0:00

all right good morning Greg welcome to True Hope cast I hope you're doing well today how are you

0:06

thanks good to Good Wonderful yeah I'm great thank you it's a beautiful sunny day here in

0:12

British Columbia definite transition towards um the Autumn as it's just getting a lot

0:18

chillier but I like slippers I like cozy socks I like pajamas so it's my kind of

0:24

season so it's all good thank you um just as an introduction Greg would you just let let the audience know who

0:31

you are and what it is that you do sure yeah I help leaders and entrepreneurs address anxiety depression chronic pain

0:39

often symptomatic of unresolved trauma really resolving the burnout emptiness

0:45

overwhelm of just day-to-day life and responsibilities of leadership

0:51

how did you get into that like is there a story there um there's there's many stories there for

0:58

sure um you know I developed the healing practices that I now share and teach

1:05

with my clients and students on my own Journey healing my own anxiety depression and chronic pain I was

1:13

introduced to Energy Medicine through a friend at a time when I was living in so much chronic pain that when she offered

1:18

me a massage I did not want a massage that was just too painful um and at that time I'd never heard of

1:24

energy medicine but when she offered it as an alternative you know I had implicit trust in her so I was very

1:31

happy to kind of open up to something new and I realized I found a I found

1:36

something I didn't even know I was looking for you know just a lifetime of chronic tension and holding in my body

1:43

that was just you know horrific pain just started to soften just started to melt you know I found myself being able

1:49

to catch my breath for the first time ever so when I find something that I know I'm

1:56

onto something I I jump at it you know head first and so within a year I was studying Energy Medicine and Reiki while

2:03

I was living in Seattle that led me to a year in India studying mindfulness and somatic-based practices to kind of

2:10

release stress and tension in the body coming back to the States diving more into the world of yoga and ayurveda you

2:17

know understanding the subtle energy body really understanding how then we store trauma in the body I was introduced to

2:23

trauma and Neuroscience through a friend and a colleague and so you know in the last nine years

2:30

that was 25 years ago and the last nine years have been kind of reverse engineering how I kind of intuitively

2:36

pieced together these practices to heal myself and have been now sharing that with clients and students for the last

2:43

two decades that's amazing cool thank you for thank you for sharing that and I often have so

2:49

many amazing people on the show who have been through their own traumas have been through through their own pains pain and

2:55

anxieties and depressions and that leads them to this wonderful place of light where they're able to you know

3:02

um use that experience to help others and support others and educate themselves to you know help other people

3:09

not have to go through all those difficult times have so many amazing people on the show that have gone that through that kind of

3:16

pathway I don't often ask like why do you think it is that so many amazing

3:21

practitioners coaches and their healers come from from that place of of self

3:27

recovery like why do you think that leads people there um

3:33

you know I think two things we often teach what we need to master ourselves

3:38

so the more I share these practices the more it supports my own growth uh you

3:44

know I'm committed to a growth path and so just continuing to share growth

3:50

practices with others just continues to support my deepening into practice

3:56

but also I kind of reached a point where you know my life had transformed so

4:01

remarkably um kind of beyond my belief actually that reached a point where who am I not

4:07

to share these practices we live in a world that is feeding off of division and isolation you know trauma I'd say is

4:14

the largest epidemic we have you know globally and I have really powerful

4:20

tools and resources to help support and you know shift shift the tide so to

4:25

speak on you know what I'd say most of humanity is really struggling with so if my cup is overflowing who am I not to

4:32

share that with others yeah I think that's a really beautiful way of looking at it and what a wonderful way to be able to serve other

4:39

people and to you know support each other and as you say like break down those divisions of of isolation and

4:46

Trauma and bring people together within within Community within community and group settings and you know using tools

4:52

and practices along the way and I want to ask you about energy medicine because if you if you went over to sit down and

4:58

have a cup of coffee and talk about Energy Medicine I would I would have some things to say because I have some experience with it I kind of

5:04

know a little bit about how you know storing energy and let's say a negative

5:10

way in the body you know leads to maybe trauma and pain and chronic issues along

5:15

the way but honestly if I sat down with my six best buddies from from England in the

5:20

pub and had a beer and I brought up Energy Medicine I don't know what their eyes would do you know they'd gloss over they would

