Your Healing Journey

This is a special interview with Gabrielle Walker, a healing artist who practices Māori healing. Candice and Gabrielle talk about the difference between Reiki and RomiRomi, how to connect with your intuition, and rising through your own personal healing journey. They also touch on using healing with coaching to help you move forward in a healthier way and share some healing modalities that work best for them.

Trigger warning: This podcast does contain a conversation about miscarriage.

Please note: This talk may contain explicit language.

Reviews

I tend to get a bit verbose when excited, but I am going to try and sum this up as best I can in brief -
This was a great, honest, REAL sort of interview. I was interested initially because I spent some time a number of years ago in New Zealand and Australia, and had the wonderful honor of the ability to spend time in both countries with the native people there.

In New Zealand, we were guests at a hangi (which in my reading on culture and religion and such before and after our trip, I knew was a more watered down touristy version...powerful nonetheless) and watching the haka gave me chills and goosebumps. I have a few YouTube videos of the haka being done in a few situations, and it never fails to elicit that reaction. The one of the schoolboys doing the haka as a farewell to their beloved teacher as the hearse passed them and left the school grounds also added a level of viscerality that had me crying and my heart hurting.

In Australia, I was able to do a sunrise hot air balloon trip over the Outback, watching the brumbies and kangaroos waking up below us as the sun rose over the horizon. Later that trip, we went to Uluru, where I did not climb, but circumnavigated the entire base and had an incredibly momentous spiritual experience. The elders nearby noticed; I had asked them earlier about some elements of the Dreaming I did not yet understand, and they had told me it could not be explained, only experienced. I experienced it, and after my return, we talked long into the night around the campfire. In the morning, I was gifted with one of their spirit paintings, the dots all forming a unique image I was given. I don't know that it was truly unique, but it felt that way to me, so I accept it as such. The artist named the piece "Woman's Ceremony" and when I returned to the US, I framed it. It has been on my wall in every home I have had since then, in a place where I see it and have time to look at it and reflect every day.

In the description for this interview, the mention of the Maori healing technique, then the compare/contrast to Reiki was of great interest. I have been contemplating studying Reiki but it has not felt right for me at this time. I also knew little of that aspect of Maori culture, and wanted to know more.

I learned quite a bit, and am grateful for that knowledge. I felt deep in my spirit the essence of the sensation when the haka was mentioned, and knew immediately just how powerful the healing modality could then be.

But the thing that rocked me back on my heels and had me pause the playback was, oddly enough, not really related to any of this except tangentially. I am a person on the autism spectrum ("the diagnosis formerly known as Asperger's," I like to joke), and am also a graduate level mental health and disability service professional working in vocational rehabilitation for over 20 years or so. It has always been a bit frustrating to me that I can help others sort out how they are feeling and how to respond/express themselves, but I can't seem to apply this effectively to myself. I studied the body-centered modalities in counseling a lot while in grad school, Hakomi being a favorite, and I have been doing accupressure and EFT (tapping) for a few years with slow but detectable progress. Still not sure of how to process emotions though, or identify them, etc.

I realized about 5 months ago, after a series of three daily deaths and the death of my workplace secretary all within about 16 months, that I was going back to basics. I was listening to my body and simply letting myself feel "good" or feel "bad" while not attempting to label the feeling. I am hyperaware of my bodily states at most times due to a number of medical conditions I must manage daily, many of which can change for no obvious reason at any time and with varying severity. So I was familiar already with the sensations but could not seem to link them to my mind and the emotions being expressed within the body.

In some of the crisis work I have done, and also with my clients, I use an example from the movie, "The Runaway Bride" with Julia Roberts. I have only seen it a few times, years ago, but one scene was extremely powerful to me and has been useful over the years in my work with others. Julia Roberta's character has been a relationship chameleon, and she had list sense if who she was inside. She would order whatever her boyfriend/latest fiance was having to ensure compatibility, but somewhere along the line, she lost her own knowledge of her personal preferences as a result. The scene I use it towards the end. She has been asked what kind of eggs she liked. (Scrambled, hard boiled, fried, sunny-side-up, etc.) She didn't know. And so she set out to find out who she was again - starting with how she liked her eggs. Towards the end, she is with the person who asked her that, at a restaurant. She smiles, and orders eggs with confidence, then looks at her dining partner and states the way she likes her eggs.

A very simple, easily relatable moment. It works for so many. It half-worked for me too, only I had trouble figuring out to I knew what my preferences were.

And here we arrive at this talk/interview. Key takeaway for me - listen to my body. Relate it to things I already know the answer to. THAT is the master key right there, for me. I have tried this in novel situations, but not in my daily known situations. I know what feels good and what doesn't. I know what I like and what I don't like. Now I can combine the two and see where they align, where they conflict (noting and setting it aside for later exploration), but essentially building a catalogue of dictionary of physical sensation and known emotional reactions to my current environment, which can then be consulted in new ones to help me identify how I feel and how to best honor that feeling.

This was that missing link for me, and it hit me with tremendous force. I paused the playback for about ten minutes while I processed this and let it settle in before I resumed the playback. It is such a gift and I can now offer this insight to my clients as well as using it for my own self.

I seem to have fallen short in the "keeping it concise" department. LOL I felt strongly about this, though, and felt led to provide this information as an expression of my gratitude and how deeply it has affected me both now and in the time ahead of me in my life journey.

Thank you both, so very much, for sharing this wonderful gift of this interview with us here in the Insight Timer community. I see you and the light within you both. Thank you again. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