My Resource Room
"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."
-Marianne Williamson-
Healing often begins the moment you want it and the more extensive a man’s knowledge on what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do. This is a space where I warmly share some of the psychotherapeutic techniques, I use in my counselling space, so you are informed and empowered to chart the direction of your own healing journey.
%2520-%2520group%2520gong_edited.jpg)
What is a Gong Bath Meditation
The gong is a supportive tool for the manifestation of our harmonious physical, mental, and emotional being. The OM tone of a gong creates total silence within. The sustained tone of a gong creates timelessness. The building of its tone combinations create a sense of levitation or lightness. It is the unique quality of a gong’s resonance that integrates diverse elements into a power of synergy, or functional harmony. We also call the tone produced by the gong a “feeling tone,” because we feel it in our body, as well as hear it.
In my mindfulness meditation workshop, awareness of sound is not used as a therapy, but rather as an anchor for the mind to come back to. Just like being mindful of breath, being mindful of sound requires finding a happy balance between vigilance and relaxation. Gong meditation is a unique type of sound practice that involves using therapeutic gong sounds and vibrations to bring about healing. Most people who participate in gong bath meditation are lying down on meditation mats. Add a pillow and a light blanket and all you’ll need to do is rest in a comfortable position, relax and close your eyes.
During the gong bath meditation, the gong sound is changed frequently to avoid producing a fixed, monotonous rhythm. The auditory stimuli of the gong bath process lead to entrainment, a form of beneficially modified brainwave frequencies. The first brainwave state to be reached is alpha, which is associated with creativity and feelings of relaxation. In this state, people experience daydreams, associative thinking and an animated imagination. This state is quickly followed by an influx of theta brainwaves, which lead the participant to a deep meditative state. The personal ego is then able to attain a state of non-judgment or neutrality. This is the state of total body and mind harmony.
Breathwork Counselling - A Body & Mind Approach
Breath has played an essential role in most ancient cultures for thousand of years both therapeutically and as part of spiritual awakening. It is used by Pranayamas in Indian Yogi practices and Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Christianity, Shamanism and martial arts. Each breathing technique varies among cultures but there is a universal theme : Breathwork is technique that foster a non ordinary state of consciousness that promote self-discovery, healing, transformation and empowerment.
Breathing, an essential function to sustain life, is an automatic behaviour that is regulated by the primitive centres of the brain and is critical to human development and wellness. Life begins and end with the breath and therefore by gaining control over the breath, we can control our body and mind. The aim of breath focused counselling therapy is to encourage healthier levels of self awareness, intentional living, and creative expression.
In a standard Breathwork counselling session, I will guide the breather on utilising conscious connected breathing to access non-ordinary state of consciousness. A non-ordinary state of consciousness is slightly different from the ordinary state of consciousness, which may include dreaming, intense focus, gaining access to suppressed emotions, past trauma and early development memories. Counselling is then aimed at identifying both motivation and personal goals; to process the experiences that emerge through the breathing practice; to focus on handling strategies for changes. The integration of talk and body approach, offers Breathwork both a resource and a tool for focusing on inner resources.