Shall We Dance?
By Brian Dean
Published in the July 2011 issue of Natural Awakenings

Any healing session is a dance where two people come together to become one for a while, then part. They become partners in a process, the process of healing. They work for the best results, making the most of their time together, client and therapist as one. When that happens, it is a beautiful thing.

A good therapist reacts to the client's needs, creating movements, using energies, making symmetry based on what information is picked up from the client. And this information is usually non-verbal, and most likely in the form of energy rather than physical movement. This combination of messages sent via energy and corresponding movements create the dance where therapist and client are one.

Depending on what is being done (energy work / massage), and what styles are being used, the dance can flow easier. With energy work, there is energy received from the client and energy sent from the therapist. While the therapist is working, symbiosis is achieved creating a balance based on what is needed (and most of this is happening on a subconscious level). For example, Reiki achieves its own balance based on what is needed. It automatically senses the need and adjusts itself to that.

With massage, some styles are more amenable to the dance, though all do become willing partners. With Swedish, there is flow, but there is also routine. (Most therapists start with a routine that they modify based on the client's needs.) Freestyle modes like Esalen lend themselves to be a more willing partner in the dance. They have no routine, just movements. The therapists starts moving and whatever their intuition calls on them to do, they do at whatever location they feel directed to be. Again, a partnership of communication translating to movement and flow. Dance partners letting energy move between them, directing them, flowing together, becoming one.

Energy. Unseen, intuited communication. They become the music. Need. Ebb and flow. Movement. These become the dance, the dance of healing. Two souls intermingling to a beat that is there just for them. Coming together, becoming one. Enjoying the time, the beauty of the encounter. Then parting, both better for the experience. Enjoy the dance of healing.