Adapted from the article published in Alternative & Complementary Therapies, The official journal of the society of integrative medicine. Vol. 7, No. 5, October 2001

Polarity Therapy is the science of balancing the life energy in the human body, an underlying field that is viewed as the basis for all health and disease. This therapy uses energy-based bodywork and education to promote energetic and cleansing principles of eating and increased self-awareness in addition to using polarity yoga to balance the human energy field (HEF). Polarity Therapy places healing back under the guidance and responsibility of the clients and empowers them with the tools and resources to create and maintain health.

A Polarity practitioner, skilled in locating obstructions to, and imbalances in, energy flow, rebalances that flow through gentle bipolar contact bodywork and deep relaxation. The Polarity practitioner educates the client to support this state of balance by way of a variety of techniques that may affect detoxification of the internal environment, stress levels, lifestyle, aspects of human interaction, awareness, and exercise routines.

If appropriate changes are not made and sustained in the client's lifestyle and/or attitude, the same imbalance in the energy field may be created repeatedly. As the energy blocks are released, normal body function and alignment are restored and maintained. This is health.

Polarity Therapy, developed and introduced by founder Randolf Stone, N.D., D.C., D.O. (1890-1981) has quietly been helping people to regain their health and their sense of well-being, and to gain a clarity of awareness that helps them to maintain their health and guide their healing processes. This therapy has been reported to be helpful in many cases of chronic and acute conditions. Practitioners throughout the world have recorded case studies showing that Polarity Therapy has helped people with arthritis,¹ eating disorders,² autism,³ attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder,⁴ cancer,⁵ and cerebral palsy.⁶ Pain reduction has been achieved in many situations.¹

I, personally have witnessed that clients previously diagnosed with lumbar sprain, resulting in sciatic-type pain (see box entitled Polarity Therapy for Sciatica: A Case Study), digestive disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, athletic-induced asthma, depression, insomnia, infertility, debilitating menopausal symptoms, and plantar fasciatus have experienced improved health and sometimes a complete absence of their symptoms, after a series of Polarity sessions. Some clients may be treated with multiple modalities, in conjunction with Polarity Therapy, while others respond to Polarity Therapy as the sole modality. It should be noted, however, that Polarity Therapy is used to treat the whole person, more specifically the human energy field, not the set of symptoms or disease. Proponents of Polarity Therapy do not claim to cure any medical condition.

Dr. Stone's protege, Pierre Pannetier, N.D., (1914-1984), who continued Dr. Stone's teaching after 1974, made this simple statement about Polarity practitioners. "We do not do anything. The life energy is doing everything." We, the practitioners, are life forces interacting with the life force of the client. Surprisingly, our intention is not to heal, but rather to create an interaction for the highest good of the client. Our intent, while communicating, and applying specific protocols, is to be neutrally present and create a safe space for the client to simply "be". Here the client is accepted compassionately, just as he or she is, in that moment, regardless of whatever crisis, pain or stress brought him or her in for Polarity treatment. This is sometimes called the "therapeutic presence."⁸ Healing happens when both the practitioner and client are present in the moment. This process is a combination of action (doing interventions that typically support healing) and inaction (accepting what is comfortable and uncomfortable) and being guided by the results of both.

The origins of Polarity Therapy are founded in Dr. Stone's research and understanding regarding the ancient healing traditions of the world. Dr. Stone felt a sense of incompleteness with the limitations of the manual treatments he was trained in. He sensed that there was more to healing and set about studying the healing traditions of indigenous cultures around the globe. He studied the medical and spiritual traditions of the Near East, China, and India. The concept of opposites or polarities of yin and yang in Traditional Chinese Medicine and the philosophies and practices of Ayurvedic medicine and yoga greatly inspired his understanding of the HEF (sometimes called the life force, prana, chi, qi, or ki) and how it manifests in human existence and health. Dr. Stone found that energy was the missing link. These Eastern traditions regard energy as the foundation for healing. Western medicine has only recently considered the HEF as possibly being important. Scientists have begun to investigate its existence, influence on health and illness and the possible use of its measurement as a barometer of health.^9,10

According to information provided on the web site about Polarity Therapy (www.polaritytherapy.org), "between 1947 and 1954, Dr. Stone wrote the seven books that contain his published findings. While practicing medicine in Chicago, he applied the energy approach to a wide range of conditions and achieved considerable success treating patients. He taught his method during the 1960s, finally retiring in 1974, at the age of 84. Many of Stone's students have continued to research and apply his teachings, and to teach the next generation of practitioners."¹¹

In 1984, a core group of advanced practitioners launched the national organization, the American Polarity Therapy Association (APTA). It has set standards for practice and education, established a code of ethics, and currently supports practitioners all over the world and helps to educate the public about Polarity Therapy.

