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Deirdre Reilly - Reiki, Craniosacral Therapy, Hike Psych, Yoga and more
166 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we explore Deirdre O'Reilly's multifaceted approach to healing, which encompasses a wide range of modalities, including Reiki, craniosacral therapy, and innovative hike psych facilitation. Her dedication to her clients' well-being and passion for discovering new ways to promote healing make her a sought-after therapist and an inspiring figure in the holistic health and wellness community.
Enjoy
You can find Deirdre on her Instagram page at Wholebody.Wellness
Email: Deirdre@hikepsych.ie or wholebodywellness@gmail.com
Books
From My Hands and Heart: Achieving Health and Balance with Craniosacral Therapy - Kate MacKinnon
Your Inner Physician and You: Craniosacral Therapy and SomatoEmotional Release - John Upledger
Yoga School
ISFYT - International School of Functional Yoga Teachers
Don't forget to follow and if you liked the episode please do leave a review.
Take care.
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Transcript
Introduction to Deirdre Rowley and Her Healing Practices
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome everybody to the Trauma and Healing podcast. This week's guest is Deirdre Rowley, who uses a multifaceted approach to healing, which encompasses a wide range of modalities, allowing her to cater to the unique needs of her clients. As a pre-accredited psychotherapist, she fosters a safe and supportive environment for clients to explore their emotional and psychological challenges and needs.
00:00:24
Speaker
In addition, Deirdre's expertise as a Reiki master and perennial sacral therapist further enhances her ability to address the mind-body-spirit connection, providing a comprehensive holistic healing experience for those seeking guidance.
Hike-Psych: Merging Nature with Psychotherapy
00:00:38
Speaker
Also, as an innovative hike-psych facilitator, more on that, Deirdre takes therapy outdoors, skillfully blending therapy power of nature, traditional
00:00:49
Speaker
Blending the therapeutic power of nature with traditional psychotherapy, this refreshing and transformative approach allows clients to engage in physical activity while discussing their emotional and psychological needs. Deirdre's dedication to her client's wellbeing and her passion for discovering new ways to promote healing makes her a sought after therapist and an inspiring figure in the holistic health and wellness community. Deirdre, very welcome. Thank you for coming on the podcast.
00:01:18
Speaker
Thank you, Clodagh. And what a wonderful introduction. Thanks very much. Well, I don't think I lied, did I? No. It's all there. It's all the work you've been putting in.
Deirdre's Reiki Journey
00:01:28
Speaker
So Deirdre, can you tell us about your journey? Can you tell us about how you combined cranial psychotherapy, raking, hiking, pre-credited therapist, all into your healing practice? How did you get here?
00:01:42
Speaker
That is a really interesting question. I can probably talk about that for days, but I'll try and keep it nice and short and as succinct as possible. So I started, my journey with Reiki started over 20 years ago when I had very young kids and I did Reiki one. And I just used that then for my own family and my own self. And that carried me through many years of family life.
00:02:12
Speaker
And then I just, I just really enjoyed it. It was just always there in the background. What is Reiki One now for anybody wondering? Yeah, that's a good question. So Reiki One would be the first attunement to Reiki. So it's like a two day course where you get your first attunement and you find out all the basics of Reiki, a couple of symbols and how to do Reiki on yourself and your family. So you wouldn't be a practitioner then you would just be able to use it for your own personal use.
00:02:42
Speaker
Okay. Okay. For like, and you might use that for first aid, for your own healing, you put it in your food, just whatever it is that you want to do with it, you have it there literally at your fingertips and just bring it in wherever you need it. Okay. Quite interesting. Quite yummy. Even now thinking the back to it was just a lovely, lovely experience. And the kids loved it. Like they were very in tuned with it as well and they would seek it out.
00:03:12
Speaker
know they'd sit on my lap and would just do it and then they'd toddle off again and vice versa they'd do it on me as well and it was lovely so that was it I never really thought anything more about it it was just there all around me and then I suppose then quite quite a few years later jeez no what 16 17 years later
00:03:34
Speaker
It came back again and I dipped into it again and I did my Reiki 2. And so that's kind of the next stage towards becoming a practitioner. There's more attunements and you just, if you get more information, how to use it, how to, how to bring it in and how to use it for others to support other people.
00:04:00
Speaker
And that was lovely as well. And then I, sure, I said, sure, I might as well go on and do the Reiki masters halfway there. And that was one of the best experiences I've had. It was wonderful. My teacher Moya was absolutely fantastic. The setting was amazing. It was just a whole round, just an immersion in Reiki in nature, but she would have brought in, brought us out into nature as well to use the elements and to use the healing power of nature.
00:04:30
Speaker
along with the Reiki. And I think that's kind of where my first taste for that came in, you know, how to... Encompassing the nature. Yeah. And the outdoors and the healing power of the forests and the sea and just where you are and the landscape that you're in. And being very mindful, being very grounded in that and how the effect that it can have on you as a person.
00:04:57
Speaker
can be profound, you know, where you are. Some of the sacred sites around Ireland, they're just mind blowing. The energy that flows through them.
