Shealan Anderson recently spent twelve days with us here at the Mothership. She completed Acutonics Level I & II with Paul and Jude Ponton in Seattle and she completed her Level III & IV training at the Mothership in September of 2015.
Shealan Anderson was at the Mothership for twelve days in March as a student intern, helping on the land, in the growing dome, making wine, and giving treatments as part of her required clinic hours. She also took on a huge project assembling almost 500 belted acuvators. She is indeed an intrepid traveler, adventurous, bold, daring and spirited, she helped us celebrate our 20th birthday and St. Patrick’s Day, too! It was a joy to have her here and we hope she will return as her can do attitude and warm spirit not only brightened our days, but contributed to our day-to-day operations in a really positive way.
Her visit came toward the end of a seven-month journey travelling in her blue van Hesta (a combination of Hera and Vesta) throughout the Western United States. Shealan found her van in Canada and drove it to her aunt and uncles in Snoqualmie, WA where she spent seven weeks converting it into her tiny home on wheels with the help of uncle Brad. She also got to enjoy the amazing cooking of aunt Wanda. The goals for her trip were to give herself the time and space to integrate the personal healing that she has been engaged in for the past three years, and to get more connected with what she wants in her life. “Working as a physiotherapist with a service oriented mind set, I found that the needs of others were always put before mine. I had to learn how to do for myself what I have spent the past seven years doing for others. In order to serve my clients at the highest possible level it was critical that I take time to attend to my personal healing.”
Shealan born in 1984 in Dawson creek BC is the middle of three children. She began figure skating when she was 3. It was her life, skating three mornings and six evenings a week, her life was disciplined and focused. From the age of ten she spent two-and-a-half months each summer at a figure skating program in Vancouver, Canada. “I was working toward nationals and worlds and passed all of the levels to get to the point where I could compete, at a higher level”, she stated. But like many young athletes injuries and a lack of positive role models led her to the decision to stop skating when she graduated from high school. A lover of the outdoors from a very young age, she has many positive memories of hikes and camping and fishing trips throughout Northern Canada. “Its winter nine months of the year so skating, snowmobiling, and when I could get away with it skiing were a part of my life, I also loved softball and running track, perhaps even more than skating, as they were outdoors and less ridged.”
After giving up the dream to be a competitive skater Shealan left Dawson Creek after high school taking a year to travel. She spent time in New Zealand, Australia, and Vietnam. “Leaving the rigor of skating behind opened a window and gave me a sense of freedom and a love of travel, which is still with me today.” After her gap year she started college, in Grand Prairie, Alberta, completing two years of study focused on science. On a trip to England, for her older sister’s graduation from the University of Manchester in physiotherapy, she made the decision to apply to the same program. “I simply fell in love with Manchester and knew I wanted to study there, I think it was the music.”
She completed her three-year training in physiotherapy, received her BA, and returned home to Dawson Creek. “I spent two years working as a physiotherapist in a hospital, but I really longed to go back to New Zealand which I did in 2012.” Shealan traveled around the country, and worked in Auckland as a physiotherapist for a year. “I love New Zealand, the people, scenery, attitudes about life, the energy of the place feels so elevated and advanced, its beautiful on every level.” Returning to Dawson Creek for her sisters wedding Shealan was asked to help in the family physiotherapy business, a clinic owned by her sister and new brother-in-law. She spent the next three years working with them, until setting out on a journey, which seven months later brought her here to the Mothership in Northern New Mexico.
As a physiotherapist Shealan has focused on honing her skills in whole body assessment. “Using this approach I don’t focus solely on the point of pain but rather examining the body, mind, spirit relationship to more deeply understand what is contributing to the pain. This exploration led me to Acutonics, As a physiotherapist alone I was only seeing a 5% improvement in my patients, 95% had psycho social factors that were not allowing them to move forward. I was looking for different modalities that would help me to address past traumas, or emotional issues that may manifest as physical problems in the body.”
She went on to state: “Once I started asking the questions and digging deeper the people who were ready to work with me in this way began to notice big changes and my success rate with patients improved dramatically.” As she came to more deeply listen to and understand her patient’s stories and what might have caused the injury she found that she could often link their narratives to the archetypal qualities of the forks, which she takes into consideration when she develops treatment strategies. “I see a lot of neck problems. That can be addressed with the Mercury and the New Moon tuning forks, I am able to release past trauma, suppressed words, people who have felt unable to speak their truth…the doormat syndrome will almost always appears in the neck when people are silenced.”
Blending her in-depth knowledge of the structure of the human body, with her newfound Acutonics tools and training, Shealan has witnessed significant shifts in her patients. Learning about and working with the Extraordinary Vessels has also been very powerful. “I do a lot of work with the fascia, the fascial lines and human movement. I look at how a person moves, the primal movement patterns that are affected in their body and I can relate it to a specific vessel. For example, someone may not have forward mobility or backward mobility might be impaired, and these observations will often pair with an extraordinary vessel. The combination of physiotherapy and Acutonics has provided me with a deeper understanding of how to work with the Extraordinary Vessels, and I am seeing improved patient outcomes”.
Reflecting on her trip across the Western States, she fell in love with Oregon, where she discovered a green mind-set, great hiking and lots of organic food. She loved Joshua Tree and the Red Wood forest. But, it is her time here at the Mothership, at the end of her trip, where she feels that she has truly had an opportunity to deepen her love for and understanding of Acutonics. “Being at the Mothership has rekindled my desire to learn and complete my Acutonics studies, it has rebuilt my confidence in this work as a practitioner. But, I’ve also had a chance to witness and experience how Acutonics is integrated into all aspects of life for promoting health and holism to its use in the creation of food, wine, creating healthy gardens, in the growing dome, and serving all aspects of people, plants and the planet. I look forward to coming back!”