Polarity Therapy is based on the recognition that health and dis-ease reflect the state of the human energetic foundation. The theory suggests that the HEF is not static but is a dynamic influx and outflowing of energy influenced by the mind, emotions, past history, and traumas, current health maintenance, and connection to the spirit or inner guidance.

Dr. Stone described these energy pathways in detail as the "wireless anatomy of man."¹² His description of the HEF uses electromagnetic terms and defines the relationship of the neutral source of energy (consciousness) and its positive and negative actions of the creation of human anatomy and physiology and its eventual return to the neutral source. He said that: "all matter, emotions, mind, substance, and energies move by the three modalities of 0 (neuter), +(positive) and -(negative) polarity."¹³ These three principles are also known as Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas. Neutrality and stillness are the qualities of the sattvic principle. It is the space or nothingness from which all arises.* Rajas is the positive, expansive phase of energy movement responsible for physical movement, warmth, healing and the creation of all that is. Tamas is the centripetal or returning phase of the energy movement having the quality of inertia, completion and receptivity.

One of Dr. Stone's maps of the wireless anatomy is shown in this diagram.¹² It is reminiscent of a typical drawing of the earth's magnetic field. The subtle energy flows into the body as the ultrasonic core, giving rise to the chakras and the elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, the craniosacral rhythms, and an interrelated combination of energy patterns of flow. These patterns and energy are the blueprint upon which the physical body is formed. Obstruction of the flow of this subtle energy is experienced as ill health. The proper flow or proper potentials to help establish this flow can be influenced by the placement of the Polarity practitioner's hands at specific points on the body. One can imagine that hands are like the poles of a battery or the ends of a magnet, with opposite qualities that affect the HEF when placed in two different locations on the body (bipolar contacts). When held in these positions for 2 minutes or longer, the hands help to release the obstruction and reestablish the proper energy flow.

It is theorized that these shifts may, in turn, affect cell functioning, release long-held emotion, and even realign the structure of the body. In addition, this natural flow is affected by the type of food and medicine one ingests, the way one moves and exercises, and the way one thinks and interacts with the rest of the world. Thus, Dr. Stone developed cleansing and health-building eating regimens and Polarity exercises, based on yoga postures.

Dr. Stone taught the importance of being connected with "the source." He meant this, energetically, meaning having the flow unimpeded from whatever the source of all energy is into and out of the HEF, and spiritually, meaning having a more subtle connection to a higher power or simply oneŐs inner awareness that provides guidance. There is no religion or dogma associated with the practice or use of Polarity for healing.

A client coming for a Polarity session is usually asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire that addresses medical history, perceived stress level and stressors, exercise habits, food habits, spiritual/religious awareness, emotional charges(the 'hot spot' issues that drive a person's physical health and mental well-being), living situation influences, information on past traumas, major life changes, and perceived location of tension in the physical body and the relative balance of the five elements. A consultation follows, to elaborate further on the client's history and to answer clients' questions. An energetic evaluation proceeds as the practitioner observes the client's body structure, alignments, voice, eyes, skin tone, level of awareness, pulses, and breathing patterns.

The client's energy field is most often balanced while he or she lies on a treatment table fully clothed. Throughout the treatment, the client's energy field and physical and mental responses are observed and/or elicited by the practitioner. During Polarity treatment, contacts to the body are made with both hands, usually located at separate locations. Because of the bipolar nature of the body and hands, the practitioner uses the contact with positive and negative poles to stimulate energy movement and balance. The intention of the contact is to access the energy field and balance it through a variety of contact types. These contacts vary from deep (tamasic) held contacts to release blocked energy, moving (rajasic) contacts to disperse the energy, and light (satvic) contacts to balance the field.

Protocols may be very simple and defined or may be more improvised 'energy tracing' as the practitioner becomes aware of different areas or levels of the energetic imbalance.

The description of what is felt by participants in a Polarity treatment session varies from practitioner to practitioner as well as from client to client. Tingling, movement, pulsation, pressure, intensity, dispersion, warmth, expansion, and contraction are some words that describe the subtle sensation that the practitioner feels while holding these light contacts. The practitioner may sense them in the hands, body, and personal energy field. The client experience often differs from a practitioner's, but they often correlate. When the person on the table feels a release or relaxation, the practitioner feels a shift in the HEF. The most common descriptors my clients report are warmth, relaxation, and movement (for example: "it feels like there is a flow or movement from my leg to my shoulder"). Also, as the energy releases, the client may experience a wide range of emotions and insights.