5:26

they wouldn't really know what I was talking about so I wonder how do you bring that up to people who don't really

5:32

have a concept yet of like what what Energy Medicine means because we have this very conventional idea of what

5:38

medicine is you know we go to the doctor we have drugs we have surgeries we have all these let's say new protocols when

5:45

it comes to medicine you know I would consider conventional medicine to really be kind

5:52

of like old school alternative complementary what we call now to be like the traditional types of medicines that you would go to and energy would be

5:59

a significant part part of that so how do you bring the that idea of energy medicine and explain it in a way that's

6:06

not like you know like Airy Fairy like nonsense who are quackery stuff like I'm

6:13

interested to know how you do that on a personal level because I need to up my game when it comes to explaining these

6:18

things in in a way that you know helps people start to think a little bit differently about like what energy means

6:25

sure so I look at Health as movement and expression I look at disease and illness

6:31

as stagnation and I look at you know how we are

6:36

traditionally approaching Health in our you know allopathic medical world is

6:42

treating and managing symptoms and while pain and symptom management is sometimes

6:48

necessary it's not actually addressing the stagnation in the body

6:54

right and so folks that come to me they're coming to me because they have an understanding that there is trauma

7:01

that is underpinning their anxiety and depression and chronic pain but there's

7:07

a lot of misinformation out there right A lot of people have been led to believe that a chemical imbalance is what's

7:13

causing anxiety and depression research actually hasn't proven that

7:18

um but if all we do then is take a medication to treat a chemical imbalance we're really just treating a symptom

7:25

because the chemical imbalance is symptomatic of something else right and we need to actually take a few steps

7:32

back and understand that trauma and you know childhood attachment

7:37

are really big components you know at play beneath chemical imbalance anxiety

7:43

and depression so we need to not be treating the tip of the iceberg but the

7:49

underbelly of the iceberg how Energy Medicine does that you know I

7:54

look at the body and the Mind as a symphony orchestra so all of our

8:00

emotions all of our cells all of our tissues our muscles our endocrines

8:05

our neurotransmitters our hormones are all part of the symphony orchestra so

8:10

when we're experiencing Health all those different parts are in constant communication with one another and we're

8:16

making sweet music right that's when we're in Balance that's when we're experiencing health when the nervous system gets

8:23

short-circuited because of trauma or stress or environmental or hereditary influences

8:29

we start to create a lot of noise the communication between the different parts of US starts to break down and the

8:36

more that communication starts to break down the more we start to experience our symptoms illness and disease

8:42

you know it's also understanding that when trauma gets lodged in the body you know in a traumatic experience is too

8:48

much too soon it's an overwhelming adverse experience that we don't have the capacity to fully process or

8:54

metabolize right so it gets stored in the body so that trauma is what's

9:01

creating the stagnation in our tissues and in our cells that's creating our chronic inflammation that's compromising

9:07

our immune system that's you know creating the brain fog that's creating the pain because all of a sudden our

9:14

energy isn't moving the communication between all these parts is now no longer

9:20

functioning so we're no longer functioning as a whole you know we start to get fragmented and

9:26

split and so we start to lose connection with ourselves so healing is really restoring our

9:33

connection with Energy Medicine that is to our innate wisdom an innate wisdom determine Chiropractic you know our

9:40

innate wisdom is if we get a paper cut there's an innate wisdom that sends platelets and proteins and orchestrates

9:46

all those biochemical Transmissions so Energy Medicine is just helping to

9:51

break up the interference patterns that are blocking our connection to our innate wisdom and the more we restore

9:58

our connection to our daily wisdom the more our body's natural capacity to heal comes back online

10:06

Greg that was beautiful buddy that Orchestra image was just fantastic I think you explained that incredibly well

10:12

and yeah that's just uh it's just a remarkable way that you know

10:18

you're able to look at the body from a holistic place and obviously there's so much of your own personal experience goes into understanding that now

10:25

and then when I think about um like the dysregulation of let's say energy

10:31

and how the energy of a thought the energy of emotions the enemy the energy of like feelings can end up over a long

10:38

period of time becoming matter and becoming some part apart within the body that's causing us

10:45

I know a dis-ease or some some sort of illness and that energy transfer kind of has to go somewhere and

