The Polarity Practitioner
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
It takes 700 hours to become a practitioner and the reading materials are very layered, requiring time to simmer. The polarity practitioner holds a safe and sacred healing place for the client who is soothed, and able to experience a full range of emotions in a supportive, nurturing environment. Sometimes that safe place is all that is needed for the client to address his/her issues. What is unique about polarity is that it can be tailored to individual sessions, according to client needs. Through simple diagnostic tools, like pulse reading and body mechanics, we are able to treat energy flows. It is only because Stone was able to map these predictable energy patterns around and through the human form, that we are able to access these personal energy flows. Creating balance, for greater health and harmony is the main goal of the polarity practitioner.
A typical session lasts between 60-90 minutes. An individual benefits from hands-on work and postures through quality of movement, touch, environment and energy. The focus here is on hands-on work by a practitioner on the client as a joint effort. The more relaxed and receptive the hands of the therapist are to take energy in, the more inclined is the therapist to help the client to help themselves.
The position of the therapists’ hands is important in every healing position assumed. The positive, negative and neutral poles of the client must also align with the practitioner’s own positive and negative energies. This understanding, along with compassion, is essential for this work to be truly effective. When compassion and true understanding meet in the heart and hands of a trained polarity therapist, magic can and does happen.
Learning how energy moves, keeps it moving, and how it is digested and processed, as quick shifts take place in mood and polarity, are key observations. Healing consists of coming into alignment, into 'right relationship', and once that place is found, things open up effortlessly.
Therapist-client boundaries may be flexible or non-negotiable and may be about safety, health, or time. There is a need to run self-checks before entering into relationship with a client, to better discern individual boundaries. A self-check might include the therapist closing his/her eyes, and connecting with felt sensations and breath grounding first before any client contact.
Guidelines
Following are guidelines for the therapist when interacting with a client during a session:
In making contact with the client, receive energy before palpating by simply bringing awareness to the client's energy field. Create and recite a brief prayer of intention within as the therapist before entering the client space. For example, “I'm here between Heaven and Earth to be with (client's name) for the highest good of us all.” The therapist acknowledges to the client, “I am entering your space now.”
There is no intention of healing the other, only taking in energy, and allowing it to flow.
Once the therapist enters into relationship, it is critical to find out where the client is at in his or her life. Find out what the client wants to heal. Usually, a conversation will take place prior to entering into the client's energy field and applying hands-on work. This dialogue reflects a possible mirror where subtle shifts will already begin taking place before any hands-on work.
Rubbing the hands together to generate heat and energy is an excellent technique to use at the start of a session. The hand has thousands of nerve endings, and is very sensitive to contacting and experiencing energy fields.
The therapist honors and feels the energy field to find where to stand and recognizes the distinct boundaries between what is hers and the client's experience, which will more than likely be two very different view points. Layers of resistance are sensed and felt, where moments are taken to stop and share verbally what is going on for the client and/or therapist in that moment. Sometimes the therapist cannot touch the client until the boundary of space is negotiated.
The energy is held in a way that creates a container and shapes the space. I have felt this many times and it is an awesome feeling in particular, in relation with another, by being the client or the practitioner. In demonstrating, the therapist walks around the client's body while she or he is laying on the table, and runs his or her hands over the client's body to sense and feel the energy field. This is a first step in locating a point of entry to “hook up” to the client and begin the poses, holds, and physical interaction through touch and energy shifts.
Often, the therapist will describe and mirror back sensations, temperature, colors, images, words, phrasings, metaphors, impressions, texture, energy flow, and movement of energy as questions posed to the client in non-attached statements that may or may not resonate for the client.
Everything is client-referred, and the client is continually asked questions posed by the therapist: “Are you sensing anything?” “What is your experience now?” “Where do you feel something in your body?” “Are you making any connections?”
The pair is in consistent communication by touch and energy, even through silences.
The wisdom is inside the individual, and energy responds to this wisdom.
During a session, it is crucial for the therapist's awareness to balance his or her own issues, supporting personal internal shifts, as well as the client’s. For example, the use of metaphor connects the body area to the client, and opens up the somatic layers. In closing and leaving the client's energy field and space, a communication to the client prior to leaving is imperative by the therapist saying something similar to “I'm going to come out of your space now, and from the periphery to say to oneself as the therapist “thank you for the process and energies around” to close out the client-therapist container and come into your own intentional space.
Sometimes emotions come up, and the therapist needs to be attentive, and ready to be with them without any agenda, reflecting back to the client what is perceived. It is crucial to repeat what is said by the client so that the therapist hears it exactly for possible correction and keeping awareness heightened. It is a very unique experience to hear what one has said because we don't go through life hearing feedback very often, and this alone shifts energy, specifically when a theme is repeated during a session. Emotion has qualities in our energy bodies where stuck things are held. Creating more space within the Self in larger ways gets these areas moving again, breaks up the stagnant into being fluid and vital. Sounding is another tool that opens and releases energy by encouraging the client to take a deep breath with the therapist and releasing sound with the exhale and a possible sigh. This brings different things to people, at times relief and release of energy. Overall, there is not much coaxing of energy, only the receiving, other than in perhaps rajasic touch. Again, the energy is directed by client-reference, when asked to reflect on what is felt and sensed and to repeat “what is that?” In Polarity Therapy, it is imperative to let the session be an experience of “being present with” the client. What the therapist experiences is different from the client's perspective and this is okay.
Training And Centers
The National Polarity Therapy Association (NPTA) has registered Polarity Therapy Centers throughout the USA. There are training intensives in locations such as Hawaii and Costa Rica, some are three week excursions. These increase hours toward licensure for the 700 hours required.
There are also many local teachers facilitating classes and workshops all over the country. Check with your local papers, newsletters and metaphysical centers to find out about your local Polarity Therapy teachers and practitioners.