By Mia Taylor
Infinite love and blessings….
Infinite love and blessings….
The words were softly repeatedly, as the therapist’s hand passed back and forth above my body.
In between this quiet mantra, I was to be focusing on (and clearing) a whole host of challenging emotions – rage, loss, what might have been, deception…all things the therapist said she could sense I needed to work on.
Remarkably, she also helped me clear the giant knot of stress I carry between my shoulder blades, hidden back there like painful luggage I’m trying to hide or not acknowledge. For as long as I can remember, my body has deposited all of my fears, worries and anxiety between my shoulder blades, in a big ball.
Jonelle rid me of this pain within moments, through a combination of reflexology and concentration on my part, that involved envisioning the source of the pain, it’s shape, color and size.
It had been two or three years since I last visited Rancho La Puerta, a place that is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top destination resorts and spas by publications like Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveller. My last visit was quite different, filled with spa treatments that were far more superficial – facials and bodywraps. Yes, they were fabulous and yes I felt incredibly peaceful after each treatment. But a variety of new energy healing spa treatments at Rancho La Puerta, announced just a few weeks ago, bring relaxation to entirely new and more spiritual levels.
The Treatments
The latest offerings at Rancho La Puerta include Reiki, Reconnective Healing, Somatic Experiencing and Lifeline Technique – definitely not your typical spa fare. But the appearance of these types of deeper treatments is becoming slightly more commonplace as the frenzied, modern, constantly connected digital world steps up its search for deeper healing.
The Reiki treatment for instance, works on dissolving the body’s aches, strains and emotional imbalance. This includes balancing your chakras with a combination of gentle touches or with hands slightly off the body.
Reconnective Healing helps participants experience an optimal state of balance and well-being. The practitioner guides energy, light and information around the body using a hands-off approach.
Starting to get the picture? These are not pampering spa massages.
There’s also an Energy Medicine offering, which is what I had with Jonelle. As well as Craniosacral treatments, another option that piqued my curiosity.
Described as an experience that helps achieve a revitalized state of health by naturally reducing aches, chronic pain, stress and emotional imbalances, Craniosacral involves laying still while light healing touches are applied to your body to treat trauma and restore health. The goal is to bring the emotions and spirit into balance, reconnecting the body with its ability to heal itself.
Sounds good to me!
The therapist, Michael, started by asking me to tell him everything I wanted him to know.
Where do I begin, I thought? Rather then turn this into a full blown counseling session, I focused on just the past year, which involved treatment for breast cancer, multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. To say my body is full of aches and pains would be an understatement.
I’ll admit, I don’t quite understand everything Michael did during the course of our treatment. It involved a combination of his quietly listening to my nervous system (via pressing his hands on my head), and also applying healing pressure to the most tender and scar-tissue filled parts of my body.
I few days later, I read more about Craniosacral therapy because it had such a positive impact on me. What I learned is this – at a deep level of our physiological functioning all healthy, living tissues subtly “breathe” with the motion of life – a phenomenon that produces rhythmic impulses that can be palpated by sensitive hands.
Michael’s gentle touch or palpating, eased pains I’ve carried around and been unable to impact for more than a year.
And as I lay in the treatment room undergoing this realignment, I could hear birds outside the window chirping ebulliently, as if they were celebrating the wildly abundant meadows of blooming spring flowers all over the ranch.
Rancho La Puerta Spa and Resort
What a perfect time to experience a host of spa therapies aimed at doing far more than just sloughing off dead skin, that instead aim to renew your spirit and provide energy healing
I walked out of my two treatments feeling much lighter. And for me, that’s saying a lot. I also departed with a personal mantra to repeat moving forward, courtesy of Joelle.
I won’t share what my personal mantra is exactly. But perhaps consider a visit to Rancho La Puerta to create your own for the new year.