Dr. Stone said that the bodywork was only 15% of the healing process. The other 85% occurs off the table via the changes the client makes in his or her life. This is why client education is so important. Depending on the individual's needs, the practitioner may suggest exercises to keep the client's energy moving and balanced, or may teach meditation or visualization, or recommend a cleansing diet. Clients may be referred to outside practitioners for support of the healing process. By the end of a session, a client is often deeply relaxed and revitalized. The complete effect of a session may take as long as 48 hours to manifest.

How many sessions may effect an improvement depends on how chronic the imbalance in the energetic pattern is and on the willingness of the client to make the necessary lifestyle changes. Sometimes a person needs one session for a little stress relief. Sometimes a client will continue for weeks, months or years, if he or she finds the sessions helpful. I usually suggest a minimum of 6-8 sessions.

Integrating with other types of health care treatments comes naturally to Polarity. Andrea Axt, Ph.D., R.P.P., a registered Polarity practitioner at Polarity/Cranialsacral Associates in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, has worked integratively with many children with Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, and hyperactive children with special needs. Polarity Therapy has been shown to activate and to help balance many of the neurotransmitters, including serotonin and beta-endorphins, and to decrease levels of stress-related hormones.³

During a six-month period, at Atlanticare Medical Center in the Boston area, Donna Clifford, R.N., R.P.P., a registered Polarity practitioner, worked with 70 hospital clients with a variety of illnesses (headaches, high blood pressure, arthritis, chronic back pain, chronic constipation, and mental depression). Clients reported pain relief and improved mental clarity and felt more energized. Polarity treatments were provided in the cardiac care unit. At first, doctors were skeptical about sending their clients for Polarity. As they heard the positive reports, the number of prescriptions for Polarity greatly increased.

Holly Dudley, R.P.P., a registered Polarity practitioner, of East Otto, New York, reported major improvements in many areas for a young child with cerebral palsy when Polarity was included in his care. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, other forms of allopathic care, and Polarity Therapy were all part of his ongoing treatment program. "One of the roles Polarity Therapy has played. . .was to take all that his caregivers were doing and bring it together to move Evan forward. It is a wonderful confirmation of the integrative power of Polarity Therapy," noted Ms. Dudley.⁶

Mary Jo Ruggieri, Ph.D., R.P.P., leads a team of alternative practitioners at the Columbus Polarity Therapy Institute, Columbus, Ohio, where she serves as the CenterŐs director. This group also teaches alternative medicine classes at Ohio State University College of Medicine, also in Columbus. One of the group's focuses for the last 10 years has been working with clients who have cancer and on cancer prevention. Ms. Ruggieri reports that her team and the allopathic doctors find an integrative approach using Polarity, herbs, and use of other types of complementary treatments help clients, whether they are undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, or using other medications. Patients are supported presurgically, during surgery--via Polarity treatments given in the operating room--and during postsurgical continued care. The patients receiving Polarity support have consistently experienced quicker recoveries; fewer side-effects such as nausea, neuropathy, and hair loss; reduced radiation burns; and reduced or no hardening of tissue (in those patients who have undergone mastectomies).

Seth Kantor, M.D., a rheumatologist/administrator at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, believes that three components are key to helping patients with autoimmune disorders: (1) exercise; (2) bodywork; and (3) nutritional support. Dr. Ruggieri reports that practitioners at the Columbus Polarity Therapy Institute have provided the bodywork component for some of Dr. Kantor's patients, leading to successful improvements.

Anthony Deavin, Ph.D., a lecturer in anatomy, physiology and pathology at the Raworth Centre, Dorking, England, has reported on the use of Polarity Therapy in trauma release, and resolution. He integrates the work with focusing, trauma energetics,journey work, herbal medicine, and nutritional counseling.¹⁴

Trauma release is based on the concept that trauma may be locked in body tissues, blocking energy flow. According to this idea, connective tissue has memory that registers all impressions that are experienced throughout life. These impressions affect form, structure, and energy flow. Subtle Polarity bodywork aims to release the energy so it can flow properly while resolving tissue distortions and releasing the stored traumas.

