Krystel Clear
In this podcast you will experience my unique approach to healing, happiness and following my souls purpose. My intention is to provide a platform that aims to guide and support individuals on their journey towards personal growth, inner healing, spiritual enlightenment or just taking the right steps to reach your highest potential!
My goal is to create a thought provoking, safe and nurturing space for listeners to explore various topics. Healing, self-discovery, mindfulness, wellness, empowerment, accountability, the raw truths of life, love and overcoming everyday obstacles.
I will have my tribe of healing coaches, doctors, colleagues and peers joining me to discuss their journeys in hopes of bringing enlightenment and empowerment to your world.
Life can be messy so let’s talk about that and the worthiness, forgiveness and compassion it takes to face our darkness and shine our light!
I hope this podcast validates your feelings, gives you the permission needed to share your voice, speak your truth and navigate your own journey with strength and perseverance.
**This podcast does not supplement any mental health or medical advice from practitioners. It’s a guiding tool providing resources from my own personal life experiences. The intention is to shed light and love onto the lives of others. You are not alone**
Krystel Clear
Emotional Release & Holistic Healing with Wanda Flores
Ever wondered how the body holds onto emotional trauma and what it takes to release it? Discover the remarkable journey of Wanda Flores, a massage therapist with a specialization in emotional release therapy. Over the past 12 years, Wanda has been a beacon of holistic healing at Mind Body Medicine in Sarasota, blending traditional Western Medicine with holistic practices. This episode sheds light on the collaborative environment at Mind Body Medicine and dives into the importance of addressing both emotional and physical well-being for comprehensive healing.
Respecting boundaries is more than a protocol—it's a crucial element of trust in therapeutic settings. Wanda shares a poignant personal story of a time when her own boundaries were crossed, highlighting the trauma response that can ensue. This conversation underscores the delicate yet essential balance between encouraging clients to face challenging work and maintaining their set limits, advocating for mindful and respectful bodywork practices. The importance of trust, communication, and ensuring safety and comfort in therapy is a recurrent theme throughout our discussion.
Experience the profound emotional and physical benefits of holistic healing as Wanda recounts transformative stories from her practice, including a touching moment with a 90-year-old woman releasing childhood trauma. We discuss the synergy of combining massage therapy with acupuncture, managing severe inflammation and food allergies, and the broader definition of success that includes rest, intentional time with loved ones, and nurturing our mind, body, and spirit. Join us for this inspiring episode that explores the healing power of mind-body medicine and redefines what it means to truly thrive.
Thank you for joining me today. Please know that this podcast and the information shared is not to replace or supplement any mental health or personal wellness modalities provided by practitioners. It’s simply me, sharing my personal experiences and I appreciate you respecting and honoring my story and my guests. If something touched your heart please feel free to like, share and subscribe. Have a beautiful day full of gratitude, compassion and unconditional love.
Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of Crystal Clear. I have a wonderful guest on today, ms Wanda Florez, and Wanda is a massage therapist, but she really specializes in helping you release some of the emotional aspects that can get trapped in the body and I've had a few experiences with her work and I have to say it's it's really special. So thank you so much for being on today, wanda. Thank you, I'm excited for this.
Speaker 2:I really am. Yeah, I'm excited for you.
Speaker 1:I mean, when you said you've never done anything like this. I was like oh well, wow.
Speaker 2:Okay, perfect, this is great.
Speaker 1:You know, and we met, I don't even know how long ago now, six, eight months ago probably at a ladies nurture and network event and just kind of kicked it off from there. You joined one of my retreats and, um, yeah, it was just great synergy and um, it's always enlightening to and like fills me up to meet other people in these transitional healing spaces and I feel like once you're open to that, you really understand, like what that person's healing about themselves and also their desire to help others heal as well.
Speaker 1:And so I would love if you could just kind of give us an overview of you know where you are now and kind of what's led up to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, wow, okay. So an overview of where I am now I am working, like, my title is a massage therapist. I'm a licensed massage therapist. That's what gives me the license to touch and that like space that I, that's the, that's the box I work in, right, but what I really do in that space, like you said, is really helping people connect to their emotions and I've really had some beautiful connective pieces that have brought me to the place that I am and I look at the whole thing that's brought me to this and it's such a journey. I mean we could be here for a day to talk about all of those pieces, or a book.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, definitely, and it's been a journey of especially the last 12 years or so that's really brought me to here, working with other modalities, other practitioners, to really try to help people heal really is what it's about. Helping people heal, helping people connect to the traumas that they've run from um creating a safe space that people feel seen and loved enough that they can really go into those spaces that they've not been able to process at their own stuff, and also trying to, like make sure that I'm not stepping into spaces that I don't belong, that I'm not qualified to do, which is an interesting piece and I love that. Like right now, where I'm at is I feel like I'm part of a network, a team that I get to be in that space where I don't feel like how do I help this person get where they need to go without going into places? I'm not trained and qualified, so that's a new space for me and I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it. It's a really awesome the MindBody Medicine and it's a beautiful facility Um you know it's in the. Midwest closet here in Sarasota. But you walk in and the second you walk into the space it's like, oh wow, this is tranquil, this is awesome.
Speaker 1:There's like a Zinden library where you can go and just hang out and read books. There is this, you know, a crystal shop which has really beautiful, unique pieces and there's a ton of different practitioners there. You know different acupuncture, iv therapy, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, you know. Give us a little overview of what the space is like and what I find personally is so unique about it is because it's a mix of holistic and Western medicine and I love that. The psychologists and psychiatrists there are still very much into the holistic piece of let's not medicate you.