10:51

really getting to the root cause of somebody's concern even like going back to potential like childhood issues or

10:58

you know physical traumas that maybe happen 20 30 years ago that we may not will a doctor or yourself as an

11:04

individual may not connect to to your actual current pain your current trauma or something you just can't get through

11:09

it's just such a refreshing um idea that you're able to just like you know take a

11:15

step back and and recognize all of those things from kind of a holistic standpoint I'd love it if you could just take a

11:20

step back for us and just kind of introduce the idea of like where where we where we're at now and where where

11:26

we've kind of got the idea of like this chemical imbalance and mental health and then that's you know we can now we can

11:33

deal with the chemical imbalance by you know introducing more chemicals or blocking a certain chemical with you know Pharmaceuticals

11:39

where where are we with that in regards to like the conventional understanding I know you're in you're in San Francisco

11:45

right so you're you know you're kind of on that West Coast Area I like to think that um you know Washington Oregon California

11:52

or even where I am in British Columbia we're a little bit more there's a lot more forward-thinking individuals in

11:57

regards to that might not just be the only only way to help somebody deal with

12:02

like depression or anxiety or another um psychological condition condition but can you just for our audience like

12:09

introduce the idea again of like chemical imbalance and and mental health

12:14

yeah where you know a lot of people are not looking at the bigger picture and

12:20

understanding that trauma and attachment wound date are big components of you

12:26

know our anxiety and our depression and our chemical imbalance are just treating chemical imbalance as if that is the

12:33

cause of their pain right and again I am all for an integrative

12:39

approach so I think sometimes pain and symptom management are necessary that's going to help some people stay afloat

12:45

and I have clients where pain and symptom management using medication is

12:51

actually helping to create the stability for them to do the deeper levels of healing

12:56

but a lot of people are just you know using drugs to treat a chemical imbalance without actually looking at

13:04

you know the underbelly of the iceberg so that's just going to keep them walking on eggshells right it's going to

13:10

help them maybe manage some baseline of stability if that

13:15

but not actually resolve the deeper wounding that is you know really a

13:21

liability on all aspects of our physical emotional and mental health but I think a lot of that is changing I

13:29

think a lot of the stigma around mental health is you know there's conversations like this happening where people are

13:36

more willing to start to look under the hood right I think that I don't even like to use the word mental illness

13:43

because I think that just implies stigma because I think mental illness is actually just trauma and Trauma actually

13:49

just needs loving support and attention to heal right so what if anxiety and depression are actually healthy

13:56

responses to an unhealthy environment right but right now when we treat the

14:02

chemical imbalance it's kind of indicating that something is wrong with

14:07

the individual so now let's treat the individual that has this chemical imbalance because something's wrong with

14:12

them it's like no that chemical imbalances may be a healthy adaptation

14:18

to some really troubling things happening in the world

14:23

um and so I'm more for looking at how do we

14:29

yeah make healing less about you know what we might think of as you know

14:34

pathology like something that's pathological within us um right and what if what is turning the

14:41

check engine light on you know our pain and our symptoms is actually our body's

14:46

wisdom and it's our body's wisdom wanting to call to our attention the part of us that needs tender loving care

14:54

um and that's that's what healing is it's helping us develop a strong healthy

15:00

robust relationship from ourselves to ourselves right it's helping the adult

15:05

self-parent you know the wounded earlier version of self that perhaps didn't get

15:11

the the care and the input and support it so desperately needed in early development

15:17

um and so I think this is becoming more normalized I have um a psychiatrist who refers patients to me to his credit you

15:24

know he we shared a patient and all of a sudden he no longer needed to medicate

15:29

her um and he scratched his head and you know a lot of doctors when they're in that position might say well it was

15:36

maybe a misdiagnosis right to his credit he said what are you doing differently and she said well I'm I'm working with

15:43

this guy Greg um because he said yeah like you don't need the medication that I was once

15:48

prescribing you um and she agreed because she was feeling better so to his credit he

15:54

reached out and said what are you doing over there and I kind of explained my methodology and my work and so now he

16:00

refers patients with PTSD and complex trauma where he's treating them medically and again that may be

16:07

necessary that may be helping keep those patients afloat but it's not actually helping them heal the deeper patterns of