Focusing is a technique that helps patients to connect with the feeling content in their bodies. The therapist touches the patient to help him or her focus on the area of the body where there is a disturbance.

Trauma energetics is a technique in which a client closes his or her eyes and scans the field of the mind looking for color. Awareness is directed in areas of black, perceiving the black until it shifts to another color. After the session a client may discover that certain problems have been resolved although they were not confronted directly during the session.

Journey work is based on the theory that traumas come in layers and as patients experience each layer they can move to the next one, experiencing each one through the 'felt sense' in the body until he or she reaches the Source within.

I have seen Polarity integrate well with many other modalities of health care. Chiropractic physicians report that adjustments that have not been holding start to hold after Polarity treatment. Patients who receive conventional oncology therapies have found Polarity to be helpful in reducing the side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Additionally, clients with cancer have reported that Polarity treatments help to reduce anxiety and improve clear thinking, which is helpful in decision making and in accepting healing processes. Psychotherapists have found Polarity Therapy useful, because it helps patients to gain accesses to core issues, creating possibilities for transformation in their individual sessions with clients.¹⁵ Sometimes, accessing memories via the body can be a lot quicker than months of therapy. Clients report enhanced emotional stability and clarity of mind.

Physical therapists also have found Polarity Therapy to be helpful, especially with clients who do not seem to improve. Moving the energy through the blocked-and usually painful-areas of the body often results in pain reduction and a freer range of motion.

I visited a student who had been hospitalized after sustaining a severe accident. Among other injuries, her shoulder had appeared to be completely frozen for more than two weeks since the accident. Magnetic resonance imaging showed possible damage and she was preparing to make a decision about undergoing orthopedic surgery. While I visited her, a half-hour of Polarity appeared to help her to relax. Later, when the doctor came in for the consultation and she was asked to move her arm, to everyone's surprise, including her own, she was able to move her arm. Surgery was determined to be unnecessary. Was it the relaxation? Or was the restored movement of energy through the joint the reason for the major improvement? We do not know for sure. A Polarity practitioner will tell you it is the restored energy flow. This brings us to the question of research in Polarity Therapy.

Research in Polarity Therapy is in its infancy compared to research in other alternative and complementary modalities. There are few scientific and clinical studies completed and published. Susan M. Benford, Ph.D., the chief executive office of Precomp, Inc., and Public Health Information Services, Inc., both in Dublin, Ohio, and her research team collaborated with Polarity Practitioners of the Columbus Polarity Therapy Institute, Columbus, Ohio. Their research measured gamma ray radiation emitted at four different sites on the client's body, before and after Polarity sessions. The results clearly established a significant decrease in gamma radiation in 100 percent of the subjects tested. Control groups without intervention and 'sham' groups with placebo intervention did not experience the same effects. ⁹

Dr. Benford's research explores the mechanism of how treatments of hands-on healing may affect health. The question is: "how does the placement of a practitioner's hands on a subject influence the subject?" One hypothesis is that the electromagnetic fields of the practitioner interact and change the electromagnetic fields of the client. Perhaps these changes in the electromagnetic fields affect the cell functioning and body alignment.

Clinical research into specific illness populations has only begun. A pilot study in use of Polarity Therapy in patients with cardiac disorders has been proposed to the University of Michigan Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center for Cardiovascular Disease, Ann Arbor, Michigan, by a group of Polarity practitioners in that state.¹⁶

Some concerns about the design of research into Polarity are now being addressed. One difficulty is that, within a series of sessions, every session can be different. Even when all the study participants are manifesting the same illness, different individuals are likely to be treated via differing protocols and personalized education. One could study, for example, whether Polarity sessions improve the health of patients with asthma compared to similar patients undergoing conventional medical treatment or none at all. However, the study could not be limited to the use of a single defined Polarity protocol, because, over a series of treatments, many different protocols are used, depending on the energetic imbalance that presents itself at each session.

Another thing to remember is that Polarity Therapy would not be used to treat the asthma; it works with the whole being and the individual's HEF as it is presented in the moment. Some practitioners feel that a single-protocol type of study would compromise the essence and effectiveness of Polarity Therapy and would not be a study of Polarity Therapy at all.

Standardized questionnaires that include useful information about spiritual shifts and other subtle shifts in awareness (often important in Polarity healing process) have not been readily available. Perceiving and responding to the guidance the body gives, awareness, messages of an illness or accident, and insights that change a person's outlook, are all hard to measure; yet these are critical to the healing process. There are as many factors that represent healing as there are clients.

