Exploring the Opryland Hotel after class

Our 5-Day Seminar with Sara Harper July 7-11 was incredible. I had an amazing time experiencing Sara’s open-hearted teaching style and hands-on approach to the Art of Jin Shin Jyutsu. We had more hands-on time during this class than in previous 5-day classes, and I think it created a different feel and tone for the class. We were literally embodying the Art every day, and therefore, for me at least, there was a certain level of intensity to the experience.

I felt exhausted at the end of each day from the high levels of energy coursing through my body. It felt cleansing and deep, and sometimes felt almost too intense for me to manage.

I love Jin Shin Jyutsu because it is a physical art. It is Physiophilosophy – not about either the body or the mind separately, but both in a state of unity. As such, it can access deep emotions and old experiences that may have been traumatic. I am a trauma survivor, and as Kenneth Robinson, a Nashville-based psychotherapist and trauma expert explains, if you consider the full range of human experiences, we are all trauma survivors in one way or another. Poverty is trauma. Neglect is trauma. War is trauma. A society that neglects its people is traumatizing. Patriarchy is traumatizing. And of course, all forms of abuse and violence are traumatic. It’s impossible to escape trauma, and yet, we are also miraculously resilient. Jin Shin Jyutsu has been an absolutely essential healing art for me on my journey of trauma recovery.

Trauma fragments mind, body, and spirit. Jin Shin Jyutsu, along with other forms of body-centered healing, put us back together by reuniting body, mind, and spirit into Oneness. What a beautiful thing!

I would like to bring more trauma awareness to Jin Shin Jyutsu trainings. I would like students to have the opportunity to talk about their deeper experiences that reach beyond the safety energy locks and the flows. The SELs and flows are doorways. What they access is literally infinite. We need a safe container in which to experience and express what comes up during hands-on sessions, which can sometimes be quite uncomfortable in the process of clearing old memories, experiences, and wounds.

I am committed to learning, practicing, and sharing Jin Shin Jyutsu as widely as possible. However, this year I am realizing that my training in psychotherapy cannot be separated from my Jin Shin Jyutsu practice. They are one and the same: healing.

I would love to hear others’ comments below!

With tons of Love and Light,

Sarah