16:14

trauma and when we heal those deeper patterns of trauma you know then

16:20

oftentimes we can lessen our dependence on you know medications right and I've

16:26

helped hundreds of my clients reduce or eliminate their dependence on pain anxiety meds to antidepressants how much

16:34

of an individual's self-actualization of what they're going through and what they

16:39

need to do goes towards their their their process of healing

16:46

because I feel like when somebody is so um let's say

16:52

narrow not narrow-minded it's kind of like a negative term but they're so focused on like you know I'm feeling

16:57

this I'm feeling I'm feeling depressed I'll go to a doctor I listen to what they say I might you know respond to a

17:03

few questions and then like and I kind of get this like I get something from them I just in my experience I have so many

17:10

people that you know through my nutrition practice I used to have like always used to get between like 40 and 50 year old men will come and see me

17:17

about about their about their digestive issues and their and their psychological issues and they basically been through

17:24

15 20 years of going to the doctor to try and fix to try and get an answer or

17:29

get something from them to help them but it like something switched with these individuals where they're like

17:34

okay this isn't quite working for me and then they had to really get into the game themselves and really like

17:40

understand like what's going on for them and then rather than just like receiving something to take which isn't really

17:45

like you know self-advocating for your own Healthcare I suppose really stepping

17:50

into the game so you've made a great example of that of like you know this psychiatrist that you're working with is

17:56

referring people to you what's the what's your experience with those interview with your with your clients or

18:02

patients whatever you call them really getting into the game themselves and having that self-actualization and

18:08

how that assists them to get better sure yeah I mean by the time people

18:14

choose to work with me they are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work right and I get it I grew up with

18:21

chronic ear infections and strep throat and there's nothing more than I wanted to go to the doctor take a pill and have

18:27

to get better have someone else fix me and you know I've been Early Childhood with my chronic pain I wanted to go to a

18:34

chiropractor and I just wanted the chiropractor to straighten me out and I didn't want to participate other than

18:39

just receiving this adjustment to make me feel better none of that really worked for me

18:45

um and so by the time people come to work with me they are recognizing that you know they're done with quick fixes

18:52

they're done with chasing treating and suppressing symptoms you know they are often at the end of their rope because they've tried seemingly everything under

19:00

the sun and nothing's moving the needle um and I think that's the beauty of you

19:06

know how I've synthesized Energy Medicine with trauma and Neuroscience and somatics and mindfulness to create a

19:12

really robust comprehensive set of tools and practices that support healing on

19:17

all levels Body Mind and Spirit right so yeah by the time folks come to me and I

19:23

mean I have an initial call before you know anyone works with me one-on-one um and you know they they've got skin in

19:30

the game right and they are committed to a long-term Arc of transformation

19:35

there's no silver bullets when it comes to Healing trauma anxiety or depression

19:40

um you know it's a journey and it is a journey of coming to know ourselves more deeply not here to convince anyone of that you

19:46

know years ago I had a client that said well I don't know if I really believe that people store emotions in their body

19:52

I'm like okay well that's how I work um if that's not if that doesn't work with

19:57

you that's okay but I'm I I'm not here to convince anyone of anything people can believe what they want and the

20:04

wisdom of the work when people are willing to show up is that it helps us dissolve our attachment to fixed beliefs

20:12

so we can live more according to our own lived experience instead of to a bunch

20:17

of you know set constructs you know and that's the that's the mindfulness work right our conscious mind is only the tip

20:23

of the iceberg right and that's what we think we believe but the imprints of trauma stored in the body are kind of

20:30

governing the subconscious and unconscious mind which is what we truly believe For Better or For Worse right

20:35

and how that started to show up in our health so yeah folks behind me when they're

20:40

really eager to start to look under the hood and kind of start to get to know

20:46

themselves with this more intimate level do you find that people go through that those initial stages

20:53

um before they come and see you where they might be experiencing that pain or that trauma for you know they could be

20:59

experiencing that every single day for for many many years is there any type of pattern there with the type of person

21:04

that comes to see you right whether that's you know age I suppose specifically because you know I think

21:09

about the I wouldn't have been able to really comprehend or understand let's say

21:16

holistic medicine or functional medicine at the age of 20. I just don't think I would have been able to wrap my mind