One more hurdle to overcome is that few Polarity practitioners are trained scientists. Our community has much to learn about doing good research, and practitioners are proceeding to educate themselves and collaborate with others in the research field.

Practitioners are trained at two levels at certified schools. The Associate Polarity practitioner (A.P.P.) has completed 155 hours of training. The Registered Polarity practitioner (R.P.P.) has completed 615 hours of training and supervised practice. The education received in Polarity Therapy is standardized for all schools, with many possible supplemental classes offered in addition to the core courses. The core training includes principles and theory, anatomy and physiology, energetic evaluation and integration, polarity bodywork, communication and facilitation, energetic nutrition, stretching postures, clinical supervision, professional ethics, and business skills. Teachers and schools are certified. A code of ethics and standards for practice are followed, monitored, and updated by the APTA. Practitioners often come from other health care fields and incorporate Polarity into their specialties.

Polarity Therapy is energy medicine for all aspects of the body, mind, and spirit. This paradigm sees ill health and healing as a process of discovery not as a set of symptoms to be eliminated. The practitioner is more of a teacher or assistant to help the client back to a state of vital balance, with the client guiding the process.

Rita (name changed) came for Polarity Therapy presenting debilitating left leg and hip pain radiating down the leg and occasional radiating pain in the right hip and leg as well. Her pain was exacerbated by sitting and lying down. Some reduction in pain was achieved with standing and movement. The diagnosis from the chiropractic physician was lumbar sprain/strain, resulting in the symptoms of radiating pain. In addition to Polarity Therapy, Rita had used the services of a chiropractic physician, massage therapists, physical therapists, and an acupuncturist. The chiropractic treatments corrected misalignments of her vertebrae and hips. Polarity gave the only significant relief of pain.

Previous bouts of sciatic pain (usually located in the right gluteals, periformis or in front of the upper thigh) were part of Rita's medical history. The frequency of these difficulties decreased significantly when she started working with Polarity Therapy. I had periodically worked with her in my Polarity practice, using the energy work for health maintenance. Previously, when her sciatic discomfort would start, a Polarity session or two would bring her energy field into balance and she reported that pain had been relieved for months or years at a time.

This particular instance was different. Her pain ran laterally down the left thigh, behind the knee, and down the inside of the calf/shin to the inner ankle. Rita reported that the radiating pain and accompanying achiness would wake her and keep her awake every night, resulting in fatigue. In addition, the points along her inner calf were extremely tender, tolerating only the lightest touch. The condition limited participation in exercise routines; caused limping; and changed a happy, loving, very active person into an exhausted, unhappy, frustrated individual.

Initially, I used a parasympathetic protocol^a in addition to other general balancing contacts, as this had previously helped Rita and several other clients who had sought relief for radiating leg and hip pain. The first session relaxed and rested Rita, but resulted in no change in pain level or location. The protocol that was most helpful in releasing her energy block and restoring proper energy flow was a simple general back session (GBS) (see Map of general back session)(not available online but described below).

This protocol helps to balance the pelvis, back, and neck and balances the energy related to the parasympathetic nervous system.

In subsequent sessions, given once or twice per week, some of the following bipolar contacts were made. There was more variation from session to session in the general contacts made with Rita in a supine position. The GBS protocol, done in a prone position, was applied consistently.

Supine contacts involved the bilateral neck cradle with contact along the vagus nerve, tender occiput base points to opposite forehead, north pole stretch, tummy rock, tender points on feet, earth and water toe and finger reflexes, and water element balance.

These included light and general (whole hand) holds of the areas of the lower leg and ankle, moving the energy with the natural flow, which can reduce irritation and balance the energy flow. Occasionally, a hold over the fourth chakra (heart center) was also used to disperse blocked energy in this area.

Rita reported getting 2-3 days relief and was able to sleep on those nights, but the pain would recur before she returned for her next session. As the sessions continued, I educated her about issues often associated with the first and second chakras,^b (energy centers located in the lower half of the torso), which often are related to sciatic pain.

During her sixth session, a spontaneous insight made it clear that there was a deeper issue making an impact on the energetic flow in Rita's body. It was related to a recent death in the family and subsequent concerns about the client's own mortality and that of her spouse. Most of these feelings were not being addressed and ran as an undercurrent around a situation in which everyone in her family was trying to be "positive" I suggested several different resources, outside the Polarity sessions, for exploring these feelings, including counseling.

