I have been in the healing biz practically my whole adult life. And since I’ve been hanging around this planet for quite a while that means I have been doing this for a very long time.

I started out my career as a massage therapist, went on to include emotional release bodywork as part of my practice and then incorporated hypnotherapy and psychotherapy.

Seventeen years ago I added intuitive painting teacher and workshop leader to my repertoire. Seven years after that I tacked on professional astrologer to my business card. And my latest iteration is exploring the world of shamanism and indigenous healing practices.

Which I haven’t yet built into my professional identity. But given the way I have traditionally operated, just give me a few years and I’m sure that at some point that will also be part of my over burgeoning tool kit.

All of these approaches have one thing in common, and that is that they are designed to help people find their way home to an inner state of wholeness and health and balance.

Which is really the goal of any healing modality.

There are a few reasons why I have devoted myself to life in the healing lane all these years.

The primary one, first and foremost, is totally personal. The bottom line is that I’m not a big fan of being only half alive. I want to be joyful as much as possible. And engaged. And to live a purposeful and fulfilled life.

Since I am on a continual quest for my own holy wholeness, I have used every one of these methods for my own individual growth and development and I continue these practices as a way to keep myself in the happy … or at least reasonably happier … zone.

I am also well aware of all the ways that I can get out of synch with my best life and use all the tools I can get my hands on to keep me on the path of being at least somewhat more awake.

The reason that I offer my services as a personal growth practitioner is just as selfish as the first. I LIKE hanging around folks who are being real. And authentic. And growing. And mindful. And crazy alive.

I absolutely love it when people feel the safety and permission to emotionally and creatively express from their deepest soul. When they are joyfully and surprisingly and quirkily themselves.

This thrills and delights me beyond all reason. Largely because it allows me to be more real. But it’s also way more fun and interesting than the alternative.

So one of the ways that I can guarantee being in the presence of folks when they ARE simply being who they are, is by setting up shop through my various healing businesses and creating the space where that is much more likely to happen.

Which has worked like a lovely, magical charm.

But being in the healing biz has also taught me a lot about what healing really is. And isn’t.

First of all healing isn’t about being broken. The hunger for wholeness doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with you. That you are fucked up or damaged or fundamentally impaired in some way.

Healing isn’t about fixing yourself or making massive improvements to your psyche. In true healing nothing needs to be repaired.

Real healing has more to do with clearing out what gets in the way of the shimmering strengths, awesome capabilities, goddess given gifts and genius brilliance that we were born with.

And that no matter what has happened in our external life, have never really left us.

Our true and essential self is like a gorgeous, magical treasure that we have somehow learned to shut out of our awareness and ignore. It’s just quietly hanging out in a dusty corner of our basement, attic or garage, patiently waiting to be rediscovered.

Maybe we had our memories erased by an evil sorcerer. ( I’ve been reading way too many fantasy novels and fairy tales lately). Or maybe we were given a stinky, secret potion that causes us to conveniently misplace the things that matters most.

But for whatever reason, we have a blind spot about the treasure and have simply forgotten that it even exists.

The good news is that it is right under our nose. Hidden in plain sight.

It’s always there. It’s just gotten completely covered with junk. Buried under containers filled with ancient Christmas ornaments, boxes of moldy magazines and books, broken umbrellas, mismatched shoes and old clothes we have been meaning to donate to the Salvation Army. And of course dust. And cobwebs.

This treasure is made of a type of fantastic, indestructible, otherworldly material. Like that adamantine stuff that covers the Wolverine’s skeleton and makes him super, over the top powerful and durable.

Except it dances. And it’s sparkly. And it doesn’t have any weird par-military overtones. Which means that it’s unassailable and inviolable. It’s sturdy and strong and unable to be harmed. We can’t ever destroy it.

The only way it can die is when our body dies. And I even have my suspicions about that.

So healing means simply remembering the truth about the reality of the treasure and doing the sometimes crappy work of cleaning out the basement.

The second thing I have learned is that no one can do your healing for you. No one but YOU can actually bring you back to your true source which is why I never call myself a healer. I can’t ever, ever make that journey for someone else.

What I can do is to remind you that the treasure exists. Over and over again if that’s what it takes. And to help you get some clarity when you have a hard time figuring out exactly what needs to be gotten rid of.

I have some nifty cleaning tools. A huge wheelbarrow for carting stuff away.

And I’m a great cheerleader.

But it’s up to you to do the heavy lifting.

And to eventually claim the treasure AND the holy wholeness as completely and solely your own.