Year: 2010

Why Energy Matters – Training for Spa & Massage Therapists

Why Energy Matters?

E = MC2 and The Spa
As the Spa community looks towards a more holistic approach to client service while meeting client expectations; I invite you to explore the following seemingly not connected yet very connected worlds of quantum physics, energy medicine, practitioner self care and ordinary everyday energetic interactions between people. Energy is around us all the time.  As human beings we possess consciousness and the ability to express emotions. E-motions can be best described as energy in motion. Suppression of strong emotion can result in illness, just as expression of emotion can aid recovery. Knowledge of and conscious connection with our emotions and energy, point the way to self-mastery.
Exploring Zen
Zen or other meditative Spa practices are not uncommon within the Spa experience. However the view of many people is that such practices can only be understood and applied by those who have been involved in rigorous spiritual practice, that is regular meditators or spiritual devotees. For a moment think about the qualities for which Zen is known. Perhaps you have had a direct experience, observed someone practising Tai Chi or you may have seen a martial arts approach to life and being at the movies, such as Quentin Tarantino’s Hero with Jet Li. A few words that describe the Zen experience might be that you notice focus, flexibility yet containment, mindfulness, serenity, a feeling of altered time and space and empowered presence. What we can both see and sense is that a Zen practitioner or martial artist can demonstrate in a tangible form, their ability to be masters of their own energy. How and by what means are these qualities achieved? How can we, who have not dedicated our lives to a spiritual practise of Zen or martial arts, understand, learn from and apply some of this information to enhance the delivery of Spa care for our selves and our clients? Firstly let us think about simple ways that we might become more aware of how we use and direct our personal energy at work in the Spa and in other dimensions of our life.
Being a student of Tai Chi for the past 32 years has allowed me to deeply experience and become familiar with my energy system. As my understanding increased, I realised that there were many ways to provide my clients and students with small “taster exercises” using some universal but key principals that I had learned from martial arts. When I began teaching this way I found that once they knew in what direction they were looking, for example what being present actually felt like even for a brief moment; that their lives moved forward in positive ways. Change became a more easeful quest of discovery of their inner being, as once they had some awareness of how they used their energy, and had some direction; they were on their path of learning to master our own energies. When we become aware and understand why energy matters, we also recognise and appreciate the essential nature of self-care for all who practise hands-on therapies. In this context, self-care can be defined by all that we do for our selves to nourish our inner life or soul.
How we perceive energy in everyday living
Have you ever been invited to dinner and the couple have just had an argument, but pretend that everything is fine? Most people can sense that something is not right. There is something that resonates in your body that gives you information. Have you ever had the experience that someone is watching you, or if you are being followed by someone with ill intent? Have you ever had a gut feeling and found out that later you were correct even if you didn’t act upon the information? We now know that the brain actually does talk to the gut. There are receptors in the stomach that have a chemical relationship with substances put into circulation from our limbic (emotional) brain. We don’t always need our eyes to see and interpret information; our spine or our skin can act as a sensor in our environment and feedback information. The mechanism at play here is understood to be an extension of our nervous system including of course our brain. The appearance and fluctuations in our body’s energy has been able to be recorded in many ways and is well understood in practises such as acupuncture.
At least fifty per cent of people who come to my workshops ask about the necessity of religious/spiritual leanings when learning and applying “energy work” in the Spa or massage room.  Energy or vibrational medicine has been typecast as either deeply spiritual or a New Age philosophy, but these principals were known to ancient peoples and there is nothing new or wildly esoteric, only the names we call it. The human energy system is a natural phenomenon. Every day we notice energy and its movement or lack of it; ambience in a room, whether people around us are peaceful, sad, grieving, angry etc. States of feeling or emotion generate qualities of atmosphere that we automatically read and interpret. Intuition, gut feeling and sensing are all associated with how we read and interpret energy! Most of us innately possess these skills and in days passed, skills such as these would have been necessary for survival. Some have learned to develop their sensing skills more than others. Can it be taught? Absolutely. Does it have a place in Spa therapy? Absolutely!
The Spa Environment – the materials
A great deal of money and effort goes into Spa location, design, colour, building materials, equipment, fixtures Spa menus and ambience. All this helps to create a certain feel or emotional “space” for a client who enters the Spa. These aspects are quantifiable achievable and important in helping to create atmosphere.
The Spa In-vironment – the people
People are not so easily quantified. The first point of contact by phone or at reception is where a treatment begins, even though this person may not be involved directly, they set an important tone. The next contact is with a therapist who delivers a particular method or technique to the client. When a therapist is trained in not only technique but also how to deliver that technique or method; they are adding their energy to the experience. What makes a difference? Is the therapist present to the client or thinking about what they will do after work? The latter will be noticeable by the quality of their touch! Have they had an argument with a loved one or colleague that morning and are they taking that energy to the therapy room? Are they mindful and focused about how they are using their energy and intention? Are they taking short breaks between clients to recharge, centre and focus before the next client? Are they consciously in charge of their own energy? All of this and more will affect the quality and experience of a massage by both the client and the therapist. Importantly, when a therapist is not present to the client, there can be an unhealthy exchange of energy that can leave the therapist or client fatigued and vulnerable. To conserve energy it is important to be aware of your posture while delivering a treatment – to have a table at the correct height for your size, and to use smooth and flowing movements. Seemingly small tips but they will help to contain the integrity of your energy throughout the day. When you know your own energy, you know how to care for it.
A therapist can take away a clients pain. The client feels relief but the therapist can feel drained and can acquire the pain. Lack of attention and awareness to self-care factors may be why so many people in healing professions become ill.
Importantly therefore, this is why energy matters, particularly where we are practising hands-on therapies.
I studied sciences all through school after being inspired when I was eight years old by a man called Professor Julius Sumner Miller. His science television program was titled “Why is it so? He had a huge influence on my life and I have never stopped asking that question!  So when my own interest in this area was inspired by seeing and feeling first hand the power of psychic healers in The Philippines during the seventies, instead of saying this cannot be possible, I asked why and how can this happen? I have spent my life so far exploring what this all means in terms of how we exchange energy in any hands-on therapy and indeed, life! I encourage you to practise your life and work consciously with awareness and presence. The quantum physicists are now saying that consciousness is ultimately tied up with quantum processes i.e. how atoms behave. Perhaps this holds the key to why energy matters?
Benefits of knowing and understanding your energy
• Self care – avoid burnout
• Encourages work-life balance
• Knowing how to create healthy boundaries
• Increased awareness
• Not taking home some of the clients energy and vice-versa
• Adopting postures that enhance the delivery of your energy
• Avoid fatigue
• Adds a new dimension to your work and helps you to practise what you preach
• Enables you to develop personal presence
• Nourishes, inspires and uplifts consciousness