Rita chose to use a different suggestion for meditation and focusing on these concerns, giving them the space to be felt and heard. In her next session, Rita reported that the sciatic pain, which had been relieved in the previous session, had not returned. She reported that the residual tenderness in her lower leg was reduced and eliminated during three more sessions using the same protocols. She was able to return readily to her exercise routine, and active work and family life.

This case study illustrates two important aspects of Polarity Therapy. First, similar symptoms can present, but may be relieved by a different protocols at different times (i.e., the energy imbalance was different, but caused similar symptoms). Second, the bodywork can balance the human energy field but, sometimes, there is a deeper issue that needs to come into the client's awareness and be made conscious, for the energy to remain in balance. The Polarity bodywork supports this process. In this case, I believe it was this awareness and subsequent mental shifts that accounted for Rita's permanent relief from pain.

Founded in 1984, the APTA oversees educational standards, professional registration, and ethics, and is involved in national and international networking, and conferences. The organization also publishes a newsletter called Energy: The Newsletter of the American Polarity Therapy Association.

Published in Spirit of Change: New England's Holistic Magazine, May/June 2002 and reprinted with permission of Carol Bedrosian, Publisher.

These are questions healing practitioners are asked every day. The fact is, as healing professionals, we don't know the answers to those questions. We don't know what the path of this person's healing journey shall become. For each individual, the healing journey is a sweet combination of factors including those which one can control along with bits of divine mystery. From within that place of not knowing, the healing practitioner can only respond honestly by encouraging the client towards their own empowerment and healing by questioning:

Do you need to become more aware, make lifestyle changes, mental shifts and take responsibility for healing yourself or do you simply need to believe that you can be healed?

Many of us spent a good part of our life going to the doctor with the expectation that he/she would diagnose what was wrong and give us a pill to fix it. Modern medicine is still looking for the cure for the common cold and the cure for cancer. It frequently asks "What is the pill, treatment or defined protocol that will cure this condition?" As our society transitions to including holistic health therapies into our general healthcare routines, we often bring with us the same attitude, asking, "Is your specialty the cure for my problem?" Essentially we are still saying, "Will you be able to fix me?" We give our power over to another person to be responsible for our health.

Similarly, as the medical system transitions to include complementary therapies into the mainstream, it is attempting to fit bodywork and holistic modalities into the existing "fix me" paradigm of health care. The National Institute for Health (NIH) has begun to establish guidelines on which complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments will cure which diseases. I was recently queried by a physician responsible for making recommendations to Medicare as to which one, two or three CAM therapies showed the most promise for preventing cancer. I could not give him the definitive answer he was looking for because building health and healing are individual processes which cannot be reduced down to one or two magic bullets effective for everyone. On the contrary, holistic health therapies encourage clients to seek out a variety of educational resources for self-understanding, personal growth and to make appropriate changes in their way of life instead of looking for someone to fix their symptoms. This level of responsibility leads to greater health.

I have worked for many years in the practice of Polarity therapy, a hands-on bodywork and energy balancing modality that encourages the conscious participation of the client in the healing process. Polarity therapy views healing as an evolutionary process of the soul. Illness becomes a metaphor for issues in our personal evolution. Accidents and illness may be unconscious statements of issues that are too threatening for the ego to deal with consciously. Because every cell of the body is sentient, the cells contract and energy is blocked when life experience becomes too painful for us to feel. Polarity energy balancing facilitates the release of tension, resistance, and body armoring so it becomes safe for the client to experience feelings in order to clear trauma from the cellular memory of the body. In this evolutionary context, the role of the Polarity practitioner is to help bring these issues to consciousness so that clients have an opportunity to take a higher level of responsibility for their healing processes.

In Anatomy of the Spirit¹, Caroline Myss writes: "I am responsible for the creation of my health. I therefore participated, at some level, in the creation of this illness. I can participate in the healing of this illness by healing myself, which means simultaneously healing my emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual being….If the emotional and psychological stresses that were a part of the illness are not alleviated, the illness will probably recur." Illness is an invitation to learn something new about ourselves. When we learn its message, the illness no longer has a purpose and quietly disappears. Keep in mind, however, that responsibility is the ability to respond, not permission to blame oneself. We have responded to life's situations to the best of our abilities which has brought us to this moment. Now we can open ourselves further to learn and intuit the ways we can respond with greater awareness to promote our own healing.

