Article on Shen and beyond… Retreat in Turkey 2010
Shen and beyond… Retreat in Turkey 2010
by Eva Dillner, Jenny Jones, Deirdre Leavy and Lynda Drysdale
Deirdre Leavy:
I wrote to Eva and said Dear Eva, I want nothing more than to join you in Turkey; my heart is in the right place for going. Right now I want to be on the SHEN table for a month to heal and nurture myself. And so I headed off. I longed to be the client treated without mentoring, teaching, therapist, wife, mother or grandmother distractions.
For the first time in my life I arrived tired and weary on Turkish soil. That disappeared and was replaced with excitement when I saw two smiling faces, Eva and Jenny who were there waiting for our arrival. I invited my sister along thinking she could do with a rest and sunshine. By the end of the ten minutes drive back to the house we were all on familiar terms.
Something in my memory had disappeared because I could not recall meeting Jenny before. Jenny and I assisted Richard Pavek in Margate, I could not and do not remember meeting or talking to her but yet her name was familiar. Obviously for me it was another place, another time, another setting and a new environment with new people. To say anything about Jenny to describe the attention, the food and the warm welcome she gave us would not do justice. I can only put it into small words which mean a lot from me “Jenny I might forget what we said but I will never forget how you made me feel” and so from the bottom of my heart “Thank You”
All credit goes to Eva for making this event happen. Some of you will remember Eva assisting me at a workshop in Dowdstown House, Navan Co. Meath. The dates were 21st to 25th April 2008. As with any group there needs to be a leader, Eva set the pace of the SHEN retreat. She kept the purpose of the group retreat on track. She added value by allowing the retreat to flow at a natural and productive pace and she allowed for healthy and productive discussion. Eva is the perfect leader for this retreat and I think ‘God must have put this into her mind’! and lets hope she continues her good work.
Eva treated us to creative dance and Jenny treated us to belly dance. Next time I will be more prepared and do my part piece.
The day before I left for home Lynda arrived from Scotland. We shared a short time and some very good table-work. I am sorry I was not there for longer. I rang Jenny from 7 °F Ireland to let her know we were safely back. You can imagine the envy I felt when she told me they were revisiting the Thermemaris Spa which was 15 minutes walk from her house.
I asked Eva if we could make this a yearly event and so this is our plan for 2011. Ireland will host the SHEN and Beyond Retreat in June next year with Eva leading the group. Standard wise it will be difficult to meet Jenny’s hosting but we will try.
Deirdre Leavy, Ireland
Eva Dillner:
In my travels, I try to connect with therapists who’ve trained in the Shen family of therapies, such as Shen, Kairos, EQ Bodywork, Biofield and Healing Therapy. What has struck me, as I trade sessions with individuals who do this work day in and day out, year in and year our, is the incredible knowledge and experience they possess. Often, they’re not even aware of how much they’ve learned. Until I ask them about something they did during the session. I realized we were missing a way to meet up and share all that knowledge in a broader context.
Then last year I went out to visit Jenny Jones in Rhodes and Turkey. Her house in Dalaman seemed such a perfect place for a retreat. Jenny enthusiastically agreed. Thus our retreat was born. My thought was to facilitate with a focus on exchanging learning and experience, with room for formal presentations as well as spur of the moment discussions. With a focus on Shen therapy supported by experiences that would enhance the Shen therapy process. Since I also do creative dance and toning, I offered to weave that in. Creative dance can be quite therapeutic and it certainly moves the biofield. Doing it in the middle of the 5-day retreat gave us an opprtunity to connect with our bodies, feel what had changed, what was tight, where would we like more work.
Jenny is training in NES, and introduced the new “Liberator” drops. I found having the reading brought up the very issues I needed to work on. I felt the “Liberator” drops helped open up my biofield. Since we were a very small group, we had the opportunity to take the time in the evenings to get readings. With a larger group we would do things differently. My idea about the retreat is to work with those who come, their needs and wishes, and go from there. There is no requirement to present anything. I start with a check in to understand what priorities each of you bring to the table. Deirdre clearly said she wanted as much Shen as possible, so we focused on that. Before Lynda arrived we were three people, so we worked two on one, very effective, and got two sessions each per day. Lynda’s had severe back problems and was testing the waters to see how she would do. We mellowed into a slower pace with more free time and outings.
When we originally set this up, we’d thought we’d do the retreat and the touristy things would be before or after. But since Deirdre and her sister were only with us for five days, we wove in a morning at the Thermemaris Spa, wrapped up early one afternoon to go to Dalyan and the Stork Restaurant. We took turns cooking porridge and squeezing fresh orange juice in the mornings. Jenny, with our assistance, cooked us delicious Turkish dishes for lunch, then we’d get guzzied up and go out for dinner in the evenings. It was fun and relaxing and incredibly rewarding. And we got a lot of Shen!
I’m so thrilled we’ll be going to Ireland next year. Do plan on joining us. To help us stay connected, I’ve set up a network on Facebook. It’s easy to join FB, you can set your privacy controls as tight as you wish, and only participate to the extent you feel comfortable with. I will post the next retreat as an event, anyone of you can list links to your websites, or your courses, you can post a quick note to say you’ll be traveling and maybe connect with another therapist. Tony could post a link to the latest Shen Touch. You could let us know about articles, or books of interest. There are many many people out there who trained in Shen or one of the other therapies, who have scattered in the winds. The FB network is one way we can reconnect. Check out the new page Shen, Kairos, EQ Bodywork, Biofield & Healing Therapies NETWORK. If you click the Like button, you’ll be automatically updated on everything that happens in the network.