Grace Gawler is an Australian natural therapist, author, naturopathic philosopher, motivational speaker and healer and has developed training courses in energetic & vibrational medicine GEM (Grace Energy Method). She is founder of The Australian College of Supportive Medicine and in8potential – Based in Queensland with an international focus.

G.E.M for Client Care
The G.E.M approach is directed at re-educating and re-connecting a client with their body, in particular bringing awareness to how the effects of chronic stress have shaped their body – what we term, emotional anatomy. Chronic stress causes holding patterns of tension; the body tightens and narrows and a state of chronic resistance is created. The muscles, ligaments and tendons are pulled out of shape and symetry. Habitual response patterns are sculpted and molded. The client often believes that this is the way they are-the way they have been created! However, when they experience G.E.M touch; they can experience a profound letting go, the beginning of a process that re-sculpts and shifts tension and resistance long after a session has concluded. It is as if they have a “new” body!

G.E.M in Brief
Grace Gawler is the Founder of G.E.M (Grace Energy Method). G.E.M as a healing method, is the distillation and product of Grace’s full and eventful life, in particular 30 + years experience as a healer/therapist. G.E.M was named by one of her trainers and mentors; America’s Doyenne of Body-Psychotherapy; Dr Ilana Rubenfeld – Rubenfeld Synergy Method (RSM). Dr Rubenfeld had trained with the 20th century’s leaders in psychotherapy and bodywork. Synergising their wisdoms, she then led the way, creating a seamless method of talk/touch therapy. Dr Rubenfeld recognised the unique qualities that Grace brought to the RSM training and encouraged her to follow through and develop her own Training Method. G.E.M was born!

The body holds our truth. G.E.M is the key – the missing link for those who want to learn how to relax or meditate. Those who find that they are easily distracted or who are frustrated by attempts to meditate will find G.E.M to be an exceptional experience. G.E.M is the true application of mind-body medicine.

This G.E.M therapeutic change is facilitated by the use of non-intentional touch – known as the G.E.M touch. The method induces a profound and ongoing internal change in musculature and therefore posture. The result is enhanced awareness and re-embodiment. The practise is safe and non-cathartic, yet helps the client move towards their healing in a gentle manner whereby they can safely process unexpressed emotional material.

*To register and pay for all G.E.M trainings please visit www.gracegawler.com

G.E.M for Practitioner Self-Care

G.E.M – enables the practitioner to be involved in their own self-care while helping the client to be empowered and in charge of their therapeutic process. GEM reflects a method of understanding; how we as practitioners and how we can best use our energies in relation to our selves and our clients. This is experienced by way of increased awareness, our own embodiment, effective boundaries etc – in other words by ‘being’ our self-care throughout the working day. G.E.M promotes wellness in the workplace and the practise eliminates practitioner burnout and fatigue.

BENEFITS AND APPLICATIONS OF GEM

G.E.M is an approach to life that when practised and embodied will avoid burnout, improve relationship with self and others, increase awareness of self-care and boost immunity and health in general G.E.M is shared by way of experiential as well as integrated learning techniques. Incorporating G.E.M into your practice and life will deliver the following benefits

1.Increased awareness of boundaries of self and clients
2.G.E.M is a method that helps you identify personal stressors and provides methods to reframe; leading to increaded resilience.
3 Learn more about your personal response to stress. How stress impacts you and your client with regards to transference
4 Increased awareness of body language of self and others and its influence
5.Your abilities to sense using your hands will increase, as will intuition and perception
6 Understand emotional anatomy
7. Learn how to be present, mindful, aware and yet relaxed and be able to take G.E.M principles into your everyday life. Making the mind – body – emotional connection a reality
8.Become resilient to negative influences through choice rather than denial
9.Learn to relax effectively so that relaxation filters into your everyday day life

_______________________________________________________________________________________

More about G.E.M

Grace Energy Method (G.E.M) practitioners are catalysts for change; witnesses who provide experiential opportunities for people to develop deep levels of personal awareness and mindfulness and therefore be in charge of change. It is dfferent from many healing methods that have intention to heal or fix. It differs from Reiki and other forms of energetic healing. To practise GEM, practitioners need to BYPASS TECHNIQUES – so that the client is totally empowered to do what they need to do without interference. How can practitioners incorporate GEM? Practitioners do not need to change their modality of practise; they may however develop a deeper understanding of their current modality(s). Practitioners become sensitive to when a client will benefit from GEM or a combination. This is discussed in detail in all GEM courses.

Many people struggle to embody significant changes on their own. There can be no real change without personal awareness. The role of GEM practitioners is to be present; to witness a client’s therapeutic change induced by safe and non-intentional touch. Language used during this process is invitational and subtle, reinforcing what is right with someone rather than what is wrong with them. The practitioner is a catalyst for client induced healing.

A G.E.M practitioner observes a person’s emotional anatomy with wonderment and interest. They observe energy or “life story” stored in muscles as muscle cell memory without the desire to change or fix what they see. That is up to the client!
Changes can occur by the subtle invitation of safe non-intentional touch by the practitioner who subtly invites release of, for example stress frozen in muscle memory in a client’s shoulder. The energetic space surrounding the shoulder is like a blueprint, a map that instinctively knows where a shoulder would naturally be without the contraction of the energy-life story.