Although the line between a "fix me" attitude and one of taking responsibility in the healing process is quite clear, the line between asking a higher power to "fix me" versus another human being (healing practitioner, physician) to "fix me" is less clear. Healing modalities such as Reiki channel healing energy from a higher source directly into your body where the innate intelligence of such energy automatically draws it to the place in your body where it is most needed. During a Reiki session, the emphasis is usually placed on relaxation and surrender to receive the healing energy rather than on conscious interaction and education. However, the client is still actively involved in the healing simply by allowing the energy to be received into the body in the first place.

One may use all three ways of healing at different points along their journey. As a healing practitioner, I encourage clients to increase their awareness and take more responsibility. I also acknowledge the co-creative healing process between client and the higher power. However, I never discount the "fix me" attitude as invalid, but it will probably be another practitioner doing the "fixing." Handing one's power over to another individual may be part of an archetype someone has chosen to experience while here on Earth. The healing journey that an individual traverses in this lifetime will take the form that most suits the needs of their soul in its evolutionary process.

Whatever one's style of healing, it is most empowering to truly believe in the path you pursue. For example, when cancer patients are faced with choices like chemotherapy and radiation versus organic diet, herbs, and prayer, I no longer see one as better than the other. I have witnessed both of them to work to save a life and both of them to fail to save a life. The one that is best is the one the patient believes in whether it is allopathic, alternative, or a combination of both. This sense of belief flows from a connection deep within that the spirit is guiding us towards the next step we are to take along our life journey.

I have known clients who experienced a few healing sessions and the imbalance is gone. I have also known clients to be in the healing process for years, using a progressive sequence of modalities and doing all they can to improve their health via lifestyle changes, psychotherapy, meditation, proper nutrition, etc., yet still the same health problems persist, sometimes for better or sometimes for worse. Why is this?

Some people struggle through life, the victim of everyone and everything. No matter what is offered by healing practitioners they cannot shift out of this archetype. They leave this Earth not "healed" by our standards. In Emmanuel's Book: A Manual for Living Comfortably in the Cosmos2, a section on guiding the intention of healing practitioners instructs: "'You must be healed' is so often the message that is given with the healing. No, they must not be healed. Only if they want to. And you are not the authority on that. Do not inflict your will. Just give love. The soul will take that love and put it where it can best be used." This intention frees the healing practitioner to be neutral in their approach, to become a true helper, lovingly walking alongside the client in their healing journey, without an attachment to the end result.

As a personal example, I struggled for years with anger. I used Polarity, psychotherapy, Reiki, meditation, yoga, and prayer. I took responsibility, promoted loving kindness, and used Bach flower and homeopathic remedies. After many years of small improvements and relapses, my life started to transform and I was free of the affliction that I struggled so hard with for so many years. At last the healing had come. Was it the last therapy that I used? Did I finally "learn the lesson?" Was it my astrology (the end of my difficult mid-life transits) and a somewhat predetermined shift? Did all the different healing modalities used in the journey finally integrate with the last piece or was my process a long-forgotten, yet pre-determined sequence of meetings, events, trials, and tribulations (Joan Borysenko calls these "soul contracts") which were made prior to my arrival on this planet so that my soul would leave this plane with a certain set of experiences and learned lessons?

I have observed that healing (like many other things) happens in divine time, not human time (that's the short time frame in which our egos wish things to occur - usually NOW!). Some of us heal right away, some heal over the years, some don't appear to heal at all. We have to remember not to judge ourselves or others. We must not get caught up in a belief system which says: I am doing something wrong if I am not getting "better." This only destroys our self-esteem. We are all just doing the best we can, healing practitioners and clients alike.

As a healing practitioner, I am there to support and educate those seeking wellness, as well as place my hands on them to balance them using techniques of Polarity therapy. For awhile, I thought this was the "best" way to healing. In more recent years, I learned Reiki and have often found the results just as profound. I trust that each of us is attracted to those who help us heal or give us the next experience appropriate to our life and healing journey. I trust that the client knows what is best for them although they may need some guidance about how to tune into their inner wisdom. I encourage clients to neutrally observe all information pertaining to healing that comes their way and to trust their intuition about which practitioner feels right or what modalities will work best for them. Most of all I encourage them to trust that whatever is happening to them right now is perfect for their soul's journey, whether it be tragic or joyous. It is the process of learning and growing that is the healing, not the end result. If you define healing as cure, then all approaches are unreliable. If you define healing as what you learned along the way, as the process itself, then all approaches are a success.