00:05:08
Speaker
really fascinating. So not to go off too far off. Yeah, I have like a million questions going in about the history of Ireland and the sacred sites, but I won't take you off there. Maybe that's another conversation on the south, is it? Maybe, yeah, that would definitely be a whole other conversation. It's enough to cover here today with this. And I was just fascinated by it. And then along that journey,
00:05:35
Speaker
I was, again, I was really only working with friends and family and that was more than enough for me at the time.
Discovering Craniosacral Therapy
00:05:42
Speaker
And then Cranio came into my life. And, you know, it was one of those things that there's something else out there for me. I'm not quite sure what it is. And then Cranio came in. I'd heard of it, but I didn't really know what it was. And then I got the opportunity to experience a session.
00:05:58
Speaker
And from the first go, I was absolutely, I was just hooked. I was like, I love this. This is amazing. This is just like, it was such a healing experience for me at the time. It came to me exactly when I needed it and supported me in a time where I really needed that. Yeah. So that was that and I continued on, you know, going for this couple of sessions and then
00:06:26
Speaker
Me being me, I said, you know, I want to know a little bit more about that. So looked into it, found the core, found a couple, two different courses. There's two different schools of craniosacral therapy here in Ireland. And I went with the one that suited me best at the time and my family and my life. And it was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. It's very similar in some ways to Reiki and also very different. They both work on a very mind, body, spirit, soul level. And you can work on physical.
00:06:55
Speaker
You can work on a very physical level. Like if somebody comes to you with a physical ailment, a sore knee or something, depending on the person and where they are and what they need at the time, you might work on that physical level. It may go into an emotional level and it may sometimes also go to a soul level. It's all very different. It's all very individual.
00:07:19
Speaker
So I'm completely the long way around. No, no, no, no. It's really interesting because it sounds like you're really attuned on an energetic level to the people around you. And as you say, that even the different levels of disabled therapy, you're able to touch into that soul level of a person. Yes.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yes, it's an absolute honor and a privilege to be able to do that. I love it. Sometimes it's mind blowing. I even come away from it going, well, that was just amazing. I was like, wow, wasn't expecting that. So it's just fantastic. For anyone that doesn't know what cranial psychotherapy is, can you give a, what's the basics?
00:08:04
Speaker
Okay, there's a couple of ways of coming at that, but there's a mechanical way, which is basically, and it's all interlinked, the mechanical, the energetic, the soul, everything, it's all interlinked. Cranio-psychotherapy, it's a very gentle hands-on therapy in which you work with the cerebral spinal fluid. So this fluid, it runs around, it's all around our brain, it's kind of a cushion that feeds our brain, and it comes all the way down, the spinal cord.
00:08:33
Speaker
And this fluid, it flows. So in a way, I think it's very like the life force of us as well. It's like, it's our chi. It's all of these things kind of integrated, interconnected. They all work together and support each other and hold each other. So this, this fluid, this life force, it can get blocked at times. It can get stuck.
00:08:54
Speaker
you know if you see a river or a little stream that's trickling away and it's just flowing nicely and then the debris of life comes in twigs and sticks and and it gets caught up in places and and it doesn't flow properly and it has to work around
00:09:10
Speaker
these little things, the pebbles, the rocks, the twigs that come in, that blockage. So it's finding its way, it's finding its way around. So it's not flowing freely. And cranio is about coming in and very gently finding these blockages within the body. So they could be anywhere. They could be in your toe, they could be in your finger, your knee, your hip, your head, but they will affect how your CSF flows. And cranio very gently helps.
00:09:39
Speaker
shift these blockages. Can you talk about debris in those blockages? Is that trauma? Exactly. You read my mind. It's these traumas that we experience in life. It can be anything from when you were a small child, you might have fallen down and hurt your knee. And that
00:10:03
Speaker
when something like that happens, depending on where you are and what's going on in your life, that could be a very small little trauma or it could be a huge one. You don't know how everybody's affected so differently. You know this around trauma, it affects all of us so individually. But yeah, all of these little things that happen to us in life, all these traumas, unless we complete those stress cycles of that trauma, it gets stuck in our body. And it's sometimes
00:10:31
Speaker
Sometimes for me, if you can feel this electric current that's trying to get out of the body, but it can't, it's kind of, it's still in there and it's pinging around and it's trying to find a way out. So with Cranio, you may have to trace back where the origin of this trauma is in the body or where it's held. It may present in the shoulder, but it might be coming from somewhere very different. And you have to trace back all of those little pings and the ricochets around the body.
00:11:01
Speaker
And as you're doing that, you're kind of healing each one as you go and working what shows up around that until you can get to the core and the centre of it. It sounds very intuitive. It is, yes.
00:11:17
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So there's like, for me, listening to that, it sounds fascinating, but I would really have to be so present for the person before you. If you're thinking about that, where you had in the grocery shop two days beforehand, you're really going to have to miss, you're really going to miss what's in front of you. This requires you to be so grounded.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah, it does. Yeah, you have to be very grounded and very present. And it's really interesting even to watch when that comes up, that if you do start thinking about the grocery store or what you're having for dinner tonight, what's going on for the client in that? Is that, because sometimes our bodies are so clever. They're so, so clever.
