November
2001
The
Healer Within
By Marilyn Mendez Ladner |
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On September 18th I received a call from a person who
sounded very distressed. She explained that on September 11th she had
been trapped in the World Trade Center. The thickness of the smoke had
made it hard for her to see, increasing her experience of terror and
helplessness. Her complaints included anxiety, sleeplessness, depression,
difficulty focusing, and rage.
We set up a session for the next day. When she arrived she was speaking
in a monotone, a lifeless voice. Her body was stiff, and direct eye
contact with her was difficult. The more I listened with compassion,
the more she allowed her feelings to show. I asked her if she had cried;
her response was no.
Human beings are born with innate mechanisms to heal themselves. As
children we begin life capable of releasing grief by crying, anger by
raging, fear and minor upsets through shaking and laughing. Physical
tensions are even released by yawning. Adults in our culture have been
conditioned to believe that these outward signs are the hurts themselves
when in actuality they are the pathway to healing the hurt. In an attempt
to stop the hurt people often stop the emotional responses like crying,
which interferes with the healing of the hurt. The laughing, crying,
shaking, and yawning create a profound release in the central nervous
system. How and why this works is little-known but easily observed.
Babies do this naturally. For most adults, access to what babies do
easily is difficult or even unimaginable; for some, these release mechanisms
even provoke anxiety.
Through counseling, healing, bodywork—or a combination thereof—I
help my client to release the effects of trauma and overcome feelings
of shock and loss. Clients become more present and in tune with themselves
and more open to others. They can begin to live life more powerfully
with more passion, self-expression and ease, and deep love for one another.
In listening to and observing my client, it became clear that the recent
trauma of September 11th and the restimulation of her early childhood
fears were intertwined. I have found this to be generally true whenever
people have come to me having experienced a recent traumatic event.
Working on past painful experiences always provides greater results,
and brings more clarity to any present situation.
I value these innate healing mechanisms and work with techniques that
encourage emotional release. The goal is really about assisting the
client to discharge emotionally for the purpose of clearing their own
thinking. What I do depends on my observation of what works better;
it is a very flexible, intuitive and creative process—no prescriptions
here. My aim is always the client’s empowerment. Freeing up the
emotions is essential in recovering our sense of fun, cooperation, flexible
intelligence, creativity, power, compassion and joy. Since September
11th, many of us are living in an atmosphere of increased uncertainty.
The tragedy of that day brought anxiety, stress, fear of the unknown,
grief, sadness and anger—all reactions that humans can have to
loss or the threat of loss. Witnessing others being hurt can sometimes
be more traumatic and painful than being hurt oneself. We have all witnessed
in one way or another the horrific acts that took place that day.
In working with my client I needed to help her release the trauma that
was blocked in the body. With Deep Emotional Release Bodywork we can
bypass the mind and access occluded or forgotten memories. While the
client is on the massage table I apply deep pressure to specific muscle
groups as well as a flicking movement to the muscles in order to open
pathways and make information accessible. When we have determined the
incident that caused the problems, I apply a sudden pat to the centers
of the body (such as the solar plexus) most involved in the emotional
patterning in order to remove subconscious programming. The intent is
to create a surprise and release.
As we worked it did not take long for her to access the terror and release
it. She released with huge bursts of terror, tears and anger with periods
of intense laughter in between. She moved through past and present hurts
very quickly. It was wonderful to see her eyes sparkling again and to
witness her regaining her power.
Emotions can be a bridge between the mind and what we sense as the spiritual
world. In order to bring her to a place where healing could occur on
the deepest level, I applied hands-on healing, assisting her to bring
about a new perspective by viewing her experience from a higher plane.
It is from this perspective that we can know bliss, ecstasy, power and
unconditional love. When we had completed the healing she told me that
she had gone from fear to a feeling of being filled with spirit. She
said she had prayed not only for her healing, but for the healing of
those who hadn’t been as lucky to survive and for those who had
committed this atrocity.
As a healer it is not my job to tell someone how to think or what to
do in any given situation, but to bring out the best that resides in
each of us. Each of us can recover from any hurt sufficiently to be
able to serve in whatever way we choose and to give to others. Our world
is constantly changing, and whenever two people care deeply enough about
each other to notice what needs to change and make a decision to take
action, a new world begins to come into being. Delve deeply and you
can realize the interconnectedness of everything. In our hearts we long
for everything to be right for everyone.
Marilyn Mendez Ladner, L.M.T., is a New York City-based healer.
She is a graduate of the Barbara Brennen School of Healing, a practitioner
of Deep Emotional Release Bodywork and many other modalities. She can
be contacted at (212) 247-1878.