21:22

around that probably not even at 25 or 28 but when I started to go through

21:27

you know some changes but on my own and started to get my skin in the game in regards to reversing and changing my own

21:32

health then I was literally like you know creating new Pathways in my brain and understanding more and being open towards that type of change so

21:40

there are a lot of people that you see who have have gone through really long

21:45

periods of time of distress and they're kind and they're just like finally like

21:51

they need an alternative or something something different from you

21:56

yeah I mean one one of the clients that the psychiatrists I partner with has referred to me had been in traditional

22:03

talk therapy for 30 years and they were being treated you know through Psychiatry for depression

22:11

for decades they were being treated for migraines through their neurologist for

22:17

decades and just getting by you know if that

22:24

um so yeah I had another client that was referred to me who was basically

22:29

bedridden for two years they were a hundred thousand dollars in medical debt they had seen over 200 doctors right and

22:36

so not to say that um people need to be struggling to this

22:42

degree to work with me but I tend to have a knack for helping address you

22:48

know the many causative factors that are at play and that may be you know beliefs that are stored in tissue memories that

22:55

are you know impacting hormones which are then you know impacting beliefs you know so that client that you know came

23:02

to me from their neurologist was trying to treat their migraines well their neurologists and the medications they're

23:08

taking from their psychiatrist weren't actually helping them heal Early Childhood trauma that was stored

23:15

in their body as a whole lot of fear repressed anger and shame so as we help

23:22

their body start to metabolize the fear and the anger the shame well not only do the migraines go away but they started

23:28

to create different boundaries in their life they started to develop different types of relationships to get their

23:33

needs met they started to actually get in touch with their needs know what they want and desire so they're finally

23:39

living for themselves instead of for everyone else so it's like how that how

23:46

our biology and our physiology start to play out in our behaviors and our

23:51

beliefs you know all of these pieces are related and we can start again as we reconnect to that innate wisdom and the

23:58

symphony orchestra starts to come back online we start to just live in the resonance

24:04

and the truth of who we are and then all the noise just starts to break up it starts to Fall Away

24:10

beautiful Greg I love it in in your experience with work working with you know this psychiatrist person who you

24:17

know refers to you and is obviously recognized that um what you're doing works and you know

24:23

they they want to complement their own practice by you know endorsing you and getting you involved with their patients

24:29

care which is phenomenal it's amazing you know I wish that happened more but with your experience with that with

24:35

that you know conventional Psychiatry conventional medicine when it comes to mental health do you think there are any particular easy not easy but like

24:43

simple tweaks that could happen within that process that would make you know you more accessible to these individuals

24:49

and help people you know recognize that they've got actually a lot of power within themselves to get

24:56

themselves on the right path quicker rather than having to go through 30 years of of therapy that doesn't really

25:02

work for them of our times you know now that I

25:08

that's like you know he won't treat someone for 30 more years before letting them know they have another alternative

25:13

so it's just building you know an awareness in our culture and I think

25:19

that's happening more and more you know Reiki is being taught in oncology centers and hospitals you know

25:24

Nationwide right there's programs for veterans you know where Reiki is you

25:29

know being registered that veterans with insomnia are now falling asleep in this

25:35

short period of a Reiki session so there's there's growing awareness and I think more and more accessibility

25:41

especially online you know now I can teach my programming online so it's not location dependent you know so that

25:47

makes it that much more accessible as well so I think I think we're seeing that happen

25:52

um as we speak beautiful I didn't know about the Reiki and oncology in the states that's really really cool I I

25:57

love that just bringing an idea of alternative practice to you know support people through what's already a very you

26:05

know traumatic event but to actually have to deal with the initial trauma as well like it's you know it's compounding

26:10

so it's just wonderful that people are getting that type of support and education um with your work in regards to you know

26:17

somatics and mindfulness Energy Medicine can people reduce or eliminate their

26:24

quite significant dependence on antidepressants anti-anxiety meds sleep

26:29

meds pain meds Etc or is that like a kind of long process to to work off those things

26:35

I've seen many many my clients shift their relationship to their medications how I work is non-diagnostic and

26:41

non-prescriptive so that's that's a conversation my clients have with their Healthcare Providers you know

