Holistic Counseling in Saratoga Springs, NY • healing@nycap.rr.com
Wave Work Therapy
To Clear and Integrate Emotions
The optimum way to integrate all our experiences in daily life would be to allow ourselves to be with our feelings moment-to-moment — that is, to “be on the wave.” Without a strong internal container, however, we may feel unsafe or incapable of being on the wave by ourselves. Society’s negative “voices,” not to mention our own ingrained negative family beliefs about showing emotions, may condition us to hide our feelings — in other words, to “get off the wave.”
Thus, we sometimes use distractions such as overworking, chemical addictions, excessive exercising, overeating, watching too much TV, etc., as a way to mask our feelings. That is where Wave Work Therapy comes in.
What Is Wave Work™?
Wave Work is a unique psycho-spiritual process for clearing and integrating emotional feelings. Based on the deeper teachings of Yoga, the work uses breath and awareness of sensation to allow for an organic shift in consciousness.
This work is based upon the theory that our bodies have an innate intelligence that aids us in operating from our highest self. This intelligence continually assists us in transforming and evolving our lives. By trusting this intelligence, we can discover the doorway to our inner wisdom.
The Wave Work process is similar to some types of meditation. Lying fully clothed on a massage table, the client is encouraged to breathe and watch for changes in his or her mental, physical, emotional, and subtle bodies, and then reports these changes to the practitioner. Being in that experience moment-to-moment, particularly with respect to whatever sensations or feelings may arise, is called “riding the wave.”
In a nutshell, Wave Work reawakens our innate capacity to heal the self. As shown in the diagram below, it is a way for the client to move toward integration and ultimately expansion of the mind.
How Can Wave Work Therapy Benefit You?
Wave Work helps you to:
- Feel safe with your emotions
- Identify and move through emotional blocks
- Reclaim your personal power
- Become more self-aware
- Integrate anxieties, trauma, loss, and death
- Move through life transitions effectively
- Ground yourself in your body
Wave Work offers a healthier way of living. People who have practiced Wave Work have learned to ride the wave on their own in their daily lives. It is a useful healing medium that offers us a new way of living the remainder of our lives. Being in-the-moment with our feelings and sensations and integrating our emotional pain is the path to developing awareness and evolving to our highest human potential.
Donna Bird’s Credentials and Experience
Donna is a Certified Level II Wave Work Practitioner. She began studying Wave Work in 1997 with its originator, Sandra Scherer (Dayashakti) at Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Donna subsequently became a Wave Work mentor and program assistant; and she has previously worked in the Kripalu Center healing arts department as a Wave Work therapist.
The Wave Work Process
We are always in transition in our own lives in all ways. Many of us have been conditioned to believe masking emotions is the way to survive traumatic life experiences. But our soul — our inner wisdom — innately knows that masking our experiences has not brought integration and a sense of peace into our lives. The higher self seeks to heal itself organically, yearning for the sense of completeness, or integration, manifested on all four levels of our being: the mental, physical, emotional, and subtle.
During integration, many clients experience a sense of deep peace, the kind they have yearned for in meditation. Sometimes they see colors, or feel as if they are floating. Some may receive clear insights or awareness, like an “aha” from their higher self; while others may experience an internal paradigm shift. They may identify negative patterns and critical self-talk in their thinking or belief system, or discover the doorway to their unconscious, inner self.
Next, the body relaxes and innately balances itself, returning once again to homeostasis. Due to the recent cellular shift, many clients realize that the homeostasis they return to is now at a higher level than before their session.
Wave Work can teach us how to provide ourselves with the container to be in the moment with our feelings, no matter how major or minor they may be. Using a trusted practitioner to provide a safe container for feelings and experiences is extremely helpful.
