Ellen Santistevan is a CranioSacral and intuitive bodywork therapist who draws on traditional medicine practices to guide her clients and students on their own journeys of self-discovery and healing pathways. She comes from a science-based background and has a master's degree in Geology. She went through the first half of life with no understanding or appreciation for energy (besides the physics definition), Universal Love, Spirit, empathic senses, guides, or even the importance of human touch. In her 40s, she had some interesting experiences which began to open her up to the idea that there was more than "just this". She then attended massage school and went directly into studying Polarity Therapy and continued to study CranioSacral therapy from a variety of sources, eventually ending up in Etienne's Peirsman's classes. To go into midline is to experience peace... to experience your own soul...

 

Ellen also performs traditional limpias in the curandera tradition. Traditional healing practices derive their power the most from the human connection between client and practitioner, the sense that we are all on the same journey from birth to death. A limpia is a way to help you identify and cut energetic ties to things, situations, and relationships that no longer serve you. It may help you embark on your path of learning feeling energetically freer.

 

Her partner, David Blecha is an art teacher who strongly believes in the power of “making marks on paper” to open a person, not only to their inner energetic being, but also to the power and beauty of the natural world, as well as facilitating a spiritual connection. Together they believe in the power of art and bodywork as a spiritual path. They co-teach "Cranio and Creative Facilitation".

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Healthy Boundaries in Energy Work (4 CEs)

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Healthy Boundaries in Energy Work is a highly experiential ethics class, designed for you to actually learn to palpate the energy fields of the body -- not only for your client but also for yourself. In this way, you will learn to have greater clarity about yourself and your client, avoid enmeshment and entanglement, conserve your own energies, and maintain boundaries in a healthy, respectful, and non judgmental way.

 

This class is a prerequisite for "Developing your Listening Hands" and "Integrating Polarity Therapy into Your Massage Practice"

 

Polarity Therapy (20 CEs)

 

Polarity Therapy is a holistic system of whole-health care, including energy-based bodywork, nutrition, exercise, and self-reflection.  In this three-day class, you will experience a wide variety of both techniques and exercises that all manual therapists can use in  their regular practice.  There will be music, movement, and bodywork, and the chance to experience and play with energy and sound in the treatment setting.

 

Prerequisite:  Healthy Boundaries in Energy Work

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Cranio and Creative Facilitation

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The brain is as much in the hand as in the head.

 

A creative practice can be highly beneficial for the client in order to process the emotional releases and recognitions that can come up with craniosacral therapy. The same can be said for the practitioner, who can benefit not only from the self-care that a creative practice offers, but also to facilitate growth and self-development in themselves as they continue to practice.  This class offers instruction in developing therapeutic creative practice for the therapist as well as techniques that are applicable for client interaction.

 

The title of this class includes the words “creative facilitation”.  The word, creative, can refer not only the act of creation (in this case, making art) but also to different approaches to accessing your client’s no-mind spaces.  We will be learning ways to get out of your rut, both in terms of therapeutic practices and also in terms of your artistic practice, whether it is new to you or you are an old hand.

 

You will use a variety of drawing and painting exercises and methods to access and express emotional and energy states; practice and use shamanic reasoning to access subconscious and unconscious problem-solving techniques; and will apply a variety of techniques of creative facilitation in partnered exercises and develop your own approach to this practice.