When held in a place of contraction and resistance for many years, a holding pattern becomes habitual and the shape of the clients shoulder begins to morph and change shape in response to the captured energy. Non-intentional safe touch invites and allows expansion and a welcoming release of cell muscle memory. The method is safe, non-confrontational and non-cathartic and relies upon the implicit knowledge that the body knows how to self correct when given the right environment.

The change tends to be ongoing and is sustainable to the extent that self touch by the client in the future, will allow the process of expansion to be experienced at a deeper and deeper level. This is very empowering for the client and shows them how to use and trust their own resources. Using only the mind to invite change is only one part of the puzzle if we don’t include memories stored in the body, healing is not holistic. GEM has been termed a holographic method of healing on all levels of our being.

G.E.M for Client Care
The G.E.M approach is directed at re-educating and re-connecting a client with their body, in particular bringing awareness to how the effects of chronic stress have shaped their body – what we term, emotional anatomy. Chronic stress causes holding patterns of tension; the body tightens and narrows and a state of chronic resistance is created. The muscles, ligaments and tendons are pulled out of shape and symetry. Habitual response patterns are sculpted and molded. The client often believes that this is the way they are-the way they have been created! However, when they experience G.E.M touch; they can experience a profound letting go, the beginning of a process that re-sculpts and shifts tension and resistance long after a session has concluded. It is as if they have a “new” body!

G.E.M in Brief
Grace Gawler is the Founder of G.E.M (Grace Energy Method). G.E.M as a healing method, is the distillation and product of Grace’s full and eventful life, in particular 30 + years experience as a healer/therapist. G.E.M was named by one of her trainers and mentors; America’s Doyenne of Body-Psychotherapy; Dr Ilana Rubenfeld – Rubenfeld Synergy Method (RSM). Dr Rubenfeld had trained with the 20th century’s leaders in psychotherapy and bodywork. Synergising their wisdoms, she then led the way, creating a seamless method of talk/touch therapy. Dr Rubenfeld recognised the unique qualities that Grace brought to the RSM training and encouraged her to follow through and develop her own Training Method. G.E.M was born!

The body holds our truth. G.E.M is the key – the missing link for those who want to learn how to relax or meditate. Those who find that they are easily distracted or who are frustrated by attempts to meditate will find G.E.M to be an exceptional experience. G.E.M is the true application of mind-body medicine.

This G.E.M therapeutic change is facilitated by the use of non-intentional touch – known as the G.E.M touch. The method induces a profound and ongoing internal change in musculature and therefore posture. The result is enhanced awareness and re-embodiment. The practise is safe and non-cathartic, yet helps the client move towards their healing in a gentle manner whereby they can safely process unexpressed emotional material.

*To register and pay for all G.E.M trainings please visit www.gracegawler.com

G.E.M for Practitioner Self-Care

G.E.M – enables the practitioner to be involved in their own self-care while helping the client to be empowered and in charge of their therapeutic process. GEM reflects a method of understanding; how we as practitioners and how we can best use our energies in relation to our selves and our clients. This is experienced by way of increased awareness, our own embodiment, effective boundaries etc – in other words by ‘being’ our self-care throughout the working day. G.E.M promotes wellness in the workplace and the practise eliminates practitioner burnout and fatigue.

BENEFITS AND APPLICATIONS OF GEM

G.E.M is an approach to life that when practised and embodied will avoid burnout, improve relationship with self and others, increase awareness of self-care and boost immunity and health in general G.E.M is shared by way of experiential as well as integrated learning techniques. Incorporating G.E.M into your practice and life will deliver the following benefits

1.Increased awareness of boundaries of self and clients
2.G.E.M is a method that helps you identify personal stressors and provides methods to reframe; leading to increaded resilience.
3 Learn more about your personal response to stress. How stress impacts you and your client with regards to transference
4 Increased awareness of body language of self and others and its influence
5.Your abilities to sense using your hands will increase, as will intuition and perception
6 Understand emotional anatomy
7. Learn how to be present, mindful, aware and yet relaxed and be able to take G.E.M principles into your everyday life. Making the mind – body – emotional connection a reality
8.Become resilient to negative influences through choice rather than denial
9.Learn to relax effectively so that relaxation filters into your everyday day life

_______________________________________________________________________________________

More about G.E.M

Grace Energy Method (G.E.M) practitioners are catalysts for change; witnesses who provide experiential opportunities for people to develop deep levels of personal awareness and mindfulness and therefore be in charge of change. It is dfferent from many healing methods that have intention to heal or fix. It differs from Reiki and other forms of energetic healing. To practise GEM, practitioners need to BYPASS TECHNIQUES – so that the client is totally empowered to do what they need to do without interference. How can practitioners incorporate GEM? Practitioners do not need to change their modality of practise; they may however develop a deeper understanding of their current modality(s). Practitioners become sensitive to when a client will benefit from GEM or a combination. This is discussed in detail in all GEM courses.

Many people struggle to embody significant changes on their own. There can be no real change without personal awareness. The role of GEM practitioners is to be present; to witness a client’s therapeutic change induced by safe and non-intentional touch. Language used during this process is invitational and subtle, reinforcing what is right with someone rather than what is wrong with them. The practitioner is a catalyst for client induced healing.

A G.E.M practitioner observes a person’s emotional anatomy with wonderment and interest. They observe energy or “life story” stored in muscles as muscle cell memory without the desire to change or fix what they see. That is up to the client!
Changes can occur by the subtle invitation of safe non-intentional touch by the practitioner who subtly invites release of, for example stress frozen in muscle memory in a client’s shoulder. The energetic space surrounding the shoulder is like a blueprint, a map that instinctively knows where a shoulder would naturally be without the contraction of the energy-life story.

