Growing up
I couldn't sit still in class
I was always moving
I had nonstop energy
I just wanted to run
I didn't understand my emotions
I suppressed my feelings
I funneled my energy into fast-paced, competitive sports like soccer, basketball, and baseball. Out there, I felt free from the constraints of the classroom. Even though I felt the pressure of performance, I loved the game and the purpose-driven collaboration of being on a team. In college, I doubled down and began performing on stage as well as on the field. It was my way of exploring even fuller expression.
By senior year, I was both starting point guard and the lead in the theater department's musical production. It felt good. I was fulfilling my body's natural propensity to move and express emotion through movement.
I continued to perform after college and built a successful acting career among other entrepreneurial efforts. It seemed I was living the dream. Under the surface, I experienced bouts of helplessness, depression, and anxiety. I sought answers from experts like doctors, trainers, nutrition experts, and spiritual gurus hoping to solve my problems with the power of outside expertise. While actively engaged in self-healing at the Esalen Institute in California, I became familiar with the Gestalt modality. Gestalt (a presence and body-based awareness practice) opened me up to the paradox of looking outside for answers when my body was communicating with me the entire time.
Get back to the body
Our bodies speak to us using their own unique language. They often know what they need, but we are too busy ruminating in our head to listen.
I became a certified Gestalt Practitioner in 2019 when I finally understood that the peace (and the answers) I was looking for were like Dorothy's ruby slippers. If I could connect with my body, the power of awareness was with me all along.
This newsletter is about bringing awareness back to what Gestalt calls our “internal agency” or that "still quiet voice within.” If you are willing to inquire, your internal agency will help point the way toward who you were born to be.
About me
Beyond offering private Gestalt sessions, I teach Movement Studies to first-through-eighth graders at the Appalachian Academy for Therapeutic Arts.
