Clients

Get in the Habit: Clearing Obstacles to Starting an Exercise Program. 

Did you know that people tend to exercise less in the winter months? Is this true for you? Spring is here and the increasingly warm weather may be just the thing to help you to start a new habit: regular exercise.

How many of us have…

…joined a gym, thinking the monthly fee will motivate us to exercise regularly? 

…decided to exercise every day for an hour but never seemed to get around to doing it?

…decided the reason we aren’t exercising is because we are lazy or unmotivated or too busy? 

Perhaps the reason for our lack of success has more to do with human nature than motivation or get-up-and-go. What if we look at getting more exercise as creating a new habit?

There has been a lot of research recently about habits: how powerful they are, how to break bad ones and start good ones. So, what is a habit? For our discussion, let’s define habit as an action required through repetition. Actions we consistently repeat become habits. If we exercise consistently, it will become a habitual part of our daily life. 

Sounds simple. 

But if it’s so simple, why is it so hard? Let’s look at some potential obstacles.

For one, we tend to create exercise goals without considering whether the goals are achievable. Or we may choose exercise based on what we’ve read about what doctors say we should be doing. We don’t consider our likes, dislikes, and the real constraints of daily life. For example, clients often come to me for help going to the gym more frequently. Yet when I ask them if they like the gym, they respond, “I hate going to the gym.” or “I hate to exercise.” Similarly, someone may decide to exercise every morning before work yet hate getting up early. It’s not hard to see both approaches heading toward failure. 

So, just for now, put aside what you’ve read or what you’ve always thought you should be doing with regard to exercise. Instead, as a first step, spend a few weeks observing yourself and making a list of what types of exercise you like. Be honest with yourself about what you enjoy and don’t enjoy. What time of day do you feel energized? When in your daily schedule are you most likely to consistently have time to exercise? How much time can you realistically spend exercising? Where do you like to exercise? If you prefer exercising at home, where in your house or apartment are you most comfortable? 

Each aspect you list should be true and aligned with your nature. Be relentlessly honest with yourself and fully accept who you are. 

Remember that the only exercise that works is the exercise you will actually do! All the “best exercise” information in the world won’t help you if you won’t do it. I once had a client who was honest enough to state she was only willing to exercise during the commercials when she watched the nightly news. I gave her an exercise program that matched her willingness and she did her exercises every night. 

It’s unlikely you will consistently exercise if you don’t enjoy it or can’t get to it because it doesn’t align with your daily rhythms or busy lifestyle. If you hate the gym but love walking in your neighborhood, take walks in your neighborhood. If you like lifting weights but don’t have more than 10 minutes per day to exercise, lift weights for 10 minutes. Try it!

Clients

A ZB Perspective for Your Life

In an earlier newsletter, I introduced the idea that Zero Balancing (ZB) principles can help you in your daily life. It can be so helpful it’s worth a deeper look. Specifically, how using the Zero Balancing concept of fulcrums and working states can deepen your understanding of normal responses to change, especially ongoing change like the pandemic.

To review, the term “fulcrum” is used to describe each technique used during a ZB session. A fulcrum creates an opportunity for movement, in much the same way an otherwise stationary board becomes a lever by placing it on a fulcrum. When your ZB practitioner places a fulcrum and holds it for a few seconds, your system responds by going into motion. Your internal world starts to reorganize and change in response to the stillness in the practitioner. This process is called a working state. It’s an in-between state; in between the patterns you had before the fulcrum and the new patterns that have not yet formed. Each fulcrum, working state and new pattern are part of an organic, holistic process that naturally moves you toward a higher state of health. 

Outside the context of a Zero Balancing session, a new job, moving house, getting married, going through a pandemic, all these life experiences can be viewed as fulcrums. They are all catalysts for change and the experience that follows is a working state. In some circumstances we are like the ZB practitioner placing the fulcrum.  In some instances we are like the person on the table receiving the fulcrum. 