     1.   Myss, Caroline. Anatomy of the Spirit. Three Rivers Press, NY, 1996 and year published.






     2.   Rodegast, Pat. Emmanuel's Book: A manual for living comfortably in the cosmos. Bantam Books, NY, 1985. 

We may not have all these qualities at the beginning of our journey, but they can be learned and experienced as the healing process progresses.

     o an honest intention to build health and wholeness 






     o acknowledgment of the multi-level nature of the healing process - spiritual/mental/emotional/physical






     o (re)connection with sense of spirit, higher power, intuition, or listening to one's inner voice 






     o recognition that healing is a process over time (divine time, not human time) 






     o acceptance and trust in the process, even when the process leads to an unexpected, undesirable or





          uncomfortable outcome






     o co-creation, in two ways, between client and higher power, between client and healing practitioner 






     o flexibility that sometimes the process is conscious and sometimes it is not 






     o developing awareness of the present moment and the courage to feel whatever is present 






     o belief in the healing modality 






     o love (not optional)






          1. Building self esteem or self love  






          2. The practitioner holds a loving space for healing






          3. Opening awareness to the presence of divine love

At home, I roll out of bed and make my way towards my little blue roll of PVC. I "thwap" it open and step onto my box. Recently, I've been thinking of it as a box, since it feels rather constraining to me. Some days my prana just doesn't fit into 24" X 68". I center myself and begin to move, but of late, it seems that I only move within the box. Poses face forwards or sideways. On cold days when my arm touches the tile floor, I recoil. I am pulled away from my inward focused practice and back out into the environment. I am forced to consider. 'Can I really relax my flesh into the cold beyond the mat?' I have lost my one pointed focus.

When I have the opportunity to do my sadhana at my studio, Center for Yoga, it feels different. There my practice reflects how I learned yoga. I put out a blanket in front of the altar. The floor is carpeted. I sit and center myself and 45 minutes later I open my eyes. My body is far away from the starting point. Sometimes I wonder 'how did I get over here?' My postures are guided by an inner knowing which on some days takes me through vigorous standing and balancing sequences and other days, rolls me around the floor in a slow flow of breath, stretch, asana and meditation. There is no sense of constraint, no shoulds, no drawing my mind out of pratyahara and into the external world.

When I first learned yoga from Yogi Amrit Desai in the early 1980's, we spread out our 'big' blankets and learned to be guided by our own prana through a Kripalu posture flow. Amrit tells the story of the one time he was allowed to observe his teacher's practice (Swami Kripalvanandiji for whom Kripalu Yoga was named). These are Amrit's words. 'Bapuji (Swami Kripalu) allowed me a privilege he has never allowed anyone else - to be present in his meditation room for a short time as he practiced his Kundalini Yoga meditation. I watched in amazement as he demonstrated a remarkable flow of yogic movements, from one posture to the next with varying degrees of speed and rhythm. After a few minutes, Bapuji concluded his practices. Then he explained, "My son, all of these innumerable postures, movements and mudras which you saw me perform occur automatically when the evolutionary energy of prana (the life force) has been awakened in the body of a yogi. Yogis call this awakening of prana 'pranotthana'."¹

Swami Kripalu's practice took up an entire room. In contrast, we can now walk into a studio filled with 80-100 students, lined up closely, like sardines in a can, all standing within their box, all doing the exact same thing. It is a different approach, not better or worse, which allows for a maximum number of people to have the yoga experience.

The introduction of the sticky mat has also influenced my teaching. I was the last one in all my yoga classes to have one. Every student would ask me about them, where to buy them, and I (the teacher) still didn't have one. I finally gave in. With the mat came instructions which referenced the mat. 'Come to the back of the mat', 'warm up down dogs with legs 'mat width apart', 'stand sideways on your mats'. My language has apparently changed to fit into the box as well.

I believe that the language we use can either draw a student into the inner experience of the asana or into the outer experience of external details. I now have to observe and be conscious of the effect the mat has on my language and the experience which I want to create when I teach. There are some days when I unconsciously keep my students in the box. I am now relearning the language which allows them to expand, explore, and forget about the 24 X 68 constraint, so that they can continually breathe, relax, feel, witness and allow in their practice. When we allow, we truly have to forget boundaries and move where our prana guides us.

Most of us do not have unrestricted space. to allow our yoga practice to flow. In fact, the mat gives many the needed sacred space for practice when they have little or no room in their homes or apartments. I am not critical of the mat, just feeling contained by it. I just want to encourage practitioners and teachers to consciously consider moving outside the box.

    1.  Kripalu Yoga: Meditation in Motion, Yogi Amrit Desai, Kripalu Publication, 1981.  p.8.