When held in a place of contraction and resistance for many years, a holding pattern becomes habitual and the shape of the clients shoulder begins to morph and change shape in response to the captured energy. Non-intentional safe touch invites and allows expansion and a welcoming release of cell muscle memory. The method is safe, non-confrontational and non-cathartic and relies upon the implicit knowledge that the body knows how to self correct when given the right environment.

The change tends to be ongoing and is sustainable to the extent that self touch by the client in the future, will allow the process of expansion to be experienced at a deeper and deeper level. This is very empowering for the client and shows them how to use and trust their own resources. Using only the mind to invite change is only one part of the puzzle if we don’t include memories stored in the body, healing is not holistic. GEM has been termed a holographic method of healing on all levels of our being.

The GEM Method – A New Perspective On Wellbeing – Longer Explanation

GEM as a name for my approach, was suggested to me by my colleague, mentor and friend Ilana Rubenfeld, founder of The Rubenfeld Synergy Method TM USA. RSM as it is known is an incredibly elegant, sophisticated and profound body orientated psychotherapy method. So smooth, flowing and skilful it can be likened to a martial arts experience, a dance of energy between client and therapist.
With aspects of Rubenfeld included, my own brand of healing was taking shape over a thirty-year plus period, and like Ilana’s method, there was a distinct synergy that had evolved.  Although I drew upon technique and wisdom from a vast range of experience and practiced therapies, the key aspects that made it so individual and unique, was my own life learning; particularly my time spent as a patient. Also, like RSM, the sum total of these therapies was so much more than all the components.

GEM was born. A new name, but the methods are based on age-old healing concepts put together in a unique body-mind format. Essentially the method and way of practice begin first and foremost with the self i.e. with the practitioner, who in turn, can then educate the client. Many years have been invested in the exploration of my approach. There was much to learn and many complexities to know – The end product however is like a distillation process – where what has resulted is profound and relatively simple. I now specialize in training others in this method.
Indeed it was the wise Hippocrates who said “Physician heal thy self.” GEM approach is a catalyst that provides a ‘wake up call’ to live our lives consciously. However, in order to do that we need to be in touch and connected with our bodies and understand and acknowledge our feelings or emotions.
Horses as teachers – My next learning came when I decided to study dressage. I had begun riding horses when I was five years and about that same time I became a vegetarian. Horses and the co ordination and rhythm of my body with the horse’s body, became a fascination and, provided me with a tremendous learning curve in body awareness as well as the power of subtle communication. I then studied and practiced the martial art of riding dressage and horsemanship. I learned all that I could and experienced many ecstatic moments where horse and rider became one – meditation on horseback and what I now term “The Torvill and Dean” experience! Later I identified this experience with what Ilana Rubenfeld was teaching with therapist and client at the massage table.
My Introduction to “Healing Hands”
Having spent six months with Filipino psychic and hands-on healers in the mid seventies was a wonderful gift and introduction to this side of my work. As well I was fortunate enough to have a mentor who maintained my training for 2 decades after my time there. Very few people are aware that my partner Ian’s recovery from secondary cancer and his ongoing health also involved thousands of hours of hands-on healing, a process I continued long after we left The Philippines.
Meditation entered my life while in the Philippines and for many years I learned and practised with many masters around the world. It was effective to a certain degree but what I felt was lacking, was the assistance, the “how to do ” that could give me a direct experience of what I was looking for. I wanted someone to teach me meditation the same way I had been taught dressage.  I wanted to find that unifying feeling, but the experience was elusive. It was like someone trying to tell me what a banana tasted like if I had never tasted one.

I realised that as a healthy person, I could afford to take 14 years to experiment; but for people whose life was depending upon it, the practise and “getting it right” often became a huge stress in itself and I saw so many get frustrated, declaring the practice to be too hard. Frequently people became stressed try to get unstressed! I realised that this was the huge gap in teaching many so-called mind – body techniques.Attention was given either to the mind or to the body as if they were totally separate and emotions were completely left out of the picture.
Making the Connection – The Beginning of GEM.

It is not only our genes that create us; but it is our life stories that significantly help to shape us as people, this includes the shape of our bodies. It came as a revelation to me that when we “touch” a client, we are touching their story. In my early days of practice I listened only with my ears to many stories but as my methods evolved it became obvious to me that working with the “mind-story” was not enough. Effective change occurred with talk and touch, and that we could “listen” with our hands as well as our ears. I postulated that a person’s response to life could indeed create a “story” in their body that reflected in musculature, body language, posture, how they breathed and many other signs. There were bodies that “held on” and bodies that could “let go” muscularly speaking. I discovered that talking a client through a guided meditation using simultaneous “safe” touch; could make a significant difference to the shape of a their shoulder and affect a sustained release. Such was my personal “ah ha” and the beginning of my understanding of emotional anatomy.

GEM -How it can help with Meditation and Relaxation.
It became clear many years ago that clients didn’t know what they were supposed to feel or experience during a meditation/relaxation session. I observed rooms full of physically tense bodies, people “thinking” they were relaxed; as well as tired folk who snored at various levels of decibels!! People just spaced out instead of spacing in! So I decided to study ways of providing simple exercises that would give them an experience, a taste of this elusive state that everyone was seeking; but didn’t know where or how to find!  Then they would have direction and a sense of what state they were wanting to achieve What GEM can help you to do is meditate in your body – not just in your head. As well it can demonstrate how to effectively use imagery and visualisation methods in your body – not just pictorial mind games. Imagery and relaxation in the body help you to be present, mindful and to heal. GEM teaches a very different approach to self-care and self-development, providing a pathway to a ZEN type experience so that whatever therapy you practice, it can become your Martial Art – your own experience that you deliver to the massage table with each client, whatever your modality.
GEM is a method of understanding how we can best use our energies in everyday life, especially with relation to effective boundaries and emotional health. I believe that as an integrated method, it provides the fundamental foundation for anyone interested in the effective application of wholistic healing or mind-body-emotion medicine. GEM can also be a catalyst to help open up an authentic pathway to the soul. The method focuses on how to create healthy boundaries, prevention of practitioner fatigue and burnout. The approach not only talks about mindfulness, focusing, intention, clarity, presence, grounding, practices of embodiment, developing awareness and self-care, but actually shows you HOW to achieve these states so that your personal self-care practise and work become one. Just imagine no damage control at the end of the day. This is a win-win situation for both therapist and client. Learning this method can be achieved by using many experiential gentle but profound exercises, so that you have a taste or experience of what these experiences are and how they can be applied or put into action.