When Jenny and I went to Rhodes after the retreat, several of her clients expressed a wish to have come to our retreat. Jenny found herself explaining over and over that this was for therapists only. But a new idea popped up. Shen Holidays. Where clients and therapists come together to work intensively with the clients, interspersed with sharing and other group activities to enhance the therapy experience. Perhaps we could do a Therapist Retreat first, then take a few days off, then offer a Shen Holiday? Food for thought…
Eva Dillner, Sweden
Jenny Jones:
After 5 years of living in Turkey and then Rhodes, I have now moved back to the UK, in Kent, and raring to get stuck into a new different life with new challenges and experiences.
It was wonderful to host the SHEN retreat at my Turkey home and to have fellow therapists fill my house and to share the wonders of Turkish cuisine and hospitality. It was also great to have the opportunity to receive focused SHEN, which I much needed.
During the past 6 months I have been training and practising in NES Health, which is a radical new method of evaluating and promoting holistic wellness. It is based on Chinese medicine, quantum physics, biology and the latest technology. The evaluation includes a “human body field” scan which is connected to a computer programme and within just a few seconds details approximately 150 different factors about your well-being from a human body field energy perspective at a given moment. It shows surface and unconscious emotional imbalances, organ energy imbalances, meridian imbalances, environmental toxins, nutritional status, earth connection alignment and polarity issues and more. Each programme is personalised for the client’s needs and NES Infoceutical drops are recommended to help correct distortions in the bodyfield and encourage the body to heal itself.
Just before the SHEN retreat I had completed the 2nd part of the NES training and had been introduced to new NES infoceuticals that are used for helping release blocked emotions. Some of us during the SHEN retreat had a scan before starting SHEN. We then tried an infoceutical called “Liberator” and then had a reading after the retreat. From my own experience I found that the infoceutical enhanced my emotional experiences and my reading was quite different afterwards. A lot of the deep emotional issues had shifted and others then appeared – which I am still working on now. I am intrigued to try this out more. If anyone is interested and would also like to try using Liberator before having SHEN please contact me, or for general NES info contact me. Also please see www.neshealth.com.
I look forward to the next SHEN retreat – hopefully in Ireland next year!
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to offer my Turkey house for SHEN holidays, either on a 1-1 basis or with other therapists and clients, and also just as a getaway for you and your family or friends without SHEN.
Jenny Jones, England, Rhodes & Turkey
Lynda Drysdale:
In the Autumn of last year, I received information from Eva about the possibility of a Shen retreat at Jenny’s home in Turkey. It immediately struck a chord with me. I had met both Jenny and Eva at a C&D workshop in Edinburgh about eleven years ago. I saw it as an ideal opportunity to see if I could work as a therapist again, which I had not felt physically able to do since hurting my back almost two years ago, and as an opportunity to have some intensive therapy myself, hoping beyond hope that it would help my back. There was also the added attraction of some sunshine and the possibility of staying on a few extra days to have a holiday, something I had not felt able to do since my back injury. Knowing that Jenny would be there to meet me at the airport and that I would be staying with like minded people, made it all seem do-able.
I have to say there were times when I thought that I would never make it. I found it exhausting trying to get organised. I could not contemplate going without my memory foam mattress topper. I explored the possibility of buying one on line and having it delivered there, posting mine in advance or buying one in Turkey but to no avail, so eventually I settled on buying a large suitcase and taking mine with me !
I booked an aisle seat on the plane near the front as I was scared of being pinned next to the window or having to edge my way past stewards or other passengers along miles of the narrow aisle to get to the loo ! I also got permission to take my back rest with me on the plane.
I now realize that the reason I was finding getting organized to go away such an effort, was because as time had gone by I had resigned myself to a slower pace of life and had been living well within my comfort zone. I had decided that comfort zones were not to be sneered at, taking into account my condition, and something I could allow myself to have. After all I argued, I’ve been in enough zones which have been decidedly uncomfortable!
After weeks of physiotherapy, several Shen sessions which had released a lot of the trauma, a course of acupuncture and regular deep tissue massage, I had resigned myself to my plight. I had reached the conclusion that my recovery had peaked and my continuing discomfort was the result of the condition in my spine. I had found my comfort zone and was doing very nicely thank you. !
As the day of departure approached I was half hoping the Icelandic volcano would erupt once more and flights from Glasgow would be cancelled!
Thank goodness it didn’t and they weren’t … I feel renewed !
I had some very powerful sessions, releasing pain and fear associated with my back injury. One session stands out as the one that reached that part of me that would unlock the spasm in my muscles. A voice in my head kept saying repeatedly “contract towards the pain”, some coaching from Jenny, “it’s alright to let go” connected with that part of me that was holding onto the spasm, which had kicked in at the time of my accident and rendered me unable to move or be moved an inch without excruciating pain, plunging me back into a full body spasm … the release was enormous.
A week after arriving home I went for a massage and was thrilled to be told that there was an “enormous difference, a huge difference” in my muscles. I didn’t really need to be told as I have felt so much better. At times I feel almost normal! It is so liberating not to be constantly aware of discomfort. I no longer feel resigned to “the quiet life” and I am looking to the future with enthusiasm once more.
I am so thankful to Eva and Jenny for organizing this retreat and encouraging me to go along, even though I had explained my doubts about being able to fully participate. Eva wrote “Jenny and I are both fine with you coming along in less than perfect condition – sometimes we give more, sometimes we receive more.“ I believe that the effort involved in getting organized to go, brought my fears and anxieties to the surface in a way that facilitated their release.
p.s All flights from Glasgow airport were cancelled for two days following my departure !
p.p.s. If I didn’t know what a splinting reflex was before, I do now ! Both the physical and the emotional kind !
Lynda M Drysdale, Scotland
lyndamdrysdale@aol.com