Meet the Practitioner
ABOUT THE SPA
Jesse
Canada
One of my life’s great missions, is the cultivation of a resilient, healthy nervous system. I believe this is the key to more completely welcome what is and who I’m with. And now I have to acknowledge, humbly, that part of my path is to help others do some version of the same, if they wish.
For me, this journey begins at 12 years old in the water. The ‘Big’ water, with surfboard in tow. I toss myself into the wild, ignorant, awestruck, exhilarated, breathless and awake. This is very destabilizing. I am accessing for the first time, the vastness and preciousness of being alive in this world.
10 years on, after years of navigating personal and family mental health challenges, I begin a 20 year career digging in the dirt and playing with plants as an urban farmer and food educator in Victoria BC, Canada. I know then, my mental health demands that my work be physical, meaningful and connect me to the earth.
At 30, my grounded, creative self needs to start being expressed. I am completely enveloped by Flamenco and Contact Improv dance forms. I delightfully and sometimes dramatically explore the limits of physical exertion and creative expression. It is in this part of my life that I begin to attune, to really ‘be with’ another, in dance, in real time. This ‘being with’ another, in dance points me to the obvious but unrealized fact that I have a bottomless deep inner experience that is desiring to be known, witnessed and expressed in the world. And a lot of the time, I am too distracted, too stressed by life’s struggles to consistently access this well of being.
Hungry to know and access this inner world, at 32, I begin my journey into a wide array of healing and movement modalities, from Yoga, meditation and breath-work, to Thai massage, aquatic bodywork (Healing Dance) and free diving.
At 35, my yearning to share my world with others, leads me to the relational practices of Circling, Authentic Relating and Hakomi.
Today, I am in the final stages of the Healing Dance Certification. I have studied and practiced this refined aquatic bodywork modality now for 4 years. There are few things I know, but I know I will share this practice with others until the end.
This is just a part of the journey, but it’s the part I’m most excited and ready to share with you.