Developing a philosophy – My definition of wellbeing is a person who is living true to their innate potential – a person who has developed the ability to live life from their “changeless core.” Such a person does not resist or deny change, but chooses to yield to it, going with the flow rather than pushing the river! This attitude paradoxically, allows one to get their desired result. This is quite different to giving your power away, as you are in charge of your choice and how your river flows. These people have developed what I have termed – resilience of spirit! Following on from that thought – could we perhaps better define a well-being as a person who does not resist life? One basic understanding, there can be no real change without personal awareness. For example, if we try to change a habit because someone else tells us to, or adopt a diet because we are told it is good for us, we are accepting change externally and it is likely it won’t last very long. A healer or hands-on therapist can be a catalyst for change without trying to fix their client! GEM approach helps and educates the client to self-care and therefore they are empowered to self-heal in whatever way is appropriate for them.
When we can be involved as a whole person in the process of change i.e. mind, body & emotion; amazing behavioural shifts can occur that will be long lasting. Sometimes a client just needs this awareness and change to be effective in one major area of their life in order for change to filter through into the rest of their life. GEM is simple, profound and practical and can be learned and incorporated into any lifestyle and for any person. Once you know it – you have it for life!

One simple solution
Relate life to a bank account. If we regularly make deposits – we will have credit – if not and we keep spending, we become overdrawn and may even become bankrupt. Relate this model to our health. Imagine if you only keep depositing in your physical – external-material-world “bank account” and you make no deposits into for example, your “emotional” and “psychological bank account”, however you keep making withdrawals and no credits are deposited. To carry this analogy further, by the time most people are diagnosed with an illness or disease, they may be bankrupt in all or some of these accounts – hence energy depletion, fatigue and nothing left to withdraw from. No energy to heal.

Albert Sweitzer once said “ Disease didn’t stay with me too long, I was too inhospitable a host!” Helping clients to regularly make deposits into their “personal life” bank accounts is the role of the healer-catalyst. These “deposits” will help them to develop their personal brand of wellness. Healers who treat may show the way, even alleviate symptoms for a while; but unless clients and therapists are shown how to maintain and replenish their energies, i.e. put credit into their “Wellness bank account”, wellness and wellbeing will elude us. We will therefore be continually reliant upon someone else to make it right, to fix us, do damage control or to help us escape for some short-term relief.
Touch – During any massage treatment, hands not only touch the body, but the deeper layers of being. Shaped by intention, touch is a vehicle for the neural system of the therapist to begin a tactile dialogue with the neural system of the client throughout a session. Herein the opportunity exists for a therapist to engage in a more meaningful way, providing a gateway and connection to the soul.  In our therapy rooms we can create atmosphere, ambience and aromas to stimulate the senses but most importantly… we provide touch. “Safe touch” is a highly therapeutic tool. Babies fail to thrive without touch and can die. Touch can be the joy of intimacy – skin on skin that is a special part and bonding in human relationships. Blood pressure and heart rate decreases when patting or stroking a pet.

Touch powered with unconditional love is the most potent healer on the planet. It can change the vibration of cells and reconnect body, mind, emotion and soul. The more clear the therapist is i.e. the massage therapist who “walks their talk” practises their self-care, the greater the potential for healing and the more profound the experience will be for both. Deepak Chopra has said that a one-hour relaxation massage can produce the laboratory equivalent of $5000 worth of interferon as made by the cells of the immune system. – The immune system responds to the “power of touch”! Touch with love, presence and intention heals.
*(“Safe touch” – trust and safety must be established for a therapeutic response).

The Importance of Being Present
In order to heal you need to be present – both healer and healee. This wisdom comes from indigenous cross-cultural studies.
When using touch therapies – it is important for the therapist to be present. I have designed many training exercises around this theme. In my work and practice – my aim is to keep things simple. Wellness/wellbeing can only be experienced when we are “present” to life and when we have had the “ah ha” of personal awareness.
I hope that this article will provoke some thought and further investigation into practises of embodiment for your self and your clients.
GEM – A SUMMARY

GEM is an approach to life that when practised and embodied will avoid burnout, improve relationship with self and others, increase awareness of self-care and boost immunity and health in general. GEM is shared and taught by way of experiential as well as integrated learning techniques
Just some of the benefits
• Development of awareness of boundaries of self and others
• A method of identifying personal stressors and finding immediate solutions
• Gaining of awareness of body language of self and others and its influence
• Learn about sensing, intuition and perception.
• Learn how you personally respond to stress and how it impacts on and within your muscles – learn how to let go in a way that works for you.
• Understanding the energy of emotions and their impact on yours and others health
• Learn how to be present, mindful, aware and yet relaxed and be able to take this into your everyday life.
• Understand the basic principles of energy in self, food and environment
• Make the mind – body – emotional connection a reality
• Become resilient to negative influences through choice rather than denial.
• Learn to meditate and relax effectively so that it filters into your everyday day life.

APPLICATION – As my methods were synergizing, I found that I was able to assist a vast and different range of clientele. Those who were ill and seeking recovery, those who were well and were seeking better health and even those who were dying and wanted to optimize that experience for themselves and their families. Along the way I discovered that there is no age barrier. Children love the concepts and find the learning fun.
How the GEM approach is shared: Components of the method can be shared in a one-day workshop for anyone. These are not training courses, but are designed for giving people simple, effective and do-able tools that can be easily applied in everyday life.
I have also designed a range of corporate workshops and programs that introduce these ideas into a work environment – optimizing potential, realistically creating work-life balance, self care, preventing burnout and re engaging with personal passion.

