Overview
The Healing Alliance℠ focuses on bringing to fruition our natural, inherent emotional healing processes common to all people. We work on the principle that your body already knows how to keep you emotionally well, just as it knows how to keep you physically well. By developing a deep understanding of our natural drive toward healing ,and learning how to consciously join with it, we discover an almost unlimited capacity for vibrant psychological well-being.
These most deeply healing forces include:- The power of love, especially when we receive another person’s loving, supportive, uninterrupted attention
- The power of telling the truth about what has happened to us and what those experiences have been like for us, to tell what they have really meant
- Being heard and believed, which breaks down our isolation and opens up our hearts to healing
- Learning to connect lovingly with our own bodies through awareness, movement, and the healing arts
- Developing powerful teamwork, so that our healing and recovery become a joyous and shared process, rather than a lonely chore
- Deep sobbing and crying to cleanse our many sadnesses, healing our broken hearts and making us whole again, able to see the sunshine and feel its warmth
- Deep and prolonged laughter, which cleanses our anxieties and strengthens our hope
- Stormy rages and tantrums (away from anyone who might be frightened or disturbed by them) that wash away the pain of insult and injustice
- Setting goals for the future and receiving the support and encouragement we need to carry them out
Participants in Healing Alliance℠ sessions exchange support time rather than exchanging money, so the therapy is free. People meet in pairs, typically for a two-hour session. During the first hour, one person acts as ally (doing the listening and the counseling), while the other is the focus of attention and does most of the speaking (like a client in a therapy session). The pair takes a few minutes break and then switches roles for the second hour. This cooperative relationship empowers both participants. Neither one feels cast into the sole role of “helper” or “the person who needs help”. Each person feels that the help they give can be as valuable and important as the help they receive. Participants find it easier to expose their vulnerable places because the other person also takes a turn to do so. The two people form a confidential “healing partnership” that furthers the recovery and renewal of both people.
The Healing Alliance℠ includes the building of healing communities and networks, so that emotional support and love can be integrated into our day-to-day lives, rather than being left to a one-hour session once a week (which rarely feels like enough). Participants increase their support through brief telephone sessions once or twice a week, occasional one day or weekend retreats with larger groups, the sharing of inspiring newsletters, and other approaches to joining together in our healing journeys.
The Healing Alliance℠ proceeds on the belief that huge changes are possible, not just small ones and that life can be a profoundly loving, joyous, and fulfilling experience, free of chronic emotional pain and injustice. We seek nothing less than transformation.