Speaker 1:Let's get to the root. Let's understand where the energy blockage is. And I feel like all of you different practitioners there have a very special, unique gift that you bring to enhance that. So, like you said, even if it's something that you're not specialized, but guess what, two doors down there's a person for you Exactly. And that's just kind of a very all-encompassing spot and, to be honest, if I had the need for a spot like that, would be my place.
Speaker 2:It is. It has been the greatest gift, like recently, for me to be part of that it's, and I feel so. There are so many elements to it. One is what you see and experience when you step in is that, like one of my clients tells me, when she walks in it feels like a warm hug, like it just. There's this sense of tranquility, a sense of just presence. There's a quietness, even when it gets busy there's a sense of quietness.
Speaker 2:I love the courtyard with the fountains there it's just it's just really there's something special about it and it's it's rooted. It started with the, so the, the business name there is MindBodyMedicine, and I love the fact that I get to, as a practitioner, come in and rent a space and I get to have my own business. But there's this collaborative piece, right, and it's an interesting thing because you look at different business models and it's kind of a new piece of like we're not financially tied together other than the fact that I rent a space there. So we have all of this connectivity, referral from one person to another, like I think this is the person that can help you with your next piece and there's no financial ties, right.
Speaker 1:So there's no selling, it's no system.
Speaker 2:It's no selling. We are all genuinely just trying to help people the best that we know how to help them get well. But, dr Sylvester, he's the psychotherapist there and or he's the psychiatrist there. He's the psychiatrist, and so he brings just a really tremendous element and a lot of intention to that Eastern Western piece. Right, that that mindful like and like, looking at the whole pieces. Where's where is it blocked? Is this? Is this really a trauma based thing? Is this a hormonal disruption that's happening? Is there, like he does work with people dealing with mold toxicity, dealing with heavy metals, dealing, like he does lots of blood work, he looks at vitamin levels, he looks at all of these different pieces. So he's looking at the emotional pieces, he's looking at the chemistry pieces and he's looking at the psychology, the traditional psychological pieces, and looking for all the tools that he possibly can to help people and um he, along with um, a psychotherapist and um someone who does neurofeedback and breath work, an acupuncturist, and she's so much more than an acupuncturist.
Speaker 1:I know I feel the same about my functional medicine, doctor Right.
Speaker 2:And another massage therapist together, actually for years before they had the space, before before they had the facility, um to work doing this collaborative work. That's really cool. It's actually bringing multiple practitioners into the same room at the same time working with a patient and it develops this dynamic of incredible. I've experienced it. I've had the tremendous honor of being invited into working with them um, training into what they do and now getting to be able to work with them on a regular basis where we'll have um. We have people that I may be doing elements of massage therapy while the psychotherapist is in the room and doing talk therapy, and we may even have neurofeedback happening at the same time and or we may be having acupuncture happening at the same time and really working using all of those tools to dive deep so that people can really access spaces that are hard to access Right, because they've spent their whole life blocking them off and having the support there from different avenues.
Speaker 1:And the level of comfort to be like okay, this is overwhelming. I think I want to stick with these two today.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I love that you guys create such a comfortable, warm dynamic that it's really up to the person yes, to choose what they want to bring into their circle and what they want to bring into their lives, and that may sound very overwhelming. I've done all of those different things I've never done them all together.
Speaker 2:So I'm sitting here like oh no, and most of us, when we first try it, are terrified.
Speaker 1:No feedback and massage at the same time and like what, which is great, so I that's just something very special, though it is.
Speaker 2:it really is so special and it creates this dynamic of of of like a family team working together, because the amount of trust we have to build with each other is huge. One of the pieces that we do in order to work in that dynamic is we have to be willing to get on the table and receive work from each other so we can experience it A hundred percent, helps them walk through that and pays very much attention to what are their comfort levels and is not going to push them to do things that doesn't seem like it's actually what they're ready to do.
Speaker 1:Correct Right, because the last thing you want to do is re-traumatize someone.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right.
Speaker 1:As someone, who's recovered from PTSD. I could imagine at this part of my journey I would be like, okay, all the things please.
Speaker 2:Yes, but I could imagine in the beginning it was such a vulnerable space.
Speaker 1:Like okay, I'm going to put my foot in the door on this one and I'm going to put my foot in like okay, like a ween away in, and I'm assuming there's a protocol to get to that point, to where they have everyone there.
Speaker 2:That's absolutely right, almost like a steps program that they have to take. Yeah, so, basically, they're going to do an initial interaction with the psychotherapist and they're going to have at least one or several sessions with the psychotherapist until the psychotherapist and that individual is on the same page, to make sure that they know what they're ready for moving forward. They're also usually going to have a session with each of the practitioners before they go into combined sessions. Okay, right, not always, but frequently, sometimes. So, like for myself as a massage therapist, I can speak to what I've experienced.
Speaker 2:Sometimes someone will have trauma related to touch right, so, or the absence of touch Right, and so, as soon as like, it can be the most basic, you know, hands on the shoulder and just being there, creating and nurturing space. That's actually a lot of what I do, in that I'm following the energy, I'm paying attention to where things are being held in the body. But it's also again that incredible mindfulness, one of knowing finding out beforehand how comfortable this person is with touch, with massage therapy. Is this a very familiar, comfortable space, isn't it? If there's fear around it, making sure that I ask for permission before I touch a different area of the body, before I touch their stomach, before I touch a foot, to make sure that they know that that's where I'm going, that they are empowered.
Speaker 2:Right, that they're empowered and that they're comfortable, that they get to steer and be in control. It's really. It's actually something I've become aware of very recently is how much, when it comes to these therapies, it's such a balancing piece of finding that space of making someone feel so empowered and so in control that they can trust themselves to surrender because they feel that safe, and how much is so. It's this like this surrender space, because that's what needs to happen for healing to happen is a sense of surrender. But that only happens when you feel like you are in an element of control, right, right, and when you feel like you're ready for it, I think, and that you can accept that this is what needs to happen.
