About Rebekah

BSc Honours Psychology, 2001

Earned a Bachelor of Science (honours) in psychology, at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.  Specialised in social-cultural psychology, interested in how to create systems to support cooperation and community rather than triggering resource competition and conflict. 

 

Yoga Teacher Training, 2005

Attended the Sivanananda Ashram in Kerala, Southern India. Completed their 200 hour yoga teacher training. The programme taught an integral practice including meditation, asana, chanting, service, and clean diet.  

 

Thai Massage & Reflexology, 2005

Studied level 1 and level 2 Thai massage, and Thai food reflexology at TCM the Thai massage school in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  This is the northern form of Thai massage which is more heavily influenced by yoga that the southern style. Thai reflexology is performed with a teak stick to create intense pressure into specific reflex points. 

 

Zero Balancing Certification Training, 2006

This was a 2 year programme of study  beginning in New Zealand and finishing up in the US, with the Zero Balancing Health Association, which involves 100 hours of contact hours, 50 written case studies and 2 formal projects. 

 

Massage Therapy Certification Training, 2012

At the San Francisco School of Massage, California, a fundamentals Swedish massage intensive.

 

Zero Balancing Teacher Training, 2012

This was a year and half programme designed specifically to give the depth and breathe of knowledge and experience to be able to accurately transmit the teachings of Zero Balancing. Learning directly from Zero Balancing’s founder Dr. Fritz Smith, a small cohort of student-teachers came together in four international locations to learn. 

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Certified Labour & Postpartum Doula 2017

Through Cornerstone Doula training in San Francisco. An in-depth training to understand how to be fully present in support of a woman going through pregnancy, birth and postpartum.  Evidence based best practice.

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Healing Philosophy

 

Health is not a static position, but the ability to adapt and respond to changing circumstances. We do not reach ‘health’ and then remain healthy by staying the same. Healthy individuals can adjust to cold weather, to wind, to high stress, to different foods. Most of us become stuck in response strategies from the past. We break our arm, for the first few weeks we must hold it very still and steady so it sets right and doesn’t hurt. It mends but the body continues unconsciously to hold tension in the arm and shoulder, stuck responding to a situation of the past. Coming back to a healthy state means helping the body to release tension patterns or strategies from the past so we can better respond in this present moment. 

 

Pain is a block in the flow of energy, and is important to pay attention to, not simply to suppress of avoid. Pain is a loud and important signal that SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT.  It is natural and to want that feeling to go away. However when we repress the pain, numb it or avoid it without taking head of the message the pain is giving us, things tend to get worse in the long run.  

 

We have an incredible potential for healing but often do not have the ability or tools to tap into that capacity.  The body needs to be relaxed, very relaxed and feeling safe in order for the nervous system to drop into self-repair and healing mode. Most of us do not often have that kind of deep relaxation in our lives. Sleep comes close, but often is not enough.

 

Mental, emotional, physical pain or imbalances all impact each other.  To treat a person as though the body, the mind and the emotions are unrelated is similar to treating a person as though digestion is unrelated to what and how we eat. Our posture, what we eat, tension on a physical level all have an impact on our mental emotional health. And it goes both ways!  Emotional and mental states impact what's happening in our physical body. I see it as a vibrational pattern that exists in an emotional, mental and physical form.  

 

Where we feel the symptom is often just a small piece of the pattern underlying the symptom.  Addressing only the symptom will usually have short term relief only, as an underlying tensions patter remains unresolved. If someone has pain in their wrist, addressing the wrist is important. However, much of the time, there is also a tension or imbalance in the shoulder that underlies the wrist pain. And perhaps additional tension patterns throughout the body that have slowly built up to the experience of the symptom in question. 

 

Much more of our system is changeable, plastic, influenceable, then we tend to realise. Learning to tap into that is the trick!  Our bones, far from being the rigid static forms we often imagine them to be, have some flexibility, change density and even shape depending on our use of them.  While some patterns of imbalance and poor health have taken many years to build up to, and some have come from traumatic accidents and injuries, much pain and imbalance in the body is possible to change.  It may take developing complete knew habits of movement, of thought and behaviour, but knowing that dramatic change is slowly possible can be a huge breath of hope that its important to stay connected with. 

 

The deepest healing you can offer another person is often to hold safe space for them and listen completely and without judgement, so they can access their own healing potential.  As healers, therapists, body workers, our primary work is not to fix another person, but simply to create such a space of safety and ease through our touch, our grounded presence, our listening and non-judgement, that the person’s own healing mechanism is activated and they can tap into that holistic plastic space where long-held patterns from the past responses can drop away in a gentle instant.

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Testimonials

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