00:12:04
Speaker
And they can throw up little distractions and false starts and ways of kind of pulling you away from something that we've been, that you, your client, whoever it is has been minding and holding for so long. And I can't let anybody know about this because.
00:12:22
Speaker
because it's a really sore point, it's a secret, it could be so many different things, but that trauma that's held, the body is very, very clever at distracting away from that. Yeah, and it wants to protect itself, it wants to protect you. Absolutely, that's all it ever does, it's protection. And sometimes the way you know this, like the way we learned to protect ourselves when we were very small worked, and it was exactly what we needed. At that time, but with the brain.
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And as you grow up and you move through life towards teenager, young adults, whatever stage of life you are at, the way you minded yourself and protected yourself when you were smaller doesn't really work anymore. And that's a lot of the time when people come in.
00:13:13
Speaker
to therapy, whether it be psychotherapy, craniosacral, Reiki, whatever it is that they come looking for. It's when it's like these coping mechanisms that worked for so long, aren't working anymore. And I just don't know what's going on. Yeah. And it's so, I find that the most interesting is that I just know something isn't right.
00:13:35
Speaker
I don't know what it is. Sometimes it is. It can be a big tea, a big drama. But other times it can be repeated patterns or the paper cuts, as I call them. And yes, they just come in the door with something's off. I don't know what it is. And then it just unfolds then. But there is an intelligence to know I'm not feeling something. I know there's something more.
00:14:01
Speaker
I know there's something more I can do and even I find interesting the attraction of people to the different modalities. Why were you attracted to cranial? Why were you attracted to Reiki or psych therapy? I always find that terribly interesting. Oh yeah it is, it's fascinating.
00:14:18
Speaker
really is. And I know for myself, when I look at why I came to eat of them, but it's very evident now looking back, but at the time I was, I didn't know what was going on. I was just like, I knew I needed something. And I'll just keep going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's that intuition again. Yeah. Yeah. And that thirst for knowledge as well, that's there. It's like, Oh, I want to find out a little bit more about that. Yeah. You know, and the intuition and just working with us and following us.
00:14:49
Speaker
And tell me, is that how it led you to hike, psych, hiking and therapy?
00:14:56
Speaker
Yep. So I was working with a few clients and family doing the cranio. And I noticed that there was a lot of trauma showing up for people. And I, I was kind of, okay, I'd like to know a little bit more and be able to hold this a little bit better when it shows up in the room. So I decided to study psychotherapy, to learn a bit more, to be able to be
00:15:23
Speaker
more of service to my clients and my family and whoever it was that I was working with. And studying psychotherapy, you know, you're always interested, you're always looking out at things and the ecotherapy came up and, oh, I love to, you know, getting out in nature and working with the elements and what comes up. And then I came across Kara who runs HikeSike.
00:15:45
Speaker
during lockdown, she took the therapy room out into the outdoors and I was, oh, brilliant. That's fantastic. I love it. Absolutely love it. And she was looking for somebody to join the team and she asked me to join her and I was absolutely delighted to join and join the Hikeside team. And it's wonderful. Like it's just, it's great. I love it.
00:16:11
Speaker
Where do you do you have a specific spot that you hike in general or is it just wherever? No, so I am based in the hill of Tara. Okay, because I was just literally thinking about you saying about those sacred sites sounds like is it on a sacred site? Yes, it is. Gosh, you have it all covered, don't you?
00:16:32
Speaker
Well, no, not all. There's more, but she's getting there. Oh, it is fantastic. And the energy, I don't know if you've ever been to the Hill of Tower, have you? Probably as a kid, but not as an adult, yeah. You should come up sometime. You should meet me up there sometime when we go for a walk.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, sidetracked back, back on point. Yeah. So I live quite close to the Hill of Tara and it's been my go-to now for years. If I need to get out, if I need to good, good grounding, I'll get myself up there. There's a lovely little Tara studio where I've done loads of meditation and groups and sound healings and
00:17:14
Speaker
Just being up there immersed in the energy quite a lot. I'd go up for full moons, sunrise, sunset, whatever. And you just be up there and walk and you can really feel the energy in the land. And it's very different at different times of the year. I'd love to know more about it. I'd love to talk to you a little bit more about that another time.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So it just made sense for me then to work from the Hill of Tarah because I live close to it. It's a very healing space. It's outdoors, it's open and you can walk, you know, you can walk without running into too many people.
00:17:57
Speaker
you can go off, you have the mounds and the leofail in the middle and you know you can go off around the edges and there's a lovely woods there as well and the rolling hills and mounds of the hostages where you can just walk and talk and yeah it's I'm nearly imagining myself there now.