Speaker 1:Yes, because I think when we try to really quote control we take ourselves out of that.
Speaker 2:And I know what you mean by control. I know what you meant by control. So, just for the listeners out there, don't try to control and surrender Right. Exactly about this. Don't try to control and surrender Right exactly. But this is what I ran into right. As a therapist, I recently received therapy massage therapy where I went into the space and I said this is and it had to do with fertility pieces for myself, where I'm at and what I know my goals are and what I knew I wanted out of that space. And I went into this space and I said please. Initially I'm like I need you to know, please don't do any deep work on my sacral area. There are points there that I don't want stimulated because of where I am Right, what's happening right now. I know it would feel good, but I'm asking you to please, not because of what my goals are and what I'm trying to accomplish Right and where things are at in my life.
Speaker 1:And good for you for even knowing that Right, because most people don't really know to even say that, right, and that's a whole thing too right.
Speaker 2:But I felt like I came in and I communicated that very clearly and the therapist immediately wanted to say, well, what about this? Like nope, that's stimulation to those areas. I really don't want that, Right. Okay, well, I might try some, something else. But let's get started. And this particular practitioner was working. This was a traumatic thing for me recently. Okay, so they were working and they basically worked past my guard and kept trying to go into that space until I gave in. And I should have, as someone who knows who's a massage therapist and knows all of these things, I should have turned and said if you can't not work this area, the session is over. Like I'm getting up, this is done, and yet I didn't find that space to do it. Right, right.
Speaker 1:And then, as you get into that space and it's so vulnerable it's so and you almost freeze it's almost like a trauma response of okay, I'm pretty sure I. It almost makes you have that self-doubt Like didn't I talk about this, like didn't I tell you I don't want this.
Speaker 2:So, as a practitioner, it's super, super important to listen and to pay attention and to honor those spaces and to make sure that the person who's getting on my table in a vulnerable space that I'm finding and establishing as many of the pieces even if they have a hard time verbalizing it and really tuning in and finding out what their pieces are and making sure that they're feeling safe enough, one to honor themselves, but also that I'm making sure that I'm protecting the boundaries that they're setting Right.
Speaker 1:Right, that's huge, and that's a huge thing. Yeah For you to even I mean anyone going into a situation like this understanding that when someone's communicating with you, they're trying to set boundaries. Yes, yes no matter what it is like if someone's communicating with you, they're either setting boundaries or opening themselves up to like. Be open, and especially when it comes to body work, whether it was yeah, right, and we do hold. And so how do you feel now, after? If you don't mind me asking how recent was that?
Speaker 2:experience. It was like a month ago. Oh, wow, okay, so how?
Speaker 1:have you managed to, both as a practitioner and as the person who is receiving the work? How have you really managed to overcome that? Because that's a big deal. It is a big deal Because I would think for me, I would almost be timid in my own practice because I wouldn't want to, even though you know knowingly, I trust myself but knowing like I would just be hypersensitive, I think, to other people.
Speaker 2:So. So a couple of pieces play into that. One is like I've done this work for like 10 years now and so there's an element that I've realized like I've made mistakes at different times and I've had to wrestle with that myself and being and like allowing that space for another practitioner to make mistakes. Um, I did follow up with a conversation with that practitioner and sat down and talked to them until they finally heard me Good, which felt like I was like it felt hard to make them hear me.
Speaker 2:And I didn't let it go until I felt like they did Good and that was a huge piece. That actually was a big piece in my own personal healing as well.
Speaker 1:I was going to say because that's your personal power, right, well, that's your personal power and that's that solar plexus, that's that like you know being able to keep that strong core and foundation for yourself is verbalizing. Hey, you may not want to hear this, but this is how I felt. Yes, and that's hard for people.
Speaker 2:That's what it is, and so then, on the flip side, when it comes to my own practice, it was just a reminder and it's something that I like to believe that I'm pretty mindful of anyway. But it was a reminder to step back and go like is there anyone in my practice that, at any level, I'm pressuring them to go into a space that they're? That's crossing their boundaries, right? Right, and it's an interesting thing, because the type of work that I do I do a lot of fascia work it's stinking uncomfortable, right, because we're often right, I know I know we're a little sadistic that way.
Speaker 2:Right, all the deep work. But with fascia work which is often what I'm working in, which is that connective tissue there can frequently be a level of physical pain, so that's uncomfortable. Some people aren't ready for that, and I really try to be like mindful and respectful and like when someone's not ready for it, pull back. Mindful and respectful and like when someone's not ready for it, pull back. I may try to educate them and be like if this is like, if you're interested, we can try that, but I really like, yeah, try to be very respectful of that. It's an interesting balance, though to invite people into doing things that are hard and, at the same time, maintaining and really respecting and honoring their boundaries.
Speaker 1:Right and I think that, because of the specific work that you do, I think it's very important for people to understand that is beneficial and for those of you out, there who aren't sure. So you have your muscle, then you have your fascia, then you have your skin. So it's that deep, it's almost like everyone's eating a raw chicken. It's like that filmy stuff that's in deep. It's almost like you know, everyone's seeing like a raw chicken. It's like that filmy stuff that's out in between and it's that connective tissue.
Speaker 1:So, for example, all of us between our shoulder blades I'm sure have really you know tight fascia on our IT bands which are the outsides of our thighs. You know another spot that most people have really tight fascia, also lower back. So those are really areas that you also hold, especially between the shoulder blades, which is your heart chakra and your lower back which is your sacral chakra.