26:47

um but as they start to feel better they start to open up the conversation and then maybe they run some other lab work

26:53

and you know so that's that's something that's between my clients and yeah their

26:59

Western Medical Doctors that's nothing I advise them on but the function of my work is helping them heal you know all

27:06

these underlying patterns so if you're starting to address the the underbelly of the iceberg the tip of the iceberg

27:12

and symptoms tend to start to melt away it's different for everyone I mean and I

27:17

also have clients who are very happy to stay on their medications and that is

27:23

keeping a certain Baseline of stability you know everyone's lived experience is different so you know the types of

27:30

resources and tools that we want to lean on or that are necessary for you know the support we need is very

27:37

individualized what do you think I mean this is different for everybody right as you say some people want to come off medications

27:43

some people might want to do that quickly or slowly or they don't want to do that you know it's obviously very individual but like what do you think is

27:51

changing within somebody who you know is on that's to say an anti-anxiety meds and they start working with you and then

27:57

they start thinking about not wanting to be on it anymore or wanting to reduce it and then bringing that conversation to

28:03

their to their doctor what do you think is happening within their body do you think it's like you know obviously that

28:09

they are healing so they are biochemically changing but do you think there's like this dependence on this

28:14

pharmaceutical to keep somebody balanced like what do you what do you think is happening there like do you think it's

28:19

more psychological or like physiological again if you're

28:28

buying causative factors that have been creating illness

28:34

and that means the illness is no longer presenting itself so if the illness is no longer presenting itself you're less

28:40

likely to need to depend on a medication to treat you know an illness that has

28:45

been fading away but Energy Medicine is really calming the cardiovascular system

28:51

you know it is regulating the nervous system it's boosting immune function and

28:58

I look at those three critical components of energy medicine is you know probably the top three

29:05

indicators of you know supporting overall health and wellness

29:12

so if if folks are continually committed to a path of healing where those three

29:18

pieces are coming online um it's going to do wonders for their

29:24

ability to navigate kind of the the Ebbs and flows of life challenges and health

29:29

challenges um and so yeah that's

29:35

someone's someone may be dependent on something because they haven't healed you know the underlying factors so once

29:41

you heal the underlying factors that dependence is less likely to be you know such a such a piece to look at totally

29:49

absolutely um is there a particular piece of like advice or education that

29:55

you introduce to your clients that kind of opens up most people's

30:00

eyes to a kind of new way of thinking about something I've got like a little example in regards to my like nutrition

30:05

practice was trying to explain to people the difference between your like fight or flight sympathetic nervous system and

30:11

then your parasympathetic nervous system and how even just engaging with breath work for 30 seconds can really start to

30:18

you know make that shift for someone who's like very high strung very high stressed and always kind of like an

30:24

adrenaline phase and how that can start helping the body you know heal itself in like a in like a normal functioning way

30:31

that used to really like get people thinking in a very different way about like what's going on for them on a

30:37

day-to-day basis with their mind and with their within their body is there a particular like topic that comes up for

30:43

you like commonly that that kind of has that same effect so you know the Seven Pillars in my

30:49

system kind of take people on a journey to kind of map where they're at and where they're headed on their healing

30:54

path and that gives people the orientation to kind of get their bearings straight so yeah nervous system

30:59

regulation is the first pillar so understanding the nervous system um is a big component right it's like a

31:07

gazelle being chased by a cheetah you know the moment the gazelle realizes it's no longer in danger it does a

31:12

ritual shaking and it releases that stress response and it instantaneously

31:18

reorients to the rest and digest state of the parasympathetic nervous system

31:23

excuse me so helping people understand that healing is helping us learn how to shake off not

31:31

only day-to-day stress but the historic residue of stress and Trauma that you

31:38

know has been stored in our body and our tissues and our cells you know for years and years and years so not only becoming

31:45

more skillful at navigating you know what's coming at us today but developing

31:51

a capacity to flush out the accumulation of everything we've come to bear

31:56

um so yeah that's that's the first pillar which is a big piece you know from there we work into embodiment right

32:03

because trauma like the bird that flies into a window and you think it's dead it drops to the ground it's just really in

32:08

shock it hasn't been able to process and absorb the impact of flying into the

32:15

window so it goes into shock so you know the bird eventually starts to Twitch and