00:18:19
Speaker
What have you noticed or have you noticed a difference between in the therapy room versus being outside? Do you feel that there is a shift? Have you have clients done
Outdoor Therapy and Client Benefits
00:18:30
Speaker
both with you and reported back that the energy just is better outside or it's just at the time of being needed or have some people just been, no, it's not for me?
00:18:43
Speaker
So at the moment, I don't actually have anybody who's done both with me. So I don't know about that shift from in-room to outdoors. But having worked with people outdoors, I definitely find people really feel the benefit of it because they're outside, they're getting exercise, they're getting their blood flowing, they're getting their endorphins up, they're getting oxygen into the lungs. And they can sometimes very,
00:19:15
Speaker
I'm trying, I'm trying to think of the word now, but at times it can be they can move through the trauma that's showing up and the story that's showing up in a very gentle. Yes.
00:19:29
Speaker
supported and quick way at times and even I find you go up and I'd be up there and be like what's the weather like today and generally the weather reflects an awful lot of what's going on for the climb so depending on what it is that some days like it's really windy and you're kind of you're walking into the wind and every step is hard
00:19:53
Speaker
And that's exactly what's going on for the client in their life at the time. Every step is so tough. Yeah, they can connect to the symbolism of it. Yeah. I've often wondered actually with ecotherapy and with this hiking as well. So I trained recently in EMD orthotherapy and Francine Shapiro and how she came about was walking one day and she knew that something had happened. It was irritating her and she was thinking about it.
00:20:22
Speaker
And she went for a walk and she noticed by the end of the walk that she felt better. And she kind of went, what just happened there? And she realized when she was walking, what EMD was about bilateral stimulation. So she was looking left and looking right. And even in the movement of the body of each step, left, right, left, right.
00:20:42
Speaker
I wondered, was that allowing the brain and the body process fully, the whole brain, the whole body process, what they're talking about? And it sounds like something like that is going on. Now, I've no, I've no research on that, but I find it very interesting. It's sort of within the same frame. Yeah. Yeah. It does sound like, sound like it again. I don't know any research on that. Yeah.
00:21:06
Speaker
but yes, it sounds like it's a very similar process because you are walking, you know, and some people much prefer to be outdoors because you're not sitting just looking at somebody opposite you in a chair. You are looking around you left, right, like you say, and you're looking at maybe there's a bird flying off or a dog running somewhere or, and you have to watch where you're putting your steps.
00:21:33
Speaker
your feet each step. So there is that left right, that bilateral movement.
00:21:38
Speaker
Going on trauma work. Sorry. Yeah. Well, go ahead. Just as you're saying there again, when trauma with it, you'd all, you'd often hear them say about, you know, uh, making sure that the person doesn't get taken back, especially with big T traumas, the PTSD or PDS is I'd like to call it. It's that you can very easily get taken back to the event and it's to ground the person in the here and now while remembering the event.
00:22:08
Speaker
And what you're talking about there is you've so much to concentrate on in the here and now, it's grounding you without taking you too far back into the past. So it starts automatically built in piece of grounding while processing. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting.
00:22:29
Speaker
What have you noticed then, I suppose, with the integration of all these various modalities?
Integrating Multiple Healing Modalities
00:22:36
Speaker
So how has it helped you in your journey? Yeah, well, it's helped me hugely in my journey over the years and in many, many different ways. I find
00:22:52
Speaker
This is probably going off now a little bit off, so pull me back if I get completely sidetracked. Okay. I will. I find the healing power of nature to be absolutely immense. And a couple of years ago, I was very unwell, I was very sick, and I was pretty much bedridden for a good month and a half. And one of the things that got me back on my feet and back
00:23:20
Speaker
able to do anything again was the sea, going to the sea and getting into the sea. So even though I'd always been very aware of the healing power of nature, then something in my life happened and all of my skills that I'd had built up to then, it's even saying it now, it's nearly like they were washed away. Right. And I was left and I had to start again and
00:23:49
Speaker
something, the one thing that really helped me get back on my feet was getting to the sea and getting into the water. And now I swear to God, if you'd known me, you would say, there is absolutely no way on earth. D. Riley is getting anywhere near that sea. I hated the sand. I hated the sea. I didn't like getting wet. I don't like being cold. It was like everything about it. Now, definitely never, no. People would say go for a swim and I'd be like, oh my God, I can't think of anything worse in the world. And then suddenly over
00:24:20
Speaker
Well, it wasn't suddenly, but then I needed that healing power of the sea to heal myself. And for me, it was very much nearly, it was like every time I got into the sea, it was like having a mini craniosacral therapy session and a psychotherapy session because your mind was just cleared. Yeah, I heard that.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah I've heard that said so many times and the research on it is again it comes back to this it resets your nervous system so if your nervous system is these were jangled or on edge or worked up it allows you to come back to a neutral space. Yes.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, okay, very good. And that life force that I was talking about, the craniocycle fluid, you can feel the difference in, I could very much feel the difference in that between when I get into the sea and when I come out of the sea.
00:25:14
Speaker
When I get in, it's very blocked. All those little things are in the way and it's working its way down through it and it's just not flowing properly. And then you come out and you're like, oh, I can feel it now. It's flowing much more easily. You can feel, you could feel that life force coming back internally inside me.