Speaker 1:Those are areas that we can hold a lot of trauma in our hips, so it's really important for the emotional release piece for what you do to understand that you can stretch the muscle and you could rub the skin, but if you're not really releasing that in-between layer, you're not going to get the results.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You're not going to get the physical results and you're not going to get the emotional results, right. Right, so that's that permanent relief, exactly, you know, and it's that it's that thing that changes our lives Right, which is such a a piece. That's amazing. It's such an amazing piece, and so I do a fair amount of work with the fascia piece, and then I do a fair amount of work with just following where the emotions, the tension is being held in the body right at the moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, You're feel free to use me as an example if you want.
Speaker 2:You just worked on me, I know right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm happy to share what I was working through, so I feel like I always love to give personal examples.
Speaker 2:So I just saw you what.
Speaker 1:Monday Okay, so a couple of days ago, yes.
Speaker 2:So well, I'll let you share because you got to, you got to experience it Right, so I'll let you share what your experience was.
Speaker 1:So I've seen one a few times now. This time in particular, I was coming off of being very ill, like I had strep throat for a couple of weeks, had some other gastrointestinal stuff going on. I'm just like waves of fatigue. I can just feel like I'm wearing thin, which, in hindsight and foresight, has allowed me to really prioritize myself, my life and my calendar and my family. So it's allowed me to take a, a. When you're sick, it's easy to say, hey, you know, I'm sick, I have to cancel this. However, during this period of me being sick cause I've never been the sick before in my life I was able to be like you know what. I need to just put this on pause Like this.
Speaker 1:This, this space was great for a little while, but now I'm moving into a new chapter and I swear to you, I went to Sedona for the spring. It was a ladies retreat, but on the spring equinox, I did a cacao ceremony. It was super impactful for me. We released a lot of the dark and old patterns and inflammation and generational stuff and from the quote serpent world, which is like the lower world, and I did an offering of tobacco um in a little bowl and then um. We worked on, like the Puma, which is like your, your current state, so like your active body, like your manifest, or your creator, which is like the me right now.
Speaker 1:And then, um, the offering for that was a cacao. So I had to, like take a bite of pizza cacao and put it in this offering bowl. And then the third one was the world of spirit and realm and, you know, connecting to your intuition and your higher self. And you know it was really intense and the lady was amazing. We frothed the cacao and each time we did one of the levels, you know I would hold the bottom of the cup in my left hand the little cacao is almost in like a little shot glass in the palm of my hand and put my right palm on.
Speaker 1:So it was a heart opening, so it would like, receive through the left, go through the heart and give back with the right. And so each time, through each element, I would, you know, release something, I would manifest something, I would connect somewhere. Anyway, so just to back it up and give some backstory about this whole experience I had. So that was the 21st, literally equinox. The next day in Sedona, I was hiking and all the rest of the ladies were coming that day and I just started to feel kind of feverish, like you know, your body gets chills and kind of run down and I'm like, oh, you know, my family had been sick a couple weeks prior, but I didn't really think much of it and you know I got an IV before I left. I felt pretty good.
Speaker 1:I did have like a 23 hour travel day on the spring Equinox day, but I was like, okay, I'm going to go rest. And I went to sleep. I woke up from a nap and I was out for the rest of the weekend. I honestly believe I sparked something. It was going to Sedona, it was doing this ceremony, it was releasing. It literally allowed me to completely release and purge everything. Like I had 104 fever for four days. I got to the point where I couldn't swallow because I was sick with strep. But I'm like the whole time. I'm like, well, I feel like I'm talking my truth, I feel like I'm being heard. You know, and there were some things in the retreat that I just kind of it allowed me to recluse and be in my own space and also rest like I wouldn't have been able to rest around my family. So that was the week prior to coming to see you so.
Speaker 1:I really just allowed myself to make some changes. I've been teaching and training at Shapes early in the mornings and since this whole time change I'm like I can't. I just can't do it, and understanding I had this going on with my health, it's like, well, that makes sense. I need to take some time away from that. It was a great chapter. I think I need to slow down and just have some more slow, intentional mornings for myself and my health and my adrenals, you know. So this is all leading up to coming to see you. I go to see you and I always love that you like start on my feet. I think that's always really fun and you work your way up my legs, which my legs have always, you know, really bared the weight of life. And I remember the first time I ever saw you actually for your work, you were like what have you been running from?
Speaker 2:And I'm like why does everyone ask me that?
Speaker 1:I remember being 15 years old and coming back so sweaty and my family would be like what are you running from in college? What are you training for? What are you running from? And I'm like life, okay, I'm just running. At this point in my life I don't even run that much, but you felt that you were able to feel that and I'm like you know what I'm.
Speaker 1:Actually. I've stopped running and I'm facing more, but for years and years and years, I was constantly running. I was running from my thoughts. I was running from my past. I was running from my childhood. I was running from mostly my own thoughts, and now it's like I'm in a space to face them, but there's still some residual volume in there that needs to be released.
Speaker 1:So when you were working on me, you even said your right leg is still really tight. You still have a lot to release and let go, and I'm like my hips have been kind of off balance. And what are hips? Hips are our stability. It's usually the right side, which is your masculine side, which is that I'm going to take care of myself, I'm going to be successful, I'm going to be fine, I'm going to. You know, I'm going to do all the things, the left side's feminine side. So I feel like any injury I've ever had has always been on my right side, believe it or not, I believe it, you know. And then, when you were working on the piece, we did work on my digestive system. Yes, working on the piece, we did work on my digestive system. Yes, like we had done the time prior. Yes, yes, and you know, it really allowed things to start moving in the way they were supposed to be moving. Yes, and.
