My Healing Journey
Helping others heal is my greatest joy in life. This gift has led me to learning many modalities: from Chinese medicine, to reflexology, reiki, massage therapy, and of course, the Bowen technique and rebirthing breathwork.
But what might surprise you is that my desire to heal stems from a past full of pain.
Growing Pains
Growing up in a poor part of Lisbon, life was difficult. I saw - and felt - so much suffering within my family.
When I was just three years old, I witnessed domestic violence between two close relatives for the first time.
This was the backdrop to my childhood, and I struggled to make sense of the world and my place in it.
I felt like a sponge to my family’s struggles. And even at a young age, I remember wanting to make it better, and take their pain away.
The tragedy at the time is that I thought this behaviour was ‘normal’; it taught me not to trust people.
But it was also a gift that unlocked something deep within me through the years - an empathic calling that would teach me how to dance with pain, and transmute it into something beautiful.
Learning curves
As I got older I threw myself into healing practices, first training as a vet. Looking after animals made sense, as I still had deep wounds from my childhood around people.
But veterinary practise wasn’t what I thought - causing animals to suffer for the sake of studying was too much for me - and I eventually stumbled into Chinese medicine.
I felt a deep connection to my new path, using many of its practices to heal parts of myself I’d ignored. I learnt to love myself, and humanity, for the first time.
I finally understood the power of modalities like Qi gong and the role of energetic flow in our bodies, and I gave myself permission to explore a more spiritual side to my healing treatments.
Discovering Bowen
One afternoon during a deep meditation, I received a strong, undeniable message to train as a Bowen practitioner. I didn’t even know what Bowen was, it was just a name of a therapy then…but the message felt right, and I started to look into it.
Divine timing intervened again when a massage client unexpectedly offered to fund half of my training - something I couldn’t have possibly afforded on my own.
Within few months of first learning its name, I was on my way to becoming a Bowen practitioner.
The Start of Everything
Bowen is a holistic soft-tissue technique that works with our muscles and nervous system. That’s all I really knew before I started.
But the emotional and physical release in my first training session was profound. I could feel the tension leaving my body as my training partner moved their hands across my back.
I immediately fell in love with the practice, and knew this was the modality I’d dedicate my life to.
As I worked through my training and very first clients, I saw person after person let go of pain and tension they’d been holding onto for years.
Each session was deeply moving: I helped people with chronic pain heal completely; I saw clients that believed they never be able to go on hikes again go on walks. The transformations were life-changing.
My experiences have taught me that every single one of us is worthy and capable of a pain-free life.
I didn’t let pain define my life and keep me stuck, and you don’t have to either.
Real change begins when we start to see ourselves as a whole person, and not just a symptom. And for me and so many others, Bowen has been the gateway to this process.
Along came Rebirthing
Exploring my own personal development and relational triggers at the time, in 2022 I booked onto a Rebirthing Breathwork retreat.
Within just the first few sessions, I could feel myself opening up in a way that I hadn’t done in years - if ever. As I processed many of the emotions I had suppressed through my childhood, I could feel lighter and lighter.
Although it was different in many ways, the experience took me back to when I first discovered Bowen in 2013, and I knew I’d found something special.
The retreat was life-changing. As crazy as it may sound, by the end of it, I noticed myself feeling relaxed in big open spaces and around alot of people. I had lived my whole life scared of people without even knowing, until that moment.
Unlike traditional breathwork, rebirthing focuses on gently helping you to acknowledge and integrate the parts of yourself that you’ve shut down, so that you can return to your whole, integrated self.
As I continued my training and my practise, it’s with much gratitude and honour that I can create safe and non judgmental spaces for people to heal deeply, and find greater ease in life.