How can understanding fulcrums and working states help you? 

It can provide an understanding of which side of the process you are experiencing and guide your choices. If you are receiving the fulcrum, you have entered a working state. This in-between state is inherently unstable because things are in motion; things are changing. From this perspective, it’s perfectly normal to feel stressed, for things to feel challenging or extremely uncomfortable. The continuing discomfort of the global pandemic is a good example. This global fulcrum ended the patterns of our pre-pandemic lives and we remain in a working state. The new patterns have not yet fully formed. The perspective of fulcrums and working states can help because it makes sense of our ongoing stress. 

Recognition that you are in a working state can help you feel more stable, even if things are still in motion. The stress you feel is a normal, if uncomfortable, response to change. You can anticipate that once the new pattern is established, you are likely to feel better. You realize that you are experiencing a normal part of re-orienting around a change and may be better able to tolerate the discomfort as a result. It may not feel easy yet it may feel easier! 

It can be equally helpful to understand fulcrums and working states when you initiate the change. Here, you are like the practitioner. You have placed the fulcrum and you can view the reactions of those around you as their working state. Like a ZB practitioner, your job is to stay present and remain still. Those around you are reorganizing around your fulcrum. Their reactions are a normal response to the change you have created, their discomfort is the normal discomfort of being in a working state. This may free you from feeling you must argue or justify your decision. If you can stay still and present, their reaction often winds down soon and you can both move forward into the new pattern. 

Try looking at experiences in your life as fulcrums and working states. I hope it helps!

Practitioners

Why does Zero Balancing feel so good?

Have you ever wondered why receiving Zero Balancing (ZB) feels so good? You may have received massage or other helpful bodywork, yet there’s something unique about your experience during a Zero Balancing session. It feels so relaxing, so safe, so good! 

Safety and relaxation go hand in hand and both feel good. It’s very difficult to feel relaxed if you feel like you need to keep an eye on the practitioner. It’s difficult to feel good if you feel anxious. Think about the people in your life you feel most relaxed around. These are people you trust. You can relax because you know they aren’t likely to hurt you by suddenly saying something mean or seeking to physically harm you. Instinctively, you feel safe. 

Yet the quality of Zero Balancing touch goes deeper than safety and relaxation. There’s a feeling of acceptance and support that is communicated. Touch communicates instantly and touch doesn’t lie. 

Zero Balancing touch results from the practitioner’s focus on two important things: 1) touching your structure and energy simultaneously and consciously and 2) maintaining a clear boundary. 

What is touching your structure and energy simultaneously and consciously? First, it’s important to understand that Zero Balancing practitioners view the world through the lens of structure and energy. Structure is what can be seen. Energy is unseen. If you look at a tree on a windy day, you see the leaves, the structure. You can’t actually see the wind, the energy. You see the leaves moving and you know the wind is blowing but you can’t actually see the wind. 

In people, structure includes all parts of us that can be seen, either with the naked eye or with a microscope. Examples would include bones, muscles, organs, and cells. Energy encompasses what can’t be seen but is still very much a part of us, like our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, the movement of our organs and blood, and our life force, vitality or chi. 

Zero Balancing practitioners are trained to be consciously aware of both the structure and energy of the client with each technique throughout the session. Someone shaking your hand is actually touching your energy along with the skin, muscles and bones of your hand, but may not be paying attention to the unseen aspects of you. Receiving therapeutic bodywork that attends to both your structure and energy means all parts of you are being seen and cared for. This engenders a feeling of deep support and acceptance. 

The second important aspect is the practitioner’s attention to boundary. This type of touch is called Interface. There are many therapeutic ways to work with energy when doing bodywork that may or may not emphasize boundary. In Zero Balancing, the practitioners are trained to pay special attention to maintaining a clear energetic boundary with their touch. Both client and practitioner can feel where the practitioner stops and the client begins. This aspect can be especially helpful with trauma survivors. I’ve had several clients who have survived serious trauma comment, “I don’t know why I feel so safe.” Interface touch is one of the reasons. 