Speaker 1:I've always had. I felt like been very healthy, especially digestively, but I was suffering from like some crazy inflammation for a while and like obviously finding out I was allergic to eggs and eating them every day wasn't a good thing. But I feel like there's an emotional piece to that too. Yes, I know there was.
Speaker 1:So being in Sedona, having that fever and allowing it to just burn, I mean I was burning 104 through ibuprofen, like I was taking 600, 800 milligrams of ibuprofen, but my body needed to purge it and I have not felt inflamed since.
Speaker 2:Isn't that amazing.
Speaker 1:It is. So it's like I was meant to get sick. I was meant to go through that purging phase and recalibrate, to get back to this space to where I can say, okay, I need to reset. And since then I've taken myself out of every group chat that I'm in because I just it's too much Like love my friends, but I can speak to them individually. Um, except for the one with my husband and my kids, we keep that one, but um you know I've.
Speaker 1:I've been able to clear off some big things on my calendar, like early mornings, and have restful mornings, because I was realizing, you know, with my adrenal stuff, but it was also not filling me up. I felt like it was filling me up but I was really giving a lot on top of all the other things going on. So you know, when you got to my neck and working on my neck and things like that, it was just, it was a crazy release. So, from your perspective, for everything, I just talked about just to give some background on my own experience.
Speaker 1:what, as a practitioner, did you feel during that session?
Speaker 2:If you remember, because I know sometimes it's hard to- I know there's a lot of trying to remember, because I make it a point, I make it an intention to not take those things with me. Occasionally there will be something that's like cause I've learned so much from my, from my clients, I have learned so much from the people I work with. That's, that's why and how I am the practitioner I am today is by learning from my clients. Um, so there are definitely times that I'm like, oh, my goodness, that is like burned in my memory, um, but in general I try to make it a point not to try to like remember and carry things Um, but yes, I do remember quite a bit and I remember, like that whole sort of that sense of of almost that burning that left even a pigmentation, um, on your throat area, right Especially just below your neck, but into that throat chakra space and that, yeah, the releases in the neck of like being able to like state your space.
Speaker 2:And this is where, so often, what I feel and experience and you're no different with that what I feel and experience in that is, I will feel in my own of the stomach or sort of that, and so that's frequently what I'm doing, that's how I'm finding and following is because I'll feel it in my own body, which can freak some people out that idea 100% and honestly, when I first moved to Sarasota, I went to Florida College of Natural Health and did the neuromuscular massage program and that's what freaked me out and I'm like I can never do massage for the public.
Speaker 1:Did the neuromuscular massage program and that's what freaked me out and I'm like I can never do massage for the public because in clinicals I could feel what was going on with people, which was great. And I felt like it came very naturally to me, but I mean at 21 years old, I was like I don't know what to do with this, I don't know how to protect my own energy and I didn't know back then I wasn't as knowledgeable with all of this as I am now, so I just have a great respect for body workers or any practitioner that does hands-on work, because it is an energy exchange.
Speaker 1:I mean it is. It's a conversation.
Speaker 2:Oh, it is Right.
Speaker 1:You walk into a room, you have an energy exchange without even saying a word, much less putting your hands on someone or someone being open to receive, and it's just really beautiful, amazing work that you do and I really highly suggest if you're a holistic practitioner and you're really looking for a space for yourself highly recommend the mind body medicine. So much you know you are looking to do more of this deep work for yourself. I like recommend all the practitioners there. And where can we find that? Is it mind body medicine?
Speaker 2:mind, mind body. Medicine of Florida.
Speaker 1:Okay, mind body medicine of Florida.
Speaker 2:Yes, there is another mind body medicine that's not in Florida. This is mind body medicine of Florida. Okay, Um so mind body medicine that's not in florida, this is mind body medicine of florida. Okay, um, so mind body medicine of florida is. And the resources they're on their web page. That's gonna have, I believe. You know I've hardly checked out the website itself, but I believe that'll have connections to and links to most of the practitioners in the building. There are so many really wonderful practitioners from family therapists, psychotherapists, trauma work. We're doing the. What we call that collaborative piece is the, what we call the SST synchronized synergistic therapy and that's specifically really looking at working with trauma and, in the long run, what we're hoping to do is bring and do more of that. Most of the practitioners who are doing that. It would be our long-term vision to be do more of that. Most of the practitioners who are doing that. It would be our long-term vision to be doing more of that, Right.
Speaker 1:And then, what about yourself, for myself, for my?
Speaker 2:services. Yeah, so that's actually I'm shifting less into from the cause. I used to do a lot of that like physical corrective. I hurt my shoulder. Can you help me fix it? Not that I don't do any of that anymore, but I really am doing so much of that emotional piece, helping people tie into the emotion, connect into the emotions held in their body. I had recently just one of the most precious moments where I had a lady on my table. She's in her nineties and she herself has been a a therapist her whole life, so she knows how to do the work um, but we were doing work that took her memories right back into her childhood that she was able to release. And next thing I know I have this beautiful woman in her 90s sobbing in arms, releasing all of this childhood trauma that's affecting her ability to um face the changes of of her life.
Speaker 1:Right, which led to her being a healer. However, still have that to release. Yes, and like there's, there's something.
Speaker 2:It just it's one of the most precious gifts for me to be able to work with anyone and, like I get the same excitement working with young people as well, because I work with, I say, kids in their 20s. I've worked with every age in between, but there was something really beautiful and precious about that that felt like a cycle. That's just such a gift. It's such, um, I feel like I have received a gift and, while other people get to benefit from it, but like I really feel like the gift is for me that I get to be part of people's healing journeys, right like that healing for you as well.
