Twenty years ago, in 1991, I had my first SHEN Therapy session. I'd been wondering about the life energy in our bodies, that which is called chi, prana, ki or the biofield. From studies of the chakras I knew there had to me more. I was sitting contemplating this when a friend called, to tell me about a new therapy called SHEN.
- It's like champagne bubbles popping in your body. You have to try this. And it's based on physics, so that should appeal to your engineering mind.
That first session led me down a new path. I got the book, Handbook of SHEN and found the answers to all those questions. Here was a scientifically based explanation of how the life energy flowed through our bodies, that made sense. After a number of sessions I wanted more. There was a workshop coming up. I signed up. It was taught by Judith Gorman and insui Giehl. I was hooked. The next workshop was taught by Russell Fox, who came up from California to teach the course. In between I traded sessions with other trainees and continued my therapy sessions with insui. She also got me started painting, using art to express emotions I didn't have the words for yet. Quite early on, I knew I wanted to teach this. I expressed my wish only to be told I needed to become a therapist first.
So I set out to take the requisite courses, do the 60 sessions with clients, and fulfill all the other requirements. My mentor, insui, also taught a weekly class on Life Energy Fundamentals, that showed me the incredible value of group work and got me started meditating. In those days, you had to have clients with specific issues, to show that you were capable of dealing with the assortment of complaints likely to land on your doorstep. No matter how I searched, I couldn't come up with a migraine client. So three sessions short of certification, things came to a pause, at least as far as the official seal of approval. I continued seeing the occasional client, and exchanging sessions once a week with a therapist who later moved to Hawaii.
I didn't exactly sit and twiddle my thumbs. I studied hypnotherapy, life mission, sound healing, gemstone therapy, personal presence and read tons of books. Judith Gorman, a key initiator of ISTA, The International SHEN Therapy Association, invited me to a potluck of recent SHEN trainees. There I met Tove Asmussen, who later became the first Scandinavian SHEN Therapist. Since I'm Swedish to begin with it was a special connection, and after many many years abroad I was feeling the tug to return to my roots.
In 1998 I was ready to move back to Sweden. By this time, I had put my notion of returning to the corporate world to rest and was ready to start a therapy business in Sweden. I contacted ISTA to check on the wereabouts of Tove... and lo and behold they were doing workshops in Norway thanks to an article she'd written for Alternativt Nettverk. Energized by this good news, I signed up for a workshop in Seattle, taught by instructor intern Tess Beauchamp and mentored by Stephanie Bisceglia from the Bay Area, to refresh my skills.
A few months after my arrival in Sweden I drove up to Norway for my first workshop with Richard Pavek, founder of SHEN Therapy and author of The Handbook of SHEN. With all the Scandinavian enthusiasm around me and encouragement from Richard, I decided to complete my certification as a SHEN Therapist. They'd give me credit for my earlier work, but now the requirement was 200 sessions and more workshops. As luck would have it, the next ISTA Conference would be in San Diego. I could go visit my friends and start on the add on workshops as well as attend the conference. There I met my new mentor Carol Logan from Scotland as well as instructors Rhona Campbell (Scotland), Deirdre Leavy (Ireland), Maureen Maloney (Ireland), Jan Dederick (USA) and a host of other therapists and trainees.
Back home in Sweden I continued going to Norway for workshops, continued seeing clients for my certification requirement and found a new exchange partner. Since we lived so far apart, we would set aside a whole week to trade sessions. Most often at my house. It was excellent training to live and work together so intensely. We went to Scotland for the advanced courses together, where we met therapists and interns from all over the UK and Europe. One in particular caught my eye, as her wardrobe was just as colorful as mine. Over the years we've met up in many places and Jenny Jones was the first to help me organize a Shen and beyond... retreat in Turkey in 2010. But I'm getting ahead of my story.