Lastly, conscious touch that feels safe is a highly held value in Zero Balancing training and practice. The belief is that the respect, acceptance and safety that are instantly communicated through conscious touch creates a space where deep and lasting healing can happen. 

Practitioners

How to Improve Your Flexibility

Clients frequently tell me that a muscle or part of their body feels tight. Sometimes the tightness affects a daily function, like turning their head when backing out of the driveway. Sometimes it’s a feeling of tightness that just feels uncomfortable. Or sometimes it’s an aspiration, like wanting to achieve a yoga pose. The optimal way to improve flexibility varies from person to person and the more you understand about your body, the more likely you are to choose a successful approach.

There are several possible causes of the tightness and understanding the cause can guide you to choosing the best path forward. 

Freedom of movement is determined by both joints and muscles. The causes of tightness are directly related to the tissues that make up muscles and surround joints. Joints consist of 2 or more bones connected by tissue that is essentially non-elastic. This connective tissue, or fascia, encapsulates the joint. The connective tissue can become looser with warmth and stiffer with cold. Muscles consist of elastic components, cells that can contract and stretch, as well as the same fascia that surround joints. For a part of your body to move freely, there must be enough length in the muscles and enough looseness in the joint capsules.  

Some people experience stiffness mainly in their joints, like having arthritis in your back or knees. For joint stiffness, activities that increase warmth, such as repeated movements or active range of motion, can be very helpful. The repeated movement warms the fascia which makes it looser. Looser fascia means less stiffness. While this exercise is very effective, staying in one position will cause the fascia to cool down and stiffen again. So with joint stiffness, improved flexibility is an ongoing activity, like doing these repeated movements frequently throughout the day and especially after being in one position for a while. The true cause of the stiffness is likely arthritis and unfortunately, exercise is not a cure. It can, however, give you the power to improve the way you feel. 

So after sitting for a while, you might gently make small, painless bending and straightening motions in your knee 20 or 30 times without stopping. Lots of repetitions without stopping is important because it generates warmth which loosens the fascia surrounding your knee joint.    

If the tight feeling is due to a tight muscle, a different type of exercise is needed. In this instance, the muscle is too short. Tight muscles do benefit from small, repetitive movements that help warm the fascia in the muscle. However, the muscle needs to be stretched in order to gain length. 

A stretching exercise involves putting the target muscle in a position where one end is held steady and the other end is moved away. Picture stretching an elastic band. You must hold one end steady and move the other end for the stretch to happen. When held long enough and often enough, 3 repetitions, 20-30 seconds each, the muscle will change so that it gains length and you feel more flexible. For example, the hamstring attaches to the pelvis and also to the shin just below the knee on both sides. To stretch, you might sit, which holds your pelvis steady, and straighten your knee, which moves your shin, until you feel a moderate pull. You could also hold your shin steady, and move your pelvis until you feel a stretch. In both cases, you need to hold the position for 20-30 seconds, rest, and repeat the activity at least 3 times in a row. Any stretch performed this way daily over several weeks will lengthen your muscle and give you more flexibility. 

Any exercise should be performed consistently, gently, and without pain! Consult with your exercise trainer or Physical Therapist for exercises specifically tailored for your specific needs.

Practitioners

Things you can do with a Half Moon Vector Part 4

This is the fourth in the series of articles looking at the variety of ways we can use the Half Moon Vector (HMV) through the legs and it’s a two-parter. Let’s explore… 

How far up in the client’s body can you connect with your HMV through the legs? 

The balance between energy and structure can be expressed as energy that moves freely through structure between heaven and earth when the person is standing. Or between the skull and the feet if a person is lying on the table. The implication is that the further up the body one can connect, the more connected between heaven and earth this person might become once they are vertical again.

