Pregnancy and Post-Partum
April was a busy month once again. I’ve been welcoming clients of all ages, from children with anxiety and hyperactivity, all the way through to those of advanced years bearing the ‘slings and arrows’ of a lifetime of hard-fought physical and emotional challenges.
Also, I was so lucky to attend advanced Zero Balancing training with US/NZ teacher, Rebekah Harbour, in the Manawatu region. One of these 4-day courses was on Pregnancy and Post-partum care (see below).
The other course was on the Geometry of Healing which is about resolving energetic disruptions in the wider energy field of the human body. These disruptions have various ‘shapes’, and when the therapist meets those shapes in the field in various ways, they can be resolved. This is useful for complex traumas that don’t fully resolve with normal therapy, they sometimes carry strong emotional or historical components.
Deficient energy can also show up in the ‘wei qi’ protective energy barrier around our skin which can protect us from threats like viruses, wind, cold and promotes our vitality. When this barrier is low, or has holes in it, we can feel vulnerable psychologically, as well as from sickness. The therapy can help restore that protective barrier for you.
Pregnancy & Post-Partum
“Pregnancy and the 6-12 months after birth are a period of profound physical, emotional and energetic transformation. The body shifts to accommodate new life, the nervous system recalibrates, and hormonal rhythms guide both mother and child through this journey. For practitioners this is a unique opportunity to offer supportive, gentle and transformative bodywork that honours the complexity of these changes while enhancing comfort, alignment and connection.”
Rebekah Harbour
During pregnancy this therapy can allow more space for growth, take the pressure off mum's organs, and reduce heartburn, nausea, carpal tunnel, round ligament pain, and rib displacement. Also reduce back pain and improve balance and allow the baby to move and orient with less restriction.
Postpartum it helps Mum with 'closing the bones', birth trauma, and reintegrating her own body. Mum's are welcome to bring baby along to the session.
For any stage of the process this is a big journey in terms of lifestyle, sleep disruption, headaches, big hormonal shifts, sometimes feelings of loss of control, alone-ness, insecurity or 'baby-blues'.
Bodywork can help integrate the body and stabilise emotions on this magical and life-changing, yet fulfilling, journey.
Put down the ‘backpack’
(Warning: Below does not apply literally to those who are pregnant!)
This advice comes from a lovely English lady, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, who moved to India in her 20’s and became a Tibetan Buddhist nun. Now in her 80’s she is a popular and delightful speaker to western audiences on the application of Buddhist principles to everyday life. I saw this piece on Instagram recently, although being English, she uses the word ‘rucksack’.
We go though life accumulating experiences, some of them unpleasant, which keep coming up in our memory. Some of them may be positive desires we may have had, but perhaps they were unfulfilled, or dashed in some way, or maybe achieved but found hollow after all. We carry around all these memories and the emotional baggage in our ‘backpack’, sometimes for years. It gets heavy, but on we go, up hill and down dale, carrying the weight of it all. It’s exhausting.
Eventually we can realise that we can take that backpack off. It is only us that insists on toting it around. We don’t need to carry it anymore. Phewww!!! How liberating would that be?
That’s pretty much the kernel of Buddhist teaching right there, in a nutshell. If you only ever get this one thing, your life will change immediately and profoundly for the better.
May you be in peace!
Koha Days
One day each month for anyone in need. Koha is gratefully accepted if you are able, no obligation. Just contact me for details to book.
Please share my website, or this page, with anyone you know that may benefit. Or click on this link to book now.
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With caring and kindness,
Rhys Dwyer
If you know anyone, from kids up who maybe struggling with body-held tension, energy levels, stress, anxiety, or choices, then please ask them to check me out. Bodywork and present moment awareness may just make a big difference.
Note that bodywork is always complementary to prudent medical care.