Speaker 1:It's so healing.
Speaker 2:It's so rich and so beautiful and like it's, it is hard. I'm so in love with it. I'm so in love with it, like it really um, it's hard to explain in my eyes.
Speaker 1:I love it as I think about it yeah.
Speaker 2:It's. It's such a. I mean, how many people in this world really feel like they have found what they are supposed to be doing, their purpose, what they specifically have been designed to do, what their intention is to do and accomplish here, and get to walk in it in their 30s, right Like it's such a? I feel so honored and so privileged to be able to walk in that, and it was indeed a journey to get there.
Speaker 1:And so do you mind sharing a little bit about that journey? Yeah, absolutely, and how you kind of? What led you to this?
Speaker 2:space. Yeah, so I had childhood trauma, like many, many of us, most of all of us, right, exactly, exactly, and I grew up in a culture it was a really a subculture um, that was religious but also, um, I like really held on to a lot of spaces that I went into, a space of, of control, like many of us right. How do I make sure that nothing bad ever happens to me again? I have to be good enough, I have to fit all the boxes.
Speaker 2:Perfectionist, perfectionist and yes, right Performance, right Earning love, earning affection, all of those pieces. And I thought I had things pretty figured out and I went on a trip when I was 25 that was designed to make people it was for women, it was a canoe trip and it was designed to make us kind of was for women, it was a canoe trip and it was designed to make us kind of face our stuff and I thought I was in a good space. I thought this was going to be a breeze.
Speaker 1:We all go into those spaces like that, like, oh right, this is going to be a breeze.
Speaker 2:And it turned my world upside down and I realized that I was really hiding from so much. I was really hiding from so much so I jumped deep into my own trauma at that point and working through my own stuff working with counselors and or a counselor and it actually took me out of what, at that point, was my dream job and I had no idea what in the world I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to go to art school. I had always been good at giving back rubs. I'd never like yourself like I was. Like no, I can't do massage for a living, like people had told me. Like you should go to school for this no-transcript and then I can use that to pay my way through art school Absolutely fell in love with massage therapy and found my passion and what happened actually cause I was still in a lot of working through my own trauma as my classmates were working on me.
Speaker 2:I would have a lot of connections to memories, right. So they would work on something and it would bring up a memory and I would recognize how much the tension I was holding there was connected to a specific trauma, a specific piece.
Speaker 2:And so that was my beginning journey and then over the years I was at the get-go fairly intuitive. I was the get-go fairly intuitive and thankfully I had a hands-on instructor who saw that and really encouraged me in it. I still had a lot of blocks, a lot, lot, lot of years and it was actually um was after. I had not intentionally stepped away from massage, but I needed to. I needed to manage my mom's bakery for several years and um to step in for her so she could take care of some family things. So I was doing massage therapy very part time.
Speaker 2:But during those couple of years I was growing so much spiritually and working through a lot of my own emotional, spiritual stuff and when I step back into it things started happening as in I started to feel more. I started to be so much more aware. And see, I often say this work found me because what happened is what my clients were experiencing with my work was beyond what I even was aware of was happening. So they would come back to me and tell me how their whole life had changed and with this massage where, like, we had released their you know stomach adhesions and like that and and she was coming back to me and saying I didn't for the first time able to set boundaries with my boyfriend and I'm actually like just holding space and able to voice and like her whole world had changed Right and I'm getting exposed with it.
Speaker 2:I know I'm chilly too and I was dumbfounded that like so much was happening that I wasn't even aware of happening. So that's another piece. Again, I've learned so much from my clients and that's been from that point to where I am now has so much been by working with people, whether I've had a couple of other like massage therapists or different practitioners come into my life. Adrienne Sundberg she's the acupuncturist at MindModdy Medicine and I met her and we've worked on each other for a little over a year now and she's been really just. She's so lovely in her really subtle ways just really helped me to like, recognize and own the work that I do and what and um, what I, what I, what happens when I work on people.
Speaker 1:Right, well, and also too, if you're doing acupuncture, I'm a firm believer that that does release blockages.
Speaker 2:Oh, so much. You know, we hint on that in massage school like, you understand the meridians, you understand the.
Speaker 1:Chinese medicine, but not the way that that they are able to really implement it which I think it's such a great combination like actually, when I went to see the other day, I went to acupuncture afterwards right, and I felt so clear and just so yes, like everything was flowing again yes, because we have those energy blockages, we have that g blockage, we have that, um, you know.
Speaker 1:so just adding in the different modalities, and I didn't like this. The other day, when I was sick and I took my dog's medication by accident, I explained to people like you know, there's a time and a place for everything, like I think me also. Getting sick this last time really opened my eyes too, because I think I had become pretty closed off to Western medicine in a couple of ways, like just over the craziness that's happened the past five years in the world.
Speaker 2:It's easy, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know I was kind of anti-antibiotic like. I'm not taking that medication and I'm like, okay, my throat's closing. I need to get all into my kids. I will take all the antibiotics, yes, and it has its place. So it gave me a new found respect in this space that I'm in to honor both and they compliment each other. And if I break my arm I'm not going to pour honey and lavender on it.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go to get a cast and I'm going to get an orthopedic doctor, so you know. So it was really eyeopening to me and I and honestly, I hadn't realized how closed off I had gotten. And so it's always those opportunities that come to you. Yes, that's like wow. All of this combined can help us go forward. And it's, and I think that that's just so important for people to understand. Just stay open. Like I understand, you're trained in one thing, and that's fantastic, but let's not always medicate.
Speaker 2:Yes, maybe there's a route.