We have all seen this in our clients when they get off the table. They are more connected from the ground up and are often taller. By paying attention to how far up you can connect during the first HMV, you can track this particular expression of the client’s energy/structure relationship throughout the session and across a series of sessions.  

How do you obtain the information? 

Because the information you are seeking is how far up you can connect, the thing to pay attention to is which parts of the client’s body engage as you hold the fulcrum. Can you connect with their hips and no further? Do you feel connected all the way up to the top of the skull? Trust your sensory experience. 

There may be two factors in play here if there’s a limited connection. It may be due to energetic congestion or foundation joints imbalances in the client. Or it may be due to your own skill in engaging their structure and energy. Here in part 1, we will look at practitioner skill. In part 2, coming in the Spring 2022 newsletter, we will look at imbalances in the client. 

In both instances, it’s important to simply observe, rather than trying to change what you are feeling by doing something additional or something different. Just trust what you are feeling and file it away until you have something to compare it to, like the 2nd or 3rd half moon. 

What are some signs you might want to improve your skills? One sign is that you don’t seem to connect very far up in any client during the first HMV. It’s unlikely that all your clients have the same imbalances. Another sign would be no noticeable change between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd HMVs in a single session. While it’s certainly possible that there was no change, your client’s energy and structure is most likely in better balance by the end of the ZB, even if only slightly, so you should feel something. 

How can you use this information to guide your sessions? 

If you’ve determined that the issue lies, at least in part, with you, you might begin by observing yourself when you give an HMV through the legs. Are you working too hard? Using your arms rather than your body weight? Feeling nervous about using too much structure? Simply observe yourself and notice trends or habits, both physical and mental, that you may have developed over the months and years you have been giving sessions. 

How might you improve your skills?

Each day, choose one session during which you pay attention to your own process when giving an HMV. Once you have noticed a trend, or even if you haven’t, seek opportunities for feedback and practice! Trade sessions with a colleague or schedule a touch feedback tutorial with a ZB teacher or Certified mentor. Have fun and let me know how it goes!

Practitioners

Can energy be good or bad?

When talking with people, I’ve noticed they often express the idea that there is good energy and bad energy. They may talk about an experience with bad energy or refer to a friend as having good energy.  These comments indicate to me that in this individual’s worldview, energy can be good or bad.

I find this intriguing. What do you think? Can energy be good or bad? Let’s have a glass of wine or a cup of tea and talk about it. 

Our viewpoint on energy, whether it exists or not, whether its form can be benevolent or malevolent, is often influenced by culture, training, exposure to both eastern and western thought, and, perhaps most importantly, by direct experience. Our interpretation of the experience can be influenced by our paradigms, but the experience itself is perceived through our senses. This interplay between perception and interpretation can be quite subtle. 

For example, I once met someone whose energy didn’t feel good to me. What got my attention first was my sensory experience, which I found unpleasant. Feeling into it more, I realized their energy extended out from their body quite far, so that if they were within about a foot of me, I could really feel their field and I didn’t like how it felt. I observed there were other people around who seemed to really enjoy this individual. What felt uncomfortable to me, seemed quite enjoyable to others. 

Was this person’s energy bad? My experience of their energy was unpleasant. If my worldview was that energy could be good or bad, my interpretation could have been “yes…bad energy.” What made it bad was my uncomfortable experience. But if they had bad energy, why did other people find it pleasant? 

In another example, I was driving on an unfamiliar road and moved into a left turn lane such that my rear bumper stuck out a bit into the next lane. A woman in a big pick-up truck pulled up alongside me and began yelling at me, shouting “It’s all about you, isn’t it? It’s all about you!!!” Despite my apologizing, she wouldn’t stop yelling. What I felt coming toward me was anger and frustration that seemed out of proportion to the situation. It felt really bad. Did she have bad energy? 

What if someone uses energy in a purposely harmful way? Is the energy bad or is the intention bad? Both? 

