A Welcome Touch
Talk-and-touch techniques help the mind heal the body.
Kim Bull lies back on a massage table while Gilly Thomas gently runs her fingers down the length of his right arm.
Thomas, a Certified Rubenfeld Synergist, observes that Bull's right shoulder is tightening into a hard round knot. In a voice a soothing as her touch, she asks her client how it feels.
Bull, the owner of a renovation company, says it's as if he's trapped a ball between is head and his shoulder, and that to keep it there he has to scrunch up his whole body. His right arm, the one with the Harley-Davidson tattoo, is stiffening up.
Thomas then uses a series of talk-and-touch techniques to help Bull let go of this imaginary ball and find a way to release the tension from his shoulder.
Partway through the exercise he's starting to feel different, if not better. "My whole body feels really loose and floppy except for my right arm," he says. "It feels like a piece of wood."
Rubenfeld Synergy, created by orchestra conductor Ilana Rubenfeld in the '60's integrates bodywork, intuition and psychotherapy. Synergists use talk, movement, awareness, imagination, humour and touch to give clients relief from physical and emotional pain. They aim to teach their clients how to heal themselves.
"It's very much at the cutting edge of body-mind work," Rubenfeld, a lifetime New Yorker until January, says from her new home in Ashland, Oregon.
"It's also not threatening; there's so much care in it and people have taken to that very much, they feel it. There's a he artfulness in it, a compassion and a heartfulness that many people are yearning for."
Thomas, who has completed four years of training under Rubenfeld, lives and works mainly in Jasper, but also sees clients in Calgary and in Sherwood Park, where she works out of Tri-Essence Massage and Wholistic Centre once a month.
"People come to see me generally because they are in some kind of physical or emotional pain," Thomas says. "They don't deliberately put themselves in a position of pain. It's just once they get there, they don't know how to get out of it, and they are not even aware of all the things that are contributing to it. This work, very gently, helps people find a comfortable place to be."
Before she discovered her desire to become a Synergist, Thomas was unconsciously heading towards it. She had been a student nurse and a schoolteacher. She had earned degrees in both education and psychology. "I would say I was a seeker," she says. "It was like I was always looking for something that would integrate the intelligence of the mind with something more, something that was carried in people's bodies."
After investigating several methods of talk/touch therapy, Thomas decided on Rubenfeld Synergy. She trained under Ilana Rubenfeld, visiting New York three times a year over four years, graduating in October 2000.
Rubenfeld Synergy sessions are usually 50 minutes in length. Clients lie on a massage table, sit in a chair, stand up or move around the room. It's their choice.
Thomas encourages them to talk about what's on their minds while she cradles their head in her hands, or gently rubs their feet.
'When I put my hands on somebody I may be aware of an emotion like joy or sadness or anger," she says. "And that could either come through the physical contact or the verbal message because I'm listening with my ears, as well.
"I listen to the congruence between what is said and the body message. By brining somebody's awareness to what their body is saying, it brings their unconscious awareness to a level of awareness and then they can choose what they are going to do. If you are not aware that you are really unhappy, then you can't change it."
She says it's not uncommon for clients to tap into deep wells of feelings under her guidance. As in psychological counseling, there may be tears or outbursts of anger.
"It's a very gentle touch, and it allows people to access emotions. I've had it said it's like when you were an infant, and you had a mother who cared about you. It can take people back to that place, and sometimes people might not have felt that since their mother held them like that."
When his session ends, Bull slowly gets back on his feet. He's "buzzing" with an unexpected lightness, a feeling that he's deeply relaxed, at peace, yet full of energy.
"It's amazing how communication opens up when somebody touches you," he tells Thomas.
"This is a welcome touch."
For more information about Rubenfeld Synergy, try these resources: The Listening Hand: Self Healing Through the Rubenfeld Synergy Method of Talk and Touch, by Ilana Rubenfeld
Go to www.rubenfeldsynergy.com for more background or to contact synergists in Canada or the United States.
by David Howell Journal Staff Writer Sherwood Park
EDMONTON JOURNAL Monday, October 15, 2001
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