32:20

find the wind it finds the wind beneath its wings and takes off as humans we don't do that so well you

32:26

know parts of us will still remain Frozen even though we're still kind of going through the motions of our lives

32:31

so how do we thaw out you know these different parts of our lived experience that get calcified within us right

32:38

because when we are living from the neck up we've really lost our ability to feel

32:43

ourselves and that's when we lose access to presence and agency right and as we

32:48

develop our capacity to be present and to feel that's helping us to then broaden our window of tolerance so we

32:55

have the capacity to feel the emotional impact of traumatic experience that at

33:02

one point in life was too much too soon right so healing is really slowing down so we can start to metabolize what

33:10

um you know was often you know we were unable to digest previously

33:15

so those are the first three pillars that really give people kind of a foundation to kind of get started

33:22

very cool yeah I think that that whole that whole process of you know kind of

33:27

taking things back to fundamentals and helping people start to think about things in different

33:33

ways and start feeling things in different ways can really support people and assist people to to

33:39

just think about the idea of feeling different and you know getting to a place of you know more light and healing

33:45

and less pain and it's uh it's certainly an education a self-educational piece as

33:51

well as like actually like getting there and doing the work so I'm just super glad that there are people like you that recognize that and that are able to you

33:58

know transfer that information to people and and go through them on this journey because it's obviously just not always this now incline of progression into

34:06

massive healing there's obviously going to be blips along the way that's just like the normal healing process so it's

34:11

wonderful that you you know you're able to to guide and support people through that Journey once they decide they want

34:17

to be in the game and playing when you're you know you're there supporting them and coaching them through it as like a beginning process

34:24

where do people you know where would you advise people to like maybe go or reach out to if they really want to begin kind

34:30

of like true healing for themselves be that from no pain trauma

34:37

psychological issues kind of I suppose anything you know just to be spoke before we've spoken a few times about you know people who have experienced

34:43

these things for a long period long long periods of time and not quite found their right solution yet or found the

34:50

right balance yet like what what what's a beginning step for people because it can become very overwhelming to

34:57

have this this person that you might not recognize because it is littered with pain it's

35:02

littered with trauma it's not recognizable as the individual that that person you know truly wants to be so

35:08

where would you guide people to as like maybe a first step

35:14

um you know that's really unique for each individual everyone's breadcrumbs that bring them onto a healing path are

35:20

pretty individual um you know we can't heal in isolation as mammals we're social creatures we

35:26

can't live in isolation we can't heal in isolation yet the imprints and the residue of trauma are feeding a

35:34

storyline of alienation and fear um and we sometimes need to honor that

35:39

too someone may not be ready to reach out for support right so their breadcrumbs may be just reading some

35:45

books on healing right reading some books on mindfulness spending time in nature how do you develop some resources

35:52

just to fill up your cup right um but as you start to develop some more

35:59

awareness and capacity ultimately reaching out for support right whether that's worth a Healer a mentor a

36:05

therapist or a community right that's a container where you know so much healing

36:11

the majority of healing is happening relationally right and so how do we find the right support and

36:18

it's less about the modality than it is the actual relationship so

36:24

finding someone that you can really lean on and develop a trusting relationship with um that's that's where

36:32

the repair happens and that's where the healing containers kind of the laboratory to

36:38

um take risks and be authentic and be witnessed you know in your truth and

36:45

that that starts to create the foundation for us to start to develop that capacity and you know all the other

36:50

relationships in our life yeah those initial steps of becoming becoming honest open and vulnerable with

36:57

with another person and you know really asking for help which is you know such an incredible thing to do and a really

37:03

smart thing to do when you when you really do need it because we obviously step back into kind of isolation if

37:09

we're experiencing maybe depression or anxieties or whatever that's usually a very common step for a lot of people but

37:15

yeah stepping into that open honest vulnerable place really begins to kind of melt away a lot of the personality

37:21

that we've built up wrapped around this kind of like trauma so I find that to be a very very um

37:27

highlighted place for a lot of people kind of beginning that beginning those Journeys those initial steps

37:33

um you're the founder of Prisma right can you tell us a little bit a little bit about that what that is and like and