Speaker 1:Maybe there's like a holistic way to this too. And it's the combination of those two. Like, yes, where some people may need medications to help their anxiety or depression or their chemical imbalances, because those are real, like the chemistry behind life and hormones and everything is real. However, there's something driving the reason for the imbalance.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I've just used myself as a science experiment my entire life and, you know, understood like wow, I can balance my hormones by taking out random things like the kind of toothpaste that I use, alcohol, caffeine and other things that I did to make transitional changes in my world, any kind of neurotoxins and that's actually something that scares me at this point in time is we've really normalized neurotoxins in a way that I don't feel like people are going to understand what they're doing to us long-term and by neurotoxins, things like Botox and Dysport and fillers and to each their own.
Speaker 1:I'm not judging. I've dabbled in a bit of it before my son was born, but I can tell you I definitely think that it contributed to my thyroid issue. I definitely believe that it contributed to some hormonal imbalances I was having, because we just don't know the long-term effects, Because we're that generation that's trying it all out and it's like it's a temporary fix, like, for example, when I was in college. I went to the freaking tanning bed all the time Like hello sister, like that's why you ended up with melanoma when you were 27.
Speaker 1:But I didn't care at the time. So I think my you know big part of this journey too is just to educate people like do your research and whatever that means for you. Like, again, no judgment to each their own, whatever they choose to do with their body, but putting out different modalities and different ways to educate yourself on ways that you can heal and understanding too. From my perspective, sometimes I think I have a hard time with people that have no interest in healing whatsoever.
Speaker 1:And that's okay and again, to each their own. But I don't think you can be my people Right.
Speaker 2:Well, and actually so, as a massage therapist like even outside of like relationship space. As a massage therapist, I have people come to me and what they're looking for isn't what I do, right, like, not that. It's not that I can't do what they're looking for, but it's not in my, my like, that's not my specialty, right? And so when someone's coming looking for something that's not what I'm doing, I'm really going to encourage them to go elsewhere, right, because, one, my calendar is pretty full and I want space for all the people who want what I can do, right, what they can't get with another massage therapist or have a hard time finding a massage therapist that they can get that with. And also, I don't want to spend my energy doing the things that I'm not passionate about.
Speaker 1:Right and that's just it. And I run into the same thing. People are like well, empowerment and transformation coaching, I need that, and then I'll do consultation and out of consultation, I'll be honest and be like you know. I really feel like you know. There I have several other resources that you might want to do first, before we get here or alongside of it or you know, because my, I think my whole, just one of my purposes in life is to be able to connect people to the appropriate resources. It doesn't have to be me.
Speaker 2:I don't have an ego like that.
Speaker 1:I don't need and want all the clients. I want people to get what's best for them. Whatever practitioner works for you and works for me may not work for you, and that's okay, but here are the library of resources and I just want people to understand that it's out there. And no matter what you're struggling with. No matter what you're going through, there are resources out there for you so many.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, here in Sarasota we're so blessed, we're so fortunate, so blessed with so many resources.
Speaker 1:And I was actually in Sedona this last time. I was, like you know, Sedona is really beautiful, but we have a special place here.
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 1:Like, yes, they have healing vortexes in the mountains. I love them, but we really. It really gave me a bigger sense of gratitude for the amount of resources and holistic resources and just really well-renowned, you know, western medicine, eastern medicine, all the different encompassing mind, body, spirit full circle connection places here.
Speaker 2:There is such a beautiful abundance of it here, it really it makes me so happy. Me too Like see so much of this happening here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's funny when you're like you know this, like I have you for the emotional release happening here, absolutely. And it's funny when you're like you know this, like I have you for the emotional release, I have, you know, my girlfriend Angie, who's like the I'm going to tie massage you, pull you out, do the ultrasound. I have my girlfriend Nani, who's my massage therapist, who's like the deep water and does all the deep work you know.
Speaker 1:I have, like you know, I have the OM shop, which is like my quantum massage readings and energy release and it's just really interesting to have different people, you see, during different times that works for you, and that's another thing I want to remind people like what works for you this week may not be what you need next.
Speaker 1:That is so true, you know it may not be what you needed last week, you know so be open to broadening the horizons and going with the flow and understanding that it's really about the flow and and being self-aware enough and slowing down to be self-aware enough to understand what is it that I need right now. Yeah, and just like these past couple of weeks have been like you know what, what I need right now is to slow down. Yes, yes, you know, and the wakeup call was taking dog's medication on.
Speaker 2:Monday morning.
Speaker 1:I was like, okay, I've already cleared my calendar, but this is really the sign that you need to slow down. Yes, yes, because I mean, I'm okay, don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine. It wasn't just an antibiotic and a probiotic, which I'm taking anyway, but it's just that ultimate sign. But listen to those signs. Yes, but it's just that ultimate sign, but listen to those signs.
Speaker 1:Yes, because three years ago I would have totally brushed that off as oh whatever you know and moved through it. Yes, and I think so often we're conditioned to just move through things, yes, yes, and not sit with it.
Speaker 2:Yep, well, and the other thing, too, is when to like find people to bring around us, right that, when we're feeling unsure, right About being able to tune in and like what do I even need other people who will?
Speaker 1:help us find that.
Speaker 2:Right, like not, not right Exactly, and not that they'll just be like well, this is what you need to do. You've got to go do this, but we'll really bring you to a spot where you can listen to you, your own direction of like, your own sense of knowing what you need.
Speaker 1:And they can hear you and hold space for you. And I've really realized the importance of just holding space. It's not always about giving advice, it's not always about giving resources. Sometimes it's about holding space so people can verbally process and get to those places on their own. And I think until we do that, we don't truly honor the change. We don't truly honor the change. Yes, you know, we don't truly honor our own intuition until we're able to process and get there on our own.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is what I say is the most important thing that I do for people is hold space for them in their own healing journeys.
