to 3mHz to heat the tissue/surface of the skin. I've used this to help lesson pain. It is temporary pain relief but can be used when medication alone isn't working or if someone is intolerant to medication.
Types of instruments used: Gong, Singing bowls, Tuning forks, Didgeridoo, Drums, Shakers, Tingshas, Nature sounds Binaural beats, Synthesized sounds, The Voice and White, Pink or brown noise.