37:40

how that works sure yeah and I find you know I develop prison notes that

37:45

it's like wow I wish I had Prisma 25 years ago sure would have fast tracked

37:51

my healing um and again healing is non-linear and it's not overnight and there are bumps

37:56

on the road and it's a long whiny Road but if I had Prisma 25 years ago uh it

38:03

would have it would have put me it would have fast tracked my healing for sure so there's a trauma and Neuroscience

38:08

roadmap I found that I was going through years of therapy and healing knowing I was on the right track and I was gaining

38:14

some traction but I still didn't really know where I was where I was or where I was headed right I still had no concept

38:22

of what the nervous system was so I didn't know how to start to track it and build awareness around it and then start

38:28

to you know work with it um so yeah the trauma Neuroscience roadmap does that and it includes the

38:35

seven Prisma pillars which are the drop pins on that map so it's the orientation to know where you're at where you're

38:41

headed on your healing journey within that are all the somatic and mindfulness-based practices and those

38:47

somatic and mindfulness-based practices for my students I offer you know guided practices because it's one thing to

38:53

learn something it's another thing to embody it right and we can't embody it until we put it to practice

38:59

you know and the mindfulness piece the mind is a tricky thing to get to know especially when we have trauma on the

39:05

brain so the mindfulness is the Mind training that's really helping to reorient us from Pain to possibility

39:11

it's what's helping us dissolve the identification with our wounding so we can expand our awareness into the

39:18

presence of who we are and so as we expand our awareness into the presence of who we are it puts our pain in

39:24

perspective but until we've learned how to strengthen that muscle um you know negativity bias our brain is

39:31

just going to continue to latch on to what hurts what's dangerous what we perceive as a threat and then magnify it

39:37

right so that's why there's often such a feedback loop around pain anxiety and

39:43

depression because we feel the pain then that activates our fear that kicks up the Carousel and a three-ring circus of

39:49

thoughts and anxiety around the pain and that can be pretty heavy to bear and

39:54

then q and the depression right so the mindfulness and the somatics helps us start to track what we're experiencing

40:01

in our body but also create distance between us and what we're tracking so

40:07

we're less identified with body sensation and pain and we start to develop more of a connection to you know

40:14

this Consciousness that gets to witness it all right so it's like if our pain if

40:20

our Body Sensations of our thoughts of our memories are kind of like weather patterns you know we are just noticing

40:26

them like clouds in the sky but we're aware that we're not the clouds right we're the empty sky where you know we're

40:34

beyond the weather that comes and goes so then the last component is the Energy

40:39

Medicine piece so helping students develop an entire uh self-care healing

40:45

practice and again the Energy Medicine is what's really helping us heal the imprints of trauma stored in the

40:51

tissues and the cells there's just some pain we can't think or talk our way through and that's where energy medicines just really profound and again

40:59

Shifting the cardiovascular or calming the cardiovascular system shifting us from fight flight to rest digest you

41:07

know clearing out the stagnation and the inflammation that compromises the immune system just to get us more in touch with

41:14

that innate wisdom so I find all of those aspects pair really well to provide a solid framework

41:22

to help people yeah become their own you know best self-healer

41:28

very cool where can people learn more about Prisma and you and your work yeah Greg whiting.com or prismamethod.com

41:37

beautiful well I'm truly grateful uh that you are out there supporting and

41:42

serving people and you've able to come through your own experiences the

41:48

other side and have created these these programs and these methods and encapsulated even the you know

41:54

psychiatrists to adopt this work as well so I feel like you're doing such phenomenal things out there and I'm I'm

42:00

glad you exist so awesome thank you thanks Simon really appreciate your time and our chat beautiful well thanks

42:07

coming on for the show Greg I will make sure that all the in the show notes we've got links to your social media and

42:13

your website so people can connect with you but uh I really appreciate your time today Greg thank you thank you

42:19

beautiful well that is it for this episode of True hope class the official podcast of true hope Canada for any

42:24

information about anything we've spoken about in the show I'll leave show notes in there so you can get hold of Greg and

42:30

check out Prisma and the the amazing um method and foundations that we've got there um don't forget to subscribe if you

42:36

haven't yet if you're on iTunes leave us a review but thanks for listening again everybody we'll see you next week

42:43

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