00:25:33
Speaker
And now I'm after getting completely sidetracked from the question that you did ask me. No, we're talking about how the healing modalities worked and how they can help heal the trauma. I mean, that's a fabulous example of that. There's, there's no getting away from what they're called at night, the cold exposure therapy or sea swimming, whatever you want to call it. There is something about it that the body responds to. Absolutely.
00:25:58
Speaker
And I suppose there's no harm for people to explore it if you feel called to it. If you feel called to it, yeah. Yeah. Like you were saying there, there's a lot of people that would be listening going, absolutely freaking love, I'm not doing it. And yes, I've heard that so many times and now people swear by it. Yeah. I just, on that note, like if you, for
00:26:19
Speaker
if anybody was going to try it. You do still have to be aware around it and be mindful. The sea is the sea and to have respect for it. And I've learned how to do it in a way that suits me, which a lot of people would do as well. So I have neoprene gloves, I have neoprene shoes,
00:26:44
Speaker
I always have a warm drink for after when I'm getting out, preferably something with sugar in it. So, you know, you're getting that warmed internally as well. So you don't, you might have to look for that, the after drop. So you do have to be mindful of it if you are doing it. It's just, just for anybody who's gone, oh, I might try that. Yeah. And to go with some beliefs.
00:27:07
Speaker
Yes. Well, safety, of course. Yeah. Safety is paramount. If you look at the sea and you go, oh, I'm not sure, don't go in. Can, yeah. How, how have you, or how do you think the integration of all of these modalities, how it's like as well, what is it?
00:27:27
Speaker
Where do you see yourself going as a therapist? What is it? Is it just, I'm following my path. I'm enjoying the road that I'm on and I'll see where it takes me. Or is this, I'm doing this because I want to get to a certain way of working. Where do you see this going through yourself? Because actually recently you had a post, I think it was even today about training in yoga teacher training. So there's, there's many modalities that you're working from here.
00:27:58
Speaker
There is. Yeah. And I suppose the answer to that question is kind of both. I am just following my path and going with what really feels right for me and integrating all of these skills, these crafts that I'm collecting along the way so I can meet my clients where they are in that moment and bring in whatever it is that they need to help them at that time.
00:28:28
Speaker
And what might be one day, it might be something completely different the next time I see them. But having, I like to call it my craft basket, because I love to craft as well. It's something that I really enjoy doing. Yes, I do love a bit of creativity. At the moment, I'm looking at a way to bring that craft and creativity in as well.
00:28:57
Speaker
That's another thing, but yes. So you asked me, I am following my path and I'm not really sure exactly where it's going. I don't have a, this is where I want to be. I have a, I'm picking up all these crafts as I go along the way and I'm integrating them and I'm waving them together to make it what I think is a beautiful tapestry of healing and helping supporting people.
00:29:25
Speaker
through their trauma so they can come out to the other side and so they can come home to themselves and feel centered, you know, and I'm going to say peaceful and that peace comes and goes for all of us, you know, we're always going to get knocks and bumps and there's always going to be times when everything is like, and then again, a bit like the sea, sometimes it's raining and sometimes it's lovely and calm and peaceful and it's just so
00:29:54
Speaker
So all of the modalities that I am picking up along the way are all going towards that. I have a really great interest in rest and what that is and helping people figure out, helping my clients figure out what that means to them.
00:30:13
Speaker
and how they can incorporate a little bit of that into their life. Because I think we've gotten so, so very busy lately, not even lately, over the last, I don't know how many years, but even since COVID, it's like everything has stepped up another level. People are even busier and caught up and doing. And so rest has been overlooked so much and how very important it is to our nervous system, to our healing.
The Importance of Rest in Healing
00:30:43
Speaker
to trauma that we've experienced. If you keep pushing through, you can and you will keep pushing through.
00:30:50
Speaker
But at some stage, that's going to show somewhere in the body, in the mind, in the soul. So it'll show up somewhere. What does rest mean to you then? What does anyone who hears, oh, well, I'll take an app and that's it. But what does rest mean? Well, sometimes rest can literally mean taking an app for me. Sometimes I will actually lie down. I might set my timer for 20 minutes because if I go over that, then I get really groggy. I go, oh, it's not so good.
00:31:18
Speaker
So for me, rest means many, many different things and learning how to rest was a journey in itself for me. I didn't know how to rest. I didn't really know what rest was. I'm a recovering doer for sure. So for me, rest means finding that place inside myself
00:31:44
Speaker
where the calm is, where there's a bit of quiet, where I can kind of sit with myself. And when I say sit myself, I don't necessarily mean sitting in a seat and just going, yeah, I'm sitting here with myself. Sometimes sitting with myself can be walking up in Tara with me and walking mindfully, walking slowly, maybe taking my shoes and socks off and just walking in the grass and being really, really present.
