Profiles

If it wasn’t exactly preordained that Oxana Merimskaya would end up in medicine, it was pretty close. Her mother and father were both doctors. Her late brother was a doctor. At four years old, she herself announced to her family that she wanted to be a medical doctor when she grew up. Her parents, in fact, met as doctors. Her mother served in the Soviet military as a surgeon, operating on the Western (Russian) Front of World War II. Her father, too, was in the military, also working as a physician. And even though they were in Yekaterinburg at the time of her birth, because her mother and father and her sisters and brothers were all born in Kiev, in what is now Ukraine, her mother made the trip back to Kiev just to give birth to Oxana there as well.

Alanda Greene, a student of Theresa Lee, was born in southern Alberta, on the edge of the city of Calgary, where she was close to both the mountains to the west and the prairie to the east. After completing her degrees in English and History and taking time to travel and reflect on the life she wished to have she moved with her partner to the mountains to live close to the land. “I had a sense of deep clarity that I wanted to live my life with meaning, creativity and purpose. We cleared a space in the forest, hauled rock, built a house and garden”, stated Alanda. She taught school for 24 years and then managed the bookstore at nearby Yasodhara Ashram where she also studied and taught yoga.

Valentina “Tina” Morani learned about Acutonics—first hand—in 2006. Back then she was just getting into her first semester at the Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, Colorado observing in the student clinic. That’s when one of the College’s teachers (and Acutonics teacher) Sylvia Pelcz-Larsen brought in the tuning forks. “I remember seeing how powerful the treatment was,” Tina recalls today from her home in Chestertown, Maryland, where she grew up and runs her own acupuncture and Acutonics practice. I really want to do this, she thought to herself. But not right now. So she put it aside. She graduated. She got her practice going back in Chestertown.

Laura Herman has been practicing Acutonics techniques for over eleven years. She lives in a small house surrounded by trees, a creek, and many wild animals. This quiet setting is perfect for meditation, yoga, reading and writing. Recently retired she intends to focus on her writing (currently working on two novels) and to continue with her hobbies, which include hiking, photography and book club. Recently retired from a 31-year teaching career, Laura Herman and her husband Mike Aplet recently stopped by the Mothership. They are on a postretirement, somewhat spontaneous camping trip across the Southwest and on toward Chicago to visit with their daughter Naomi, and then back west to Seattle.

“Sound,” says Dr. Birch Storey, “is to the nervous system as food is to the body.” Which is about as good an analogy as there is for the basis of Acutonics and sound healing. “And what makes Acutonics unique among sound therapies,” she adds, “is the cross-cultural and mathematical impact of the interval that is created when two tuning forks are used together.” Birch should know. She’s been teaching Acutonics for almost twelve years, and like many an Acutonics teacher, practitioner and client, has had an open mind, a curious mind, all her life. One that has led her to many places, many modalities, before landing on what she feels has been “the greatest medium, method and mentor of my life—Acutonics.”

An online search for a program that incorporates sound and music led Sherry Schnell to Acutonics. “I had been dealing with serious health challenges for many years and knew that music made me feel better”, stated Sherry. I looked at many programs but Acutonics felt right; once I started working with the tools I knew it was right.“ Sherry always had a connection to music, which grew when she recognized that listening to music helped relieve her pain.

There is a thread that can be followed in the fabric of one’s life, reflects Susan Goldstone, “As I look back on all of the experiences that have brought me to the place I am today, I see patterns woven into the texture of my life, a life many would consider to be non-traditional.”

Kay L. Broyles has always been interested in healing. As a young child, she was awed by the testimonies of medical missionaries who changed the lives of others in foreign countries. As a young adult, she was fascinated by faith healings of spiritual healers such as Kathryn Kuhlman, Olga Worrall, and Edgar Casey. Kay reflects that her mother always wanted her to be a nurse. However, Kay could not stand the sight of blood and did not pursue nursing. However, her mother’s encouragement to become a nurse did inspire Kay to examine many aspects of health and healing. Kay graduated from college with a degree in psychology which expanded her interest in mind/body medicine.

“I’m very curious and I love exploring how and why things work,” Ling Chen explains, “but I came from an educational system that was very academic, and my training was very analytical, so I didn’t imagine I’d ever do this.” She’s talking about gravitating toward Acutonics, the applied use of sound vibration integrating East Asian Medicine, psychology, science, and the arts to promote health and well-being, and how it has changed her life – and her focus.

John Rosan (Tone) is a Level IV Student Practitioner of Acutonics. He has studied here at the Mothership and it has truly been a pleasure getting to know him. John and his wife Abby are based in Lakewood, Colorado where they offer private healing sessions, performances, workshops and retreats from their home office, and anywhere that sound happens around the globe and beyond!