In Zero Balancing, we often use the word vibration interchangeably with energy. We look for held energy or held vibration in bone. If I try thinking about bone-held vibration as being either good or bad, it doesn’t make sense to me. It’s hard to imagine vibration being bad. 

However, it’s not hard to imagine a vibratory form that holds content stemming from an unpleasant or traumatic or bad experience. Stuck energy that, if reorganized, would free my client from their past and move them toward actualization. 

From this perspective, energy itself is neutral. When I think about types of energy, electricity or magnetism for example, there doesn’t appear to be a continuum of good and bad. It’s hard for me to imagine bad electricity. It’s easy to imagine electricity in an unwanted location, like an uninsulated electrical cord or a toaster in a bathtub of water; or electricity used for a harmful purpose. Likewise, certain experiences of energy can feel bad without the energy itself being bad. Perhaps it’s the form the energy takes, like yelling by an angry motorist, or the essence of an individual who simply isn’t a good match. The malevolence belongs to the perpetrator of the traumatic event, rather than the vibratory form that gets lodged in the bones as a result. 

I hope this stimulates some interesting Glass of Wine conversations! Thanks for reading!

Clients

What are the best shoes for a person with high-arched feet?

In this 3-part series, I’ve been helping you to determine the optimal shoe features for your particular foot. Part 3 will look at what shoes may be best for a person with high arched feet. If you missed Parts 1 and 2 you can read them here. 

Let’s get started on Part 3!

As we learned in Part 1, the foot needs to be mobile early in the walking cycle, for shock absorption and adapting to the ground, and rigid later in the walking cycle, to propel the body forward. 

Your high-arched foot is rigid because of its interlocking bone structure. So you have what you need for the later part of the walking cycle, which is great! Your rigid foot is excellent for propelling the body forward and helping you to take a nice, long step. However, it may be at a disadvantage during the early stages of the walking cycle, when you need flexibility for shock absorption and to adapt to any unevenness underfoot. With insufficient shock absorption, ground reaction forces travel up your leg and can adversely affect your hip, pelvis and back. With insufficient flexibility in your foot on uneven ground, you have a higher risk of falling or spraining your ankle. 

The good news is that the right shoe can make up for the shock absorption and adaptability  your high-arched foot lacks. A soft and mobile shoe with added cushion can make a big difference!  

Here are 3 simple tests you can perform in the shoe store to find a soft and mobile shoe. Two of these tests are used by people with flatter feet. However, you will make different choices based on the results! 

Heel Counter Squeeze 

The Heel Counter is the back part of your shoe where your heel sits. 

Place your thumb and forefinger on either side of the heel counter. Pinch the sides together. 

For high-arched feet, a shoe where you can easily squeeze the sides together, like this black shoe, is a better shoe for you.  

If the heel counter remains firm, like this blue shoe, this is not a good shoe for you. It’s too stiff and rigid. 

Twist Test

Hold the back of the shoe with one hand and the toes of the shoe with the other hand. Try to twist the shoe. 

[Photo of back of twisted black shoe here] 

If it’s easy to twist, like the black shoe, it’s a good shoe for you. 

If it’s harder to twist, like the blue shoe, it is not a good shoe because it’s too rigid. 

Back of the Shoe Test

Look at the back of the shoe. The sole should flare slightly outward like the shoe above. This will add stability to the outside of your foot and decrease the risk of twisting your ankle. 

Avoid shoes where the sole slants inward, like the shoe above. This is a less stable shoe.

And to add shock absorption, be sure your shoes have plenty of cushioning! 

How much does wearing the right shoe matter? 

It depends. If you are not having any problems with your feet or back or spraining your ankle, it’s probably not important that all your shoes meet the criteria above. However, if you are walking for exercise or having problems, the right shoes may help! 

Thanks for reading!

Clients

What Can Zero Balancing Help?