00:32:13
Speaker
So for me, rest means so many different things. That's a big part of it is, you know, sometimes we're busy because we don't know how to be with ourselves and it can be quite a scary place to be with yourself. So if you can rest with you, there's no better place you can be. What role do you think self-care and compassion plays in learning how to rest?
00:32:44
Speaker
It plays a huge role. That's another one of those big questions. And I'll try to be, try not to wander too far from it. But yeah, it's self care and self compassion plays such a big role in rest. Self care is one of those words that we hear.
00:33:09
Speaker
all the time, especially as a therapist, you know that yourself, like your self-care is so important. But what actually is it? What is self-care? What does that mean? What does it look like? How does it feel? We don't know that. Like I've never come across a definitive answer of what self-care is. The longer I'm doing this work,
00:33:38
Speaker
the more I'm learning about self-care. And even now, after how many years of kind of doing this, I can still find it hard to verbalize and to find the language around what self-care is. But it's so much more than what we're led to believe or than what we think it is as a society. It's really about
00:34:06
Speaker
really like this sounds so simple and it is and it isn't but it's really really about coming back and minding yourself yeah like yeah simple it seems so simple
00:34:21
Speaker
You have to know the need of minding. Yes. And that requires being at home. That requires being in touch with the body, which is probably one of the hardest parts I have found to get anybody to go and take sub-care seriously. Oh yeah, yeah, sure I do. I mind myself and make sure that I go for my walks and all that sort of stuff.
00:34:42
Speaker
It's, they're so far from themselves to know that, that, that niggling feeling in the body is actually something it's not just a Irish or could be anything and ignoring it and powering on. And carry on. Yeah. Yeah. But even that the need, how often do we ask ourselves, how often does people ask themselves, what do I need? Yeah.
00:35:06
Speaker
You'd ask a child, a friend, a lover, a partner, you'd ask somebody else, well, what do you need? How often do any of us ask ourselves, what do I need? And that's a big piece of self-care is even figuring out the fact that I actually, oh, I actually have needs.
00:35:31
Speaker
in the first place. I have no idea what they are, but I do have needs and it's okay to have needs. Giving yourself permission. That piece, that vital piece of giving yourself permission to have needs and wants and learning how to meet them for yourself. It's easy to meet them for other people.
00:35:57
Speaker
And sometimes that can feel like self-care when you're looking after other people and you're meeting their needs, but coming home to yourself and kind of going, okay, I can, I can maybe meet one of my needs today, or I can acknowledge that I have a need today and how might I go about meeting that. Helping clients to come around to that piece is
00:36:24
Speaker
can be sometimes monumental work. Absolutely. It really is a game changer. And I suppose the importance of compassion in that for me is because a lot of what I've seen is, oh, I can't take care of myself because it's selfish, or I'm shameful for having needs, or having compassion for yourself would be almost trained in this way of thinking, of going, you having needs is something to be ashamed of.
00:36:51
Speaker
and having to leave yourself again and again and again just to keep going to keep up with order to get the attention and the love but conditionally. That compassion piece allows you to step back and go actually hold on let's see if this was my friend if you say if I could externalize this feeling and put it into one of my friends or a kid and them going I can't say what I need or get what I need now because you won't accept me for that.
00:37:19
Speaker
That's heartbreaking. And if you can have the compassion for yourself in that, that starts to change. That really starts going on. Oh, no, I'm not doing this anymore to myself. I deserve so much better. Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes that is the way I'm sure
00:37:36
Speaker
you're very aware of this, but that sometimes that's the way that it begins with a lot of clients is, well, now, if this was your friend, your sister, your brother, somebody external, like you say, what would you say to them at this time? Or how, how would you support them if this was happening for them? And it can really, for some people, it can be really be a game changer. It's the first time they might've actually come to
00:38:06
Speaker
to say it or consider it. Yeah. So I don't think that answered your question. It did. No, it is. We spoke on self care and compassion.
Advice on Trauma Work and Finding the Right Fit
00:38:17
Speaker
But actually, I was considering anyone, anyone doing trauma work or knowing they have to go to deal with that thing they don't want to deal with.
00:38:28
Speaker
And that can be one of the hardest ways or hardest steps, I suppose. And part of these conversations about there's, there's many ways to deal with trauma. You can sit in a room and you can talk about it, or you can go up the hill tower and walk it out, or you can, whatever way, get into the seat. There's so many modalities. So what advice, given how you work across a broad spectrum, what advice would you give to anybody that's coming into thinking about, okay,
00:38:57
Speaker
I need to deal with this now. So they're scared. They may not want to just jump straight into it. What advice would you give them? I would advise somebody like that to really take it slowly. And it's about finding the right fit.
