If you have reached this blog seeking somatic therapy, I am very glad you have found me. I practice somatic therapy in the LA area combining Polarity Therapy with the wisdoms of Depth Psychology and various native and natural healing paths. This sort of work is helpful in dealing with pains that are physical, emotional, mental and spiritual; acknowledging that they are all related. It is particularly helpful in dealing with the effects of trauma, in healing stress and pain, and times when we seek clarity, balanced energy, or are going through life transitions and transformations.

The recent boom in information coming through research on mindfulness tells us that, in order to heal the worries of the mind and soul, we must be grounded in the sensations of the body. New understandings of trauma show that, often, the body communicates what the conscious mind can't dare to. An understanding of the body--both as physical and interconnected with others and the earth, and as spiritual--is certainly the next step Psychology must take.

I do not use this blog very often at this time (though I do hope to shift this soon), so it feels like the few posts I have on it are less than representative of me. If you would like more info on what a somatic therapy session is, or would like to schedule, please email me at lifemovesthrough@gmail.com or call me at 310) 753-3386

Self Gua Sha

I don't know if one is supposed to do gua sha on one's self, but I do. I've been studying and doing it for others a lot lately, but don't really have someone to do it to me. I got a friend to do it a little bit today, and it made me notice how much I really need it. After she had to go, I continued working on myself. ....Hi my name is Laura, and I'm a mess!:

Of course my technique on myself is horrible. Obviously, there is no way for me to reach and, on top of that, my strokes started to be filled with the emotion that they were releasing. Physically: hot, cold, dizzy, jolt. A gentle trip through time. Purple neck, red on tonsils and scalenes, almost bleeding grief points.

I noticed that--even after a lot of progress--I am still pretty bad off. Way less than where I began, but still more sha than many I've worked on. I wondered what this meant. It is always my personal work to make sure I move the pain of myself and others through me---not take it on. I don't know if sha is simply the necessary residue of pain moving through, or the result of holding on. The first time I was cupped, I bled black. I felt like my neck was 500 years old. I've felt some pretty bad pain in my life, and I questioned if there is any way to go through such things without sha.

I don't think we can judge ourselves for the collection of sha that comes with experience. And as much as we have to allow ourselves the sometimes-ugly pain, we have to allow ourselves its sometimes-ugly release. I think that techniques like gua sha are for when we know that there is an other side of the pain that comes in healing. Sometimes we feel pain and-- not knowing if it is the pain of hurting or healing--begin, then turn back over and over again. Of course, one also has to be ready; you have to be careful not to scrape off a defense while it is still a needed protection. But eventually, I think we have to travel through it.

Of the difficult things I am going through right now, my pain: of course it feels endless. That is its nature. But from the past, I know there is another side. Almost a year ago, I had gua sha done on scars on my arm that, before then, I barely would touch. Their shame matched a long strand of shame and secrets that I didn't even completely know. The sha was dark dark purple. I had waves of emotions as I went on with my day, then memories, then confessions....by the early morning of the next day, I was crying it out.

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This time, I scraped it and it was clear.


p.s. if you didn't see it before, scroll down and watch the gua sha video (...or rate it on youtube). I notice that I am talking about the emotional release of gua sha and not many people are doing that. Gua Sha is a folk tradition--power to the people, especially to the mothers. However, videos show men doctors and stress that it is a science, based on reason, leaving emotions secondary. I think it is important to remember that the technique has an origin where emotions, organs, and the journey of an individual spirit are all different aspects of a whole.

Gua Sha in Los Angeles

Maybe pain is friction. It doesn’t hurt when things are moving, or when all are still. Pain is the feeling of one part moving against another part that is stuck. It is the gap between where we come from and where we are going. It is the feeling of waking up. The stagnant part is our old world—our past and our old way of being. When we feel pain, its means it is time for something old to dissolve. Perfectly, friction contains is own antidote. The product of friction is heat. And fire is a requisite for alchemy. It is necessary in transforming your lead into gold.

Life force energy flows freely through the body when the system is healthy. This subtle energy manifests as blood and lymph, then tissues and organs. Matter moves more slowly, the more dense it becomes, but it still should be free to flow in its own way. Trauma, imbalanced nutrition, emotion and karma, can cause parts of us to freeze. Stagnation manifests in the body as sepsis, fermentation, muscle adhesions, scar tissue, and tumors. Sometimes stagnation can exist for a long time before we feel it. But when we try to move forward, we notice that some parts are stuck.

Gua Sha is a widely used folk remedy as well as a technique in Chinese medicine. Friction is created with a blade made of Jade or Water Buffalo Horn or simply a soup spoon or bottle lid with a rounded edge. When an area is scraped, if the tissues and related areas are healthy, the skin turns pink, then returns to normal color. But if there is stagnant blood, it rises to the surface as “Sha”. The darker the color, the longer it has been stagnant (less oxygen). It may be yellow, red, purple, or even black or greenish. Treatment effects the area directly scraped and related organ and lines of energy.


In some accounts, Gua Sha has been referred to as pseudo-abuse or pseudo-battery (wiki). This is because it looks like horrible bruises. This makes some people want nothing to do with it. But it is not that something harmful is being added to the body—instead, something that has been there for a long time is being drawn out. It is a demonstration of a healing process. We see the pain as it leaves, no longer hiding it inside of us. If we can look at it, and we can touch it, gradually we can let it go. As the once-frozen places heat up and melt, our cells are free to move again. They are free to find a new position that is in harmony with the present moment.

Practices of awareness and healing are not for those who are fully in the dark. Nor for those fully in the light. They are for those in the waking shadows. Wishing to be blessed by the old world while embracing the new. Those who search for the pain of waking up; knowing that there is something on the other side.

While I was writing this, there was a rolling earthquake. Reminding me that, even the things that I thought were solid, eventually heat up, turn to liquid, and flow.

If you are interested in experiencing this work, please contact me at lifemovesthrough@gmail.com