This is a question I get asked all the time. Common questions are “Can Zero Balancing help my neck? My husband’s back? Anxiety? Writer’s block?” The answer depends on what’s causing the problem.

An easy way to understand this is to think about your car. If your car won’t start because the ignition is broken, installing a new battery is not likely to help! Your mechanic needs to find and then fix the cause of the problem, in this case the ignition. The same is true for the body, as well as the emotions, mind and spirit. Determining whether a particular treatment modality is likely to help requires at least some understanding of the cause of the problem.

Let’s use back pain as an example. Different healthcare professionals will likely look at your back from different perspectives. Western medicine is primarily concerned with the structure of the body. A western medical practitioner, like a doctor or Physical Therapist, may examine the muscles, joints, or nerves in your back to determine the cause of your pain. Eastern medicine, like acupuncture, is primarily concerned with energy or chi. An acupuncturist may evaluate the flow of chi through your body to determine the best treatment for pain. Zero Balancing bridges western and eastern medical thought. ZB practitioners see people as having two bodies; a structural body and an energy body and focus on the relationship between the two. So a ZB practitioner will evaluate the relationship between your structure and your energy to determine the cause of your back pain. 

Many years ago a colleague came in for a ZB session. She had never received ZB before and was curious. During the session I noticed an imbalance between the structure and energy in her low back area. It responded nicely to the ZB techniques. After the session, she expressed amazement that her back no longer hurt. It turned out that she had chronic back pain, information she had not shared with me prior to the session. She said that through the years, she had worked with “the best of the best” Physical Therapists in the city, but she still had the pain. She was pleasantly surprised when the session addressed both her curiosity about ZB and her chronic back pain!

While I was delighted the session had helped her back, my interpretation of her experience was simply that the pain must have been caused by an imbalance between her structure and energy, at least in part. And because the ZB directly addressed the imbalance, her symptom went away. The cause of the problem had been taken care of, like fixing the ignition would take care of that car that wouldn’t start. 

The same approach can be applied to all of the problems mentioned above. Zero Balancing can be very effective for troubles in your body, emotions, mind or spirit if those troubles are caused by an imbalance between your structure and energy. 

In my experience, some situations and problems are more likely to cause an imbalance between body structure and body energy. These situations often result from experiencing trauma of both a structural and energetic nature. One example would be trouble that started during a particularly stressful period in life, like a car accident after losing a loved one or going through a divorce. In general, trauma of any sort impacts both our structure and energy. 

Is it worth trying a ZB session or two to find out if it can help? The answer is usually yes, especially for problems that have been around for a long time. Give it a try!

Practitioners

What’s your paradigm?

Most people have a worldview or paradigm through which they understand the world. When it comes to healthcare practitioners, our paradigm is often what we use to determine the underlying causes of whatever may be troubling our clients; as well as the lens through which we interpret our clients’ reactions and responses.

Paradigm is often unconscious. 

This Glass of Wine conversation is an invitation to make your paradigm conscious; to introduce the possibility that the lens through which you see yourself and your clients is just that…a lens rather than the reality.  

Sometimes we notice our paradigm when hearing an interpretation of an event that we didn’t consider or don’t agree with. I remember hearing a colleague talking about giving a Zero Balancing session in which she was having trouble finding the client’s donkey. Her interpretation was that the client was hiding and not allowing herself to be found. It was the client’s responsibility to come out of hiding. This made an impression on me because my interpretation in similar situations was entirely different. My conclusion was that it was my job to create a safe environment so the client’s donkey would want to come out. I became acutely aware of the differences in our paradigms. In her paradigm, people receiving ZB could prevent the practitioner from helping them, so the responsibility for improvement belonged to the client. In my paradigm, if something isn’t working, I haven’t figured out the best way to ZB them yet. The responsibility for improvement belongs to the practitioner. While it’s tempting to just decide that I’m right and she was wrong, it’s more interesting to entertain the possibility we both may be right sometimes…or wrong sometimes! 