Training – GEM approach can be shared and taught to health professionals. Particularly those who are hands-on healthcare practitioners will benefit from these training events.
Training courses can be either a one, two or three day residential format held regularly throughout the year or in a certified MASTERCLASS format 3x 5-day residential training modules held once a year in New South Wales. Over recent years, due to demand, specialized courses for Spa employees have also been designed.
For all enquiries or further information email grace@gracegawler.com
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The GEM Method – A New Perspective On Wellbeing – Longer Explanation

GEM as a name for my approach, was suggested to me by my colleague, mentor and friend Ilana Rubenfeld, founder of The Rubenfeld Synergy Method TM USA. RSM as it is known is an incredibly elegant, sophisticated and profound body orientated psychotherapy method. So smooth, flowing and skilful it can be likened to a martial arts experience, a dance of energy between client and therapist.
With aspects of Rubenfeld included, my own brand of healing was taking shape over a thirty-year plus period, and like Ilana’s method, there was a distinct synergy that had evolved.  Although I drew upon technique and wisdom from a vast range of experience and practiced therapies, the key aspects that made it so individual and unique, was my own life learning; particularly my time spent as a patient. Also, like RSM, the sum total of these therapies was so much more than all the components.

GEM was born. A new name, but the methods are based on age-old healing concepts put together in a unique body-mind format. Essentially the method and way of practice begin first and foremost with the self i.e. with the practitioner, who in turn, can then educate the client. Many years have been invested in the exploration of my approach. There was much to learn and many complexities to know – The end product however is like a distillation process – where what has resulted is profound and relatively simple. I now specialize in training others in this method.
Indeed it was the wise Hippocrates who said “Physician heal thy self.” GEM approach is a catalyst that provides a ‘wake up call’ to live our lives consciously. However, in order to do that we need to be in touch and connected with our bodies and understand and acknowledge our feelings or emotions.
Horses as teachers – My next learning came when I decided to study dressage. I had begun riding horses when I was five years and about that same time I became a vegetarian. Horses and the co ordination and rhythm of my body with the horse’s body, became a fascination and, provided me with a tremendous learning curve in body awareness as well as the power of subtle communication. I then studied and practiced the martial art of riding dressage and horsemanship. I learned all that I could and experienced many ecstatic moments where horse and rider became one – meditation on horseback and what I now term “The Torvill and Dean” experience! Later I identified this experience with what Ilana Rubenfeld was teaching with therapist and client at the massage table.
My Introduction to “Healing Hands”
Having spent six months with Filipino psychic and hands-on healers in the mid seventies was a wonderful gift and introduction to this side of my work. As well I was fortunate enough to have a mentor who maintained my training for 2 decades after my time there. Very few people are aware that my partner Ian’s recovery from secondary cancer and his ongoing health also involved thousands of hours of hands-on healing, a process I continued long after we left The Philippines.
Meditation entered my life while in the Philippines and for many years I learned and practised with many masters around the world. It was effective to a certain degree but what I felt was lacking, was the assistance, the “how to do ” that could give me a direct experience of what I was looking for. I wanted someone to teach me meditation the same way I had been taught dressage.  I wanted to find that unifying feeling, but the experience was elusive. It was like someone trying to tell me what a banana tasted like if I had never tasted one.

I realised that as a healthy person, I could afford to take 14 years to experiment; but for people whose life was depending upon it, the practise and “getting it right” often became a huge stress in itself and I saw so many get frustrated, declaring the practice to be too hard. Frequently people became stressed try to get unstressed! I realised that this was the huge gap in teaching many so-called mind – body techniques.Attention was given either to the mind or to the body as if they were totally separate and emotions were completely left out of the picture.
Making the Connection – The Beginning of GEM.

It is not only our genes that create us; but it is our life stories that significantly help to shape us as people, this includes the shape of our bodies. It came as a revelation to me that when we “touch” a client, we are touching their story. In my early days of practice I listened only with my ears to many stories but as my methods evolved it became obvious to me that working with the “mind-story” was not enough. Effective change occurred with talk and touch, and that we could “listen” with our hands as well as our ears. I postulated that a person’s response to life could indeed create a “story” in their body that reflected in musculature, body language, posture, how they breathed and many other signs. There were bodies that “held on” and bodies that could “let go” muscularly speaking. I discovered that talking a client through a guided meditation using simultaneous “safe” touch; could make a significant difference to the shape of a their shoulder and affect a sustained release. Such was my personal “ah ha” and the beginning of my understanding of emotional anatomy.

GEM -How it can help with Meditation and Relaxation.
It became clear many years ago that clients didn’t know what they were supposed to feel or experience during a meditation/relaxation session. I observed rooms full of physically tense bodies, people “thinking” they were relaxed; as well as tired folk who snored at various levels of decibels!! People just spaced out instead of spacing in! So I decided to study ways of providing simple exercises that would give them an experience, a taste of this elusive state that everyone was seeking; but didn’t know where or how to find!  Then they would have direction and a sense of what state they were wanting to achieve What GEM can help you to do is meditate in your body – not just in your head. As well it can demonstrate how to effectively use imagery and visualisation methods in your body – not just pictorial mind games. Imagery and relaxation in the body help you to be present, mindful and to heal. GEM teaches a very different approach to self-care and self-development, providing a pathway to a ZEN type experience so that whatever therapy you practice, it can become your Martial Art – your own experience that you deliver to the massage table with each client, whatever your modality.
GEM is a method of understanding how we can best use our energies in everyday life, especially with relation to effective boundaries and emotional health. I believe that as an integrated method, it provides the fundamental foundation for anyone interested in the effective application of wholistic healing or mind-body-emotion medicine. GEM can also be a catalyst to help open up an authentic pathway to the soul. The method focuses on how to create healthy boundaries, prevention of practitioner fatigue and burnout. The approach not only talks about mindfulness, focusing, intention, clarity, presence, grounding, practices of embodiment, developing awareness and self-care, but actually shows you HOW to achieve these states so that your personal self-care practise and work become one. Just imagine no damage control at the end of the day. This is a win-win situation for both therapist and client. Learning this method can be achieved by using many experiential gentle but profound exercises, so that you have a taste or experience of what these experiences are and how they can be applied or put into action.