00:39:17
Speaker
So sometimes when you're in that place and you don't, you know, you need something, but you don't know what it is and you don't even know where to start. Like, what will I do? Will I go for Reiki? What is Reiki? Crania? What, what, what? Talking? What? I just don't know what I want or what I need. So a good place to start is to, I suppose, first of all, people, if you're in that space and you can like look up
00:39:47
Speaker
the association websites and also maybe talk to friends, you know, somebody that you know and you trust about, look, I just, I need something. I'm not quite sure what it is. And I was going to say, trust your intuition and feel into your gut. But sometimes when you're in that space, you don't know how to do that or where to even start when it comes to that. So the first, one of the first steps is actually reaching out and
00:40:17
Speaker
and knowing that sometimes the first time it might not actually work. Yeah. And that's okay. Sometimes I think finding the right therapist and the right modality is like finding the right pair of jeans. You know kind of what you want, but you're not sure how it's going to fit or what it's going to look like on. And it might actually be something quite different to what you had imagined. You might want the skinny jeans and then you actually find that the
00:40:46
Speaker
the wide legged ones really feel so much better. So sometimes you have to try a few things on before you find the right thing. And even if you have been in therapy or, you know, going to a practitioner or something years ago, what works for you then might not work now. You might need something different.
00:41:09
Speaker
So if you are going to do something, to give it a little time, to take it slowly. If you're going to see a practitioner of any modality, to kind of say to yourself, I'm going to go, I'm going to commit to myself here for four to six sessions, and then I'm going to come back and reevaluate and see how I'm getting on. Because the first session, you never really know. The first few sessions, you're getting to know your therapist,
00:41:37
Speaker
You're a facilitator, you're a practitioner or whatever you want to call them. And they're getting to know you. So it's a very, it's a very special time in some ways. And it can feel, sometimes it can feel a bit jarring and a bit, I'm not really sure about this. And that can be because we're holding so much fear inside us.
00:41:59
Speaker
that, like we were talking about earlier on, that piece, that protection piece, it's like, no, this is not, no, no, no, because it's still... And I think honor that. Honor that. That's not right for you right now. Go with that. Or even say it in the therapy room, going, I'm really not feeling this, I don't feel good. That's so important. So important. And really take that on board.
00:42:21
Speaker
yeah to name it and to bring it in yeah but yeah i suppose that's it is to take it slow and and it's okay if the first purpose you see doesn't fit yeah it's hard but and it's okay
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah. For me, the likes of that, I've learned something. Even if it's I learned, I don't like it. I don't see that as a failure or something going wrong or whatever. It says, oh, that's not for me. That doesn't feel right. That's great. It's more data I know about myself and my body.
00:42:57
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And as well, your body picks up on this as well. If you're doing something and it's really not feeling right for you and you keep doing it, your body knows that there's something not going on. So it's that mind-body split kind of happens and the body is like, I know you're bringing me here, but I don't like it. Yeah. I don't like it and I'm not going to play ball. So just, you know, no.
00:43:25
Speaker
So to honor that piece as well, that if that shows up to kind of, okay, right, this is not right. For whatever reason, it may not be the right fit. It may not be the right time. It may not be the right kind of therapy, but as you say, you'll always take something away from us. You'll always find something. And sometimes it can take a few sessions before you'll actually know that.
00:43:53
Speaker
or before you'll know, this is actually a really good fish and I like it and it's what I...
00:43:59
Speaker
It's where I need to be at the moment and it's what I need. And knowing that you as a client, as a person, as an individual, you have every right and it's okay to say to your therapist, actually didn't like the way you did that or what you said. Very important. Yeah. Very important that it is about you. It's not about what I or some other therapist might think is the right thing. It's really about you.
00:44:28
Speaker
the client, the person as an individual and your space. A hundred percent. So I suppose anyone listening here now and going, okay, this is kind of, this is breaking my interest and I'm wondering maybe like contacting. So what, what anybody contacting you, are they contacting you for specific modalities or somebody contacting you, they go, okay, what do you expect in the first session? What do you.
00:44:54
Speaker
what would they be looking at and going, OK, I'll send an email, I'll give a call, I'll give a text. So I suppose it's very different. Some people come to me knowing that they definitely what they want is craniosacral therapy or they want psychotherapy. And. And I'll work with whatever it is that the person wants and where they are at the time and have a little chat on the phone about what's what's going on, what's going on.
00:45:24
Speaker
what do you think you're looking for and maybe some people come and go I just haven't got a clue what I need I'm just coming and I'm going to check it out and see what happens and does it blend then yeah yeah okay it would they they do tend they support each other both very very well psychotherapy
00:45:46
Speaker
in a lot of ways, it is different. So in psychotherapy, you wouldn't put your hands on. Cranial psychotherapy traditionally is done lying up on a plinth. You have all your clothes on. The only thing you need to take off really is your shoes. And if you really want to keep them on, you can, it's okay. You can work around that. So they're very different and yet they support each other very, very beautifully and very well.
00:46:10
Speaker
because in Cranio you would talk to the person as well and work with what shows up. I'd work with what shows up in their body between my hands.
00:46:21
Speaker
And I imagine I've experienced it myself, but I've also heard about it. There's great shifts in emotions in terms of any kind of energy heating, any of those therapy dialysis. And a lot can come through. So you having that, the other side of the coin of having the full therapy of going, okay, well, let's talk about what's coming up. I mean, that's what a valuable resource to anybody going through or unblocking, as you say, with some of the debris of the traumas that they've been through.