I am often keenly aware of paradigm differences when a client comes in with a specific interpretation of their experience. An example is a client who believes they can’t be healthy if  their pelvis is rotated. Or a client who believes that the right side of the body is about giving and the left about receiving. Or one side of the body is masculine and the other feminine. If you find yourself saying, “yes, that’s true” or “no, that’s not true” you are expressing your own paradigm. 

A paradigm challenge can be very unsettling. For example, I once gave a ZB session to a friend who had been studying Reiki. She believed the energy had to leave the body through the hands and feet during the session. She was adamant and would not allow any work on her feet because she thought it would keep the energy from leaving. Coming from the ZB paradigm, I was concerned she would become depleted if her energy streamed out during the session. And skipping the fulcrums on the feet seemed unthinkable! At the time, I was not conscious I had a paradigm and likely neither was she. We were each coming from different realities. Our paradigms were colliding. It made it very difficult to work with her. And on her side, she didn’t really like how the ZB made her feel. How much of that was due to differences in paradigm? That’s a Glass of Wine Conversation question in and of itself!

So what’s your paradigm? How do you see health and healing? Do you see the sides of the body as being associated with something in particular? What’s your interpretation when your client isn’t improving? Have you ever found aspects of what you believe to be untrue? How does that affect you? 

I hope these thoughts stimulate some interesting Glass of Wine conversations! Thanks for reading!

Practitioners

Things you can do with a Half Moon Vector Part 3

This is the third in the series of articles looking at the variety of ways we can use the Half Moon Vector (HMV) through the legs. Let’s explore… 

Using the HMV to determine if your Zero Balancing sessions are creating change that lasts. 

Many of us see clients for several sessions, usually once a week at the beginning. Often the client will be looking for help with a problem that takes more than one session to resolve. This article will focus on one way to determine whether the changes that happen during the session are temporary or lasting. [Read more.]

For this discussion, let’s define changes that last as the session “holding.” The client’s field is more organized at the end of the ZB session. Does that organization last? Is having a well-organized field becoming the client’s baseline? 

How do you obtain the information? 

Is the first HMV of this session similar to the last HMV of your previous session? This is one means of determining whether the ZB sessions are creating lasting change. 

If this is a new concept to you, start by paying attention to the changes between the first HMV of a session and the last HMV of the same session. You are likely already noticing this. Pay attention to several sessions with several clients until you are comfortable answering this simple question: “Do they feel the same or do they feel different?” If they feel different, the way the last HMV feels is more organized, because ZB creates a clearer, stronger, more organized field. Notice how the last HMV feels and name it somehow so you can recognize the feeling again. 

Once you gain comfort and confidence by noting the differences between the HMVs in the same session, try comparing the last HMV of one session to the first HMV of the following session. If they feel similar, the sessions are holding. If they feel different, it’s likely the client has reverted to where they started last session.

How can you use this information to guide your sessions? 

I use this information in several ways. Lasting change is one way to tell whether the ZB sessions are helping. If the changes are not lasting after several sessions, I may need to look at how I am working with the person. Perhaps I need to alter the length of the session or choose different fulcrums. If the changes are lasting, I’m probably on the right track. 

An example would be a client whose energetic container lacks integrity. It doesn’t hold together. If the container feels more solid at the end of one session, but more friable at the beginning of the next session, I may need to use an alchemical fulcrum to strengthen their container. 

I also use this information to determine how often a client needs to come for a session. Sometimes it takes several sessions before things start to hold. Sometimes things hold after the first few sessions. Once sessions start to hold, we can experiment with stretching the time out between sessions, to 10 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks and so on. Clients usually want to know how often they need to come. Using this method is one way to answer their question in a more concrete way. 

How might you improve your skills?

Every week, choose one or two clients to focus on. Pay particular attention to how the HMVs feel at the beginning and ends of their sessions, as described above. Have fun and let me know how it goes!

Linda Wobeskya, MSPT