Developing a philosophy – My definition of wellbeing is a person who is living true to their innate potential – a person who has developed the ability to live life from their “changeless core.” Such a person does not resist or deny change, but chooses to yield to it, going with the flow rather than pushing the river! This attitude paradoxically, allows one to get their desired result. This is quite different to giving your power away, as you are in charge of your choice and how your river flows. These people have developed what I have termed – resilience of spirit! Following on from that thought – could we perhaps better define a well-being as a person who does not resist life? One basic understanding, there can be no real change without personal awareness. For example, if we try to change a habit because someone else tells us to, or adopt a diet because we are told it is good for us, we are accepting change externally and it is likely it won’t last very long. A healer or hands-on therapist can be a catalyst for change without trying to fix their client! GEM approach helps and educates the client to self-care and therefore they are empowered to self-heal in whatever way is appropriate for them.
When we can be involved as a whole person in the process of change i.e. mind, body & emotion; amazing behavioural shifts can occur that will be long lasting. Sometimes a client just needs this awareness and change to be effective in one major area of their life in order for change to filter through into the rest of their life. GEM is simple, profound and practical and can be learned and incorporated into any lifestyle and for any person. Once you know it – you have it for life!

One simple solution
Relate life to a bank account. If we regularly make deposits – we will have credit – if not and we keep spending, we become overdrawn and may even become bankrupt. Relate this model to our health. Imagine if you only keep depositing in your physical – external-material-world “bank account” and you make no deposits into for example, your “emotional” and “psychological bank account”, however you keep making withdrawals and no credits are deposited. To carry this analogy further, by the time most people are diagnosed with an illness or disease, they may be bankrupt in all or some of these accounts – hence energy depletion, fatigue and nothing left to withdraw from. No energy to heal.

Albert Sweitzer once said “ Disease didn’t stay with me too long, I was too inhospitable a host!” Helping clients to regularly make deposits into their “personal life” bank accounts is the role of the healer-catalyst. These “deposits” will help them to develop their personal brand of wellness. Healers who treat may show the way, even alleviate symptoms for a while; but unless clients and therapists are shown how to maintain and replenish their energies, i.e. put credit into their “Wellness bank account”, wellness and wellbeing will elude us. We will therefore be continually reliant upon someone else to make it right, to fix us, do damage control or to help us escape for some short-term relief.
Touch – During any massage treatment, hands not only touch the body, but the deeper layers of being. Shaped by intention, touch is a vehicle for the neural system of the therapist to begin a tactile dialogue with the neural system of the client throughout a session. Herein the opportunity exists for a therapist to engage in a more meaningful way, providing a gateway and connection to the soul.  In our therapy rooms we can create atmosphere, ambience and aromas to stimulate the senses but most importantly… we provide touch. “Safe touch” is a highly therapeutic tool. Babies fail to thrive without touch and can die. Touch can be the joy of intimacy – skin on skin that is a special part and bonding in human relationships. Blood pressure and heart rate decreases when patting or stroking a pet.

Touch powered with unconditional love is the most potent healer on the planet. It can change the vibration of cells and reconnect body, mind, emotion and soul. The more clear the therapist is i.e. the massage therapist who “walks their talk” practises their self-care, the greater the potential for healing and the more profound the experience will be for both. Deepak Chopra has said that a one-hour relaxation massage can produce the laboratory equivalent of $5000 worth of interferon as made by the cells of the immune system. – The immune system responds to the “power of touch”! Touch with love, presence and intention heals.
*(“Safe touch” – trust and safety must be established for a therapeutic response).

The Importance of Being Present
In order to heal you need to be present – both healer and healee. This wisdom comes from indigenous cross-cultural studies.
When using touch therapies – it is important for the therapist to be present. I have designed many training exercises around this theme. In my work and practice – my aim is to keep things simple. Wellness/wellbeing can only be experienced when we are “present” to life and when we have had the “ah ha” of personal awareness.
I hope that this article will provoke some thought and further investigation into practises of embodiment for your self and your clients.
GEM – A SUMMARY

GEM is an approach to life that when practised and embodied will avoid burnout, improve relationship with self and others, increase awareness of self-care and boost immunity and health in general. GEM is shared and taught by way of experiential as well as integrated learning techniques
Just some of the benefits
• Development of awareness of boundaries of self and others
• A method of identifying personal stressors and finding immediate solutions
• Gaining of awareness of body language of self and others and its influence
• Learn about sensing, intuition and perception.
• Learn how you personally respond to stress and how it impacts on and within your muscles – learn how to let go in a way that works for you.
• Understanding the energy of emotions and their impact on yours and others health
• Learn how to be present, mindful, aware and yet relaxed and be able to take this into your everyday life.
• Understand the basic principles of energy in self, food and environment
• Make the mind – body – emotional connection a reality
• Become resilient to negative influences through choice rather than denial.
• Learn to meditate and relax effectively so that it filters into your everyday day life.

APPLICATION – As my methods were synergizing, I found that I was able to assist a vast and different range of clientele. Those who were ill and seeking recovery, those who were well and were seeking better health and even those who were dying and wanted to optimize that experience for themselves and their families. Along the way I discovered that there is no age barrier. Children love the concepts and find the learning fun.
How the GEM approach is shared: Components of the method can be shared in a one-day workshop for anyone. These are not training courses, but are designed for giving people simple, effective and do-able tools that can be easily applied in everyday life.
I have also designed a range of corporate workshops and programs that introduce these ideas into a work environment – optimizing potential, realistically creating work-life balance, self care, preventing burnout and re engaging with personal passion.