00:46:51
Speaker
and knowing that they're safe. Yeah I personally think that's very very important to know that you're safe and as well for me when the client if something big does come up and there is a big shift really being mindful at the end of a session that they're very back and present
00:47:11
Speaker
in themselves and that they're going to walk out of the room into their everyday life and be okay in that. Sometimes it's always, it can be a big session, but bringing them back into the present moment as fully as possible and grounded in themselves so they can move into their back, move back into their day to day living, held without carrying too much of what came up. Yeah.
00:47:40
Speaker
Beautiful, beautiful. Okay, so, Dee, anyone listening today and wanting to know more, wanting to know, oh, I'd love to know more about that. Any resources I should recommend, any books or podcasts or anything like that on anything we talked about today? Yeah, this is where my mind is going to go completely blank.
00:48:03
Speaker
I can put it in afterwards. Yeah, there's on craniosacral therapy, there's a couple of good books. One of them is Kate McKinnon, I think that's her name. And it's from My Heart and Hands is the book. And it's a lovely read around craniosacral therapy, what it is and how it can support you and how it can hold you. And there's another one by John Opleger as well.
00:48:32
Speaker
who is one of the founding fathers of Cranio and it's called My Inner Physician, The Inner Physician. It's only a short little book, but it was the first one that I read when I'd heard about it. When I had my first couple of Cranio sessions, I got this book and when I say I devoured it, I sat out in my back garden in the sunshine and read it and I wouldn't have been a reader back then
00:48:58
Speaker
In less than a day, I sat there until I'd gone through it all. I just loved it, how it spoke about that inner physician that we all have inside us and learning to listen to that and to trust it and how to hear it. Because most of us have disconnected. We've pulled out the wires and we don't know how to get them back in. So it's learning how to reconnect that. On Reiki, there's loads of resources out there. I can't think of any books
00:49:27
Speaker
Right now, off to Han, I know I have one or two downstairs. That's okay. So anybody that does want to stay up to date with your work, with your offerings, what is the best place that they can find you and follow you?
Contact Information for Deirdre Rowley
00:49:40
Speaker
Okay. At the moment, the best place to find me and follow me is on Instagram. I'm whole body wellness.
00:49:48
Speaker
on Instagram, I'm in the process of building my website at the moment. So that's not up and running yet, but it will be in the next while. So that's the best place. You can also email me directly through hike psych. So that's deirdre at hike psych.ie. Okay. And they would be the best places I do. I have my own email as well at the moment, which is whole body wellness at gmail.com. Okay.
00:50:14
Speaker
Brilliant. A lot of places. Thanks so much for covering all of what you know. You've talked a lot about a lot of modalities. I feel we've got many podcasts in one just with you going into what you do. So fantastic. And all the best with your yoga teacher training. You're doing that with, it's a trauma-informed yoga teacher training.
00:50:41
Speaker
Isfish is the name of the school that I'm doing it with. And yes, it is functional yoga for therapy. So it's really coming from a functional base, which I didn't really know anything about that until recently. And it's very much about, I would have thought, yoga is, this is the pose that you have to do when everybody looks the same. And the aim of yoga is to get into that pose.
00:51:10
Speaker
come hell or high water and you're trying to get into it. This approach is very much, each and every body is very individual. And what my body can do and the shapes my body can get into
00:51:27
Speaker
are very different from what your body or what somebody else's body or what the next person's body can do and get into. So this comes from a very functional base of our physical anatomy is different. So not everybody can do the same thing. And it's very much working around that. And there's a big piece, like a big part of the learning in the yin side of it was
00:51:52
Speaker
the holding of trauma in the body, how it's held and how to meet that and how to work with that through yoga. And through that internal space that we can find through yin or maybe a yin practice. I personally, I love yin yoga. That's where my heart is. And I'm going on now shortly to do the yang side of it, which would be more the vinyasa and hatha side of it. So the more active yoga. And it's just fascinating.
00:52:26
Speaker
It's the international school of functional yoga teachers. OK, of course, I'll add that in as well if anybody wants to look it up as well. You don't let the grass grow, do you? You're always quite active. Yes, like I said, I'm a recovering doer, so I'm still quite active and still doing.
00:52:45
Speaker
However, I'm learning how to do it in a very restful and supportive and supported way and really minding myself and my nervous system in that. Yeah.
00:52:57
Speaker
Wow. Well, fantastic. And I look forward to seeing what you do with it. I can see I've done a workshops in your future. I have a workshop in the pipeline at the moment I'm developing. Okay. Slowly and steadily, you know, and again, it's come back to rest. Yeah, it's all about rest and how, what rest is and how to, how to rest and how to have the courage to go into rest.
00:53:27
Speaker
Let me know what it is and I'd love to share it on social media. And if I can, I'd love to attend. So yeah, do keep me updated and yeah, thank you so much. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you very much. I think we, I think we covered all bases there. It's been a great experience. Good, good. Okay. I'll leave you go and thanks everybody for listening and we'll see you soon. Bye.