Speaker 2:So, yes, with the work that I do, it tends to uncover and bring up those things, cover and bring up those things and then and some people they like see it and they're like I can hold space for myself and they're going to go and and and process through and do their work outside of the four walls that I work in.
Speaker 2:So many people they get to process right there. Right, I'm not a counselor, but they are welcome to process through and talk through their stuff and if it feels like they're getting stuck, then I'm going to connect them with the counselor. Right, and even sometimes then you get that quick. So if massage is triggering stuff, if the body work is pulling stuff up and the person's not in a space that they can process it on their own, that's why we bring the psychotherapist in the room for massage therapy, so that when the stuff is getting triggered, when it's coming up in the body, the psychotherapist is there to help them navigate it, so that they're not getting stuck, so that they're not taking themselves off in inside tracks, so that they have resolution with it.
Speaker 1:And they're not judging themselves for it. No right, because sometimes we can judge ourselves by what comes up, not not so that they have resolution with it and they can release themselves. No right, because sometimes we can judge ourselves by what comes up?
Speaker 1:oh, so much you know, it's like oh my gosh I had emotion about this and I just I shouldn't have felt that way, or I should have felt, and it's like stop, just observe it. Yes, you know right, try to process it. Yeah, but do it from a place of unconditional love and non-judgment, and that that goes for ourselves especially, and other people. Yes, and I think that that's a place.
Speaker 2:That's where the safe place begins. Yes, putting judgment on emotion is one of our biggest hangups, so that's a lot of what I tell people to do in my space Feel it Right, let yourself feel it, lean into it and feel it, because that's when it releases.
Speaker 1:Yes, because you know, I think, generations before you know.
Speaker 2:because we're to be seen and not heard, you know people went to war and came back and didn't talk about anything. And the Great Depression you know, there was just a lot of generational things that held us back.
Speaker 1:But I feel like we're really opening that door now and making it more of a sacred open space.
Speaker 2:Do you think this is something that I just recently, sort of has been hitting me in it right now especially is kind of putting this together. Do you think there's an element that, as a population, we needed? The neurotoxins, all of the things to take us to the edge, to make us stop and look at the emotional stuff?
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. I feel like that's a lot of what the whole pandemic thing was about, too Right. Like most of the people I know that have gone through extreme life changes. All happened around that time. Yes, it takes something extreme.
Speaker 1:Yes, whether it be a war, whether it be a pandemic, whether it be Something that takes us to the edge things that are taking us to the edge of whether it's illness, whether it's gratification or success, even or quote, success to realize this isn't what I want. Things need to shift, things need to change. I have everything I've ever wanted and needed.
Speaker 2:Like things need to shift.
Speaker 1:Things need to change, like I have everything I've ever wanted and needed. However, why do I feel so empty inside? Yeah, you know, and I think that it's really given us a lot of introspective time to shift and reprioritize, yes, and redefine. What does success really mean Like? For me, success is being rested. It's, you know, having intentional time with the people that I care about. It's honoring my body, my mind and my spirit. It's, you know, feeling accomplished at the end of the day, but not in an egoic way.
Speaker 2:You know it's feeling fulfilled and purposeful, you know and it has nothing to do with money, and it has nothing to do with you know the drive that it used to be so nonstop. And I look back and I'm like God, bless your soul. No wonder you have no adrenals, yes, which you know that's right, and that's what makes me again come back to. I'm so grateful to be able to do something that I'm so passionate about, like if I didn't need an income, I'd still do what I do.
Speaker 1:Oh 100%.
Speaker 2:Like if I fell into a tremendous amount of money, I would still be doing what I'm doing, because it's what I meant to do. It is, it is just, it just is. And that's this beautiful, beautiful gift, right when we can find those things that bring us so much purpose and so much. That's not about things, it's not about money, it's it's not about survival. It is about thriving and it's about bringing more.
Speaker 1:Right and adding to that collective consciousness. Yes, yes and just helping people become more physically and emotionally aware. Yeah, oh, yeah, oh my gosh, thank you so much for the work you do on.
Speaker 2:I feel like we could talk for hours. I know, I know I really do. We could.
Speaker 1:You know. So if our listeners want to find you and your work, so my personal website is levitawellcom. And I will link that into our podcast. Sounds good.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that has my personal website and my personal contact. It may be on MindBodyMedicine of Florida as well, okay, but you can find me by any of those things.
Speaker 1:I just don't want to get too confused because we didn't hit on that a lot. But if they specifically want to after hearing what you're doing, the wonderful work that you do, and want to experience that on their own. I want them to be able to connect with you. For sure, but don't expect an appointment tomorrow.
Speaker 2:She books out. Yes, and just in general, if you want to book a massage or hair appointment.
Speaker 1:just know, give yourself some time. Yes For the quality.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's. That's the thing, and and the reality of it is, though, my schedule was not always booked out as far as it is, but the more people that find me, the further out it gets booked.
Speaker 1:And um it is a wonderful thing, and it's, and I love them. Yes, schedule a monthly.
Speaker 2:Right, and it's, it's just such a yeah, it's such a gift. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:You're welcome and thank you, I'm so. I'm just so excited how everything flowed today. And I love how we got to share all of the wonderful work that you do, and plus a little more. You know in depth of our perspectives of everything.
Speaker 2:So thank you, thank you so much, wanda, thank you, I love you, dear, I love what you're doing and you're just a lovely friend. Thank you. It's a beautiful connection.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is Grateful for that.
Speaker 2:Same, same same.