Welcome to the first in a new series of articles shining a spotlight on Zero Balancing Principles. Let’s begin with The Witness State…

In Zero Balancing, the Witness State can be defined as neutral presence on the part of the practitioner. The ZBer does not have an agenda or opinion about what needs to happen, how it happens, or where the session needs to go. We facilitate a balance between energy and structure without attachment to a particular process or way the increased balance is manifested. Having an agenda or opinion is not a bad thing. It’s just not the Witness State. It’s not ZB. 

There is a relationship between the paradigm of the practitioner and the Witness State. If the practitioner was trained as a Physical Therapist like myself, the paradigm or lens through which the body is seen involves concepts such as body symmetry, alignment, strength, and flexibility. If I am a Physical Therapist treating a client, I am looking for a linear relationship between cause and effect, for the client’s body to change in a particular way in response to my treatment. This is true of many similar and similarly excellent treatment modalities like massage therapy, chiropractic, and acupuncture. We may be looking for a rib that’s out to go back in, a tight muscle to loosen, an acupuncture point to become unblocked in response to our  treatment. An action is intended to create a specific result. 

In the ZB paradigm, the practitioner is not attempting to create any particular change other than energy and structure coming into a better state of balance. This improved state of balance may manifest in any number of ways determined not by the practitioner but by the client’s inherent healing essence. To paraphrase a quote by Dr. Fritz Smith, “The ZB practitioner gives the session, nature gives the experience.”

Remaining in the Witness State often requires vigilance. Our own unconscious beliefs about health have a way of sneaking in and influencing our sessions. Here’s an example: you are giving a Half Moon Vector (HMV) to a client and you notice that one leg feels longer than the other. You decide to pull harder on one leg to equalize the length. That’s you leaving the Witness State. You have an agenda; that the client’s legs should be the same length. Remaining in the Witness State would mean holding the HMV the way you usually do with your other clients. In other words, you are simply witnessing the difference in leg length. 

If nature is giving the experience, then we as practitioners do not have to know what or how much change is best for our client, nor do we need to know how to create that change. Clients on our tables instinctively feel accepted as they are because we aren’t thinking they need to be any different. And we aren’t trying to change them. They feel safe and can drop into themselves more deeply.  And by remaining in the Witness State, we also become witness to our client’s process. Witnessing amplifies the field and creates a sacred space in much the same way a witnessed ritual becomes more powerful. As we witness our client’s experience without intention, surprises can happen. Radical healing. Healing in ways we could not anticipate because we are not trying to move clients in one direction or another.  

We trust the wisdom of nature. And herein lies the power…the magic…of the Witness State.