I thought I had all the requisite clients and requirements to apply for certification. My mentor wanted to be absolutely sure that the paperwork we sent in was excellent. She asked me to do another client for a series of ten. Since I lived in the countryside, the one who appeared could only come for an intensive, where you do the ten sessions over three days instead of one or two sessions a week. I had to get special permission to do that, and fax reports in between every session. It went really well. I became the first certified SHEN Therapist in Sweden.
Time passes and one day, out of the blue, my mentor calls. Would I be interested in training as an instructor? Funny how your wishes get answered, but it can take time. My Norwegian colleagues were overjoyed at the prospect. It's a lot of extra work to translate everything you do, but on the other hand you learn it at a deeper level. Everything you do you go through at least twice.
My instructor training took me back to Scotland, then to London and to St Anselms at Margate. I especially liked working with the priests and nuns from all over the world at St Anselms, who were training as counselors with SHEN Therapy incorporated into the mix.
I was all set to go get my instructor diploma, when my mentor calls, a week before I'm to leave to do the final course. A number of the instructors had left the SHEN organization to form a new, as yet to be named therapy. I would still get my instructor certification, but they didn't have name yet...
Why this name change? Why couldn't they still call it SHEN? It was the same therapy wasn't it? Over the years the trademark of SHEN had been mentioned at every workshop, that it was very important and only those trained officially were allowed to use it. Every time there was a split, those leaving were required to use another name for the same therapy. So this is why SHEN is also known as Biofield Therapy, Healing Therapy, Kairos Therapy and EQ Therapy.
Why this name change? Why couldn't they still call it SHEN? It was the same therapy wasn't it? Over the years the trademark of SHEN had been mentioned at every workshop, that it was very important and only those trained officially were allowed to use it. Every time there was a split, those leaving were required to use another name for the same therapy. So this is why SHEN is also known as Biofield Therapy, Healing Therapy, Kairos Therapy and EQ Therapy.
I decided to do some research on this trademark business. A trademark is granted in a specific country for a specific period. It can consist of a logo, a special way to present the words, and has nothing to do with the method, it's the name and its presentation that gets trademarked. SHEN was a registered trademark in the USA and the UK but both had expired by the time of the split. I tried to convince my mentor that they need not change the name. They eventually chose Kairos Therapy as the name to use for SHEN. I meandered off to write books, paint, do trades and work with clients. In 2007 SHEN was again registered as a trade mark in the UK.
Since I travel a fair amount and I like to stay connected I've made it a point to meet up with fellow therapists and teachers. No matter which name they use for our wonderful therapy, they all say the same thing.
Since I travel a fair amount and I like to stay connected I've made it a point to meet up with fellow therapists and teachers. No matter which name they use for our wonderful therapy, they all say the same thing.
- We care about the work
- We care about helping people heal.
- We care about doing the best work we can.
Out of these discusssions and trades, I saw that the therapists doing the work day in and day out not only had deepened their know how beyond the basics, but were not necessarily aware of their special talents. When we trade sessions with another therapist they may say or do something that makes you wonder what they did or how they knew. I also sensed a need for us to connect across the oceans and across all the various names. We all do the same work. Thus the SHEN and beyond... Retreats were born.
In November 2011, a network was created to connect us all, no matter what name we use for the therapy. Because we're spread into so many little groups, clients and students have a hard time finding us on the internet. Connecting all of us in this way will help each group to grow as well. Check out SHEN Therapies Network and join up if you're a therapist trained in SHEN, Kairos, EQ, Biofield or Healing Therapy.
In November 2011, a network was created to connect us all, no matter what name we use for the therapy. Because we're spread into so many little groups, clients and students have a hard time finding us on the internet. Connecting all of us in this way will help each group to grow as well. Check out SHEN Therapies Network and join up if you're a therapist trained in SHEN, Kairos, EQ, Biofield or Healing Therapy.
Eva Dillner
Author, Artist, Therapist and Teacher
www.divinedesign.nu