Training – GEM approach can be shared and taught to health professionals. Particularly those who are hands-on healthcare practitioners will benefit from these training events.
Training courses can be either a one, two or three day residential format held regularly throughout the year or in a certified MASTERCLASS format 3x 5-day residential training modules held once a year in New South Wales. Over recent years, due to demand, specialized courses for Spa employees have also been designed.
For all enquiries or further information email grace@gracegawler.com
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I am Ian Gawler’s first wife (Gayle- now Grace.) Sadly, over the years I have been diluted in the Ian Gawler healing story and now I’m totally omitted. Cancer patients can only make informed decisions if the whole truth of the events that surrounded Ian’s recovery is made known.

There is much more to Ian Gawler’s remission than was told on Compass. The most important factors were noticibly absent. Ian and I have an ethical, spiritual and scientific responsibility to be truthful and factual. A recent medical journal article about his healing 30 years on, also had the facts terribly confused, incorrect and upside down; reported in a journal that will be read by doctors who inform patients in life and death decisions about treatment strategies.

To make matters worse, Ainslie Meares also got it terribly wrong in the same journal in 1978-it was never corrected or refuted. Of real concern is that many patients are following ‘Vegan’ diets believing that this was the diet Ian Gawler followed because it said so in the medical journal. But not so-for the 22 years I was in the Gawler family kitchen Ian followed a lact-ovo vegetarian diet with the addition of fish and other seafood. The Gerson diet also prescribed cottage & ricotta cheese and raw calves liver.

It appears that Ian has a case of selective amnesia 30 years on! In You Can Conquer Cancer (1984) Ian is quoted “Many individuals contributed to my recovery. My wife Gayle (now Grace) played the most significant role by far. If everyone could have a person in their life so capable of showering total, loving care on them as Gayle has for me, disease would be a thing of the past. She has shared in all my trials and efforts and, most importantly, right from the start she always knew I would get better. No doubts—she knew—and remained devoted to helping me do it. As many have found since, she has a wonderful ability to determine what is the right thing at the right time.”

Clearly, there is what Ian could do and not do in 1975 – 1978—when his illness was critical… and there is what he is capable of doing now. You see when he was very ill in 1975-76 Ian would not have survived pursuing intensive meditation and diet. I have absolutely no doubt he would have died meditating had we not embraced other therapies. Ian and I married in 1976; when he was given 2 weeks to live.
It is a pity that Compass gave misleading information as to what a very ill cancer patient can practically achieve with diet, meditation & lifestyle changes. Remember at the most critical period of his illness INTENSIVE MEDITATION AND DIET DELIVERED NEITHER RELIEF NOR ANY OF THE HEALING EFFECTS WE HAD HOPED FOR!

I was Ian’s proactive 24/7 care-giver, inspirer, healer, organiser, researcher, cook, person who made all the juices, gave the morphine and was his chauffeur. I was on duty for 18 hours a day giving enemas, massage,injections and heat treatments. Seriously – Conquering cancer single handedly? Far from the truth!

There were long periods when Ian, with only one leg, was so wasted from diet regimes, that he could not walk and weighed only 50 kilos. Pain was so severe it became the disease and was only alleviated after we went to the Philippines.

Please see ‘About Grace’ for a more accurate and detailed version.

by Pip Cornall

It is not often a Naturopath is highly respected by leading oncologists in Australia and overseas but in Grace Gawler’s case there is good reason. After 35 years experience working with over 13,000 cancer patients, Grace is known for her uncanny intuition, an in-depth grasp of science and a broad range of complementary skills enabling her to guide the most ‘hopeless’ of cancer patients to recovery.
Although in recent years there has been much talk of ‘integrative medicine,’ few countries have adopted it widely. Grace is concerned that all too often, the term ‘holistic medicine’ is weighted to mean a range of alternative therapies which completely ignore—even haughtily dismiss western (allopathic) medicine.
But bridging the gap is Grace’s forte. It’s not uncommon for her patients to sail through chemotherapy with minimal discomfit and side effects. Nurses and oncologists, observing their excellent positive response to the chemo, commonly ask what else they are doing to get such good results.
Such partnering is true integrative medicine according to Grace and a direct contrast to the horror stories heard from patients who were ‘treated’ by self proclaimed ‘natural’ cancer healers. Lulled into a false sense of security while the tumours were steadily growing, these patients received treatments that were not only illegal in some cases, but often aggravated or hastened the disease. Some come to Grace as ‘end stage’ cases whom she often refers to overseas clinics for highly effective cancer treatment where the survival rate is higher and the treatment regime less harsh.
There is much unnecessary polarisation between proponents of natural and western medicine. The loser is the patient. An intelligent ‘partnership’ between the two is long overdue.
History: Back in 1974, Grace was a 21 year old vet nurse when her casual boyfriend and co veterinarian, Ian Gawler lost his leg to bone cancer. Defying family, friends and medical authorities, who gave Ian only weeks to live, Grace took a powerful proactive stance which is legendary today. Ian survived, their case became famous and soon they established a cancer healing centre guiding thousands of cancer patients.
Grace’s unique start was an excellent foundation for her life work. Grace explains that long before she studied naturopathy, from the age of 15 while still at high school, she was a part time vet nurse. Due to her enthusiasm Grace was soon assisting in serious operations. When Ian fell ill she had years of working on animals with cancer and also had trialled natural and conventional methods of healing.
Between 1974 and 1978, when Ian finally had his cancer remission, Grace was primed to be an extraordinary 24/7 healer, care giver, guide, researcher and motivator.  She went on to become a distinction level naturopath studying under Dorothy Hall and in the 90’s, her USA based study of body-psychotherapy with the famed Dr Ilana Rubenfeld, added to an expansive tool bag.
Although Ian Gawler initially acknowledged Grace’s innate flair for partnering natural and scientific medicine, his remarkable recovery is, unfortunately, one of the most misreported cancer recovery stories virally circulating the globe today. These stories, with the help of the internet are likely responsible in the recent upsurges of patients who misguidedly try to treat their cancer using natural methods alone.