Healing is Finding Our Way Home

by, Dr. Deborah Diamond D.C.

Unless we were raised by extraordinarily conscious and sensitive parents and somehow manage to escape being traumatized by other people or circumstances outside our family, it is likely that we will have erected some kind of protective barrier around our hearts and selves out of fear and a need for protection.

It is erected in layers beneath our skin. It hardens our muscles and seems to mold our bodies into a rounded shape for the purpose of defense.  Life behind the wall becomes so familiar and “comfortable” in its discomfort that even if we feel the fear or shame it hides, it has become a part of who we perceive ourselves to be, as familiar to us as our own hand. We come to mistake the barrier for the self it is protecting. What is passed down through the generations does not just color our eyes and hair but also colors our beliefs and world view and helps to shape us from within.

Healing involves a combination of reaching in, nurturing, and supporting the parts of us inside that need it the most, which allows for the natural progressive dismantling of the walls. As we delve slowly into this depth we have the opportunity to discover our Being at our core. Healing is a process of slowly uncovering and bringing light into our dark recesses and discovering the shining truth that was so carefully wrapped and covered behind those walls for safekeeping long ago.

Intuitive healing touch finds those critical points on the body and spine where with respectful and honoring contact, “Light” can shine right through the cracks in that armor illuminating what is deep at the center, simultaneously “melting” the seed coat as the germination stirs from within.

During this process we may at first feel raw and vulnerable like a moist butterfly just emerged from the cocoon. As we begin to emerge we start to reconnect with parts of ourselves we may have been estranged from for many years, maybe close to a lifetime; such as creativity, directness, self-awareness, body-awareness, deep breaths, deeper sleep, an impulse to be kind to ourselves and a clarity that it is unacceptable to be treated in any other way by anyone.

As we heal we realize that the key to our protection in life will come more effectively from this inner awareness and the ability to speak our truth from this place, rather than erecting a wall that hardens our body from the outside , which was likely our only choice as a child.

This juncture becomes a turning point as we begin to awaken to the realization that there are parts of our lives that are not in tune with the True Nature we are uncovering. This is a time where we may feel motivated to release old habits, take on addictions, or make changes in our lives big or small.

Many of our patients over the years have come to realizations like, “my job is killing me” or maybe that a particular relationship was toxic to them, or that an important need or part of themselves was unexpressed. We have seen our patients change jobs, careers, life partners, and even home countries. One of our patients who had lived in the United states for a decade sat up in the middle of her treatment one day and exclaimed “I have to go home to Germany” where she had been raised, and soon moved back to her homeland.

This can seem like an uncomfortable and unstable time of life, but what is happening if we can honor the process, is that as we are finally rediscovering our roots and reconnecting with what truly nourishes us so we can externalize and express the more authentic nature of our being.

Healing is a combination of feeling, trusting, opening and letting go. This is what we feel it is our mission to offer through our hands and our presence, regardless of the presenting concern, and what we all find and discover on this journey is no less than the most precious gift we can ever give to ourselves.